Taylor and Landry were innocent, but it also quoted experienced
criminal investigators who were familiar with the common phenomenon of
false confessions in high-profile cases. Some even suggested it might
be a publicity stunt by a death-penalty opponent.
Although the paper did not reprint the letter itself, I was surprised
by the amount of detail revealed about the letter's contents. The
typewritten letter was mailed from Roseburg, a logging town a couple of
hours south of Portland. According to the report, the letter described
with dispassion the grizzly details of the final hours of Jamie
Zimmerman's life and her horrible death. Its anonymous author claimed
to have been playing pool at Tommy Z's when he saw Jamie Zimmerman
running her tongue across her parted lips, watching him while she did a
nasty dance in front of the jukebox. She made it clear what she wanted
when she graphically simulated fellatio on the last of many bottles of
Rolling Rock he bought her.
I looked up from the paper. 'Tommy Z's? Did that come up in the
investigation?'
Chuck nodded. 'Truck stop slash biker bar in southeast Portland. It
was reported during the trial, though, so anyone could know about it.
Margaret Landry said Taylor picked up Jamie there. We found witnesses
who placed Taylor at the bar around the time Jamie disappeared, and
Jamie was known to hang out there sometimes.'
I went back to the article. The author claimed that Jamie danced for a
couple of songs and then walked over to him and said she noticed him
because he looked dangerous. After some token small talk, he drove her
back to his apartment. In the privacy of the apartment, the dance she
began at
Tommy Z's evolved into a strip tease and a lap dance. After the two
began to engage in what the article paraphrased as 'consensual
intercourse,' what might have been merely a desperate exchange of
bodily fluids between two pathetic lives took a violent turn. According
to the author, a drunk Jamie started laughing during the act itself,
mocking her anonymous lover about the size of his manhood. The man hit
her repeatedly, telling her to shut up. The author wrote that he
initially wrapped his hands around Jamie Zimmerman's throat to silence
her taunts. But when her eyes started to bulge and she began tensing
her entire body in an effort to free her throat from his grasp, he
realized he wouldn't stop; that he had never felt such power and
gratification as through her suffering.
When I'd finished reading, I looked up at Chuck. He read my thoughts.
'You're going to tell me it could be worse, right?'
I nodded.
'I know this kind of stuff happens in death cases and it's something
I've got to deal with, but I'm telling you, Sam, I just don't have it
in me. At Landry's trial, the entire defense was based on an attack
against me as a cop and a person. That guilty verdict, and the verdict
against Taylor: I saw those as vindication. I haven't even been able
to deal with my feelings about Taylor's execution, because I can't
separate my feelings about the execution itself from the stress I was
feeling about the publicity that would go along with it. I knew that
somehow this would come back around to me.'
I stood up and took him in my arms. He held me tightly, and I could
feel his body begin to shake. 'Dammit, Sam, I didn't do anything
wrong.' I stroked his hair and ran my hand along his back, whispering
shushing sounds in his ear.
Then I led him back to bed to comfort him the only way I could think
to.
Chuck was scheduled to testify at the trial that morning, but we went
to the courthouse separately to make sure we weren't seen arriving
together. I hoped that concentrating on his testimony would take his
mind off the letter.
Chuck was a great witness. The description of the search of the car
could have been one of the moments when I lost the jurors, but Chuck's
personable style helped keep their attention. He explained that he had
not located any blood or other physical evidence of an assault in the
car, but that the car looked like it had new paint, carpet, and
upholstery. Transitioning into the work order from the auto detail
shop, I asked, 'Were you able to determine, Detective Forbes, whether
your initial impression was correct?'
'Yes, I was.'
'And how were able to verify that, Detective?' It felt good when we
made eye contact, but I looked away so as not to get distracted.
'During the search of the car, I located an invoice from the Collision
Clinic, an automobile detailing shop at Southeast Eighty-second and
Division.'
I showed him the invoice and he verified that it was the paper he had
found during the search. I said to Judge Lesh, 'Your honor, the
parties have stipulated that the contents of the invoice are in fact
accurate.'
Judge Lesh turned to the jury and delivered the standard instruction
for stipulations like these. 'Members of the jury, the parties have
agreed that it's unnecessary to call someone with firsthand knowledge
