The Forest City Killer: A Serial Murderer, a Cold-Case Sleuth, and a Search for Justice

by Vanessa Brown

Overview

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A My Favorite Murder recommended read

“A must for true crime fans.” – Booklist

“A truly impressive account of this dark chapter in [Ontario’s] history . . . Not just a sharp work of investigative journalism, The Forest City Killer is a poignant portrait of children and young people whose lives were cut short in horrific circumstances and a clarion call for long overdue justice. It is destined to become a classic of Canadian true crime.” — Quill & Quire, starred review

Dig deep into the unsolved murder of Jackie English and join the hunt for a serial killer

Fifty years ago, a serial killer prowled the quiet city of London, Ontario, marking it as his hunting grounds. As young women and boys were abducted, raped, and murdered, residents of the area held their loved ones closer and closer, terrified of the monster — or monsters — stalking the streets. Homicide detective Dennis Alsop began hunting the killer in the 1960s, and he didn’t stop searching until his death 40 years later. For decades, detectives, actual and armchair, and the victims’ families and friends continued to ask questions: Who was the Forest City Killer? Was there more than one person, or did a depraved individual commit all of these crimes on his own?

Combing through the files Detective Alsop left behind, researcher Vanessa Brown reopens the cases, revealing previously unpublished witness statements, details of evidence, and astonishing revelations. And through her investigation, Vanessa posits the unthinkable: is it possible that the Forest City Killer is still alive and, like the notorious Golden State Killer, a simple DNA test could bring him to justice?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773053974
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	10/04/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	767,849
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Vanessa Brown has lived her entire life in London, Ontario. Her previous books include The Grand Old Lady: A History of Hotel London and London: 150 Cultural Moments, which was honored by the Ontario Heritage Trust. She is married to Canadian poet Jason Dickson, and together they own Brown & Dickson Booksellers.

Read an Excerpt

October 9, 1969. Dawdling around the back roads of Oxford County in a pickup truck, Ron Kiddie and Pete Kingma were on a duck-hunting excursion. They were two young guys, rifles in the back, gum in their mouths, listening to the radio and talking shit as they bounced along hills and uneven asphalt. It was uncustomarily warm out, so they rolled down their windows to catch the breeze. The sun was low in the sky. With a little time left before dinner, they stopped to check for birds under the gleaming new concrete bridge over Big Otter Creek. It was shouldered by two hills and two curves — a great dark, low hiding place for water fowl. Ron pulled over next to the narrow bridge. Walking across the short expanse, they each took a side, Ron on the north and Peter on the south, leaning over the guardrail as far as they could.

“Hey Peter,” called Ron. “Come see this.”

Peter checked for traffic before crossing over. On this road, with the sharp turns and steep incline, they were hidden and trapped if a speeding automobile came over the hill.

“There’s a body,” said Ron, pointing down.

Peter looked. “Oh, that’s just a dummy.” To prove his point, he went and got his gun out of the truck to look down through the scope. As he squinted, he became very still and then slowly looked up at Ron. “There’s a ring on her finger,” he muttered.

Without hesitation, Ron skidded down the steep banks of the creek to find out what was going on. “I can see [pubic] hair,” he shouted, as Peter followed. “And a vaccination mark on her arm!” On the edge of the water, he stumbled and accidentally stepped in the water. “Well, I’m wet now,” he said, turning his head and looking back. “I better wade in and see before we call the police.”

He felt the frigid water creeping up his legs as he pushed through the muck, the soft creekbed beneath his boots. He could see goosebumps on her flesh, her face floating just beneath the surface of the murky water. Her chin was tilted up, as if she were calling out for help. Her left arm and breast protruded from the shallow creek, naked white in the fading fall sunlight, and her right hand floated in a fist, her young finger decorated with a black Alaskan diamond ring. 

In a sleepy London, Ontario, neighbourhood, fifty-year-old OPP Detective Dennis Alsop had just sat down to dinner. He was grabbing a quick bite to eat before heading out again to pick up his fifteen-year-old daughter Daphne, who would soon be finishing up at her ballet class.

The phone rang and he answered.

“They found her.”

