Читать книгу Dead And Buried: A True Story Of Serial Rape And Murder - Corey Mitchell - Страница 28

EIGHTEEN

Connie Krebs, now Howell, and Bob Jackson ended up almostnine hundred miles away from Sandpoint in Carson City, the capital city of Nevada. Connie hoped it would be the beginning of a better life for her and the children. A life free of verbal and physical abuse. One where her children could thrive and become wonderful people.

Connie believed that Bob Jackson was the man who could provide her such a life.

The dream was short-lived.

Bob Jackson turned out to be as bad a nightmare as Allan Krebs had been.

Just as they had for the first five years of Rex’s life, Connieand the kids frequently moved around. When they first arrived in Nevada, they stayed with a friend of Jackson’s for about a week. Jackson then got a job in construction and they packed up and moved to the small town of Gardnerville. The newly formed family moved into a tiny one-room apartment above the Ritchford Bar and Motel, a popular pool hall and tavern. Bob Jackson, Connie Howell, and four frightened children were living together in one cramped room, with three double beds, directly above the bar and pool hall. Connie and Bob made several trips down to the tavern. They did not go downstairs to play pool, however. They became frequent patronsat the well-worn bar, where they imbibed whenever they could. They usually dragged the kids down into the bar while they drank their problems away. Connie and Bob became such regulars in the ratty, run-down bar that they became friends with the owners. The kids became favorites of the other regulars who frequented the establishment.

Thanks to their friendship with the Ritchford Bar’s owners, Connie and Bob were able to move their family out of the tiny one-room quarters above the bar and into a larger space. A cabin opened up behind the bar and the owners gave Bob first dibs on it. The cabin had all of two bedrooms. Apparently, there was not much entertainment available in the area for kids. According to Lecia, she and Rex used to play in the irrigationditch located behind the cabin.

Bob began to prosper at his job and was able to upgrade his adopted family’s standard of living. They moved away from the cabin and into a four-plex apartment. They moved into an upstairs apartment on the upper left-hand side. Things seemed to be looking up, for they lived there for almost one full year. Quite a long time for this family.

Alas, the fun ended as another move was on the horizon. Bob and Connie took off yet again, this time to the Ranchos area in Gardnerville, where they actually bought a house.

Lecia described what it was like moving from house to house all the time and how it made her life difficult. “I always needed to know where we lived at directly so that if Mom or Bob were too drunk to get home,” she recalled, “I could alwaysmake sure that I got my brothers and sisters home.” Lecia did not know the addresses of her various homes, but she knew how to get home if it was ever necessary. Usually on foot, sometimes by car—with her driving.

The relationship between Connie Howell and Bob Jacksonactually started on a positive note. Connie was grateful that Bob had helped her escape the clutches of Allan Krebs. Bob, however, seemed to travel the same path as Allan with his inability to remain gainfully employed. To make mattersworse, he liked to imbibe the old booze. What compounded the situation was that Connie was also prone to join her new mate in drowning her sorrows. In fact, she often encouraged Bob to get drunk with her. The decreased inhibition brought on by the alcohol consumption led to arguments between the couple. Just like with Allan Krebs, Bob Jackson’s work frustrations began to pile up, so did the abusive behavior.

Lecia recalled that Bob, just like Allan, used to smack Connie around. “He would hit on her,” she continued, “throw her down, sit on her, just general abuse.”

Similar to the Krebs household, the abuse of Connie often took place within earshot of her children, including Rex. “Most of the time I would make sure that Rex and my little sisters were with me,” Lecia recounted. “We’d go in my bedroomor something and just close the door and pray that we would be safe and that he wouldn’t hurt Mom.”

Eventually Bob Jackson’s cruelty went from Connie to her children. It started with the verbal abuse of Rex. Apparently,Jackson felt that Rex resembled Allan Krebs a little too much for his comfort, so he decided to take it out on the five-year-old boy. According to Lecia, Jackson was always picking on her little brother. He also enjoyed calling Rex “the little bastard” to his face.

Eventually the abuse of the children escalated from verbal to physical.

Jackson had taken over the disciplinarian chores in the household whenever the kids screwed up. If they so much as looked sideways at him, Bob would put them over his knee and spank their bottoms. Lecia recalled, “It didn’t matter what you did, you got a spanking for it.” Lecia also spoke of Bob Jackson’s controlling ways when she stated, “He was generallyabusive. He didn’t usually hit me or anything, but I got grounded a lot. He was a real controlling person.”

