The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 10

A10 THE NEWS JOURNAL FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1992 detailed Red Bog's rampage by proseeuutor Feb. 1, 1954: James Allen Red Dog born in Poplar, Mont. 1970: Red Dog drops out of high school after completing 11th grade, lies about his age and joins the Marine Corps. 1973: Red Dog receives general discharge after a ruckus in an officers club. October 1973: Red Dog and two companions hold up Montana pizza parlor, kill owner.

December 1973: Red Dog convicted of manslaughter and robbery. The manslaughter count is thrown out on a technicality and Red Dog is sentenced to 15 years for robbery. Aug. 6, 1977: Red Dog and Raymond Allen Tapaha escape from federal penitentiary in California. Aug.

10, 1977: Red Dog stabs Stan ley Large and John Moses, whom Red Dog and Tapaha met at a bar a night earlier. A third man is forced to drive them to Las Vegas, then escapes. Aug. 12, 1977: Red Dog and Tapaha captured near Pauite Indian Colony. December 1977: Red Dog marries Carlene "Bonnie" Johnson.

April 10, 1978: Red Dog pleads guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. The court promises it will give him sentences to be served concurrently with the robbery sentence meaning he will serve no extra time for the killings. 1978: Red Dog transferred to U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan. Nov.

17, 1980: Red Dog moved to 'Red Dog rider' to crime bill awaits action A disclosure measure pro- posed by Sen. Joseph R. Bi- den Jr. as a result of the James Allen Red Dog case is languishing with the crime bill in Congress but may be voted on soon. Biden proposed legislation that will force federal authorities to notify the chief law enforcement officer of a state when a federally protected prisoner is released to that state.

Biden, proposed the bill after The News Journal disclosed that Red Dog was a protected witness who had been involved in four killings before coming to Delaware. Local officials weren't alerted to his presence. "When a convicted violent criminal is released onto the streets, the state and local police should be alerted," Biden has said. W. Michael McCabe, Bi- den's Delaware press secretary, said Thursday that the provision remains in the crime bill, but the bill has been filibustered since October by Republicans who say that overall it isn't strong enough for them.

McCabe said the Senate could vote today or next week to end the filibuster. Jerry Hager he could help someone tow a car. When she agreed, he grabbed a clothesline and left with her. Red Dog talked the woman into driving him to her home. There, the woman sat down and Red Dog pulled out a hunting knife with a bone handle, Wood said.

He put the knife to her head and announced, "This is it. You have to do what I want. No one can help Red Dog told the woman that four robbers were coming to ransack her house because Red Dog owed them $30,000. He had told them to take the money from her possessions, he said. Red Dog took her to her bedroom and ordered her to undress, Wood said.

He tied her to her bed with the clothesline and repeatedly raped and sodomized her. Red Dog told the woman they had to drive to Sussex County to save Pennington. He told her Pennington had been kidnapped by the four robbers. Red Dog ordered her to call her place of employment and say she would be absent. He listened to Wilmington.

June 27, 1989: Red Dog violates parole and is sent back to prison. June 27, 1990: Red Dog released to Delaware. Feb. 10, 1991: Red Dog kills Hugh Pennington, rapes a woman and forces her to drive him to Oak Orchard, where she escapes. Feb.

14, 1991: Red Dog captured in Wilmington. Feb. 21, 1991: Red Dog indicted for rape, murder. March 7, 1991: Red Dog pleads innocent. April 9, 1991: Superior Court Judge Norman A.

Barron orders psychiatric evaluations. March 12, 1992: Red Dog pleads no contest to murder, kidnap and other crimes. she and Red Dog were gone. They drove to a farmhouse in Sussex County, where Red Dog kept her overnight and raped her twice more. The farmhouse had no phone, and Red Dog wanted to make a call.

So he drove the woman to another house and left her in the car. She drove off and stopped at the first place she saw, the Riverside Inn. Red Dog was caught four days later walking into Wilmington. Meanwhile, the police had found Pennington's body and the evidence implicating Red Dog. In the woman's car, they recovered the hunting knife, which Wood said is the murder weapon.

