Karl Warner

Case record: Karl Warner

Background

Karl Francis Warner (born 1950) was an American serial killer. He was active in Santa Clara County, at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, in Northern California. He was convicted of the murder of three teenaged girls during his period of activity from 1969-1971.

Warner was a student at Oak Grove High School and a San Jose City College student. He was described by a girl who dated him as being “accomplished in mathematics” and not a “weird, skulking guy that we picture as a serial killer”. A park maintenance man who had seen him there and who knew him to be “a little odd” was able to give police the name of Oak Grove High School graduate and San Jose City College student Karl F. Warner of San Jose.

Warner had previously been a suspect in an unsolved knife assault on another woman. At the time of his arrest, there was consideration given to the possibility that Karl F. Warner was the infamous Zodiac; however, it was subsequently determined that Warner had been residing in Marlborough, Massachusetts at the time of some of the earlier Zodiac slayings.

Warner was incarcerated at California Medical Facility, in Vacaville.

The offence

Furlong/Snoozy slayings

On August 3, 1969, the bodies of Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, were found on a hillside in San Jose's southern Almaden Valley. The girls rode their bikes to a wooded knoll overlooking their homes in the rugged Alameda Valley section of South San Jose, California, and brought a picnic lunch intending to spend a quiet afternoon alone. They were found laid out within a grove of trees from which their homes were visible.

The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner Dr. John E. Hauser said the girls died in a “frenzied flurry of knife wounds,” totaling nearly 300. The medical examiner stopped counting at 300 stab wounds, all above the waist. In statements to the press, Dr. John E. Hauser declared:

“The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls.”

When neither girl came home for supper, Debby Furlong's father started scouring the woods and found a crowd of gawkers and police around the mutilated bodies of his daughter and her friend.

Bilek slaying

On Sunday, April 11, 1971, Kathy Bilek, 18, visited Villa Montalvo, in Saratoga, with the intent to read and engage in birdwatching in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby.

Kathy Bilek was stabbed 49 times. Another account described her being stabbed seventeen times in the back, thirty-two times in the chest and stomach, carefully avoiding contact with her breasts.

The local authorities drew a connection between the 1969 Furlong/Snoozy slayings and the Bilek murder, calling the latter “a carbon-copy killing”. After the discovery of Bilek’s wounds connecting her murder with the previous killings, police redoubled their efforts.

Investigation

Infuriated parents launched patrols in San Jose without result while homicide investigators searched for clues. One theory linked the murders with an offshoot of the Manson “family”; another speculated on connections with the “Zodiac,” an unidentified serial slayer whose latest mocking letter, on November 8, claimed seven victims rather than the five accounted for by solid evidence.

Initially, San Francisco police Inspector Dave Toschi suspected the Zodiac Killer may have perpetrated the Furlong/Snoozy murders.

After Bilek’s murder, a park maintenance man who had seen Warner there and who knew him to be “a little odd” gave police his name. A search warrant was obtained, and the knife used in the Bilek murder was located on the premises of the Warner residence.

Arrest

Two weeks after April 11, 1971, detectives focused their attention on Karl Warner. He lived with his parents three blocks from the homes of the earliest victims. He was also suspected in the stabbing of a woman who survived her wounds.

Police secured a warrant and surprised their suspect in the midst of-preparation for a college physics test.

Trial

Warner pled guilty on all counts in September 1971.

Sentencing

In September 1971, Karl F. Warner confessed to the murders of Furlong, Snoozy, and Bilek, and received a life sentence. He was sentenced to life in prison in September 1971.

Outcome

Warner was convicted of the murder of three teenaged girls: Deborah Gay Furlong, 14; Kathy Snoozy, 15; and Kathy Bilek, 18.

Aftermath

Warner was the infamous Zodiac. That possibility was eliminated after it was determined that Warner had been residing in Marlborough, Massachusetts at the time of some of the earlier Zodiac slayings. He moved to California from Marlborough, Massachusetts in early 1969, two and a half years after the first Zodiac murder.

Other details

Warner was active in Santa Clara County during 1969-1971.

The “Karl F. Wagner” fragment appears in the material as an alternate spelling near the biographical and case narrative. The record consistently names the defendant as Karl Francis Warner (Karl F. Warner).