Remembering Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Jansen

 

A Monster Unleashed

A beast. An animal. Evil incarnate. Those words would adequately describe Eugene Gall.

In 1970, the State of Ohio had Gall exactly where he belonged – in a cage. Gall, a “permanently dangerous” psychopath who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was serving time in the Lima State Mental Hospital for a series of rapes he committed in Butler County, Ohio. Gall was known as “The Friday Night Rapist.” He would clock in at work on Friday evenings, leave to rape women and young girls, and then go back to work and clock out so no one would know he committed his crimes.

During the time Gall was in the institution, he was also charged in Warren County, Ohio with kidnapping a 15-year-old girl at knife point and raping her. He pled guilty to that crime and received an additional three- to 20-year prison sentence.

After 15 months in the mental institution, Gall was found sane and transferred to prison to serve his 20-year sentence. Although Gall was a violent serial rapist with severe mental issues, on April 12, 1977, The Ohio Parole Board decided to grant him parole. Gall had served just over five years of his 20-year maximum prison sentence. That decision would cost two young girls, Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Jansen, their lives.

Beth Ann Mote

After his release, Gall got a job in a nursing home, where he would take elderly women to the hospital for dialysis treatments. While he waited for the women, he would look for his next victim. That is likely when he spotted Beth Ann Mote. Beth Ann, who came from a good home and lived in a quiet, trusting community in Dayton, Ohio, stood 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 75 pounds. She had waist-length brown hair and braces on her teeth. The tiny ninth-grader at Oakwood Jr. High School excelled in the arts and played the clarinet and piano. She enjoyed artwork and loved cats.

On Thursday October 20, 1977, Beth Ann left for school at her usual time of 7:15 a.m. Beth Ann, who had turned 14 years old two weeks earlier, was excited to play in the band at the freshman football game that evening. As she was walking to school, a car pulled up next to her. A man got out and asked her for directions. The man was Eugene Gall. As Beth Ann pointed out directions, Gall put a knife to her throat and forced her into his car. Beth was crying and praying as Gall drove her around. In an attempt to calm her down, Gall had her write a ransom note on her pink heart-shaped notebook paper.

Eventually, Gall pulled off to the side of the road and sexually assaulted Beth Ann. He held her captive for five hours. One could not even imagine the terror and horror this little girl experienced during that time. Gall later stated that Beth Ann kept reciting the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Gall eventually took Beth Ann to a wooded area and tied her to a tree. When she started crying, Gall untied her and told her to pull up her blouse. Beth Ann, likely terrified and realizing she was going to die, told Gall to tell her mother she’d wait for her in heaven. As she pulled up her blouse, Gall stabbed her in the chest. Thinking he had missed her heart, Gall stabbed Beth Ann several more times. He then left Beth Ann to die alone in the woods and fled.

When Beth Ann did not arrive home after the football game, her brother called their mother, who was at a meeting, and told her that Beth Ann never arrived home. Beth Ann’s mother immediately came home and called all Beth Ann’s friends. No one had seen her. Her mother soon realized that Beth Ann never made it to school, and she called the police. A frantic search began to find Beth Ann. A few hours later, her school books and two sweaters were found in two alleyways. One sweater was bloodstained. A week later, on October 27, 1977, they found Beth Ann’s battered, stabbed body in the woods where Gall had left her to die. Authorities also determined she had been raped before she was killed.

A Trail Of Terror

Gall went off the radar for the next five months. He re-emerged on March 7, 1978 when he kidnapped a 13-year-old Dayton, Ohio girl on her way to school and raped her at gunpoint. Gall then left Montgomery County, Ohio and went to Greene County, Ohio. There, he abducted four young girls, all under age 13, from their school bus stop at gunpoint and forced them into his car. He drove to the house of one of the victims and forced the girls inside. A mother of one of the victims was also inside the house. Gall separated the five terrified victims and restrained them. He then proceeded to sexually assault two of the young girls. He robbed the house and fled to Hamilton County, Ohio, where he found his next victim, Lisa Jansen.

Lisa Jansen

12-year-old Lisa Jansen loved the Girl Scouts, softball and hanging out with her friends. She dreamed of one day becoming a teacher so she could help mentally challenged people. At 7:35 a.m. on April 5, 1978, Lisa left home to meet her friend so they could walk to school together. That is the last time Lisa would be seen alive.

At 9:25 a.m., a woman driving down the road spotted a red jacket lying on the side of the highway. She stopped and picked it up. A short distance later, she spotted a schoolbook on the side of the road. The book had the name “Lisa Jansen” written on it. After arriving home, the woman telephoned a nearby school and advised them she found one of their students’ belongings. The principal told her they had no one by that name at the school. Later that day, after seeing a TV news story, the principal called the woman back and advised her that a girl named Lisa Jansen from Cincinnati, Ohio was missing. The woman called Cincinnati Police and reported that she discovered the jacket and the schoolbook.

Kentucky State Trooper Gary Carey

At 10:15 a.m. on the same day Lisa disappeared, Eugene Gall entered a small grocery store in Kentucky, just over the Ohio border. Gall, armed with a .357-gauge magnum revolver, robbed the storekeeper and her customers. The storekeeper, who was familiar with weapons, noticed the gun was loaded with lethal hollow-point bullets. As soon as Gall left, the storekeeper reported the robbery to Kentucky State Police.

