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The Washington Murder of 13-Year old Bruce Kim. Why did this case receive so little coverage?

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Welcome to episode 48 of State of Fear – Washington

(00:00) Intro
(3:30) First up, we discuss some weird Washington facts
(9:40) Then, in Weird News, James regales us with a story of America’s First Doomsday Cult Hideaway.
(16:00) Finally, in our main topic, we discuss the little covered murder of 13-year old Bruce Kim.

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Research:
True Crime Case Histories – Volume 4 by Jason Neal
https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=24901393&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjMxMTA5NzM5LCJpYXQiOjE2MjA0MzUxMjgsImV4cCI6MTYyMDUyMTUyOH0.0q4wGrpMAYbplKV090BKNr-xasl_xWToC76fSHVCrg8
https://newspaperarchive.com/centralia-daily-chronicle-dec-31-1977-p-53/
https://newspaperarchive.com/centralia-daily-chronicle-apr-20-1977-p-1/

Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2VquHtBaVw&t=3046s

Transcript

(0s):
Welcome to true crime by Indy drop-in each week we feature an episode from the best independent creators hit subscribe for more great, true crime content. If you would like to help indie drop in support indie creators, you can buy us a coffee. Just go to buy me a coffee.com forward slash indie drop-in or click the link in the show notes below today’s episode is from state of fear. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for links to subscribe and follow us on social media. Enjoy the show.

(60s):
Welcome to state of fear where terrorists homegrown. Join us as we take a drive down dusty back roads and discover the obscure dark industry of this country, human and otherwise that lurk in your backyard.

(1m 16s):
To episode 48 Washington. First up, we get through some weird or Washington facts.

(1m 58s):
Then James regales us with the story of America’s first and doomsday, Colt hideaway. Finally, and we discussed a little covered murder of 13 year old. Bruce Kim. I’m your host, Chris and joining me is James James. Hey Ben, bud. Good evening, my brother. How you been brother? How’s the kiddo and how’s life, man. Man. Kiddo is good, man. She’s doing good, man. She’s doing really good. She’s growing like a weed. It’s so many things that you have to do and, and prepare for and worry about. And it’s just like it’s it’s it’s a clusterfuck. Yeah, so that’s okay though, man. It’s okay. Life happens. And that’s why, like I said, these episodes taking a little bit longer these days it’s okay.

(2m 41s):
Life happens. It’s free. So y’all deal with it. How about you, man? How’s the house hunting going, Dude, the house hunting is miserable. Every time I get a list built up of how potential potential new studios and everything and, and they all either go under contract or I go see them and they turn out to be tired, man. I was, I saw this one house last week. I thought it was going to be great. Had almost six acres of land, had a red barn, had everything. I mean all the pretty much about 95% of what I wanted, but the house was basically plastic. You went inside and all the siding is this weird plastic crap.

(3m 22s):
I would basically have, I’d have to spend about 30 to $50,000 to update it enough to make it where I would want to live. There. That’s a pain in the ass. Yeah, The kitchen was gorgeous, but the rest of the house was shaped. So I have had to dismiss it, man, but I’m still looking still looking Well, best of luck to you, buddy. Hopefully you find something soon. You can get settled in. I appreciate your get your home studio built and we’ll be rocking and rolling bud. Yeah. Thank God. All right then why don’t we go ahead and get into some of these weird Washington facts that we have. And Did we show you may have heard the story of an odd occurrence in Oakville when a few strange rainfalls resulted in some mysterious blobs falling from the sky, that one were proven not to be an airplane waste and two got some people sick and killed a couple of pets.

(4m 16s):
That sucks. Damn one theory is that the flying jellyfish were involved and author named Charles Fort who investigates all things odd, speculated that there was a species of nearly transparent jellyfish floating in the upper atmosphere. Yeah. Over the years, pilots have seen objects in the sky that resembled jellyfish and people have found dead birds with marks on them. That look like jellyfish stings. That’s cool. Dang. That’s a little weird, but that’s a little messed up right there. Flying jellyfish creepy then crashed into three cars while doing a hundred miles per hour down a highway in April of 2013, when police arrived, they found he was wearing fake breasts and was paneling all the officer’s.

(5m 11s):
He’d had a dream. He was in a car crash. That was, it did not explain the fake breasts or no pants. Oh, ignore the Fake titties in the Porky pig and you know, Explain any of that. Yeah. As part of world war II, defenses and I aircraft military weapons were installed to top of the U S department of the interior. The problem at 10:00 AM on September 3rd, 1942, a soldier accidentally pull the trigger, releasing a round of ammunition at the Lincoln Memorial bullet hit the buildings, fries, I guess that is and damaged a few state names listed in tribute.

(5m 52s):
Oops, sorry, Connecticut, Maryland and Texas a and that guy got fired. Yeah, he did so fired right Before a Washington war Memorial was rededicated in 19 62, 2 homeless men found their way inside the structure. The second infantry war Memorial, which is located near the white house and lips proved to be a comfortable place to catch some undisturbed. Naptime. What the men didn’t know was that construction on the Memorial was not yet complete. According to the Washington post, the construction workers were installing an eight inch thick piece of granite atop the rebuild structure.

(6m 32s):
When they heard newspapers shuffling from inside, the men escaped being sealed inside the Memorial forever. Holy crap, that would have sucked Would have sucked poor guys. I mean, can you mentioned waking up and being stuck inside basically, basically a tool. Now I’ve heard of that like, like the Hoover dam and stuff like that when they built those large dams and things like that. People, if people fall down in the farms and they pour the concrete, they’re not going to bust, you know, $200,000 worth of concrete and let it spill out over some slug that fell down the hole. He’s he’s permanently in case. Yeah. A lot of bodies in that down, man. That’s messed up.

