3 Haunting Deathbed Confessions

3. Russell Smrekar
In 1975, 20 year-old Michael Mansfield was attending Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois. For Christmas break, he returned to his family's Rolling Meadows, Illinois home. On New Year's Eve, Mansfield received a call, and he told his parents that he was going to meet a friend who lived in Arlington Heights. Sadly he never returned home. Six months later on June 2nd, 1976, 51-year-old Ruth Martin of Lincoln, Illinois, didn't show up for work. On the floor of her garage, the police found blood and a 22 caliber bullet. Her car was found abandoned two days later in a hotel parking lot in Bloomington, Illinois. In the trunk there was a lot of blood; the blood was tested, and it was the same blood type as Martin's. The police searched for her, but she was nowhere to be found Several months later the investigations into both disappearances were at a standstill.

At the time, the police had no reason to believe that the crimes were connected. The victims disappeared from different cities; they were different sexes and ages, and they didn't know each other when they were alive. Then, months later on October 9th, 1976, the police were called to the home of Jay and Robin Fry in Lincoln. They had been shot to death with a shotgun. Someone had forced them onto their knees, and Robin was shot first in the chest. Jay was shot next as he leaned over his wife. He was shot once in the abdomen and once in the head. Both of them were 25 years-old, and Robin was three months pregnant with the couple's first child. The police were called and they interviewed some witnesses who heard the gunshots. They spoke to Jay's sister, and she saw a young man leaving their house shortly after the gunshots were heard.

The police learned that Jay Fry was going to testify in court against 21-year-old Russell Smrekar of Joliet, Illinois. Smrekar was due in court for a traffic violation, nine days after the murders. When he arrived at the courthouse, Jay's sister identified him as the man who she saw leaving her brother's house. The police also realized that Jay Fry wasn't the only person who was set to testify against Smrekar, that possibly met with an untimely death. Ruth Martin was also supposed to testify at the same trial, and Michael Mansfield disappeared six days before he was going to testify against Smrekar on different charges. While killing witnesses before they had a chance to testify seems like a logical motive, what the police had a hard time wrapping their heads around, was why Smrekar felt that he needed to kill the witnesses in his cases.

Mansfield went to school with Smrekar, and he was caught with records and a guitar that Smrekar had stolen from another dorm room The police arrested Mansfield for possession of stolen goods, and offered him a deal. The charges against him would be dropped if he testified against Smrekar for theft, and Mansfield took the deal. As for Smrekar's second trial, it stemmed from an incident at a Kroger's grocery store in Lincoln. Smrekar walked out of the store with stolen goods and Jay Fry, an employee of the store, chased after him. As Smrekar ran, he threw the stolen goods under Ruth Martin's car. Both Jay Fry and Ruth Martin were set to testify against Smrekar for shoplifting. The stolen goods were two ribeye steaks that cost $4.

Robin Fry was killed just because she happened to be with her husband when Smrekar went to kill him. Smrekar was charged with the murders of Jay and Robin Fry, and while he was in jail awaiting trial he tried to arrange a hit on Jay's sister who was going to testify against him. His cellmate snitched on him and the hit was never carried out. Smrekar was found guilty, and he was given two sentences of 100 to 300 years in prison Since the bodies of Mansfield and Martin were still missing, Smrekar wasn't charged with their murders. Although, he was the prime suspect. As Smrekar sat in prison, he denied being involved in their disappearances.

And, in October 2011, Smrekar, who was 56-years-old and terminally ill, started to tell a new story. He confessed to investigators that he killed Mansfield, but he didn't tell them where his body was. He said that he killed Martin, and he buried her under Interstate 55, which was under construction at the time. He said that he killed her on the day that he kidnapped her, and buried her that night. Since he buried her at night, he couldn't remember the exact location of the body. Unfortunately, the bodies of Michael Mansfield and Ruth Martin have never been found. The police continue to look for their bodies, but they consider their murders solved.

2. Geraldine Kelly
Geraldine and John Kelly grew up in a rough neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts. The couple married young, and in 1970 and 1971 Geraldine gave birth. First to a daughter, and then a son. The couple would argue often, especially after John had been drinking. In 1981, the couple was attending the wedding of a family member, and John once again drank too much. A brawl broke out between four men and one of them was John. When the fighting was done, John's brother-in-law was dead. The death created problems for John with the rest of his family, and with the law. He was certain that he was going to be indicted, so he decided to move his family away from Somerville. He bounced around for a while before ending up in Ventura, California working at a motel beside highway 101.

