Ralph Lobaugh

I almost feel as if when it comes to the last several cases that I have researched have not only been ones with many twists and turns, but each time I sit down to compose them I am convinced it will end up being my longest blog yet.

I am not sure where I heard the name Ralph Lobaugh and the sad part about that is that it was not that long ago that this name made it to my list. This became one of those cases where I have spent hours upon hours today researching. Some of the extra hours is because there was a lot I needed to double check and confirm; some of it was because not only were there several victims but there were several suspects and perpetrators in this case, let alone other players in the story. I will admit that by the time I am done you may have a lot of questions. For that I apologize as I try my best to package these blogs well and have a full beginning, middle and end and I like to tie up as many loose ends as I can. That simply is not going to be the case here. If I were to do that with every character and story within this blog lets just say I should then just look for a publisher for a book. There are simply too many people involved in this case to give the deep details that I generally do.

This story is about how four women were murdered and a man falsely confessed to three of them. Over the years he would confess and recant repeatedly but that was the only evidence there was against him. Many believe the acceptance of his confession by authorities was politically motivated. Within a few years it became clear to nearly everyone that the man was not a murderer but he would still spend nearly thirty years in prison. I want to give credit to this website, http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/rhist10.php as it had a lot of information. The writer says they were given access to very old police files when they were available. Much of what I discovered about the victims and things that happened long before the legal cases began I found here.

The murders began in Fort Wayne Indiana on February 2, 1944. The first victim was Wilhelmina “Billie” Haagga. She was thirty-eight years old and a former vaudeville singer and dancer. By 1944, nearing the end of World War II, she was back living in Fort Wayne with her mother, sister and aunt and working at a “defense plant.” Haaga called her mother regularly from work and she had done so on February 2^nd as well. She called her at noon, as was normal and then right before she got off work at 4:30. She told her mother that she was meeting a friend to shop and go out to dinner and then she would be meeting her sister at 5:30 for “drill team rehearsal” (to be fair I do not know what this is). Two people would later say that they witnessed Haaga getting into a 1932/33 sedan as she left work. Haaga did not show up to meet her sister and just before 6:30 she staggered her way up to a farmhouse where she collapsed. It was discovered that she had been attacked about four miles from downtown Fort Wayne and a mile and a half from the farmhouse. The area in which she was attacked was discovered and it was believed that she had been drug 200 feet to the river bank where she was hit at least five times on the head as there was a pool of blood there. She had also been choked as there were bruises on her neck as well as on her arms and knees. Footprints belonging to Haaga, as well as presumably her attacker were found on the riverbank but it is unclear what was done with them, if anything. There was no sign that she had been sexually assaulted.

Wilhelmina Haaga died in the hospital on February 5^th. The following day her wallet was found. Investigators did not believe that robbery was a motive due to the fact that there was still money in her wallet. A person who lived near where the attack had happened told investigators that he had seen a car drive by about 4:45 on the evening of the 2^nd. The car was being driven by a man but a woman was in the car also. About forty-five minutes later he could hear a car driving fast down the rural road and by the time he got outside the car had passed but he saw it as it was rounding a bend and knew it was the same car he had seen earlier.

The website that I mentioned earlier states that on February 6^th a local funeral home worker claimed he received a call after midnight from a male caller. The man said he wanted to see Haaga's body and the funeral home worker told the man that they had closed at ten and he would not be allowed inside. The man started yelling and cursing at the funeral home worker saying he WOULD see her body by morning time. It was said that a woman in the background of the call could be heard and when she said something the male caller abruptly hung up. The funeral director called the police who went to the funeral home in case the called showed up but he never did.

It was also said that in late February the local sheriff's department received an anonymous letter written in pencil that described the weight, height, complexion and eye color of the killer. The letter also stated where the murder weapon could be found. I am unclear just what that description stated, nor can I say whether the person who stated this about the letter could say the description, only that the letter had existed. No one knows if the letter was followed up on.

Haaga's murder remained unsolved with allegedly no real leads in the case. Then three and a half months later another murder would take place. This time it was a twenty year old woman named Anna Kuzeff. Kuzeff worked a night shift at a local GE plant. I found it interesting that not only a woman worked the 11p-7a shift, but that there was even one to begin with. In fact I found a few reports that indicated that the local buses seemed to run all night long. I am uncertain whether this had to do with the war or not. I can remember back to the early 1980's when things closed between eight and nine in the evening during the week and on Sundays if things were open they closed between five and six. My father worked the night shift but he worked at the main post office in Indianapolis. I do not recall a lot of factories or other places open like that. However, it is obvious that in this time period there were some places.