Red Dog didn't dispute the prosecutor's account. Pankowski said Red Dog waited until the week before jury selection was to begin in his trial because "he wanted to stretch it out. He wanted the state to do all that work. He's laughing at them," Pankowski said. Pankowski said Red Dog will testify at the March 23 penalty execution greater opposition to capital punishment.

"If the state finds I am innocent after my death, they may not be so quick to kill someone else," Pennell said. He hopes the real killer will come forward before he dies the only condition under which he will signal to stop the execution, he said. McKenna said he was moved by the interview, which took place in the prison's maximum security area. McKenna, a guard and a prison spokeswoman were on one side of a glass window with a speaking slot, while Pennell was on the other side with his lawyer, Eugene Maurer, and i l.ijii.m I ilMflll I IBTI I IMWlll I 3 4 tvTZTr IV Reporters: Pennell seems U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, III.

Feb. 20, 1983: Marion inmate Joe Ortega dies of a combination of heroin and cocaine. July 1984: Red Dog cooperates with FBI and becomes a protected witness. Red Dog says he supplied the drugs to a prison gang, whose members killed Ortega. Nov.

29, 1984: Red Dog paroled from Marion. June 3, 1986: Red Dog arrested by tribal police in Billings, Mont, for carrying a knife. Aug. 4, 1986: Red Dog sentenced to two years on knife charge to run concurrently with other time. Nov.

18, 1986: Bonnie and James Red Dog testify in Marion murder trial. Feb. 2, 1988: Red Dog paroled to her end of the conversation. Wood said the woman wasn't scheduled to work, and her boss realized something was wrong. She "said she was sick and in pain," Wood said.

The employer asked if someone could come around. The woman said no, and repeated that she was sick and Red Dog waited so long because he wanted the state to do all that work. He's laughing at them." couldn't go to work. The employer asked if she needed an ambulance. The woman replied, no, she was sick and couldn't go to work.

Finally, the boss asked if she wanted the police. The woman "said yes, thank you very much," Wood told the judge. State troopers were at the woman's door within minutes, but Pennell insisted again that he is willing to be executed to protect his family. "They have gone through a living hell because of the media," Pennell told McKenna. "I hope people will start forgetting after my death and my family can have a normal life," he told Hubbard.

Pennell also said he was glad the Department of Correction had moved him from Delaware Correctional Center to the more mal Sussex prison. He told Hubbard he wanted his family to remember him hugging his children on his knee. In the one-hour interviews, Pennell also explained his rediscovered Catholic religion to McKenna, Hubbard, Lauren Wilson of Channel 6 and Theresa Humphrey of AP. "I have faith in God," Pennell told Hubbard. "I will be in Christ's arms." Hubbard, McKenna and Wilson all commented on how relaxed Pennell was during the interviews.

They described him as calm and open, and said he smiled, even laughed "a totally different man from the one who stood trial," Hubbard said. Pennell told McKenna "something good" may come from his to," Richards said. A group of inmates, rebuffed by Chancery Court in another appeal on Pennell's behalf, does not have any further moves in store at this time, but intends to continue the fight against executions. "The courts say they will not listen to us, but we are not going to let this issue die," said Joseph M. Walls, a Delaware Correctional Center inmate who heads the Inmate Political Action Committee at the prison.

Nan Clements Drinking led to night of terror, gore By JERRY HAGER Staff reporter WILMINGTON The lurid details of James Allen Red Dog's crime spree were disclosed Thursday by a state prosecutor. Red Dog faces the death penalty for cutting the throat of 30-year-old Hugh Pennington in the basement of Pennington's Marsh Road home. He also faces four life terms and 80 years in prison on a charge of first-degree kidnap, four charges of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and three charges of possessing a deadly weapon during a felony. Red Dog pleaded no contest against the advice of his wife, Carlene "Bonnie" Red Dog, and his lawyers, Edward C. Pan-kowski and John H.

McDonald, who wanted the 38-year-old Belle-fonte man to go to trial. Suspect pleads no contest A1 Deputy Attorney General Steven P. Wood outlined Red Dog's crimes for Superior Court Judge Norman A. Barron: On Feb. 9, 1991, Red Dog drove to Millsboro, where he sold some jewelry his wife had made.

