Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer (17 page)

After talking to his wife, the detectives
contacted Dayton at the painting company where he worked. They told
him they had talked with the girl and that they had some more
questions for him before they could clear things up. Dayton agreed
to meet them in front of Albertson's supermarket at 18th and
Chambers at 12:15 P.M. After being advised of his constitutional
rights under Miranda, Dayton consented to accompany the
investigators to police headquarters at City Hall to answer their
questions.

Once inside the cold, austere interrogation
room, Dayton chose not to invoke his rights and gave his permission
for the lawmen to tape-record the interview. Sitting across from
the policemen at a gray, rectangular, governmental-looking steel
table, Dayton continually averted his eyes from the stony stares of
the detectives. In response to their questions, he repeated much of
what he had told them before.

"Come on, Dayton. We talked to the girl,"
said Miller as he placed a second tape recorder on the table. "She
told us that she did not stab herself, either intentionally or
accidentally. Do you want to hear the tapes?"

Without waiting for him to respond, Detective
Miller reached over and pushed the play button. In a state that
bordered on shock and panic, Dayton listened to the girl's
statement. His hands began to tremble.

"Do you understand what she said, Dayton?"
asked Miller as he switched off the player. Dayton, pale and
sullen, shook his head yes, but did not answer verbally.

"Well, what do you say, Dayton? Is the girl's
statement true?" Dayton shook his head no and still did not
speak.

"It would be in your best interest if you
were truthful," suggested Officer Michael.

Dayton looked down at his hands, searched for
a nail to bite, and eventually decided on the thumb of his left
hand. After he gnawed on it for a few moments, he sheepishly told
the detectives that he needed a little time to get his thoughts in
order, but assured them he would tell everything in his own words
and that he would tell them the truth.

"I'm married," he finally began. "I've only
been married about a month, and I've been having some difficulties
with my wife." He told the detectives that his wife was young and
that she was having problems adjusting to marriage. He explained
that he only wanted to talk to Deniece Raymond, to have a friend he
could relate to when he was having problems with his wife. That's
all he planned to do the day he took Deniece into the woods. But
one thing led to another, and before he knew it they were
frolicking on the ground, where he began fondling her legs and
feet. The attack occurred shortly afterward, when he leaned over to
kiss her.

"She didn't respond or even put her arms
around me," said Dayton. "While I was kissing her, that's when it
happened. She doubled up and I drew back, startled, then looked
down and saw the knife in her stomach. She had both hands on it and
she was pulling it out. I stood up in complete confusion and shock
and said, 'Oh, my God. What do I do now?' I must have been taken
over by the devil, or else I wouldn't have done it." Dayton said
that his mind just went blank prior to the stabbing.

"Did you fuck the girl, Dayton?"

"No, no. We just kissed."

"What happened to her bra, then?"

"She just got hot and wanted to take it off."
Dayton said he helped her remove it, but insisted that he had not
engaged in sexual intercourse with her. Following the stabbing he
threw the brassiere into some bushes, along with the knife and the
knife sheath, near a rural location just off the Lorane Highway in
the vicinity of the Izaac Walton League Firing Range.

He volunteered to direct the lawmen to the
location and to help them locate the items.

It was shortly before 2 P.M. when Dayton and
the policemen arrived at the location, near McBeth Road. Upon
entering a field accentuated by heavy forest in the background,
Dayton pointed out the spot where he had stabbed the girl. He then
pointed to the east, across a fence that separated the field from
the firing range, and stated that he had thrown the brassiere in
that direction. Detective Miller soon located the bra and found the
knife sheath a few steps to the northeast. Dayton directed them
farther north, where they found the knife near some bushes, lying
beneath the bottom strand of a barbed-wire fence.

On the way back to town, Dayton admitted to
Detective Miller that he had in fact had sexual intercourse with
Deniece Raymond. He added that the sex act had occurred the day
before in his car on a side road near the community of Fern Ridge.
He said they would also have had sex the day of the stabbing if he
hadn't attacked the girl first for her apparent lack of affection.
He insisted that the sexual incidents had been mutually agreed upon
by himself and the girl. Upon their arrival at municipal jail,
Dayton was lodged on a charge of first-degree assault and later
released on bail.