Kuzeff left her house every night at 10:30 to walk up the street to the bus stop. The night of May 22^nd seemed to be no different. Kuzeff never made it to work that night. The following day a man was driving his son home from school at lunch and looked over at a field and saw a body. Evidence would later indicate that she had been attacked on the street just down the road from her house and then dragged to the field less than a half a mile away. Investigators theorized that the attacker was hiding behind a log and had jumped out at her. Her lunch and other items had been found near the road where it was believed she was taken. A postmortem examination revealed Kuzeff's neck had been fractured indicating that she had been strangled. She had a puncture wound under her chin and one of her front teeth had been broken. There was evidence that she had been raped but the coroner believed this happened after her death.

Kuzeff's stepmother told investigators that she had recently complained about a man at her work bothering her. She had suggested to her stepdaughter that she inform her supervisors. I found it interesting in the wording that I saw concerning her supervisors. It was said that they “did not recall anything.” Maybe it was the wording of the writer but I found it an interesting phrase. A teenage deliver boy told investigators he had seen a stranger several times in the neighborhood lately but did not see anything unusual on the day that Kuzeff was murdered.

Three hours after the body of Anna Kuzeff had been found the body of a man was found floating in a nearby river. The man would be identified as Clyde Scherrer, a janitor at the GE plant in which Kuzeff worked. He worked the 3-11 shift, or at least that is what his wife believed. His wife would say that she had last seen him about 1:00 in the afternoon on May 22^nd and he was in his GE uniform, as apparently he always was at that time. While she went on a shopping trip with someone she presumed he left about 2pm as he always did. According to the wife he generally returned home just after midnight but he had not done so the night before. Investigators talked to those at GE and was informed by a guard that Sherrer no longer worked there and had not done so in about a week.

Sherrer's body was found with scratches on his body and face. There were teeth marks on the fingers of his left hand. On May 27^th the medical examiner ruled that Sherrer's death was a suicide for “unknown reasons.” His wife had claimed he did not seem depressed but then again she obviously did not know that he was no longer working at GE and it was presumed he had been pretending to his wife that he did. Although she claims that he had his GE badge on when she last saw him, it was not found with his body. The only thing I found that indicated that investigators may have thought that Sherrer could have been Kuzeff's murderer was talk about the teeth impressions. First, even when it was thought to be a “science” in forensics, which I am unsure what the thought or status of this was in 1944, it was considered “junk science” and proved to be wholly unreliable. Secondly, the fact that Kuzeff had at least one front tooth broken did not help in this matter. Aside from that it it does not appear that Sherrer was looked at seriously as a suspect in Kuzeff's murder.

The website I mentioned earlier stated that in October of 1944 an ex-sailor who had been indicated for two raped confessed to killing Kuzeff. An investigation was done and it was determined that the man was at work on that day, presumably at that time or at least had some sort of alibi and was dismissed as a suspect.

While there had been about three months between the murders of Haaga and Kuzeff, in another three months a third body would be found. This body belonged to seventeen year old Phyllis Conine. On Friday August 4^th she had been reported missing. Her body was found in a “field of weeds” on August 6^th. Two brothers had been out “crow shooting” about four in the afternoon when they discovered the body. It was determined that she had been strangled and hit on the head but the coroner believed that the blow to her head occurred after her death. This scene appeared to have a lot more evidence. There was a trail of clothing, including shoes leading across the field to the body. Investigators believed Conine had been raped, but it was said that could not be determined for certain. There seemed to be no sign of a struggle around the body, nor was their blood found so investigators theorized that she had been murdered elsewhere and the body had been “dumped” there. Near the body a trench coat had been found. The coat was covered in grease and had blood on the lapel. Investigators believed that this trench coat belonged to the killer and they also believed that he was left handed due to the fact that the left pocket of the coat had been “worn” more than the other.

