COLD BLOODED KILLERS (Killers from around the World) (2 page)

Erik Freeman, age 11

Valerie ran from the house to a neighbor's and phoned the police. Officer Michael Pochran responded first at the scene but before entering the house he called for backup. The first thing the police discovered upon entering the house was a bloody aluminum baseball bat, leaning against the dining room cabinet. In the master bedroom they found Dennis, beaten to death: his face and head were smashed in and his brains were exposed and his neck was slashed. The second victim, 11 year old Erik was on his bed, bloody and bashed. Apparently they hated their young brother Erik just as much as their parents because he didn't resist their parent’s teachings.

They searched each room but couldn't find Brenda, until they proceeded to the basement. On one of the steps they found a bloody metal pipe. They found Brenda lying on her side with her nightgown pulled up and a knife at her side. She had been stabbed repeatedly. On a wall above the body, two swastikas had been drawn.

As the house began to fill with Police Officers and Homicide Detectives, it was clear that Bryan and David were missing and so was the family car. Given their reputation as white supremacists and their history of aggression, the hunt was on to find these boys and their cousin Nelson Birdwell III, whom they were known to associate with.

Background on the killers

David Freeman, age 16

David was 6' 3” and weighed 245 pounds. He had tattooed Sieg Heil on his forehead and Bryan had Berzerker on his. Their classmates, teachers and friends confirmed that they were impressive and threatening but students also said they were well respected. In 1992, David was in and out of various rehabilitation centers for substance abuse. He was eventually committed to a hospital where he stayed for one month. The doctors evaluated him and determined him to be of above-average intelligence but with an antisocial personality disorder.

Bryan Freeman, age 17

Bryan was 6' and 215 pounds at the time of his arrest. He was known to be more polite and intelligent than his brother and even made the honor roll in school. But, he too experimented with drugs and was in and out of treatment centers. It was in one of these centers where another boy encouraged him to join the skinheads.

Skinheads are a despotic youth movement which sanctifies violence as a means to attain political domination. Their objectives are a clutter of slogans including defending the white race and building white pride. They are open in their expressions of anti-Jewish, anti-black, anti-gay, anti-Hispanic, anti-Asian, and anti-immigrants. Their name originally came from their shaved heads, although currently most let their hair grow to lessen their visibility. Tattoos are also part of Skinhead appearance and members decorate their bodies with tattoos of white power slogans and symbols such as swastikas. Nazi regalia such as the Iron Cross and the SS badge are also part of their distinctive clothing.

So upon his return home, Bryan encouraged David to get involved in the skinheads and after attending several meetings they decided to form their own group with their cousin Benny Birdwell. Early in the investigation, Police were able to learn from schoolmates about Bryan's and David's association with Skinheads and that they bragged about decapitating a cat and worshipping its body.

Nelson (Benny) Birdwell III, age 18

The three boys shaved their heads, got tattoos and proclaimed their loyalty to the white supremacist movement. Bryan was enraged that his parents continued to place him in treatment facilities as he viewed these places as 'mental institutes'. David soon adopted the same behavior and attitude toward his parents. Both would terrorize their brother Erik who they considered a wimp and a momma's boy. They also terrified the parents. The parents tried tough-love by taking things from their sons. This enraged them even more. Brenda sold her sons cars...the boys in turn tattooed their heads. Brenda and Dennis stripped all paraphernalia pertaining to hate from their sons rooms. It was during the removal of Nazi posters and pamphlets they discovered a book about killing ones parents. This was just three weeks before they were killed. On February 23, two days prior to the killing, they were overheard saying that they were going to kill their mother. David was also suspended from school for getting into an altercation which erupted into threats of violence against the principal.

Apprehension

After interviewing Harry Liste, a classmate, the Police learned that the brothers had mentioned killing their parents and heading to Florida but the trio in fact went west to Michigan. A truck driver heard about the murders and the descriptions of the three boys and called authorities indicating they were at the Truck World Motor Inn in Hubbard, Ohio. A videotape from a nearby grocery store also captured the boy’s picture. This video was sent back to the Allentown police department where the suspects were positively identified by outraged family members.

