The Bellaire & Southwestern Texan (Bellaire, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 32, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 20, 1974 Page: 2 of 32
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Bellaire Friends Library & Historical Society.
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Page 2, THE BELLAIRE TEXAN, Wednesday
I Bellaire rapist
g (continued from Page 1)
J most of the ham, but fed
fl some to the dog and cat. He
® lalkpH with the woman a
talked with the woman a
while, then left, around
11:15, after warning her he
would be back if she called
police. She was not raped.
The woman made her way
out the front door, left adjar
by the man, and crawled and
inched her way to her
neighbor’s front door. She
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somehow pushed the door
chimes with an elbow, and
when the door was opened,
gasped “call the police!"
At 3 a.m. that morning, a
man called the Bellaire
police dispatcher and spoke
briefly:
“There is a woman
bound and gagged at . . .”
and he gave the address.
Then he hung up.
Police were still investi-
gating this case when, six
days later and in repid
order, came three similar
cases — Tuesday night,
October 22, at midnight., and
Friday and Saturday morn-
ings, October 25 and 26, the
burglar entering the houses
around 5:30 a.m. In one
instance the woman return-
ed to her house after picking
up the mmorning newspaper
Prescriptions
Call-
666-6294
■ WE DELIVER -
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•Cosmetics
•Jewelry
Bellaire Pharmacy
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See them among our
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to find her assailant waiting.
In these last three cases,
the women were raped as
well as robbed. The women
were 79,79 and 80 years old.
The woman whose husband
lay helpless from his stroke
was brutally beaten when
she resisted.
With four major crimes on
his doorstep, Wheatley took
emergency action. He and
Dectives McQuire and
Sparks became a command
staff. Twenty officers were
assigned to work around the
clock on 12-hour shifts.
Wheatley borrowed five
Checker Taxicabs from Billy
Walker, Bellaire cab operat-
or: with officers at the wheel
they cruised Bellaire or sat,
apparently awaiting fares,
while keeping the South-
west Bellaire area under
surveillance, or checking our
leads. Scores of leads and
suggestions poured in once
the story broke in press,
radio and on television.
Constable Walter Rankin
loaned Bellaire 12 uniformed
and plain clothes officers
under Capt. Jim Gill. They
worked routine assignments
under Bellaire Capts. Jerry
Loftin, Jim Terry and Allen
Thurman. The Harris
County Sheriffs office loan-
ed Deputy Investigator Jay
Evans. From Houston
Police Department came
Investigator Dick Atkins.
Sunday morning, Oct. 27,
Wheatley, McGuire, Sparks
and Atkins reviewed: The
“MO" was the same—quiet
entry, victim blindfolded,
tied with anything handy
TTBTnnnsvYVVTrirBTnrBnrTn!
(light cord, hose, clothing),
questioned for money, a
search, the refrigerator raid,
then (in three instances)
rape. Clothes were cut from
the victims with a long-blade
folding knife with a distinc-
tive red handle with an
inlaid figurene in gold.
Before, leaving, the man sat
and talked with his victims
and in two instances,
watched the morning color
cartoon shows. He usually
warned: "Call the police and
I’ll be back and cut you into
bits.”
The officers had one good
description of the burglar/-
rapist. He was in his early
20s, about 5’8” or 5’ 9” tall,
clean haven, dark redish-
brown hair curling at the
ends. A latent fingerprint
and a semen speciman. No
car, apparently, since vic-
tims never heard one start
up when the rapist fled.
Either a resident of the area,
or a transient who lived
within walking distance of
the area.
While police concentrated
on surveillance to protect
the area from further
attacks, and checked out a
steady stream of “tips" and
suggestions coming into the
dispatcher's switchboard,
Wheatley sought a psycho-
logical profile from Veter-
an’s Administration hospital
psychiatrists. Their analy-
sis: A surface-passive per-
son but psychotic and
possibly homicidal —“he
would kill, if indeed, he has
not already.” Sexual attacks
were not for self-gratifica-
tion but to degrade and
demoralize the elderly wo-
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men. He apparently
identified with the women
on a mother-son or grandson
basis. (During talks with his
victims he described his
childhood, bed-wettings,
troubles with his mother.
Sub-conciously, the psychia-
trists felt, the rapist/burglar
wanted to be caught,
stopped.)
That Sunday, Wheatley
investigated a report that
several young transients
were living in a nearby
apartment house, well with-
in walking distance of
southwest Bellaire. One
transient was from Kansas,
another from Florida. One,
fitting the intruder’s des-
cription was seen getting
into a Checker taxicab late
Saturday afternoon. A
check with the cab company
revealed the fare had asked
to be driven to Austin, then
to the Continental bus
station in downtown Hous
ton. A check there revealed
the man had purchased a
ticket to Austin. Austin was
notified of the Bellaire
assaults and given a
description (plus a name
under which the suspect had
registered). Two days later
Austin asked for more
information --- three quick
burglary rapes of elderly
women had turned since
receipt of the original
teletype. The methods were
the same as in Bellaire.
