Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Rapist Confesses
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
January 8, 1990
Section: LOCAL NEWS
Edition: The Atlanta Journal
Page: A/1
Police: Rape suspect admits series of assaults
SCRUGGS, KATHY
Kathy Scruggs Staff writer
STAFF
John Charles Whipple, a 29-year-old roofer who told police he stalked pretty women, has confessed to putting on a ski mask and attacking four women in a Norcross apartment complex, raping three of them, Gwinnett police Chief C. Wayne Bolden said Sunday. Mr. Whipple, who is from Chicago but since late summer has lived in the Shadow Creek Apartments, where the attacks occurred, also "made a series of admissions tantamount to confessions" in six similar attacks on women in three suburban Chicago apartment complexes in April and May, Will County (Ill.) State's Attorney Edward Burmilla said Sunday.
John Charles Whipple, a 29-year-old roofer who told police he stalked pretty women, has confessed to putting on a ski mask and attacking four women in a Norcross apartment complex, raping three of them, Gwinnett police Chief C. Wayne Bolden said Sunday.
``We have a detailed confession," Chief Bolden said at a news conference.
Mr. Whipple, who is from Chicago but since late summer has lived in the Shadow Creek Apartments, where the attacks occurred, also "made a series of admissions tantamount to confessions" in six similar attacks on women in three suburban Chicago apartment complexes in April and May, Will County (Ill.) State's Attorney Edward Burmilla said Sunday.
"We can tie him in to all six of the cases we have in Will County," he said. "We'll probably be charging him with all six of those cases next week."
Mr. Whipple faces 13 charges in Gwinnett and will have a preliminary hearing next week, officials said. He is being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail, and Gwinnett District Attorney Tom Lawler said Sunday he will oppose any effort to grant bond to Mr. Whipple.
"Because of the magnitude of the case here and in Illinois, I seriously doubt any judge in Gwinnett County will give him bond," Mr. Lawler said.
Each of the three rape counts in Gwinnett carries a possible life sentence, Mr. Lawler said.
The rapes at Shadow Creek occurred on Oct. 21, Oct. 28 and Dec. 26. A fourth attack, on Sept. 25, was stopped when neighbors heard the victim scream and knocked on her door, scaring the attacker away.
Police said the suspect got more aggressive as he continued his string of attacks. He threatened his third victim with a baseball bat he found inside her apartment, police said, and he threatened his fourth victim with a box-cutter [utility knife] that he was carrying. "That was the first time he'd ever taken a weapon with him," said Gwinnett police Capt. W.D. Bedingfield.
Mr. Whipple is charged with three counts of rape, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated sodomy and four counts of burglary. He is also charged with one count of cruelty to children in connection with the latest incident, in which the victim's 5-year-old son was locked in a bathroom while his mother was raped.
Residents at the embattled apartment complex have been jubilant since the Fri day night arrest.
"People were standing out in the rain just talking all day long Saturday," one resident said.
Mr. Whipple was convicted eight years ago in the Chicago area on a disorderly conduct charge that involved a peeping Tom incident, Chief Bolden said.
Police had theorized that the rapist lived at Shadow Creek, and they were in the process of interviewing the approximately 500 residents of the complex. Mr. Whipple became a suspect during a police interview.
The rapist wore a Chicago Bears T-shirt during the Dec. 26 attack, and when police asked Mr. Whipple if he owned such a T-shirt, his live-in girlfriend, Katherine Davis, left the room and returned with one, Chief Bolden said.
Mr. Whipple also matched the physical description given by victims and seemed nervous and wouldn't look police in the eye during his interview, Chief Bolden said.
"We also knew the suspect spoke with a Northern accent," he said, adding that Mr. Whipple told police he "watched [his victims] long enough to know what their daily routines were."
After their interview with Mr. Whipple, Gwinnett police checked for a criminal background, which revealed the Chicago arrest. They notified Illinois authorities and learned of the serial rapes outside Chicago that matched the Norcross attacks, Chief Bolden said.
Police are also looking into a possible California connection, where Mr. Whipple was arrested for burglary.
During a Friday night search of his apartment at 308 Shadow Creek Drive, police also found other articles of clothing believed to have been worn in some of the sexual assaults, including a ski mask, Chief Bolden said.
"The rest of the evidence and clothing was destroyed," he said.