Conine's mother had last spoke to her at about 12:30 on the 4^th. Conine had said she was planning to meet a friend for a movie. It seems the story from the friend kept changing. She claimed that the two planned to meet at 3:45 to see a particular movie but upon investigating the movie they planned to see started at 3:30 with another showing not for a long while. Keep in mind this was 1944 and not 2022 where a new show starts every twenty minutes in a theater with ten or more screens. The friend at some point stated she had been late and did not arrive until 4:00 and Conine was not there. She claimed to stay until about 5:30 and never saw her. But, others claimed to have seen her at the theater around 4:30. In fact, three people claimed to see her the following night at a tavern. This did not seem possible as the coroner had reported that when the body had been examined she had been dead at least forty-eight hours. A ten year old girl who knew Conine did say she saw her Friday afternoon in a black Chevy car. She claimed that Conine waved at her and she waved back.

By now there had been three murders of women between February and August. On August 8^th a $15,000 reward was offered for information on the killer of the three women as it was believed one person had killed them all. In fact, the murders had all occurred in what was described as “inclement weather” meaning it had been raining in one form or another and he murderer was dubbed the Killer in the Rain.

Then on March 6, 1945 another crime occurred. While the murder of thirty-six year old Dorthea Howard would be lumped together with the other three murders, it was said that from the beginning investigators believed that her murderer may have been someone else. Howard was married to a local soldier but it was said that he was gone often and she did not like it and had taken to drinking. Whether that was true, or as bad as portrayed, is unknown. Of course that could absolutely be true but on the other hand we have to consider how women were looked at during this time period. The fact that she was married and would later been seen drinking in public and in the company of more than one man would not have boded well with her in the public, or likely the press. A policeman had been checking the stores downtown in the middle of the night and heard moaning in an alley. He went down the alley to find Howard; she was semi-conscious at the time. The night before Howard had been seen at a local bar around the corner from where she was found with a local soldier and a civilian man. The bartender would tell investigators that he had “cut her off” as she was highly intoxicated. Howard argued with him for a bit but then she left and soon after the soldier followed her out.

It was determined that Howard had been raped. Her shoes and “stockings” were found beside her while the rest of her clothes were several feet away. Before falling unconscious and dying in the hospital on March 17^th she would tell authorities she remembered “men” pulling off her clothes but being unable to resist. Soon after a local soldier named Charles Dodson informed his commander that he was with Howard the night she died. The police would be contacted and Dodson would tell his story. He said that once outside Howard was so drunk that she had fallen down in the doorway of the bar. He stated a civilian man (a different one than the one the bartender mentioned being inside) had come up to them and the man helped him get Howard up. As they were walking with Howard, Dodson stated the man was making “advances” towards her. They turned towards the alley and a car pulled in shining their lights on the two men. Dodson said that he ran from the area leaving Howard and that the man ran too but after a short while the man asked him to go back with him. Dodson said he refused and that he ended up getting on a bus about 3:30 that morning and going back to his base. The other man did end up going back. The car that had scared the men off was still there and was being driven by the “Madame” of the local brothel and would basically confirm Dodson's story.

And there these four murders sat. It was said that the town politics had been Republican while the local newspaper leaned democratic. The newspaper was highly critical of the local police and the city counsel members in their inability to solve these crimes. They often blamed them for not allowing outside sources to help them. And then in June of 1947, five months before local elections, a man walked into the Kokomo Indiana police department and made a confession. Kokomo was located about eighty miles south of Fort Wayne and it is not clear how much they knew about the murders in Fort Wayne, but after talking to Ralph Lobaugh they contacted Fort Wayne authorities.

Ralph Lobaugh had walked into the police station in Kokomo and had confessed to the murders of Haaga, Kunzeff and Howard. It was said from the very beginning that his confessions to the murders were not consistent with the known facts of the cases but authorities listened anyway. Keep in mind again, this was the late 1940's, long before the idea that someone would confess to something they did not do, especially murder, was even considered. That would not come until nearly forty years later in the mid 1980s. Many believe that since the county officials and local authorities had been chided so much about the unsolved murders they were happy to accept any confession, no matter how flawed it seemed and hoped it would help them in the upcoming elections.

Authorities believed, or at least publicly stated it seems, that while Lobaugh had confessed to all of the murders, except Conine, that he had in fact committed that murder also. They theorized that because Conine was a minor at the time of her murder Lobaugh simply did not want to confess to her murder. Lobaugh would recant his confession soon after making it saying that he and his wife (some say his second, some say his third) had been arguing and he wanted to commit suicide. He believed by confessing he would get the death penalty and the state would do the deed for him. But, then he confessed again, and then recanted again. Finally he ended up pleading guilty and on February 9, 1948 was sentenced to death. The following day he recanted once again. It was said that he had insisted on the hearing to plead guilty, all against advice from his lawyer. His lawyer also obtained affidavits from Lobaugh's former wife and father in law who stated he lived with them and worked in the town of Churubusco, several miles away, until the winter of 1945.

