Sensational Murders

[Babyface]

I don't know if others would consider it sensational, but I will never
forget it. A man grabbed a 12-yr-old girl who was walking home from the
grocery store, dragged her under the railroad tracks, tied her up and raped
and strangled her. I live in a small town, so this was very scary to
everyone around here. I mean, we may have one or two murders a year and
they're usually domestic situations. Also, this crime happened within *1/4
mile* of the police department ~in broad daylight~!

Babyface

Patty <x...@yyy.com> wrote in message news:37c7...@news1.jps.net...
> Have there been any sensational murders in your area that remain etched in
> your memory?
>
>
>
> It was one of Silicon Valley's most sensational cases. It happened
> Halloween 1984 when Doreen Rae Erbert, 31, was hacked to death with a
> machete by an attacker wearing a wolf mask as her four year old daughter
> cowered behind a couch.
>
> Initially the husband was arrested. He would sue the following year for
> false arrest, negligence, violation of civil rights, and negligent
> infliction of emotional distress. Eventually her ex-husband, William
> Michael Dennis, a Lockheed technician, would be arrested for the murder.
He
> denied any involvement in the gruesome murder. Several months following
> the murder, fellow inmates held their own mock trial for two famous Santa
> Clara County inmates, Dennis and David Allen Raley (another murderer I
may
> discuss later) and declared the two guilty. They were doused with a
bleach
> solution while in the jail shower. (I believe Raley suffered some minor
> burning in his eyes.)
>
> Four years later at the murder trial, Ebert's young daughter by her second
> marriage would testify that she remembered hearing a man say he was going
to
> kill her mother. ''My mommy said, 'Get out of my house,' and he said,
'I'm
> going to kill you.'"
>
> At trial, Dennis would finally admit that he did kill his former wife but
it
> wasn't planned. Dennis said he didn't know Ebert was eight months
pregnant
> and never touched the fetus after it fell to the floor from her gaping
> machete wounds. The prosecution theorized that the slaying was Dennis'
> revenge for the 1980 drowning of the former couple's three-year old son
> while in Ebert's custody. His public defender tired to convince the jury
> that his client was mentally disturbed and suffered from unbearable grief
> from the loss of his son.
>
> Four days after the jury went into deliberations Dennis was found guilty
of
> first-degree murder in the death of Doreen Rae Erbert, 31, and of second-
> degree murder in the death of her 8-month-old fetus, identified in the
> criminal complaint as "Baby Boy Erbert." A week later the same Superior
> Court jury, after only three hours of deliberations, recommended that
> William Michael Dennis be put to death. The "Halloween Killer" showed no
> emotion. He was the third Santa Clara County resident in an 18- month
> period to be condemned to death. A few weeks later, Superior Court Judge
> John Schatz, affirmed the jury's verdict. Dennis, in a rambling 30-minute
> speech, admitted he killed his ex-wife and that he was sorry but continued
> to blame many others for the grisly 1984 Halloween slayings.
>
> The California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in February 1998.
In
> a unanimous opinion written by Justice Ming Chin, the Supreme Court
rejected
> all of Dennis' appellate arguments challenging the murder convictions and
> the imposition of the death penalty.
>
>
>

[Patty]

[atigra...@gmail.com]