A sample of Mr. Whipple's blood has been sent to an FBI lab for DNA analysis, but results aren't expected for four months, Mr. Lawler said. He said he will wait until then to seek formal indictments in the cases. The blood also will be tested for venereal disease and AIDS.
Ms. Davis, who has two young children by Mr. Whipple, cooperated with the investigation, police said. "I do not think that she knew [about the rapes]," Chief Bolden said.
Ms. Davis worked nights and Mr. Whipple worked days. A police source said a baby sitter for the 16-month and 3-year-old daughters told them he frequently went to strip bars.
The couple previously lived at a Crest Hill, Ill., apartment complex. A neighbor there said in a phone interview that the management told her they left because Mr. Whipple had found a better job out of state.
Mr. Whipple was arrested by Gwinnett police Officer Roy Mangrum, who lives in Shadow Creek with his wife Ruthie. Mrs. Mangrum said she saw Mr. Whipple at the October crime prevention meeting that was called because of the rapes.
"The whole complex is relieved," Mrs. Mangrum said. "We're going to reinforce the crime watch program. We're not going to drop that. But at least there are no more restless nights."
Girlfriend Was Protected
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
January 9, 1990
Section: LOCAL NEWS
Edition: The Atlanta Journal
Page: C/1
Girlfriend: Rape suspect gave knife for protection
SCRUGGS, KATHY BERRY, ROBERT
Kathy Scruggs and Robert Berry Staff writers
STAFF
During a serial rapist's reign of terror at Shadow Creek Apartments, John Charles Whipple gave his pregnant girlfriend a steak knife and told her to be careful. Whipple, the father of her two young daughters, has confessed to the string of four Shadow Creek attacks in Gwinnett County, and still more rapes in the Chicago area, police said.
During a serial rapist's reign of terror at Shadow Creek Apartments, John Charles Whipple gave his pregnant girlfriend a steak knife and told her to be careful.
"I kept dropping it out of my purse when I bent down, and I got poked on it a few times," said Katherine Davis, 28. "I carried it until the very last time."
Whipple, the father of her two young daughters, has confessed to the string of four Shadow Creek attacks in Gwinnett County, and still more rapes in the Chicago area, police said.
"I always told her you've got to watch out for yourself," said Whipple, who spoke with reporters in a telephone interview from the Gwinnett County Jail.
Whipple, 29, is charged with 13 felonies in Gwinnett - three counts of rape, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated sodomy, four counts of burglary and one count of cruelty to children. He also was charged Monday with 15 offenses in Will County, Ill., in connection with five rapes in Crest Hill, Bolingbrook and Joliet, said State's Attorney Edward Burmila.
Police in both jurisdictions said Whipple confessed to at least eight rapes and one attack. But he and Ms. Davis, his girlfriend of five years, declined to confirm Monday that he had confessed.
"Did you confess, honey?" she asked him on the phone in front of reporters. "He says he'd rather not say," she reported.
Ronnie K. Batchelor Sr., a Duluth lawyer, was appointed to defend Whipple, for whom a preliminary hearing is scheduled at 3 p.m. today.
"It's our intention at this point to plead not guilty and to have the preliminary hearing," Mr. Batchelor said. "As to the confessions, it's too early to make any real comment, nor do I know whether they were freely and voluntarily given."
Whipple said Monday his first concern was for his two young daughters.
"Afterwards, I told her I wanted her to take care of the kids," he said. "I love my kids, I love Kathy."
Whipple and Ms. Davis met five years ago while working for the Panduit Electrical Component Co. in Burr Ridge, Ill., she said. He worked there from April 1984 to August 1986. He was fired for a safety violation, according to a company spokesman, who declined to elaborate.
If convicted and sentenced to the maximum prison terms for the charges against him, Whipple could be sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars, according to prosecutors in both states.
Gwinnett Police Chief C. Wayne Bolden said Monday that Whipple led investigators to a black ski mask he had hidden in a field near his job at Single Ply International Inc., a Stone Mountain roofing company.
Chief Bolden also said police believe Whipple destroyed evidence, including a black Chicago Bears T-shirt allegedly worn during he most recent rape Dec. 26, but the fact that he had two other of the team's shirts attracted investigators' attention.
Whipple has previously been convicted of three driving under the influence charges and a disorderly conduct charge that involved a peeping Tom incident in the Chicago area and a burglary in 1980 or 1981 in San Diego, police said.