At the request of Lane County District
Attorney Robert K. Naslund, Dayton Leroy Rogers underwent his first
psychiatric examination on October 27, 1972. The examination was
performed by Dr. J. Alan Cook, a Eugene psychiatrist. Dayton,
neatly groomed and casually dressed, arrived at 1:30 P.M. He
appeared somewhat anxious and exhibited noticeable tension.

The examination consisted of an interview and
a series of standardized psychiatric tests including the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Sentence Completion Test,
and the Draw-a-Person Test. Overall, Dayton performed well on the
tests and appeared oriented in all "spheres of reference." However,
during the interview Dayton recanted his earlier statement to
Detective Miller in which he had admitted stabbing Deniece Raymond.
Instead he told Dr. Cook that it was his opinion that the girl had
stabbed herself and that she was under the influence of some type
of drug at the time of the incident.

At the conclusion of the examination, Dr.
Cook wrote his diagnostic impression:

There was no evidence during the interview
that his judgment was impaired and he seemed to have significant
levels of psychiatric insight. It is my opinion that the defendant
at this time does not have a mental disease or defect which would
form the basis for an adequate defense against the charges of
first-degree assault under Oregon Statutes. It is noted during the
psychiatric examination that the defendant consistently maintained
that he was in complete awareness of his mental faculties and
denied being under the influence of any drugs or alcohol which
would alter his mental status or state of consciousness.
Diagnostically, I feel the defendant falls into the classification
of depressive neurosis, probably superimposed on a longstanding
schizoid personality disorder. There is no suggestion at the
present time, nor at the time of the alleged crime, that either of
these emotional disorders would render the defendant incapable of
distinguishing between right and wrong, of being aware of the
criminality of an assaultive act, or diminish his degree to form
intent to commit such an act.

As would become his custom, Dayton, facing
hard jail time, plea-bargained the charge down to second-degree
assault, to which he pleaded guilty on February 13, 1973. As a
result, he received no prison time and was placed on four years'
probation.

Less than six months later, Dayton again
caught the attention of Lane County law enforcement authorities.
According to police reports, Dayton and his young wife had taken
two teenage females, both minors and listed as runaways, into their
home.

Dayton soon began drinking heavily, and in
states of intoxication began necking with the girls and requesting
sexual favors from them. His relationship with them intensified to
the point where one of the girls, in a seductive fashion, began to
separate him from his wife. Eventually, through their sexual
escapades, the girls caused Dayton's wife to leave him. With
nowhere else to go, Julie moved in with two men she knew. Drinking,
Dayton found out where she was staying and demanded that she return
home. When her roommates attempted to intervene, Dayton turned
violent and a fistfight ensued. Dayton prevailed and told his wife
and the two men that he would kill the three of them if he ever saw
them again. Despite the threats, Julie eventually returned home to
Dayton and their teenage houseguests, but only temporarily.

Dayton soon began entertaining violent
fantasies during his drinking binges and fused those fantasies with
his sexual activities. Then, on the evening of August 1, 1973,
while Julie was out, he lost the strand of control he had been
clinging to since the attack on Deniece Raymond. Without warning,
Dayton, drunk and out of control, attacked the two young girls with
a beer bottle, beating them repeatedly about their heads in a near
frenzy. In a panic after realizing what he had done, he ran out of
his house and sped away in his white 1967 Camaro. Although cut and
bleeding, fortunately neither girl was severely injured and they
were able to contact the police. Dayton was arrested a short
distance from his home after he lost control of his Camaro and
crashed into another vehicle. He was charged with one count each of
second-and third-degree assault in connection with the attack on
the girls, and the incident became the subject of case number
73-3262. As with the case involving the knife attack on Deniece
Raymond, prosecutors ordered a psychiatric examination for Dayton
and he was released on bail pending the outcome of the case.