For those who had hoped Lobaugh's confession to the murders would save their political career they were wrong. The following November, after his confession, but before his guilty plea and sentencing the Democrats had taken over city politics in Fort Wayne. Lobaugh's first execution date was set for February of 1949. There were already a lot of questions surrounding his confession so despite Lobaugh sending the judge a letter in January asking him to not stop his execution, the judge did so anyway. Many in law enforcement were starting to believe that Lobaugh was not guilty and it would not be long before they would be convinced of it.

After the political elections democrat, Lester Eisenhut was appointed the new chief of police in Fort Wayne. In March of 1948 Eisenhut announced that new evidence showed Lobaugh was innocent and that there was an ongoing investigation to prove more. The prosecutor who had convicted Lobaugh was not happy to put it mildly and when put on the spot Eisenhut had to admit that while yes, the case was reopened and being investigation, nothing as of yet, had been uncovered to prove his innocence.

This brings us to the next suspect in this case, Robert Christen. It was said that Christen had a “long record of misconduct and bad behavior against women.” Remember Charles Dodson, the sailor in the Dorthea Howard case? Rumor was that at some point he had identified Lobaugh as the civilian man who was outside the bar the night he was with her. Later it was said that he actually went and talked to Lobaugh in prison and see him in person. After seeing Lobaugh, Dodson changed his mind about Lobaugh being the man outside the bar. Sometime before October of 1948 both Dodson and the Madame who had stopped in the alleyway that night identified the civilian man as Robert Christen.

In October of 1945, about seven months after Howards murder Christen had “four minor complaints against him” in court. They were dismissed on the condition that he left down so Christen and his mother packed up their things, moved to Denver and opened a grocery store. While in Denver he had been arrested for disorderly conduct and fined and although he had been released he had been detained in a robbery investigation. But, Howard's death was not the only suspicious death in Fort Wayne that Christen seemed to be connected to.

On February 7, 1945, a month before Howard was murdered, a twenty-six year old woman named Pearl “Torchy” Lee was found dead in her apartment. Lee's boyfriend told police that he pried open her door that Wednesday night when she did not answer and because he had not heard from her since about 3:30 Sunday morning. He found the body, which was badly bloated and swollen. The gas stove in the apartment had been left on which accelerated decomposition. Even so the coroner would rule that there was not foul play involved and after an autopsy it was said that the young woman had died of heart disease. Her boyfriend told investigators that her apartment had been fumigated on the previous Friday and that when he had last seen her Sunday morning he could still smell the chemicals. Investigators ruled this out fairly quickly considering that no one else in the building had died or apparently complained of having issues.

Eisenhut had been on the case back in 1945 and the cause of death being ruled heart issues had not sat well with him. He decided to re-open the case when he became chief. And, in late 1948 he was able to get an order to have her body exhumed. Now, whether Charles Dodson had identified Robert Christen in the Howard case by the time Eisenhut got the exhumation is not clear, but who knows. So why is this case important? Because the boyfriend was none other than Robert Christen. Despite Eisenhut ordering the exhumation and securing a renowned doctor on postmortem authority who would determine that there was no evidence of heart disease and that she had actually died from intracranial bleeding likely from blunt force trauma to the head he “sat on the report until 1951 when he said he heard that official sources outside the police department were looking into the case.” Prosecutors looked at the case and determined there was not enough evidence to take things to trial.

In October of 1948 a grand jury was convened. Dodson came back to testify and to his surprise the grand jury indicted both he and Robert Christen. Prosecutors dismissed the charges against Dodson but they went to Denver and arrested Christen in November. He went to trial and in April of 1949 he was convicted of second degree murder in the case of Dorthea Howard. Keep in mind Lobaugh had pleaded guilty and was also serving time for this murder. It was said that at some point both Christen and Lobaugh were serving time in the Michigan City State Prison together for the same crime but had never met each other. All of that being said, in January of 1950 the Indiana Supreme Court overturned Christen's conviction and ordered a new trial. Apparently it seems they did not think there was enough evidence to warrant a conviction. On January 27, 1950 charges were dismissed against Christen and he went back to Denver.

