The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690 | Forensic Files

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[Music] thank you [Music] when bad men commit acts of evil with impunity it only inspires other bad men to do the
same so how many bad men has the hammer man inspired this week we profile a killer who surely
has inspired many urban legends especially those terrifying urban legends about young women getting into
cars with strange men the hammer man did not care for his fellow man he did not value human life
and he hated women he saw women as something to be used up destroyed and discarded
he only valued his own life and his own Freedom so that he could take away yours
he was a Savage killer then he was The Hitcher and then he became the want ad killer
he was called so many things during his time of catching and killing many called him the devil
one member of law enforcement said the guy is the devil they should have fried him years ago
when he was dead they should have driven a stake through his heart and buried him
digging him up a week later to Ram another stake in just to make sure he was dead
that was Chief investigator Russell J Krueger Minneapolis PD this is the True Crime Story of a career
criminal a real life monster an American Nightmare this is the story of the hammer man and this
is True Crime garage [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] it was just a little over 50 years ago
it was May 2nd 1973. a Wednesday evening in Seattle Washington when Mrs Miller a single
mother of one was starting to get worried Mrs Miller came home that Wednesday to an empty house her daughter
Catherine Sue Miller must have still been out with some friends it was unlike her to not be home when
her mother arrived but Kathy Sue was 15 years old she was growing up and she was
just three weeks away from her 16th birthday Mrs Miller knew Kathy Sue not only had a
gaggle of friends but she had a boyfriend as well this is a very innocent type of
relationship a very young relationship the two were really more friends than traditional boyfriend and girlfriend
heck the two had not even really reached the stage of puppy love yet Kathy must be out with her boyfriend mom
thought they were often together walking and talking in the neighborhood or perhaps
she was with some of the neighborhood girls but still it was unusual but nothing to be concerned with and
being a single mother one tends to stay busy and busy can easily distract one's heart and mind
Mrs Miller went about her evening preparing things for tomorrow and getting dinner ready for her and Kathy
but that is when it's set in the worry the not knowing maybe some mothers would be angry thinking that the teenager had
simply decided to not play by the household rules or was just outright defying her mother I but not Kathy Kathy
was a good kid who grew into a good teenager and she was no trouble at all for the single mother
but still it sets in Mrs Miller walked the dinner plates over to the table and sat them down
it was 7 p.m and there was no sign nor word of her daughter Mrs Miller didn't take a bite she didn't
wait for the hot dinner to get cold instead she turned from the table and walked over to the telephone hanging on
the kitchen wall the little notepad on the small table next to where the phone on the wall was
had several phone numbers for some of the other girls the same age as Kathy listed in the notepad's pages
Mrs Miller started calling those numbers most of the girls or at least their parents were easily reached but
unfortunately none had seen Kathy after school that day unsure of what to do Mrs Miller sat down
at the kitchen table and began to question herself should she call the police or should she just wait maybe
Kathy had lost track of time and would be home any minute now then Mrs Miller remembered an ongoing
conversation between her and her daughter a conversation that the two did not see
eye to eye on and it was so rare that the two did not agree that now she was starting to think
of course this is why she had not come home and why had she not thought of this before
well their disagreement was a simple one she saw one ad in the paper for a job she wanted to apply for and her mother
didn't want her to apply for that job that's right Kathy Sue expressed to her mother just two days prior that she
wanted to get a job so it's May and the school year would be out for the summer very soon and remember Kathy is just
three weeks from her 16th birthday and some of her 16 year old friends were starting to work at jobs this is mostly
stuff near their homes very part-time work Kathy's boyfriend too he had a job but he also wanted another
job for the summer time and the two had spent some time perusing the want ads together in the News Tribune
Kathy and her mother's disagreement was about a particular job opportunity Kathy's mother thought that the
arrangements for this job interview were not entirely kosher just a day prior Kathy showed her mother
a one ad for a gas station attendant job Kathy had called the number listed and spoke with the owner of the gas station
