Gerald and Charlene Gallego

Gerald Gallego
Mugshot, c. 1980
Born	Gerald Armond Gallego (1946-07-17)July 17, 1946 Sacramento, California, U.S.
Died	July 18, 2002(2002-07-18) (aged 56) Renown Regional Medical Center, Reno, Nevada, U.S.
Other names	The Love Slave Killers The Sex Slave Killers
Convictions	California Armed robbery Lewd and lascivious acts with a child First degree murder with special circumstances (2 counts) Nevada First degree murder (2 counts)
Criminal penalty	California Death (June 21, 1983) Nevada Death (June 25, 1984 & November 21, 1999)
Details
Victims	10–11+
Span of crimes	September 10, 1978 – November 2, 1980
Country	United States
States	California Nevada Oregon
Date apprehended	November 17, 1980

Charlene Gallego
Mugshot, c. 1980
Born	Charlene Adell Williams (1956-10-19) October 19, 1956 (age 68) Stockton, California, U.S.
Other names	The Love Slave Killers The Sex Slave Killers
Conviction	Second degree murder (2 counts)[1]
Criminal penalty	16 years imprisonment
Details
Victims	10–11+
Span of crimes	September 10, 1978 – November 2, 1980
Country	United States
States	California Nevada Oregon
Date apprehended	November 17, 1980

Gerald Armond Gallego (July 17, 1946 – July 18, 2002) and Charlene Adell Gallego (née Williams; born October 19, 1956), also called the Sex Slave Killers, were American serial killers who abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least ten people between 1978 and 1980. The couple garnered their nickname because according to prosecutors, they had preyed upon young women in the search for an ideal sex slave.^[2]

The couple abducted all of their victims from areas near the Interstate 80 freeway running through California and Nevada with the sole exception of one victim, who was killed in Oregon. Typically, Charlene would lure the victims to the couple's vehicle with an offer of selling drugs or asking them to help distribute flyers. They would then be restrained, abducted, and raped by Gerald, who would then kill them with a variety of methods, most commonly by shooting.

After their arrests, Charlene accepted a plea bargain whereby she agreed to testify against Gerald and she was sentenced to sixteen years and eight months imprisonment in Nevada in February 1983.^[3] After a four-month long trial in California, during which Gerald acted as his own attorney, he was found guilty and sentenced to death on June 21, 1983. Following his second trial in Nevada, he was again found guilty and received a death sentence on June 25, 1984.

Charlene was released in 1997 while Gerald remained on death row in Nevada. He attempted to appeal his sentence on numerous occasions and won a new penalty hearing in 1997 after his Nevada death sentence was overturned, although a new jury would impose the death penalty again in 1999.^[4] Suffering from colorectal cancer, Gerald refused all efforts to prolong his life and died in 2002.^[5]

Early life

Gerald Gallego

Gerald Armond Gallego was born on July 17, 1946, in Sacramento, California, to parents Gerald Albert Gallego and Lorraine Davies.^[6] His mother was a sex worker while his estranged father was a criminal who was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison for auto theft at the time of Gerald's birth.^[7] In June 1954, his father was sentenced to death in Mississippi for the murder of Ocean Springs police officer Ernest Beaugez, whom he killed the previous May during a prison escape.^[8] While on death row, he and another inmate bludgeoned corrections officer J.C. Landrum to death.^[9][7] On March 3, 1955, at age 26, he was executed in the gas chamber at Mississippi State Penitentiary, becoming the first person in the state's history executed with such procedure.^[10] Supposedly, Gerald was initially informed that his father had died in a car accident,^[11] and it would not be until age 16 that he would learn his father's identity.^[6]

Gerald spent much of his childhood in Del Paso Heights, a Sacramento suburb, before moving to Yolo County and then to Nevada County.^[12] During his formative years, his mother and her multiple boyfriends beat him constantly. Several of her clients even sexually abused him. He often begged to be hugged and was frequently left unclean and hungry. Gerald was arrested for his first known felony offense at age 10—robbing a neighbor's home.^[13] Two years later, he sexually abused a six-year-old girl which resulted in him being sentenced to a California youth authority facility, and he was released in 1961.^[14]

As a student at Sacramento High School, Gerald was suspended numerous times for profanity, tardiness, failing classes, and violating closed campus rules.^[15] In his adolescence, he developed a sexual relationship with his mother's sister-in-law, who had been a mistress to his father.^[16] In 1962, Gerald and his half-brother, David Raymond Hunt, were convicted of armed robbery and served one year at a youth facility.^[15] At age 18, he was arrested for motor vehicle theft and chose to represent himself in court, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year at the Deuel Vocational Institution. During his imprisonment, he learned the fate of another half-brother, which led to a mental breakdown and him exclaiming, "The only thing I care about is killing God".^[17] One day after his release, he and Hunt robbed and assaulted an acquaintance, a crime for which he served six months at the Sacramento County jail.^[15]

