it ain't your fault. I don't give a damn what your mama says, what your
daddy says, your boyfriend or your husband.'"
He says, "I'm one of these old-school people that believes that rape is worse than murder. ... A victim of a rape suffers the rest of her life. It's like if someone chopped your arm off. You'd probably be able to ... cope with life like that. But every time you looked at that arm, you'd know."
He worked several cases involving pattern rapists in his day. "You know
you're going to catch 'em," he says. "It's just a matter of how many
victims are we going to have before we get what we need, or he screws
up, or a detail spots him.
"I remember Charles Wheat," Gibson says with nostalgia in his voice, as
though he were reminiscing about a classic baseball game. "He's the one
who told us, 'If you don't stop me, I'm gonna kill somebody.' He'd
expose himself and do stuff, and the cops would arrest him and make fun
of him and stuff like that. That just made him worse, is what he said."
there was Robert Fellows. "He kept learning ways to
better his ability to commit a crime and get away with it, by wiping
prints, covering his face," Gibson says. "We started followin' this guy
everywhere he went. We saw
him entering this house through a sliding glass door. Soon as he left,
half the squad followed him, the other half knocked on [the woman's]
door. She said, 'A guy just broke into my house and raped me.' So
that's how
they caught him."
After he retired, the KCPD brought him back as a
civilian employee in the department's HR section, where he does background
checks on potential hires. "I miss workin' there, oh do I miss workin' there," Gibson says.
Does he wish he'd had the DNA technology that is available to
today's detectives? "Oh God, do I," he says. "I have these young
detectives go, 'Well you still gotta really know how to interview
somebody.' Well the bottom line is, if we'd had DNA then, I really
believe we could have shut down some pattern rapists, and we coulda
cleared some guys from the get-go."
Still, he says, "We did a hell of a good job, as you look back and see what we had to work with."
Gibson's favorite part of the job was making the call to a victim to tell her that he'd arrested her rapist. "I could call her up and say, 'Mary? Detective Gibson. I want you to know we got that S.O.B., and I got a signed statement from him, and it's on video.' You can't imagine that good feeling. It's like being a secret Santa Claus or something. You can't do that with a homicide. You can tell the family, but it's not the same as telling the victim, 'We got him.'"
One day, hopefully, the subject of this week's feature story will get that call.
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The commentary on rape being a crime against the state and not the victim is hogwash. Just as when you are shot you are the victim of assault. When you are raped you are the victim of rape, not the state. In a serious crime the state can prosecute without the victim indicating that they wish to prosecute but the victim is still the victim.
This retired detective spoke to the point that he believes that rape is a crime of great import, even comparing it to murder and that he felt that his career investigating rapists made him feel as though he was doing right and that he was working on behalf of the victims but still there are those commenting here that would impugn his dignity and professinalism.
Give me a break. People complain when they believe cops dont care and the attack one that spoke to his pride in helping victims. They need to get a life and thank this guy for his service to his community.
He was a black man who had a sexual assault record who dated white women. He entered through an unlocked door. He was only suspected of being the serial rapest. When he entered the residence the police did not know he wasn't a boyfriend. If the police has rushed in and no crime had been committed and it was a boyfriend/girlfriend you same people would be the first to complain about the police. If he was in the act of commiting a crime it could have turned into a hostage situation or even a murder. If it had been an empty dwelling and the victim wasn't at home the best the police would have had was an attempted burglary in Jackson county. It was unknown by the police if anyone was home and it could have just been a dry run by the suspect. This guy kept learning by his mistakes. No one knew the victim was being raped only that a bm with a record of sexual assault who dated white women had entered an apartment through an unlocked door. If the police had rushed in and no crime had been committed then how many more victims would there have been later by this man. I would like to know how all of you people who are complaining would have handled the siyuation and why you aren't working for KCPD and stopping all the crime.
Like the others I can't believe he admitted that they watched the creep go in a house, do the deed, and then went to the door. I don't have any trouble believing it, just shocked he admitted it.
hey, now! you gotta catch them somehow! 'cause you can't just believe a woman when she says she's been raped. grrrrrr. i keep hearing there just isn't enough man power to catch these guys. as long as writing parking tickets remains more of a priority than a woman's life...
it's also of note to mention that you aren't allowed to say you are raped until a court decides you are. if you do, you can be held in contempt of court. in missouri, rape is a crime against the state, not a crime against an individual. the state decides what to prosecute and how. most of these guys will never see jail time and if they do, the sentences are a joke. charges often get backed down to assault. ?!
maybe that's why there are multiple westport rapists, spanning years. and many more that aren't serial in nature, that have never been caught.
ladies - until rape is no longer condoned by society, take a self-defense course.
"We started followin' this guy everywhere he went. We saw him entering this house through a sliding glass door. Soon as he left, half the squad followed him, the other half knocked on [the woman's] door. She said, 'A guy just broke into my house and raped me."
The Police waited outside while he raped a woman? WTF!
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