June 2017 - Forensic Files Now

Fraud, Murder, Bike Shorts: A Just Sweats Timeline

Just Sweats Chronology
(“Mistaken for Dead,” Forensic Files)

Last week’s post provided a cheat sheet for the principal characters in a murder-insurance fraud case perpetrated by a trio of friends.

The conspirators were grown men who really should have known better: Dr. Richard Boggs, Gene Hanson, and John Hawkins.

Dr. Boggs was a California neurologist with a Harvard degree and, at one time, a good reputation and lots of money.

Ohio residents Hawkins and Hanson staked their own glory on Just Sweats, a chain of stores they opened to sell workout clothes.

Hawkins and Hanson were also lovers, although some sources suggest that the boyishly handsome Hawkins preferred women and was just using Hanson.

Once Just Sweats faltered, they should have simply filed for bankruptcy and gotten jobs selling health club memberships or real estate.

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Instead, they hooked up with Dr. Boggs in California, took the life of an innocent fourth party, and ruined all their own lives.

A number of viewers who left reader comments on the YouTube webpage for “Mistaken for Dead” — the Forensic Files episode about the case — mentioned the plot of the murder-insurance fraud case was hard to follow. So a timeline seems in order.

1970
Dr. Richard Boggs, a respected neurologist, helps create Satellite Health Systems, one of the first HMOs in the United States.

1971 to 1976
Satellite Health Systems grows spectacularly but fails to make a profit. Dr. Boggs is millions of dollars in debt.

1977
Dr. Boggs declares bankruptcy. Friends say he is never the same afterward.

1978
Lola Boggs leaves Dr. Boggs after a marriage of more than 20 years and four children.

He moves out of the couple’s luxurious Tudor-style house in Glendale, California, and gets an apartment in West Hollywood. He begins partying with young men there.

1981
Lola Boggs takes her ex-husband to court over $33,000 in unpaid child support.

1981 to 1988
Dr. Boggs continues to spend lavishly, buying a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II. He incurs huge debts.

He is accused of performing unnecessary surgeries on patients. Medical organizations expel him.

At some point in the 1980s, he meets the two Just Sweats entrepreneurs from Ohio: sexy high school dropout John Hawkins and middle-aged former department-store shoe buyer Melvin Eugene “Gene” Hanson.

Hanson becomes Dr. Boggs’ patient.

1985
Hawkins and Hanson open their first Just Sweats store, in Columbus, Ohio. It carries a large inventory of colorful exercise clothing.

The store is a huge success.

1986
The duo open more Just Sweats for a total of 22 stores in Ohio and Kentucky. They offer such deals as Lycra bike shorts for $4.99.

Hawkins appears in TV commercials for the business and becomes “a household name across central Ohio,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.

But Hawkins and Hanson begin mismanaging the business. They start selling off the stores’ assets for cash.

At some point, the two men begin plotting a crime that will relieve them of the financial hellhole Just Sweats has become.

Hanson starts applying for life insurance. He ultimately obtains three policies totaling $1.5 million and names Hawkins sole beneficiary. The plan is to fake Hanson’s death and get their hands on the insurance money.

They invite Dr. Boggs in on their plan. His assignment: to procure a body to pass off as Hanson’s.

1988
Meanwhile, Hawkins and Hanson do a Herculean job of hiding the financial problems at Just Sweats. As a Columbus Dispatch story stated:

“Propelled by a series of seemingly ubiquitous TV commercials — all of which featured the wavy-haired, always-smiling entrepreneur — the chain’s annual sales were approaching $10 million. Would-be franchisees were lining up, and major players in the athletic-wear industry were looking to invest.”

1988
Realizing that any prospective Just Sweats investor would require to see an audit — which they cannot allow — Hawkins and Hanson begin looking for an illicit way out.

Gene Hanson starts telling people that he has AIDS and is dying. Neither claim is true: Hanson is setting up a story to make his upcoming “death” believable.

