I have just finished reading a very disturbing book. Disturbing mostly because of the horrific things that happened to several innocent women, but also disturbing because the crime scenes in this book are all places I am familiar with. Disturbing because one of the murderers in this book, Randy Roth, is someone I and/or my family had done business with in the late 1980's and early 1990's before he was a household name. I am not proud of this fact, it just makes the crimes committed feel as if they hit a little too close to home.

This book by Ann Rule is 513 pages long (in paperback) and the first 341 pages are all about the Randy Roth cases.

**WARNING I give a lot of details about the book here. However, the author gives much more detail about the cold hearted beasts that committed these crimes. I may tell you the outcome, but you need to read the book to get a real feel for the killers and their victims.**

Randy Roth was a handsome, young, romantic, vibrant, healthy man and the lover that women dream of. When he met a woman who interested him he would court her with flowers, romantic notes left on their cars, cards and candy, phone calls of the most romantic nature, etc.

When Randy met Janis Miranda he had been married one time, but told Janis that his wife had died. Randy had a small boy named Greg. Janis had a small girl named Jalina. They would make a fine little family. Randy courted Janis in such a way that she knew she had met the man of her dreams. They were married and shortly after the wedding Randy insisted that they get life insurance policies. Red Flag Alert!

Another thing Randy did right after the wedding was drop the charade of being the perfect guy. He no longer gave flowers to his wife, brought any love notes to her job, he even quit having sex with his wife. She was heartbroken but for the sake of the kids, she knew she had to keep her marriage intact.

In November, 1981, for Thanksgiving, Randy and Janis and the two kids drove to southwestern Washington state where they were to be with Randy's Mom for the holiday. The day after Thanksgiving Randy and Janis left to go do some Christmas shopping. No one knows exactly how the events played out but somehow Randy and Janis ended up climbing up a place in Skamania County called Beacon Rock. Janis was very afraid of heights but Randy insists that she wanted to climb this rock because it would be romantic.

Janis died when she ended up at the bottom of the rock, Randy claiming she had slipped and fallen over the edge. He didn't bother to call and tell anyone, instead when the funeral home was done with the cremation of the body, he invited his family out for pizza. Sitting at the table he showed the receipt for the cremation of Janis' body. This man had no emotion, especially not one of sadness or remorse.

Not only did Randy Roth collect on his wife's $100,000 life insurance policy, he began to collect monthly social security checks because his child, Greg, had no mother figure. He was a scam artist and fraud on top of being a murderer.

In 1985 Randy married Donna Clift. Guess what he wanted to do right after marrying her? Yes, he wanted to get life insurance policies. He also stopped being such a great lover to Donna. He had failed to tell her he had been married twice before.

Shortly after their marriage began, Randy wanted to go rafting on the Skykomish River in Western Washington. Donna's parents went too but in a different raft. Randy managed to be slow enough that Donna's parents would get ahead of them and out of sight. Donna's mother was very nervous about this and said so to her husband.

As soon as Donna's parents were out of sight Randy seemed to lose control of the raft. He seemed to be deliberately rowing the raft toward the sharp rocks instead of away from them. Because Donna's mother had voiced her concern to her husband, they had grabbed onto some branches and held the raft from going farther, hoping that their daughter and Randy would appear soon. As they waited they heard Donna screaming. As they finally came around the bend Donna was so shook up that her parents insisted they all pull the rafts up to the shore. Donna refused to get back into the raft with Randy and in fact she never lived with him again. When Randy realized she would never live with him again he divorced her.

Randy began dating a woman named MaryJo Phillips. He used the same technique as before. Woo the woman with flowers and gifts and great sex. Sometime before the wedding Randy mentioned that he wanted to make sure they get life insurance to be sure that his son Greg would be taken care of if anything happened to he and MaryJo. That is when MaryJo knew she had to tell Randy something she had not told him before. She'd had cancer and was therefore un-insurable. Guess what? Randy wasn't interested in marrying her anymore.

In 1990 Randy met Cynthia Baumgartner. She was a widow who had two young boys, Tyson and Rylie. Cynthia's husband had died of cancer and due to his life insurance policy Cynthia was well taken care of. She had a nice home that was paid for and didn't have to work, rather staying home with her two young sons. Randy treated her as he treated all women he was circling in on. Cynthia thought Randy was the most wonderful man and agreed to marry him within just one month of the beginning of their courtship.

