Saturday, April 6, 2013

FORS CONFERENCE SPRING 2013


    WEATHERFORD COLLEGE FORENSIC SCIENCE

                                          DON JACOBS, CHAIR

                                  CONFERENCE 2013 UPDATE

THANKS TO ALL...
FOR ANOTHER AMAZING FORENSIC SCIENCE CONFERENCE!!!

EX-WC ALUMS GETTING IT DONE..

  • ASHLEIGH PORTALES CONTINUES TO IMPRESS AT WISE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE AS THE COUNTY'S CSI. SHE HAS BECOME A PROFESSOR AT WC TEACHING PSYC 2315 AND POLICE ACADEMY COURSES. SOON, SHE WILL BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR WITH PROFESSOR DON JACOBS WITH THE PUBLICATION OF THEIR NEW BOOK ABOUT PSYCHOPATHS.

  • HEATHER CASEY JUST ANNOUNCED SHE WILL SOON BE JOINING DALLAS COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE AS A MEDICO-LEGAL DEATH INVESTIGATOR

  • RACHEL DOYLE WILL HAVE A SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT ANY DAY ABOUT A NEW CAREER DIRECTION

  • BRITTNIE BOGGUS  CONTINUES AS AN INTERN AT TARRANT COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE 

  • THANKS  TO "ROCK STAR" BILL BAILEY WHO HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN LAUNCHING THE CAREERS OF ALL OF THE ABOVE WC ALUMS.
         BILL HAS JOINED FORCES WITH OUR ESTEEMED FORS  
         ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, DR. ART EISENBERG AT
         THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER'S  
      NAMUS PROJECT
         (NATIONAL MISSING & UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM)

CIRCLE THE DATE OF OUR NEXT CONFERENCE: APRIL 4, 2014 (OUR CONFERENCES ARE PRESENTED ON THE FRIDAY FOLLOWING EASTER).

Thursday, April 4, 2013

FORENSIC SCIENCE CONFERENCE 2013
                   Weatherford College Behavioral Science
           Main Campus, MINC I Auditorium - FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013
“From Classrooms to Careers”
Morning Session   SPECIAL WELCOME TO MY TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
8 – 8:25        Coffee & Muffins  
8:30 – 9        Welcome: Dr. Richard Bowers, Vice-President of
                       Instruction
                      Opening Remarks – Don Jacobs, Chair Behavioral Science
9 – 9: 45       Confessions of a Forensic Science Student – Ashleigh
                       Portales
Break to 10 am     Meet Top Students & Presenters!
10 – 10:45    Crime Scene Investigation & FORS 2440 – Tim Poston CJ
                      Director, WC main campus
11 – 11:30    Criminal Profilers on the Job (Video) – Don Jacobs
11:30 - 12     Bill Bailey, Finger Print Specialist, National Missing &
                      Unidentified Persons (NamUs)
 Lunch Break to 1:15 pm   Campus Grill or Various Locations near Campus
Afternoon Session
1:15 – 2         A Sketch Can Catch Ya! – Ashleigh Portales
2 – 2:30         Rob Moore, Coordinator of WC Police Academy
Break to 3:30        Meet & Greet Presenters & Top Students!
Make a point to meet new faces & spend some time with Top Students
For more info: Don Jacobs, Chair, Behavioral Science, Weatherford College, Main
Campus djacobs@wc.edu  817-598-6431 BUSI 209
The Campus Grill will be open at noon on Friday serving burgers, fries, and drinks. Watch for future conferences presented on Fridays after Easter

