This is a solved case, but a mystery still remains. Let’s talk about the mysterious case of Teresita Basa, who in 1977 was murdered.
Teresita Basa was born in 1929 in the Philippines and moved to the United States to study music in the 1960’s. Eventually she would become a respiratory therapist and worked at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago. She was a nice person and rather quiet, the absolute last person anyone would expect to be a victim of a crime.
But, a victim she was, on February 21, 1977 Teresita was found in her apartment. The fire department had been called to put out a fire that had started in her home. At this time they found her nude body under a mattress that had been set on fire. A butcher knife was buried in her chest. It was believed the fire had been started to cover up the murder.
Teresita Basa
As she was found nude it was believed she had been the victim of a sex crime but the autopsy would show she had not been raped. There was no motive for the crime and very little evidence as most was destroyed in the fire. The only thing that was found was a note that said: “Get Theatre Tickets for A.S.”
The police investigated several leads but they didn’t go far. And the identity of A.S. Was still a mystery. It almost seemed as if the case was going to go cold but then a new source of information was discovered. Enter Remy Chua.
Remy was a co-worker of Teresita’s but the two didn’t know each other very well and were not considered close. But shortly after Teresita’s murder Remy began to have visions and nightmares about her.
She began to experience visions in the locker room and she said she would see a man’s face behind Teresita. She would often see this same image in her dreams at night.
Alan Showery
And then one day while speaking to her husband, Remy found she was channeling Teresita’s spirit. Teresita, through Remy, told the story of her murder. She said an orderly named Alan Showery had been helping fix a TV when he had attacked her. He then killed her and set the mattress on top of her before setting it on fire.
The spirit through Remy even have details of some jewelry that had been taken. The spirit stated the jewelry was given to Alan’s girlfriend. Remy’s husband convinced her to tell the police. Of course they were skeptical.
Detectives didn’t know if this information could be believed but checked into Alan and learned he lived near Teresita. Alan was brought in for questioning. When detectives didn’t believe the story, the spoke to his girlfriend and asked if he had given her any jewelry lately. She said that he had.
When the jewelry was inspected by friends and family of Teresita’s, they confirmed that some of it had been hers.
Alan would eventually be convicted of her murder and be sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1983. He served 4 years only.
The mystery remains, was it Teresita’s spirit that helped solve her case or did Remy Chua know more?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we are all beautiful. One of the things I am trying to accept is that I am beautiful and I am deserving to be treated that way.
We all have our “ugly” days where we feel that we do not look good. But even on those days there is beauty within us.
What makes you feel beautiful? Is it a good hair day? Or your make up is on point? Maybe it’s a killer outfit? Perhaps a compliment that was completely unexpected, but warmly received.
For me to feel beautiful I find that I need to have on make up. My hair will never be my friend but sometimes after it is freshly washed it looks good and makes me feel beautiful.
Lingerie makes me feel beautiful and sexy. Even if under jeans and a tee shirt, I love the contrast of casual and sexy.
But the one thing that makes me feel beautiful is being told I am beautiful. When I hear that it makes me smile, and even if I just woke up and am told this, it makes for a great day.
Whatever makes you feel beautiful, do that as much as you can, you deserve it. The world needs more beauty and less hate.
For those of you who are familiar with the history of Russia, may understand what this is all about. For those who may not be familiar I will explain.
Yekaterinburg was founded on November 18 1723 and was named after Catherine I. In 1781, Catherine the Great gave Yekaterinburg the status of a district town of Perm Province and built the historical Siberian route through the city.
Eventually Yekaterinburg would forever be remembered as the city where the Tsar was murdered.
Ipatiev House was built in the 1880’s and was owned by Nicholas Ipatiev. In 1917 Nicholas Ipatiev was told to he had two days to vacate the house. After he had vacated, walls were constructed and soon new guests would arrive.
Tsar Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children plus a small staff resided at the house for 78 days. Early on the morning of July 17, 1978 the royal family and staff were taken from their beds and escorted to the basement. They were all executed that night and their bodies were not discovered until the 1970’s.
In 1974, the house was designated a “national monument”; but three years later on September 22, 1977, a team, under orders from the Soviet government and with the direction of Boris Yeltsin, demolished the house.
