Location: California/Utah, USA |
Classification: Spree killer |
Characteristics: Rape - Necrophilia - Mutilation |
Number of victims: 5 |
Date of murders: 1978 / 1991 |
Date of arrest: April 28, 1991 |
Date of birth: January 3, 1946 |
Victims profile: Melinda Kimball (his first wife) / Fathyma Vann, 38 / Spadoni Jablonski, 46 (his second wife) and her mother, Eva Peterson, 72 / Margie Rogers, 58 |
Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing with knife |
Status: Sentenced to death in California on 1994 |
Philip Carl Jablonski (born 1946) is an American serial killer from California.
Jablonski is charged with the April 22, 1991 death of Fathyma Vann, 38, in Indio, California. Vann was a fellow student at the local community college that Jablonski attended to satisfy conditions of his parole. Fathyma, a recently widowed mother of two teenage girls, was found shot in the head and sexually assaulted, lying naked in a shallow ditch in the Indio dessert with the words "I Love Jesus" carved in her back. Her body had been subjected to other mutilations including the cutting off of her ears and removal of her eyes.
The following day, April 23, 1991, Jablonski's wife, Carol Spadoni Jablonski, 46, and her mother, Eva Peterson, 72, were murdered at their home in Burlingame, California. Spadoni was shot, suffocated with duct tape, then stabbed, while Peterson was sexually assaulted and shot.
Carol Spadoni met and married Jablonski in 1982, after answering a newspaper ad placed while Jablonski was serving time for having murdered his first wife, Melinda Kimball, in Palm Springs, California in 1978.
Jablonski was also charged with the robbery and subsequent murder of Margie Rogers, 58, in Grand County, Utah, on April 27, 1991. He was captured the following day in Kansas.
In January, 2006, the California Supreme Court upheld Jablonski's death sentence on appeal.
Death sentence for wife killer upheld on appeal
By Josh Richman - Oakland Tribune
Jan 25, 2006
California's Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man who in 1991 murdered his mother-in-law and his wife -- who had married him while he was in prison for murdering a previous wife in 1978.
Phillip Carl Jablonski, now 60, mutilated and shot to death Carol Spadoni, 46, and her mother, Eva Petersen, 72, in April 1991 in their Sanchez Street home in Burlingame. The state's highest court unanimously rejected a host of arguments in his automatic appeal.
Among other evidence found in Jablonski's car at his arrest was a tape recording in his voice describing the murders and his sexual assault upon Petersen. The tape also described two other murders: Fathyma Vann, 38, in Indio a day before the Burlingame slayings; and Margie Rogers, 58, during a truck-stop robbery in Utah a day before his capture in Kansas.
Spadoni had answered Jablonski's personal ad in a newspaper and married him in 1982 while he served time on a second-degree murder conviction for having slain his wife, Melinda Kimball, in July 1978 near Palm Springs. But by the time Jablonski got out of prison in September 1990, Spadoni had come to fear him and did not want him near her.
Jablonski even now has ads placed on several Web sites seeking male or female pen pals. On a German site, he describes himself as "very understanding and loving" and someone who has "been described as a gentle giant."
Prosecutors brought to trial evidence showing his history of violence against women stretched at least back to his first marriage in 1968, committing a series of assaults and rapes against his wives, lovers and other women. He claimed he suffered as a result of traumas he experienced in childhood and during his military service in Vietnam. A jury in 1994 decided Jablonski was legally sane at the time of the murders and recommended he be put to death.
The direct, automatic appeal decided Monday exists only within his trial's parameters, seeking reversible error. But Jablonski in August filed a separate habeas corpus case: a reinvestigation of the whole case in which new evidence can be brought in or existing evidence can be recast. Jablonski also can file habeas petitions to the federal courts.