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A SKETCH OF ASHLEIGH PORTALES
This article is a news release regarding a home invasion suspect compiled by the WC MESSENGER Wise County, Decatur, Texas and the contributions of my top graduate of our forensic science program at Weatherford College in his apprehension.
HOME INVASION SUSPECT SOUGHT – Decatur Police continue to search for a young man who allegedly broke into an apartment and grabbed a young woman Monday morning. The suspect entered the apartment at approximately 8 a.m. through an unlocked door. According to investigators he snuck up behind a female in the residence and grabbed her in a “bear hug.” But the female fought back and proceeded to force the man out of the second floor apartment. No items were taken, and no injuries were reported. The home invasion occurred at Crestview Place Apartments located in the 900 block of W. Thompson Avenue. The identity of the suspect is not known at this time, but is described as a white male with a thin build that looks to be anywhere from 18 to his late 20s. He has pale skin, dark wavy hair that covers his ears but doesn’t go down to his shoulders, dark eyes and is between 5’10″ and 6′ tall. He was wearing a baseball hat with a flat brim, a long sleeve black shirt and dark pants. The victim worked with Ashleigh Portales with the Wise County Sheriff’s Office to produce a composite sketch of the suspect, which can be viewed at WCMessenger.com. After the home invasion occurred yesterday morning, McCarroll Middle School, located across the street from the apartments, went into a “soft lockdown” mode for most of the morning as a precautionary measure. Anyone with information on the suspect should call the Decatur Police Department at (940) 393-0310.
 INTRUDER SUSPECT ARRESTED – A man was arrested Tuesday afternoon for Monday’s home invasion at Crestview Place Apartments in Decatur. Eric Thomas Brake, 21, turned himself in to the Decatur Police Department about 3:30 p.m., according to Police Chief Rex Hoskins. Hoskins said Brake called and left a voice mail at the department indicating he was the perpetrator. An officer returned Brake’s call, and they arranged for him to turn himself in. “He described the incident to the tee of what the victim said,” Hoskins explained. “He said after he saw the composite drawing, he knew we had him. I think that’s a very big credit toward (Ashleigh Portales, who produced the sketch). This case couldn’t have been broke without her.” Brake is from Kansas but was living with relatives at the apartment complex. Hoskins said he will be charged with burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit a sexual offense, a first degree felony. He was booked into Wise County Jail late Tuesday afternoon. Read more in the midweek Wise County Messenger on newsstands today.



Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Tileka Davis
PSYC 2315

PROFILE ANALYSIS OF OTTIS ELWOOD TOOLE
Also known as “The Jacksonville Cannibal”
March 5, 1947-September 15, 1996

“First I go out and catch me a little boy, maybe go down to a mall or shopping center and grab one there…grab him, tie him up, use a gag, put him in the trunk of my car and drive him to my place out in the swamps.  Nobody to bother me way out there.”
                                                                                                                                                Ottis Elwood Toole
                                                                                                          