He remained there well into the night, drinking and carousing with a friend and two women, Wood said. When Red Dog returned to the Wilmington area, he went to Pennington's home, Wood said. Pennington was a manic depressive who was being treated with lith ium, and Red Dog wanted to talk to Pennington about taking the drug. No one has said what touched Pen ii el Killer will die to spare kin FROM PACE A1 said. Once he's dead, Pennell said, he hopes the publicity will dissipate, his children will be able to go to school without fear of being beaten, and his family members will be able to say the Pennell name publicly without causing a stir.

If it were not for his family, Pennell said, he would probably fight execution. Pennell believes it was his lifestyle that led to his arrest: He cruised the U.S. 40U.S. 13 corridor picking up women. He would go out driving after he and his wife had a fight, he said, or to work off the nervousness he felt about an impending examination he had to take to be certified as a master electrician.

He had Playboy magazines at his home and hardcore pornographic magazines in his blue van. When police raided his home, the family videocassette recorder held a movie titled "The Taming of Rebecca," cued to a scene where a man pierced a woman's nipple with a pin. "The lifestyle at the time that all made me look suspicious," Pennell said. Autopsies showed the serial killer's victims had been tortured and the nipples on their breasts had been mutilated. Some were last seen getting into a blue van.

Pennell was under police surveillance for two months before his arrest. He knew of the surveillance, but because he was innocent, he said, he wasn't too concerned. Wilmington attorney Eugene Maurer, who defended Pennell during his trial, suggested he take his case to the news media before his arrest. Pennell declined "because I thought it was going to blow over, basically because I know I wasn't involved in these killings." During the surveillance, "I was waiting one day to wake up and they police would be gone. After I was arrested, I still didn't be By NAN CLEMENTS Staff reporter GEORGETOWN Steven Brian Pennell said his final words to the public Thursday in four interviews at the Sussex Correctional Institution.

"I was surprisingly calm," said Dan McKenna, a reporter for WILM Newsradio. Interviewing a man about to die is "not something a reporter wants to do, but I did it as part of my job." Pennell, scheduled to die Saturday, selected the media he would talk to WILM, the Associated Press and two television stations, WPVI Channel 6 and WHYY Channel 12. Others, including The News Journal, sensationalized his story, Pennell told Channel 12's Tom Hubbard. Channel 12, Pennell said, "didn't continue the media hype when there was nothing going on." To all four interviewers, Pennell professed his innocence in the torture-murders of four women and the disappearance of a fifth. Hubbard said he asked Pennell a direct question about each victim: "Did you kill In each case, Hubbard said, Pennell answered, "No." off Red Dog.

Pennington, roused from his bed, was bound hand and foot with duct tape and electrical cord. "His throat was cut from ear to ear by a muscular person," Wood said. The wound was six inches long, and "the victim was nearly decapitated." Red Dog put the knife to the woman's head and said, "This is it. You have to do what I want. No one can help you." Red Dog left behind strands of his waist-length hair, bloody footprints and fingerprints, and a pack of cigarettes.

When Red Dog got home, the spree continued. He walked in with a bottle of whiskey in his hand while his wife was entertaining a friend. Red Dog asked his wife's friend to drive him to a nearby tavern so van. Pennell said blood from DiMauro was found in the van because she was menstruating at the time. Authorities used sophisticated DNA testing to make the matches, but "It's not accurate enough at this time.

I think several years from now it will be an important tool in criminal investigations," said Pennell, who once wanted to be a police officer. He said he believes he had sex with DiMauro, but "I dropped her ott at the Keg, a tavern on U.S. 40. "Basically she left the van under her own power." He remembers picking up Gordon at least twice but said he didn't kill her. He doesn't know if he ever picked up Meyer or Finner.

But he said he was sure he did not know Ellis. When Pennell was arrested, he said "thanks" to police. Asked why Thursday, he acknowledged that it appeared he was relieved he had been caught. But he said he was directing his comment to an officer who had acted "professional" during the surveillance and the arrest. Earlier this week, local newspapers ran drawings of the death chamber.