Julie's fear of her husband, in the meantime,
had intensified. She had disposed of his gun while he was in jail,
and got rid of all the sharp knives in the house. When Dayton
realized what she had done, he flew into a rage. However, with the
latest case hanging over his head and holding no desire to return
to jail, he refrained from physically attacking her.

Employed by his uncle's painting company,
Dayton arranged for time off to meet with Dr. George C. D. Kjaer, a
psychiatrist, on September 6, September 30, and October 2, 1973.
Dressed in painter's clothes, Dayton presented himself promptly at
the psychiatrist's office at the appointed times. However,
following a battery of tests and in-depth interviews, Dayton, for
the first time in his life, was appropriately labeled a
sociopath.

Dr. Kjaer wrote in his diagnosis that Dayton
manifested pseudo sociopathic schizophrenia with antisocial
traits.

There is a strong possibility that the
evidence for schizophrenia (as previously suspected) has been in
every instance fake and that this man presents a case purely of
sociopathic personality of the antisocial variety. Because of his
youth and his conscious awareness toward his misconduct it is
possible that even in the latter diagnostic category he may be
amenable to psychotherapeutic counseling and training. It is my
opinion that the defendant is in need of treatment. Since the three
episodes of assault were also related at least superficially to
sexual activity, he should be also defined as a sexually dangerous
person. It is strongly recommended that Mr. Rogers receive
intensive therapy from an inpatient unit and that substantial proof
of his cure be demanded by the court prior to his release.

Although prosecutors petitioned the court to
revoke Dayton's probation and send him to prison, Lane County
Circuit Court Judge Helen Frye found Dayton not guilty by reason of
insanity and ordered him committed to Oregon State Hospital in
Salem. He was admitted to the hospital on March 6, 1974.

Chapter 9

Upon his arrival at Oregon State Hospital,
Dayton Leroy Rogers was perceived as being grandiose and very
self-centered. Unrealistic in his reasoning and planning of
day-to-day goals, he instead lived in an extended fantasy state,
restructuring his new surroundings, as well as the outside world,
to his own liking. He was placed in Ward 34, a maximum security
ward, where he spent much time keeping to himself.

He soon became aware, however, that
exhibiting such haughty behavior would only serve to prolong his
stay at the mental institution. As a result, he began "responding"
to group therapy and individual counseling and his self-importance
seemed to diminish. After demonstrating that he would not "act out"
with other patients, he was transferred to Ward 63, a medium
security ward, two weeks later. It hadn't taken him long to learn
how to work the system to his benefit.

Despite the fact that a female staff member
told Dayton that "we're skeptical of your ever leaving the
hospital" and that "you may kill someone" someday, Dayton was soon
entered into a sex offenders group and transferred to Ward 82, a
minimum security ward.

While in the sex offenders program, Dayton
became aware that his sexual daydreams were becoming more violent.
He began to categorize them as "fantasies" and "hallucinations."
When fantasizing, he was in control of his "here-and-now"
activities. However, when he hallucinated, he told his counselors,
he lost contact with reality, the "here-and-now," as he explained
it. He realized that when he began a course of action he felt
compelled to finish it, and that his actions became automatic. He
cited sex with his wife as an example and said that after marriage
he stopped having foreplay but instead entered a hallucinatory
state where sex became automatic.

Eventually, he said, his activities with his
wife included occasional bondage and teasing her. He fantasized
about raping women and hurting them physically while engaging in
intercourse with his wife. He also entertained such thoughts while
masturbating, one of his favorite pastimes, and fantasized about
tying women up. Occasionally he would feel threatened, when his
fantasies and hallucinations turned on him and he envisioned women
attacking him. He claimed that fantasizing about violent acts
against women caused him to become sexually aroused. He didn't
really understand it and had little control over such feelings, and
insisted that they occurred automatically. He achieved great
pleasure from the masturbation/violent fantasy episodes, and
explained that they were really better than actual sex with a woman
because he was in total control of the situation. He could govern
his own orgasm with greater preciseness, ensuring that his climax
did not precede the fantasy running its course.