Becoming the Boogeyman, page 1
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For Billy and Noah
a note to readers
Becoming the Boogeyman is a work of fiction, continuing the homage to my hometown and my ongoing passion for true crime. As with my previous book (Chasing the Boogeyman), there are slices of life depicted throughout that are very much inspired by my personal history, but other events and real people and places and media outlets / social media platforms / publications are used fictitiously, and to provide verisimilitude to this crime novel. Other names, characters, settings, and events come directly from my imagination, which remains at times a rather unsettling landscape.
BEFORE
The Baltimore Sun (June 3, 1988)
EDGEWOOD GIRL FOUND MURDERED
Shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 2, members of the Harford County Sheriff’s Department discovered the body of 15-year-old Natasha Gallagher in the woods behind her house on Hawthorne Drive.
The teenager was reported missing earlier that morning by her mother, Catherine Gallagher, after she found the girl’s bedroom window open, a broken screen on the ground below, and what looked like a smear of blood on the windowsill…
* * *
Harford County Aegis (June 23, 1988)
TWO EDGEWOOD GIRLS DEAD—WAS IT THE BOOGEYMAN?
Just before midnight on Monday, June 20, local police discovered the body of 15-year-old Kacey Robinson at the playground of the Cedar Drive Elementary School. She had been beaten and strangled.
Robinson had disappeared from the vicinity of her home on Cherry Road at approximately 9 p.m. the night before. After a brief search, her father, Bob Robinson, located one of his daughter’s tennis shoes in the middle of the street and immediately called 911…
* * *
Channel 2 News transcript (June 25, 1988)
REPORTER: We’re back with Evelyn Robinson, the very brave mother of Kacey Robinson, talking about the “Boogeyman,” which is what the local and national media are calling this phantomlike stalker. It’s my understanding that the nickname first appeared in a police report filed several weeks before Kacey’s disappearance, and that your youngest daughter, Janie, is responsible.
EVELYN ROBINSON: Yes, that’s right.
REPORTER: And how old is Janie?
EVELYN ROBINSON: She’s seven.
REPORTER: So, walk us through the events. Late one night in May, Janie wakes you up. Can you tell us what happened next?
EVELYN ROBINSON: She came into our room and told me and my husband that the Boogeyman was trying to get into her window and could she please sleep the rest of the night with us.
REPORTER: And how did you respond?
EVELYN ROBINSON: We told her there was no such thing as the Boogeyman and that it was just another nightmare, but she was so upset that we agreed to make an exception just this one time. The next morning, she was back to her normal self, so I didn’t think about it again… until I heard the news about Natasha Gallagher.
REPORTER: What did you do then?
EVELYN ROBINSON: My husband called the police and told them the whole story. They came out to the house and searched the yard and took fingerprints. But they didn’t find anything and told us that most likely we’d been right the first time—that our daughter had probably just had a bad dream.
REPORTER: Did you believe them?
EVELYN ROBINSON: I honestly didn’t know what to believe. I still don’t. I mean, what if all of us are wrong—and Janie’s right? What if someone really did try to break into her window that night? What if there really is a Boogeyman… and he came back and got Kacey?
* * *
A Current Affair transcript (August 15, 1988)
MAURY POVICH: Edgewood, Maryland. A small, peaceful working-class town nestled on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Little League baseball parades and Fourth of July carnivals. The kind of place where people don’t bother to lock their doors at night. [in a deeper voice] Edgewood, Maryland… a close-knit community now held hostage in a death grip of terror and paranoia. Three young girls. Savagely beaten and murdered. The killer has been christened the “Boogeyman” because of his ability to strike close to home and vanish without a trace. As one frustrated lawman lamented soon after the discovery of the latest victim: “It’s like the guy sliced open a hole in the night and disappeared back into it.”
Madeline Wilcox was eighteen years old. Beautiful. Kind. A bright future ahead of her. Her nude body was found under a bridge on Friday morning, August 12, by local fishermen. She’d been brutally beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled. There were bite marks on her torso, as well as ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. The killer took his time—and tortured her.
I’m here this evening with FBI profiler Robert Neville—a man who has witnessed this type of grisly aftermath before. Welcome, Robert.
ROBERT NEVILLE: Thank you, Maury. I wish I was here under different circumstances.
MAURY POVICH: Three young girls murdered within a period of ten weeks. What can you tell us about the madman who is prowling the dark streets of Edgewood?
ROBERT NEVILLE: We believe he’s in his mid to late twenties or thirties. A white male. Likely single or divorced. Average or slightly higher than average intelligence. Good physical condition. He’s either unemployed or has a job that allows him to move around freely at night.
MAURY POVICH: And he has a very distinct M.O.
ROBERT NEVILLE: He does, indeed. The victims are young, attractive, popular. They all have long hair. The wounds left on their bodies are nearly identical. Facial injuries. Bite marks. Strangulation. He severed each of the girls’ left ears and took them with him. The last two girls were sexually assaulted before they were killed, signifying an acceleration of violence. When he’s finished, he poses the bodies.