Unfortunately, by the time police arrived, they were long gone. But, they had made phone calls from the Inn to Frank Hesse, another skinhead, in Hope, Michigan. The day they arrived in Michigan, some six hundred miles from home, they decided to go ice fishing with their friend. While they were gone, S.W.A.T. Members from the Michigan State Police along with assistance from the FBI surrounded the house. Upon their return at 6:00 pm from fishing, they were apprehended.

David’s Story

David and Bryan Freeman had previously decided that if they were caught, they would take the fall instead of their cousin Benny. They assumed that they would be tried as juveniles, and Benny would be tried as an adult. So David waived his right to a lawyer and offered up a statement.

According to David the evening before the bodies were discovered, all three of the boys went to the movies where they saw 'Murder in the First' and then returned home at 10:30pm. He said that both Dennis and Erik were asleep however Brenda had waited up for them. They climbed through the basement window and were in the process of calling some friends to go drinking when their mother heard them. She came downstairs to tell the boys to go to bed and Benny to go home. Benny obeyed but never went home. It's reported that Brenda came down three times and asked Benny to leave and each time he would crawl out the window but return. The third time is when the murders took place. David said that Brenda and Bryan were yelling at each other and that he really never witnessed what actually happened. He did implicate his brother Bryan in the killing of his mother. He said that Bryan threatened to stab both him and Benny and then ordered them to go upstairs and get their father and brother. David admitted to killing his father Dennis and brother Erik and said that Benny just watched, following from one room to the other, but never participating in the murders. They placed the baseball bat in the dining room and the knives in the kitchen sink, changed their clothes and left the house. While the detectives listened to David's story, Benny was telling other investigators a whole different story.

Benny's Story

Benny's parents arrived to be with him in Michigan after he was arrested. They were very distraught as Benny was not a troublesome child and appeared to be an all-around nice kid. Benny reiterated about going to Wendy's, then the movies and then returning home. He also confirmed that Brenda came downstairs repeatedly and asked him to go home and that he pretended to leave and came back each time. When questioned about the murders, he said that Bryan and Brenda were screaming at each other and Bryan stabbed Brenda in the back as she was leaving to go upstairs. She pulled the knife out of her back and attacked Bryan. They fought over the knife and Bryan eventually stabbed her in the shoulder. When she screamed this time, Bryan forced a pair of shorts into her mouth so that she wouldn't wake Dennis. After a few minutes she laid still.

He said that Bryan and Dennis went upstairs to kill Dennis and Erik and that he remained in the basement. He was called upstairs after the other two killings and saw that Bryan was covered in blood and went to change his clothes. David didn't look bloody but went out to the backyard and vomited. They took all the cash, about $200 out of Dennis's wallet, argued in the car about where to go and eventually deciding on going to a friend’s farm in Michigan. They contemplated going back and staging the scene to look like a robbery gone bad but heard the news on the radio so it was already too late.

Bryan's Story

Bryan and David read an article in the Midland News and felt that Benny was putting all the blame on them so they decided to retaliate. Before Bryan gave a statement for the first time, he requested certain conditions: he wanted a lawyer for him and his brother, he wanted the death penalty taken off the table and they wanted to give an interview to a reporter of their choosing. The deal was approved by the prosecution.

Bryan told a similar story but with more details and admitting his own involvement in the murders. He confessed that after he killed his mother, Benny used the handle of a pick ax to bludgeon her over the head, and then went upstairs to help David. Bryan did deny telling the others to go and kill Dennis and Erik. Bryan started to cry while giving his statement and said that Ben told him how he shattered Erik's skull and hit both Erik and Dennis in the face several times with a baseball bat. He admitted that Ben had cut their throats and that they were going to take the fall for Benny.

The Arraignment

The three boys were extradited back to Allentown and taken to the Lehigh County Jail where they were each officially charged. The arraignment for the brothers was on April 26. The Coroner was first to be called and his testimony confirmed the following.

Dennis had been killed first, struck six times on the head, seven times on the chest which fractured the breastbone and ribs. He had fractures on the neck, eye sockets, nose and jaw. The brain had actually protruded through the skull. He had been struck with two different weapons indicating there were two different attackers. The cause of death was extreme brain trauma.