Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another Baddie Book Review! This is my first time writing about a true crime novel so I would love to hear what you guys think in the comments!
***Some warning/ disclaimers for future readers***
- This book is a true crime novel meaning these are real lived experiences of the victims
- The crimes perpetrated on these victims are truly horrific, and Ann does not shy away from sharing the full picture of what happened to these women
- This book includes crimes such as robbery, sexual assault and harassment, and murder
- Includes the sexual assault of children
- This book includes many injustices by different institutions such as the courts, probations, and police, in which they failed to keep the public safe from a very dangerous man
My Review
I have always really enjoyed Ann Rule’s writing. I would give this one an 8/10. Something I always appreciate about her is the respect I always feel she gives to the victims of the crime she writes about. While obviously serial killer Randy Woodfield is the main focus of the book she always makes sure to provide no sympathy for him. She goes into Randy’s early life to provide some form of explanation as to why he would have ended up the way he did but she doesn’t present it as an excuse.
One thing I didn’t enjoy as much was how much focus there was on Randy’s romantic escapades once he was arrested. This is very much a personal feeling but it really annoyed me to know how much attention he received from women even once he was convicted. I know that this was a big issue for the time (70’s and 80’s) but I honestly could have just lived without knowing it. Something about people romanticizing serial killers has always really upset me. I mean it still happens today where people ignore others’ horrific crimes all because they are good-looking… so that must mean they are really a good person? Sadly this theme isn’t just present for when Randy was arrested but also before. The women around him were honestly being idiots in my opinion and were assuming that because he was so normal on the outside he couldn’t possibly do anything like this and stayed on his side during the court proceedings. This guy was a majorly sick person and the women around him who acted surprised really shouldn’t have been. I mean he clearly was a very unstable man for most of his life so I am just not sure how so many people were so shocked when this happened. Along with the fact that before he was arrested for murder he was convicted of sexual assault/harassment multiple times!
Summary and Commentary
Starting off we learn of some of Randy’s horrific crimes. I won’t be going into detail about what he does as I feel it’s too much to share here, I do recommend you give the book a read though for these details. I will be sharing the names of his victims if it is in the book. The first crime happened in December 1980 at a gas station. An unnamed 22-year-old cashier is robbed at gunpoint. A few days after Randy robs two young women at a Baskin Robins at gunpoint. The next day a young woman at a drive-through is robbed at gunpoint by him. Four days before Christmas Randy corners a young waitress named Kim Meehan in the bathroom at the restaurant she works at and sexually assaults her. Randy prefers to assault orally and through fondling. In half an hour he goes into a different Baskin Robins than he went in before, and robs the two teenage girl workers at gunpoint. In January 1981 Randy goes back to the same gas station he robbed before and forces the young woman working (different from the one before) to strip and robs the worker. A few days after he robs a grocery store. The next day he robs a young woman working cashier at a grocery store named Suzie Bennet. Suzie challenges Randy by laughing at him and he shoots her. She survives the shooting. On January 14th, 1981 Merri Sue and Megan Green were in their home alone. The girls were 10 and 8. Randy forced his way into the home by tricking the girls into opening the door. He sexually assaulted the girls. Randy during his crimes used a disguise to hide himself. He would often wear the same clothing, place a strip of tape over his nose, and would wear a fake beard. I have to say that this all was spoken of in the prologue and I was horrified. It is terrible that this man was able to do so much damage, to so many people, in such a short amount of time.
On January 18th, 1981 Randy committed one of his brutalist crimes. Beth Wilmot and her friend Shari Hull were cleaning an office building in the evening. Randy broke into the building, held the girls hostage, sexually assaulted both, and then proceeded to shoot both women in the head. Shari passed from her injuries but Beth survived. Dave Kominek is introduced as one of the main detectives on specifically Beth and Shari’s case but overall takes on a lot of the total case on Randy. Kominek seems to be a very driven and passionate man. He dives deep into the case of Beth and Shari and is really moved by Beth’s strength throughout the case. I have to also share that Beth Wilmot is a very amazing woman. The things she’s been through and the strength she had to present in order to advocate for herself and Shari were truly heart-warming.