In an interview at her apartment Monday, Ms. Davis was asked whether she believed the accusations against her boyfriend.
"Would you?" she countered.
"Everybody will tell you John is the hardest worker in the world and the best family man he can be," Ms. Davis said. "He's had a lot of problems drinking in the past. . . . People that know John cannot believe that the person they're reading about in the media is the same person."
Whipple admitted Monday he has a drinking problem that frequently results in blackouts.
"I'm an alcoholic," he said. "I wasn't going to [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings, but that's what I should have been doing."
Ms. Davis, who is six months pregnant, began her maternity leave Monday from her job as a wire inspector at Hitachi Chemical Electro Products Inc. and was informed by Shadow Creek management she is behind on her $550-a-month rent.
She was packing to leave Monday, and most of the family's belongings were in boxes.
"We were going to pay rent on Friday when John got back, and then since this happened . . ." Ms. Davis said, adding that the family has no money saved. "We're working-class people. We work hard to pay our bills. I don't know yet where we're going." But she said she would stand by Whipple.
"When you love somebody . . . it's for the good and the bad, and this is probably the worst thing that could happen to somebody," she said.
color photo: Katherine Davis is moving out of the apartment she shares with rape suspect John Charles Whipple because they're behind on their rent. She says she will stand by Whipple. / Joey Ivansco / Staff
Lady Sues Complex
Two of three women who were the victims of a serial rapist at an apartment complex near Norcross in 1989 sued the owners of the apartments Friday, claiming they breached their duty to keep the premises safe.
The women, who lived in the Shadow Creek Apartments at 1200 Indian Trail Road, were attacked on Oct. 28, 1989, and Dec. 26, 1989. Both suits claim the women suffer "post-traumatic stress disorder; inability to function properly in her normal capacities; and inability to enjoy their usual lifestyle" due to the attacks.
The suits are against First Gibraltar Bank of Texas, the owners of the apartments, and the Jackson Management Group, which manages the complex. It has since been renamed the Huntington Chase Apartments.
In the suit filed on behalf of the woman raped the day after Christmas, the woman's young son, who was locked in a bathroom adjoining the bedroom during the attack, is also listed as a plaintiff. In the second suit, the victim's husband also is seeking damages. The suits, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, both seek more than $ 50,000 in damages.
The attacks, which terrified women in the Norcross area in fall 1989, began Sept. 25 with the robbery and assault of a woman at the complex. The next attack took place Oct. 21, followed by the plaintiffs' two attacks.
On April 4, 1990, John Charles Whipple pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences. He later pleaded guilty to five similar attacks in the Chicago area.
The Arrest
Gwinnett County Police Officer Roy Mangrum remembers standing in the rain for seven hours in December 1989, waiting for suspected serial rapist John Charles Whipple to return home so he could arrest him.
The two, officer and criminal, lived in the same apartment complex, Shadow Creek apartments off Indian Trail Road in Norcross, as did Whipple's four victims. For nearly four months, residents in the complex lived like a people in a city under siege as the number of victims mounted and police struggled to crack the case.
"He terrorized us bad," Officer Mangrum said. "At one point, the residents even thought I was a suspect."
Tonight, CBS-TV is airing "Complex of Fear," a made-for-TV movie about the rapes, focusing on Officer Mangrum and his then-wife, Ruthie. They have since divorced.
Just after the newlywed couple moved to Shadow Creek apartments, their new home became a "complex of fear" when three women were raped and another was assaulted. Residents took to carrying guns, knives and Mace and police, convinced the attacker lived in the apartments, set up road blocks and interviewed every male inhabitant.
J C Shardo, the film's producer, said she used the Mangrums as the central characters to make a point about how rape affects both men and women.
Officer Mangrum was ridiculed by his neighbors for not being able to catch a rapist operating under his nose, and Mrs. Mangrum, overcome by anxiety and a horrible memory from her past, finally told her husband that she too had been raped many years ago.
"She was real upset all the time because this guy was haunting us," Officer Mangrum said. "One night she told me she'd been raped while in college."
Rape is a personal issue for Ms. Shardo too: She narrowly escaped an attacker several years ago, and was traumatized by the incident for two years.
"It was a nightmare," she said. "I watched this story unfold in the newspaper and saw how afraid these people were. I wanted to create a story about the fear women live in when a serial rapist is out there and a story about the personal issue of rape."
Officer Mangrum got a sneak preview of the movie Thursday night, and said that for the most part, it is accurate.
