Kathleen was attending Boston University as a freshman in 1972. Barely a couple weeks into her first semester in September, she hitched a ride from campus off of Commonwealth Avenue. [I read somewhere she was seen getting into a white vehicle...of note later on]
On October 1st, her partially nude(?) body was discovered by some local hunters off of Rt 111A in Nashua, NH on the Yudicky Farm Conservation Area. She had received a sharp blow to the jaw, but otherwise due to decomposition the cause of death was difficult to discern and no other details regarding her body were released to the public.
Throughout the latter half of 1972, multiple other young women from the Cambridge area disappeared after being last seen hitching for rides or heading to work. Their bodies were later found, often nude, raped, strangled and/or beaten to death. At least one other victim had received a sharp blow to the jaw, as Kathleen had. Then-Detective Robert Barry of Nashua PD, who was heading up Randall's case from the NH side, suspected a highly intelligent, psychopathic serial killer.
After a car chase and shoot-out with police on December 26th, a 33-year-old Boston-area pimp named Anthony J. Jackson was arrested, and after a thorough investigation was later indicted for at least four of the several Hitch-Hike murders: Damaris Gillispie, Ellen Reich, Ruth Abigail Hamilton, and Sandra Ehramjian. He used a gold Cadillac to commit the murders, which was located by police. Jackson was later convicted for three life sentences for the first three women, and much to the prosecution's surprise, found innocent by the jury on the fourth (Ehramjian). Evidence for the three he was convicted on was abundant and later detailed in public court files from when Jackson tried to contest his sentencing. (See below)
Kathleen Randall, as well as fellow young female victims killed during the same time period, Debra Rae Stevens and Kathleen O'Gorman, have been attributed by many to Jackson, but definitive information pertaining to these cases in particular and whether they were ruled out as being linked to Jackson is hard to dig up.
The murders of young women in the Cambridge area seemed to drop off instantly after Jackson's arrest.
***
Of note:
--Jackson possessed a metal container filled with hundreds of pornographic images of women--including his victims. He charged an associate of his, Donald McDonald, with disposing of the container. McDonald later testified against Jackson, and the container was located and retrieved from the river where it had been thrown. It is not disclosed publicly which victims had photographs taken of them--nor if the photographs included victims Jackson was NOT indicted for.
--Jackson is suspected of killing more than a dozen women. However, I have had a hard time locating any record of who these women are outside of those mentioned above. Donald McDonald testified that, while in holding, Jackson was shown an article in the paper about the murders and explicitly stated "The one from New Hampshire [Randall]...isn't mine. I have more respect for the FBI than that." In the same conversation he implied there WERE other women he killed, "others they don't know about," hinting some truth to the additional suspected murders. Of further mention, Jackson was known to travel to New Hampshire, and purposefully disposed of Ellen Reich's and Damaris Gillispie's remains a fair distance away from where he killed them to throw off the police.
***
In the 1980's, nearly all physical evidence from Kathleen Randall's cold case, as well as the cold case of another Nashua murder, Madelyn Crouse, were recorded to have been destroyed. This discovery was not made until the 2000's (before the NH Cold Case department was formed), when Nashua Detective Frank Paisson went to review Kathleen's investigation. The only person in the 1980's who could have ordered the destruction of the evidence was alleged by Nashua Detective William Hill to be then-Captain Robert Barry--the same detective who headed and was otherwise heavily involved in Randall's original murder investigation. When interviewed last Fall by the Nashua Telegraph, Barry said he had no recollection of ordering the destruction of evidence to "clean up" the records department.
The status of evidence from the other possibly related and (not known to be solved) murders of Debra Rae Stevens, Kathleen O'Gorman, and Sandra Ehramjian, is unknown.
***
Relevant articles to Kathleen Randall's case:
On October 1st, her partially nude(?) body was discovered by some local hunters off of Rt 111A in Nashua, NH on the Yudicky Farm Conservation Area. She had received a sharp blow to the jaw, but otherwise due to decomposition the cause of death was difficult to discern and no other details regarding her body were released to the public.