S.C. Upholds Death Sentence in Killing of Bay Area Women
Expert’s Reference to Defendant as ‘Serial Killer’ Not Unfair, Justices Rule Unanimously
By Kenneth Ofgang - Metropolitan News-Enterprise
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The California Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld the death sentence of a Northern California man convicted of killing his wife and mother-in-law and linked to the brutal sexual assaults and murders of three other women.
The high court rejected Phillip Carl Jablonski’s claim that San Mateo Superior Court Judge John G. Schwartz deprived him of a fair trial by allowing a prosecution mental health expert to testify that he was a “serial killer,” a phrase that Jablonski’s lawyer had no legal meaning and was used only to cause prejudice.
Justice Carlos Moreno, writing for the high court, said the testimony was admissible to help jurors understand how Jablonski, whose attorneys unsuccessfully challenged his competence and later his sanity, could have engaged in psychotic, bizarre anti-social behavior, yet still understand the difference between right and wrong.
Prosecutors said Jablonski killed his wife Carol Spadoni and her mother Eva Petersen after Spadoni—who married Jablonski while he was serving time at San Quentin nine years earlier—told his parole officer she was scared of Jablonski and did not want him coming back to San Mateo County to live with her.
Among the prosecution evidence was a tape seized from Jablonski’s car in which he described the murders. Spadoni was shot, suffocated with duct tape, and stabbed; her mother was shot after being sexually assaulted. The prosecution’s penalty phase evidence tied Jablonski to the killings of a girlfriend with whom he had a child, a college classmate, and a woman who worked at a truck stop, as well as to attacks on 10 other women, including his first wife, his sister, his mother, and another girlfriend.
Case in Mitigation
The defense presented witnesses in the penalty phase to testify to the difficulty of Jablonski’s upbringing and the constant physical abuse he and other family members suffered at the hands of a gun-toting, alcoholic father .
Jurors convicted Jablonski of two counts of first degree murder, with special circumstances of multiple murder, murder in the commission or attempted commission of rape and sodomy, and prior murder.
On appeal, the defense attacked the testimony of Dr. George Wilkinson, a court-appointed psychiatrist who testified that he interviewed the defendant on five occasions and reviewed extensive background material.
Wilkinson testified that Jablonski suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder, “transient” psychotic episodes triggered by “overpowering aggressive or sexual feelings” that “cannot be expressed,” and had a passive/aggressive personality with “intense feelings of inadequacy” and that he was a sexual sadist. Wilkinson also concluded that defendant engaged in malingering behavior and attacked the defense contention that he was schizophrenic.
Wilkinson said that based on a study of over 300 murderers, he concluded that Jablonski was a serial killer, which he defined as someone who has the need to kill in order to release internal tensions. That, the doctor testified, was the reason he made the tape recording and made notes about the murders in his address book.
Flight After Crime
While a serial killer may or may not be insane, Wilkinson said, Jablonski understood the nature of his actions. The doctor cited the defendant’s awareness that he had to be alone when he confronted the victims and his flight after the crime.
Wilkinson added that there was nothing to indicate that, even though he knew his conduct was legally wrong, the defendant believed he was morally justified in murdering the victims.
The trial judge admitted Wilkinson’s testimony over defense objection, finding that the probative value outweighed any prejudice. That ruling was not an abuse of discretion, Moreno wrote for the high court.
“Defendant cites no authority for the proposition that the only expert evidence admissible on the issue of a defendant’s sanity must be confined to classifications of mental disease or disorder found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” the justice wrote. “As Dr. Wilkinson testified, the phenomenon of serial murderers has been the subject of professional interest in the psychiatric community, and his testimony regarding the behavior of serial murderers and its relation to defendant’s conduct as it bore on the question of his sanity was undoubtedly relevant to that issue.”
As to prejudice, Moreno wrote:
“In relation to the testimony the jury heard regarding the shocking circumstances of defendant’s crimes, Dr. Wilkinson’s testimony was relatively innocuous.”