In October 1969, Gerald and Hunt were arrested for participating in the armed robbery of a motel in Vacaville. While awaiting trial at the Solano County jail, Gerald, Hunt, and another inmate managed to escape by sawing through their cell door and climbing down one of the prison balconies with a white sheet.^[18] The escape was short-lived, as a tactical unit captured the men in a San Francisco apartment three days later.^[19] He served three years in prison and was paroled in September 1973.^[20] He was discharged from parole in December 1975 and found employment as a truck driver.^[13] He was married a total of seven times, including two marriages to the same woman, beginning at age 16.^[15] He would often abuse and abandon his partners when they ran out of money. In one marriage, he fathered a daughter whom he sexually molested and orally raped during an approximate seven-year period, as well as one of her friends.^[21] He was still married to a previous wife when he married Charlene.^[14]

Charlene Gallego

Charlene Adell Williams was born on October 19, 1956,^[a] in Stockton, California, to parents Charles and Mercedes (née Whorton) Williams.^[24] Raised in Sacramento, she was described as a smart, shy child from a supportive home with an ever-present source of income.^[12][25] Her father was a well-known businessman who served as the vice president of a chain of supermarkets. As part of their professional lives, he and his wife frequently traveled. After Charlene's mother was severely injured in a car accident, Charlene took over her mother's responsibilities and started accompanying her father on his business travels, where she was frequently lauded by her father's clients for being an educated and articulate youngster.

Charlene graduated from Rio Americano High School in 1974 and opened a furniture store in Folsom with the financial assistance of her grandmother. She then enrolled at California State University, where she dropped out after one semester.^[26] At age 17, she married her first husband, a U.S. Army solider, but the marriage was annuled after one year after the man was deployed thousands of miles away to Germany.^[26] The trajectory of her life began to change when she started using drugs and alcohol. Because of her overly flirty behavior with her male co-workers, Charlene was disliked at work and developed a reputation as a nymphomaniac. Charlene wed a wealthy young man who was addicted to heroin who asserted that Charlene was desperate for a threesome with him, her, and a prostitute because she was enamored with lesbian sex. The marriage fell apart, and they divorced because Charlene's first husband was unhappy that her parents interfered in their relationship.^[26]

Her next husband was a soldier whom she described as a "mother's boy". She became bored with him, and they separated. When Charlene asked whether they might have sex with his wife, the married man with whom she was having an affair ended their relationship quickly. She attempted suicide after the breakup but survived. It was not long after this that she met Gerald.^[27]

Relationship

On September 29, 1977,^[b] Gerald and Charlene met in a poker room at the Black Stallion club in Orangevale, California, and he invited her back to his home that night.^[30] The following day, Charlene was gifted about a dozen long-stemmed roses and a card saying, "To a very sweet girl – Gerry".^[31] Within a week, she decided to move in with him and they began a relationship. Charlene acted as the sexually subservient partner in their sadomasochistic relationship, and although she later claimed in court that she detested the painful experience, Gerald engaged in rough intercourse with her and particularly enjoyed sodomising her. Charlene allegedly became enamored by his machismo and started partaking in his deviant fantasies.^[27][13]

After they had been living together for a few months, Gerald brought home a 16-year-old exotic dancer to Charlene, and they had a threesome together. He made sure the woman and the teenager did not touch each other and only touched him, but afterwards when he arrived home from work, he discovered that Charlene and the teenager were having sex alone. He beat Charlene after throwing the dancer out an open window in wrath. Then he refused to have intercourse with her, claiming he had lost his libido and had become impotent. Charlene felt he was sleeping with his patrons when he was working as a bartender because he had lost interest in having a sexual relationship with her. Eventually, Gerald told Charlene that he required a pair of "sex slaves" to keep him excited.^[26] This knowledge did not deter Charlene away from him, however, and she purchased a .25 Automatic pistol in December 1977. The following month, Gerald sought to divorce his current wife so he could marry Charlene.^[26]

The Washoe County Courthouse in Reno, Nevada, where the Gallegos' wedding ceremony was held in 1978

In September 1978, Gerald's daughter from a previous marriage and her friend told a Detective Seargeant of the Butte County Sheriff's Office about the years of sexual abuse he had inflicted on them. A warrant for his arrest was issued in October, and he initially told his mother-in-law he wanted to surrender, but when her husband came home and became enraged at the sight of him, he and Charlene fled the premises and drove to Reno, Nevada.^[32] He assumed the alias "Stephen Robert Feil" — named after one of his mother-in-law's second cousins whom she felt resembled him^[33] — to avoid the charges.^[24] The couple married in Reno on September 30 in a wedding ceremony held at the Washoe County Courthouse.^[24]

The couple briefly lived in Houston, Texas, from late 1978 to early 1979.^[34] Gerald found work in Houston as a bartender at Whiskey Junction; coworkers described him as quiet, sometimes angry, but often nice. He quit his job after beating up a fellow bartender in a drunken state.^[32] Afterwards, under unclear circumstances, he reconciled with his father-in-law, who offered him a job as a truck driver for a meat firm in Reno, and Charlene a job as a receptionist. Gerald and Charlene only held their jobs for a few months before quitting.^[32] The couple returned to Sacramento in October 1979 and rented an apartment on Woodhollow Way. Gerald soon obtained a job as a bartender at the Bob-Les club, where he was recalled often firing his gun into the ceiling to wake up sleeping patrons.^[35][32]

Charlene would later allege that Gerald regularly abused her by repeatedly slapping her in the face, pulling her hair, and grabbing her throat. Such abuse allegedly transpired even prior to their marriage.^[30] Around 1978, Gerald attempted to fatally strangle Charlene, but her mother interrupted the attempt, hitting him over the head with a gun. Despite the abuse, Charlene made no attempt to alert law enforcement and later acknowledged that she lured young women to Gerald to become the "No. 1 woman in his life".^[31]