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part 1 The English Girl 1

1 Meet London 3

2 Meet Detective Alsop 12

3 Meet Jackie English 18

4 Meet the English Family 27

5 The Disappearance of Jackie English 34

6 Jackie English Is Missing 42

7 Jackie English Is Dead 49

8 The Funeral of Jackie English 55

Part II The Mystery Murders 59

9 The Murder of Jacqueline Dunleavy 61

10 The Murders of Frankie Jensen, Scott Leishman, and Helga Beer 74

11 The Disappearance of Lynda White and the Murder of Bruce Stapylton 88

12 Welcome to Stanley Variety 99

13 Detective Alsop Investigates 107

14 Sightings of Jackie English 118

15 Meet Marilyn Hird 126

Part III The Fryer Affair 141

16 The Attack on Betty Harrison 143

17 The Conspiracy Forms 154

18 Meet Glen Fryer 167

19 The Trial of Glen Fryer 183

20 The Disappearance of Soraya O'Connell 206

Part IV Where It All Began 215

21 The Disappearance of Georgia Jackson 219

22 The Body of Georgia Jackson 228

23 Meet David Bodemer 238

24 The Confession 247

25 The Trial of David Bodemer 257

Part V What Follows 273

26 Fire! 275

27 The Residents of 133 Elmwood 284

28 A Strange Friendship 288

29 Another Possible Confession 294

30 Skeletons 297

31 The Murder of Donna Awcock 303

Epilogue 320

Appendix: David Bodemer's First Confession 330

Selected Sources 333

Acknowledgments 348

Editorial Reviews

09/02/2019

In 1969, in the town of London, Ontario, the bludgeoned body of 15-year-old Jackie English was found in Big Otter Creek, and Det. Dennis Alsop spent the next 40 years hunting for her killer until his death. In this moving account, Brown (The Grand Old Lady: A History of Hotel London) gains access to Alsop’s files, reexamines the still open case, and interviews the surviving witnesses and suspects. What she finds is that the so-called Forest City Killer may have been active before English’s death and continued into the ’70s, and can be connected to several suspicious fires that claimed the lives of witnesses and friends of English. Alsop eventually links seven homicides, but was the Forest City Killer one man or two? After five years of research, Brown thinks there may have been two men who were “like-minded murderers”: David Bodemer, who confessed and was sentenced to life in prison for the non-capital murder of one of the seven victims, and Glen Fryer, who was acquitted on a charge of attacking a witness to one of the murders. Both men are currently alive. Brown thinks it’s possible that through message boards and true crime sites further facts may come to light, but the Forest City Killer case is still unsolved. Brown’s smooth prose is a plus. True crime fans who don’t need conclusive answers will be well satisfied. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A truly impressive account of this dark chapter in the province’s history ... Not just a sharp work of investigative journalism, The Forest City Killer is a poignant portrait of children and young people whose lives were cut short in horrific circumstances and a clarion call for long overdue justice. It is destined to become a classic of Canadian true crime.” — Quill & Quire, Starred Review

“Though Brown proposes her own theory about the Forest City Killer, she presents evidence in such a way to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. A must for true crime fans.” — Booklist

“Brown’s smooth prose is a plus. True crime fans who don’t need conclusive answers will be well satisfied.” — Publishers Weekly

“When I talk about crime, at the top of the list is murder — preferably, multiple murders and, ideally, unsolved murders that have become a fixation for the authors who obsessively investigate them. After spending four years researching and writing The Forest City Killer, Vanessa Brown still lies awake at night, her mind ‘host to a constant parade of theories’ about the unsolved serial murders she investigated in her hometown, London, Ontario.” — New York Times Book Review

“Brown has done an admirable job of compiling a tremendous amount of information and combing through clues in order to provide an intriguing possibility.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“Author Vanessa Brown has taken the story of murder most foul and crafted a true tale of intrigue with so many twists and turns that it is almost unbelievable ... Untangling the web of murders as well as entertaining multiple theories, the writing of this book must have been a monumental task and yet Vanessa Brown proves herself as adept in not only untangling the many strands of the web, but also in providing readers with a cohesive and coherent timeline and a theory that comes across as convincing.” — Amie’s Book Reviews blog

“Anyone who enjoys true crime books will be impressed at the scope of this book. The Forest City Killer should be at the very top of your non-fiction reading list.” — Shelf Life

“Brown is a gifted storyteller and marshals her evidence with skill and genuine compassion for those who lost loved ones.” — Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

From the Publisher