Hello Patty (assuming your still here); I'd like to know more about the "bleach in the eyes in the shower' scenerio you mentioned above. I'm asking, because I knew Mike (I only knew him as Mike, I didn't know his real name was William Michael Dennis until he committed the murders). Not only did I know him, but I testified against him at his trial. He worked with me at Lockheed. He was new to my dept, he was very shy, awkward and clearly uncomfortable in his own skin, so I and one other co-worker who felt sorry for him, had lunch with him for the 2 weeks he worked with us. And then he went and killed his ex-wife and her unborn child. I'd only known him for 2 weeks, yet the minute I heard about the murders, I knew not only that he'd done it, but I knew why he'd done it (this was back in 1984, we didn't have crimes as henious as his, that's all any one was talking about; on the news, the radio, that's all anyone talked about). I testified against him, but not exactly willingly, I don't know murderers, I was so far out of the relm of my experience I was terrified. But I did eventually tell the police what I did know and that resulted in me being subpoenaed & my testifying against him 4 yrs later at his murder trial. I thought I was done with it; that it was over, my part in this was over. I was wrong. 3 - 4 yrs ago, I started getting calls from a Private Investigator. He was working with Mike's newest defense team. They were working on Mike's final federal appeal and I was told if he loses this appeal, he would be put to death "soon". I was stunned. He comminitted these murders in 1984, was convicted in 1988 and to this day (May 16th, 2014) he's still sitting on death row waiting to be executed. Frankly, I was stunned that he hadn't already been put to death. This PI went on to tell me that his defense team had been going over every bit of evidence, statements, transscripts of his trial, everything related to his conviction and they had come up with some questions that at the time (in 1984 & again in 1988) neither the DA nor Mikes public defender had thought to ask me and they 'wanted my help'. He also told me not to worry, they weren't trying to overturn his conviction, they were just trying to get his death sentence communted to life with no possible chance of parole and I could really be useful to Mike in getting his death sentence commutted. He also told me that "Mike has done a lot of really great things during his time on death row in San Quentin; he'd helped teach other immates to read, helped a few get their GED's and he could continue doing good works if they don't put him to death. Mike doesn't derserve to die". I stalled the PI for the 3 weeks it took me to find an attorney who specialized in federal appellate captial murder death penalty cases (it's a very specialized area of law) could tell me what my rights were, if I could be compelled or subpeonaed to even speak with anyone regarding his appeal, because I needed this to be over. Once I found out they couldn't force me, I told the PI to lose my # and never contact me again. I've never had an opinion on the death penalty, either way. Ever, I still really don't. But I will never forgive that SOB for not just killing his ex-wife, but destroying the lives of his ex-wives daughter who witnessed the murders, her widow, who didn't get to tell his wife good bye because he was handcuffed and thrown in the back of a police car and she died on the way to the hospital in an ambulance. I don't blame the police, there was a lot of chaos the night of the murders, the husband had just come home from running out for milk or something, he'd walked in, found his wife and unborn fetus on the floor, his young daughter hiding behind a couch, & she was so traumatized that it's my understanding that she spent the 4 yrs between the murders and the trial in therapy because she stopped talking after seeing her mom get chopped to death. The police didn't know who Doreen's husband was, just that he was there and covered in blood and to be safe, they handcuffed him and threw him in the police car while they were trying to sort out who was who. But he still didn't get to even say good bye to his wife. Mikes actions traumatized me, my co-worker who also had been nice to Mike for the 2 weeks he'd worked with us & wo also ended up testifying against him at his trial, and so many countless others. His actions, affected a lot of people and there is no excuse for that. That was 29 yrs and 7 months ago and I'm still affected by it & I only knew him for 2 weeks. I can't even imagine how many others were just collateral damage like I was by his actions. But having said all that, I always wondered what happened to him once he was arrested and then sentenced. He showed ZERO remorse at his trial, he's never taken responsibility for her death or the death of her fetus, it's comforting to hear that those around him in Santa Clara County Jail and I'm assuming San Quentin Prison has/is making him pay for all those lives he affected. But I have no way of knowing how one would even find out what his life is like, what his life has been like since the night he destroyed so many people around him. How does one find that information out; without going directly to him; I am curious, but not enough to ever want contact with him EVER. Any insight would be appreciated. I can be reached at atig...@gmail.com.

[sfman...@gmail.com]

I was 18 years old at the time of Doreen Ebert murder I was also the last adult to see her alive my five-year-old sister was supposed to spend the night at doreen's house that night my brother got sick so my mom had me go down and pick up my little sister from Doreen or she would have been there that night. After the murder her current husband was so distraught that their daughter Deanna spent several weeks staying at our house including Christmas that year it was very sad and I felt bad for the little girl my little sister actually helped her through it emotionally being her best friend on a side note from what I remember about Doreen there was something really off about her and I believed that she was negligent in the drowning death of her son

[semc...@gmail.com]

Interestingly enough, I bought my first house in California from the Dennis' who were going through a divorce in February of 1978. I still have the papers both of them signed to close the purchase. I remember commenting to my roommate that I had never seen someone with sadder eyes than Doreen.