Murders

Between 1978 and 1980, the Gallegos murdered a minimum of ten people in three states. All of the victims were aged between 13 and 31, all but one were female, and most were killed in California.^[36][37][38] The couple typically cruised around the West Coast along Interstate 80 in Charlene's 1973 Dodge Ram Van and observed young women and girls as potential victims.^[39][40] Typically, it was Charlene who lured their targets into the van using various ruses, including duping them into thinking they were only selling drugs.^[41]

In later years, prosecutors would assert, along with Charlene herself, that the couple were on the hunt for an ideal sex slave so that Gerald could rejoice in sexual sadism.^[42] The couple would restrain their victims, drive to secluded locations, and kill them after prolonged periods of continuous sexual assault and psychological torture. The victims were killed usually by shooting, bludgeoning, and on one occasion strangulation.^[36]

1978–1979

The Gallegos killed their first confirmed victims on September 10, 1978. They had staked out the Country Club Plaza in Sacramento and noticed two adolescent girls, Kippi Jacquelyn Vaught, 16, and Rhonda Lee Scheffler, 17.^[43] Charlene approached them with the ruse that she would give them money by distributing flyers and subsequently brought them to the van, where Gerald brandished his .25 caliber pistol and forced them into the back.^[44] The girls were bound with tape around their arms and ankles and then were repeatedly sexually assaulted by Gerald all through the night while Charlene drove to a secluded area near Baxter, 65 miles east of Sacramento. When they arrived, Gerald ordered Charlene to return to Sacramento alone, switch vehicles, and come back, and during that time he continued to repeatedly rape both girls.^[45]

The following day, Gerald and Charlene drove to Sloughhouse, where Gerald ordered Scheffler and Vaught out of the van. Then, after forcing them to cross a field to a ditch, he struck Vaught with an tire iron before swinging around and bashing Scheffler. Finally, he pulled out his .25 caliber pistol and shot each girl once in the head. Vaught moved and made an attempt to flee as Gerald was leaving because the gunshot had only lightly grazed her skull. She was killed when he went back and fired three more shots into her head.^[13] Both then returned to Sacramento and the bodies would be found two days later a farmer.^[46]

By the time the couple resumed killing in June 1979, they were married. On June 24, they abducted 14-year-old Brenda Lynne Judd and 13-year-old Sandra Kaye Colley from the Washoe County Fair in Reno, Nevada. Both were persuaded to enter the Gallegos' with the same ruse used to abduct Scheffler and Vaught: the promise of earning money by distributing flyers.^[44] On Interstate 80, Charlene took the van northeast of Reno as Gerald repeatedly sexually assaulted the two young girls in the back of the van. Charlene then parked their van in the remote Humboldt Sink area.

Over the next couple of hours, Gerald rested and watched Charlene force the girls to perform sexual acts on each other. Colley was then dragged towards a dry stream bed by Gerald after he removed a shovel from under their van's seat and yanked her out of the car. He then crept up behind Colley and repeatedly struck her in the head with a shovel. Charlene would later recall in court the assault, describing it as "a loud splat like a flat rock hitting mud, and the girl sank to her knees and slowly toppled over on her face." After killing Judd, Gerald dug a large pit, placed the two girls' naked bodies inside of it, and covered it with a rock.^[47] The teenagers were listed as runaways for four years until Charlene confessed to their murders during the 1982 trial.^[13] Their remains were not found until twenty years later (November 1999) by a tractor operator, at which point their remains were identified.^[48]

April–June 1980

Karen Chipman-Twiggs (left) and Stacey Redican

On the morning of April 24, 1980, Gerald awoke Charlene and demanded, "I want a girl! Get up!" After some time spent driving around, he came upon two teenage girls exiting the Sunrise Mall: Stacy Ann Redican and Karen Chipman-Twiggs, both 17-year-olds.^[49] On the pretext of smoking some marijuana, Charlene approached the two females and invited them to travel with her in the van. She led the girls back to the van after they enthusiastically concurred. Gerald met the girls with a .357 Magnum pistol as they entered the back of the van. He quickly commanded Charlene to drive and ordered the girls to undress. Gerald took turns raping and sexually assaulting them.

After he finished, he again had Charlene drive to a secluded area and led the girls one at a time into the woods carrying a hammer and a shovel. However, this time he forced Charlene to view the graves. She claimed that she saw movement, but Gerald insisted that both girls were dead. Three months later, picnickers discovered the coyote-ravaged remains of Karen and Stacy in two shallow graves in an area twenty miles outside of Lovelock, Nevada. They had both been raped and suffered massive and fatal head injuries by a blunt instrument.^[14]

On June 6, the Gallegos were prowling through Southern Oregon when they offered a ride to a 21-year-old hitchhiker named Linda Teresa Aguilar in northern Gold Beach.^[50] Aguilar, who was four months pregnant, had accepted the Gallegos' offer and was traveling with them in their van until Gerald brandished a .357 caliber revolver while Charlene was driving. The couple eventually stopped just off of Route 101 where Gerald told Charlene to get out and "walk around for a while" while he tied Aguilar's wrists and ankles with a nylon cord, raped her, and then bludgeoned her unconscious.^[51]