Next, we get a look into Randy’s early life. We learn that Randy had two stable parents who generally tried to provide the best lives for their children. His father worked often and his mother ran the home which was common at this time. His parents set many goals for him causing Randy to feel a lot of pressure to succeed in things like school, sports, and his social life. Randy presents to have resentment towards his older sisters as they had more freedom, and what Randy felt was less pressure on them. He resented his mother as well for this dynamic. Randy blamed his sisters and mother for feeling a lack of control over his life and what he got to do. Randy felt that they controlled his life too much and he wasn’t getting to be a man. I really do think this dynamic is so telling as to why Randy eventually treats women as he does. He interpreted women in his life as being controlling of him when really it was just that his sisters were teens when he was a child, and his mother just wanted the best for him. He internalizes this misogyny and feels like even though he is a child women should have no say in what he does or how he lives his life. He desperately wanted to impress his mother, but then hated her for this. Randy got into sports young and was quite good at them. He noticed that his father and him connected best when he played sports so he often played them for his father and not himself. Randy was also a fairly popular guy. Randy wanted to impress the girls his age but noticed that they weren’t impressed by his charm so he generally went for girls younger than him. In college, Randy dated a woman named Sharon Miller. Sharon and him broke up and he didn’t handle the rejection well. It’s supposed that he broke into her home and trashed it in retaliation. After this Randy made friends with a girl in the 8th grade… like what the fuck. This guy is so fucked up and how no one did anything or didn’t notice this before is beyond me. The two didn’t have a sexual relationship but it was romantic in nature. I find it funny that Randy perceived that he didn’t have any freedom when it seems to me he actually had a lot. It’s all very internalized and if anything he restricted his own freedom more than anyone by putting himself in this box of needing to be the macho lady’s man.
In 1972 while he is still in school Randy is arrested for exposing himself to women in public areas. How no one else thought this was really troubling is beyond me. A young man in his 20s being a flasher is very concerning and speaks to a potential issue with sexuality and one that’s going to get worse as he gets older. After this Randy became a devout Christian. I mean what a damn predictable eye roll. He does it in an attempt to heal himself but it’s just a cover he uses so people think he’s fine when he’s not. The man gets arrested for exposing himself in 1973 and again in 74! WTF! How can someone be arrested for exposing his genitals three times and still be allowed to be back on the street? For his probation, Randy was supposed to attend therapy but never did and no one followed up on this. In 1974 Randy is brought on to try out for the Green Bay Packers. I mean come on people really? The man is arrested three times why did they even consider him? He ends up not making it because they find out about his criminal record, but still, how did he make it that far?
In 1975 the police were dealing with a lot of cases of a man assaulting women on the street, forcing them to at knife point, touch him. They create an undercover operation with a female officer to see if the attacker would go after her if she walked alone at night. She is approached by the man and he is arrested. Its fucking Randy of course. Randy is finally placed in jail and charged with a 10-year sentence. Sadly though he’s let out after four years in 1979. God this made me mad. Randy was able to get out early by playing the game. He acted like a good boy in jail and said everything to the therapist that they wanted to hear. He played them, and it worked. It just makes me angry that not one person noticed he was giving them the runaround. Randy moved around a lot after he was let out and it seems like parole didn’t do the best job keeping track of him. I mean I don’t see why they had things like parole in this time if they weren’t going to keep on top of these freaks.
We go back to 1981 and learn that in February Randy attacked Donna Lee Eckard and her daughter Janell Jarvis and they were sexually assaulted and killed in their home. Donna’s 12-year-old Kristen found them, and her husband Steve who was a firefighter was away at work. This one really broke my heart. Anything that has families in it really hits me. I just can’t imagine the horror that mother and daughter had to live through before they died. I feel so deeply for Kristen who found them as I could never imagine having to see something like that especially when it’s two people who you care for deeply. They build together that this may be the same man so many other jurisdictions are looking for. We find out that in 1979 Randy contracts herpes and gives it to many of his partners and victims. We find out that after he’s released Randy has a long string of relationships with women generally younger than him, but most don’t end well. Most of the women become overwhelmed by Randy’s overbearingness and his constant calls and letters, but some women are swooned by it. We find out that in 1980 Randy killed a woman he was seeing, and this happens a few more times. I mean the thing that bothers me about Randy is he’s smart in some ways. He bounces around so much from place to place and dates women from long distances to keep himself off the radar. He knew that by doing this it would keep the police off his tail so he could keep going. He also killed an old classmate named Cherie Ayers. Apparently, they asked Randy to do a lie detector test for this one, he said no, and they just moved on?
Something that’s spoken about a lot was that Randy moved too quick and often scared off women that way. Women his own age would find it childish since they knew better, and some younger women would originally go for it. Then the charm would wear off and they would see him for what he really is, an ugly man stuck in the body of a handsome one. This would frustrate him and he was constantly on the prowl and had multiple women on the go at times. There were photos of Randy in the book and he was unarguably a handsome man, I’ve dated guys like him (not in personality though). I find it so strange that men like him become people like this. It truly is that they get stuck in their own heads and their own egos and that’s where their sanity goes to die. I 100% think it’s the patriarchy that breeds people like this. 1981 Randy meets this woman named Shelly Janson. The two’s relationship is weird and there’s a large age gap. The two have known each other for like a month and he proposes and she says yes. I just shake my head for this girl and chalk it down to naivety.
