Murder in a ‘Flyover State’

I am, at times, most interested in crimes that have occurred near where I am from.  Many times, these aren’t the most famous of cases.  I live in the midwest in an area I have heard called the ‘flyover states’.  Meaning, you fly over Missouri (and other surrounding states) to get to somewhere else.

So, the story I am featuring here is the kidnapping and murders of 5-year-old Eric Christgen and Michelle Steele, age 11.  These murders both occurred in St. Joseph, Missouri but at different times. The perpetrator in both cases was Charles Ray Hatcher. 

This serial killer was born in 1929 in Mound City, Missouri, a town of about a thousand people.  This smaller town is nestled in the northwest corner of Missouri and is home to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (which is very close to Mound City). It is beautiful and peaceful there.  I have visited there many times to watch for bald eagles and practice photography.  

In his late teens and early twenties, Hatcher was in and out of jail mostly for auto theft.  In 1947, he stole a truck from his employer and received a suspended sentence.  Clearly learning nothing from that experience, he stole a truck in 1948  and was given two years in the state prison.  He only served about half of his sentence before being released, when he promptly forged a check and was put back in prison to finish out his sentence.  He somehow managed to escape in 1951.  While fleeing, he attempted a burglary and was caught, receiving an additional two years in prison.

HATCHER’S CRIMINAL CAREER PICKS UP

Hatcher received his first serious sentence for the attempted abduction of a 16 year old boy in 1959.  Steven Pellham was a newspaper delivery boy.  I presume he was delivering the St. Joseph News-Press Gazette.  That has been the local newspaper since before 1900.  Hatcher approached the boy with a knife and tried to get him to go with him.  Pellham got away, thankfully, and reported the crime to police.  Hatcher was arrested, again in a stolen vehicle, and sentenced to five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary.  

Before being carted off to prison, Hatcher was being held in the Buchanan County Jail in St. Joseph.  He made another attempt to escape from this facility, but this time he was unsuccessful.  This guy clearly had no remorse for any of his actions, only putting effort into trying to get away to commit more crimes.  Upon his arrival in prison for this stint, Hatcher began to brag about his exploits, claiming to be as notorious as Jesse James in northwest Missouri.  Hardly.  There is a Jesse James Museum in St. Joseph, but I have never heard of any plans for a Charles Hatcher museum.

While in prison, Hatcher was accused of raping and stabbing to death a fellow inmate, a 26-year-old named Jerry Tharrington.  They both worked in the prison’s kitchen, and Tharrington was stabbed multiple times in the back.  Hatcher was punished with solitary confinement, but it was never proven that he committed the rape and murder.

It was during his time in solitary that Hatcher came up with the idea to request psychiatric treatment.  His request was denied, as it was believed he was just trying to get out of confinement.  I would imagine a person like Hatcher doesn’t do well with no one to push around, alone with his own thoughts.

For whatever reason, Hatcher’s sentence was reduced to three-quarter time, supposedly for good behavior.  What?  Didn’t they just punish him for suspicion of raping and killing another inmate?  He was released in August of 1963.  At some point following his release, Hatcher moved to California.  He was using an assumed name, Albert Ralph Price, likely to avoid being found to be a convicted felon.  

A young boy in San Francisco went missing.  LIttle Gilbert Martinz (not his real name) was only five years old. HIs mother had gotten home to see her little boy playing with friends.  When she went to check on him again, he was gone.  His playmate reported that Gilbert had gone off with a man who offered them some candy.  She refused to go with the man, but Gilbert went.

Of course, his mother panicked and called the police.  As officers began to look for the lost child, another man was taking his dog for a walk.  Roger Galatoire happened upon a man lying on the ground. Thinking he was either asleep or drunk, the man and dog walked on.  However, when they returned for the walk back home, Mr. Galatoire noticed that the man was now up on his knees and he could see a young boy there too.  The man was beating the boy and threw him to the ground.

Thinking he hadn’t been seen by this abuser, Mr. Galatoire took off running (carrying his dog because he couldn’t keep up) and ran to the first house he saw and called police.  Within minutes, four officers were in the park and located Hatcher lying on the ground, sexually assaulting little Gilbert.  When he saw the officers, Hatcher threw Gilbert aside.  While some officers helped the child, others detained Hatcher.  Gilbert was bruised and bleeding in multiple places, sobbing and in pain.