[ashle...@gmail.com]

On Friday, June 10, 2016 at 10:04:15 AM UTC-7, sfman...@gmail.com wrote:
> I was 18 years old at the time of Doreen Ebert murder I was also the last adult to see her alive my five-year-old sister was supposed to spend the night at doreen's house that night my brother got sick so my mom had me go down and pick up my little sister from Doreen or she would have been there that night. After the murder her current husband was so distraught that their daughter Deanna spent several weeks staying at our house including Christmas that year it was very sad and I felt bad for the little girl my little sister actually helped her through it emotionally being her best friend on a side note from what I remember about Doreen there was something really off about her and I believed that she was negligent in the drowning death of her son

Hi there, My name is Ashley Crary and we are doing a documentary about this case for the Discovery Channel. We are looking for people who knew Doreen who could talk about her and her life before these gruesome murders. We are already in touch with the family and the investigators. Please let me know at your earliest convenience if you might be interested. You can e-mail me at ashle...@gmail.com

[Hayley]

I am SO curious how much you bought it for then (and what it's worth today!) I'm from the Bay Area, but I was born in the early 90s, so I didn't (and will never now) have a chance to buy a house there. My parents bought theirs in the 80s for so much less than it's worth now----it's incredible how much Bay Area houses are worth now, ESPECIALLY San Jose! That's so crazy that you bought their former house and still have the papers they signed!

[Greg Carr]

The dud was very evil and there was a lot of premeditation. Hi is still on death row.

Bring the death penalty back to Canada.

William Michael Dennis — The Murderer in the Wolf Mask
On Halloween night, 1984, in San Jose, California, William Michael Dennis would don a wolf mask and turn up at the home of his ex-wife, armed with an 18-inch machete. What happened next is one of the most brutal crimes in Californian history.

Source
William and Doreen met in 1975, William worked as a technician at the Lockhead Factory, which happened to be next door to where Doreen worked as a Physical Therapist.

Doreen was described as being “generous and cheery” whereas Michael was described as being “depressive and confrontational.” Despite this, it seemed to be a classic case of opposites attract and, after only a few months of dating, they married.

On 17th April 1976, Doreen gave birth to their first and only child, a son, who they called Paul.

The marriage, however, was doomed and Doreen filed for divorce in 1977.

She gained full custody of Paul but Michael, who loved being a father, saw his son every weekend, despite the marriage not ending on good terms.

Moving On
Doreen was remarried to Charles Erbert in 1978, who she had met after he came to her aid when her car had broken down.

On 26th November 1979, they welcomed a daughter, who they named Deanna.

Doreen had moved on from the failed marriage but Dennis could not.

He had viewed Doreen as “the one” and remained depressed and angry over the divorce.

Paul
In February 1980, whilst playing in the garden, Paul managed to get through the fence that was installed around the family swimming pool.

Doreen, who was watching him from the kitchen window whilst doing housework, became frantic when she could no longer see him. She rushed outside to find him, floating in the pool.

He was taken to hospital and placed on life support. He remained on life support for a week before it was removed and he died three days later, less than a month before his 4th birthday.

Mike Dennis filed a wrongful death suit against Charles and Doreen, and in March 1982, the case was taken to trial. The judge ruled in favor of Charles and Doreen.

His son's death would be the straw that broke the camels back for Dennis, he was demoted at work and would make claims that Paul’s death was not an accident, but in fact, murder. A calculated move to erase him from their lives, and he despaired that Doreen had “gotten away with it.”

Ironically, his actions ensured that he was erased from their lives as “in the courtroom after the trial, Charles asked defendant not to come to their house anymore.”

Festering
Doreen, after suffering from two miscarriages, found out that she was pregnant again in 1984, they also went on to find out that she was pregnant with a boy.

It appeared that the family, marred by so much sadness, could finally begin to heal.

William however, was not healing, his resentment and his grief were festering into something despicable.

He never approached the family, but he did not live far away, “within six blocks of the Erberts, about a six-minute walk” to be precise and this proximity could not have been healthy.

Seeing the family move forward in their lives would have angered Dennis and fuelled his warped beliefs that Doreen “had not suffered enough for the drowning.”

Halloween Night
That night, Doreen was home with her then 4-year-old daughter. Charles had just gotten home from taking Deanna Trick or Treating and had headed back out, to a liquor store, a trip that had only taken, according to him, around 15 minutes.

