DC DC - Freeway Phantom Haunts police

[morf13]

AK, look here:

http://www.thezodiacmansonconnection.com/1974_christmas_card.html

The letter 'W' in the freeway phantom letter, is VERY CLOSE, IMO on the xmas card sent to the Sister of Donna Lass, a posssible Zodiac victim.

By the way, has it been proven with certainty that the female victim wrote this letter?

 

[morf13]

For those who might have missed it in the news article Askins was mentioned here:
'. . . In the late 1970s, D.C. homicide detective Lloyd Davis developed his own
Phantom suspect. Davis recalls showing up to work at the homicide office one
March day in 1977 and being told to question a rape suspect who had just been arrested.
The suspect, Robert Askins, had been charged with raping a 24-year-old woman in his house. . . .'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062501086_5.html

Why was he a suspect?
'. . . When police searched Askins's house in the 1700 block of M Street NE shortly after
his arrest in 1977, Davis found the appellate court opinion in a desk drawer.
For Davis, a single word leapt from the page. In a footnote, the judges had used
the word "tantamount," the word in the note found in the coat pocket of Phantom
victim Brenda Woodard.
It was not an ordinary word, as Davis saw it. Later, he would learn that Askins often
used the word at the National Science Foundation, where he worked as a computer technician. . . .'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062501086_5.html
Bolded by me

Note : If the extra 'ti' was written upside down it might be she was
trying to convey
that he was an IT guy. . . .a computer tech.

Still I think it unlikely that is what she meant. Most likely a simple dictation/writing error.

Anyone have a full name & DOB for this guy Askins??

 

[Snufamonbobball]

Robert Elwood Askins- If someone has a membership to ancestry.com or the likes, you should be able to pull his social security index dates. He died in Cumberland, Maryland.

Here's the appeal where the judge used in his ruling the word "tantamount."
http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/251/251.F2d.909.13824.html

A 1989 appeal (nothing relating to his crimes).
http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/877/877.F2d.94.87-7232.html

Wikipedia Freeway Phantom Entry
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_Phantom[/ame]

 

[AKWILKS]

AK, look here:

http://www.thezodiacmansonconnection.com/1974_christmas_card.html

The letter 'W' in the freeway phantom letter, is VERY CLOSE, IMO on the xmas card sent to the Sister of Donna Lass, a posssible Zodiac victim.

By the way, has it been proven with certainty that the female victim wrote this letter?

A police "expert" thought at the time this may not have been written by the killer, but dictated by him and written by a victim. Which makes zero sense to me.

So a 1972 DC Police "expert" theorized that the killer may have dictated the note and the victim wrote it, which I think is ridiculous, and I have not seen any evidence to support that.

A young woman, knowing she is about to die, writes the note, with apparently no shakiness? I doubt that.

Some of the writing does look intentionally distorted, as if the writer is trying to disguise tendencies.

Who knows? I have never heard of a case were the victim wrote a taunting note, see no evidence of it here, so I am personally treating this as likely the killers writing.

I can also say that I have communicated with the Metro DC Police in the past several months, offering to show them a handwriting comparison of the note to a suspect's handwriting, and they said 'please send it in', which I did, and they followed up with questions to me.

So, at the very least they are open to the note being written by the killer, perhaps even thinking it is probable.

***** ***** *****

Someone, probably the Zodiac, sent a cruel Xmas Card to the sister of probable Zodiac victim Donna Lass. Morf noted a similarity in the "W" 's in the Card and the "W" 's in the Freeway Phantom note.





Look at the W on the Lass card, short on the left side of the W, and tall on the right side. Same with the Freeway phantom letter!

Here is the closeup of the Freeway W's-


And here is a closeup of the Lass xmas card W-


AK : Good catch!

Weird. That "W" in "Women" from the Freeway Phantom note is almost exactly the same odd shape as the "W" in "Wishes" from the Lass sister card.

 

[Richard]

Bumping this Cold Case up. It remains unsolved and open.

 

[UncoolNegated]

Bumping.

 

[UncoolNegated]

The handwriting comparisons are total fluff.

 

[Dewey2Me1MoThyme]

In the zodiac / Red Phantom letters, the word "people" is strikingly similar in both. Sorry I'm not much good at photo manipulation to put them side by side for you. The 2nd p in people is small in comparison to the other letters and sits very low (MOO) and the "le" is almost identical.

 

[Robin Hood]

Bumping

http://angelsresort.yuku.com/reply/3561/NENOMOSHIA-YATES#reply-3561

Murderer makes Brenda call home.

''Three hours after Brenda had left, the phone rang in the living room''

"A white man picked me up, and I'm heading home in a cab," Brenda answered, adding that she thought she was in Virginia. "Bye," Brenda said, before hanging up quickly. (Police believe that Brenda was forced to make the call and provide a misleading description of her abductor and location.)

 

[Omori]

I don't think this will be solved and I don't get why they think Askins is a good suspect. And I don't know why that cop assumed the killer wasn't white

A white man would have stood out too much. If you've ever visited DC, you'd know why I said that. And I was there in the early 70s.

 

[scriptgirl]

I have relatives in DC. And Jeffrey Dahmer lived in a predominately black section of Milwaukee and cops interrupted him chasing down a victim and returned the guy to him.

 

[Dionbrother]

Cops initially given false information about a white suspect just this week, because of threats to the victim: http://www.nbcnews.com/#/news/crime-courts/boy-8-killed-defending-sister-rapist-cops-n95571

 

[morf13]

How does this connect to the Freeway Phantom?

 

[popsicle]

...

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It is interesting... where the letter says "I will admit the others", It is printed... I will admi4 the others. As if saying, I will admit the other 4. This letter was left with the 5th victim iirc.

Yes, nothing earth shattering just interesting.

 

[morf13]

I had previously looked at both of these cases,specifically the letters, compared against the Zodiac letters, and there are some similarities to zodiac's, especially in the Tinsley letter. Not sure I see enough similarity between the Tinsley letter, and the Freeway Phantom letter to say they are a match. An interesting thing caught my eye, the Tinsley letter writer uses both a 2 stroke and 3 stroke letter K, that's odd. The freeway phantom has a very distinctive letter w.

 

[kilahchris]

After reviewing and reading about this case, I am shocked that in 40 years there is very little mention of any DNA evidence. Crimes like this are usually committed by people who cannot control themselves and usually make a mistake that leads to their capture.

 

[scriptgirl]

Is there any evidence still around? Are the case files still intact? Is there even a detective trying to find info on this at all?

 

[Falcon500]

Is there any evidence still around? Are the case files still intact? Is there even a detective trying to find info on this at all?

All of the case files have either been thrown out or misplaced. Most of the evidence has also disappeared. Many of the cases were under the jurisdiction of Prince Georges County because the bodies were found in Maryland. MPD worked side by side with PG since the girls were kidnapped from the District, In addition the Maryland State Police were involved as well as the FBI. The end result was the case files being co-mingled and taken home by some of the original investigators.

There is supposedly a DNA sample siting in a lab in Maryland waiting to be tested.

 

[Ven]

A young woman, knowing she is about to die, writes the note, with apparently no shakiness? I doubt that.

I also don't think the victim wrote that letter. I would think the writing would betray more shakiness and fear. Looks way too clean for it to have been written by that poor girl.

 

[scriptgirl]

So, what is going on with that DNA sample?