The website I told you about earlier on this case had mentioned something that I want to quote... “A story in The News-Sentinel years later said that Christen eventually was arrested in Arizona for a crime similar to the Howard case and that he was executed there. There is no record of a Robert Christen being imprisoned, let alone executed, in either Arizona or Colorado.” I attempted to do a search to confirm and I found nothing myself. There are plenty of sites out there that discuss executions within the United States and Robert Christen is not on any of them. I did a search with the name, with the spelling I have on findagrave.com and I searched Indiana, Colorado and even Arizona. I only found one that matched the spelling exactly. I cannot say that this was the same Robert Christen but it does not appear so. Whatever came of Robert Christen is a mystery. But, there were more mysteries to come.

On August 17, 1949 a man reported that his daughter, Leona Sparks, had been abducted and assaulted by a man who had come to look at their house that was up for sale. He had returned her by “dumping” her in the yard but the girl was savvy enough to get the license plate of the car he was driving. Police ran the plate and it came back to a Franklin Click. Franklin lived with his wife, Marie and their five children. Investigators went to his home and arrested him after a struggle. After several hours of questioning Click admitted to attempting to strangle Sparks with her belt. It seems that investigators felt that the crime against Leona Sparks was similar to some of the earlier murders in 1944 and 1945.

A question later became whether or not Click confessed to the murders of Haaga, Kuzeff and Conine to the police, or to his wife first. Based on the timeline I have it appears that he confessed to the police first because it was said that on August 20^th he was given a lie detector test that lasted five hours in which he denied killing anyone, “including Kuzeff and Conine.” It was said that the following day he asked to see his wife, where he gave her a letter in which he not only confessed killing the women, he also gave her the dates of their murders. Click allegedly took the police to each of the crime scenes and walked through what happened with them. He would later say that interrogators had told him he was likely to get life for the attack on Sparks so he had nothing to lose to confess to others and that he only did so in order for his wife to collect the reward money that was yet to be paid out despite Lobaugh's conviction.

So, let's look again at each of these crimes. In the Haaga case, two interesting things came up. First, Click claimed to use his own vehicle in her murder. It was a 1933 sedan just as had been described back in 1944. At the time of the murder Click worked only a few blocks from where she worked. An amateur sleuth named Floyd Moreland had looked into the Haaga murder way back in the early days. He had been given access to the files in the case and had copied them. He had discovered there had been a laundry ticket found near the scene of her murder. The name on the ticket was Clifford Siders. Moreland followed this trail and learned that Siders had died and that his car had been repossessed upon his death. Four days before Haaga would be murdered the car dealership had sold this car to none other than Franklin Click. Moreland said he gave the police the information but nothing happened. Then there was Anna Kuzeff. Click not only lived directly across the street from her when she was murdered, but he had actually been a pallbearer at her funeral! Kuzeff's father would later say that while all of the neighbors expressed sympathy, he had thought Click seemed affected much more but at the time had just brushed off the feeling. Next on the list was Phyllis Conine. Remember in her case that a trench coat had been found next to the body? Well, according to Click, just before he abducted her he had stolen a car and in the car was a trench coat. The owner of the car was eventually found but at the time no one knew that it was involved in a murder and apparently the owner failed to mention that a trench coat that had been inside the car remained missing after the car was returned. The owner was found and the trench coat was brought out of evidence and it was said that it fit the man perfectly. There was no mention whether Click or the man who owned the stolen car were left handed.

An Allen County Grand Jury indicted Click for all three murders but in the end, after getting a life sentence for the attack on Leona Sparks, he was only tried for Conine. Some say this is because again, Lobaugh was in jail awaiting a death sentence for the murders of the other two women. His trial began on November 28, 1949 and the prosecution rested on November 30^th. The defense called no witnesses. It was said that there was a psychiatrist who could have testified about giving Click a “truth serum” and had concluded that he was innocent but lets be fair, if lie detector tests should not be trusted, neither should truth serums. The jury deliberated for eleven hours before convicting him on November 31^st. The following day he was sentenced to die. Franklin Click was executed on December 30, 1950. I will admit despite everything I read stating that Click was not convicted or even tried for the murders of Haaga or Kuzeff but a 1950 appeal stated he was charged with three counts of first degree murder and indicated that he in fact been convicted of all three murders. The result remains the same, Click was executed and Lobaugh remained in prison.

