Free The Ivy League Killer by Katherine Ramsland

Chapter 1: No Place for Murder
    Some say the Cornell University campus is too pretty for murder. It’s no place for a random fatal attack—at least, not until the spring of 1981. When this incident happened, it seemed like anything
but
murder.
    Founded in 1865 in Ithaca, New York, Cornell is situated high over Lake Cayuga between two dramatic gorges. Considered one of the country’s most elite universities, its landscape is breathtaking. A dramatic suspension bridge 90 feet over Fall Creek spawned lore that a midnight kiss on this bridge foretold marriage, but unrequited love would cause it to collapse.
    More darkly romantic were the suicide legends. Author Kurt Vonnegut wrote that the rushing waters far below inspired Cornell students to throw themselves in, and thanks to half a dozen suicides during the 1970s, Cornell was dubbed the suicide capital of the Ivy League. Students called the act of self-negation “gorging out.”

    Bridge over Fall Creek
Photo by MT Bradley
    That’s why the discovery of the bruised body of a female graduate student, found near Beebe Lake in May 1981, was considered a suicide. Friends reported Dzung Ngoc Tu missing, but it was three days before her body was discovered in Fall Creek Gorge, 60 feet downriver from the Triphammer footbridge. She’d gone over a waterfall, and because water was found in her lungs, it was clear that she’d drowned. Tu had last been seen studying for an agriculture course in Warren Hall. A quiet young woman from Vietnam, she’d been just 25 years old.
    The police interviewed her friends, teachers, and relatives, but none offered a shred of support for a suicide theory. Tu had not complained about pressure. She hadn’t seemed depressed. No one had ever heard her talk about killing herself, and she had not lingered on the bridge, as many suicides did, contemplating what lay below.
    However, even close friends don’t always know when someone is pondering self-destruction. It’s often a secretive act. Even if Tu had a confidante for her private thoughts, the police did not locate one and no one stepped forward to assist. Thus, the case remained open. Cause of death: drowning. Manner of death: undetermined. Some students suggested a link to several reported rapes on campus that year, and evidence on Tu’s body suggested sexual assault, but the evidence was insufficient to send investigators looking for a killer.
    It would be six years before the only person who knew what had happened to Dzung Ngoc Tu would tell the tale. In fact, he’d committed the rapes as well, and four months after killing Tu, he’d been arrested during a rape attempt in Illinois. After talking his way into probation, he’d realized he’d have to be more careful. Thus, a killer was born.
    www.crimescape.com

Chapter 2: Picking Them Off
    At 17, Tammy Williams was a normal teenage girl. She had a boyfriend and she liked to play pool and listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Her friends thought she was fun to be around, and what they liked best was her easy laugh and generous heart. She had a part-time job at a department store in Brooklyn, Connecticut. On a cold winter day, January 5, 1982, Tammy left her boyfriend’s house and went to a local hangout. She listened to music with a friend and they went home in separate directions. Tammy walked along Route 6 toward Danielson, unaware that she’d drawn the attention of a man in a car. He asked if she wanted a ride on such a cold day, but she declined. She thought he went away, but she was wrong. He had parked and followed her.
    The man came up softly from behind, so Tammy couldn’t hear him until he was on her. He overpowered her and dragged her to an isolated spot near a pond. She tried to scream, but he told her he’d hurt her if she made any noise. He forced her to the ground. Tammy begged and whimpered as this man ripped off her clothes, raped her, turned her over, and put his hands around her fragile neck to strangle her. The murder took about