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Former Hospital OrderlyCharged in Rape-SlayinginHOUSTON lt;AP}—A muscular former hospital orderly who said he got so mad sometimes “I’d slam my fists against a wall was charged Saturday with the Oct, 18 rape-murder of a high school beauty.Jerry Michael Ward, 21, offered no resistance when at least six police officers, acting on a tip from the landlady, took him into custody at his apart-ment before dawn. Officers said a pistol and a rifle were found in his room.Ward was charged with the rape-murdcr of Joyce Os ten, 18, whose nearly nude body was found In a pasture Oct. 19,Authorities said they believe Ward also is the man who abducted at least five other women from Houston area parking lots since March..Police said two of the women identified Ward as their captor. One was pistol whipped on a Galveston beach. Another was raped in her apartment. The other three were neither raped nor seriously harmed.Miss Osten, a blonde, blueeyed Westbury High School junior, vanished from a Houston shopping center parking lot after dropping her mother off for work about noon Oct. 18.Her father, George Osten, found his daughter’s abandoned ear In a nearby parking lot and notified authorities. Mounted sheriff’s officers found Ute body in a pasture the next day. She had been raped and shot four times in the back of the head.Police theorized the girl was taken on the death ride In her ear and the killer returned the ear to tiie nearby Jot,City Patrolman J. E. Tucker said Ward had called police headquarters Friday to report a theft from his car. Tucker said he talked to Ward and to the landlady of the apartment project where Ward lived.Tucker quoted the landlady as saying Ward gave her a pistol recently “for protection” against the rapisl-kiUer at large.A few days later, Tucker quoted her as saying, Ward picked up the first pistol and gave her another one.Tucker took the gun to thecrime laboratory where he said It was linked with the Osten killing.Ward was »aken before Justice of the Peace Dave Thompson who advised him of the charges.To most questions Ward would not comment, investigators reported, but they quoted Mm as saying he would loss on his bed at night and “wonder why I did the things I did,”Police quoted him as saying he bad been in the Navy and was recently discharged from a military prison. He said he worked about six months until August of this year as an orderly at a Houston hospital.He is the son of Kennard Ward, a Houston petroleum engineer, who is on overseas assignment in Australia. His stepmother lives in Houston.Investigators said he attended the Charlotte Hall Military Academy, Charlotte Hall, Md., in 1960-61.In addition to the Maryland school, Ward said he attended schools in San Antonio, Midland and Denver, Colo.JERRY M. WARD . . , Ute suspectv«S ;.v.JOYCE OSTEN . , * the victim
Newspaper Details
San Antonio Express and News
San Antonio, Texas, US
Sun, Oct 31, 1965
Page 51
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WA, USA 15 Mar 2020
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