Here’s another repost from my original blog. This one was written on January 15, 2019. I’m leaving it as/is.
This morning, as Bill and I were enjoying biscuits and gravy, we got on the topic of Jayme Closs, the thirteen year old girl who was abducted from her parents’ Barron, Wisconsin home on October 15, 2018. Jayme Closs, whose parents Denise and James Closs were murdered by her 21 year old captor, Jake Patterson, managed to escape her kidnapper last Thursday. She was being held about 70 miles from her home, and Patterson apparently got complacent, giving Jayme the chance to escape. Jayme got help from a woman who was walking her dog past the place where Patterson had been keeping her.
I will admit, I haven’t really been keeping up with this story, since I’ve been busy with our move. However, I did read about her escape and I remembered hearing about her abduction in the fall. I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on the news articles written about this case. A lot of people were posting that they thought maybe Closs and Patterson had an affair.
For the record, I DO NOT believe that to be the case. I think, even if that was the situation, Closs would still be a victim. Closs has said she hadn’t known Patterson before he abducted her and murdered her parents. Patterson has, himself, apparently told police that he spotted Closs getting on a school bus and decided he “wanted” her. I don’t think Jayme Closs aided and abetted Patterson in any way.
Talking about this case, and the speculation that Closs had something to do with it, made me remember a case that happened in Virginia back in 1990. The incident occurred in Middlesex County on November 10, 1990. I was, at that time, a freshman in college, about a month from finishing up my first semester, before I would be coming home to Gloucester County for Christmas break. To get home from Longwood University, I’d be skirting nearby Middlesex County, although I don’t think the route I took actually took me through there. I did regularly drive through Middlesex years later when I lived in northern Virginia and came to Gloucester to visit.
On that November day in 1990, 14 year old Jessica Wiseman and her boyfriend, 17 year old Chris Thomas, killed Wiseman’s parents, 32 year old James B. and Kathy Wiseman. The Wisemans had objected to Jessica and Chris seeing each other, so the young couple decided Jessica’s parents should die. Chris and Jessica went into her parents’ bedroom and shot them both, although Kathy Wiseman was able to run into Jessica’s bedroom. She was shot again, and that killed her.
At the time this crime occurred, Virginia law stipulated that no one under age 15 could be tried as an adult, regardless of how serious the crime was. Because she was only 14 years old, Jessica Wiseman was tried as a juvenile in a closed court. She was declared a delinquent, and spent the rest of her teen years in a juvenile detention facility. She was freed on July 26, 1997, which was her 21st birthday.
Chris Thomas was 17 years old, so although he was technically a juvenile, he was eligible to be tried as an adult. He pleaded guilty to killing James Wiseman and not guilty to killing Kathy Wiseman. He was convicted of both killings and sentenced to death. At the time, Virginia juries were not permitted to sentence a killer to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They were faced with the choice of sentencing Thomas to death or allowing for parole, which could have meant he would have been released as soon as twenty years after conviction.
Attorneys for Thomas have said that he was trying to protect Wiseman by taking the blame. Two women who were imprisoned with Jessica Wiseman also said that she was the one who had actually pulled the trigger, not Thomas. I’m not sure exactly where the truth lies, although it does seem unfair to me that Jessica got to live her life while Thomas lost his to state supported homicide. Thomas was scheduled to be executed in June 1999. The execution was put off until January 10, 2000, when Thomas was 26 years old. He ate fried chicken for his last supper.
I remember when this case was news. In those days, I used to read the Daily Press every day. There was a columnist named Jim Spencer who wrote opinions for the paper. My dad didn’t like him because Spencer was an outspoken liberal. I, on the other hand, was drawn to Spencer’s columns. I usually read them whenever I noticed them. In 2003, Spencer moved on to Denver, Colorado, where he wrote for the Denver Post.
As I was reading up on the Wiseman murders this morning, I happened to find an old column Spencer wrote for the Denver Post in 2007. He was reporting on another murder that had happened in Denver that reminded him of the Wiseman case, which he’d also written about. I did know that Spencer had moved out of Virginia, although I hadn’t been following his career from afar. I went to see if Spencer was still in Denver, but it appears that he was a victim of downsizing. I think he has managed to find another job in journalism, although it took awhile and he had to detour into a different field. Looks like he now reports in Washington, DC after a stint in Minneapolis.
It actually makes me a little sad to read about Jim Spencer’s situation. Good journalists are a dying breed. Nowadays, people don’t want to pay for a newspaper subscription. While it’s true that more writers can be read with the advent of blogging and self-publishing, it’s much harder for legitimate authors to make a decent living. These old stories become relics of the past, with fewer skilled people to write them.
I find true crime fascinating. Everyone has a story. People involved in true crimes especially have stories. Some of the stories are more tragic than others. What happened to Chris Thomas doesn’t seem fair to me. I am not a fan of the death penalty in all but the most extreme cases. I don’t think he should have been executed for killing the Wisemans. Moreover, he was technically a juvenile when he committed his crimes. While I would expect most juveniles to know that killing is wrong, I also know that young people do not have fully functioning brains until they’re older. It also doesn’t seem fair that Thomas was executed while his girlfriend only did about seven years in a juvenile facility. But then, I guess there is a pretty big difference in a person’s maturity levels between the ages of 14 and 17.
As for Jayme Closs, I have nothing but compassion for her. She must have gone through hell. What a blessing it is that she was able to find help after escaping her captor. He is in Wisconsin, so unless there is a federal angle applied to his case, he’ll probably rot in prison for a long while. Wisconsin no longer has the death penalty.
I may have to start following the Closs/Patterson case now…
Here are the original comments from this post.
jonoJanuary 17, 2019 at 5:42 PM
Since it happened not too far from here (as the crow flies)it has dominated the local news. Jake will not likely see the light of day again other than obligatory time in the prison yard.
We have been watching the long, slow death of real journalism for some time now. There are still many good ones out there, but the masses seem to prefer entertainment to good reporting. It is very sad.
