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This book is an exploration of a serial killer who hid his deviant desires and lust for murder under a mask of perfect normalcy. With accounts from family, friends and investigators, the authors reveal a man who could be your neighbor or friend.
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Yes, there are five of them, all of them aces in their specialties, who not only serve and protect, but observe and solve the most heinous crimes.
On the far left and far right, like bookends, are Seminole County Detectives Bob Jaynes and Rob Hemmert, the lead invstigators on “our” case, the case my co-author, Sean Robbins and I, have been writing about, that of serial killer Charlie Brandt.
Next to Bob Jaynes is John Vecchio, Supervisory Agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is the agency through which I contacted the only woman in the group. She is Special Agent and profiler Leslie D’Ambrosia. Next to Leslie is Agent Dennis Haley, who was partnering with Leslie when they were sent on hurricane detail in September of 2004, that fatidic year when the massacre happened.
Next to her, as we pointed out, is Detective Rob Hemmert, who, along with Det. Bob Jaynes, witnessed the carnage first hand inside the home of 37-year-old Golf Channel Executive Michelle Jones, in Altamonte Spring.
Agent Haley is very funny. One time, since one gets to establish a rapport with these supposedly hardened investigators, I was kidding around with him, comparing the serial killer to a character in a classic horror film. Haley quipped back saying he had one better, and named a different one! Both characters were equally deserving of the comparison: One because of his eyes of death; the other because of his mask. This is why my co-writer, Sean Robbins, and I, titled out book: INVISIBLE KILLER: The Monster Behind the Mask.
But Special Agent and Profiler D’Ambrosia penetrated those eyes, and unveiled that mask, revealing a profile that was so frightening because of the apparent normalcy of the individual, a man who was a deviant and a pervert and a psychopath.
Leslie was always available, and never hesitated to offer her expertise, always backed by facts, and always coherent and articulately expressed.
One time she told me that I was the “brainiac,” and she said, “That’s why you’re the writer and I’m the cop.
Well, Leslie D’Ambrosia, this writer could not have written half of this book without your always alert and working brain.
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We have changed the title of our book for different reasons, but also on account of friends, —Michelle Jones’ friends, and Teri Helfrich Brandt’s friends.
I have friends who are so different from one another they might as well live on different planets.
Such was the case with Teri Helfrich Brandt, who was murdered by her husband, Charlie Brandt, along with her niece, Michelle Jones, whom he eviscerated, during the “summer of hurricanes” in Florida. 2004. That was the title of our book. No, it hasn’t been published. It is not even finished. Almost. When my writing partner, Sean Robbins, and I, tie all the loose ends. I’m afraid we never will, so we are going to meet our deadline with our publisher. But if you read the book, you won’t be able to fault us for trying. It is the least we can do for the victims. And it is the least we can do to try to understand a mind so deranged, so faulty in its functioning that his libido was connected to very devious activities. But enough of Charlie Brandt. And I have blogged about the friends of Michelle Jones: Peggy Moore and Debbie Knight, who are now my friends.
Teri Helfrich had many different friends, and I spoke to three of them on the phone, back to back, on the same day.
These friends, along with many other forms of depravity and deception I encounter about Charlie Brandt, prompted us to change out title to INVISIBLE KILLER…The Monster Behind the Mask.
Teri went to the University of Southern Mississippi, where she met Colleen Maloney through another roommate. They became fast friends, best friends.
Colleen is very much the southern lady, with impeccable manners, a warm way about her, and a great sense of wanting to help. And help she did, after we were way into our conversation.
Both Sean and I get tired, and oh so weary of the stories, from Charlie’s buddies, whom Sean interviews, about Charlie being such a “good ole boy,” and such a great fisherman. And from the friends I interview about Charlie and Teri being so “lovey-dovey” and Charlie being so caring, such a great friend. That, of course, is the mask of normalcy of a psychopath mimicking human behavior.
But Colleeen finally remembered one incident, one time when Charlie was hanging out with Colleen’s husband at a bar, and a guy accidentally bumped into Charlie. Colleen’s husband was most stricken by what he saw, by Charlie’s eyes when he separated Charlie and the other guy. And it was exactly the same eyes a neighbor saw when Charlie came knocking on her door, at age 13, after he shot his pregnant mother.
My next interview, or conversation, was with Melanie Fecher, another great friend of Teri’s when Teri and Charlie lived on Big Pine Key.
Melanie, too, had told Susan Spencer, on the 48 HOUR MYSTERY CBS Special, DEADLY OBSESSION, that she thought Teri and Charlie had the perfect marriage that she wished she had. No you don’t, I say to Melanie now, who is still happily married taking care of her dogs.