     Ottis Toole was an American serial killer and arsonist.  Toole is known from being an accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.  On December 16, 2008, Toole was identified to have murdered and decapitated Adam Walsh; John Walsh’s son of ‘America’s Most Wanted’.
     Toole was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida to a religious fanatic mother and an alcoholic father.  Toole’s father abandoned the family and his whereabouts were unknown.  Toole claimed that he was abused by his mother, and was forced by his sister to wear girl’s clothing and play as “Becky”.  Toole’s maternal grandmother was a Satanist who exposed him to satanic practices and rituals at a young age, thus adding to his dangerous behaviors.  Self-mutilation, grave robbing, and making magical charms out of stolen body parts were some of the activities he performed with his grandmother.  Toole was often referred to by his grandmother as the “devil’s child”.
     At the tender age of 5, Toole was forced to have sex with a friend of his father’s.  At age 10, he considered himself as a homosexual and developed such relationship with a neighborhood boy at the age of 12.  Toole had since dropped out of school by the 9th grade and started hanging out in local gay bars.  As a teenager, he was known to dress in drag and partake in male prostitution.  
     It is believed that Toole suffered from mild mental retardation, having an IQ of 75. He also suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, was illiterate, and experts suggested that Toole also suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.  As a youth, he often slept in abandoned houses due to frequently running away from home.  Being sexually aroused by fire, Toole was known as a serial arsonist who torched vacant houses in the neighborhood because he “hated to see them standing there.”
     After being propositioned for sex by a traveling salesman, Toole ran over the salesman with his own car, committing his first murder at the age of 14.  Between 1966-1973, Toole began drifting around the southwestern United States, supporting himself by prostituting and panhandling.  During his stay in Nebraska, he became one of the prime suspects in the 1974 murder of 24-year-old Patricia Webb.  One month later, while living in Boulder, Colorado, he became the prime suspect in the murder of 31-year-old Ellen Holman, who was murdered on October 14, 1974.  Toole hitchhiked back to Jacksonville to escape the allegations and later married a women 25 years his senior.  After learning of his homosexuality, Toole’s wife left him after three days of marriage.
     While in a prison soup kitchen in 1976, Toole met Henry Lee Lucas and they quickly formed a sexual relationship.  Toole later admitted to accompanying Lucas in 108 murders while under the influence of a cult called “The Hands of Death” which was secretly located on a ranch in Mexico. Toole along with other cult members would sacrifice children and virgins that they picked up while hitch hiking, in bars or just walking down the road near the Texas-Mexico boarder.  During secret cult rituals, the victims, mostly kids, women, and men from the Texas area were placed on an altar and their throats were cut.  Their blood was then collected, placed in a goblet, and pass around for all to drink while still being hot.  The areola and vaginas of women and the penis and testicles of men were cut off and either placed in a stew or soup, cooked using a secret recipe or a little batter would be added to the sex organs and placed in a fryer.   Toole claims that he and Lucas murdered over 200 women, men, boys and girls over the span of 11 states.
     Although Toole preferred boys and men, he also rapped and killed girls and women.  By all accounts, Toole would penetrate boys and girls anally; some girls were believed to be as young as 8 years old and boys as young as 10 years old.          Strangulation, shooting and slicing throats were the methods of choice for Toole.   After some sexual encounters, Toole would hang his victims upside down by their ankles, slit their throats with a knife, slit their belly and remove the guts, liver and heart.  Toole would then remove their heads and allow the blood to drain from their bodies.  After the draining process, a metal rod is inserted through the anus, which then exits the neck area.  The body is then placed on a pit-holder over charcoals to roast, as one would do when roasting a piglet.  Toole admitted to making his own barbeque sauce to place over his roasted victims.  
     In May of 1981, Toole’s encountered a hard blow with the death of his mother from surgery complications.   Some nights he would visit his mother’s grave and lay out on the ground beside her.  Soon afterwards, Toole’s sister Drusilla died of a drug overdose in which some believe to be a possible suicide.  Now in the world alone, Toole began drinking heavily and abusing pills after the death of his mother and sister.   A couple months later in July, six-year old Adam Walsh became missing from a mall in Hollywood, Florida.  Adam’s head was later found in August near a canal at Vero Beach. 
     Toole locked 64-year-old George Sonnenberg in his home and set it on fire, resulting in his death in January 1982.  Toole was convicted and received a death sentence for the murder of Sonnenberg.  He also confessed to one of three I-10 murders, which was 19 year old David Schallart whom he picked up hitchhiking in Pensacola, Florida.  Schallart’s body was later recovered near I-10 with five gunshot wounds to the left side of his head.  Toole also confessed to another unsolved murder of 19-year-old Ada Johnson who he picked up at a local nightclub in Tallahassee.  Johnson also died from a gunshot wound to the head.  Toole received another death sentence for the murder of Johnson.  Both death sentences were later appealed, resulting in him receiving life in prison.   He also pleaded guilty for four more murders in 1991 and received four more life sentences.
     In April of 1983, Toole was arrested on an arson charge in Jacksonville and he confessed to setting about 40 fires over a span of two decades.  Months after his arrest, he confessed to the 1981 murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh.  Toole’s niece later informed John Walsh (Adam’s father) that Toole confessed to her, while on his deathbed, to murdering and decapitating Adam Walsh.
     During Toole’s stay in prison, he resided in a cell adjacent to serial killer Ted Bundy for a brief moment while in the Raiford Prison in Florida.   At the age of 49, Toole died of liver failure in his cell on September 15, 1996.  Toole’s body remained unclaimed by family members and was later buried in a prison cemetery.   Toole’s life was later depicted on film in ‘Henry:  Portrait of a Serial Killer’ in which Tom Towles portrayed the role of Toole.
In my opinion, the nature of Toole’s chaotic home life, low cognitive development, the toxic role modeling nurturing of his grandmother and friend Lucas all aided to his destructive behavior.  Toole is a prime example of what may occur when there is no intervention of a caring adult.
     “I got off death row because the said I’m too sick to burn on the electric chair.  Nobody came around to try to cure me.  They give me some pill.  People eat pigs, cows, and horses.  I like to eat people.  It’s good meat, too.  You ain’t tried it, don’t’ be saying it ain’t tasty.  You might like it.”
                                                                                                                                            Ottis Elwood Toole


REFERENCE PAGE

Blanco, Juan Ignacio.  Wikipedia.org.
Barton, Billy Bob.  (1996). An Interview with Ottis Toole:  The Cannibal Kid

Monday, November 19, 2012

GET 18 HOURS OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY...

