Suspected Serial Killer - James Hicks
serial_ki...@hotmail.com
Associated Press
10/4/2000
PORTLAND, Maine - A suspected serial killer is ready to divulge how
three Maine women died and where their bodies are hidden if he can
leave Texas and serve his prison time in Maine, according to police
and prosecutors.
James Hicks confessed last week to the murders of Lynn Willette, 40,
and Jerilyn Towers, 34. He has pleaded guilty in Lubbock, Texas, to
aggravated robbery and faces 55 years in prison for entering a 67-
year-old woman's home, holding a gun to her head and making her write
a suicide note and drink a bottle of cough syrup.
Prosecutors have said that he would have killed her had she not
escaped while he was in another room.
Hicks would face murder charges in Maine and could be back in the
state as early as next week, authorities said. They hope to close the
cases to ease the grief of the victims' families.
''I would like to know everything, I guess, except how she died,''
said Jean Worthley, Towers' sister. Towers was last seen leaving a
Newport bar with Hicks 18 years ago.
Attorneys general for both states are working out details of an
executive order that would bring Hicks back to Maine.
Hicks already has served six years in Maine State Prison in Thomaston
for the murder of his wife, Jennifer Hicks, in 1977. She disappeared
that year from their trailer in Carmel, and her body never was found.
Towers disappeared in 1982. Hicks seemed defensive when questioned
about his first wife, causing police to reopen the case. He was
convicted of fourth-degree murder, now called manslaughter, for his
wife's death and served slightly more than half of a 10-year
sentence.
He is the only person ever found guilty of manslaughter in Maine in a
case where the victim's body was not found, according to Stephen
McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine State Police.
Hicks was not charged in the Towers case. Towers disappeared in 1982
after meeting Hicks at a bar.
Willette and Hicks lived together in Brewer and worked at the same
hotel. She disappeared in 1996.
Hicks told Maine authorities in the past that both of the women and
his former wife ran off with truck drivers, police have said. Hicks
ultimately moved to Texas with his new wife.
Maine State Police Detective Joseph Zamboni stayed in touch with
Hicks while Hicks was in jail in Texas awaiting trial on the robbery
charge. Last week, Zamboni went to Lubbock to make the deal with
Hicks. During a videotaped interview with Zamboni, Hicks confessed to
killing the three women and agreed to testify before a grand jury as
long as he could serve his sentence in Maine.
Susan Scolaro, a Texas prosecutor, said the videotaped interview gave
authorities some insight into Hicks.
''He came across as pretty cold and calculating and he shows
absolutely zero remorse,'' she said.
''A lot of times defendants will admit and give confessions because
they're remorseful, because they know they did something wrong and
want to get it off their chest. Not this guy. He's willing to do this
because there's something he wants,'' she said.
Denise Clark, Jennifer Hicks' sister, believes Hicks should stay
where he is.
''I think he should be in the place where he doesn't want to be,''
she said. ''He ought to feel a little bit of the pain everybody else
has felt.''
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Before you buy.
frank black
innocence when it comes to violent crime, a long time ago. Domestic violence
takes the lives of many women every year here.
serial_ki...@hotmail.com wrote in message
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