Melanie is down to earth, approachable, and very funny. “I am a dog mom,” she said to me for openers, talking about her schedule. “And I’m very good at it!”
And it was through Melanie’s dogs that Pat Diaz, the detective in charge of the investigation of the murder and dissection of Darlene Toler in Miami, tied Charlie to the murder.
Then came Nancy Carney, my final interview and another one of Teri’s friends. Nancy is a very pretty, sophisticated businesswoman who used to live in Daytona Beach and now resides in Tampa. In Daytona Beach, she was rooming with Teri and dating Jim Graves, Charlie’s best friend, and she and Jim introduced Teri and Charlie.
Nancy is very forthcoming and very friendly. Nancy was very adamant about defending her friends, both Teri and Charlie. But she told me she felt very strange, strange she never noticed anything about Charlie, that she thought of Charlie as such a “gentle man” and also devoted to Teri.
All three were adamant that Charlie was “a good friend… a gentle man.” All three women did. Then they got, in various ways, to the point of “how could I not have known?” One lets them talk for a while, and then one tells them how they could not have known about a psychopath, a man who fooled them all. It is information these women find shocking, and then they do remember something. Again, they remember some incident that wasn’t normal. Nancy Carney did too.
And finally, these wonderful women, Teri’s friends, almost as if guided by Teri Helfrich Brandt, gave me nuggets of information, some passages that were very telling about the monster who was Charlie Brandt.
And finally, even though these three wonderful women, all so different, and yet Teri’s friends, who suffered from a bit of survivor’s guilt —-as do Michelle’s friends—- found a little peace, I hope. And we will all remain friends, or at least connected in this way.
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In my previous blog, I wrote about the wonderful people I met through serial killer Charlie Brandt while co-writing my book, INVISIBLE KILLER: The Monster Behind the Mask with Sean Robbins.
I did not write about Marta Sosa and Scott Wevley because I met them before then.
Marta first asked me to be on her radio show, Cubanarama Missing In America, through a mutual acquaintance, Monica Rosales. It was after my most recent book, I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING, about serial killer Gerald Stano, that I met Marta online, on her show. We had a wonderful time! Well, as good a time as you can have talking about a serial killer.
But that was because I found Marta to be a terrific interviewer, and then, after we did another segment of the show with the sister of another victim, I saw how compassionate and giving she was. She is also always full of stimulating questions!
Gradually, but surely, Marta and I became friends, online and on the phone. I learned she lived in Minneapolis with her husband Scott, and through her I learned, by first-hand experience, that Scott was a computer expert!
The first time I was on her show, she kept asking “Mister Man” to fix this or that, the sound volume or whatever. I thought she had an engineer by the surname of Mann. Eventually I found out she called her husband, Scott, “Mr. Man,” and rightly so. Scott, or “Mister Man,” would convert my files, he was helpful and knowledgeable with whatever I needed on the computer, and he was a prince! Hey, Scott can cook; he can make furniture; he can handle audio, video and is completely supportive of his wife. Marta, if you clone him you could get a Nobel Peace Prize.
I ended up sending him a little Christmas token: A tree ornament in the shape of a computer monitor that read “To Mr. Man, great friend and computer guru.” I also sent them a Christmas card I designed with pictures of my pets. I found out they had several cute dogs, and one very smart young daughter, Madie.
But aside from having me on her show several times, Marta and Scott built this website you now see…And Marta has promoted it on her page. She did not have to, but she did. Aside from all her good qualities, Marta is very generous.
I have never met this dynamic, attractive duo in person, but I hope I do some day.
And in the meantime… have I ever told you how many wonderful people I have met through serial killers?
This is getting old by now, this opening line, the people I met through a serial killer… but I now want to ask you, how many of you have been to the Cubanarama.com website? Or to the Cubanarama facebook page? You will find a fascinating, friendly, compassionate woman of many different interests who will stimulate your mind and your senses She’s not only interested in crime, but in art, and music, and books, and movies. We share those interests too.
And yes, it’s getting old now…But yes, have I really told you how many wonderful people I have met through serial killers?
It has to pay off somehow, it has to link and connect the rest of us somehow, doesn’t it? I mean, the good, kind, generous people outnumber the bad— the sociopaths, the psychopaths, the killers, the kind who want to hurt others to satisfy their own dark urges; at least we triumph in my world.
Like I’ve said about Charlie Brandt, in spite of the suffering that the evil ones have caused and do cause, they don’t get to WIN!
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I didn’t know Michelle Jones:
No, you are not seeing things. Our stellar webmaster, Scott Wevley, photo shopped this illusion to reflect what happened here. And the young woman’s face who is inserted at our table is Michelle Jones.