After obtaining a spare hubcap from his vehicle, he used it as a shovel to dig a shallow grave on Myers Creek Beach, where he placed her body and attempted to conceal it by kicking sand and placing a large driftwood log over her.^[14] Relatives reported her missing on June 20 and German tourists found her body two days later. An examination revealed that she may have been buried alive since sand had been found in her mouth, throat, and nose.^[52]

July–November 1980

Virginia Mochel

Shortly after killing Aguilar, the couple returned to California, where on July 17 they abducted 31-year-old cocktail waitress Virginia Maxine Mochel from the parking lot of her workplace, the Boat Inn bar, in West Sacramento.^[53] Gerald and Charlene were acquainted with Mochel and had frequently been served drinks by her. Virginia was sexually assaulted by Gerald, who then forced her to beg for her life. After killing her by strangulation, he discarded her body by a pond.^[54] Mochel's skeletal remains, still bound with nylon fishing line, were found three months later by two fishermen outside of Clarksburg. Loops of cord from the victim's neck were admitted as proof of death by strangulation.^[55]

On November 1, the Gallegos abducted 22-year-old Craig Raymond Miller and his fiancée, 21-year-old Mary Elizabeth Sowers, from the Arden Fair Shopping Center parking lot.^[56] Gerald approached them while brandishing a .25 caliber Beretta, and ordered the two to enter the Gallegos' vehicle. After taking them to a remote location near Folsom State Prison, Gerald ordered Miller out of the car.^[36] As Miller turned to approach the front of the car, Gerald pointed his pistol and shot him in the back of the head, which was followed by two more shots as he lay lifeless on the ground; his body would later be found near Bass Lake, California.

Gerald reentered the vehicle and ordered Charlene to drive to their apartment. There, Gerald took Sowers, whose hands were bound by her hair ribbon, into the bedroom and raped her for hours as Charlene waited in the living room.^[31] After reemerging, Gerald ordered Charlene to drive him and Sowers to a rural area near Roseville. There, he forced Sowers out of the car, walked her into the woods and fatally shot her three times at point blank range.^[13]

Fugitives from justice

A friend of Miller and Sowers who had witnessed their abduction memorized the car's license plate number and alerted authorities. Police used this information to track down the vehicle, which was registered to Charlene, to her parents' home in Sacramento. On November 2, police visited the home and questioned Charlene, who claimed to have no knowledge of the missing couple, and police did not arrest her. That same day, the body of Miller was discovered at Bass Lake.^[57] A witness to the abduction identified Gerald in a photo line-up.^[58]

The Dodge Ram Van the Gallegos drove during a majority of their abductions

By the time police went to arrest the Gallegos, they had fled to Reno and ditched their vehicle at the Circus Circus Reno parking lot.^[59] Shortly after, the couple emerged as suspects in the murder of Mochel due to their past acquaintance with her.^[60] Detectives soon realized that they had unknowingly interviewed the Gallegos during the initial investigation into her disappearance, while Gerald was using the alias "Stephen Robert Feil", and both offered an alibi claiming to have been fishing around the time she disappeared, and at the time investigators had not pursued them.^[61]

Detectives tracked down an Orangevale couple, who had recently purchased the Gallegos' van, and took it into possession; at first nothing was found, but the couple notified detectives that when they had first purchased the van, they had discovered blood splatter on a sheet and the foam-rubber mattress, and such items they had kept in their garage. When turned over to authorities, forensic analyses on the items would determine it was human blood.^[61]

Police subsequently issued a search of Gerald's residence and uncovered a box of .25 caliber Winchester Western shells, with nine shells missing.^[62] The FBI assisted in the hunt for the couple and were able to track Charlene's whereabouts down to Salt Lake City, Utah, where money addressed to her was collected at a Western Union Office by a woman matching her description.^[63]

Arrest

Authorities suspected that Charlene's parents were the ones aiding her and Gerald, and the FBI began surveillance on them. During the weekend of November 15–16, the parents were surveyed driving from Sacramento to Sparks, Nevada, where they entered a Western Union office and transferred $500 via wiring to Omaha, Nebraska.^[64] With the knowledge that the Gallegos were expecting a wire transfer to Omaha's Western Union Office, authorities alerted FBI's Omaha field office.^[17]

On November 17, FBI agents detained Charlene as she entered the office, and Gerald, who was waiting outside in his car, was detained as well.^[65] During his arrest, Gerald refused to cooperate with the arresting agents and verbally insulted them. He complained at a court hearing that the agents had "visciously pulled me off the streets" and tightened his handcuffs to the extent he was losing blood circulation.^[66] At the hearing, United States magistrate judge Richard Peck imposed a $100,000 bond for the couple,^[17] despite urges from Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Thalken for bond to be set at $500,000 each, arguing that the brutality of the charges weighed against them.

