Happy True Crime Thursday!
Another week, Another True Crime Story!
I heard about this one on a Podcast I listen to and I decided I wanted to look into it some more.
Today we are traveling to Folly Beach in South Carolina.
Disclaimer: Today's blog does contain information about crimes that include kidnapping, murder and sexual assault of teenage girls.
On May 23, 1973 Sherri Clark, 14 and Alexis Latimer, 13 were wrapping up a trip to Folly Beach, they had been staying at a house that belonged to Alexis' parents. Alexis' family started cleaning up and packing in preparation to head home that afternoon. The girls told Mrs. Latimer that they were going to go for a walk on the dunes before leaving. They never returned.
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| Sherri on the left, Alexis on the right |
Mrs. Latimer sent out Alexis' brothers to look for the girls, but no luck. Sherri's father joined in the search, but still no trace of them. By dark they immediately went to report the girls as missing, but the Chief said they shouldn't worry, they probably are just being typical teenage girls and ran off, probably with some boys. The girls' parents knew that wasn't the case, they weren't the kind of girls to do that. It would be more than 2 weeks before the police took any action and began an investigation into the girls disappearance. During the months following the families frustration with police grew due to their lack of urgency. They became desperate and frantic. They handed out flyers and placed ads in local papers asking for the public's help in getting answers. A few months after the girls went missing Mrs. Latimer reached out to famed Dutch psychic Gerald Croiset, he examined pictures of the girls and drew a fairly accurate map of Folly Beach, complete with bus stops, even though he had never been there. He told the parents that the girls were dead and they should search the north area of the island near the Coast Guard station. A air search was conducted, but nothing came up.
September 19, 1973 comes around and a 19 year old woman meets a man at a party, the 2 of them went back to her apartment. Without warning, he savagely assaulted her. He pushed her to the floor, she tried to fight back, but he quickly tied and bound her to the bed. As she struggled he undressed and sat there watching her freak out. She then turned into a bad ass and said "Well, if all you wants is a piece of p***** come on. I got thing to do and places to go." The man then lost his erection, picked up his clothes and left. I'll tell you a little later what happened next, I don't want to give away to much to soon.
February 14, 1974. A teenage girl was walking home from the grocery store, she was walking down a dirt road in a wooded area. She was approached by a man with a gun, he tied her to a tree, gagged her and then started touching her inappropriately. The man was scared off when a passerby saw what was happening and came running over. The girl described him as a white male, dark hair, and in his 20's or 30's.
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| Mary Earline Bunch |
April 12, 1974 A Police Officer was at Folly Beach for a complaint received on the North end. While walking the beach he heard a call for help coming from a nearby vacant vacation rental. As he got closer he realized the cries were coming from beneath the home. He discovered three 16 year old girls bound and gagged, one had been able to slip her gag and cry out for help. The girls told the officer that they had ditched school in Summerville (30 miles away) to come to the beach. They had been lying on the beach sunbathing when they were approached by a man with a gun. He told the girls that he had killed before and if they didn't do what he wanted that he would kill them to. He forced them underneath the rental home that contained an outdoor shower, it was then that he tied them up and gagged them. They were able to give police a detailed description of the man. He was Italian, in his late 20's early 30's, had a beard & mustache and dark hair. The next week a composite sketch was released to the public.
Four days after the incident involving the 3 girls occurred a gentlemen was walking his dog along Folly Beach in the same area, the dog suddenly began to frantically dig in one spot. So he walked over to see what he was going after, it was then that he noticed the area was bloody. He called the authorities and they came out to discover a shallow grave. In it were the remains of a female, her arms and legs still bound. Through dental records it was confirmed that the body was in fact the Chiefs daughter, Mary Earline Bunch.
Soon after the composite sketch was released the young woman attacked by the man she met at a party came forward. Here's the information I withheld earlier. She met this man at a party on a Naval Base, he was a Sailor. She had gone to the Naval authorities the next day after the attack to report what happened, but when she was told to go to local police she decided to drop it, she had been heavily intoxicated that night and thought it would go no where. When she saw the composite sketch she knew right then it was the same man that had attacked her.
Authorities were soon able to narrow it down to one suspect and that was 31 year old Petty Officer Richard Valenti. He lived in close proximity to where the crimes took place. They arrived at the home he shared with his wife and CHILDREN...he met them outside and put up no fight when they went to arrest him. He had shaved off his beard. He remained calm and showed no emotions. While police went throughout the home they found a bedspread that had been torn up and it matched the ligature marks of the girls he attacked perfectly.
Within an hour Valenti confessed to everything. He told police that when he abducted Mary he took her to the same house he took the three 16 yr. olds, hog tied her and choked her to death with rope then buried her body in the sand. He also told them that he took Sherri and Alexis there. He told the girls to take of their clothes, he tied them up with the torn up bedspread and made them pose in various positions. This next part was very difficult to read. He made them stand on chairs with a noose placed around their necks, the rope was tied to water pipes above their heads, he then kicked the chairs out from underneath them and pleasured himself while he watched them struggle and die.
He told police that he had fantasies of tying up young women since he was 6 years old. His wife even stated she knew her husband had an obsession with bondage and that he even attempted suicide on one occasion because of his desires. She had found several bondage pornographic magazines of her husbands, she even tried letting him tie her up. but it didn't work. He was found guilty and sentenced to 2 consecutive life sentences. He was eligible for parole after serving only 10 years, it was denied, but get this. He is eligible for parole every 2 years!!! Could you imagine being the families and going through that. Today he states that the terrible things that used to plague him don't anymore, because Jesus saved him. He is still married. Both of them are sick individuals in my opinion.
This one was a tough one, I can't image what these girls were thinking and feeling. They thought they had their whole lives ahead of them. They didn't get the chance to go to prom, to graduate and go to college, to have careers or to get married and have children of their own. It's extremely sad.
Until next week.
Martinis and Murder Podcast
https://markjonesbooks.com/2016/02/23/richard-valenti-super-christian-serial-killer/
https://www.live5news.com/2018/10/09/man-convicted-double-murder-denied-parole/
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/folly-beach-killer-richard-valenti-faces-th-parole-bid-in/article_7aa1e974-bc2a-11e8-9ec0-27619b5d7b60.html
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