Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods

Gerald & Charlene Gallego

Apprehension

When Gerald and Charlene returned to her parents house the next morning, the police were there.  Gerald disappeared quickly, leaving Charlene to deal with investigators questions.  She and her boyfriend had gone to a movie the night before, she said; theyd driven his red Triumph.  When detectives reminded her that the Triumph had been parked in front of the house all night, she said theyd gotten so drunk she couldnt remember which car theyd taken.  The detectives left deeply suspicious.

Gerald decided that Craig Millers body, which hed taken no trouble to conceal, had to be moved before police found it.  He didnt know, however, that it had already been discovered, and when he and Charlene went looking for it that night, it was nowhere to be found.  It was time to run, they decided.  They drove to Reno where they ditched the Olds and boarded a bus for Salt Lake City.

Back in Sacramento the evidence was mounting.  Craig Millers fraternity brother identified a picture of Gerald as the man hed seen in the Oldsmobile with Craig and Mary Beth.  Charles Williams told police that Stephen Feils real name was Gerald Gallego.  The bullets removed from Craig Millers body matched those Gerald had shot into the ceiling of a bar where he had worked. 

Charlene called her parents from Salt Lake City asking for money, which they wired to her.  She and Gerald moved on to Denver, then to Omaha, Nebraska, where once again she called her parents.  Reluctantly, they agreed to wire more money.  This time, though, they told the FBI what they were doing.  Agents were waiting at the Western Union office in Omaha, and they picked up the couple without a struggle.

Mug shots of Gerald and Charlene Gallego when they were arrested.
Mug shots of Gerald and Charlene
Gallego when they were arrested.

 

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