The couple waived extradition and were returned to Sacramento three days later.^[67] Both denied any involvement in the murders and continued to persist that their alibi at the time of Mochel's death was genuine.^[68]

Pretrial process

Gerald and Charlene were formally arraigned for two counts of first-degree murder on November 21. During the arraignment, Gerald, growing increasingly tired of spectators and reporters watching him, stood and shouted, "We're not animals! What happened to a fair trial?", which was followed by Charlene yelling, "Why are you doing this to us?". Charlene pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and murder while Gerald refused to enter a plea, and a not guilty plea was entered by the judge on his behalf.^[69] Gerald was held without bail and Charlene's lawyers attempted to get a $25,000 bail for her, which was denied by Judge Edward Garcia.^[70] Gerald maintained innocence in interviews with the media, but in private, notably during a conversation with Charlene's mother, he told of being on LSD when he and Charlene were killing Miller and Sowers.^[71] Forensic analyses on a pair of Charlene's thick-soled brown shoes revealed minute traces of human blood.^[72]

Charlene, who at this point was nine-months pregnant, was housed at the Sacramento County Jail. She requested to be moved to a correctional center in Elk Grove to obtain medicine for her up-coming birth.^[73] On January 17, 1981, she began experiencing labor pains and was rushed to the UC Davis Medical Center. Soon enough, when it became clear that the baby's slow heartrate could become a problem, doctors were forced to perform a caesarean section and Charlene successfully delivered the baby.^[74]

Gerald was appointed public defender Donald L. Manning as his lawyer.^[75] In March 1981, Gerald asked the court to dismiss Manning because he wanted to represent himself, and a hearing on the matter was issued for April 6.^[76] During proceedings, Gerald and four other men awaiting trial at the Sacramento County Jail were linked to an alleged plot to overpower a rooftop prison officer as part of an escape attempt.^[77] The plot was thwarted because the men were initially expecting one officer guarding the roof but were met with five.^[78] Gerald's request was denied and Manning stayed on his defense.^[79] Manning sought a change of venue several times, arguing that the extensive publicity near Sacramento could affect jury selection, but his attempts were denied.^[80]

Confession

Although Charlene initially denied involvement,^[81] in mid-1982 she consulted her lawyers, Hamilton Hintz Jr. and Fern Laethem, about additional crimes her and Gerald committed. Over the next several weeks, she affirmed her role in the murders of Miller, Sowers, and Mochel, and additionally confessed to the seven other homicides. Upon hearing the news, Lovelock District Attorney Richard Wagner filed murder charges against Gerald for the murders of Redican and Chapman-Twiggs, while Charlene enjoyed immunity from prosecution.^[82] Her attorneys were eventually able to convince prosecutors in several states and counties to allow her to testify against him for a plea deal that reduced her prison sentence, and a judge in Nevada proposed a plea bargain where Charlene would testify and receive a sentence of sixteen years and eight months imprisonment.^[10] Around this time, Charlene dropped Gallego from her name and reembraced her surname of Williams, after being informed that her marriage to Gerald was never actually valid.^[83]

In September 1982, Superior Court Judge John Boskovich accepted a venue change motion by Manning and Gerald's trial was moved to Contra Costa County.^[84] The following month, during a closed hearing, Gerald fired Manning, and Judge Norman Spellberg allowed him to act as his own attorney.^[85] In his first action, Gerald sought to restrict Charlene from testifying against him at trial, contending that the judge who had originally granted her plea bargain lacked authority because a new one had been assigned to the case, and that her proposed sentence of sixteen years and eight months was too short for a death penalty case. Ultimately, a three-member judge panel ruled unanimously to deny his request.^[86]

California murder trial

The trial began on December 12, 1982, at the Contra Costa County Superior Court Building in Martinez, before Superior Court Judge Norman Spellberg.^[87][88] Sacramento Chief Deputy District Attorney James Morris, acting as prosecutor, sought the death penalty for Gerald.^[89]

During opening statements, Morris outlined the murders of Craig Miller and Mary Sowers and Gerald's sexual fantasies of abducting and raping young women. Morris called up Jeff Benner, an acquaintance of Miller and Sowers who had witnessed their abduction, who identified Gerald as the perpetrator. In his rebuttal, Gerald repeatedly asked Benner if he was positive about the identification because of an earlier incident at a preliminary hearing where he accidentally identified a separate attorney as the kidnapper.^[90]

A centerpiece of the prosecution's evidence was the ballistics evidence tying Gerald's firearm to the bullets recovered at the crime scenes.^[91] At his workplace, the Bob-Les club in Sacramento, Gerald was known to have fired his gun into the ceiling to wake up sleeping patrons. On January 4, criminologist Alfred Biasotti testified on behalf of the prosecution that bullet shells recovered from the club's attic were matched to the bullets pulled from Miller's head. That same day, Torrey Johnson of the California Department of Justice testified that he analyzed the bullet shells and determined that distinctive markings proved they were fired from the same weapon.^[91] In his rebuttal, Gerald would claim that Johnson was referring to Charlene's .25 caliber pistol which was never located, although Johnson would clarify that a .25 caliber pistol was not used in the murders of Miller and Sowers, but said it may have been used in the murders of Vaught and Scheffler.^[92]

Gerald acknowledged he abducted both victims but claimed he only killed them out of self-defense, claiming that Miller had attacked and tried to disarm him and he was forced to kill him, and claimed Charlene had killed Sowers to "cover-up the crime".^[93] While attempting to persuade the jury that he was too intoxicated at the time of the crime to be fairly judged, he called up psychiatrist Delbert Wilcox, who argued that Gerald's excessive drinking could have caused amnesia and hence why he could not remember exact details of the murders. Wilcox cited his conversations with Gerald, and when asked if he believes him, Wilcox responded "substantially".^[94] In his rebuttal, Morris called up another psychiatrist, Lee Coleman of UC Berkeley, who dismissed Wilcox's claim and remarked that psychiatry "simply does not have the tools necessary to make such a judgement".^[95]