Wheatley also had sent
the case description to
Kansas authorities, who
found that a man bearing the
name sent along had been
arrested recently in Topeka.
However, his prints didn’t
match the one found in
Bellaire and, in fact he
convinced topeka police he
has not visited Texas
recently.
But, added the Topeka
man, he did have a
stepbrother who had used
his name and identification
i while traveling about the
country. Shortly, Indepen-
dence police made inquiry —
they had just had a
rape/burglary in which an
elderly woman had died, the
“MO" fit the Bellaire cases.
Bellaire immediately issu-
T-points
ulletin
details of the Bellaire and
Austin cases. Independence
went looking and soon come
upon Donald Elvin Kirk,
trudging along a downtown
street. He fit the Bellaire
profile. A search of a vacant
house where Kirk had spent
nights produced a bag of
clothing and a large folding
knife with an unusual, red
hhandle with an inlaid gold
figurene. When the blade
was flipped out it made a
weapon 10 inches long.
By now, it was Sunday
morning, November 3.
McQuire and Evans drove to
Austin, picked up Det.
Roger Napier, and continued
on to Independence, arriving
at midnight. Monday
morning they met with
Independence and Topeka
police. Kirk refused to
discuss the cases with the
officers and, finally on
Tuesday McGuire asked to
interview Kirk along.
McGuire called Wheatley at
1 a.m. Wednesday mroning
(Nov. 6) to tell him that Kirk
has given him an oral
statement confessing to the
Bellaire crimes and also had
committed similar crimes in
six other states. McGuire
said he asked Kirk: “How
Many?”
“Two Hundred or more,"
came the reply.
Wheatley made an at-
tempt to nail down a positive
ed an all-points national
teletype bulletin giving all
identification through a
voice profile: “We already
had the 3 a.m. telephone call
about the woman left bound
and gagged. Sparks called
McGuire and asked him to
put Kirk on the phone, and
read him his rights over the
telephone. Kirk did admit to
being in the Bellaire area
during our burglary/rapes.
But that was all. But we did
get him on tape, and got a
voice ‘match’ from a
professional, and two of the
Bellaire victims identified
the voice.”
Yet the case wasn’t
"made." Texas does not
recognize oral confession
without a “discovery” factor.
In the Houston Mass
murders, for instance, oral
statements and comments
by Wayne Henley and David
Brooks were here admitted
because both youths led
officers to grave sites, to
help in the "discovery” of
evidence, the 27 bodies, and
a “voice match” is a tenuous
thing from a legal stand-
point.
What to do? Wheatley
had one choice left — "we
could take the one victim we
had in Bellaire who had seen
the suspect." He called an
old friend, Jim Clark,
chairman of the board of
Larcon Petroleum Co.
Clark, as a concerned
citizen, loaned Wheatley the
company’s million dollar
prop-jet airplane, it’s pilot
and co-pilot. The old
couple’s physician gave
permission for the trip.
Wheatley and his elderly
charges left for Indepen-
dence at 3 p.m. that
afternoon (Nov. 13), arriving
at 5:15 p.m. The 79-year-old
woman first identified the
red-handled knife, then she
identified Kirk as her
assailant at a police showup
in the presence of officers,
Kird’s attorney and news-
men. Wheatley and the
aged couple were back in
Belliare by 11 p.m. that night.
Next morning at 11 a.m.
Wheatley, McGuire and
Sparks accompanied District
Attorney Carol Vance into
the Grand Jury room for the
indictment naming Donald
Elvin Kirk as the Bellaire
rapist/burglar. The Bellaire
officers received a standing
ovation from Grand Jury
members for their handling
of the case.
Then, to further nail down
the case, Austin police came
up with a fingerprint from
one of its three rape/burg-
lary cases that matched the
suspect’s perfectly, they
informed Bellaire police.
Kirk has been charged in
Independence with Mur-
der/rape/burglary and is
held there under $300,000
bond. He is under $50,000
bond in Topeka, $100,000 in
Austin, and $90,000 in
Bellaire — a total of
$540,000. Extradition pa
pers have been forwarded to
Kansas for return of Kirk to
stand trial in Harris county
for the Bellaire rape/rob
beries. However, the
Independence murder
charge will take precedence.
(During the rape/burg-
lary investigation, Bellaire
police with the help of
officers loaned the city
"busted” one bookie opera
tion, cleared up 10 burglary
cases for Houston — and,
cleared up a fifth, unrelated
rape case; a woman was
forced at gun point to enter
a car on an area parking lot,
driven to Ft. Bend county
and raped by a man arrested
two days later on the
woman’s description of her
assailant and his car.)
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Weigand, Anne. The Bellaire & Southwestern Texan (Bellaire, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 32, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 20, 1974, newspaper, November 20, 1974; Bellaire, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth567194/m1/2/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bellaire Friends Library & Historical Society.