Gall was spotted and followed by Detective Joe Wheelan. While being followed, Gall pulled his car up behind State Trooper Gary Carey’s patrol car. Trooper Carey had pulled off to the side of the road to chat with a local farmer. Gall drove up slowly, put his gun outside the car window and shot Trooper Carey in the chest. Trooper Carey had begun to pull out his weapon, however the force of the bullet spun him around and forced him to drop it. Gall then got out of the car and shot Trooper Carey in the chest a second time, knocking him into a ditch. Gall fired twice more, however he did not hit Trooper Carey. Detective Wheelan pulled up and fired at Gall, however none of the bullets hit their target. Gall got in his vehicle and led police on a 50-mph chase. During the chase, Gall shot a woman bystander, who would survive. Gall was eventually captured after being rammed by a police cruiser while he was trying to make a u-turn.

Trooper Carey was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. One bullet had gone out his back and other had lodged in his left lung. Trooper Carey somehow managed to survive and returned to duty a year later. Trooper Carey still carries the emotional scars from the incident. Pieces of the bullet, as well as the pieces of a pen that was in his shirt pocket, remain in his lung to this very day.

A Suspect Is Found

After Gall was arrested, he immediately became a suspect in the disappearance of Lisa Jansen. While being questioned, Gall would not deny he committed the crime, he would only say he could not recall his whereabouts. The next day authorities found the body of Lisa Jansen alongside a creek in Northern Kentucky. She had been raped and shot in the back of the head execution-style. Gall was charged with the rape, kidnapping and murder of Lisa Jansen.

Authorities in Montgomery County heard about Gall’s arrest, and Detective Lance West immediately went Kentucky to question him about the rape and murder of Beth Ann Mote. In Gall’s wallet, Detective West found a piece of paper with the name of the 13-year-old Dayton rape victim written on it, along with her birthday and her parents’ names. Police later found Beth Ann’s hair clasp in a car a Gall had sold to an auto dealer. Detectives were also able to place Gall in Dayton on the day Beth Ann was killed. Despite the evidence, Gall continued to deny his involvement in Beth Ann’s rape and murder.

Convictions and Confessions

Gall went to trial in Kentucky and was charged with the rape and murder of Lisa Jansen and also for attempting to kill State Trooper Carey and shooting the woman bystander during the car chase. The evidence against Gall was overwhelming. The bullet in Lisa’s head, as well as the bullets in Trooper Carey, matched the bullets from Gall’s gun. Red nylon fibers on Lisa’s body matched the carpet in Gall’s automobile, and semen stains found on Lisa matched semen stains on the front seat of Gall’s car. A jury had no problem finding Gall guilty and sentenced him to death for raping and murdering Lisa Jansen. He was also convicted of shooting Trooper Carey and the woman bystander during the chase, and received an additional 15 years.

During the Kentucky trial, Montgomery County, Ohio detectives continued to question Gall about Beth Ann’s rape and murder. Shortly after being sentenced to death in the Lisa Jansen case, Gall admitted to Detective West that he raped and killed Beth Ann Mote while being driven back to Ohio for questioning. During the secretly taped interview, Gall told Detective West his crimes were “all impulse. I see a girl walking down the street – bam. That’s it.” Gall spent the next few days giving detectives all the details. He took detectives to the snow-covered crime scene and showed them exactly where he murdered Beth Ann. He also took a polygraph and signed a confession.

Gall went to trial in Ohio for kidnapping, raping and killing Beth Ann Mote. He acted as his own attorney. Ten days into the trial, facing overwhelming evidence including his own signed confession, Gall pled guilty to one count of kidnapping, one count of rape and one count of murder. He received two 7-25 year sentences for the kidnapping and rape charges and a life sentence for murder. All sentences were to run consecutively (back to back).

Gall also pled guilty to kidnapping and raping the 13-year-old Dayton girl, and received two additional 7-25 year sentences that were also to run consecutively. In Greene County, Ohio, Gall went to trial and was convicted of rape, attempted rape and aggravated robbery for the school bus stop incident. He received several decades more added to the other sentences. Gall was then sent back to Kentucky to await execution.

A Final Injustice

Gall was determined not to be executed. In 2001, a federal appeals court gave him his wish. In 2001, The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Gall’s death sentence, citing that he was mentally ill. They ruled that Gall’s constitutional rights were violated because the prosecution attacked the insanity defense in front of the jury, did not reveal crucial documents relating to Gall’s mental health and made the jury believe that Gall would go free if found not guilty by reason of insanity. They also said retrying Gall would be double jeopardy and ruled that he could not be retried. The ruling wiped away all of Gall’s crimes in Kentucky. This decision was affirmed in 2010 by a federal appeals court. This means that in The State of Kentucky legal system, the rape and murder of Lisa Jansen, the attempted murder of Officer Carey and the shooting of the woman bystander never happened. Rather than have Gall placed into a mental institution, Kentucky handed Gall over to a Ohio to serve his life sentence for raping and killing Beth Ann Mote, as well as his other sentences for his multiple sex crimes.

Since the death penalty was not an option in Ohio at the time of the crimes, and the life without parole option did not exist, Gall is thus eligible for parole.