"Watching that was the weirdest thing I've ever done in my life," he said. "It brought back some memories. There were some parts I had trouble watching."
Most difficult, he said, was the scene in which his wife confesses that she was raped.
"That hurt. It hurt when she told me and it hurt in the movie," he said.
The names of the people and places were changed for the movie.
But otherwise, the only fiction, Officer Mangrum said, is the end. Whipple's arrest did not happen the way it does in the movie.
Whipple, 29, was arrested in December, and pleaded guilty to three counts of rape. He is serving three life sentences.
Son of Victim Sues Complex
One of the victims of a Norcross serial rapist and her son will receive $ 1,275,000, under a settlement reached just before her lawsuit was to go to trial in Fulton County Superior Court.
The victim was the last of four women raped or assaulted by John Charles Whipple in the former Shadow Creek apartment complex at Indian Trail Road between September and December 1989.
In April 1990, Whipple pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences. He later pleaded guilty to five similar attacks in the Chicago area.
The Shadow Creek attacks were the subject of a recent CBS television movie, "Complex of Fear."
The three Shadow Creek rape victims each sued the owner of the complex for negligence. The first case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. In February, a Fulton county jury awarded the second rape victim and her husband $ 2.5 million, a sum attorneys said was unprecedentedly large in Georgia.
The size of the settlement reached last week in the third case was the result of the earlier jury award, attorneys said.
"They just decided to cut their losses," said Lynn Roberson, who represented First Gibraltar Bank of Dallas, the owner, and Jackson Management Group of Atlanta, the manager of the complex. "That's what happens when you get an outrageous jury result."
In the third case, the woman was assaulted as she was leaving her ground-floor apartment with her 5-year-old son early on the morning of Dec. 26. Whipple raped her at knifepoint after locking the boy in the bathroom.
She sued the owner and manager for failing to provide adequate security in the wake of the earlier attacks, all of which had occurred at the same time of day in ground-floor apartments in her part of the complex.
"Generally the premises owners and managers attempt to put a band- aid on the problem," said her lawyer, Gilbert H. Deitch. "They should spend more of their time concerned with the consumers and less of the time concerned with their bankrolls."
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
January 8, 1990
Section: LOCAL NEWS
Edition: The Atlanta Journal
Page: A/1
Police: Rape suspect admits series of assaults
SCRUGGS, KATHY
Kathy Scruggs Staff writer
STAFF
John Charles Whipple, a 29-year-old roofer who told police he stalked pretty women, has confessed to putting on a ski mask and attacking four women in a Norcross apartment complex, raping three of them, Gwinnett police Chief C. Wayne Bolden said Sunday. Mr. Whipple, who is from Chicago but since late summer has lived in the Shadow Creek Apartments, where the attacks occurred, also "made a series of admissions tantamount to confessions" in six similar attacks on women in three suburban Chicago apartment complexes in April and May, Will County (Ill.) State's Attorney Edward Burmilla said Sunday.
John Charles Whipple, a 29-year-old roofer who told police he stalked pretty women, has confessed to putting on a ski mask and attacking four women in a Norcross apartment complex, raping three of them, Gwinnett police Chief C. Wayne Bolden said Sunday.
``We have a detailed confession," Chief Bolden said at a news conference.
Mr. Whipple, who is from Chicago but since late summer has lived in the Shadow Creek Apartments, where the attacks occurred, also "made a series of admissions tantamount to confessions" in six similar attacks on women in three suburban Chicago apartment complexes in April and May, Will County (Ill.) State's Attorney Edward Burmilla said Sunday.
"We can tie him in to all six of the cases we have in Will County," he said. "We'll probably be charging him with all six of those cases next week."
Mr. Whipple faces 13 charges in Gwinnett and will have a preliminary hearing next week, officials said. He is being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail, and Gwinnett District Attorney Tom Lawler said Sunday he will oppose any effort to grant bond to Mr. Whipple.
"Because of the magnitude of the case here and in Illinois, I seriously doubt any judge in Gwinnett County will give him bond," Mr. Lawler said.
Each of the three rape counts in Gwinnett carries a possible life sentence, Mr. Lawler said.
The rapes at Shadow Creek occurred on Oct. 21, Oct. 28 and Dec. 26. A fourth attack, on Sept. 25, was stopped when neighbors heard the victim scream and knocked on her door, scaring the attacker away.