Charlene's testimony

Charlene was slated to testify on behalf of the prosecution in January 1983. A month prior, her lawyers visited the courtroom before the trial adjourned for the holiday break where they spoke of being unhappy with their client's current security measures. The cited Gerald's ability to roam free in the courtroom and his access to pens and water pitchers — which could potentially be used as weapons — when recommending extra security protection for Charlene.^[62]

On January 10, Charlene took the stand. She testified that during their marriage Gerald had expected her "to be the lure for a young and beautiful woman" to fulfill his sexual fantasies.^[96] While she readily admitted to being an active accomplice during the kidnappings, she denied having participated in the actual murders, and even claimed to be under the influence of alcohol during a majority of them.^[97] When it was Gerald's turn to question Charlene, he promptly asked her, "Mrs. Gallego, did you kill Craig Miller?", which he followed with "did you kill Mary Beth Sowers?". She responded no to each of the questions. He also asked her what she thought about his sexual fantasies; "I thought you were crazy", she said.^[98]

Charlene testifying at the California trial in 1983

On January 17, Charlene returned to the stand, and Gerald promptly asked her why she had lied to investigators and engaged in a cover-up, to which she responded, "Jerry, you know very well that you shot and killed those two kids". Gerald replied, "Isn't it a fact you entered this cover-up willingly because you are in fact murderess?". As Charlene was replying loudly that Gerald was a liar, Judge Spellberg interrupted the exchange and threatened to hold both in contempt of court if they were to continue.^[99] Supposedly, at one point during the trial, Gerald hid in one of the building's bathrooms in an attempt to avoid further questioning.^[100] After six days of questioning, he had no more questions for Charlene, who left the courtroom sobbing.^[101]

Charlene would take the stand again during the trial's penalty phase, where she recounted the murder of Linda Aguilar in Oregon, how Gerald raped her in their van before burying her alive, and how he "had no tears in his eyes" after the fact. She also testified that, shortly after killing Virginia Mochel, Gerald bragged that "it was easy – just like the other one".^[102] Under cross examination, however, Charlene acknowledged that she could have called for help during the time both victims were alive but claimed she was afraid of Gerald's "emotional control".^[51]

Conviction

During closing arguments, Gerald reasserted that he and Charlene did abduct the couple and only killed them in self-defense once they tried to attack them.^[103] The jury began deliberations on April 6,^[104] and during that time he sat in his cell reading John Norman's Gor book series, which depicts an alternate world populated by slaves and women.^[103] After five days, the jury convicted Gerald on two counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping, with the jury finding that his convictions had met the special circumstances allowing him to be eligible for the death penalty.^[105] At the start of the penalty phase, Gerald requested an attorney and hired Richard Fathy to represent him, who attempted to portray his client as having a child-like mindset to the jury.

On May 12, Morris called up Gerald's 19-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, who testified that he had sexually assaulted her from ages 6 or 7 up until she was 14 and was additionally forced to perform oral sex on him.^[106] In his final statement to the jury, Morris urged them to sentence Gerald to death, and said, "The man ought to have the opportunity, the sooner the better, to meet Gerald Albert Gallego. Then God can deal with his soul, whether or not he can swap stories with the man that he respects so much".^[107] On May 24, the jury took less than two hours to recommend a death sentence,^[108] which Judge Spellberg formally imposed on June 21.^[109] At the sentencing, Spellberg referred to Gerald's prior criminal offences when citing him as representing "the failure of our system".^[110]

Nevada murder trial

On September 20, California Governor George Deukmejian signed an executive agreement ordering Gerald's "prompt" extradition to Nevada.^[111] There, he was to stand trial in Pershing County for the murders of Redican and Chapman-Twiggs. He chose not to act as his own attorney and agreed to the appointment of public defender Thomas Perkins as his attorney.^[112][113] The trial commenced on May 23, 1984, before Superior Court Judge Llewellyn Young.^[114]

Lovelock District Attorney Richard Wagner served as prosecutor.^[115] For his first witness, Wagner called up Mildred Vaught, the mother of victim Kippi Vaught, who testified that she had become enraged with Gerald to the point that she made a plan to kill him, but did not follow through.^[116] Charlene took the stand on May 24, where she testified that the victims, who were aged 16 and 17, were "too old" to satisfy Gerald's sexual fantasies.^[117]

The jury found Gerald guilty on June 10^[118] and recommended a death sentence on June 12.^[119] The sentence was formally imposed by Judge Young on June 25. As the sentence was announced, Gerald reportedly stood and shouted, "You sentenced me to death with no damn evidence at all!".^[120] During his imprisonment, Gerald accused Wagner of selling his life story to enrich himself and asked that the Nevada Attorney General and the State Bar of Nevada investigate him.^[121]

Death row

Ely State Prison, where Gerald remained on death row until his cancer diagnoses in 2002

