John Thomas Jamelske (born May 9, 1935) is an American
serial rapist-
kidnapper who, from 1988 to his apprehension in 2003,
kidnapped
Kidnapped may refer to:
* subject to the crime of kidnapping
Literature
* ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
* ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...
a series of girls and women and held them captive in a concrete
bunker beneath the yard of his home in
DeWitt, a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
of
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Early life
Jamelske was born and raised in the
DeWitt area. He graduated from
Fayetteville High School in 1953. In September 1959, he married Dorothy Richmond, a schoolteacher with whom he had three sons. At this time, he worked at
Acme Market
Acme Markets Inc. is a supermarket chain operating 161 stores throughout Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley of New York, and Pennsylvania and, as of 1999, is a subsidiary of Albertsons, and part of its presence in t ...
and other grocery stores. Later he started working in a series of blue-collar jobs, as a
handyman and
carpenter
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...
.
Later years
Over the years, Jamelske amassed over $1 million, which he invested in
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
Jamelske's wife Dorothy became bedridden from disease in 1988 and died in 1999. Jamelske and his wife lived in a three-bedroom single-family home at 7070 Highbridge Road in DeWitt, New York.
Abductions
In October 1988, Jamelske abducted his first victim, a 14-year-old
Native American girl. He held her captive for over two years, and she had turned 17 by the time he released her. Jamelske compelled her to his
will
Will may refer to:
Common meanings
* Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death
* Will (philosophy), or willpower
* Will (sociology)
* Will, volition (psychology)
* Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will
...
by threatening violence against her younger brother. She made no attempt to report to authorities after Jamelske released her.
In either 1995 or 1996, Jamelske abducted a 14-year-old
Latina
Latina or Latinas most often refers to:
* Latinas, a demographic group in the United States
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America.
*Latin Americans
Latina and Latinas may also refer t ...
runaway whom he lured under the premise of paying her to deliver a secret package. The girl willingly walked into his bunker (which he called "the dungeon") and Jamelske closed the door behind her. Eventually Jamelske put a blindfold on her and drove her to her mother's apartment and dropped her off. Although he also threatened her family, she went to the police with a description. Because of her previous drug use, they questioned the credibility of her story and dropped the investigation shortly after.
On August 31, 1997, Jamelske kidnapped a 53-year-old Vietnamese woman off the street. She was a foreign
refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. who spoke little
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. He forced her into his car and took her to an abandoned house, where he
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
d her. Then he tied her to a stack of flattened cardboard boxes and drove her to his house. He raped her daily while holding her captive, and also forced her to fulfill various menial tasks for him. He released her on May 23, 1998, at a
Greyhound bus
Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...
station, with $50. She reported to the police that day, but nothing came of it. She claimed that the police did not believe her, but Syracuse Police spokesman Sgt. Thomas Connellan stated that they investigated all leads, none of which panned out.
On May 11, 2001, Jamelske offered a ride home to a 26-year-old white woman walking in downtown
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
while on
LSD, which the woman accepted due to the poor weather. Jamelske took her back to his bunker, where he raped her daily. When she resisted, Jamelske inflicted
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...
burns on her, from which she developed an
abscess
An abscess is a collection of pus that has built up within the tissue of the body. Signs and symptoms of abscesses include redness, pain, warmth, and swelling. The swelling may feel fluid-filled when pressed. The area of redness often extends b ...
on her lower back. Jamelske also manipulated her with claims that he was actually part of an underground
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
syndicate, of which the police were a part.
The victim wanted to write home to her parents letting them know she was alive, and while Jamelske did agree he insisted she tell them that she was in a
drug rehabilitation clinic.
Controversy over investigation
After the previous victim's release, police investigations were complicated by the letter she had been forced by Jamelske to write. Further complicating the case was the rape kit test showing no evidence of sexual assault—Jamelske had no sexual contact with the victim for several days prior to releasing her.
The victim also told police that he drove a tan 1974
Mercury Comet. Police searched for registered vehicles matching this description in the New York area and came up with a single hit. However the lead didn't pan out due to the victim's description of the vehicle not matching with the one discovered. Due to this inconsistency, the investigating officers closed the case. It is noted that, despite that body style being available from 1971 to 1977, police failed to search any other year, as the car Jamelske drove was a 1975 Mercury Comet of the same color.
Representatives from the Syracuse police appeared on ''
Dateline NBC'' and criticized the woman for providing insufficient information.
In another interview on the program ''
Cold Case Files'', an
Onondaga Onondaga may refer to:
Native American/First Nations
* Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League
* Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...
Sheriff's Department detective stated:
The victim claimed during the same program:
Concerning the letter written by the victim to her family, the detective again stated:
Discovery
In October 2002, Jamelske picked up his final abductee, a 16-year-old
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
runaway from
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
.