MAURY POVICH: The murders possess an almost Grand Guignol sense of exhibition, as if the killer views himself as some kind of a performance artist. Do you think this is intentional?
ROBERT NEVILLE: Oh, most certainly. Look at the locations and the manner in which he poses the bodies. He wants them to be discovered. He wants an audience for his handiwork. Something else interesting, Maury… I’ve recently learned that the killer has left behind cryptic “messages” for the police after each murder. Telltales, of a sort. I have no idea as to what they are, but this pattern demonstrates…
* * *
Channel 11 News transcript (September 10, 1988)
NEWS ANCHOR: Johnathon Slate is live at Edgewood High School this morning with breaking news. What can you tell us, Johnathon?
JOHNATHON SLATE: Thanks, Jeff. Neighbors here in the Edgewood Meadows community are on high alert. Yesterday evening at around 7:30 p.m., seventeen-year-old Annie Riggs, a senior at Edgewood High School, was walking home after field hockey practice when she was attacked from behind by what she described as “a large man dressed in dark pants and a dark long-sleeved shirt. He was wearing gloves and a crude mask with the eyeholes cut out.” After a brief struggle, the teenager was able to use pepper spray on her attacker and flee to a nearby house to call police.
NEWS ANCHOR: What a courageous young lady. Now, it’s my understanding that the mask was left behind at the scene…
* * *
Maryland State Police report
CID#17-C-9304
November 1, 1988
… when I noticed flickering lights coming from the grounds of the Edgewood Memorial Gardens off Trimble Road. I parked and immediately began searching the property. A short time later, I discovered the partially clothed body of a young female with long blonde hair. She was positioned in front of a headstone and surrounded by six still-lit jack-o’-lanterns. She appeared to have been beaten and sexually assaulted. I counted over a dozen bite marks on her chest, torso, and legs. Once I confirmed that the female victim was deceased, I radioed for backup…
* * *
Harford County Aegis (February 23, 1989)
THE FAMILIES MOURN AND REMEMBER
By Carly Albright and Richard Chizmar
* * *
WBAL News Radio 1090 AM / 101.5 FM (April 3, 1989)
DJ: The task force—headed by Detective Sergeant Lyle Harper and composed of members of the Harford County Sheriff’s Department, Maryland State Police, and Federal Bureau of Investigation—promised during last night’s press conference to continue pursuing active leads and interviewing additional persons of interest. The tip line remains open.
The murders of Natasha Gallagher, Kacey Robinson, Madeline Wilcox, and Cassidy Burch—all residents of Edgewood—remain unsolved.
* * *
Harford County Aegis display advertisement (April 19, 1990)
CAROL’S BOOKSTORE
Come Meet Hometown Author
RICHARD CHIZMAR
author of
THE BOOGEYMAN: A True Story of Small-Town Evil
Get Your Book SIGNED!
* * *
Fangoria (May 1990, Issue #92)
Nightmare Library Reviews
The Boogeyman: A True Story of Small-Town Evil
296 page
ISBN 1587678820
$19.95
Richard Chizmar, editor and publisher of the fledging horror magazine Cemetery Dance, has given us a heart-wrenching and terrifying small-town crime narrative that also delivers a satisfying dose of coming-of-age nostalgia…
* * *
CNN.com (September 7, 2019)
Laurie Wyatt, CNN—Hanover, Pennsylvania
BREAKING NEWS—“THE BOOGEYMAN” IN CUSTODY
… to recap this afternoon’s breaking news, members of both the Pennsylvania and Maryland State Police executed a search warrant on a residential home in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and took 54-year-old Joshua Gallagher into custody, charging him with the 1988 murders of four Edgewood, Maryland, teenagers, including his younger sister, Natasha Gallagher.
According to a police spokesperson, Gallagher, a longtime employee of Reuter’s Machinery, had been under surveillance for an undisclosed amount of time, while police awaited the results of a DNA test…
* * *
Interview transcript excerpt—Maryland Penitentiary, Baltimore, MD (December 5, 2019)
RICHARD CHIZMAR: The media came up with a number of nicknames for you. “The Boogeyman” was the one that stuck. Were you pleased with that name or indifferent?
JOSHUA GALLAGHER: I was pleased. [pause] It seemed to fit, and that was the first time I was able to put a name to the bad thing living inside me.
RICHARD CHIZMAR: You actually began to think of that part of yourself as “the Boogeyman”?
JOSHUA GALLAGHER: I did, yes.
RICHARD CHIZMAR: What do you mean when you say the name seemed to fit?
JOSHUA GALLAGHER: On the nights I hunted, I felt… different. I felt powerful. Bold. Invincible. At one with the night around me. As if I could fly and pass through walls and make myself invisible.
RICHARD CHIZMAR: You really believed you could do those things?
JOSHUA GALLAGHER: I could. I did. That’s why they never caught me.