Gerald was initially on death row at Nevada State Prison. In October 1984, he was moved to the prison's high-security section after informants linked him to an escape plot.^[122] In 1985, he sought to appeal his death sentence to the Nevada Supreme Court and in December they ruled unanimously to uphold his sentence.^[123] He was scheduled to be executed on February 6, 1987, by lethal injection; three weeks prior, however, the U.S. District Court of Nevada issued an indefinite stay following an appeal to the federal court.^[124] The following year, he was injured after a fight with a fellow inmate, during which he bit off a chunk of the inmate's ear.^[125] In 1989 or 1990, he was transferred to death row at Ely State Prison.^[c]

In 1993, Gerald filed a 17-page appeal seeking to overturn his convictions in Nevada, citing issues such as jury prejudice and errors on the judge's behalf. Despite the Nevada Attorney General urging the court to deny the request,^[128] District Court Judge Howard D. McKibben issued a hearing on the matter in October 1995 and ordered an investigation into Charlene at the request of Gerald.^[129][130] McKibben ultimately rejected the appeal after four months of hearing arguments.^[131] Gerald further sought to appeal on the grounds that the trial had been unfair due to the extensive publicity tampering jury selection.^[132]

1999 hearing

In September 1997, Gerald's death sentence in Nevada was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after it was discovered that jurors had been incorrectly informed that he could have been eligible for parole if not sentenced to death.^[133] Clark County District Judge John McGroarty ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation to determine if he was competent enough to move forward to a new penalty hearing; psychologist Dr. Myla Young would determine at an April 1999 evaluation that Gerald was delusional, psychotic, and possibly schizophrenic, a similar result that she had originally reported during a 1994 evaluation.^[134] Nevertheless, McGroarty ruled that Gerald was competent enough to participate in the hearing but rejected his proposal that he represent himself.^[135]

The new penalty hearing began on September 20, 1999. As Gerald's original conviction still stood, his defense opted for a life sentence, arguing that he was no longer a danger to himself or others, while the prosecution outlined the murders in detail to the jury.^[136] On September 21, the prosecution called up Donald Redican, the father of victim Stacey Redican, who stated that his daughter had suffered before her death, that she had never lived long enough to accomplish anything, and that his other three daughters viewed Gerald as a real-life monster.^[137] The defense, who called up no witnesses, tried to paint Gerald as having come from a rough home riddled with abuse. Reportedly, he showed dissatisfaction with his lawyers as he wanted them to call up numerous witnesses, including Charlene.^[138]

Gerald chose not to take the stand in his own defense after learning he would be prohibited from denying his guilt or rebuting certain facts, so when the defense rested its case, he opted to make a statement to the jury. In his statement, he admitted his guilt and apologized to the victims' families.^[139] On September 23, the jury deliberated for one hour before finding that Gerald again be sentenced to death, and Judge McGroarty formally imposed the death sentence on November 16.^[4] The Nevada Supreme Court subsequently denied two further appeals by Gerald in 2001.^[140]

Victims

Summary

Name	Age	Date of murder	Date of discovery	Location of murder
Kippi Jacquelyn Vaught[141]	16	September 11, 1978	September 13, 1978	Sacramento County, California
Rhonda Lee Scheffler[141]	17	September 11, 1978	September 13, 1978	Sacramento County, California
Brenda Lynne Judd[141]	14	June 24, 1979	November 20, 1999	Washoe County, Nevada
Sandra Kaye Colley[141]	13	June 24, 1979	November 20, 1999	Washoe County, Nevada
Stacy Ann Redican[141]	17	April 24, 1980	July 28, 1980	Pershing County, Nevada
Karen Lynn Chipman-Twiggs[141]	17	April 24, 1980	July 28, 1980	Pershing County, Nevada
Linda Teresa Aguilar[141]	22	June 6, 1980	June 22, 1980	Curry County, Oregon
Virginia Maxine Mochel[141]	31	July 17, 1980	October 2, 1980	Yolo County, California
Craig Raymond Miller[141]	22	November 1, 1980	November 1, 1980	Sacramento County, California
Mary Elizabeth Sowers[141]	21	November 1, 1980	November 22, 1980	Sacramento County, California

Potential for more victims

During her imprisonment, Charlene told The Sacramento Bee that she strongly believed Gerald had committed more murders than the ten she had been present for. She recalled various instances where Gerald would randomly disappear for hours with no explanation, and recalled an incident while the couple lived in Houston where Gerald berated her for snooping through his briefcase and uncovering numerous Polaroid pictures, the contents of which he could not explain.^[34]

Among the cold cases the couple has been investigated for was the disappearance of 16-year-old Sandra Kaye Butler, on June 26, 1978, in Sparks, Nevada. At Fourth and Greenbrae Streets, directly across from her family's apartment, she was last seen making her way to the Greenbrae Shopping Centre. She's not been seen or heard from since. Butler was seen as a probable runaway at the time of her disappearance, and police took minimal action to investigate and track her down.^[142][143] Authorities believe that Butler could have been a victim of the Gallegos. Sandra had been given permission by her mother to ride her bike to the Rodeo at the Washoe County Fairgrounds on the day she vanished. It is known that the Gallegos were present there at the fair on that day. Gerald and Charlene were never interviewed then by the police who were investigating Butler's disappearance. Neither ever confessed, or were convicted of Sandra's supposed murder. Butler's remains have never been located, and there is suspicion of foul play. One year after Sandra disappeared, on June 24, 1979, the Gallegos kidnapped Brenda Judd and Sandra Colley from the Washoe County fairgrounds in Reno — the same fairgrounds Sandra was biking to one year earlier.^[144][145]