On April 3, 2003, Jamelske felt confident enough to take the girl out to
karaoke
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...
at a local bar. Emboldened by this success, he then took her on another public outing, where she slipped away from him long enough to phone her sister. The girl's sister checked the caller ID and dialed the number back, which turned out to be a bottle return center located in
Manlius
The gens Manlia () was one of the oldest and noblest patrician houses at Rome, from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gnaeus Manlius Cincinnatus, consul in 480 BC, and for ...
. The older sister persuaded the employee who answered the phone to call
9-1-1
, usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...
. The employee in turn called her boss, who was working at a local pet store several blocks away, telling him that Jamelske—who was scheduled to visit him at the store shortly—had apparently kidnapped a young girl and had been raping her. After Jamelske and the girl had made their visit and left, the boss immediately called the police; Jamelske was tracked down and arrested shortly thereafter.
After discovery
Jamelske
pleaded guilty to five counts of first degree kidnapping, and is currently serving a term of 18 years to
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
. Part of his guilty plea agreement was that his assets would be sold off and divided among his victims. In a prison interview with
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
, Jamelske said that he should not be punished for what he did and that, once arrested, he had thought he would at the most spend a couple of days in jail, pay a fine, or perform
community service. He said that his lawyers had to spend many days after his arrest to make it clear to him that taking women and holding them in a dungeon is kidnapping.
In 2004, MSNBC produced episode 12 of their ''
MSNBC Reports'' series subtitled "Sex Bunker" on the Jamelske case, periodically rebroadcast several times a year as part of their "doc block" documentary marathons.
The case is also covered in the book ''True Stories of Law & Order: SVU: The Real Crimes Behind the Best Episodes of the Hit TV Show'' by Kevin Dwyer and Juré Fiorillo.
Jamelske is currently housed in the
Mohawk Correctional Facility
Mohawk Correctional Facility is a state prison for men in Rome, New York, Rome, Oneida County, New York, owned and operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The facility is classified as medium security ...
. On December 22, 2020, Jamelske was denied parole in his first appearance before the parole board. He was denied parole again on December 22, 2022.
The "dungeon"
Police found Jamelske's residence to be systematically filled with miscellaneous items of little or no value: newspapers, magazines, beer bottles, receipts spanning two decades, etc.
Further down into the basement, behind a storage shelf, police discovered the bunker in which Jamelske kept his victims: a steel door leading to an long tunnel which had to be traversed on hands and knees, leading to yet another steel door, which finally led to a room high, long and wide. The entry was a small box located just under the top of the room, so the person entering had to turn around and step down into the room via a small three-rung ladder. Jamelske would tie his victims up with a chain that connected to an ankle bracelet.
The dungeon had many things written on the wall, most notably religious phrases as well as numerous peace symbols. When police found the dungeon they contacted one of the known victims to link Jamelske to her testimony by asking what three words were written on the wall. She correctly responded "Wall of Thugs". A
crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
hung by the door, next to "PEACE TO ALL WHO ENTER HERE", as well as the words "HATE", "READY TO RUCUSS
ic SO BRING ON THE PAIN" in deep crimson.
In the center of the room was a stained bathtub on top of a raised wooden deck. It was here that the victims were forced to bathe using a garden hose. There was a drain plug but no plumbing. When the tub was drained, the water had nowhere to go but on the cement floor of the dungeon where it remained until it evaporated, making the room damp and moldy. An aluminum frame chair with no seat was positioned over a pail; a crude toilet that was used to further degrade the captives. A clock radio sat on top of a filthy portable refrigerator. Next to a yellow extension cord which ran out from a hole in the top of the walls was an eight inch (203 mm) aluminum hose that pumped warm air from the house furnace.
There was also a series of calendars in which the victims systematically had to mark each day. Noted was the letters "B", "S", and "T" written on the dates. Investigators later discovered these letters were made by the victims who were made to record each date they were raped (S), bathed (B), or brushed their teeth (T). The collective timespan of the calendars covered 15 years.
Police found several video recorded entries with at least one woman on the tape. In the tapes, the viewer can see Jamelske dancing, singing, and also exercising with said woman. Jamelske often told his captives that he was a part of the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department and had shown a fake badge he had found on the street years earlier, as well as telling them that he was under certain bosses that were making him do this. He told his victims under this story that the easier the daily rapes could occur the faster his bosses might let the girls out. In the video tape police found, the viewer can see the victim pleading with the potential "bosses" that it would be better if she were home.
All of Jamelske's victims were of different
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
origins:
Native American,
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
,
Vietnamese,
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
, and
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
. The
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
who prosecuted Jamelske stated:
See also
*
List of child abuse cases featuring long-term detention
Notes
External links
Syracuse.com's gateway to Jamelske coverageOprah.com's index page for her episode on Jamelske*
ttp://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/04/21/captive.women/ 2003 CNN articlebr>
2003 ''USA Today'' articleDetailed account as well as pictures of dungeon, house, and neighborhood.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamelske, John
1935 births
American people convicted of kidnapping
American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
American rapists
Kidnappings in the United States
Living people
People from Syracuse, New York
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New York (state)