(7m 12s):
That’s messed up. They are lucky. Yeah. All right. Why don’t we get to some, a couple of a quick famous Washingtonians Washingtonians. Yes sir. We have Mr. Bob, the price is right Barker morning. Derrington also happy Gilmore fame and spray your pets. The price is wrong, bitch. That’s it. We also have Adam West, the smooth talking Walla Walla, Washington, Batman, 66 Mayer on family guy Was hilarious and family guy. I loved him. He was awesome. Bet. I mean, Adam West was a fine actor.

(7m 54s):
I mean, it was hilarious. I never forget the shark on the leg with the shark repel and that 66 movie man Growing up that scared me so bad because as a kid, I didn’t really have a concept of like how big the ocean was. I mean, it was big and it was that big. But like, I think I th I really think that in like jaws cemented my mortal fear of sharks because hell yeah. But like Batman was in there in the water for like a split second. He barely dipped in and he comes out and there’s a shark. So I’m thinking, anytime I’m in deep water, there’s going to be a shark right there waiting for me like it was for Batman.

(8m 34s):
So I think that helped cement. My mortal fear of sharks. Yes. The anti shark bat repellent. I remember him calling it. Yeah. Yes. Cause he has everything. All right. So then the next two are two famous musicians. We have Mr. Jimmy Hendrix, the amazing guitar player from yep. He is fantastic. Kurt Cobain, lead of Nirvana. One of the bands that helped redefined rock in the nineties from Aberdeen. No comment also thanks to him or the things. Thanks to him. We also have Dave Grohl who went on to form the foo fighters.

(9m 18s):
Another amazing man work with my boys at Queens of the stone age and some other things. But yeah, Kurt Cobain is a, whether you like him or not. I liked Nirvana. I didn’t like Nirvana until I hit my thirties. When they first came out. I didn’t like that kind of music. But later on, I had to grow to appreciate it for what it was, but like him or not, he helped to redefine rock in the nineties. He was also a big fan of chewing on lid. So anyway. Yeah. Unfortunately That was a bad deal. Yeah. Well that’s what happens when you like him or not. You never want to have anybody’s life in like that. That’s too bad. That’s what happens when you marry the Courtney love. So I guess so. Yeah.

(9m 59s):
All right, buddy. Well, why don’t we go ahead and get into your weird news of the day. Indeed, sir.

(10m 39s):
I love that damn song. Oh right. I do. And that thing is it gets you pumped up and ready to read some news. Today’s story is America’s first doomsday cult hideaway it just from the Ripley’s. Believe it or not dated March 30th, 20, 21 tucked away in a remote section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a former meeting place of America’s very first doomsday cult named after the group’s leader. Johannes kalpas this 40 square foot tabernacle is built onto the side of the hill above Wissahickon Creek. I hope I pronounced that.

(11m 20s):
Right. It sounds like you did a me good job Thought to possibly be an old spring house. Legend has it. This stone framed hideaway was once a safe place for 40 months as they awaited the end of days. And the second coming does Reverend Kane does Reverend Kane reign the boom in 1694, a group of German mystics and monks dub the society of the women in the wilderness. That’s a mouthful settled along the Wissahickon Creek and the Fairmont park section of the founded Philadelphia. Their society was named after a woman in the book of revelation who sought refuge in the wilderness during the apocalypse.

(12m 3s):
Well, the apocalypse didn’t happen yet. Anyway, the monks chose the location of their cave. Not only for easy access to clean spring water, but because of its position on the 40th parallel, the group also created a 40 square foot tabernacle, including an observatory where the monks practice, the astronomy. It is believed to be the first observatory in the new world. That’s very cool. Very cool, man. They were ahead of their time. Heck yeah. Numerology was a sacred practice to the monks and the number 40 held a special significance. I wonder why the hermits of Wissahickon, the hermits of Wissahickon as they were called were led by the caves namesake 26 year old Johannes Kelpies, the Transylvania and mystic and scholar was born in the same village as LOD the Impaler and earned an MBA in theology from the university of alt Dorf, like many others, all outdoor.

(13m 0s):
I like that funny name, like many of the others in the group, calculus, his expertise was in medicine and music composition. He’ll you. And then we’ll do some jamming that’s right. During his time at outdoors, Kelpie us was introduced to the pilotis religious movement. Positivism is a movement within Lutheranism. Yeah. All these words that emphasize his personal holiness and devotion over mere compliance to church rituals, Kelpie, a Sassoon joined a small group of young men called the chapter of perfection formed by German. Pietist John, Jacob Zimmerman.

(13m 42s):
Yeah. I said it. I said, your name is my name too. That’s right. The group believed that they were on the brink of a new spiritual age and had to prepare for Christ return that I will not fault them for, because nobody ever knows. In 1692, the chapter of perfection was anonymously offered a free plot of land and a free passage to Pennsylvania. Kelby is believed this to be an ideal opportunity. As the 17th century, Pennsylvania had a reputation for religious tolerance and many Quakers Pietist communitarians and free thinking groups had sought refuge. They’re Like those hippies dirty hippies.

(14m 23s):
Yep. Passing the torch to copious shortly before the group was set to depart from America, Zimmerman died and appointed Kelpies. As the chapter of perfection’s new spiritual leader, copious was determined to complete his mentor’s mission of awaiting Christ return. It said that kelp is, and the rest of the group remained in the forest. Even after the anticipated end of the world had come and gone, creating music and art, studying the skies and medicinally, helping those in the local community sounded like a bunch of hippies passing dope hippies, man. That’s right. In fact, it wasn’t until 1708 that the monks disbanded following copious his death and the shortage of weed.

(15m 10s):
I’m sure some of the members stayed in Philadelphia and eventually became lawyers and doctors, a bunch of hippie doctors and lawyers. I love it. Three centuries have returned the site to the unruly wilderness that the monks saw when they first got there today. The meeting place for the Kelpies is monks. The kelp uses. That’s what it says. That’s what it says. The calculus is monks is nothing more than a lone cave on a hill. A large granite monolith was placed outside of its entrust by the Rosicrucians Rossa. Crucian. Hell I don’t know how you pronounce it.