The Church on Blood is now on the site of the former Ipatiev House and part of the church honors the Romanov family.
I caved. I purchased a weighted Hula Hoop to see if it will help trim my waist and help me lose weight too.
This is all over TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and people are giving it great reviews. All you need to do is put the hoop with the weight on it and start to shake your hips.
Thirty minutes of hooping is equal to two miles of running. And some makers of the product guarantee that in a months time you will reduce the hoop by one link or more.
In addition to working out at the gym and changing my nutrition I’m adding this for those days when I may not be able to get to the gym.
If it doesn’t do more than increasing my cardio then it is still a win. And it’s for any fitness level, any body shape.
Have any of you tried this product?? Here’s to hooping.
I think we have all had egg McMuffins at one time or another, and realize that they aren’t that fabulous. In fact we can make them ourselves and they will taste better, be cheaper, and available without having to get dressed. So here is a guide on making your own breakfast sandwiches, please feel free to adjust to your tastes.
Ingredients for 12 sandwiches:
1 Dozen Eggs
12 slices of cheese – we use American
12 English Muffins
Butter or Margarine
12 Sausage patties – You can use any flavor, or even bacon, sliced ham, or turkey
Parchment paper
Directions
Hard fry your eggs, season as desired. While the eggs cook toast your English Muffins and butter as desired.
If your meat of choice needs to be cooked, cook to desired doneness. Open all cheese and put on the side to create sandwiches.
Taking one English Muffin layer other ingredients on the bottom half. I start with meat, then cheese and finally egg. Too with the other half and then wrap the entire sandwich in parchment paper.
You can store these in a large Ziploc bag and freeze them until ready to use. Thaw over night or in the microwave.
Michael Myers is the fictional killer in the Halloween movie franchise who started killing when he was six years old, on Halloween. When Michael returns home on Halloween, he wants to pick up where he left off. But that is just in the movies, right? For a 9-year-old little girl, in 1973 she met her own version of a Halloween Killer. This Wisconsin case is about Lisa Ann French.
Lisa Ann French
**Warning – This case may be too much for some it does contain details of child murder and child rape. Please read with caution. **
In Fond du Lac WI, in 1973 trick or treating wouldn’t begin until it was dark. Then all the kids would prowl the neighborhood in search of tricks or treats. Lisa French was no exception. She was dressed as a hobo that year as it was warmer than the butterfly costume she had wanted to wear. Lisa may have been prowling for candy, but someone was on the prowl for Lisa.
The parents in the area were a block over at a party, and Lisa had planned to go with her friend Ann, but due to Ann misbehaving she was not allowed to go trick or treating that year with Lisa.
Lisa left her house at 6pm, and looked every bit the hobo, she had masking tape on her jeans, a floppy felt hat, a green parka, and a face dotted with painted on freckles. After the party, Lisa had made three stops in the neighborhood, a teacher, a classmate, and Gerald Turner’s house.
Gerald Turner
Gerald and Lisa had been neighbors as they shared a duplex. When Gerald had moved in with his girlfriend, just down the block, Lisa would still stop by and visit him. She would push his baby in a stroller and show him things she had gotten, or even to chat.
Gerald’s girlfriend, Arlene Penn, was going to visit her mother on Halloween night, but after Arlene had returned from the party a block over, Gerald stated he wasn’t feeling well and urged her to go to visit her mother alone.
Lisa arrived after Arlene had left, she had stepped inside, and Gerald led her upstairs to the bedroom, where he removed all her clothing and proceeded to have anal intercourse with her. It is presumed she had died from this.
Arlene would return home unexpectedly as she remembered her mother wouldn’t be home for another hour. Gerald stated several times that he wasn’t feeling well and went to lay down in the bedroom. Had Arlene gone to check on him, she may have seen the lifeless body of the 9-year-old child, Lisa Ann French.
After Arlene had left a second time, Gerald worked quickly to stuff Lisa’s body and clothing into garbage bags and then drove to a more rural area to dump her on the side of the road.
Lisa’s mother was beginning to worry when Lisa didn’t return home by the 7pm curfew. And at 10pm, the search for Lisa had begun. Parents began calling other parents to turn on their lights and put signs in their windows. The police searched all night, and the next day over 5,000 people were looking for Lisa Ann French.