Hatcher gave officers the false name of Albert Ralph Price.  The child, thankfully, survived the assault, but the assailant was found out for who he really was – Charles Ray Hather.

Gilbert Martinez suffered for years following this assault.  Guilt for going with the strange man and just the severe trauma kept him in therapy and pain for many years. Victims often suffer from guilt, believing they did something wrong to cause the other person to hurt them. Of course this is not the case, but it is a common reaction to trauma.

During the booking process, Hatcher pulled a razor from his pocket and slashed his left wrist.  Officers believed they had emptied his pockets, but missed the razor somehow.  Was this an actual suicide attempt or just a ploy to make himself appear ‘crazy’?  He had decided to try the competency defense.  He claimed to hear voices and faked suicide attempts to prove he was not competent to stand trial.  He was in and out of jail and mental health facilities for about two years, and in 1971 his case was finally set for trial.  During his stay at one of the hospitals, he managed to escape before going to trial.  He was caught – again driving a stolen car – and sent back to a different prison state hospital.

He was finally tried for the Martinez case in 1972.  He was convicted and committed again to a state hospital as a “mentally disordered sexual offender.”  He again tried to escape and was sentenced to one year to life, and sent to a medium security prison.  Even after the assault and escape attempts, Hatcher was released on parole in 1977. Following his release, Hatcher made his way back to Missouri.

After a couple of brushes with the law in Nebraska and Iowa, Hatcher was back in St. Joseph, Missouri by May of 1978.  At this time, a four-year-old boy disappeared from the downtown mall (which no longer exists), led away by a man to the bluffs along McArthur Drive. 

Eric Christgen had been at the mall with one of his father’s employees who was running errands for Mr. Christgen. There was a small park with a slide where she let Eric play while she ran into one of the stores.  In less than five minutes she returned to find Eric gone.  Frantic, she searched from store to store, yelling “Eric!  Eric!”  No one had seen him or knew where he had gone.  She ran into another store and called the police.

I cannot imagine the call she had to make to Eric’s family.  Having been entrusted with their child, it would have been the hardest thing she’d ever done to call and say he was missing.  She was later even considered a possible suspect and was briefly interorgated as a possible accomplice in a kidnapping scheme.

It was more than 24 hours later when an officer searching along the Missouri River bluffs noticed a path in the tall, overgrown weeds and followed it.  He found Eric’s body lying on a pile of branches. He called other officers on his radio and they made their way to his location.  Unfortunately, reporters with cameras and many others got there just as quickly, contaminating much of the crime scene.

The family, the police and the town were devastated.  People wanted this crime solved, and they wanted it done quickly.

Unfortunately, little Eric and his family weren’t  the only victims in this terrible crime.

THE SAD STORY OF MELVIN REYNOLDS

Police arrested Melvin Reynolds for this crime.  Melvin was 25, of low intelligence and had “homosexual tendencies” as an adolescent.  During his youth, Melvin spent some time in a boys’ home, where he says he was sexually assaulted by older boys.  He was too small to fight them, and they threatened to beat him if he didn’t comply.  When he returned back home to his mother, he was understandably confused about who he was.

He had a few problems as a young man, and became known as a trouble maker.  He stole from stores and even borrowed a few cars to go on joy rides with friends.  Occasionally, he would wear women’s dresses.  Sometimes he did it to disguise himself while stealing and other times, simply because he liked to.  As you can imagine in the late 70’s in northwest Missouri, these behaviors did not sit well with authorities, or people in general.

This poor guy went through multiple interrogations, two polygraph exams and hypnosis.  He was even questioned using amobarbital (“truth serum”) and while under this influence made statements that made police suspicious.  Miraculously, Reynolds continued to cooperate with police and early in 1979 he was again interrogated – for fourteen hours.  Of course, following this and likely because of exhaustion, he told police “I’ll say so if you want me to”, and confessed to killing Eric Christgen.  He was charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Meanwhile, Hatcher worked his way north to Omaha, Nebraska where he was arrested for a sexual attack on a teenage boy.  Between 1978 and 1982, Hatcher was on a violent spree.  He was arrested for molesting a teenage boy, an attempted stabbing of a seven-year-old boy and fighting with a young man over payment for sex just in Omaha alone.  During this time he was also arrested for molesting a man in Lincoln, Nebraska and another attempted stabbing in Des Moines, Iowa. Finally, he tried to abduct an 11-year-old boy in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Hatcher had perfected his ability to convince authorities he was insane. He managed to avoid going to jail for all of those crimes in Nebraska and Iowa. He would be placed in a mental hospital, then convince psychiatrists he was sane and was released – each time.