Police said the suspect got more aggressive as he continued his string of attacks. He threatened his third victim with a baseball bat he found inside her apartment, police said, and he threatened his fourth victim with a box-cutter [utility knife] that he was carrying. "That was the first time he'd ever taken a weapon with him," said Gwinnett police Capt. W.D. Bedingfield.
Mr. Whipple is charged with three counts of rape, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated sodomy and four counts of burglary. He is also charged with one count of cruelty to children in connection with the latest incident, in which the victim's 5-year-old son was locked in a bathroom while his mother was raped.
Residents at the embattled apartment complex have been jubilant since the Fri day night arrest.
"People were standing out in the rain just talking all day long Saturday," one resident said.
Mr. Whipple was convicted eight years ago in the Chicago area on a disorderly conduct charge that involved a peeping Tom incident, Chief Bolden said.
Police had theorized that the rapist lived at Shadow Creek, and they were in the process of interviewing the approximately 500 residents of the complex. Mr. Whipple became a suspect during a police interview.
The rapist wore a Chicago Bears T-shirt during the Dec. 26 attack, and when police asked Mr. Whipple if he owned such a T-shirt, his live-in girlfriend, Katherine Davis, left the room and returned with one, Chief Bolden said.
Mr. Whipple also matched the physical description given by victims and seemed nervous and wouldn't look police in the eye during his interview, Chief Bolden said.
"We also knew the suspect spoke with a Northern accent," he said, adding that Mr. Whipple told police he "watched [his victims] long enough to know what their daily routines were."
After their interview with Mr. Whipple, Gwinnett police checked for a criminal background, which revealed the Chicago arrest. They notified Illinois authorities and learned of the serial rapes outside Chicago that matched the Norcross attacks, Chief Bolden said.
Police are also looking into a possible California connection, where Mr. Whipple was arrested for burglary.
During a Friday night search of his apartment at 308 Shadow Creek Drive, police also found other articles of clothing believed to have been worn in some of the sexual assaults, including a ski mask, Chief Bolden said.
"The rest of the evidence and clothing was destroyed," he said.
A sample of Mr. Whipple's blood has been sent to an FBI lab for DNA analysis, but results aren't expected for four months, Mr. Lawler said. He said he will wait until then to seek formal indictments in the cases. The blood also will be tested for venereal disease and AIDS.
Ms. Davis, who has two young children by Mr. Whipple, cooperated with the investigation, police said. "I do not think that she knew [about the rapes]," Chief Bolden said.
Ms. Davis worked nights and Mr. Whipple worked days. A police source said a baby sitter for the 16-month and 3-year-old daughters told them he frequently went to strip bars.
The couple previously lived at a Crest Hill, Ill., apartment complex. A neighbor there said in a phone interview that the management told her they left because Mr. Whipple had found a better job out of state.
Mr. Whipple was arrested by Gwinnett police Officer Roy Mangrum, who lives in Shadow Creek with his wife Ruthie. Mrs. Mangrum said she saw Mr. Whipple at the October crime prevention meeting that was called because of the rapes.
"The whole complex is relieved," Mrs. Mangrum said. "We're going to reinforce the crime watch program. We're not going to drop that. But at least there are no more restless nights."
Girlfriend Was Protected
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
January 9, 1990
Section: LOCAL NEWS
Edition: The Atlanta Journal
Page: C/1
Girlfriend: Rape suspect gave knife for protection
SCRUGGS, KATHY BERRY, ROBERT
Kathy Scruggs and Robert Berry Staff writers
STAFF
During a serial rapist's reign of terror at Shadow Creek Apartments, John Charles Whipple gave his pregnant girlfriend a steak knife and told her to be careful. Whipple, the father of her two young daughters, has confessed to the string of four Shadow Creek attacks in Gwinnett County, and still more rapes in the Chicago area, police said.
During a serial rapist's reign of terror at Shadow Creek Apartments, John Charles Whipple gave his pregnant girlfriend a steak knife and told her to be careful.
"I kept dropping it out of my purse when I bent down, and I got poked on it a few times," said Katherine Davis, 28. "I carried it until the very last time."
Whipple, the father of her two young daughters, has confessed to the string of four Shadow Creek attacks in Gwinnett County, and still more rapes in the Chicago area, police said.
"I always told her you've got to watch out for yourself," said Whipple, who spoke with reporters in a telephone interview from the Gwinnett County Jail.