(15m 49s):
I guess in 1961, a worldwide mystical brotherhood claiming roots in ancient Egypt and considers kelp is the original American Rosa cruciate. That’s it Very cool man. Written by A Stephanie Weaver. Very interesting story stuff. I like it. I didn’t know. We had monks in America that far back. That’s cool. That is very cool. Yeah. Nice story. But thank you, sir. All right. Why don’t we go ahead and get on to our main topic of the night, the murder of 13 year old Bruce Kim. Yes.

(16m 28s):
. This case is not widely discussed in true crime circles. The main source of his case, funny enough is from a set of books. I found at half price books it’s called true crime case histories. This one was in volume four by Jason Neil.

(17m 8s):
Now the author, Jason Neil only knew about it because he actually lived a few blocks down from Bruce Kim when it all went down. Wow. See, now this is what’s great. This is exactly what we shoot for. See this, the more unknown, but still interesting crimes. And you know, you name it, man. That’s that’s, that’s perfect for this. Go for it. Very interesting. Matter of fact, a a Google search for murder of Bruce Kim returns, only a few articles from local papers. I searched for his killer. Tommy Reagan brings up next to nothing. In fact, an image search only brings up about three pics of him. Wow. But on the evening of January 1st, 1977, 13 year old, Bruce attended a house party at the apartments in rural Centralia at Washington in Celeo was in 1977, a small town of about 10,000 people.

(17m 60s):
And it was considered a twin city with neighboring Chehalis, which is only about 5,000 and the author. Jason Neil describes it as a beautiful rural area, surrounded by miles and miles of dense forest in every direction. It sounds like all of wash. Yes it does. Yeah. I say, yeah. Tell me something. I don’t know. Apartment complex, Bruce went to for the party. However, it was anything but beautiful. It was described as an old rundown apartment building near some railroad tracks at the north end of town, apartment number seven, belonged to an older man who was known for having wild parties where anything went, partying, included weed, LSD, alcohol, and all ages were well, Nancy that’s.

(18m 47s):
I was just about to say and minor children like, jeez, This is the kind of party I will go to when I was in high school that down the street, we’re like either somebody’s parents didn’t care or you knew somebody knew somebody who was older, who just like you walked in and you have beer or whatever you want. And, but it was, it was cool because everybody was chill. Yeah. There was no hostility. It was there to have a good time. And everybody knew that if one person got out of hand, fucked it up, we couldn’t come back next week in the hangout, you know? Exactly. Plus we didn’t have phones and shit that people actually like, you know, have talked to each other, which sucked ass. Anyway, when Bruce did not return home by the next morning, his mother Joan called us in Cellia police report a missing.

(19m 31s):
Now Bruce was not one to stay out all night without calling her first. Joan found Bruce’s bike in front of their house at 1002 L street. But he was nowhere to be found. He’s 13, 13. Oh, it wasn’t. It wasn’t like him to stay out all night without calling first. He’s 13 fucking years old. This is 13, 19 77 in small town, Washington though. So you know, different rules. Yeah. 77. I was about 10 and I, I did run the streets. So thank you. Exactly. I stand correct in standing. Correct. She went on to say that he was small for his age.

(20m 10s):
According to some friends who saw him biking the day before he was last seen wearing blue jeans, Jean jacket, and a printed t-shirt. They found no clothes missing from his room and he had very little money on him. So as such, please ruled out Bruce having to run away from home. When detectives contacted Bruce’s friends, they found out he was seen heading towards the Mac apartments day before they questioned the apartment resident who was cooperative and gave pleased a list of attendees. As he best remembered it, please then spend the next few days, questioning all the attendees one by one. But we’re met with a lot of silence.

(20m 51s):
As most of the residents were reluctant to speak with police due to all the illegal activities that took place that night and no clues were uncovered in Bruce’s disappearance. Big Shots, nothing, man, I ain’t saying shit. I just, I wonder if like one of them was like really high still when they got there, they were like, he was like, Dave’s not here, man. That’s right. Oh, what’s his name? Oh Ben, what? I G I quit. I’m out. I’m out though. No, you’re you’re you’re been w who? Ben. Ben’s not here. No, you’re a bit. Anyway, the next night, the doors of the Centralia fire department were met with a loud excited pounding just before midnight.

(21m 36s):
A man from new apartments had run the six blocks to the fire departments to alert them of a fire at the complex. It’s not for met with silence. So he then ran an additional three blocks to the police department who learned the fire departments. But by the time they arrived, it was too late. The entire complex was burnt to the ground. They knock on the damn door of the fire department, six blocks down. And all I got was, I mean, jeez, nobody called him. I mean, shit. The whole apartment complex is on fire. I Refer you to 1977 small town. Okay, Washington. Okay then.

(22m 16s):
Okay. I get it. Then having a dollar be Exactly tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I’d be surprised any of the phones, any apartments or any, any of the occupants in the apartments had had her phone period. Yeah. Firstly, our view For any of our listeners under 40, that was the very poorly imitated sound of an old style rotary phone. Very importantly, like a half-hour to dial phone. Yeah. I mean, what w what was the number that you were so pissed? If it was in your number? It was like zero or one that was theirs And zeros all the way around and nines nine.

(22m 58s):
If your number was like 9, 9 0 0 9 9, it take you like 1 34 minutes to dial a number. Let’s Explain a little more. So, so as we said, it’s a rotary phone. So all the numbers earn a circular, a disc, and each finger hole had three, three or one number with like a bunch of stuff. So it was like one through zero, whatever one through nine into zero. So in order to dial the number, you had to put your finger in their finger hole for like, say three, and then turn it to the right towards the little clicker. You let it go. And the, the disc rotates back to the beginning. So keep that in mind. When we say, if you had nine to zeros, you have to hit the nine zero, all do almost do a whole 360 back around, let it go for it to come all the way back around before you can hit that.