Pennell said the layout didn't matter: He was most concerned with whether he would have any privacy when using the nearby toilet or taking a shower. That wasn't shown in the drawings, he said. Pennell has spent his final week writing letters to friends and relatives. He's still working on letters for his wife, children and parents. His parents and his wife are not going to attend the execution.

The letters will be delivered after his death, he said. Pennell said the letters to his children will express his love and tell them to "read the Word and trust in God." He has chosen his final meal crab cakes, corn on the cob, steak, fries and lemon meringue pie. But he hasn't decided whether to make a final statement before his execution. If Pennell were to talk to the victims' families, "I would tell them a mistake has been made. I've been convicted, so I can understand their position and I don't hold that against them." But there is no reason to talk to the families "because I'm innocent." Pennell, who was raised a Catholic and has "gone back to his roots," plans to have his family priest at his side when volunteers inject lethal doses of chemicals into his veins.

"My mother told me a long time ago that 'son, one day you're going to need the and now I understand what she means," he said. "I trust in the Lord and He knows the truth. "I'm going to a better place where someone knows the truth and will judge me fairly. I believe I'm going to be with Christ." Chandelier Salt Ends i A n9 Cot hearing, and will ask Barron to sentence him to death. "He's been incarcerated most of his adult life.

He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in jail. He wants the death penalty," Pankowski said. at peace another guard. "I thought deeply about what he said" during the two-hour drive back to Wilmington, McKenna said. Tape recorders and cameras were barred from the interviews by corrections officials, although the electronic media, up to the last minute, sought permission to use them.

"I felt deprived at not being able to use my tape recorder, because the interview wasn't as complete as it could have been," McKenna said. "I also think the impact of Pennell's last words would have been greater in his own voice." Home Business Walk-In computer repair, upgrades Trade Ins Accepted lor New Systems 40 off dining seating groups outooand niestyte furnishings '4 Sign painter presses appeal to halt Pennell's execution GRAND OPENING SPECIAL KdS "COMPUTER TUNE UP" Check for Viruses Clean Up Directories Optimize Hard Drive Full diagnostics ol hardware Check of software configuration and more! Macintosh IBM IBM Compatible MAC Ask about our Shareware Library! WILMINGTON A Smyrna sign painter, rebuffed by U.S. District Court, has filed an appeal to stop Saturday's execution of Steven Brian Pennell. Seth Richards asked the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday to reconsider his motion to halt the execution of Pennell, who was convicted in 1989 of the murder of two women and pleaded no contest in October to the murders of two more.

"I feel obligated to act on behalf of those whose positions don't allow them swiuuni 2 SYSTEMS CUSTOM COMPUTER SYSTEMS 3604 Kirkwood Highway Alpha Shopping Center (Next to I. Goldberg) Across from Burger King Great Outdoor Now at 40 Off! viill Now save an incredible 40 on all in-stock and special order dining and seating groups. Save on the finest in wrought iron, aluminum and resin lieve it was going to trial." In the 1989 trial, Pennell was convicted of murdering Shirley Ellis and Catherine DiMauro. He was serving two life terms for those slayings when he pleaded no contest in October to killing Michelle Gordon and Kathleen Meyer the charges that led to the death penalty. Police believe Pennell also killed Margaret Lynn Finner, but he was never charged.

Finner's body was so badly decomposed that police could obtain little evidence. Fibers found on DiMauro matched those in Pennell's van, and he admitted he had picked her up a couple of times. But Pennell said no one has told him how police could find traces of his hair all over the van, but none of hjs hair on DjMauro. No hair from her body was found in his irom names iiKe wooaara, Brown Jordan, Tropitone, Lyon Shaw, Lloyd Flanders, Casual Creations, Grosfillex, Allibert, Kettler, Telescope and more. Hurry in, sale ends Sunday, March 22.

"Off list Paoli: 1554 E. Lancaster Avenue 215-647-1980 Hours: Mon-Sat 10 to 5 Wed 10 to 8 Sun 12 to 5 Wilmington: 3300 Concord Pike 302478-1892 Hoirs: Mon-Sat 10 to 5 Fri 10 tq 9 Sun 12 to 5.