April 9, 1988
Dr. Boggs makes his first attempt at acquiring a dead body by killing someone.

The would-be victim, a computer professional named Barry Pomeroy, complains to the Glendale police that Dr. Boggs tried to murder him by prodding him with an electric device after meeting him at a bar called The Spike and inviting him to his office for an EKG.

The district attorney declines to press charges because of a lack of corroboration. At least one source says authorities dismissed the incident as a lovers’ spat.

Also, Dr. Boggs retains some remnants of his former success: A detective who hears of Pomeroy’s claim notes that Dr. Boggs has an excellent reputation in town.

April 15, 1988
Another try: Dr. Boggs — and possibly Hanson as well — chat up a stranger named Ellis Greene and somehow entice him to Dr. Boggs’ office. The doctor tasers Greene and murders him by suffocation, then puts Gene Hanson’s driver’s license, credit card, and birth certificate in the dead man’s wallet.

April 16, 1988
Dr. Boggs calls 911 and says a longtime patient named Gene Hanson (who was in reality alive and well and hiding) died from a heart attack in his office; he tried CPR, but it was no use.

Paramedics note that rigor mortis already set in. Dr. Boggs claims he tried to call 911 earlier but the line was busy.

Late April 1988
John Hawkins jets to California, identifies Greene’s body as Hanson’s, and puts in a claim for $1 million of the insurance money.

At some point, Hawkins has “Gene Hanson’s body” cremated to destroy evidence.

July 1988
Farmers New World Life Insurance sends Hawkins a check for $1 million.

A few days later, a case worker at the insurance company discovers Ellis Greene’s thumbprint taken at the morgue doesn’t match Gene Hanson’s thumbprint on record at the DMV.

Two other insurers deny claims filed by Hawkins.

Hawkins panics. He withdraws $400,000 from Just Sweats accounts and flees to Amsterdam. He buys a boat so he can travel freely.

Hanson also abandons Just Sweats stores, and flees separately.

1989
Security workers at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport notice a nervous-looking man with plastic surgery scars on his face.

Suspecting he’s a drug courier, they detain the man and find he’s carrying $14,000 in cash.

Although he gives his name as either Wolfgang von Snowden or George Soule (sources vary), he has Ellis Greene’s driver’s license. He’s also carrying a Dade County library book called How to Change Your Identity.

He is Gene Hanson. Police take him into custody.

Hanson claims he paid Dr. Boggs $50,000 to supply a corpse but had nothing to do with the murder of Ellis Greene.

John Hawkins is still at large.

October 10, 1989
The Los Angeles Times runs an in-depth article called “The Rise and Fall of Dr. Boggs.”

1990
Dr. Boggs claims that he didn’t kill Greene; he was already dead. He also said that he only took part in the insurance fraud scheme because Hanson threatened to out him as gay.

Regardless, Dr. Boggs is convicted of murder and insurance fraud and gets a life sentence.

April 29, 1990
With John Hawkins still missing, America’s Most Wanted airs a segment about the sweatpants gang’s crime and asks for help locating him.

Oprah Winfrey has America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh on her show to discuss the manhunt.

A former girlfriend of Hawkins in Amsterdam sees the Oprah episode and offers info about his whereabouts.

August 1991
Authorities find Hawkins off the coast of Sardinia in a red catamaran named Carpe Diem. He angrily denies that he’s John Hawkins. They seize him anyway.

August 8, 1995
Gene Hanson goes to trial. He maintains that he thought Dr. Boggs was going to use a cadaver, not murder someone.

Nonetheless, a jury convicts him of murder and insurance fraud.

August 10, 1995
It’s Hawkins’ turn to go to trial. Like Hanson, he claims that Dr. Boggs was supposed to use a cadaver; the state drops the murder charge against Hawkins.

But Hawkins is found guilty of insurance fraud.

August 21, 1995
Gene Hanson receives life in prison without the possibility of parole.

October 13, 1995
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Flynn gives John Hawkins 25 years to life — a lighter sentence than what his associates got.