The case is People v. Jablonski, 06 S.O.S. 268
Source: https://murderpedia.org/
Philip Jablonski: California man wooed woman with jail letters, married and then brutally killed wife and her mom
By Kunal Dey
Published on : 09:19 PST, Sep 3, 2020
Philip Carl Jablonski murdered five women between 1978 and 1991 across California and Utah. He served 12 years in prison for the murder of his first wife Linda Kimball in 1978. Following his release in 1990, he went on to take the lives of four more innocent women, namely Carol Spadoni, Eva Petersen, Fathyma Vann, and Margie Rogers.
While Jablonski was apprehended in April 1991 and sentenced to death for his cold-blooded crimes, he would eventually die of natural causes in 2019. At the time, he was on death row and awaiting execution by the state of California. That said, of all his murders, the most gruesome was probably the double-homicide of Burlingame mother and daughter duo Peterson and Spadoni in 1991 — a year after his parole for murdering his first wife Linda.
Jablonski's case is being portrayed in an Investigation Discovery special 'The Serial Killer Among Us: Phillip Jablonski'.
Pen pals to lovers
Spadoni and Peterson were dependent on each other and mostly kept to themselves, distanced from society. However, it later emerged that they were part of a church group that was trying to encourage its parishioners to talk to prisoners in a bid to convert them to Christianity. The pair thus began an epistolary relationship with Jablonski and assumed it would be harmless considering he was locked up in San Quentin prison. The killer's letters were described as "charming" and "happy-go-lucky" by former Detective Eric Haseleu in the latest ID special.
Spadoni's cousin, who wasn't identified, is heard in investigative journalist Barry Bortnick's research tapes, recalling how Spadoni "wrote constantly." "I think she almost wrote every day. And he'd write back a lot," she said. "I would say they wrote to each other two to three times a week at least." The relationship continued for two years before Spadoni agreed to marry Jablonski — despite knowing he's in prison for killing his first wife.
"
I guess she thought she could save him, or that she could be of benefit to him, you know, and that he's a changed man..." the cousin added.
Unmasking the monster
Jablonski is said to have manipulated Spadoni and preyed on her inexperience with people. As time went on, Spadoni became concerned as Jablonski's letters became more and more sexually charged and violent in nature. According to Bortnick, the killer sometimes made references to Spadoni's mother Peterson as well, fantasizing about what he'd do to her.
Spadoni eventually stops visiting her husband in prison. In fact, she misses 13 conjugal visits set up by Jablonski. According to the anonymous cousin, Spadoni was being pressured into these visits and she always "took her mother" along to feel safe. She says Spadoni even cut her hair short due to his behavior during the visits. "She said he used to put his hands around her throat and say 'you have such long beautiful hair I feel like strangling you with it,' or something to that effect," the grieving relative said. "And after that, she cut it."
In 1985, Jablonski sets up a "family gathering" in prison — inviting his parents and expecting Spadoni to bring hers along as well. However, she declines the invitation, sending the killer into a fit of rage. Jablonski proceeds to attack his own mother and almost kills her before his father intervenes, resulting in an additional five-year sentence.
The murderer was paroled in 1990, but not allowed to enter San Mateo County per terms of his agreement. Spadoni was already afraid that he was out of prison, and tragically, her worst fears came true shortly after his release. "Jablonski was definitely a wolf in sheep's clothing. Waiting to prey on these women as soon as he got out of prison," Det. Haseleu remarked.
Double homicide
On April 26, 1991, officers arrived at Spadoni's Burlingame residence. They rescued two dogs who were barking running around inside the property. Authorities first discovered Peterson's nude lifeless body on the floor. Det. Haseleu recalled graphic details including how her face was covered with a towel and pushed into her mouth with a bullet hole.
Further inside the house, officers located the partially naked body of Spadoni. The victim reportedly had several stab wounds in the chest area and had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Spadoni had duct tape completely covering her head and mouth, indicating she was brutalized before her death.