(23m 49s):
It’s crazy. Yeah. And it’s funny having to explain this because I remember dialing this thing. Like, it was no big deal. And now here we are, years and years later, decades later explaining how to use. I remember when we first got our first digital phone that had like the 20 foot line on it, you know, and it had like little cradle and you popped it open and it lit up. And then all the buttons, I was like, man, this is space, age right here. Awesome, man, I can actually go 20 or 30 feet with my card, Take it under the kitchen table and just lay it on the table and talk on the phone. Yeah. Anyway, so back to it.

(24m 29s):
Yeah. So the apartment complex was burned to the ground. Not at all. Suspicious, not at all. Sure. Just that just happened. That investigation and by the fire, Marshall found no evidence of accelerants and the wiring in the building was very old. So there was a chance of a fire by a faulty wiring. Chance was pretty high, actually Accelerants for you, arson impaired individuals out there. That means like gasoline lighter fluid, kerosene, something to make the place burn faster. Right. Okay. But something didn’t sit right with the fire. Marshall whose intuitions told him it was the work of an experience. Arsonist. His suspicions were solidified when he learned that the complex was the very last place Bruce Kim was seen alive.

(25m 18s):
Detectives told reporters if Bruce Kim’s body had been in the apartment, there would have been some evidence of his remains in the fire debris, fragments of bones, something, it is extremely rare for a body to be completely destroyed in a fire, even the Holocaust as fully involved as that of the lamacq. Yep. Yep. Here’s a little, little quick information for anybody. That’s just toss this sin as to why the human body can survive a building fire of that nature and still be there. Smoldering. Once the fire goes out, the human body has to be exposed to 1400 degree heat for more than three hours for it to actually burn down into powder.

(25m 60s):
So I’ve heard, We’ve discussed that in the spontaneous human combustion episode. We actually Did. We sure did. We sure did talk about that. Cause when they cremate you, they have to crank up the, they have to crank up the torches. They can’t just use regular fire, right? It doesn’t work. Exactly. And it does take three to four hours at the minimum, please were frustrated by the fact, or I take that back. They were frustrated by lack of clues in the case. But on January 13th, they would get a break. Susan Regan called the county sheriff and told him that Bruce Kim was most likely dead. She showed them a pair of jeans that her brother, Tommy Reagan left with her, the jeans were staying with what looked like blood at the cuffs.

(26m 43s):
The lead investigator recalled quote. She says, Tommy brought her the jeans and told her he gotten the stains on the cuffs. When he turned a body over with his foot. Susan was clearly, clearly terrified when she left the jeans. 33 year old, Tommy Reagan was no stranger to trouble. He had had run-ins with the police since he was a teenager at 15 Tommy solar car and was sentenced to the Greenhill school. Washington’s maximum security lockup for older juveniles. He and another juvenile broke out one night, stole the 1.5 ton vehicle and led police on a 45 mile. High-speed chase some good old boys having some fun boys added again.

(27m 27s):
That’s right. They drove the 1.5 ton vehicle. The wrong way up the highway crashed through a barrier rammed in the six other cars almost ran over a police officer before they were stopped. Yeah. Reagan spent the next 17 years in and out of jail on charges that ranged from burglary, larceny car theft to rape and kidnapping. When Reagan was 20 years old, he was charged with kidnapping of a 14 year old boy named Bobby at knife point. Reagan had approached Bobby and his friend after a baseball game one night and it asked to help push his car. Once they got to his car and started pushing Reagan brandished, a switchblade knife Bobby’s friend took off leaving Bobby to the horse that were to come nice.

(28m 13s):
Friend, asshole Reagan dragged Bobby into nearby forest and cut them in the ribs with a knife several times. He then sodomized the boy and dragged him into this Cookham Skookumchuck river. That’s a funny word, Chuck. It’s a lot of K’s in there. Okay. Meanwhile, Bobby’s friend had gone to get the authorities. And so when Tommy was distracted by approaching police sirens, Bobby was able to get away. Reagan was captured and charged with kidnapping at the time of Bruce Kim’s disappearance. Tommy Reagan was out on parole and living in Seattle 90 miles away, but he had been in Centralia that day, visiting family, not only that, but he had been at the party at the Lamech apartment and had been questioned by police in the days after the disappearance with this new information and possible evidence.

(29m 12s):
The police really wanted to question him again and contacted his parole officer in Seattle, according to his parole officer, he was living with someone named Christina, Keith, Anna Kemp. That’s what is what the words today’s is we got some weird names. I know Ks and everything in there. Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you what’s with this name. Christina Keithan. I Kemp born Charles Wheeler, similar to Reagan’s. Oh hell. When Charles was just a kid, he realized he actually identified as a girl. Same quote. All I knew was I wanted to be a girl and I wasn’t in quote Back then they simply called them transvestites and left them at that nobody quote, unquote identified as anything.

(29m 60s):
Back then they were just a cross dresser or Whatever. While in his teens, he assumed he was gay and married at the age of 16, only to divorce at 21, he was quoted as saying the homosexual life was a disappointment. I wanted to talk love and marriage, pots and pans, and all they wanted to talk with sex. And he turned to alcohol after the divorce and became traumatically, depressed and ended up in the Eastern state mental hospital with a diagnosis of incipient schizophrenia Dam. It was after being released that Charles decided to become Christine. He officially changed. The name started wearing women’s clothes and makeup.

(30m 41s):
However, lacking in funds to take the next step, to make it official. She was arrested in sentence to 20 years in prison for cashing stolen checks. She was released after only three years and within 20 days was arrested again. This is going to start this cycle of this particular individual. This, this woman is like just, I mean, she’s given so many as we’ll go through. We’ll just see so many chances. See, she’s locked up so many times sometimes for, for life, but then she just gets lucky and gets out only to go right back in. Not long after. I mean, I th the number of chances this woman has is amazing.

