OH: 1 husband, 3 dead wives...
Jojoz
Killings revive cases of two other slain wives
Friday, January 18, 2002
Tom Sheehan and Bruce Cadwallader
Dispatch Staff Reporters
DELAWARE, Ohio -- It could be a tragic coincidence.
Three women, married at different times to the same man, die violent deaths.
During the 1970s, Gerald "Bob'' Hand lost wives Donna and Lori to homicide.
On Tuesday night, his wife, Jill, was gunned down in their Genoa Township
home.
The first two deaths remain unsolved. But when Columbus police learned about
the third, detectives with the cold-case squad reopened the other cases
yesterday and began to share notes with Delaware County authorities.
Another man, Walter "Lonnie'' Welch -- who authorities say is an
acquaintance of Mr. Hand's -- also was fatally shot Tuesday night at the
Hands' home near Galena.
"Obviously, (Columbus police) are working their cold cases and we're working
ours,'' Delaware County Sheriff Al Myers said yesterday. "We hope to get
together (to look) for any similarities, if there are any similarities.''
Donna Hand, 27, was found dead on March 24, 1976, by her husband in the
basement of the couple's home at 191 S. Eureka Ave. on the West Side. Her
head had been covered with a plastic dry- cleaning bag, and a wire had been
wrapped around her neck.
Lori Hand, 21, was found slain in the same basement on Sept. 9, 1979.
Relatives found her strangled and shot in the head, a plastic bag over her
head and blue jeans tied around her neck.
No one was charged in either slaying. At the time, police said Mr. Hand was
not home and had alibis for his whereabouts.
"The cases remain open today,'' said Sgt. Earl Smith, Columbus police
spokesman.
Investigators from the Delaware County Sheriff's Office and Genoa Township
police said Jill Hand, 58, was shot Tuesday night in the living room of the
Hands' ranch-style house on Walnut Street.
Investigators in Delaware County are trying to piece together what happened.
In a frantic 911 call about 7:15 p.m., Mr. Hand, 52, told dispatchers an
unknown intruder had shot his wife and that he, in turn, had shot the man.
Detectives haven't talked to Mr. Hand since that night, when he told them he
wanted an attorney, Myers said.
Jill Hand was shot once in the head, Delaware County Coroner W. Daniel
Traetow said. Welch, 55, was shot at least four times. The lethal shot
struck his left lung.
Although Mr. Hand told authorities that he chased the intruder out of his
house and shot him from behind, Genoa Township Police Chief Robert Taylor
said yesterday that the first bullet that struck Welch was fired inside the
house.
He also said authorities think Welch was facing Mr. Hand when he was shot.
The other shots were fired as Welch ran out the door and into the front
yard. He collapsed on a neighbor's driveway more than 100 feet from the
Hands' house.
Barbara McKinney, who said she has lived with Welch for 18 years, said Mr.
Hand and Welch knew each other for 30 years, "inside out and upside down.''
She said Welch told her before he left Tuesday night that Mr. Hand had asked
him to come to his house "to take care of some business.''
Three revolvers -- a .32-caliber pistol found in the front yard and two
.38-caliber pistols found inside -- all had been fired, authorities said.
Slugs taken from the bodies have been turned over to the state Bureau of
Criminal Identification and Investigation.
"The hope is that with the current news, there might be someone out there
who knows about the prior murders who would come forward,'' Smith said.
Police also might review the 1976 death of Judith Blankenship. The
24-year-old ex-wife of Charles Hand, Gerald Hand's brother, died several
weeks after Donna Hand.
The coroner ruled her death a suicide by overdose of a combination of
aspirin and Darvon, a painkiller. The couple had divorced in 1974.
Gerald Hand operated an auto-repair shop, Hilltop Radiator, on Sullivant
Avenue until two years ago.
"I think the facts aren't coming out,'' Charles Hand said last night about
his older brother. "He was defending his home and family.''
Charles Hand said he is upset about what he called misinformation in media
accounts of the shooting incident.
He operates a radiator shop on Parsons Avenue where, he said, Welch was an
employee until he fired him.
"People are being misled about people's character, and it is totally
upsetting to the whole family. They are making victims out of criminals.''
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