2003
Dr. Boggs dies in Corcoran State Prison in California at age 69.

March 2012
Hawkins wins early release from Donovan State Prison in San Diego in part because he participated in Convicts Reaching Out to People, or CROP, a program to help teens stay out of trouble.

May 2014
A Columbus Dispatch story reveals Hawkins lives with his mother in a San Diego recreational vehicle park and continues to work with troubled young people.

In a Columbus TV station WBNS-10 interview, Hawkins says he was an arrogant youth. He admits to participating in the insurance fraud scheme but again insists no one was supposed to die.

Hawkins tears up on camera and says he’s glad to have a second chance.

2017
Hanson remains in prison at Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, California.

That’s all for this post. True Crime Truant will be on vacation next week and back the following Thursday with a post about John Hawkins’ dubious legacy today. Until then, cheers.

Update: Read Part 3.

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Just Sweats Gang Cheat Sheet

Smart Pants, Foolish Men
(“Mistaken for Dead,” Forensic Files)

The tale of how two sweatpants entrepreneurs and a friend used insurance fraud to bail themselves out of a financial hole was a five-star smorgasbord for any Forensic Files watcher.

The cast includes a brilliant doctor turned wicked, a two-timing male model, and a third accomplice who faked his own death and then (wait for it) got plastic surgery and hair transplants to change his identity.

“Mistaken for Dead,” the Forensic Files episode about the case, weaves a Hollywood-worthy tangled web, to be sure.

The story plays out as something of a glam precursor to the Molly and Clay Daniels debacle, except with better dental work.

Unfortunately, the sweatpants gang actually killed someone (Molly and Clay only robbed a grave).

A number of readers who commented on the “Mistaken for Dead” episode on YouTube mentioned having trouble keeping the plot and the characters straight.

So this week’s post will be a cheat sheet for the 1988 crime’s four principals:

Dr. Richard Boggs, age 55
Role: Killer and conspirator
Who: Respected neurologist with a Harvard degree, a Tudor-style mansion in Glenwood, California, and an ex-wife and kids.
Why: Boggs was secretly living in a financial house of cards. He needed money.
Participation in crime: Lured Ellis Greene to his office, then murdered him as part of an insurance fraud plan hatched with Gene Hanson and John Hawkins.

Gene Hanson, age 46
Role: Conspirator
Who: Entrepreneur who co-owned a chain of 22 Just Sweats stores in Kentucky and Ohio with his lover and business partner John Hawkins.
Why: Just Sweats expanded too fast and was a financial disaster. Hanson wanted to disappear to escape responsibility for the business. He needed money.
Participation in crime: Faked his own death so his cohorts could collect $1.5 million in insurance payouts to be divided among him, Boggs, Hawkins.

John Hawkins, age 25
Role: Conspirator
Who: Young David Hasselhoff lookalike who co-owned Just Sweats chain. Hawkins appeared in commercials for Just Sweats before the bottom dropped out of the business. He ultimately became the object of a three-year manhunt.
Why: Like Hanson, Hawkins wanted to escape the financial disaster engulfing the retail clothing chain. He needed money.
Participation in crime: Served as the bagman. He was the beneficiary of Hanson’s $1.5 million in life insurance policies. After Hanson faked his own death, Hawkins flew from Ohio to California, collected $1 million from one of the policies, and vamoosed.

Ellis Greene, 32
Role: Victim
Who: Friendly accountant who lived in North Hollywood, California.
Why: One or two of the conspirators probably spotted Greene at a bar and realized he looked something like Hanson. Then, Dr. Boggs invited Greene to his medical office, assaulted him with a stun gun, and suffocated him. Dr. Boggs called 911 and said Greene’s dead body belonged to Hanson. That way, the three conspirators could get their hands on Hanson’s life insurance money.
Participation in crime: None. He was murdered by someone he thought was a new friend.

