The Halloween Killer and Lisa Ann French

Halloween night, 1973, back when all the kids used to wait until dark to begin trick-or-treating, 9 year old Lisa Ann French was dressed as a hobo. Although she wanted to be a butterfly, her mom said no, stating it was going to be too cold outside. Little did it matter when Lisa only made it to three houses before meeting her end.

Gerald Turner lived in a duplex on the other side of Lisa Ann French’s family. Lisa, fond of Gerald, used to spend time playing with his baby, pushing her in a stroller down the street. She also visited Gerald often, showing him things she had gotten, or even to just sit and talk. Even after Gerald moved in with his girlfriend, Arlene Penn, a half-block away at 152 Rose Ave, they would still reportedly see Lisa and her familiar smile.

Lisa was a fourth grade student at Chegwin Elementary School. She had deep brown eyes, a trendy shag haircut, and her smile with gaps in her teeth where new ones were just beginning to grow in. They lived in the Fond Du Lac neighborhood in northeast Wisconsin where the streets were lined with trees, and almost every house had their porch light on, ready for trick-or-treaters.

Lisa and her friend were supposed to meet up with her friend Ann to head to Pumpkin Place, a block over where parents were hosting an outdoor party. Unfortunately for Lisa, Ann had misbehaved, and was not allowed to go out with her best friend, leaving Lisa to trick-or-treat alone.

Lisa left home around 6pm, in her masking tape covered jeans, floppy felt hat, and green parka. Her face dotted with painted on freckles, she looked every bit the hobo she was trying to be. After the party, Lisa made three stops at homes in the neighborhood. One being Karen Bauknecht’s house – a local teacher, another being the home of a classmate who happened to live across the street. Then finally, at Gerald Turner’s home.

Gerald was supposed to accompany Arlene on a visit to her mother. But when Arlene showed up just after 7:15, after attending the party at Pumpkin Place, she found Gerald in a bathrobe on the couch, claiming he was sick. He urged her to go visit her mother alone.

When young Lisa got to Gerald’s door, she found it open and stepped inside. When Gerald saw her, he led her upstairs to his bedroom, where he proceeded to take her clothes off and proceeded to have anal intercourse with her, where presumably, she died.

Arlene had already left, but then realized that her mother wouldn’t be home for another hour, so she returned home, where she found Gerald heading back to the bedroom multiple times to “lay down.” She didn’t pay him much attention, and about an hour later, she left. If only Arlene had gone to the bedroom to check on him, she would have found the lifeless body of little Lisa Ann French.

When he was sure Arlene was gone, Gerald stuffed Lisa’s body and clothing into garbage bags, and then dumped them on the outskirts of town.

By 10pm, the search for Lisa had begun. Betty Wohfiel, head of the block parents, a PTA sponsored group, started calling other block parents, urging them to turn their lights on and put signboards in their windows. Police searched all night, and by the next day over 5,000 people had joined the search for little Lisa Ann French.

The National Guard joined in, with their helicopters circling overhead, and private planes searched the sky. Volunteers on horses searched the fields. Land Rovers scoured the marshes, and the police dragged the rivers and lakes.

6,000 copies of Lisa’s school photo were printed and passed around, and even local gas stations were offering up to 25 gallons of free gasoline to anyone using a vehicle to search for young Lisa.

It wasn’t until two and a half days later, when Farmer Gerald Braun was on his tractor, returning home at about 11:30am Saturday morning, when he stumbled upon the two garbage bags in the brush along McCabe Road, just off Highway 49, in the town of Taycheedah. Wayne Geis, from the sheriff’s office was called to the scene. “It was … the worst possible thing that could have happened,” he later said in a phone interview. “I saw that little girl, and I don’t know how any man could do that. Turner should never, ever be released.”

The whole community mourned the death of Lisa. On November 6, 1973, the Immanuel-Trinity Lutheran Church in Fond du Lac was packed with people, eager to pay their respects. Little Lisa wore the same purple and white dress she had worn for her picture day at school, and lay as though she were sleeping in her white casket. Classmates and fellow Girl Scouts from Troop 16 took up nine rows inside the church.