It was two and a half days later when Gerald Braun a farmer was returning home on his tractor and saw two garbage bags on the side of McCabe Road in the town of Taycheedah. The responding officers was quoted as saying, “It was … the worst possible thing that could have happened. I saw that little girl, and I don’t know how any man could do that.”
Lisa French’s funeral
The entire community mourned the loss and in November 1973, her funeral was packed with people to pay their respects to her. Kids from school and her Girl Scouts Troop took up nine rows in the church. Lisa wore a purple and white dress and lay as if she was sleeping in her white casket.
Gerald Turner would be arrested nine months later. He had been questioned since she disappeared and finally confessed to her murder in August 1974. He would state to the jury at his trial that he was tired of the police harassing him and that is why he signed the confession.
In his confession Gerald stated that he was “highly sexually motivated” when he took Lisa to his bedroom. At one point during his attack, he noticed she wasn’t breathing and attempted to revive her, but Arlene had returned home. He placed socks on his hands to move her body into the bathroom.
Police had also collected hair and fiber samples from Gerald Turner and those samples positively matched those on Lisa’s body and clothing. The autopsy listed the cause of death as asphyxiation and stated that the little girl died from the shock during the assault.
Gerald was found guilty of second-degree murder, enticing a child for immoral purposes and acts of sexual perversion. He was sentenced to 38 years and began serving his sentence on February 4, 1975.
Gerald Turner gave the city reason to change the trick or treating hours to daylight hours as he had proved that the bogeyman was real and would also be known as the “Halloween Killer”.
After 17 years and 8 months of his 38-year sentence, Gerald Turner was paroled for good behavior. But he would be returned to prison when it was learned his release date was calculated incorrectly.
Turner’s Law was created that allowed for sex offenders to be committed to a secure treatment center if they come up for parole and are considered a threat to society. Gerald was again up for release in July 1994. It was blocked due to Turner’s Law.
In 1998, he was on trial to see if he needed to be held as a sexual predator. The jury didn’t agree with that description and that he was free to be released. Despite a couple of incidents (he waved a knife and shouted at a caseworker in a Madison group home while he worked as a cook), he was more or less left alone.
Until 2003 when it was discovered that Gerald had violated his parole. Authorities discovered pornographic images on a computer drive as well as sexually explicit videos and magazines. A judge ordered him back to prison for 15 years.
In 2018 the state had filed a petition to keep Gerald committed to a mental facility. As of 2022 the court still has not made a final decision on this matter and Gerald resides at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, WI.
It has been 49 years since Lisa Ann French was murdered, does Gerald Turner now 74, deserve to live the rest of his life as a free man? Or should he remain at the treatment center? I’m willing to believe even if it is the worst place in the state, he is still being treated more humanely than he treated little Lisa French.
What would make a man who was originally planning to join the seminary, become a killer? Whatever sparked a change in John Robinson, changed him from a boy scout to a monster. Here is the story of the man who is sometimes referred to as the internet’s first serial killer.
John Edward Robinson was born in Illinois in 1943, and originally planned to become a priest but due to disciplinary issues he dropped out. He eventually would move to Kansas City and marry Nancy Jo Lynch in 1964. They would eventually have four children John Jr, Kimberly, and twins Christopher and Christine.
Starting in 1969, John would be arrested for embezzlement from a doctor’s office as he was using forged credentials. He would be given three years’ probation. Breaking probation he moved to Chicago without permission and would be arrested again in 1971, again for embezzlement at an insurance office. He was returned to Kansas City and his probation was extended.
Unbelievably, in 1975, he was arrested again, and his probation was extended again, this time for securities and mail fraud. Finally in 1979, he would complete his probation. He would be arrested one last time on embezzlement, and serve 60 days in 1982, but after that he graduated onto more heinous crimes.
Paula Godfrey
In 1984, John chose to establish 2 bogus companies and hired a 19-year-old named Paula Godfrey to be a sales representative. She informed her family that she would be sent for training. When she disappeared, her parents filed a missing person’s report. Shortly after a letter arrived with her signature telling them she no longer wanted to see her family. The police closed the case as she was an adult, and she was never seen or heard from again. Her remains have never been found.