Our book, —my partner Sean Robbins and mine—is titled INVISIBLE KILLER: The Monster Behind the Mask. It mostly takes place during the “summer of hurricanes” in Florida, 2004, when serial killer Charlie Brandt murdered his wife, Teri Helfrich Brandt, and Teri’s 37 year old niece, Michelle Jones. Charlie killed other women, but either the families lived far away or could not be reached. Not Michelle. Michelle had loyal friends, close friends through high-school and college. And two of them, who had already been an invaluable help, came to see me in Daytona Beach from Orlando, where they reside.
Peggy Moore, Debbie Knight and I had a “girls’ day out” which turned into early evening.
I didn’t know Michelle Jones, but that day I got a great introduction to her.
These two attractive young women exuded class and breeding, yet were down to earth, with a wicked sense of humor. Michelle must have been the same way, I surmised.
Peggy and Debbie are wives and mothers, but also businesswomen. Michelle was an executive for The Golf Channel.
But most importantly, these two loved Michelle, and have not forgotten her for one moment even though she wasn’t here with us. Or was she…
Peggy, Debbie and Michelle had attended the University of Florida at Gainesville, and as the women, —or the “girls,” as I call them, since we are one generation apart— began to share their college stories, we laughed over pranks they and Michelle played on people, including what we now refer to as “the hot dog caper.” They took about two hundred grilled hot dogs left over from a barbecue in their off-campus building, took them home, and then, not knowing what to do with them, decided, —Michelle included—- to duck and throw them at oncoming cars. Not very funny if one happened to be the driver, but to the girls, to imagine what the unsuspecting victim made out of the unusual projectile was a reason for great merriment.
Who doesn’t remember pulling pranks like that in college? Certainly, not girls I would have liked. And I found myself liking these women, very much.
I like each of them for different reasons: Peggy could have easily been a profiler, such is her keen intellect and insight into people. Debbie, an actress; her sensitivity, reflected on her mannerisms and face, is like an instrument. And she can write, too. Whereas other people preferred to chat on the phone, Debbie emailed.
When he read Debbie’s accounts, my partner, Sean, asked me, half jokingly but not: “Does she want to do this with us?” He meant the book. She is that good.
Peggy had some theories about the crimes, and the reasons for Charlie Brandt being the monster that he was. They absolutely floored me. And Peggy, a deep thinker, does not say anything she has not examined thoroughly.
Both of her friends are very different, but all the while, Michelle was there. And Michelle Jones, who must have been different from her friends, and yet somewhat similar and had a deep kinship with them, was no longer a victim. She was a college girl, and a prankster with a bit of mischief in her. Her friends shared with me a favorite saying hers, one she did not hesitate to use on people when she was displeased over something: “Kiss my lily-white ass!” And they said it the way Michelle would have said it, understatedly and with great panache. And I wanted to know her. And I finally did.
I didn’t know Michelle Jones until then. But as Peggy said at one point, “Michelle is smiling.”
We all knew she was. This is why she is in this picture. Because she was with us in spirit. And most definitely not as a victim, but as a friend.
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My writing partner, Sean Robbins, began his prologue for our book, INVISIBLE KILLER: The Monster Behind the Mas, by stating the strange opener his friend Jim Graves said to him at his favorite bar: “Did I ever tell you I was related to a serial killer?” Jim was talking about serial killer Charlie Brandt, who was his brother-in-law and good friend. Jim didn’t suspect a thing.
I didn’t suspect this: Never would I have imagined I would meet such diverse, wonderful people during the course of writing this book.
I will begin with my writing partner, Sean Robbins.
When he first showed up at my house with the beginnings of his story, from his friend Jim Graves, about Charlie Brandt, I saw a young, eager, tattooed from head to toe individual, typical Daytona boy, or biker. He was not that at all, and I spotted it from the start.
What he is is immensely curious, driven, and dedicated to his craft of writing, albeit disrespectful of all forms of authority. I could relate. I used to be like that. And I am grateful he still is.
What I wasn’t expecting was the rest of the people who came into my life, and have stayed.
I emailed the Michelle Lynn Jones website and received an answer from Peggy Moore, a loyal friend of Michelle’s, who said she wanted to help. Of course, at first, folks say they want to help until they realize one’s true intentions. And then they really help. I suppose all of these people realized what this was about, and why I was drawn to this story. I wanted to make the victims full-rounded people, who had lives they should have continued. That nobody had any right to take them.
Bill Jones, Michelle’s dad, was the second one to call. “I understand you’re writing a book about Michelle,” he said in his gravely, soft southern voice, and then allowed me to speak with his wife, Mary Lou.