he said that he needed to hire someone fast and he needed Kathy to come into the gas station as soon as possible as
soon as she could for an interview and to fill out any tax forms that would be required
Kathy said that her mother wouldn't have time to take her until the weekend the owner suggested that she waited for him
at an intersection this would be not too far from her home and after school on that Wednesday and that he would come
and pick her up so that she would have a ride he's going to provide the ride to her back to the gas station where they
can talk they can do the interview and she can fill out any of the necessary paperwork but this is not a normal
request not at all and Kathy's mom was hip to that she told Kathy told her mother about the
arrangement and she told Kathy no she did not think that it was professional and that she is not to be getting into
cars with a man for which both of them had never met good advice Kathy's mom then remembering all of this Springs
into action jumps up from her chair at the kitchen table and she went looking through the house she's looking for
the old newspapers yeah the one ads and finally she located the section of the newspaper that her daughter had shown
her previously so she found the circled want ad for this gas station job that Kathy had
shown to her Mrs Miller picked up the phone she dials the number listed for the gas station
Mrs Miller called the phone number and a man answered she asked for her daughter
she told the man that she was aware of an arrangement for her daughter to be picked up by someone and she knew that
the meeting was to be sometime after Kathy's school day Mrs Miller asked if the man had seen her
daughter Kathy or perhaps even picked her up that day this man this business owner tells the mother well I did talk
to her but I didn't pick her up yeah he says I remember talking to the girl and he even says I wrote her name
down and then pauses for a second and says Catherine Miller right and she says yes that's my daughter's name have you
seen her and the man says that he agreed to pick her up near her home he goes on to tell Mrs Miller that he
drove out there however once he got to the location her daughter wasn't there he doesn't
know where she could be he said he waited for a few minutes but he was far too busy to be just waiting
around for too long and so after a short while he drove off and he hadn't seen the girl at all
the phone call did not last much longer okay Mrs Miller is near full panic mode now and after she hangs up the phone
captain the next call is going to be to Kathy's boyfriend and this is not going to make Mrs Miller
feel any better about her late and missing daughter so she's sitting down to dinner waiting
for daughter to come home she remembers this job interview and now Mrs Miller is on the phone with
Kathy's 15 16 year old boyfriend and this is a kid from the neighborhood that Mrs Miller is known for a long time
right so she trusts this kid and she asks the boy have you seen Kathy she was hoping that
the two were just hanging out somewhere but keep in mind when the when these two
hung out they were typically out in the neighborhood walking and talking together right and so just the boy being
home is not going to feel very good to Mrs Miller it's not a good sign no because her daughter Kathy doesn't go
and hang out at his house so the boy does have some information he tells Mrs Miller in a little bit
shamefully so because he knew that Kathy was not to take this appointment and he
says look I went with your daughter to stand on the corner there and wait for the guy to pick her up
and he tells Mrs Miller he says look Kathy knew that she wasn't to take the meeting but she really wanted the
job for the summer and she thought that you wouldn't be mad if I went with her however this kid had a paper route and
remember we've talked about this on the show plenty of times but back in the day
they delivered papers in the morning and oftentimes in the evening as well people
love their news you got to get that evening newspaper so what's the boyfriend's story to Mrs Miller
he says he went with Kathy to the corner and she filled him in on all the details
this guy's gonna pick me up remember he tells Mrs Miller that Kathy knew she wasn't to go but if he
went with her maybe she wouldn't be upset with her so he agrees to go with her however at some point the man's not
on time the car doesn't show up the vehicle doesn't show up so he says to Kathy look you should go home I have to
go do my paper route unfortunately man he he tells Mrs Miller that when I last saw Kathy she was still
standing on the corner waiting for the gas station owner to pick her up and I went off and did my
paper route so he's just as surprised as Mrs Miller when he gets this phone call that Kathy
didn't go for this job interviewer or wasn't home at least by 7 PM now we're in probably 7 30 7 45 that night
this makes Mrs Miller incredibly nervous remember she didn't want her daughter to
go meet this guy in the first place and now her daughter's not home and she's already spoke to the guy who says he's
the gas station owner who says yeah I went to pick her up and she wasn't there so Mrs Miller of course calls the
