Based in part on Dunn's statement, along with other evidence they had collected along the way, authorities had finally gotten a clear picture of the killing spree.
It had, as they had suspected, begun the night of June 19. But the crime was even more horrendous than they had imagined.
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| Four Seasons, now Sheraton |
The way Smit now tells the story, Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook, had just finished his shift at the Four Seasons — now the Sheraton Colorado Hotel — when Corbett and his gang ambushed him. They had planned to rob him, Smit said, but the young cook had just fifty cents in his pocket. That enraged Corbett, and, instead, Smit said, they kidnapped Van Lone and drove to a remote spot at the edge of town. "He begged for his life," Smit recalled, telling his abductors that he had a wife and family.
"Please, don't kill me," Van Lone begged as Corbett forced him out of the car.
"I won't," Corbett is said to have replied coolly. "Just lie down on the ground."
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| .38 revolver |
When Van Lone did as he was he told, Corbett placed a .38 caliber revolver against the compliant young man's right temple and executed him. It wasn't about robbery anymore; hell, Corbett would later toss the 50 cents he had taken from Van Lone on his kitchen table where it would be forgotten. It was, Smit now believes, all about the thrill of murder.
When Corbett got back into his car that night, he turned almost giddily to his comrades and said, "Did you see that motherfucker jump when I shot him?"
Eight days later, Corbett killed again.
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