Aftermath

Gerald's half-brother, David Raymond Hunt, was indicted in 1989 for the December 1980 murders of John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves in Davis, California. Hunt's wife Sue and an acquaintance named Richard Thompson were also charged.^[146] Prior to the arrests, according to Davis Police Seargeant Donald Brooks, investigators had long suspected the murders were committed by a copycat who sought to make the Gallegos look innocent.^[146] With Hunt's arrest, it was speculated that Gerald may have ordered the killings from prison in an attempt convince authorities that the murderer was still on the loose.^[146][147] However, Hunt and his alleged co-conspirators were cleared by DNA in 1993 and the charges were dismissed.^[148] Decades later, a man named Richard Joseph Hirschfield was convicted of murdering the couple and sentenced to death.^[149]

Charlene was imprisoned at Warm Springs Correctional Center (at the time Nevada Women’s Correctional Center) in Carson City.^[150] While in prison, she extensively studied psychology, business and Icelandic literature.^[151] By 1991, she had amassed enough good time credit to warrant early release,^[152] and she was due to be released later in the year, but news of this prompted California prosecutors to refile charges against her in relation to the murders of Miller and Sowers. In order to avoid facing trial, Charlene and her court-appointed lawyer asked that she remain in prison for another six years, which the courts agreed to.^[153]

Charlene was released on July 17, 1997, and assumed a new identity.^[27] She remarked to an interviewer after her release that "there were victims who died, and there were victims who lived. It's taken me a hell of a long time to realize that I'm one of the ones who lived."^[154] She appeared in a 1998 episode of the talk show Leeza on NBC where she claimed to have also been a victim, and that "it wasn't by choice" that she assisted Gerald in the crimes. The interview was conducted without a live studio audience but portions of it were played to an audience who were recorded booing, hissing, and laughing at Charlene's statements.^[155]

Gerald Gallego died at Renown Regional Medical Center on July 18, 2002.^[156] He was 56. He had been suffering from colorectal cancer since March of that year and refused to accept any treatments aimed at prolonging his life, instead opting to be sedated with painkillers.^[5] His death was among a series of inmate deaths mentioned during an investigation into the Ely State Prison management, whom had been accused of not providing adequate medical care to inmates suffering from poor health, though prison officials persisted that Gerald was an exception because he had been offered treatment but refused it.^[157]

In 2013, Charlene was discovered living in the Sacramento area. During an interview, she continued to distance herself from Gerald and bragged that she was the reason he was sentenced to death. She offered sympathy towards the victims and claimed she "tried to save some of their lives."^[2]

Media

Bibliography

• Davis, Carol Anne (2001). Women who kill: Profiles of female serial killers. London: Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0749005351.
• Flowers, R. Barri (1996). The Sex Slave Murders. New York: St. Martins Press. ISBN 978-1461191001.
• Biondi, Ray; Hecox, Walter (1988). All his father's sins : inside the Gerald Gallego sex-slave murders. Rocklin, CA: Prima Pub. & Communications. ISBN 978-0914629344.
• Van Hoffmann, Eric (1990). A venom in the blood. New York: Pinnacle Books. ISBN 978-0786006601.

Television

• The History Channel documentary series, Infamous Murders, analyzed the case in an episode in 2001.
• The documentary series Born to Kill? featured an episode focusing upon the Gallegos in 2014.

See also

• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of serial killers by number of victims

Notes

1. Some sources list her date of birth as October 10, but the California Birth Index and a 1956 issue of The Record confirm she was born on October 19.^[22][23]
2. Other sources report the date as September 10.^[28][29]
3. The Press Democrat reported his location as Nevada State Prison on September 11, 1989,^[126] and The Sacramento Bee reported it as Ely State Prison on August 5, 1990.^[127]

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149. Furillo, Andy (January 26, 2013). 'Sweethearts' killer draws death sentence. The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
150. Wilson, Wayne (July 16, 1997). Killer's ex-wife to be released from prison. The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
151. Vronsky, Peter (2007). Female serial killers: How and why women become monsters. New York: Berkley Books. pp. 288–290.
152. Phillis, Michael (April 26, 1991). Wife in sex-slave killings to go free. Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
153. Chereb, Sandra (August 31, 1991). Gallego's helper gets wish: more prison time. Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved August 17, 2025.
154. "Gallego's ex says she was victim". Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada: Ganette. 29 October 1997. p. 13. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
155. Timke, Steve (February 25, 1998). Little sympathy greets killer's ex-wife. Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
156. Taylor, Michael (20 July 2002). "'Sex-slave' killer dies of cancer in Nevada prison hospital". SF Gate. Hearst Communications, inc. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
157. Bellisle, Martha (May 14, 2006). Ely inmates dying before execution. Reno Gazette-Journal. p.2. Retrieved August 30, 2025.

External links

• Crime Library
• Frances Farmers Revenge - Gallego
• "Charlene Gallego: Demographic Info". serialkillers.briancombs.net. Retrieved 30 June 2015.