At 9.00 p.m. there was an aggressive knock at the door, Doreen went to answer it and Deanna later testified in Court (aged 8) that she recalled a man saying “I’m going to kill you” and her mum demanding that the man “get out of the house” before telling Deanna to run and hide.

Charles recalls that Deanna had told him at the time, that had she heard her mum shout the name “Michael.”

Carnage
When Charles returned, he noticed the door was unlocked. This was a red flag for him as he had asked Doreen to lock up whilst he was gone, as it was getting late.

Immediately upon opening the door, Charles found his wife on the floor of the entrance hall and bleeding heavily.


Halloween Decoration in the Erberts home
He also saw the baby, on the floor of the living room and his initial thoughts were that Doreen had miscarried.

Then he saw his wife’s severed hand, and whilst attempting to stem the bleeding from her wrist he noticed the wounds to her neck and her torso.

Doreen, who was barely 5ft tall and due to give birth within days, was no match for her frenzied ex-husband.

“Among the many wounds she suffered were severe cuts to her abdomen, uterus, placenta, and the umbilical cord.”

The baby had been “expelled” from her belly due to the wounds on her abdomen and he had extensive knife wounds.

There are far more detailed accounts of the injuries inflicted upon Doreen and her son but I will not repeat them here.

Charles made his way to the telephone and for some reason, he could not get through to 911, so he called the fire department and a neighbor for help instead.

It was at this point Charles found Deanna, who following her mums instructions, was hiding behind the couch, she had stayed there until she knew the man was gone, but retreated back to her hiding space when she saw all the blood.

She thankfully had not seen the attack.

Charles took his daughter into the kitchen, away from the crime scene and continued to try and aid his dying wife.

Suspect
The emergency services would arrive to find Charles hysterical and covered in blood. Police arrived after the Fire Department and the paramedics and Dennis became their number one suspect.

When he tried to go with his wife despite the paramedics’ requests, the police arrested him after noticing he was bloody and had alcohol on his breath. They left him handcuffed in the patrol car for the next hour, enraged and kicking at the car’s windows.

Police would find the wolf mask discarded near the entrance of the property and a trail of blood out of the home and down the block before it came to an abrupt stop. This led investigators to believe the murderer had gotten into a vehicle at this point.

Doreen, miraculously, was still alive when Charles arrived home, she died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. She was 31-years-old.

An autopsy concluded that she had “died from multiple chopping wounds that resulted in exsanguination.”

Her son's lungs had never expanded. He never took his first breaths, he had never lived independently of his mother.

This is in direct contrast to Deanna telling her father that she had heard the baby crying during the attack.

The Ex-Husband
Police would learn all about the chequered past the Erberts had with Dennis when they questioned the neighbours and at 12.23 a.m. they headed to his home to question him.

Things were suspicious immediately upon arrival, as despite it being obvious that someone was home, the lights were on and police could hear someone moving around inside and the sound of running water, Dennis failed to answer the door.

It took a phone call from a police dispatcher to Dennis, alerting him to the fact police were outside and could he please open the door, before police finally got access to the property.

They observed a disheveled Dennis, who reacted unemotionally when told of his ex-wife’s murder.

“You’re kidding?” — William Michael Dennis to Sergeant Morin

He was dressed in a robe and had a bandage on what appeared to be a freshly wounded hand, a wound that was bleeding heavily and soaking the gauze. This was the result of messing around with a knife, Dennis told the officers.

He agreed to a search of the property as he claimed to have nothing to hide.

That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Police found a loaded gun behind the headboard of his bed, a pair of bloody jeans on the same bed, and drops of blood throughout the property, including on a set of keys, also found in the bedroom and in front of the washing machine in the garage. Blood was also found in the kitchen and on bandages in a bin in the bathroom.

He was arrested and the house was secured.

Police continued to search and found more blood outside of the home leading into his driveway and stopping at the garage. Blood was also found on multiple surfaces in his car including the ignition switch, the radio, the steering column, the rubber mat under the gas pedal, the seat and the seats backrest.

Dennis was released after 48 hours as they simply did not have enough evidence to hold him.