Throughout the latter half of 1972, multiple other young women from the Cambridge area disappeared after being last seen hitching for rides or heading to work. Their bodies were later found, often nude, raped, strangled and/or beaten to death. At least one other victim had received a sharp blow to the jaw, as Kathleen had. Then-Detective Robert Barry of Nashua PD, who was heading up Randall's case from the NH side, suspected a highly intelligent, psychopathic serial killer.
After a car chase and shoot-out with police on December 26th, a 33-year-old Boston-area pimp named Anthony J. Jackson was arrested, and after a thorough investigation was later indicted for at least four of the several Hitch-Hike murders: Damaris Gillispie, Ellen Reich, Ruth Abigail Hamilton, and Sandra Ehramjian. He used a gold Cadillac to commit the murders, which was located by police. Jackson was later convicted for three life sentences for the first three women, and much to the prosecution's surprise, found innocent by the jury on the fourth (Ehramjian). Evidence for the three he was convicted on was abundant and later detailed in public court files from when Jackson tried to contest his sentencing. (See below)
Kathleen Randall, as well as fellow young female victims killed during the same time period, Debra Rae Stevens and Kathleen O'Gorman, have been attributed by many to Jackson, but definitive information pertaining to these cases in particular and whether they were ruled out as being linked to Jackson is hard to dig up.
The murders of young women in the Cambridge area seemed to drop off instantly after Jackson's arrest.
***
Of note:
--Jackson possessed a metal container filled with hundreds of pornographic images of women--including his victims. He charged an associate of his, Donald McDonald, with disposing of the container. McDonald later testified against Jackson, and the container was located and retrieved from the river where it had been thrown. It is not disclosed publicly which victims had photographs taken of them--nor if the photographs included victims Jackson was NOT indicted for.
--Jackson is suspected of killing more than a dozen women. However, I have had a hard time locating any record of who these women are outside of those mentioned above. Donald McDonald testified that, while in holding, Jackson was shown an article in the paper about the murders and explicitly stated "The one from New Hampshire [Randall]...isn't mine. I have more respect for the FBI than that." In the same conversation he implied there WERE other women he killed, "others they don't know about," hinting some truth to the additional suspected murders. Of further mention, Jackson was known to travel to New Hampshire, and purposefully disposed of Ellen Reich's and Damaris Gillispie's remains a fair distance away from where he killed them to throw off the police.
***
In the 1980's, nearly all physical evidence from Kathleen Randall's cold case, as well as the cold case of another Nashua murder, Madelyn Crouse, were recorded to have been destroyed. This discovery was not made until the 2000's (before the NH Cold Case department was formed), when Nashua Detective Frank Paisson went to review Kathleen's investigation. The only person in the 1980's who could have ordered the destruction of the evidence was alleged by Nashua Detective William Hill to be then-Captain Robert Barry--the same detective who headed and was otherwise heavily involved in Randall's original murder investigation. When interviewed last Fall by the Nashua Telegraph, Barry said he had no recollection of ordering the destruction of evidence to "clean up" the records department.
The status of evidence from the other possibly related and (not known to be solved) murders of Debra Rae Stevens, Kathleen O'Gorman, and Sandra Ehramjian, is unknown.
***
Relevant articles to Kathleen Randall's case:
- Case details and destroyed evidence: Evidence missing in two Nashua cold cases | News, Sports, Jobs - The Nashua Telegraph
- I am in possession of numerous articles pertaining to Kathleen and the Hitch-Hike victims. BUT I needed a special account online to access the originals, and don't know how to attach the documents containing what I transcribed.
- Damaris Gillispie: COMMONWEALTH vs. ANTHONY J. JACKSON.
- Ellen Reich: COMMONWEALTH vs. ANTHONY J. JACKSON.
- Ruth Abigail Hamilton: COMMONWEALTH vs. ANTHONY J. JACKSON.
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