Do you remember the Half-Moon Murders of 1998?
Largest unsolved mass murder in Washington State. Took years for it to be classified as a mass murder, because the deaths were spaced out. The connection wasn’t proven for years.
My dad was the detective who proved it.
The media had first called the case John the Ripper. It centered on the locksmith on John Street. My dad pointed out at that famous press conference that the deaths always happened on the half moon—or first quarter, as moon people say.
And victims looked like half moons. Chopped in half, like a guillotine fell from the sky in the center of their heads. There was a cleaved woman on the news in 1998, and it was a whole thing. I still see her in cross-section, her insides like a Brussels sprout’s. The TV station got sued, and the news stopped showing victims, but bodies kept appearing.
Well, halves of bodies. Pairs of halves.
The locksmith’s owner, John Sikes, was the main suspect. Only Sikes could control the surveillance cameras, right? It wasn’t until Sikes himself was found outside the store, split in half, that he was ruled out as a suspect.
On his deathbed, my father said, “It was me.”
His Seattle Police Department funeral, with honors, was imminent.
“What do you mean?”
“I am the half-moon murderer.”
“What?”
“Yes.”
He smiled—radiant, demented.
“You’re a… liar? A killer?”
“I’m an artist,” he smirked. “It was my art. I gave the city life.”
Can't believe you wrote this so quickly. Bravo! Intrigiing read.
WoW! Chilling! Well done! ♥️