Seattle Police Department and reports her daughter as missing tells the story the Seattle Police
Department they do take a report now what they do with the report that evening is anyone's guess it's a mystery it's
not well documented what took place if they went out driving around looking for her or just put out an APB for her uh I
would guess that those are probably some efforts that were taken that night but what we do know is keep in mind this
is the 70s and where we might feel like that was not enough effort put onto this
scenario often in the 70s man they didn't even take a a report a missing report for a
teenager or a youngster until they had been gone for 24 hours some jurisdictions were
even doing 48 hours right because you had so many kids that just weren't where they were supposed to be they end up
coming home after dark they get yelled at by Mom and Dad that may be grounded for a couple of days and that's the end
of it and you've just wasted the police's time but in this situation at least they take
the report now this is going to have quite the domino effect because these reports
while we don't know what was done with it that evening they are handed off to the higher ups when they come in for the
day shift the next morning right the higher ups in this situation are Detectives
so now we have to introduce to everyone detectives Dwayne Holman and William Bowman Holmen and Bowman the two of them
read the report follow up with a call to Mrs Miller they think that it sounds suspicious enough
that they're going to go out and investigate they don't think that this is a a runaway situation and if it is
wonderful the kid comes home and everything's fine well either the businessman is lying and
he's responsible or the possibilities then become endless because she's at the corner of a
decently busy intersection exactly so they go out to the gas station to talk to the man that was on
the phone and when they get there they meet a person that is described as a large man
he's about six foot two 200 pounds and his name is Harvey Lewis kerrignon now Harvey is the gas station owner and
this gas station is very successful so he has attendance and cashiers working for him
most of them are of the teenage years a lot of you know teen boys teen girls and he tells the officers he says
look I was really hoping to to hire a boy but when I got the call from the girl I
needed the help so I told her I would take the interview he tells the officers detective Holman
and Bowman the same story that he told Mrs Miller the prior evening we had an arrangement for me to pick her
up so she could fill out the tax paperwork it it sounds like she was getting the
job just by calling like the the interview was more of a formality and that they would be filling out paperwork
so that she could start asmp and so he's telling them the story but what the detectives are noticing right
away Captain is that this dude does not seem to be responding very well to their
presence he starts sweating profusely he looks incredibly nervous oh he's a big man it's a big man and it's
summertime it's hot out there it's hot in the hot tub during some of the questioning and they're not even getting
very suspicious with they're not overly obvious with their suspicions they're not really accusing him of
anything at this point they're simply asking him questions and they say that not only does he appear to be sweating
nervous but at some of the questions he becomes angry and agitated when they're repeating their questions
however they see no reason to further question this man there's no indication that Kathy ever
was picked up by this guy they don't have any Witnesses saying that this guy picked her up they have his story the
same story that he said the night before they don't know that everything fully checks out but they leave the interview
still suspicious of this man but with nothing really to go on to finding Kathy that's that's their main number one
concern right now is where is this girl so this business owner Harvey he's telling her mother yes I spoke with her
I just never picked her up the cops go out to talk to him he becomes a sweaty mess
and so when they go back to the station look he he gave law enforcement some red flags so
what are they going to do they're going to look up his past criminal history I think we need to give a little Kudos
here now this seems like standard procedure today but back then 1973 not so much this guy must have appeared to
be nervous enough that it set off some red flags for the two detectives and as you said Captain they get to the station
they do a background check on Harvey kerrignon and what they see in that background check will make their blood
boil [Music] thank you [Music] all right we are back cheers to everybody cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
Captain cheers to everybody out there tuning in once again this week we are happy and lucky to have you now Captain
we have to go back in time here because what we have is our two detectives they just come from this meeting with the gas
station owner Harvey kerrignon that leaves them feeling a little unsettled they have a missing girl she's not even