To know more about the rest of Philip Carl Jablonski's mind-numbing homicides in dramatic detail, we recommend you watch the riveting ID documentary in its entirety.
Phillip Carl Jablonski
I ask your indulgence male and female and promise to be brief as possible, allow me to introduce myself as Death Row Teddy.
I am 58 years old. My DOB is January 3rd 1946.
I have been on death row for 11 years. (Aug.1994)
I am seeking for a female/male Teddy Bear.
I lost once my heart scarcely used by one careless owner.
As I saw it last it was thubbing in your direction.
Caucasian male - seeking an open minded male/female for unconditional correspondence on mature and honest level, that has a caring heart to create a special friendship build from the heart.
Why choose me?
I am a professional artist, photography, amateur poet, writer, masseur, college educated, not a rude person, like to party, travel. My home town is Joshua Tree, CA. I am very understanding and loving. I believe in giving a second chance. People describe me as a gentle giant.
I love cats, dogs, parrots, horses and teddy bears.
What I like in a friend? I like it if you like to travel, party. Someone who is mature and wants a honest friendship. Someone who is able to discuss personal issues on a mature level and is not scared of Frank discussion.
What I miss the most: Traveling, photography male and female company, giving massages, partying, walking in the rain, romantic walks on the beach, romantic candle light dinners, cuddling in front of a roaring fire, soft music.
Lets share our thoughts and feelings (good or bad) lets learn about one another freely and watch our friendship bloom like a rose and be strong as a castle wall which can’t be broken.
A loving heart is worse more then a mountain of gold. Love communicates on any subject or issue.Write me please you won’t be disappointed.
Don’t let my situation stop you from writing me. Pick up your pen and pay me a visit.
Guaranteed response.
Sincerely,
Phillip
Serial Killer Phillip Jablonski Dies on California Death Row
By Don Thompson • Published December 31, 2019
A serial killer whose five victims included two wives has died on California’s death row, authorities said Monday.
Phillip Carl Jablonski, 73, was found unresponsive in his San Quentin State Prison cell on Friday and pronounced dead within minutes. His cause of death is awaiting an autopsy, but he had been assigned a single cell, said corrections department spokeswoman Terri Hardy.
A San Mateo County jury sentenced him to death in 1994 for the first-degree murders of his wife, Carol Spadoni, 46, and her mother, Eva Petersen, 72.
Spadoni had married him while he was in prison for murdering a previous wife in 1978.
It was the latest in what court records say was a long history of violence against multiple women, dating to his trying to kill his first wife in the 1960s. At the time he was an Army sergeant who had served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War before he was discharged in 1969 for a “schizophrenic illness.”
He pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder, assault and attempted rape of his second wife, Melinda Kimball, in 1978.
He was paroled for good behavior in 1990, despite having tried to strangle his mother with a shoelace during a prison visit in 1985.
Authorities said they recovered a cassette tape in which he then described fatally shooting, stabbing and mutilating Spadoni and her mother, and raping her mother after she was dead.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but a jury found he was sane at the time.
Jablonski was also implicated in the deaths of two other women that same year, Fathyma Vann of Indio, California, and Margie Rogers of Thompson Springs, Utah.
Vann was attending the same community college as Jablonski at the time. Rogers and her husband co-owned a store along Interstate 70 where she was found dead.
People v. Jablonski
A jury convicted defendant Phillip Carl Jablonski of the first degree murders of Carol Spadoni and Eva Petersen. (Pen. Code, § 187.)1 The jury also found true the special circumstance allegations that defendant murdered Petersen while engaged in the commission or attempted commission of rape (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iii)) and sodomy (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iv)). Additionally, the jury found true prior-murder and multiple-murder special circumstance allegations (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(2), (3)).
The Creepy Audio Diary of Phillip Jablonski
The audio of Phillip Jablonski starts around the 27 minute mark.