Geraldine ran the front desk, and John, who was a trained plumber, did maintenance around the motel. In 1989, the kids, who were 18 and 19 moved out, and eventually they became estranged from their parents. The main reason that they moved out, was because John and Geraldine fought often and John was abusive at times. In early 1992 the owners of the motel noticed that John wasn't around anymore. Geraldine said that he had to go out of town, and while he was out of town, he was hit by a car and killed. She called her children and told them a similar story. Geraldine continued to manage the motel for six more years.

In 1998, she decided to move back to her hometown: Somerville. In November of that year, Geraldine was dying of breast cancer. Her estranged daughter came to her bedside, and Geraldine made a startling confession. She said that she killed John, which isn't exactly that shocking. What was shocking, was the location of the body. She said that his body was in the freezer in a storage unit in Somerville. When Geraldine moved across the country months earlier, she sealed the freezer with duct tape and she had it shipped with the rest of her stuff.

The truck driver had no idea that there was a body in the freezer After Geraldine died on November 18th, her daughter contacted the police. They found John's mummified remains in the freezer. He had been shot once in the back of the head. The bullet, fired from a 38 caliber handgun, was still in his skull. In the home where Geraldine last lived, they found the murder weapon. Like her husband, she held on to it for six years.

1. Bryant Squires
14-year-old Gina Brooks spent the evening of August 5th, 1989 watching her brother's baseball game. After the game, she returned home with her family to their Fredericktown, Missouri house and she left again on her bike sometime between 10 o'clock and 10:30. She was going to see her boyfriend, who lived six blocks away. When Gina didn't return home by 2:30 a.m. her frantic mother, who didn't know she left on her bike, called the police. The neighborhood was searched and her bike was found abandoned on the road about five blocks from her home. The last confirmed sighting of Gina was near a church not far from where her bike was found. Three men in a light green, blue, or gray station wagon, were following her and they pulled up beside her at the church.

They tried to talk to her as she stood beside her bike, but then she got on her bike and started to ride away. A few people, including her boyfriend, heard some screams and saw the station wagon speed off towards the highway. Sadly, no trace of Gina has ever been found, and it scarred the small town of Fredericktown, which had a population of only 4000 people. For years the case sat cold, and then it took an unusual turn in September 1996. A man named Bryant Squires was dying from cancer and AIDS related complications in the St. Louis, Missouri Hospital.

In his last days, he told several nurses some horrible stories that he felt he had to get off his chest. These stories revolved around several horrifying murders. The first murder he admitted to was the murder of Gina Brooks. He said that he was the driver of the station wagon that night. Squires said that he and two other men, Nathan Williams and Timothy Bellew, kidnapped her. Squires claimed that Williams slit Gina's throat, and then he and Bellew disposed of the body. Squires also admitted to kidnapping nine-year-old Angie Houseman, who disappeared on November 18, 1993 from St. Anne, which is a suburb of St. Louis.

Squires said that he and another man kidnapped her after she got off the school bus. Her body was found tied to a tree nine days after she went missing. She had been tortured and she died from exposure. Who Squires accomplice was is unknown, but it wasn't Williams. Williams was in prison at the time for raping a minor, however Squires did say that Williams was involved in another murder. He said that in 1975, Williams killed 23-year-old Laura Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie, who was a volunteer that worked with deaf inner-city kids in St. Louis, was found dead in her apartment. She had been stabbed and her throat was slit. She was nude, but she had not been raped. Williams was just 14-years-old at the time of the murder. Squires died not long after making the confessions.

In 1999, the police charged Bellew and Williams with the murder of Gina. Williams was also charged in the murder of Dinwiddie. The FBI interviewed Bellew, who had a history of sex crimes, and he said that Gina's body was in a freezer and the freezer was buried on his father's 96 acre property. The FBI searched the property, but they didn't find any traces of Gina.

In 1999, the murder charge against Bellew was dropped, and instead he was charged with lying to the FBI. He was convicted and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Then, both murder charges against Williams were dropped as well. The district attorney said that they believe he is responsible for both murders, but they didn't have enough evidence to proceed with the trials. Squires' deathbed confessions are not admissible in court, because he only told the nurses and not the police. So nurses didn't call the police because they didn't think that Squires was telling the truth.

Williams is currently serving two consecutive life sentences, with a minimum of 30 years of both sentences for raping a 10-year-old girl a month and a day after Gina went missing. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of 12-year-old Tammy Surdam. Tammy went missing from St. Charles, Missouri on August 1st, 1975. She was constantly running away from home, so her family didn't report her missing right away.

However, after not hearing from her for years, they think she met with foul play. Willaims told two different people that in the 1970s, he kidnapped a girl in St. Charles. He raped her, stabbed her to death, and then buried her body. Like Gina, Tammy's body has never been found. While Williams has been implicated in two disappearances, and one murder, and has bragged about committing eight other murders to different witnesses, he has never been convicted of a single murder. He is currently incarcerated in Jefferson City Correctional Center.