Randy continues and robs and sexually assaults a clerk and her customer at a store. Randy needs a place to live and rents a suite from a divorced woman who is a single mother named Arden Bates. This lady was an absolute nut job. She constantly acts like Randy is this amazing and great dude, but then says that he didn’t work enough to make all the money he had, he bought lots of things, he was always bringing in young girls despite having a fiancé, and he constantly made all these weird calls, but other than all that dudes a stand-up guy!! Like god, people just blow my mind with how idiotic they are. I mean why would she care where his money came from as long as she was paid? I 1000% believe Arden Bates knew that Randy was up to some shit but chose to ignore it. Then we find out that they find another woman connected to Randy murdered and her name was Julie Reitz.
I am not going to get into the details of the investigation because it’s long and it would just be easier to read the book than to explain it, but I really have to commend the officers who worked on this case. Despite the constant problems with the system in which Randy was constantly allowed to be in public, they worked very hard to bring him to justice. He killed and hurt a lot of people so a lot of officers spent a lot of time building a case against him. They also all worked together quickly and shared information with one another easily. There just seemed to be a lot of comradery between the different districts to bring him to justice and make sure the man would never see the light of day again. Randy was called the I-5 killer because he took the I-5 to travel to all of these different districts. He tried to use this highway as a way to never get caught but because these districts worked together he was stopped.
A few days after Julie’s death a young 7-11 clerk is assaulted and robbed by Randy. He does this again at another 7-11 to two teenage clerks. He then corners an 18-year-old Jill Marten in a public bathroom and assaults her. During the investigation one of Julie’s friends mentions Randy. This made me so happy because finally this man’s creepiness and his constant talking to different women had caught up with him. They look into him and get suspicious due to his record sheet. They also find out he was a suspect in the other murder. They arrest Randy for breaking his probation by not reporting to his officer his new address, and for having a gun cleaning kit in his possession. Arden Bates tells them all these things about Randy that I talked about before but acts like it’s not weird. She sees that detectives find it strange and tries to walk it back. Maybe she’s just worried about having to find a new renter. Arden gives them the phone records but then feels guilty about which like girl come on! When they go to arrest Randy they find he’s burned a bunch of stuff. They don’t find much in his place other than a stray bullet loose in a bag, and some of the clothes matching those used for the crimes. Shelley doesn’t know Randy has been arrested and comes to move in with him. I felt bad for this girl honestly. She gave up her college career and her life back home to be with this pathological liar. Using Randy’s phone records (he would send long distant calls or call charges to Arden’s # then pay the cost that way so they had access to all of his calls even when he travelled) and testimony from other people they were able to conclude that Randy was in the areas at the time the murderers were committed.
Shelly eventually finds out what’s going on and of course, can’t believe what’s going on. Not her Randy! Randy is officially charged and arrested for the multiple robberies, murder, and sexual assaults. If you want details on the trial I really recommend you read the book as it’s honestly a mess. The defense is just so weird and I feel bad for everyone who had to be involved in the trial. Beth Wilmot testified at the trial and the strength that woman showed was huge. Arden Bates and the other women in his life spoke on the defense and it was such an eye roll. We do find out that a friend of Randy’s Dixie knew about some of his crimes and just kept it to herself and never said anything. Randy with no surprise to anyone is convicted of every crime he committed. I am not going to get much into Randy’s life in prison because the man is a disgusting waste of space and anyone who supported him after he was convicted needs to see a specialist, but I will chat a bit about his relationship with Dianne Downs. Dianne Downs is an equally horrid woman who murdered her three children in cold blood. Randy and her spark up a relationship by writing to each other from prison. Randy creates this elaborate plan where he makes Dianne think they are in a relationship, proposes, gets her to talk about it to the media, and then pretends he has never talked to her before. He does this to make himself seem normal in the public eye in the hopes of upping his image. I mean it doesn’t do anything for him because he’s still never getting out.
Overall this piece of history is one that’s scary and just terrible all around. However, I feel like Ann Rule really took this story and provided it with a lot of respect and care and told it in a really great way. Randy Woodfield is still alive to this day and is 72 years old. He lives still in the Oregon State Penitentiary where he will die. Randy apparently hated the name Randy and liked being called his full name but Randy I don’t give a shit and I give you no respect so I’ll call you what I want.
I hope you guys enjoyed this review if you were able to make it through! Feel free to leave a comment below and share how much you hate Randy Woodfield! Reach out on Instagram @baddiebookreviews . I’ll see you in the next one!
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