More Evidence
While conducting a second, more thorough search of his home, police found a receipt from a hardware store and a label for a machete with an 18-inch blade. In his garage, they also found two handmade coffins, one for Charles, another smaller one for Doreen, as well as body bags, weights and a map of the San Francisco Bay.

They would also go on to match the mask used in the attack to one that Dennis had owned and was pictured wearing on Halloween a year earlier. This picture was shown in Court.


The Mask
He was rearrested again on 5th November when crime lab results came back and confirmed a match for his blood and some of the blood found at the crime scene.

He initially denied killing Doreen.

Grief
“Defendant’s counsel argued the killings resulted from mental illness and were not premeditated or deliberated.”

Dennis did have a history of depression and had made, what was deemed a genuine suicide attempt when he was younger. He had hearing loss, he stuttered and he had an eating disorder.

He struggled with women and to finally meet Doreen, that seemed to have a huge impact on his life. Losing her, had an even bigger impact. Losing his son, was catastrophic.

Dennis had been concerned about the swimming pool for sometime, Doreen’s dog had drowned in the same pool and Dennis had demanded a fence be installed, he had even offered to front the cost, such was his concern.

He struggled to match the intensity of the grief he felt, to the behaviour of those around him. He claimed he was the only one who was sad at Paul’s funeral.

Defendant admitted to Dr. Benson that he killed Doreen and the fetus, but he insisted that he did not know Doreen was pregnant.

He said he had already began stabbing Doreen when he realised that she was pregnant and had he known beforehand, he would not have harmed her. He denied purposely attacking the baby.

This was argued against in Court.

Doreen was described as “visibly pregnant” by Don Isbell, who had taken his children to the Erberts home for trick or treating, not long before her murder. Her sister joked “she was as far out as she was high” and pictures taken of Doreen a week before her murder were shown in court, to really hammer the point home.


Doreen
Isbell also recalled seeing a man in a wolf mask, standing across the street and staring at the Erberts home. His son also remembered seeing this man.

As did another neighbour, Manuel Gonzalez, who testified he saw the man in wolf mask, staring at the Erberts home from across the street, he placed this sighting between 6.30 p.m. and 7.00 p.m.

The man in the wolf mask was also seen between 8.30 p.m. and 9.00 p.m. by a further two witnesses.

Death Row
On 16th August 1988, after a three week trial and two days of deliberations, Dennis was found guilty of first degree murder for Doreen and second degree murder for her son.

He was sentenced to death in the September and is currently on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison.

Dennis told reporters he is appealing his death sentence because he believes he should have been charged with manslaughter, not first-degree murder. He said he was blinded by grief over the drowning death of his 4-year-old son when he killed his ex-wife.

He has said “I want a new trial. If people knew what I’d been through, the verdict would have been different.”

Dennis has launched multiple appeals of his sentence. None of which have been successful.

https://medium.com/@crimewaffles/william-michael-dennis-the-murderer-in-the-wolf-mask-4ec6ebeb8f59

[Greg Carr]

Glad you and your coworker testified against the killer there was lots of premeditation. He deserves the death penalty. I am glad his fellow cons hate him and hurt him.

[Greg Carr]

On Friday, June 10, 2016 at 10:04:15 AM UTC-7, sfman...@gmail.com wrote:

> I was 18 years old at the time of Doreen Ebert murder I was also the last adult to see her alive my five-year-old sister was supposed to spend the night at doreen's house that night my brother got sick so my mom had me go down and pick up my little sister from Doreen or she would have been there that night. After the murder her current husband was so distraught that their daughter Deanna spent several weeks staying at our house including Christmas that year it was very sad and I felt bad for the little girl my little sister actually helped her through it emotionally being her best friend on a side note from what I remember about Doreen there was something really off about her and I believed that she was negligent in the drowning death of her son

I agree there was probably something off about Doreen since she married the weird killer but there is a big difference between being weird and building two coffins then using a machete to kill your preg ex.

[Deanna Scott]

hello this is Deanna i seen this and thought i would try to get ahold of Greg carr i guess you lived next to me and my family ?

[Greg Carr]

On Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 7:45:11 PM UTC-7, Deanna Scott wrote:
> hello this is Deanna i seen this and thought i would try to get ahold of Greg carr i guess you lived next to me and my family ?

No I have never lived in California. All I know about this case is what I read on the Internet.