been missing for 24 hours yet about 16 hours by this time last scene hanging out with one of her friends waiting for
a ride after school the previous day yeah then they go talk to this guy that claims
that he did talk to her on the phone and was going to pick her up but she just wasn't there and he's a little sweaty
he's a little sweaty so now they have to figure out okay is this guy lying to us
because he looks nervous when we talk to him or or does he just have a heart condition or did he do as he say went to
go pick her up and she's not there he doesn't know what happened to her now us the detectives got to figure out if
somebody else picked her up right so back at the station they decide to run a background check on Harvey
kerrignan now I want to point out here this guy he is kind of odd looking we already referenced that he's a larger
man oddly sheep feet but he's also the type that he's easy to talk to and he's a successful local businessman
his gas station in Seattle was a success we should point out too don't don't get
overly jealous here people but back then regular gas 35 cents a gallon wow the Primo stuff
39 cents a gallon oh Fancy Pants that's right so he's pumping more gas his gas station is selling more gas than the
others in town so he's a successful small business owner they don't feel other than the
nervousness and the sweating that he has any reason to tell them anything other than the truth but this but he is uh I'd
consider him to be fugly you're not the only one yeah so our friend Anne rule R.I.P
she described him and I like when we have a a a respected lady describing a man rather than us two garage guys I'll
tell you the truth I tell you I tell it like I see it she referred to him as a huge man
with hands like hams a brow that resembled that of a Latter Day cro magnum man which I think looking at his picture
that description is pretty spot on so they run a background check on Harvey kerrignon and what they find is a
plethora of troubling items in this dude's history yeah the ones detective asked the other
one does it look like he has a plethora of criminal activity he does and not not
any like small time crime either so let's go back in time and we're going to go back to
1948. so this is just a little under 25 years before 15 year old Kathy Sue Miller goes missing
1948 Harvey Carrington is 21 years old he's in the Army now I do want to point out here there are some sources that say
he was in the Air Force most say he was in the Army I could not figure out between the two which one it was my
guess is neither branch of our military service wants to claim this guy he stationed at Fort Richardson in
Anchorage Alaska now on July 31st 1949 this is this is after he's been there for some
time obviously there's a woman Laura Showalter 57 years old she's walking home that's a Sunday
night she's walking home from the theater she doesn't make it home that night the
next morning that Monday morning a woman's brutally beaten body was found the cause of death was due to several
blows to the Head Now by that Monday afternoon Captain police have a man not under arrest not
charged with anything but they have this man at the station and he is being questioned about his possible
involvement in this woman's murder the body was that of Laura Showalter it took a few days to identify her
but not a few days to have a suspect they very quickly land on a suspect and why how do they land on a suspect so
quickly well law enforcement has an eyewitness yes and this is a very odd story I think
so odd that the police have to believe the details of the story so they find this woman
unfortunately horrible situation haven't been beaten to death found in a public location right so they canvassed the
area and one of the persons who was walking home that night the previous night the Sunday night says to the
police yeah that's weird that you found that body this was like a park type setting
he says I was walking home last night and the same spot where she is lying where you found her body
I saw her lying with a with a guy and they look like they were being romantic they look like they were maybe
on a date and it was getting a little hot and heavy right and he goes so I kind of looked away because I didn't
want them to be embarrassed or think that I was peeping or anything like that but it was on my way home I saw the two
of them I thought they were making out I continued on and went to bed didn't think anything of it now you find a
woman in that same spot now he could not tell the detectives with 100 certainty that
the woman they found is the woman that he saw because he said he saw more of the man than the woman
he's kind of filling in the blanks right sometimes you see this stuff and you fill in the blanks a little bit but the
blanks that he was not filling in was the description that he gives of the man and he says the man clearly was a
younger Soldier in his early 20s um and he gave the description of this man he says he was a larger white guy
probably about over six feet tall around 200 pounds he had the mutton chops right