Lisa Stasi and Tiffany
Lisa Stasi, 19, had a four-month-old baby girl named Tiffany, and she was staying in a women’s shelter. John Osborne offered Lisa a job, an apartment, and daycare for Tiffany. This was just what she needed to get back on her feet. Lisa was asked to sign several sheets of stationery, and then a few days later Lisa disappeared. John’s brother and his wife were unable to adopt children through normal channels, and when John stated he knew of a baby whose mother had committed suicide and for a “legal fee” of $5500 he would help them with the legal paperwork to adopt the child. Tiffany was placed in the arms of her new family and would not be identified until 2000 by DNA testing.
Catherine Clampitt
In 1987, 27-year-old Catherine Clampitt arrived in Kansas City looking for work. She had left her child with her parents in Texas and was hired by John Robinson who told her he would provide her a new wardrobe and she would have extensive travel. When she disappeared in June her family opened a missing person’s case on her, and this case remains open.
Beverly Bonner
For the next six years, John was incarcerated in Kansas for fraud convictions and then in Missouri for other fraud convictions and parole violations. While incarcerated he met Beverly Bonner, the prison librarian, who left her husband, a prison doctor, and moved to Kansas to be with John. Beverly was receiving alimony checks and they were being sent to a Kansas post office box, Beverly’s mother would forward the checks and they were always cashed, but nobody heard from Beverly again.
Sheila Faith
Debbie Faith
The internet became a new discovery for John, and he had a kink. He would roam and hunt in social networking sites and used the name “Slavemaster” and liked women who were into the BDSM role playing during sex. One of his first partners was a 45-year-old woman, Sheila Faith with a 15-year-old daughter Debbie, who was wheelchair bound. John portrayed a wealthy man who would pay for Debbie’s medical expenses and give a job to Sheila. In 1994, Sheila and Debbie moved from California to Kansas City, and were never heard from again. John would continue to cash the pension checks for Debbie for the next 7 years.
Izabela Lewicka
John was becoming more well-known online in the chat rooms, and in 1999, he began a bondage relationship with Isabela Lewicka she was a 21-year-old Polish immigrant who moved to Kansas City from Indiana. John was still married to Nancy but provided an engagement ring to Izabela. They paid for a marriage license but never picked it up. Izabela did tell her parents that she was married but didn’t tell them her husband’s name. Izabela gave John complete control over her life and then in the summer of 1999 she disappeared. John told people that she was caught smoking marijuana and deported.
Suzette Trouten
John didn’t have to wait long to find another willing partner, Suzette Trouten moved from Michigan to Kansas to travel the world and become a submissive slave to John. Suzette was close to her mother and typed letters signed by Suzette were sent to her mother from all over the world, ironically the post office it originated through was Kansas City. However, Mrs. Trouten would suspect something was wrong as all the letters were mistake free. John would tell her mother that Suzette had run off after stealing money from him.
But all things must come to an end, and John’s own carelessness was his downfall. His name was becoming more and more connected with missing person’s cases in both Kansas and Missouri. Finally in June of 2000, he was arrested at is farm in Kansas when a woman had filed a sexual battery case against him, another woman stated he had stolen her sex toys.
John’s Farm where bodies were found
The theft charge was what investigators needed to obtain search warrants. On the farm, a task force was charged with searching and they found the bodies of two decaying women in two 85-gallon chemical drums. They were identified as Izabela Lewicka and Suzette Trouten.
Across the state line in Missouri another task force was conducting a search in a storage facility that John was renting two units in. Inside they found three more chemical drums, inside were thru
John faced trial in and was eventually convicted receiving a death sentence for both Izabela and Suzette.
John also faced trial for the three women found in the storage units but didn’t cooperate with the prosecution in a plea agreement to take him to the bodies of Paula, Lisa and Catherine. John declined to help. In October of 2003, John acknowledged that the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him of capital murder. This was accepted in court as a guilty plea. He received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the murders.
After 41 years of marriage, Nancy Robinson filed for divorce in 2005.
Tiffany Stasi who had been raised as Heather Robinson settled with the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and social worker, Karen Gaddis who had put John Robinson in contact with her mother, Lisa. They settled for an undisclosed sum. She also won a suit to prevent John from profiting from the case.