That’s all for this week. The next post will provide a timeline of the crime. Until then, cheers. — RR

Update: See the Just Sweats crime timeline.

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Justice for Valiree Jackson

Her Dad Was No Father of the Year
(“Bagging a Killer,” Forensic Files)

This week, it’s back to Forensic Files with an episode about how police used a low-concept ploy and a high-tech device to expose a murderer.

Valiree Jackson and a wee pal in an undated photo

Investigators compelled Brad Jackson, who killed his 9-year-old daughter, to dance a two-step familiar to Forensic Files watchers:

1) “Officer, I have no idea what happened to (fill in name).”
2) “Your Honor, I know what happened and it’s not my fault because (fill in improbable excuse).”

Police tactics that force suspects to change their stories add some wry moments to otherwise grim tales like this one.

Taken? Jackson, 34, ended up sentenced to 56 years rather than life without parole. So, for this week, I dug around a little for an epilogue for him and some of the other parties on “Bagging a Killer,” the Forensic Files episode about the case.

But first a recap of the episode, along with additional information drawn from internet research:

On October 18, 1999, Brad Jackson dialed 911 and, in an anguished voice, said he couldn’t find his daughter.

She’d been playing outside with her dog and had disappeared, with only her backpack left behind, he said.

Troubled mom. Folks from the Jacksons’ friendly neighborhood in Spokane Valley, Washington, sprang into action by searching for the flame-haired little girl and holding vigils.

Not everyone was buying Brad Jackson’s heartsick single dad routine, though. Valiree’s uncle John Stone recalled how his sister, Roseann Pleasant, had feared Jackson.

Pleasant had vanished two years after giving birth to Valiree, her daughter with Jackson. She reportedly struggled with drug problems, which Jackson blamed for her disappearance. But Stone wasn’t so sure.

Car stash. Investigators also had some suspicions about Jackson in relation to his daughter’s disappearance. He claimed that some blood stains on Valiree’s pillow came from a nosebleed she’d had the night before he reported her missing. But police hadn’t found any bloody tissues, wash cloths, cotton balls, etc., in the house.

After searching Jackson’s car and Ford pickup truck, investigators secretly outfitted each vehicle with a GPS transmitter — hot new gadgetry back in the day. A 1999 New York Times story about the case described it as a high-tech version of a bloodhound.” (Prosecutor Jack Driscoll later said “GPS” stands for “God Praise Satellites.”)

Then, as Detective David Madsen explained during his interview on Forensic Files, he warned Jackson that if Valiree lay in a shallow grave somewhere, her body would be easy to find.

Jackson fell for it.

The GPS tracked his movements as he removed his daughter’s body from its original grave, then drove to another area to bury it more deeply.

Cadaver dogs found Valiree’s body buried face down on the grounds of the second of those locations, a logging region near the town of Springdale.

Shaky defense. Investigators believe Jackson suffocated Valiree in her bed, thus the blood on her pillow, then wrapped her head in a plastic bag — similar to ones found in the home that Jackson shared with his parents and Valiree — and hastily buried her. Afterward, he returned home, called 911, and started play-acting.

In the subsequent trial, Jackson’s “not my fault” contention was that he had found Valiree dead in her bed due to a Paxil overdose (more about that in a second), panicked out of fear that people wouldn’t believe him, and then buried her.

The jury didn’t buy it.

As for a motive, apparently Valiree didn’t get along with her father’s onetime girlfriend, Dannette Schroeder. Jackson allegedly felt that, with his daughter out of the way, he could rekindle things with Schroeder.

Few friends. I’m not sure how Forensic Files narrator Peter Thomas managed to read this part without throttling the living parties involved: Taking Valiree to a psychiatrist and getting her a prescription for the psychotropic drug was Schroeder’s idea. Schroeder thought it would help make the little girl easier to contend with.

Apparently, however, Schroeder had nothing to do with the murder plot. She testified for the prosecution at Jackson’s trial.

“He’s not the B.J. that I fell in love with two years ago,” Schroeder testified. “I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there.”