But all of this brings us back to Ralph Lobaugh. As I stated earlier, his first execution date was set for February 1949. By this time Christen had been arrested and was awaiting trial for Dorthea Howards murder. One reference stated that in late 1950, just as Franklin Click was preparing to be exeucted the governor of Indiana decided to commute Lobaugh sentence to life in prison. A website that is dedicated to discussing the wrongly convicted stated that that he was “cleared” in 1950. But, while many, if not most people by this point agreed he was likely not guilty, he was still in prison so clearly he was not “cleared.” Another notation I found on that site stated that in 1951 Indiana Governor Henry Schricker”didn't pardon him but because he was homosexual he commuted his sentence to life in prison and transferred him to a mental institution.” I want to try to clean some of this up a bit as all of the above information, including the confusion as to when his sentence was commuted came from the same site. In an article written in 1977 it was said that when Schricker took office in 1948 he ordered the state police to re-investigate the cases. A detective concluded that Haaga, Kuzeff and Howard were probably murdered by the same person but it probably was not Lobaugh. Keep in mind that when the murders had been committed it had been believed that Howard was likely murdered by someone else while Haaga, Kuzeff and Conine were likely murdered by the same person. But, even after getting this report it was said that “Schricker termed Lobaugh unfit to be free or on the streets of any city” and that in May of 1951 is when his sentence was commuted to life. It also stated that over the next more than twenty years he would spend “two, two year stretches, in the state mental hospital.” Another article written in 1977 said that “he had become seriously ill and suffered from hallucinations officials placed him in a mental institution until 1963 when he was returned to prison.” As far as the allegation that Lobaugh was homosexual there was apparently one doctor who had examined him who stated he had “homosexual tendencies” but this was not elaborated on. Keep in mind however in the 1940's homosexuality was considered a perversion and a mental illness. I do not agree with how things are... I just “report” them.

So finally in August of 1977 the current Governor Otis Bowen at the time decided that he would grant clemency and offer Lobaugh parole on the condition that he went to a work release program for six months. The governor himself said it had been determined that Lobaugh was guilty of “little more than perjury.” So on August 24, 1977 Ralph Lobaugh walked out of prison in Michigan City and went to a work release center in Indianapolis. Lobaugh was struggling to adjust to the outside world. He worked out of the Indianapolis halfway house for a month or so and then transferred to a halfway house in South Bend. He was only there a few days before he claimed he just could not handle it anymore and he literally asked to be sent back to prison. The director of the work release program was quoted as saying “The man is institutionalized- he's just been locked up too damn long.” He returned to Michigan City prison on October 21^st. He was reassigned to his old job and his old cell. He remained there until shortly before his death on June 18, 1981 in a South Bend nursing home.

This case is the most convoluted I think I have ever blogged about, and that is saying a lot after more than 800 stories. I have done serial killing cases but this one was different on many levels. This is not a case where an investigator got tunnel vision and focused on someone and built a case around the suspect; this is not a case where the case was closed after a conviction. This is not even a case in which someone was convicted only later to be found innocent and released, at least not in a decent amount of time.

One can hardly argue that Ralph Lobaugh did not somehow bring some of this on himself. In fact, I think few could argue that Lobaugh likely had some mental issues. He was said to have confessed and recanted multiple times. As a matter of fact, after not confessing to the murder of Phyllis Conine initially it was said that after Franklin Click was convicted of her murder Lobaugh then did confess to her murder. Of course he later recanted that confession too.

But, lets look at these murders as a whole. When they were initially committed it was believed that Haaga, Kuzeff and Conine were murdered by the same person and that Howard's murder was committed by a different person. Then, when Lobaugh confessed to all but Conine it was said that they were all obviously committed by one person and that he had purposely not confessed to Conine's murder because she was a minor at the time of her death. It did not seem to matter to investigators or prosecutors that Lobaugh's confessions did not match the crime scenes and what they knew about the cases. They got the confession and they ran with it. When it was over the only one of the four murders that was left unsolved was that of Conine, but only from a legal sense because they were publicly saying he had committed them all. I agree with some of those who believe it was politically motivated but I also believe it was to ease the fears of those in the community. I also believe that they wanted to appear to be able to handle the crime their city. There were rumbles all around that the Fort Wayne police department was inadequate and inept. They had to get their man to prove differently and Lobaugh's out of the blue confession made it happen.