the very long sideburns and that's about the best description that they can get that he can provide
however there's some really good clues in there over six feet tall is above the average
height for a male back then so that shrinks your suspect pool very quickly there's shrinkage on top of that
he's able to say this guy's a younger man he's in his early 20s right he's a soldier
I Believe by the way that he was dressed that he was probably a soldier and then the mutton chops on top of that
so they're shrinking the the pole pretty cool very much there was significant shrinkage as they said yeah well the
water was cold so they go around canvassing the area and of course they're going to go to the
base there that Fort Richardson's right and they want to start looking for a guy
that would fit that description they ask around they find a guy so they bring this guy in
and he's very nervous sweating a lot sweaty he's answering their questions but he appears to be incredibly nervous
now they do the old police lineup and they bring back in the neighbor and the guy says yeah that one right there
that's the guy that I believe that I saw with the woman in the park the night before
the guy's name is Harvey kerrignon of course he is a soldier and they arrest him
but they don't have anything to really hold him on there's no physical evidence this is 19
49 so keep in mind the detectives are always behind the eight ball in these situations just
based off of the lack of Technology therefore the lack of physical evidence all they have is this guy saying I'm
pretty sure that that's the guy that I saw with that woman last night now that sounds like a good case but you
take that to court and you get a good defense team and they're going to present to the jury
well this this man can't even say that the woman that he saw was the murder victim
this man can't say with 100 certainty that the guy that he picked out of the police lineup is the guy that he saw
that night in the under the cover of Darkness so while this man Harvey kerrignon
remains one of those guys that we talk about so much here in the garage right Captain one of these guys where police
go you know what we're pretty sure we're 99.9 sure we know who did this right we just don't have the evidence to
lock this dude up now we need to fast forward to September 16 1949. when we have an attempted rape and a
horrible a brutal attack on a woman named Dorcas Callan so she's attacked and there's an
attempted rape assault on this young woman thankfully she is able to escape the clutches of her attacker
she immediately goes to police she tells the police that she was approached and attacked by a drunken Soldier early that
morning it's like 11 A.M and the soldier who approached her was drunk and she describes this attack as he
started to bring up some kind of conversation try to have conversation with her that was
friendly conversation however when she rejected his advances because he's wasted at 11 o'clock he's wasted at 11
o'clock and she's probably got places to go it's the middle of the day and so she rejects his advances and then
he becomes violent he just he tries to abduct her tries to attack her tries to rape her and he physically assaults her
now she is able to provide a description to detectives of her assailant and right
away ding ding light bulbs and bells are going off that description is of the same guy that
they talk to back in July July 31st August 1st about the woman found dead in the park
Laura Showalter so they very quickly go out and pick up Harvey Kerrigan and it's mostly because of two factors
right one the attack was so similar to the attack and murder for which Harvey was questioned that took place less than
77-0 days prior and the description gave to police in this latest attack where Miss Callan
survived after having escaped both she and then another independent witness described the man and his clothing and
this too matching the suspect in the July murder case so Harvey kerrignon is picked up and
he's questioned identified in a police lineup by both the surviving victim and the witness from the previous crime
and now this other independent Witness so now you have three people saying look that's the guy I think that was
with the murder victim in the park one person saying I was attacked by this man and the other one saying I witnessed him
talking to her before the attack right so they're going to arrest this Soldier Harvey and they're going to charge him
with murder rape and assault yes murder rape attempted rape and assault and at this time Harvey
Carrington is 22 years old and he is in the Army now we get to December of 1949 Anchorage Alaska
Harvey Carrington is found guilty and what the papers were calling a rape slaying of 57 year old Laura Showalter
after the trial Harvey is sentenced to death and in fact they announce during sentencing and at the the end of
the trial the hanging of Harvey L kerrignon age 22 will be held adjacent to the federal jail on March 3rd between
6 and 8 A.M 1950. that's a very quick from guilty to sentencing to death for back then if we don't experience
that today and I don't know if this announcement was meant for this to be a public hanging or what but