Some of Jackson’s own blood relatives spoke out against him in court.

“This is hard for me to say — I honestly believe Brad deserves what he took from Valiree, and that’s a life sentence,” said his brother, Dick Jackson, as reported by AP.

Memorial. Neighbors who fell victim to Jackson’s false alarm that an anonymous child abductor was loose in their community weren’t exactly unhappy to see him locked up either.

The Forensic Files episode closed with a view of the tree that kids from McDonald Elementary, where Valiree attended school, planted as a memorial to her. They chose a plum tree with red leaves that reminded friends of her hair.

So where are the parties today? There’s no recent information available online about Dannette Schroeder, but the Web did turn up some intelligence on others related to the case:

• Sadly, Roseann Pleasant never turned up. Her brother said he suspected Jackson killed her and buried her in a building foundation during his stint working for Haskins Steel Co. The Charley Project, an organization that profiles missing persons, maintains a page devoted to Pleasant. (Note: Some sources spell her first name “Roseanne.”)

• John Stone, Valiree’s uncle, was the most sympathetic character appearing on the Forensic Files episode. Many online commenters expressed anger that Brad Jackson didn’t simply give custody of Valiree to Stone if he wanted her out of the way. Stone launched the Valiree Jackson Charitable Foundation which, as of 2004, was mired in some legal woes.

• Lawyers for Jackson have taken issue with the legality of the police’s GPS use. On Sept 11, 2003, the state of Washington Supreme Court denied Jackson’s motion for a new trial and reaffirmed his conviction. In 2019, he lost another court action, which noted he’s incarcerated in Mayo Correctional Institution in Florida. (Thanks to reader TJ for writing in with the tip.) It’s a safe bet that this child killer will stay behind razor wire, where he can’t harm innocent people again.

That’s all for this post. Until next week, cheers. — RR

The Keepers: Some Prayers Answered

More on Netflix’s True Crime Bingefest
(Cathy Cesnik’s Murder)

The last post discussed the surprising nature of the new Netflix docuseries The Keepers.

For this week, I sailed through a second viewing of the entire seven-part series about the link between Sister Cathy Cesnik’s 1969 murder and sexual abuse at a girls parochial school in Baltimore.

The goal was to look for some joy in the disturbing series. And it does exist — in seeing the survivors finally get a chance to meet one another.

Justice denied. For the most part, the girls, now women in their 60s, had kept secret the ritualized sex crimes allegedly orchestrated by Archbishop Keough High School’s chaplain, Father Joseph Maskell. They never had an opportunity to empathize with one another in high school, when their ordeals began.

And they got no comfort from the criminal justice system. Maskell never paid for his offenses, nor did the other alleged perpetrators, including Father Neil Magnus, gynecologist Christian Richter, and at least two police officers.

Both of the priests and the doctor are long dead. No one has identified the police officers by name.

Another of the suspects, a local reprobate named Edgar Davidson, submitted to an interview for the cameras. Although unaffiliated with Maskell professionally, he somehow gained his acquaintanceship and may have committed at least one rape under his supervision.

But Davidson seemed far removed from his former self — the smirking young man with lush coiffed hair who cruised around middle schools and tried to entice girls into a stolen red sports car.

Archbishop Keough High, a site of the alleged abuse, changed names in 1988 and closed in 2017

So close. The now-elderly Davidson mentioned not driving anymore, presumably due to DUIs or poverty. His health looked so tenuous that one wonders whether he could survive a trial, if there is one, which seems doubtful.

And unfortunately, the statute of limitations for bringing a civil action against the church and school — for enabling and covering up the abuse — expired. A push to extend the limits via Bill 642, first introduced by Maryland House of Delegates Rep. C. T. Wilson in 2003, was unsuccessful initially.

The documentary showed abuse survivors Teresa Lancaster and Jean Wehner testifying before a sympathetic panel in the Maryland General Assembly.