So then it seems that a new investigation finally took place after new leadership was brought in. This is when Dodson and his information came to light. So now they have a man who admits to be with a murder victims close to the time of her attack. And keep in mind this is the murder victim that initially they claimed was not killed by the same person as the others. I am sure that Dodson was likely initially pressured to identify Lobaugh as the man who was outside the bar, and it sounds like he did at first until he saw him face to face. It is not clear how Christen got on Dodson's radar but once he saw him he believed he had mistakenly identified Lobaugh. On top of this the story Dodson told of running from the scene and the other man asking him to go back and heading in that direction was corroborated by the Madame. She had pulled up, the two men ran, and one came back. She too identified Christen as the man. Christen gets convicted and now there are two men serving time for the same murder under different theories.

Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that I believe there was enough evidence to convict Christen in my opinion. To be fair, I only did a quick search because I knew I would fall down a “rabbit hole” and waste time searching things that would not add to the story and only lead to confusion. But, I did not really find anything that went though the information they had or how the trial was conducted. Obviously the state Supreme Court ruled there had not been enough evidence against Christen. I take extreme issues with this. Not with the fact that the court decided as they did, but that they could not come to the same conclusion for Lobaugh. Sure, the difference was that Lobaugh had confessed while Christen had not and was accused by others. But, the evidence still was not there.

Then as Christen is fighting his case in court to get his conviction reversed, here comes Franklin Click. He gets caught red handed after he assaulted a girl and ends up doing just what Lobaugh did, he confesses to three murders, two of which Lobaugh was serving time for and the third investigators had publicly announced he was responsible for. The difference between the confession of Ralph Lobaugh and Franklin Click is that Click actually knew where the crime scenes were and his stories matched the known evidence. There had even been evidence years before that had linked Click. Remember the amateur sleuth? He had linked the laundry receipt found at Haaga crime scene to a man who had died but his car was sold to Click just a few days before the murder. The trench coat at the Conine scene was linked to the stolen vehicle that Click admitted taking. Click lived across the street from Kuzeff. These were all better links to the victims than Lobaugh's confessions. Whether it is true that Click was only tried and convicted for Conine's murder is puzzling. Either he was convicted of the one murder that while was not legally solved through the courts previously, but publicly announced being a victim of Lobaugh's or again there is another man serving time for murders that Lobaugh was serving time for. Again, in the very beginning it was said that Haaga, Kuzeff and Conine were likely murdered by the same person and Click has a link to each.

Then, instead of finding Lobaugh innocent of the crimes they simply commuted his sentence to life and then after thirty years behind bars someone finally decided he should have never been convicted. Some may argue that he should have simply been released and not forced to do the half way house but I have to disagree with that thinking. As the director of the work release program stated, he was “institutionalized.” I tend to call this “Shawshanked” and if you have seen the movie Shawshank Redemption you will know why. They discuss in that movie what it means to be institutionalized and it is a real thing. People spend time behind bars and the world on the outside moves forward. Think back thirty years from 2022 to 1992. Think about how much has changed from everything to what things cost to technology to beliefs and ways of thinking. Having him go to the halfway house was compassionate gesture in my opinion. It was way too late though.

This is the first case in which I have ever heard of someone asking to go back to prison, let alone the government officials allowing it. I am unsure that would be allowed today. As I stated earlier Lobaugh has to take a lot of blame for the way his life turned out, and while I totally agree that, and there is no other way to say it, he was screwed over by authorities, I also believe that there was some sort of mental issues going on. In his first recantation he says he confessed as a way of suicide; he attempted to not allow the judge to give him a stay of execution. Was he really suicidal? Was he just trying to get attention for himself hence why he confessed and recanted so many times, even confessing to the Conine murder after Click was on the hook? In the 1940s it would have been nothing for authorities to have Lobaugh committed to an institution. I will be the first to say I am unsure he would have gotten the treatment he needed or deserved but he would have had a better chance than he got in prison.

I personally believe that Click was responsible for the first three murders and that Christen was more than likely responsible for the murder of Dorthea Howard. But, there is one last thing I want to touch on before ending this. There was a $15,000 reward offered after the murder of Phyllis Conine. It was said that in the letter Click sent to his wife in which he confessed to the crimes he mentioned this reward and that she should try to collect it. There seemed to be a lot of people who wanted that money. In the end while some disagreed, the reward, one that would amount to receiving over $200,000 today, was split between Marie Click, Click's last victim Leona Sparks and the amateur sleuth, Floyd Moreland.