Whipple, 29, is charged with 13 felonies in Gwinnett - three counts of rape, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated sodomy, four counts of burglary and one count of cruelty to children. He also was charged Monday with 15 offenses in Will County, Ill., in connection with five rapes in Crest Hill, Bolingbrook and Joliet, said State's Attorney Edward Burmila.
Police in both jurisdictions said Whipple confessed to at least eight rapes and one attack. But he and Ms. Davis, his girlfriend of five years, declined to confirm Monday that he had confessed.
"Did you confess, honey?" she asked him on the phone in front of reporters. "He says he'd rather not say," she reported.
Ronnie K. Batchelor Sr., a Duluth lawyer, was appointed to defend Whipple, for whom a preliminary hearing is scheduled at 3 p.m. today.
"It's our intention at this point to plead not guilty and to have the preliminary hearing," Mr. Batchelor said. "As to the confessions, it's too early to make any real comment, nor do I know whether they were freely and voluntarily given."
Whipple said Monday his first concern was for his two young daughters.
"Afterwards, I told her I wanted her to take care of the kids," he said. "I love my kids, I love Kathy."
Whipple and Ms. Davis met five years ago while working for the Panduit Electrical Component Co. in Burr Ridge, Ill., she said. He worked there from April 1984 to August 1986. He was fired for a safety violation, according to a company spokesman, who declined to elaborate.
If convicted and sentenced to the maximum prison terms for the charges against him, Whipple could be sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars, according to prosecutors in both states.
Gwinnett Police Chief C. Wayne Bolden said Monday that Whipple led investigators to a black ski mask he had hidden in a field near his job at Single Ply International Inc., a Stone Mountain roofing company.
Chief Bolden also said police believe Whipple destroyed evidence, including a black Chicago Bears T-shirt allegedly worn during he most recent rape Dec. 26, but the fact that he had two other of the team's shirts attracted investigators' attention.
Whipple has previously been convicted of three driving under the influence charges and a disorderly conduct charge that involved a peeping Tom incident in the Chicago area and a burglary in 1980 or 1981 in San Diego, police said.
In an interview at her apartment Monday, Ms. Davis was asked whether she believed the accusations against her boyfriend.
"Would you?" she countered.
"Everybody will tell you John is the hardest worker in the world and the best family man he can be," Ms. Davis said. "He's had a lot of problems drinking in the past. . . . People that know John cannot believe that the person they're reading about in the media is the same person."
Whipple admitted Monday he has a drinking problem that frequently results in blackouts.
"I'm an alcoholic," he said. "I wasn't going to [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings, but that's what I should have been doing."
Ms. Davis, who is six months pregnant, began her maternity leave Monday from her job as a wire inspector at Hitachi Chemical Electro Products Inc. and was informed by Shadow Creek management she is behind on her $550-a-month rent.
She was packing to leave Monday, and most of the family's belongings were in boxes.
"We were going to pay rent on Friday when John got back, and then since this happened . . ." Ms. Davis said, adding that the family has no money saved. "We're working-class people. We work hard to pay our bills. I don't know yet where we're going." But she said she would stand by Whipple.
"When you love somebody . . . it's for the good and the bad, and this is probably the worst thing that could happen to somebody," she said.
color photo: Katherine Davis is moving out of the apartment she shares with rape suspect John Charles Whipple because they're behind on their rent. She says she will stand by Whipple. / Joey Ivansco / Staff
Lady Sues Complex
Two of three women who were the victims of a serial rapist at an apartment complex near Norcross in 1989 sued the owners of the apartments Friday, claiming they breached their duty to keep the premises safe.
The women, who lived in the Shadow Creek Apartments at 1200 Indian Trail Road, were attacked on Oct. 28, 1989, and Dec. 26, 1989. Both suits claim the women suffer "post-traumatic stress disorder; inability to function properly in her normal capacities; and inability to enjoy their usual lifestyle" due to the attacks.
The suits are against First Gibraltar Bank of Texas, the owners of the apartments, and the Jackson Management Group, which manages the complex. It has since been renamed the Huntington Chase Apartments.
In the suit filed on behalf of the woman raped the day after Christmas, the woman's young son, who was locked in a bathroom adjoining the bedroom during the attack, is also listed as a plaintiff. In the second suit, the victim's husband also is seeking damages. The suits, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, both seek more than $ 50,000 in damages.