it sounds a little bit like that you know we're we've sentenced this man to death and oh by the way
mark your calendars it's going to be March 3rd between 6 and 8 A.M and here's the location so if we jump into the
DeLorean and go back to the future this is what the detectives are seeing when we have a missing 15 year old and
this guy is saying hey I I yeah I was supposed to pick her up but she never showed up
and this so the detectives have evidence that this guy is capable of anything and
everything evil but if this sentence was carried out then Harvey Carrigan would be like be
real says a dead man walking yeah so what happened there's much more to this story
so after the trial as we said he's sentenced to death now we get the guilty verdict
but before sentencing Harvey's defense counsel request a new trial the judge denies this in sentences
Harvey to hang the defense Council cited 11. grounds for asking for a new trial including an unfair and impartial jury
saying that the court should have granted a change of venue and because the case was well known and it was
publicized at the time that there was no way that you could have an impartial jury without a change of venue
and that Harvey was convicted mostly on him having confessed to authorities and this part of the story is rather
complicated but I'll do my darndest here Captain to explain it the defense cites that the confession
they end up charging him with the with the murder and with this other attack based off of
him confessing they don't have a lot of physical evidence they have these eyewitnesses who pick him out of a
lineup but the whole conviction and the whole sentence to death is based around his
confession he was brought in by the U.S Marshals interview time and time again they brought in like a psychologist and
doctors and surrounded by all these people and convince him to tell them what actually happened
how do they convince him to to tell what actually happened when he denied any wrongdoing or any involvement
at all initially well the defense cites that the confession was only obtained due to a quote secret
interrogation and promises made by persons at the interrogation to the defendant
and also due to psychological pressures placed upon placed upon the charged individual
Harvey kerrignon so what happens here captain is that they're stating that he was promised
Harvey Carrington was promised if look if you confess we can't sentence you to death
we can lock you up for life or put you away for a long time you just need to tell us what happened get this off your
conscious we we won't be able to kill you if you confess well he confesses they take him to court
and then they sentence him to die so what ultimately ends up happening here is that Harvey and his defense counsel
they won a new trial on this murder conviction and this new trial takes place in 1951 on the grounds that his
confession had been improperly obtained an officer interrogating Kerrigan as we said told him he could not would not be
executed if he confessed to the murder so he gets this new trial and at this trial Harvey's confession the one that
was used at the previous trial to secure a conviction and what would have been would have sealed Harvey's fate with his
death was suppressed and without the confession they didn't have enough evidence to
prosecute so the murder charge essentially is dismissed thus ultimately freeing Harvey of an
early demise right at least one other source states that the Supreme Court overruled Kerrigan's death sentence do
to the officers violations of the McNabb rule but he still had the rape and assault
charges from the September attack for which he was convicted and so he had to continue
to serve out his sentence minus the death penalty so he so do we know how long he ended up
serving well he was sentenced to 15 years before assaulting Miss Callan but of course he doesn't serve the whole
time does he you and I have been doing this show long enough and our listeners have been listening loyally long enough
to know that most cases that's a shame we're most cases at least here in Ohio you are hoping that the prisoner serves
out 80 percent of the sentence now keep in mind we've we've gone through time and time again
the problems with the overpopulation overcrowding of prisons in different states throughout the different Decades
of the 20th century and how it led to the early release of a lot of those inmates
well he's sentenced to 15 years in 1952 he's transferred to Alcatraz federal penitentiary
and then Harvey is paroled in 1960. so he served eight more years after he is transferred
to Alcatraz so old uh sweaty Harvey serves about nine years of that sentence nine years and meanwhile the police know
that he's a murderer so once he's paroled Harvey moves to Minnesota this is closer to where he is
from he he was born in North Dakota well I hope this comes out right but we see sometimes with criminals that they
kind of outgrow this type of behavior they can age out of violence but that's not what we're going to see with this
man and then on top of that keep in mind how young he is right at this time so he's in his he's 33.