In the summer of 1982, Hatcher made his way back to St. Joseph, where he had previously killed Eric Christgen. After two botched attempts to assault other young people, Hatcher came across 11-year-old Michelle Steele. She had taken the bus to downtown St. Joseph for a dentist appointment.

When Michelle didn’t return home as planned, her mother became worried.  She and her husband searched for a while before calling police who later organized a search for Michelle.  Authorities and citizens were eerily reminded of a night four years earlier when they gathered to search for a lost four-year-old boy.  Among the searchers was Michelle’s uncle, Roy Montgomery.  He had the misfortune of finding Michelle’s body, a sight I am sure he would never forget.

And just like in Eric Christgen’s case, someone close to the victim was considered a suspect.  Her body was very well concealed, so officers were suspicious that her Uncle found her so easily.  He was questioned but released.  

Michelle’s body was found less than a mile from where Eric Christgen’s had been four years earlier.  St. Joseph was again in mourning and in a panic, looking for a killer.

One day after Michelle’s body was found, Hatcher was arrested though he had given a false name of Richard Harris.  He was finally properly identified and charged with Michelle’s murder.

As he waited for a trial date to be set, he confessed to fifteen other murders dating back to 1969.  These murders occurred in California, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri – including the murder of Eric Christgen.

If you recall from earlier, Melvin Reynolds was serving a life sentence for killing Eric because he confessed after a long and strenuous interrogation session.  He had been in prison for nearly four years by this time.  With the confession by Hatcher, Reynolds was eventually released.

Reynolds remained in the St. Joseph area until his death in 2012.  His case was featured in an LA Times article back in 1985 titled A Tragic Conviction: How Justice System Can Go Wrong by Richard E. Meyer.

FINAL CONVICTIONS AND DEATH OF A KILLER

Hatcher gave his confession to FBI agents, whom he requested to speak to after his arrest in St. Joseph.  All of his victims were male, except for Michelle.  He even provided a map to assist agents in finding a body he left behind in Illinois, a man named James Churchill.  Hatcher confessed to stabbing Churchill multiple times, leaving the knife sticking out of the poor man’s chest and leaving him lying (again) on the banks of the Missouri River – but this time on the Illinois side.

Why would he confess to a murder in Illinois?  He wanted the FBI to believe him when he confessed to the murder of Eric Christgen. If he gave them proof he had committed this other murder, he thought they would have to believe him about Eric. He knew police would not want to believe someone besides Melvin Reynolds committed that murder. After all, they had worked hard to get that confession.

In admitting to the various murders, Hatcher claimed that his desire to kill had ‘gotten ahead of him’.  He would simply snap, and then attack his victim.  He had become addicted to murder. He convinced the FBI and local authorities he was the real murderer, and wanted them to give Melvin Reynolds his freedom.

Hatcher was tried for the murder of Eric Christgen in October of 1983 and given life in prison with no possibility for parole for at least 50 years.  He was then tried for the murder of Michelle Steele.  When he was found guilty, Hatcher requested the death penalty.  The jury refused, sentencing him to life in prison.  Just a few days following his sentencing, Hatcher hanged himself in his cell at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.

Cases like this are sad because of the sheer number of lives impacted by the acts of a monster like Hatcher.  Two families in St. Joseph lost their children, and I would imagine those families were never the same.  Michelle was 11, so she was in school with classmates who might never have quite recovered from the loss of their friend.  And the friends and family of Melvin Reynolds lost him too, as I am certain his life was never the same after spending four years wrongly imprisoned.  While what happened to Melvin cannot be directly blamed on Hatcher, it was his crime that created the panic that led to a wrongful conviction of a troubled young man.