(31m 22s):
So Christina stated that she was in a parking lot of a grocery store when she was accosted by a man who was trying to force her to have sex. She stabbed in the death in self-defense, at least that’s the way she tells it. Exactly. She was arrested for murder since life in prison, in the Washington state penitentiary in Walla Walla, a men’s prison, Walla Walla, who was born in Walla Walla. That would be Mr. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Walla Walla Batman shot. Right? As you can imagine, being in a men’s prison, she was harassed and ridiculed by the other prisoners and criticized by the prison psychologist who told her that she was just a homosexual somehow by some miracle, even though she was given a life sentence, she was released in 1973, strangely when she was released, she received a $1,000 payment from an anonymous donor to start a fund, to get her sex changed since the don’t.

(32m 30s):
Yeah, yeah. Since the donation wasn’t enough for a full sex change, she used it to get breast implants and hormone therapy instead. And this was in the seventies. I honestly that’s this thing, no joke. I’m not making fun of that or nothing. It’s just that I had no idea that they were even doing that back then. That, that far back, you know what I mean? Yeah. I mean that’s because it wasn’t in, it, it wasn’t in popular culture on news or on TV because of how conservative TV was back then, but it was Happening. That’s true. Okay. Yeah, I get It. It’s not like now we’re all over the place because, because social media and, and, and media in general has become much more open to the idea.

(33m 17s):
Now, back then. No, you couldn’t, you couldn’t, you didn’t even, you didn’t Even hear the word damn on TV Hurley. You could hardly be black or Mexican or Asian back then because it was just too conservative and everything’s too crazy. All right. The payment came from a flamboyant church in Seattle, the preacher of which was a transvestite himself who had 40 D fake breasts and dressed in flowing silk robes. So very progressive church in Seattle, which is not surprising in Seattle. Just kind of place where progressive starts, I guess it pretty much. Yeah. In the spring of 1973, Christine would get married again to a man named Andy.

(33m 59s):
Their wedding took place in the church that made the donation, which televised their wedding and paid for their honeymoon to Hawaii. I know this woman is, is handed stuff, and yet she still commits crimes and still gets out way before. She’s supposed to ignorance. Soon, both Christina and Andy were arrested on drug charges and sentenced to prison. The police arrested her as Charles Wheeler. And so she shared a cell with her husband, Andy. Oh, geez. How convenient? Yeah. Once again, serving only a short time.

(34m 41s):
Christine was released after only 18 months. What happened to her hubby? Still in jail? Still there, still there. She got released, but he didn’t. So what I’m saying, this is why she is, she’s given so many opportunities, so many miracles come her way and she gets it mean she should have still been in prison for that murder. Yeah. I ain’t know shit. This time she moved to Seattle and this is where we find her living with Tommy Reagan while her husband, Andy still sat in jail Or poor. Andy Andrew Do frame. Yep. That’s ex oh man. Good, good reference.

(35m 21s):
Meanwhile, on January 12th, Tommy Reagan was pulled over and his 1965 green Corvair for a traffic violation. However, since this was before he was wanted for additional questioning by police, he was only cited and released. And hadn’t been seen since that time, the Seattle police paid a visit to his known address. And neither him nor Christina were at the apartments. Reagan also owned a brown 1965 Barracuda that was often driven by Christine, but please we’re cautious to approach either vehicle when spotted as it was rumored that Reagan often carried a sawed-off 22 caliber rifle.

(36m 6s):
Please send Centralia, went back to Reagan sister to see if she had any more information. She told police that Reagan admitted to killing Bruce Kim and had buried the body somewhere in Yelm, Washington, which is a town about 30 miles Northeast of Centralia. Now the area around Yelm and Centralia was surrounded by a vast and dense wilderness. Again, most of Washington I’m sure, especially in 77, finding a grave would prove a monumental feat, Centralia. Please reach out to young police for help, who checked with someone Reagan’s old prison buddies in the area, but they hadn’t heard from him. Either detectives learned that the Corvair Reagan had had been sold date after he was stopped for the traffic violation.

(36m 51s):
They contacted the owner and impounded the car’s evidenced. It’s pretty smart. You know, he, he, he got pulled over, realized he wasn’t being looked at or sought after for the disappearance. So I was like, screw it. I’m getting rid of this car because they know this car already. Please found what they look, what looked like bloodstains on the seats installed. The undercarriage had recently scraped on something. This led them to think that Reagan had bottomed out the car somewhere in Yelm, possibly on an old logging trail when disposing of Bobby’s body smart thinking their coppers true debt, true debt on Friday, January 14th, Seattle, please track down Tommy Reagan and took him into custody for breaking parole.

(37m 34s):
He remained silent for the entire entire 90 mile drive from Seattle to Centralia. No, that was going on. Reagan sister had come forward and give him please two more items that Tommy left behind a shovel covered with dirt and a pocket knife. Damn. I mean, it’s this sister Just selling his ass out or right up the river. Yep. Once again, she gave them more information that she didn’t tell him the first time she talked to them and she just says all the information. She knows everything. She said, Boy, and he cut the heads off her Barbie dolls. That’s right, exactly. She told detectives that she didn’t know the exact location that he buried him in, but said, quote, it’s supposed to be near the Cougar mountain area of Yelm.

(38m 22s):
There’s an old logging road, a mud hole where you have to turn and go through a fence, a kind of rise in the land as a road bends around there’s trees, just small for trees and quote, please hypothesize at the quote rise in the land and quote was, or Reagan may have bottomed out the Corvair. The morning of January 16th, the team of officers searched the area, new Cougar mountain. The weather that January was miserable, raining, wet, making the old logging roads, muddy the force around him was so thick and overgrown with Blackberry bushes vines and for trees. It made the search that first day of failure team went out the next day on the 17th, armed with aerial maps and plaster impressions of the couriers tire tracks.