* * *
Vanity Fair feature article (January 2020)
GROWING UP WITH A KILLER:
THE SAGA OF JOSHUA GALLAGHER & RICHARD CHIZMAR
… and in what has become one of the most talked about stories of 2019, we recently learned that Richard Chizmar is the only journalist that confessed serial killer Joshua Gallagher has agreed to speak with. Chizmar and Gallagher grew up two blocks away from each other in the small Maryland town of Edgewood and attended the same high school. In the late 1980s, Chizmar, a budding horror author at the time, wrote The Boogeyman: A True Story of Small-Town Evil, chronicling Gallagher’s five-month reign of terror. Gallagher is mentioned several times in the book, but only as the older brother of the first girl who was killed, Natasha Gallagher. Never as a suspect. The Boogeyman was released by regional publisher Eastbrook Press in April 1990 and by all accounts sold only a couple of thousand copies. There was no subsequent paperback edition, and it eventually went out of print in 1995. Suffice to say, Chizmar is staring at a much larger payday this time around.
* * *
Publishers Marketplace deal report (November 20, 2020)
CHIZMAR’S “BOOGEYMAN” SPOOKS GALLERY
After an exclusive submission, Gallery Books’ Ed Schlesinger preempted Richard Chizmar’s true crime memoir Chasing the Boogeyman. Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency handled the North American and open market rights agreement. Nelson said the book, which concerns a string of grisly murders in small town suburbia…
* * *
Channel 13 News transcript (August 17, 2021)
NEWS ANCHOR: I’m here this morning with Richard Chizmar, author of the much anticipated Chasing the Boogeyman, a true crime thriller with heaps of advance buzz, as well as a highly publicized movie deal with Paramount Pictures. Today is release day, and Chizmar will be signing copies this evening at 7 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble in Bel Air. Richard, good morning and welcome. How does it feel to be a hometown hero?
RICHARD CHIZMAR: [laughs] I wouldn’t go that far… but it’s all very exciting. I’m looking forward to hearing what people think of the book and hopefully meeting a lot of new readers.
* * *
Goodreads—Community Ratings and Reviews
Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
(Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books)
megs_bookshelf rated it. ✩✩✩✩✩
One of the best true crime books I’ve ever read. As much about the victims and the promising lives they once led as the unraveling of the mystery behind the killer. Told with an underlying sense of humanity and dignity, Chasing the Boogeyman is a triumph.
Alex rated it ✩✩
As I was reading Chasing the Boogeyman I couldn’t help but think about the families of the victims. It’s a decent story but at what cost and what purpose? When I turned the last page, I felt like I needed a shower.
Justin rated it ✩✩✩✩✩
Tense. Thought provoking. Heartbreaking. A must read for all true crime fans.
destiny rated it ✩
Sensationalistic crap. Don’t see what all the fuss is about and I wish I could get my money back. Not recommended.
* * *
Harford County Aegis—Letters to the Editor (November 4, 2021)
… and that’s precisely my point in writing today. As a lifelong resident and community leader in Edgewood, I would like to address the recent publication and rampant celebration of Richard Chizmar’s Chasing the Boogeyman. While many misinformed and miseducated individuals are claiming that Mr. Chizmar has “put Edgewood on the map,” I feel strongly that he has done nothing more than add to Edgewood’s longstanding reputation of ill repute. Upon reading no further than the introductory matter of Chasing the Boogeyman, it became painfully clear that Mr. Chizmar should have titled his book Chasing the Great American Dollar. To make matters worse, the only thing worse than Chizmar’s ghastly subject matter is his sophomoric purple prose. Both are worthy of the internet tabloids…
* * *
Variety (April 11, 2022)
While some critics have accused Chizmar of dipping his pen in a fountain of golden-tinged nostalgia, Martin Blevins from the Washington Post described the film version of Chizmar’s acclaimed book as “The Wonder Years meets The Silence of the Lambs” and an unqualified success. After making its debut earlier this year at Sundance, The Boogeyman has gone on to amass surprisingly strong box office returns and looks to perform even stronger via streaming outlets. Based on the New York Times and USA Today bestselling book by Richard Chizmar, The Boogeyman tells the story of one small town’s descent…
* * *
The True Crime Forum message board (April 17, 2022)
Thread: Chasing the Boogeyman
Started: August 17, 2021
Page 114 of 114
SHIRLEY FINCH
(Sunday, April 17, 2022, 7:14pm) We read it last month in our book club and everyone loved it. We always give the books we read grades and the only one ranked higher is I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK.
NIGHTHAWK
(Sunday, April 17, 2022, 7:16pm) Can you really swab a piece of furniture for DNA or was that made up?
GREG SALLADE
(Sunday, April 17, 2022, 7:23pm) Good book not great but good
KRIS WEBSTER
(Sunday, April 17, 2022, 7:27pm) What about all those rumors that Gallagher isn’t human? Back in 88 one woman told a reporter she saw a dark figure, seven feet tall, unfurl wings and fly over her backyard fence. Someone else swore they saw a man with horns protruding from his forehead trying to break into their basement door. Seems like there were a lot of stories going around like that.
