4. Did you shoot JEAN ELLROY to death? ANSWER: No.
There were no reactions indicative of deception shown to any of the above relevant questions. Question No. 4 is a control question—no such act occurring or alleged.
FREDERICK C. MARTIN, Polygraph Examiner
District Attorney’s Office
pc
Dictated 9-16-70
Bill said it looked like an incomplete test. Guenther said Miller was never a hard suspect. I said Shirley Miller got her facts wrong.
She worked at Airtek. Will Lenard didn’t. There were no tax statements from Airtek. My mother drove a Buick. The Swarthy Man didn’t. Miller’s paint job meant nothing.
Bill said he’d call Duane Rasure and the two El Monte cops. They might have more information. Guenther said we had to find the Blonde. We were stone fucked without her.
We flew back to Orange County. Bill called me the next morning.
He said he’d talked to Rasure and the El Monte cops. Rasure remembered the case. He said he talked to four or five Airtek employees. The people said Will Lenard Miller worked at Airtek for real. They couldn’t connect him to Jean Ellroy in any context. Rasure called the Miller deal a washout.
Marv Martin remembered the case. He said he discussed it with Ward Hallinen—back in that ’70 time frame. Ward came out to the El Monte Station. They talked about Will Lenard Miller. Hallinen did not know that Miller existed. Martin threw out one bomb. He said he thought Will Lenard Miller hung himself in his cell right after they questioned him. D. A. Ness said Marv had it all wrong. He said Miller had a heart attack and died in his cell.
The suicide rumor shocked me. Bill said he didn’t believe it. Somebody would have dropped a note in my mother’s file. He said he just called Louie Danoff at the Bureau. Louie said he’d call the Orange County Sheriff’s. Police agencies kept files on their in-custody deaths.
I called Will Lenard Miller an intergalactic long shot. Bill said I was being optimistic. He said we should go to the Bureau and run some witnesses.
I brought a list. Bill showed me three computer terminals.
One fed into the California State Department of Justice. It supplied personal statistics, aliases and CII numbers indicating criminal records. One fed into the California State DMV It supplied driving records, personal statistics, previous addresses and your subject’s current address. The “reverse book” computer stored statistics from eight western states. You fed in your subject’s name. You got an address and phone number back.
I met Louie Danoff and John Yarbrough. They were working the Unsolved Unit. Danoff said Will Lenard Miller did not kill himself in the Orange County Jail. He just talked to his Orange County contact. The man checked around and said no go. Bill asked Yarbrough to trace Lavonne Chambers. She was 29 in 1958. She was employed by a Nevada casino in 1962.
I checked my witness list.
Mr. and Mrs. George Krycki, Margie Trawick, Jim Boss Bennett, Michael Whittaker, Shirley Miller, Will Lenard Miller, Peter Tubiolo. Margie Trawick’s DOB was 6/14/22. Jim Boss Bennett’s DOB was 12/17/17. Michael Whittaker was 24 in 1958. I knew the age stats would narrow down our search.
Bill ran the Kryckis first. He got no hit on the DMV and State DOJ. He got a reverse book hit. George and Anna May Krycki lived in Kanab, Utah. The computer printed out their address and phone number.
Bill ran Jim Boss Bennett. He got a State DOJ hit. The printout stated that Jim Boss Bennett’s CII record was purged. Bill said Jim Boss Bennett was probably dead. The DOJ wiped dead people out of their main computer. He wanted to confirm Bennett’s death. He said he knew a guy who could check Social Security records.
We ran Peter Tubiolo. We got a DMV hit. Tubiolo was 72 now. He lived in Covina.
We ran Shirley Miller. We got a DMV hit. Her address matched an address in the Will Lenard Miller file. An asterisk and the word “deceased” were printed below it.
We ran Will Lenard Miller. We got a DOJ hit and a purge listing. Bill said the fucker was dead.
We ran Margie Trawick. We got three negative hits. I remembered that Margie was married and divorced or widowed. Her maiden name was Phillips. Bill ran Margie Phillips and our established DOB. He got no DMV and DOJ hits. The reverse book supplied a long printout. Margie Phillips was a common name.
We ran Michael Whittaker. We got a DMV hit and a DOJ hit for a Michael
I opened up my briefcase and checked the Ellroy Blue Book. Whittaker’s middle name was John.
Bill wrote down the CII number and gave it to a clerk. She said she’d order a copy of Whittaker’s rap sheet and his current address statistics.
John Yarbrough walked up. He handed Bill a memo slip. He said he called a guy on the Vegas PD. The guy called a guy on the Nevada Gaming Commission. They found Lavonne Chambers’ casino employment record. They called the Nevada State DMV and got the whole ball of wax.
Lavonne Chambers was now Lavonne Parga. She just renewed her driver’s license. She lived in Reno, Nevada.
22
Bill wanted to hit Lavonne Chambers clean. He didn’t want to call and request an interview. He wanted to hit her before she had time to think and formulate answers.
We flew to Reno. We got two rooms at a Best Western. The desk clerk gave us a map. We rented a car and drove to Lavonne Chambers’ last known address.
It was outside Reno proper. The area was semi-rural and semi-run-down. Everybody had a truck or a four- wheel-drive camper. The vehicles looked good. The houses looked bad.