Suppression trap. Lancaster explained why victims of sexual abuse sometimes take decades to tell authorities. “I was 40 years old when I came forward,” she said. “It took me that long to focus on my life and make something of myself.”

Proponents made a case for waiving the statute of limitations in part because memories of assaults can take decades to resurface, thus making them new allegations.

Wilson, himself a survivor of rapes committed by his adoptive father, testified as well about the need to extend the statute of limitations. “The problem with this is suppression,” he said. “You learn to live with the lie as a child, so you can certainly live with it as an adult.”

David Lorenz, another survivor of abuse (it’s not clear whether it’s related to the archdiocese) told the panel:

“Everyone has a secret. Stand up here and admit it to everybody, because that’s what you’re asking me to do. You’re asking people to take the deepest darkest secret they have and stand up in front of a jury and tell them.”

Survivor shaming. Kevin Murphy, a lawyer for the Maryland Catholic Conference, argued against the bill. He pointed to a “weakness of human memory” that could put accused “citizens” at risk.

He also asserted that allowing victims more time to come forward would give the sex criminals more time and opportunity to abuse additional victims.

Allison D’Allesandro, the Archdiocesan Director of Child and Youth Protection, offered up the same argument:

“The reality is that the perpetrator often remains in a position of close access to children until an allegation is reported to the civil authorities and the employer.”

For the sixth time, the bill died. State Senate President Mike Miller and Judiciary Chair Joe Vallario refused to let it come up for a vote.

Earlier victim. “I thought my colleagues would get behind me [after I testified]. I had no idea the battle I was in for,” Wilson said during a WBAL Radio interview. “When I realized it wasn’t even coming up for a vote, it was very painful…it was very humiliating.”

But The Keepers manages an ending that, while not exactly happy, offers some hope and yet another bit of joy.

First, the survivors learn of documentation of Maskell’s having abused a schoolboy named Charles Franz before the priest ever arrived at Archbishop Keough High School.

A 1967 complaint made by Franz’s mother to the archdiocese resulted in Maskell’s transfer from his job as associate pastor at Saint Clement Church to his post as a chaplain and guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High.

The episode all but proved that the church had covered up the abuse committed by Maskell — allegations that would have helped substantiate Jean Wehner and Teresa Lancaster’s stories.

It also invalidated the church representatives’ argument that reporting sex crimes early is certain to prevent new ones from taking place.

At the end of the series, the producers show Jean Wehner’s cathartic reaction when she learns that archdiocese officials allegedly tried to buy Charles Franz’s silence (he declined) after she and Lancaster initiated legal action in the 1990s over Maskell’s abuse.

There’s more. And a nice post-documentary epilogue: C.T. Wilson managed to resurrect Bill 642. Once it finally came up for a vote, the Maryland House and Senate gave it a unanimous yes.

While the new rules still aren’t inclusive to all survivors, they give those sexually abused as minors the right to pursue damages — from individual offenders as well as organizations that allowed abuses to continue — up until 20 years after they reach majority age.

The old law set the time span at seven years so, for example, a little girl abused when she was a minor would have only until age 25 to sue for damages. Now, the law gives her up until age 38.

(The maximum amount of damages recoverable from offending organizations appears to have remained the same, at $800,000.)

It’s official. The new law also enables victims to sue up until three years after a defendant is “convicted of a crime relating to alleged incident or incidents.”

On April 4, 2017, the day that Governor Larry Hogan signed Bill 642, he also approved six other pieces of legislation, including one outlawing fracking in the state. Sounds like an all-around good date in Maryland history.

That’s all for this post. Until next week, cheers. — RR

P.S. Thanks to Crime Traveller editor Fiona Guy for including True Crime Truant in her site’s 50 Best Crime Blogs and Websites feature.

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Month: June 2017

Fraud, Murder, Bike Shorts: A Just Sweats Timeline

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Just Sweats Gang Cheat Sheet

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Justice for Valiree Jackson

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The Keepers: Some Prayers Answered

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