(39m 14s):
Again, smartness before like FLIR and all that and stuff. They were, they were doing old school back then and just, just sticks and impressions. That’s how shit got. So somewhere along one of the old logging roads that came across her first clue tire tracks in the mud, the mud matched what was recovered from the Corvairs tires. Following the tracks, they came upon a large hump in the road that they believed is where Reagan bottomed out. The Corvair. The detectives took samples of the road to test against the dirt, found on the car. And once a team reached the end of the day, the tracks, they spread out and searched the surrounding area of dense forest.

(39m 56s):
100 feet from the end of the tracks, please came upon a fallen tree that had been recently burned. And they also noticed drag marks in the mud near the log found a patch of Buffalo grass that was not in the ground. It had been thrown on the ground and seem to have been used to hide something. Oh, Tommy, you dumb motherfucker. Exactly. Tommy Thomas on the team began to dig with their hands and just six inches from the surface. They came upon a body. The body was lying face down and there were what appeared to be physical trauma, slashes and scratches could be seen on the back. And a massive gash was found on the back of the neck.

(40m 39s):
As they continued to dig, they soon came to horrible realization. The head was missing. Holy hill. The head had been completely severed and was not in the grave with the body. When they removed the body and placed it on the ground, they found limbs had deep cuts in them, as well as if someone tried to remove them and gave up even more horrible. When they turned the body over on his back, they could tell the body was of a boy, but the boys’ genitals have been completely removed.

(41m 19s):
Lord. There was also a massive incision from the pubic bone to the chest. Apparently he, first of all, was not a very good killer anyway, but the, he didn’t know how to dismember a body and made a bunch of different cuts and gave up because it was too hard. No, no, I’m just reserving comment because he’s just a Royal bastard and I’ll be burns. And hill Processing the crime scene. The only additional evidence found were a couple of scraps of toilet paper with a distinctive brown floral print. The body was taken back to Centralia for a post-mortem examination. Now, due to the cold that January, the body showed minimal signs of decomposition.

(41m 59s):
Police were certain, the body was that a Bruce Kim, but since there was no head for positive ID nor teeth for a dental match, they had considered fingerprints. However, Bruce being 13 had never been fingerprinted before. Oh shit, this is true. They luckily caught break. When they learned that Bruce had had a severe leg break, they x-rayed the body they had and compared it to the x-rays from Centralia general hospital and found they matched the body. Was that in fact though, Bruce Kim, jeez, the initial autopsy noted that Bruce’s blood alcohol content was 0.2, one Still, but I guess when you die, your metabolism comes to a screeching halt.

(42m 46s):
So that kid was twice the legal limit of the time. So he wasn’t officially plastered And that’s an excessive amount for most adults, but for a kid at the corner, the corner admitted that decomposition and blood loss can cause false results from BAC. So that was, there’s no way to prove that he was that drunk. I got you. They then began. Police began to retrace all Tommy Reagan’s movements for the past three weeks. They already knew that he was at the party at the Lamech apartments. The retrace found that Reagan had borrowed a shovel from a prison fringe on January 3rd, at 1:30 PM and returned it later that evening, they found he had slept in the Barracuda one block from the apartments on the night of the fire and had been seen in the yellow area on January 12th, near where the body would be found five days later.

(43m 37s):
However, none of the evidence from the car proved to be useful. Now, Tommy Reagan was still being held in Seattle for a parole violation only. And wasn’t saying a word to investigators. Christina Kemp had disappeared, but was considered a person of interest because she lived with him. Please secured a search warrant for Christina and Tommy’s apartments and for the Barracuda and upon searching the apartment, they found work gloves, caked with dirt maps of the helm area and miscellaneous paperwork, belonging to Tommy Reagan. They also found a story written by Tommy that told the story of a homosexual killing involving two killers in one victim.

(44m 21s):
They also found rolls of toilet paper. That exact matches of the sample found in the forest near where Bruce was found evidence piling up piling. This is like a game of clue. We’re all evidences in one damn room. He did It in the forest with a knife. And somebody told him that that’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Their search also uncovered a photo in an album that showed Reagan staring wide-eyed into the camera. The pentagram was drawn with blood on both cheeks because the initial search warrant was very specific with regards to what they seek. They had to request another warrant in order to collect that photo, they found, Jeez.

(45m 6s):
Police then began to wonder if Bruce was killed as part of a cult sacrifice. Well, I’ll tell you what, you never know that. Back in 77, we never did know man, all the drugs and shit was gone back then. And with that, let’s take a quick break. Welcome to Pineapple pizza podcast, where we serve up delicious slices of mythology, cryptozoology and urban legends. Ashley is the MythBuster. Tyree CEUs is finally just like it was you. Okay? Emily is the cryptid hunter and it’s this guy that’s bending over and farting into the face of absolutely horrified cap.

(45m 49s):
The cap is like, and Lindsey is the storyteller snap. What’s a snap pineapple pizza podcast. Stop on by for a splice, the story and a laugh, Questioning the other residents, please learn of a third car. A Toyota that Christine owned that was still in the apartment. Parking lots. One resident told the police that Christina told them that Reagan had accidentally hit a young boy with his car breaking his Nick. Christina had further told a resident that Reagan had panicked and buried the body.

(46m 30s):
After obtaining a third warrant, please uncovered pickaxes rope and an army shovel in the back of the Toyota police decided to question the church minister who had donated money to Christine, as well as hosted her wedding. When they arrived, they noted the church was really more kin to a cult. Please found that the churches where Reagan had taken the photo with the pentagrams on his face, they met with a resident who had actually taken the photo who claimed it was all just a joke that Tommy was not involved in anything. So it was just a joke. What else is a joke until popping the banana or a banana into the pipe? None of the residents had seen Christine in quite some time.