...& a BS DEGREE IN PSYCH0LOGY from TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY. SIX (6) specualized SENIOR LEVEL courses in forensic psychology authored by Professor Don Jacobs can be taken as electives in TSU's BS PSYC degree. With 18 hours of forensic psychology, students will be in position to launch MASTER'S DEGREES as more and more universities are offering online and face-to-face programs. Here's a sampling of PSY 490 courses whose special topic is forensic psychology (all are listed at TSU as PSY 490 courses): For this coming Spring, 2013: PSYCHOPATHS: CHARMING MONSTERS & SEXUAL FORENSICS Other Titles available throughout the year + summers: SERIAL KILLER "DIRTY TRICKS" TRUE PSYCHOS: FROM THE STREET TO THE CINEMA FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS JEKYLL & HYDE OF SERIAL KILLERS FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY TODAY PROFILING SERIAL KILLERS Some of the books required in these courses: Analyzing Criminal Minds (Jacobs) Talking With Serial Killers (Berry-Dee) Without Conscience (Hare) The Female Brain & The Male Brain (Brizendine) Profilers (Ed. Campbell & DeNevi) Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture (Schmid) Psychopaths: Understanding Charming Connivers, Predators, & Offenders (Jacobs) Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law & Psychology (Ewing & McCann) Violence & Psychopathy (Ed. Raine & SanMartin) Send questions and commments to Professor Jacobs at djacobs@wc.edu
THE NEW BREED of FORENSIC INVESTIGATIVE SCIENTISTS receive 26 HOURS of intensive course work in FORENSIC SCIENCE at WEATHERFORD COLLEGE, Weatherford, Texas, USA. WC is the model progam amoung Texas colleges and universities giving top students pathways into this fascinating career field...and that's before they're juniors in college. Since 2008, many of our top students have received coveted INTERNSHIPS at TARRANT COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE, others have obtained MASTER'S DEGREES, and still others have received EXCELLENT JOBS as CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATORS & MEDICO-LEGAL DEATH INVESTIGATORS. Three FORENSIC SCIENCE LABS were launched in 2004 and within four years (2008), two labs received ACGM approval (Texas Co-Board's Academic Course Guide Manual of lower division acadamic courses) as academic transfer courses. FORS 2440: Introduction to Crime Scene Investitation & FORS 2450: Introduction to Forensic Psychology transfer to universities who are articulated partners of Weatherford College. Currently, WC Forensic Science students may transfer to the University of Texas, Arlington (UTA), University of North Texas (UNT), Tarleton State University (TSU), and the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO), Edmond, Oklahoma--3.5 hours away from Ft. Worth. Our new departmental BLOG--"GET OUT OF MY CRIME SCENE!!"--is dedicated to all students who have not found passion in college coursework & those who have already earned a bachelor's degree in a related discipline (such as criminal justice, anthropology, or psychology) and have been disappointed in the career choices available. We train our grads in the latest cutting-edge knowledge of criminal minds. Don Jacobs, Professor of Psychology and Forensic Investigative Science, is the architect of the FORS rubric and a special collection of courses; he is also the advisor to those seeking admission to our historic program. He is the author of Analyzing Criminal Minds: Forensic Investigative Science for the 21st Century (Praeger, 2011) and as co-author of the soon-to-be-published Psychpaths: Understanding Charming Connivers, Predators, & Offenders (December, 2012). Please feel free to post comments to our top students who will send wide-ranging essays on a variety of topics. Also, watch this blog for a short video of our progam coming in the Spring. In April, 2013 we will host an amazing Forensic Science Conference in the MINC Auditorium. Do not hesitate to email Professor Jacobs at djacobs@wc.edu to schedule an office visit. It's time to get started in the most important applied science in the 21st Century! To everyone else not trained as a forensic scientist, GET OUT OF MY CRIME SCENE!!!