Hide Article Text (OCR)
r*she’s a damned good dancer. Watching her body consume and respond to a bone-chillingly beautiful number called 'One in a Million' was as entertaining and professionally tactful as any solo performance by the prestigious Lincoln ( ’enter Customer nonchalance was broken up by lienee's dance and the applause thundered ”.Johnson worked late into the night of Oct. 11 at Carmicheal’s. After she got off she went to The Scene Lounge. Like another victim in an unsolved murder Bonnie Ryther in 1978 -The Scene was the last place Johnson was seen alive.“She was last seen driving from The Scene alone in the early morning of the 12th, Columbus Day.” says Keeler. “Her automobile (a Ford Mustang) was seen in front of her trailer at 3:30 that morning, and as far as we can determine that automobile never moved fromthat spot “Oct. 12 came and went, and Johnson didn't show up for work No one saw her in the next six days, either. Some people claimed they hadseen her, “but we now know they were mistaken,” Keeler says Finally, on Oct. 18, someone grew concerned.A female friend of Johnson who also lived inVictoria Mobile Home Park went to Johnson's trailer at Lot 135 and knoc ked on the front door. No answer. She went to the manager.The manager sent his stepson to investigate.The boy said he found the front door to the rented trailer locked, so he tried the back door, which opened onto Johnson's bedroom. It was unlocked. When he opened it, one of Johnson'stwo cats padded inside. The second cat already was inside.The boy then made his gruesome discovery. The sheriff’s department was called at 6:22 p.m.; the first deputy was on the scene 33 minutes later.French says he and other lawmen felt certain they had a homicide on their hands as soon as they entered the trailer. Nothing was moved until the scene could be preserved on film.When 1st Judicial Circuit Deputy Medical Examiner Edmund Kielman arrived, lawmen slowly stripped the heap of clothing from the bed, taking pictures after each article was removed. When they got to the bottom, at about 8 p.m., they had uncovered Johnson's decomposed body.She was lying on her back, her head turned to the left. Her knees were drawn up and her legs spread-eagled. She was nude. The sheets underher chest and head were caked with blood.The body was removed and taken to the morgue for an autopsy.Kielman concluded Johnson had been stabbed five times, with four of the wounds piercing her heart. She also had received a small knife wound on her neck.He looked for evidence Johnson had tried todefend herself or ward off the knife. He found none.“If you see a knife coming at you, you tend to grab at the hand. Sometimes you'll miss andgrab the knife and cut your hand. There was none of that here,’’ he says. “Whoever did it did it before she could say anything. She was caught utterly off guard.’’He says the position of the body indicates Johnson may have been stabbed while engaged in sexual intercourse. At the same time, he says, the repeated stabbing is characteristic ofa homosexual murder.However, the body was too deteriorated to determine whether Johnson had had sex with anyone.Kielman concluded Johnson had died quickly, within minutes. Blood escaping from her heart had filled a sac around the wounded organ and suffocated its pumping motion.He told French to look for a knife about 5 inches long and half an inch wide. The knife would be sturdy, because it had sliced through the breastbone. Kielman could not determine ifJohnson's killer was left- or right-handed.For the record, Kielman placed the time of death at 10:55 p.m. Oct. 15, the death certificate says. For investigative purposes, he saidJohnson died 48-72 hours before her body was found He could be no more exact, because the pile of bedding and clothing over her body had hastened decomposition.Even before Kielman issued his findings, lawmen were concentrating on the trailer and Johnson’s neighbors.Johnson's two-bedroom trailer was ashambles. The living-room floor was littered with out-of-place items: a pile of coins, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, small cardboard boxes, a billfold, bottles of makeup, lipstick, a marijuana pipe and cigarette packs.Had the killer ransacked the place, looking for something that would tie him to the crime? A snapshot? An address book?A burglar would have been looking for valuables. Keeler and French say they know of nothing valuable missing from the trailer.The kitchen, according to Kielman, wasnauseating. Food had spoiled and roaches ran rampant. It was so bad, he recalls, that he tucked his pants legs into his socks.In the bedroom where the body was found,clothes apparently had been torn from their hangers and flung across the room. Again,hint of things to come, l he lav Johnson had been a private pers that one neighbor didn't even kno lived in the trailer.Others, of course, did know’ been living there, and they said J ly kept to herself They had hea noises — such as a scream - cortrailer.The lawmen turned to Johnson workers, bosses and former bosslt; information and suspects.Johnson knew many people, bu only a few. She had no steady b man claimed he was engaged to he wasn’t. For days, the man woraround his arm to mourn her deaa suspect.A girl with whom Johnson halt; Johnson had thought about gettinjnot to the man with the black arn tended, she said, was in the Air 1 soon to be transferred to Gerrr didn’t like the prospect of livingThrough their interviews, the put together a record of John: ment. Since moving to Fort Wa 1977, she had worked exelusivelburlesque houses, including the in Valparaiso.Through her job she got into tr law. In July 1981 she was arrcharges of engaging in lewd and I duct. She was acquitted. In Nove was arrested again on the same time she pleaded guilty and wasShe had one other brush with t the right side. On July 23, 1982, Deputy Gary Ixiafman someone suitcase containing four danc from her car while it was parkelt; Angus Restaurant on Eglin Park Fred Caliti i. owner of the Mata Johnson worked for him on twoknew her as a “kind-hearted’’ yet woman fully capable of taking c He said she had been on her own 14.While some lawmen pounded talking to Johnson’s acquaint homed in on clues that came ra days immediately after thediscovered.A boy living in Victoria Mobil found a fishing knife and told aui it. It wasn't the murder weapon; Another wrong knife, this one 1 bushes in Fort Walton Beach, wi in weeks later.In eight days’ time lawmenpeople who had boasted of killi: claimed they knew who did.The investigators fielded anonymous tipsters. All the lead: down.Industrytional competitiveness, which create more jobs,’’ he said.But Ernst noted that many b forced by the economic slump tand cut costs, so the productiv not necessarily foreshadow “a q nation’s 10.3 percent civilian rate.He said employers, looking f of a lasting recovery, will be ur workers immediately after the up steam.Jerry Jasinowski, chief econo tional Association of Manufc “The productivity improvemer the increased output now that reway and the fact that output rapidly than employment.“I would expect productivity during the recovery because ofachieved by many businesses di sion,” he said.National Weather Servu e 9 NOAA US Dept of CommerceNATIONAL WEATHER IjERvT...forecasts showe pected in the Grea and mild today.• • • • •• •j*HUMANE SOCIETY PET OF THE WEEK SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PETS®OOTS can tell you ashaggy dog story, butyou must provide the happy ending for him.This handsome black and silver ragmop is 18 months old and good with children.Courtesy of Sundance Agency, Inc. REALTORt-.V*TWINJ Wv don t sell low prilt; eel brrlc. SAVE IOff Sugge:SEALY • NAT| SalePriced FromSETS 98FULL XgSETS ’138 JiQUEEN 0*3SETS M77 ^KINGSETS *236HOME Of IHE 1
Newspaper Details
Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News
Fort Walton Beach, Florida, US
Thu, Apr 28, 1983
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Dawna P.
IA, USA 20 May 2020
Other Publications Near Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Playground Daily News
Fort Walton Beach Playground Sunday News
Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News
Northwest Florida Daily News Sunday
Northwest Florida Daily News