It wasn’t until nine months later that Gerald Turner was finally arrested. He had been questioned since the day after Lisa’s disappearance. He confessed to killing Lisa on August 8, 1974, but later told the jury during his trial that the confession was not his words, that he had not killed Lisa. “I got sick and tired of being harassed by police calling on me,” he said as to why he signed the confession.

His confession claimed that he was “highly sexually motivated” when Lisa Ann French entered his home on Halloween night, and he took her to his bedroom. At one point, he said he noticed the child wasn’t breathing, and attempted to revive her, but that was when his girlfriend, Arlene Penn, arrived home. He placed socks on his hands to move the body to the bathroom.

The autopsy conducted by the Fond du Lac County Medical examiner ruled asphyxiation as the cause of death, stating that the little girl died from shock during the assault. Consequently, Gerald Turner was found guilty of second-degree murder, enticing a child for immoral purposes and acts of sexual perversion. He was sentenced to 38 years and began serving his prison sentence on Feb. 4, 1975.

“He has a cold disregard for people, mainly females,” testified Robert Owens, then chief psychologist at Taycheedah Correctional Institution, — a nearby women’s prison. “He does not have conscience control to inhibit his impulses for pleasure and to conform to society’s laws.”

“He impressed me as showing no remorse … no feeling of repentance,” presiding Circuit Court Judge, Milton Meister, said during sentencing.

The man who killed Lisa Ann French, Gerald Miles Turner Jr., was a neighbor. He was someone she knew. His brutal sexual assault and murder of the young trick-or-treater on Oct. 31, 1973 is still remembered as one of the most heinous crimes in the city’s history. Turner would be called the “Halloween Killer,” and the incident gave reason for the city to change trick-or-treating to daylight hours.

During his incarceration, Gerald wrote a letter to Lisa Ann French, but it was never seen until a file of paperwork was released in 1999. The letter read: 

“I doubt that I could ever fully realize the terror you experienced at my hands,” Turner wrote. “I can still see you standing the doorway with that felt hat beaming at having recognized me. Then I see the delight in your eyes turn to fear as I close the door behind you.

“The rest of my life I will have to live with what I did to you. . . .”

Gerald Turner was paroled for good behavior in 1992 after serving only 17 years and 8 months of his 38 year sentence. He remained free despite protests, but was then ordered back to prison in November 1993 when a civil lawsuit filed by angry citizens led to an appeals court decision that the state erred in the way it calculated his mandatory release date.

Allen French, Lisa’s father, said he supported the death penalty for Gerald Turner. In a 1993 interview, he reportedly said, “I hope God took her away before violence happened to her so she didn’t know, didn’t have time to be frightened,” he said. “Maybe shock took her. Maybe she passed out and (then) died. I hope so.”

Gerald’s brief release and public outcry prompted lawmakers to create a new law. Referred to as “Turner’s Law,” the law allows for violent sex offenders to be committed to a secured treatment center when they come up for parole if they are considered a possible threat to society. When Gerald was again slated for release on July 15, 1994, it was blocked when the state fought to have him committed to a secure mental institution under Turner’s law.

Turner went on trial in 1998, to determine if he deserved to be held as a sexual predator, and the jury decided he did not fit the description. That ruling meant that he could no longer be contained under the law, despite testimony from former girlfriends and wives that he was abusive. “I don’t think he’ll do so much as jaywalk on parole,” Turner’s attorney, Edmund Carns, told the court.

Gerald was released, and despite a couple of incidents (he waved a knife and shouted at a caseworker in a Madison group home while he worked as a cook), he was more or less left alone. That is, until 2003 when it was discovered that Gerald had violated his parole. Authorities found pornographic images on a computer drive, as well as sexually explicit videos and magazines at the Foster Community Correctional House, the Madison halfway house where he was staying. A judge ordered him back to prison for 15 years.

Again, his release date came up, this time on February 1, 2018. The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a petition to commit Gerald to a mental facility, once again arguing that he is a sexually violent person, that he suffers from mental disorders that predispose him to engage in acts of sexual violence. They pointed out that even while under high-risk supervision, Gerald had broken the rules.

August 16, the court of appeals agreed to stay all circuit court proceedings until it reaches a decision. At this time, Gerald Turner has been released from prison and currently resides at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, where he has been since his release from Racine Correctional Institution.

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