John Robinson remains incarcerated in the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
If we fell down the rabbit’s hole and ended up in Alice’s wonderland, it may be fun to join an un-birthday party, or play games with the Cheshire cat, or even face off against the Queen of Hearts. But the Wonderland we have today is far from Alice’s version, in fact it’s about as far from it as it can possibly get. Welcome to John Holmes’ Wonderland.
*This blog post contains graphic images of actual crime scenes*
As with Alice in Wonderland there are a cast of characters in this tale as well:
John Holmes – For those of you familiar with 1970’s adult entertainment, John Holmes was a legend in the industry having been credited in over 573 movies. John’s main claim to pornography royalty was inside his pants. There is no official documentation as to the exact size, but it’s reported that John Holmes was operating with a 13.5″ member. This appendage made him a rich man, and the fact that John like to indulge in cocaine made him an addict and saw his wealth slowly dissipate.
Eddie Nash – Eddie Nash was the guy who could get you what you wanted. He was a nightclub owner and a drug dealer who supplied John with his drug of choice, cocaine. Eddie was a key person when it came to the murders, he eventually would stand trial for the murders. Eddie was the man you didn’t want to cross, and during the events that lead up to the Wonderland Murders, those involved realized they were in over their heads.
The Wonderland Gang – Ron Launius, Billy Deverell, Joy Miller, Tracy Raymond McCourt, and David Clay Lind. These were the five that were small time drug dealers who also supplied John Holmes who was in debt and would never be able to afford drugs from “reputable” drug dealers. Ron, Billy, Joy, and Ron’s wife Susan, and another friend Barbara Richardson would all be attacked in the Wonderland House. Susan would be the only survivor.
Eddie and John knew each other, John was a courier of sorts between the Wonderland Gang, who stole stuff, and John would take it to Eddie to trade for drugs. Unfortunately this arrangement didn’t last and things changed on June 29, 1981.
On June 29, 1981, Eddie Nash’s home was invaded and an armed robbery happened. One of Eddie’s bodyguards was shot and injured, and Eddie suspected that John Holmes was involved, as he had been at the house three times that day and left a sliding door open. However the perpetrators were Ron Launius, Billy DeVerell, Tracy McCourt and David Lind.
Eddie Nash had John Holmes brought to him for questioning, and the bodyguard who had been injured claimed to have seen John walking around Hollywood with one of Eddie’s rings and had brought him back. A witness to this event, Scott Thorson, claimed to have witnessed John being tied to a chair and beaten until he revealed who was involved in the robbery.
It would only be 40 hours later when the Wonderland House would receive retribution for their attack at Eddie Nash’s house.
On July 1, at 3am, several unknown men entered the house on Wonderland Avenue and attacked all those who were inside. The weapons used by the killers were believed to be a combination of hammers and metal pipes.
Barbara Richardson’s body was found on the living room floor, beside the couch where she had been sleeping that night. She was only visiting her boyfriend, David Lind who wasn’t even in the house that night, he had gone to his own home instead.
Joy Miller was found on her bed, with Billy DeVerell at the foot of the bed in an upright position leaning against the TV stand; a hammer was found on the bed. The detectives who would arrive on the scene over 12 hours later would say it was one of the worst that they had seen in Los Angeles.
The blood on the wall is Susan’s
Ron Launius was found beaten to death in his bed. Susan was also gravely injured and lay beside the bed on the floor. The bedrooms in the house had been ransacked. Susan would survive her attack but had permanent amnesia regarding the attack. She would not remember anything about the night.
John Holmes was arrested and put on trial but eventually acquitted of all criminal charges. John Holmes died in 1988 from complications from AIDS.
In 1990 Eddie Nash was charged with having planned the murders. He would be acquitted as well.
Hey everyone! I have been attempting to get a post out to you all night but have been having the worst time of it. So, I figured it may be better to cross another bucket list item off and tell you about another one I have.
This one will make more sense if you have been paying attention to the last few bucket list posts. I want to become fluent in a foreign language, and I have been studying French for the last two years.
I say studying but it’s going super slow however I am in no rush. And I enjoy learning, so I have no issues with learning a little each day. Duolingo is a great app that can help you learn a foreign language as well.
With all my bucket list items taking place in France for the time being, it makes sense that I will want to learn some of the language and be able to speak with the people in the country. What language is on your bucket list that you want to learn?
Amateur Connoisseur 