nerualc:

Richard Laurence Marquette is a convicted murderer. Marquette was a serial killer responsible for killing three women, draining their blood, mutilating and dismembering their bodies, then scattering their remains.

He was the first person ever to be added as an eleventh name on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, in connection with the 1961 murder of Joan Caudle in Salem, Oregon. He has been incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary since June 1975.

Richard Laurence Marquette was born on December 12, 1934, in Portland, Oregon. He was first arrested in June 1956 on a charge of attempted rape, but his alleged victim dropped the charge. He was later arrested several months later for disorderly conduct. He attempted to rob a Portland service station in August 1957 by using a sack full of wrenches as a weapon, and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. He was released in twelve months for good behavior.

On June 8, 1961, Portland police received a phone call from a local housewife whose dog had brought home a human foot in a paper bag. While detectives were at the woman’s house investigating, the dog returned again, this time with a hand. The area was then subject to a thorough search which uncovered several more body parts, all fresh and bled dry, with no attempt to bury them.

After cross referencing with missing persons reports, investigators determined the remains were that of Joan Caudle, a 23 year old housewife and mother of two who had been reported missing by her husband. He said that she had gone out shopping for Father’s Day gifts when she vanished.

A witness was found who reported seeing Caudle leaving a local bar with a man. Although her husband said she was not a habitual drinker, she had been depressed as of late because her mother was gravely ill, so it was entirely possible that she might have stopped in a bar.

Further investigation led detectives to the home of Richard Marquette. Marquette had fled the area, but further remains of Joan Caudle were found in his refrigerator, butchered and wrapped in the manner of any normal meat. Also found inside were bloodstained lingerie. The only missing piece was her head, which later turned up near the edge of a river. An arrest warrant for Richard Marquette’s arrest was issued and a manhunt ensued.

Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield appealed to the FBI to help and the agency took the unusual step of expanding their most wanted list to eleven names, the first time it had ever done so. The tactic worked, and Marquette was arrested in California the day after being added to the list.

Marquette claimed that he had met Caudle in the bar and the two recognized each other from elementary school. He said they went back to his house where she agreed to sex. Marquette claimed that he got drunk and strangled her afterwards. Since he had no vehicle to dispose of her remains, he panicked and dragged the corpse into the shower, where he dismembered it.

The prosecution found his story questionable and asked for him to be charged with rape as well since they did not believe he and Caudle had consensual sex. He was found guilty of first degree murder but the jury recommended leniency. Marquette was sentenced to life in prison. After an 11 year sentence during which time he was described as a “model prisoner”, he received parole in 1973.

In April 1975, a fisherman discovered mutilated human remains floating in a shallow slough in Marion County, Oregon. Once again, the corpse had been bled dry, savagely mutilated, and dismembered before being dumped with only a minimal effort at concealment.

Detectives determined the remains were those of 37 year old Betty Wilson, a North Carolina native who had left a hard life of poverty and had 11 children since marrying at age 16. They lived for a time in an abandoned school bus at the edge of the city dump with no electricity or running water and she claimed that her husband was abusive.

With all of her children in foster care, Wilson stowed away in the trunk of her sister’s car one day to begin a new life far away from North Carolina, and had been living with her in Salem. She had last been seen alive at a crowded nightclub.

Wilson’s husband was the initial and obvious suspect, but it was quickly verified that he’d been working in North Carolina at the time and could not possibly be responsible for a murder that happened on the other side of the country. Marquette thus became the prime suspect.

Detectives began a stakeout of his home and obtained a search warrant. They searched both inside and outside the mobile home where Marquette was living and uncovered several small but damning pieces of physical evidence that tied him to the murder of Betty Wilson. 55 hours after the first remains were found, Marquette was once again arrested for murder.

Given the overwhelming physical evidence and the close similarity to the Caudle murder, Marquette pleaded guilty to the Wilson murder. His story was similar to the one he had used earlier; that he brought Wilson back to her house and she agreed to have sex, but then refused, after which he strangled and dismembered her.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. Criminal psychiatrists working with Marquette came to the conclusion that he was a perfectly normal, socially adjusted individual unless women turned him down. The sting of rejection, they concluded, set off a murderous rage. He has been incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary since June 1975.