Bob Jackson seemingly began to lose control after Conniehad a car wreck. She ended up in the hospital for six weeks. While she was bedridden, Jackson would visit her at the hospital during the day. He would spend his nights somewhereelse altogether. Lecia claimed Jackson began to make late-night visits into her bedroom and they were not to consoleher during her mother’s absence.

“He did sexually molest me. And he was just a real control freak,” Lecia frightfully recalled. “I remember the first time he came into my room. I don’t want to remember it.” Accordingto Lecia, Jackson’s visits to her bedroom continued long after Connie returned home. She does not remember for exactly how long. She was only nine years old at the time.

Connie’s accident became a financial burden for the family.They had to give up the Ranchos area home and move back into town into another small apartment. Once again Bob’s frustration rose as he began to feel worthless. As was his pattern, Bob took out his frustrations on the children. He seemed to have a special place on his knee warmed up just for Rex.

Rex had a penchant for defecating in his underpants. Insteadof cleaning the boy’s bottom and potty training him, Jackson would take the boy across his knee and swat him repeatedly.As he punished the boy, he yelled at him and called him worthless.

Bob Jackson’s corporeal punishment escalated. One time Rex soiled his underwear and Bob had decided enough was enough. Instead of spanking Rex, he was ready to teach the boy a serious lesson. He forced Rex to wear the dirty underwearon his head for one hour. He then forced Rex to sit on Marcia and Tracy’s potty-training toilet. The experience, to say the least, was humiliating.

It only got worse.

Another time Rex dirtied his underwear. Bob Jackson, believingthat Rex had done it on purpose, grabbed one of the toddler girl’s cloth diapers and pinned it on Rex. He then forced the little boy to go to school wearing the symbol of infancy.Rex was again humiliated.

Two years later, things had not changed much. Bob still worked for the construction company and Connie ran a daycarecenter out of their tiny apartment. Another thing that remained the same was that Connie and Bob continued to get drunk. It became an even greater problem for the kids as their parents’ alcoholic binges became part of their daily routine.

Jackson and his buddies from the construction crew would usually have several beers after a hard day on the job. Connie, who was in charge of baby-sitting several children, was at least conscientious enough not to drink until all of the childrenhad gone for the day. As soon as the parents picked up the last child, she would crack open a bottle. By the time Bob Jackson returned home, the couple was already soaring and neither was ready to return back to earth. To keep the buzz going, Bob and Connie would pack the kids into their car and spend the rest of the evening at the local bar getting hammered.Sometimes they brought the children into the bars and casinos, such as Sharkey’s Club in Minden or the Pony ExpressBar. Eventually a manager would come and tell them they had to take the kids outside because they had been there for such a long period of time. Most times, however, children could not come inside. Rex and his three sisters sat outside, in the dark, until their mom and stepfather stumbled out early the next morning.

Lecia testified that it was a form of prison: “We weren’t allowedto get out of the car if you had to go to the bathroom or anything like that. You weren’t allowed any toys with you.” Apparently, the wardens were not too keen on checking up on the prisoners either. “They would come out and check on us every so often, but usually not that regularly. So sometimes they’d bring out snacks for us.”

At the time these events occurred Lecia was ten, Rex was seven, Marcia was three, and Tracy was two. Lecia was responsiblefor her three younger siblings while Connie and Bob would party it up inside the bars. Sometimes this responsibilityentailed illegal activity on her part. If Bob and Connie were too intoxicated to drive, Lecia was determined to get everyone home alive. The precocious preteen received an early crash course in driving. Luckily, she did not actually crash on any of her ten-to-fifteen-mile sojourns behind the wheel.

More glycerin was mixed into the explosive environment when Connie and Bob started to take foster children into the household—as if four kids and six mouths to feed were not enough. Interestingly, all of the foster children were girls. Lecia does not recall if Bob Jackson ever molested any of the foster children or, for that matter, her own sisters.

“I always figured if he was bothering me, he was leaving them alone.”

She did recall, however, that Bob, like Allan, would not allow the children or Connie to interact with other people while they lived under their numerous roofs. They were not allowed to have friends over.

They did receive a visit one evening from a police officer. Lecia believed that one of the neighbors called the cops to informthem of the abuse and neglect going on. When the officer arrived, Connie and Bob were gone. Lecia answered the door.

“He wanted us to go with him and I knew they were just going to take us away. And there was no way I was going to do that.” Lecia feared the authorities would separate her from her brother and sisters.

“I still don’t know why he didn’t take them. I just pleaded with him not to. I don’t know why he didn’t, but he didn’t.”

In addition, no relatives or neighbors would stop by and visit. Rex, Lecia, and the other girls were on their own. One relative, however, did make a surprise visit.

Allan Krebs showed up in Nevada.