(47m 10s):
And very few of them had even remembered Reagan on Wednesday, July 19th, please officially charge Reagan with aggravated murder. In the first degree, the only crime in Washington that carried a mandatory death sentence, aggravated murder is when a homicide takes place in conjunction with another crime. So prosecutors believe that Bruce had been killed in an attempt to cover up his rape by Reagan. Yeah, because of they left him alive. Of course he poured them out, right? How are they? They had no evidence that Reagan had raped Bruce on January 25th, Reagan appeared in court and pled not guilty to the charge of aggravated murder. In the first degree, finally on February 8th, Christine Kemp walked into a police station with her attorney.

(47m 58s):
She told police that she had nothing to do with the murder and had no knowledge of it at all. However, her tune quickly changed when the police offered her full immunity. If she could testify against Reagan. Yeah, I think I was singing like a bird. Exactly. Ridiculous Police then went and interviewed Bobby. The boy Reagan had kidnapped 13 years earlier. Now this is when Bobby finally revealed to the police. What all had happened when he was taken into the woods. After being taken into the woods, Reagan put the switchblade up to his throat and threatened to cut off his genitals pin quote.

(48m 39s):
If he didn’t cooperate. Bobby was in raped orally in Ainley before escaping, even with Bobby’s testimony, prosecutors admitted that this was an uphill battle to make the aggravated murder charge stick. Now another witness would come forward who claimed to have seen Reagan having sex with Bruce in the early hours of January 2nd. While this testimony didn’t prove rape, it did put Reagan with Bruce the night of his disappearance. Yet Reagan’s trial was set for April, 1977, just before the start of the trial. His attorney called police and told him that Reagan wanted to deal. Reagan would plead guilty to a lesser charge of secondary murder.

(49m 21s):
If it would spare his sister who was pregnant at the time from testifying, he was concerned that having to testify it would endanger the baby. Oh, how nice. And Daniel killed A little murder. Yeah. The second degree murder is committed. When a person intentionally kills another person, premeditation is not required. It also carries life sentence as opposed to the death penalty and while not part of the deal, Reagan stated that he would also lead the detectives to the location of Bruce’s head again. How nice is that? This murderer? Yes. Yes you are. Prosecutors accepted the deal.

(50m 1s):
And as Reagan already had three felonies charges were filed on Sunday, April 17th, accusing him of being a habitual criminal conviction on the habitual criminal charge brings a mandatory life sentence. Any person found to be a sexual psychopath cannot be released on parole. So this is the path they were hoping to get to keep him in jail. On April 18th, 1977, tell me Reagan pleaded guilty to second degree murder and led detectives to the head of Bruce Kim. Had they not taken the deal? They stated that Bruce’s head would likely have never been found.

(50m 41s):
The lead detective stated quote, it was buried in brush. So thick a coyote couldn’t crawl through it and quote, damn 300 yards from the grave site. The police located decomposing head inside some dense Blackberry. Well, So it was close. It was close to where it, yeah, it was close to where He just, he just at arms length, just threw it away as fast, as hard as he could throw just where it landed. Yeah. Using dental records that were able to confirm it to be identity of Bruce Kemp. Reagan finally told police what went down that night. Bruce and Reagan were hanging out in the parking lot of the apartment complex Reagan stated that he and Bruce were extremely drunk and had a dispute at one point, Bruce swore at Reagan, which threw Reagan into rage.

(51m 29s):
Okay. So we got a 13 year old kid arguing with a 33 year old guy and they’re fighting and arguing and they’re and they’re drunk. They’re positive. They’re extremely drunk. He wrapped his hands around Bruce’s throat and squeezed Reagan didn’t even realize he was dead. Quote. I didn’t realize I’d killed him. I thought he was breathing and quilt. He’s a small 13 year old boy. 33 year old jackass. No idea. Oh, he did. Ah, damn. Yeah. He put the body in the trunk of the Corvair and drove to Seattle as he drove along the logging road, Reagan through Bruce’s closed out of the car later, please for able to locate several pieces of clothing in the area Reagan described, sometime later he had driven back to Yelm removed Bruce’s head to avoid identification and buried the body.

(52m 25s):
He also removed the genitals at that time though, when asked why he claimed to not remember doing it nor making any of the additional mutilations slash marks or attempted dismemberments due to the media attention. The case was getting in Centralia. The trial was moved from Lewis county to Suffolk county. Now during one of the drives back to Lewis county jail, they pass the hamburgers. Dan Reagan was familiar with Reagan wind at the, he would probably never taste another milkshake for the rest of his life. He’s tasting a milkshake, Not the kind he likes though. It’s going to be, it’s going to be a milkshake with a meat straw.

(53m 6s):
Yep. That’s it. Chief Jones though, the cop that was driving him was a fair man. And as authored Jason, Neil states, chief Jones was a firm believer that all men deserve some sense of dignity regardless of what they may have done in their Lives. In quotes. He deserves a gunshot to the head. And so, And so chief Jones stopped and bought Reagan. His last milkshake, that last act of kindness would turn out to be a big payoff for law enforcement. A few days later, Reagan asked to speak to police. Chief Jones Reagan said, quote, it came down just like you had put it together.

(53m 48s):
I trust you. I won’t talk to anyone, but you, there are some things I could clear up. If I knew I wouldn’t get prosecuted for it. I could clear the board. Some in quote, in an extremely controversial move. Chief Jones spoke to prosecutors and asked to grant immunity for Reagan for any prosecution of crimes, other than homicide or crimes out of this jurisdiction. And the prosecution agree. Reagan then admitted to setting the Lamech apartments on fire. On the evening of January 5th, just before midnight Reagan was parked near the building quote, it was so ugly. I just went back to burnt down because it was so ugly and quote, he told the police that he was drunk and simply wedged newspaper into the frame of the building and lidded ablaze.