The attacks, which terrified women in the Norcross area in fall 1989, began Sept. 25 with the robbery and assault of a woman at the complex. The next attack took place Oct. 21, followed by the plaintiffs' two attacks.
On April 4, 1990, John Charles Whipple pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences. He later pleaded guilty to five similar attacks in the Chicago area.
The Arrest
Gwinnett County Police Officer Roy Mangrum remembers standing in the rain for seven hours in December 1989, waiting for suspected serial rapist John Charles Whipple to return home so he could arrest him.
The two, officer and criminal, lived in the same apartment complex, Shadow Creek apartments off Indian Trail Road in Norcross, as did Whipple's four victims. For nearly four months, residents in the complex lived like a people in a city under siege as the number of victims mounted and police struggled to crack the case.
"He terrorized us bad," Officer Mangrum said. "At one point, the residents even thought I was a suspect."
Tonight, CBS-TV is airing "Complex of Fear," a made-for-TV movie about the rapes, focusing on Officer Mangrum and his then-wife, Ruthie. They have since divorced.
Just after the newlywed couple moved to Shadow Creek apartments, their new home became a "complex of fear" when three women were raped and another was assaulted. Residents took to carrying guns, knives and Mace and police, convinced the attacker lived in the apartments, set up road blocks and interviewed every male inhabitant.
J C Shardo, the film's producer, said she used the Mangrums as the central characters to make a point about how rape affects both men and women.
Officer Mangrum was ridiculed by his neighbors for not being able to catch a rapist operating under his nose, and Mrs. Mangrum, overcome by anxiety and a horrible memory from her past, finally told her husband that she too had been raped many years ago.
"She was real upset all the time because this guy was haunting us," Officer Mangrum said. "One night she told me she'd been raped while in college."
Rape is a personal issue for Ms. Shardo too: She narrowly escaped an attacker several years ago, and was traumatized by the incident for two years.
"It was a nightmare," she said. "I watched this story unfold in the newspaper and saw how afraid these people were. I wanted to create a story about the fear women live in when a serial rapist is out there and a story about the personal issue of rape."
Officer Mangrum got a sneak preview of the movie Thursday night, and said that for the most part, it is accurate.
"Watching that was the weirdest thing I've ever done in my life," he said. "It brought back some memories. There were some parts I had trouble watching."
Most difficult, he said, was the scene in which his wife confesses that she was raped.
"That hurt. It hurt when she told me and it hurt in the movie," he said.
The names of the people and places were changed for the movie.
But otherwise, the only fiction, Officer Mangrum said, is the end. Whipple's arrest did not happen the way it does in the movie.
Whipple, 29, was arrested in December, and pleaded guilty to three counts of rape. He is serving three life sentences.
Son of Victim Sues Complex
One of the victims of a Norcross serial rapist and her son will receive $ 1,275,000, under a settlement reached just before her lawsuit was to go to trial in Fulton County Superior Court.
The victim was the last of four women raped or assaulted by John Charles Whipple in the former Shadow Creek apartment complex at Indian Trail Road between September and December 1989.
In April 1990, Whipple pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences. He later pleaded guilty to five similar attacks in the Chicago area.
The Shadow Creek attacks were the subject of a recent CBS television movie, "Complex of Fear."
The three Shadow Creek rape victims each sued the owner of the complex for negligence. The first case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. In February, a Fulton county jury awarded the second rape victim and her husband $ 2.5 million, a sum attorneys said was unprecedentedly large in Georgia.
The size of the settlement reached last week in the third case was the result of the earlier jury award, attorneys said.
"They just decided to cut their losses," said Lynn Roberson, who represented First Gibraltar Bank of Dallas, the owner, and Jackson Management Group of Atlanta, the manager of the complex. "That's what happens when you get an outrageous jury result."
In the third case, the woman was assaulted as she was leaving her ground-floor apartment with her 5-year-old son early on the morning of Dec. 26. Whipple raped her at knifepoint after locking the boy in the bathroom.
She sued the owner and manager for failing to provide adequate security in the wake of the earlier attacks, all of which had occurred at the same time of day in ground-floor apartments in her part of the complex.
"Generally the premises owners and managers attempt to put a band- aid on the problem," said her lawyer, Gilbert H. Deitch. "They should spend more of their time concerned with the consumers and less of the time concerned with their bankrolls."
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