when he's paroled he goes to Minnesota and on August 5th 1960 Harvey Carrigan is arrested in Minnesota
for burglary assault and attempted rape he's convicted on those charges and sentenced to
hold your breath don't get too excited two and a half years in a Minnesota State Prison wow
and then he gets unfortunately he gets another 2086 days I didn't know that they
sentenced you in days in some jurisdictions but he gets another 2086 days in federal prison in
Leavenworth Kansas from there he is released on parole and he picks up once again and moves to
Seattle Washington where just eight short months later Harvey Carrigan is arrested for
second-degree burglary and sentenced to 15 years in the Washington State Prison at Walla Walla
during this prison stint Harvey uses the resources provided there within to obtain a High School GED
diploma and he takes some college courses of note he takes some criminal psychology courses doesn't seem like a
good idea to offer those he is paroled four years after he gets there this takes us through 1968 captain
we still got five more years until detectives are talking to him about a missing little girl 15 year old Kathy
Sue Miller where we first started off today's episode well Harvey is going to be
paroled and after he is paroled he meets a lady her name is Sheila Moran yeah and they
strike up a relationship he eventually moves in with Sheila and Sheila's daughter
and the two Mary proving that there's somebody for everybody yeah and I'm guessing I'm hoping
and praying that Sheila was unaware of kerrignon's previous history right because nothing infuriates me more than
when I see a woman with a child allow somebody with a lengthy violent sexual violence too criminal history
into their home yeah because you're not just putting yourself at risk you're putting your children at risk as well
exactly you you might as well just March that child right to the front line of danger
so the two meet they strike strike it up they they hit it off they get married now he's living with mom and daughter
but during this time in 1969 he's 42 at this at this point in our timeline he's arrested for a parole violation and
sentenced to serve another year at Walla Walla now during this time Sheila divorces Harvey
Kerrigan and she states that she is seeking the divorce due to physical abuse suffered by the hands at the hands
of Harvey the divorce goes through he serves as year he gets out he must be one Charming fellow
because to look at this guy you go how would this dude get a date and then then icing on the cake his criminal history
but once he gets out he meets another woman Alice Johnson very fugly marries her moving in with her and her two
children right we have Little Billy who's 11 years old at the time in Georgia her daughter
Georgia who's 14. one thing we need to point out here Captain is this brings us to the latter
part of 1972. in our timeline and one thing that is key here and we'll come back around full circle eventually
is that Harvey kerrignon he receives a handful of speeding tickets during this time period
in October of 1972 a young woman 20 year old Laura Leslie Brock of Bellingham Washington
goes missing and she's found rather quickly unfortunately she's found dead her cause of death is due to several
blows to the Head and then this will lead us into 1973 when Kathy Sue Miller goes missing age
15 goes missing early May of 1973 this is The Disappearance that the police just left the gas station talking
to the owner of the gas station where she was going to apply for a job had an appointment arranged with the
owner Harvey Carrigan detectives talked to this man they get back to the station
they run a background check on him that's the information in story form that they find on the guy that they just
talked to about a missing 15 year old girl [Music] big thank you to everybody that's been
sharing our little garage show on social media it helps keep the lights on join us back here in the garage same bat
Time same bat Channel and until then be good be kind and don't live thank you foreign
[Music]

The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690

Part 1 of 2

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1973 - Seattle, Washington; When 15 year old Katherine Miller did not return home from school, her mother notified the police. The following morning an investigation ensued. Katherine’s disappearance was immediately considered to be suspicious by seasoned detectives. The disappearance reeked of foul play. The detectives were quick to find a suspect and other cases that shared similarities to Katherine's. Was all of this the work of “The Hammer Man?” When one wants to do a thorough historical review of U.S.A. True Crime, there are those stories that must be told. This is one of them.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Hammer Man case, focusing on the disappearance of Kathy Sue Miller and the suspect Harvey Kerrignon's violent history.

Key points

The Hammer Man: A True Crime Story. Exploring the chilling tale of a killer who inspired urban legends.
Kathy's Disappearance. A mother’s worry escalates as her daughter fails to return home.
Detectives Investigate. Detectives follow up on a suspicious gas station owner after a girl's disappearance.
Harvey Kerrigan's Troubling History. Detectives uncover a plethora of troubling items in Harvey's past, raising red flags.
Eyewitness Account. An eyewitness recounts seeing a woman with a man in a park, leading to a suspect.
Harvey's Arrest. Harvey Kerrigan is arrested after multiple eyewitnesses identify him as the attacker.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the True Crime Story of a career criminal, a real life monster.

Introduction to the story of the hammer man.

4:26WatchAug 9, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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