(54m 34s):
Damn how Ricky is a damn apartment building. If all it took was newspaper to set that mug on fire and burn to the ground, it was just, it was held together by matchsticks and frigging like kindling or something. I’m going to say, and I don’t know how the wood can be so dry. Right? Cause I’m sorry. The Pacific Northwest is very humid. Lots of rain constantly. Yeah. So I don’t know how it’d be like a matchbox. It’d have to be. Yeah, It went up apparently fast. So shit. He also admitted to setting several other fires in the area, including forest fires, buildings and bridges with no regard for them in life. Just a wonderful human being. I swear all around man of the year, He said he always just used newspapers and a match.

(55m 17s):
He then confessed to several other burglaries, larcenies assaults, and another rape of a young boy on Wednesday, April 20th, prosecutors filed additional charges against Reagan, including first degree assault and two counts of sodomy for what he did to Bobby in 1963. So the heaped it on. Oh yeah. At least what they could. Yeah. Oh yeah. Reagan would be convicted of second degree murder being a habitual criminal second degree assault with a deadly weapon in the first degree and two counts of sodomy for his rape of another boy in 1974. As of today, Tommy Reagan, who’s now 77 is still incarcerated in the Monroe correctional complex in Monroe, Washington.

(56m 4s):
Okay. Well I’m going up that way. I think I’m going to go to Monroe and pay that bastard. A visit. You’re going to give them a different kind of conjugal visit. They come on in here. Gum barrel up his ass. Nope. Just twist his head off. Okay. That, I mean, that seems appropriate. I mean, you know, I just snapped it. Shit. Punishment fits the crime, pull his hat off. And I don’t care if he is 77 years old, be easier. I was just going to say to make it easier to do that. Yeah. Brutal Bastard. I surprised somebody killed him. I mean, because rapists child molesters, you know, PR you know, sick offense like that always end up getting killed in prison because there’s honor among these.

(56m 46s):
As I say, you know, if you murder armed robbery, Alicia, you did something bad and you’re in prison. But yeah. If especially sex, it’s like, oh yeah, they’ll tear you apart. Oh, interesting. Yeah. No, you want me to go sodomized little boys. Guess what? We’ll see in the shower about nine o’clock fair place or turnabout’s fair player or a about to damn straight. It is. Yeah. Okay. So that is the story of the murder of Bruce Kim. That I’m going to tell you what man, for something you said as obscure as it was, that’s a hell of a lot of information. Yeah. Well again, the vast majority of it, like, like 80% came from that, that book by Jason Neil, the rest, I actually, I found a bunch of information through newspapers.com and newspaper archive.com.

(57m 39s):
I found actual articles of what went down during the time. So I was able to pull information from that too. But other than that, I mean, I only had four sources for this one. Usually I have like seven or eight sources for stories with four, thankfully Jason Neil had 85% of the information. So yeah. But yeah. There’s well done, sir. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was quite an interesting story. I mean, it has it, it’s just, it’s small towns, Washington in 77. It’s just got all the hallmarks of just, you know, people who were bored apparently. Yup. Smoking too much damn dope or not enough. Maybe I don’t know enough, you know? All right. But why tell the folks at home where else I can find it somewhere else, where at, where they can find us, they want to reach out to us and, and, and talk to us and all that good stuff You got a brother.

(58m 27s):
Of course we are on the three, the axis of evil. We are Facebook. We have Instagram and we are on Twitter. And the state of fear podcasts. We also can be found anywhere. You listen to your podcasts, Spotify, Google, you know, apple, you name it. We’re there. Listen to it now. Absolutely. And we even have a YouTube channel. We have a T public website. If you want to get some state of free merchandise, you go to T public.com, search state of fear and Patrion. We do have the patriotic patrion.com for slash I believe it’s state dash of dash fear.

(59m 7s):
If I’m not mistaken, might be fear. One word. Okay. Well, okay then thank you for the correct. I appreciate it. Another quick reminder, you just want to take a few minutes out of your day and submit a review to apple podcasts or wherever you listen that allows you to do so. If you’d like to submit a good rating for us and take a snapshot of that, a rating and email it to state of fear [email protected], you will be rewarded with a 1996 collector’s edition X-Files postcard.

(59m 50s):
We do have a few left. So while, while supplies last, as They say, get them all, we got them. Yes. Even if you don’t want the, the gift card or the postcard, you know, if you don’t mind just hop on over and drop us a little review or rate us more importantly, even if you want to leave a, to wherever you that said not bad and just give us a five-star rating. That’s fine. Just you. And also, like I said, for the YouTubers up there, if you’d just click to subscribe, you don’t have to get the notifications if you don’t want to. But if you could just subscribe for us, that would be fantastic. Oh, and, and key leaving comments. So we got another cool comment the other day on another one of our episodes on YouTube, somebody from Hobbs reservoir nearby Hawes reservoir knew about the area and commented on that, on that video.

(1h 0m 38s):
So it was cool to hear from them. So, yeah. So if, if you, if you live in an area or just comment, we love it. I love seeing the comments on YouTube. So yeah, please do, man. All Right, man. Great episode. Great story. Let me tell you, man, I am ready to hit on to the next day. Cause next state is one of our favorites. Good old West Virginia West Virginia. There’s man, let me tell you, you can make her out of that state. Gosh, no kidding. We can do A 90 parter on West Virginia and there’s So much like just looking up information on West Virginia. I was like, man, what do I pick? And you know, obviously there’s the more, there’s the more well-known stuff like, like the moth man, absolutely.

(1h 1m 19s):
The Braxton county monster and all that stuff. But yeah, I was like, man, this is going to be hard to pick. So, but yeah, I found something fun for, for West Virginia. Very cool man. So I’m looking forward to getting to that. So let’s, let’s get in the car, head on over to old West Virginia. We got to man. Let’s get on down the road, brother. What do you say? Let’s do it. All right guys. We’ll see you all next week. Take care guys.

(1h 3m 39s):
Thanks again for listening to true crime by Indy. Drop-in if you would like your show featured, reach out to us at Indy drop-in on all social media or go to Indy, drop in.com. See you next.