Cynthia, Randy and their combined three boys moved into an even bigger house and married life began. Cynthia didn't tell her family of her worries about her new husband, how he had changed so much after the wedding. Instead she had written down her thoughts and fears in a diary of sorts.

On July 23, 1991 Randy and Cynthia and Tyson and Rylie went to Lake Sammamish for the day. Randy's son Greg was staying with someone else for a few days. The family had taken a raft to the lake with them and when they had inflated it, Randy and Cynthia left the two boys behind and headed across the lake to a somewhat secluded area. When Randy came back a couple of hours later, Cynthia was in the bottom of the raft, a supposed victim of drowning. He had rowed the raft back to shore slowly and didn't summon for help. He had the boys run to the lifeguards but told the boys not to make a scene. Of course they were not able to revive her.

Again, Randy filed a claim for life insurance on Cynthia. However there were enough red flags that this drowning began an investigation. He was convicted of murder and is currently serving consecutive life sentences in the Washington State Penitentiary.

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The second story in this book is about a killer named Charles Rodman Campbell. He raped Renae Wicklund while her one and a half year old daughter Shannah watched, at Renae's home in 1975.
Renae reported the rape and testified against Campbell in court. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison but only served 6 before he was on a work release program. Not only was he on a work release program but was at a place not far from Renae's home in Snohomish County Washington and Renae had no idea!. She felt safe knowing that he would be in prison for 30 years.

On April 14, 1982 Charles Campbell came to Renae's home and raped her again, then slashed her throat. It is presumed that he had done this before Shannah came home from school but when Shannah came home, catching Campbell, she too became a victim with a slashed throat. Then it is believed that as Campell was finishing up with Shannah, the neighbor across the street, Barb Hendrickson walked in on that and she too became another of Campbell's victims. Barb's husband Don went to check on Barb because she had been across the street fo so long. He was the unfortunate one to walk into the horror scene and find all three females stabbed to death.

Charles Campbell was immediately suspect and was then tried and convicted and sentenced to death. He was hung at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington in 1993.

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The third story in this book is about Wanda Touchstone. She had been recently divorced from her wealthy husband Lew and moved to Seattle to start a new life. She was gunned down in a parking lot in the University District in Seattle in 1980. Her killer was Cynthia Marler who was hired as a hitman. But the person(s) who hired her have never been brought to justice.

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The fourth story in this book is about Janna Hanson. A 13 year old girl who never gave her mother any trouble. Janna was watching after the house of a family of a school friend while they were away for Christmas vacation. This house was on the property of a golf course. On the morning of December 26, 1974 Janna went to take care of some things at that house. She never returned. The authorities thought it was a runaway case even though the mother insisted Janna would have never run away. Clues led to Ken Burke and he would be tried and convicted of Janna's murder.

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The fifth story in this book may be the most disturbing, as far as what happened to the victims. Betty Wilson had moved to Salem, OR to get away from an abusive husband. Unfortunately she met a bigger monster than her abusive husband. Richard Marquette, who had been convicted of murder in 1961 and served out his sentence, was living in Salem when Betty met him on April 19, 1975. Her body was found in a slough having been dismembered very systematically. The lead detective on the case began to remember a similar case many years earlier and that led him to Marquette.

The sixth and final story in this book is about a young woman, Molly McClure who was very pretty and friendly to everyone. She had recently gotten a new job in Seattle and found her first apartment. Her father came to help her several times whenever there was anything wrong with her apartment or any of her belongings. He was helping her change an outdoor light bulb one day when Molly's upstairs neighbor, Kvay Knight walked by. Kvay and Molly's father shook hands as they were introduced. On January 16, 1986 Molly was late for work. Her boss became concerned because she was never late. He called but there was no answer. He called the police who went to check on her and found her dead in her bed. Clues eventually led the detectives to Kvay Knight.

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This book is very well written by Ann Rule who writes true crime stories, including The Stranger Beside Me which is about Ted Bundy. A man that Ann once worked with!
The author brings you into each victims life and makes you feel that you have come to know them. She interjects her own thoughts about the crimes and the victims and about the killers.

This book is disturbing because these are not just made up stories. Each one of these murders happened in real life and they happened to every day common people. It made me make sure last night that each door was locked and each window was securely closed!

Recommended: Yes