I wasn’t just writing a book about Michelle, but by then, I realized, about Teri too, and two other victims. I wasn’t so certain who they were.
But Mary Lou filled me in about the murders of her daughter, Michelle, and her sister, Teri.
Mary Lou Jones is one of the strongest women I know. She is a psychiatric nurse with a Ph D. who had no reservations about delving into the darkest aspects of the crimes. “No no,” she said softly but firmly when I expressed my misgivings about asking her some of the questions. “You are writing a book and we want it to be as accurate as possible.”
Mary Lou also pointed me to some of Michelle’s friends. One of them I met without Mary Lou’s guidance; Lisa Emmons, who was in the 48 HOURS episode, DEADLY OBSESSION. Lisa was very straightforward, and contributed to the study of Charlie Brandt. They all did.
And then I met Debbie Knight.
Debbie, of all of Michelle’s friends, is possibly the one who carries the most hurt. She was her best friend. She also happens to be a good writer.
She was at Michelle’s house two nights before the murder. Debbie believed, possibly still believes to this day she could have prevented the murder of her friend if Charlie had attacked the night that she was there. I tried to convince her otherwise. Charlie would have killed her too. I identify with all these women for different reasons. With Mary Lou, for her wisdom; Lisa, for her honesty; Peggy, for her diplomacy and sweet temper; Debbie, for her conscience, which haunts her still, and I wish it would not.
And then I received, via a flash drive, a police report about Sherry Perisho, dubbed “a homeless transient” by the media. She was anything but…
Sherry had a 136 IQ, read Herman Hesse, and was homeless, apparently, by choice. She intrigued me. I reached out to the only person who cared enough about her to keep emailing investigators in Monroe County, for the Florida Keys, to find out how her cousin was murdered. Sherry was taken and eviscerated by Charlie Brandt.
Through the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, and Marilyn Angel, Sherry’s cousin, I found out about her life through an autobiography she was writing, and kept in the dinghy she made her home. I found a woman I wanted to know. She was another rebel who chose the Florida Keys as a last frontier.
Marilyn Angel became a friend. Not an everyday friend, but a friend to whom I sent a Christmas card last year.
I also sent a Christmas card to Special Agent and profiler Leslie D’Ambrosia. She was with me every step of the way and is a veritable walking encyclopedia of crimes and criminals. She never failed to respond to any question I asked of her, and answered back quite thoroughly and articulately. I could not have done the book without her.
And I also sent a Christmas card to Bill and Mary Lou Jones. It was of my pets, who give unconditional love as we all know. I hope it can give them some comfort.
MaryLou, Michelle’s mother, told me she and Bill kept Michelle’s cat. They adopted an injured dog. They are good people whom I’m glad to know. Mary Lou also connected me to the lead investigator, Rob Hemmert. This blog will continue as I talk with more people, but I will say one thing: Mary Lou Jones is my hero.
In the meantime, did I ever tell you I met some wonderful people through a serial killer?
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Will be released in the Fall of 2013 by TitleTown Publishing.
Another typical evening dinner had ended, and everyone had gone to take care of their pre bed rituals. Mother, carrying child, was relaxing in a warm bath. Father was finishing up the removal of three-day stubble with a day old razor. The two youngest children were already asleep, and Angie, the oldest of the siblings was trying to follow suit. The only son, Carl, was quietly arming himself with his father’s whatever many days old rifle. Within a matter of minutes the mother and unborn fetus would be riddled with bullets, nothing more than a tub of shredded skin, shattered bone, and an exclamation point on the word death. The father would be locked in a closet, yearning for help, blood pouring from numerous wounds, and the oldest sibling, Angie, bruises around her neck, would be banging on the doors of multiple neighbors homes, screaming for help.
It was January 3rd 1971 and Three Dog’s night’s “Joy to the World” dominated the airwaves.
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Published: April 5th, 2011
What made me kill and kill again? I can’t answer that except like this…
Culled from interviews with the lead investigator and the victims’ families, and exclusive access to the killer, this is a revealing, shocking, and unflinching portrait of Gerald Eugene Stano, a man who fancied himself one of the greatest lady-killers of them all.
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Published: March 18th, 2008
For more than twelve years, the city of Juárez, Mexico — just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas — has been the center of a horrific crime wave against women and girls. Consisting of kidnappings, rape, mutilation, and murder, most of the atrocities have involved young, slender, and poor victims — fueling the premise that the murders are not random. As for who is behind the crimes themselves, the answer remains unknown — though many have speculated that the killers are American citizens, and others have argued.
