Free Monster by Steve Jackson

by friends to a man. She rarely went out, except to work. Any strange man who approached her, no matter how innocently and even in the midst of a crowd in broad daylight, sent her into quaking hysterics.
    Then there had been telephone calls from “friends” of Thomas Luther who told her that she must have been mistaken. That she had identified the wrong man in the police line-up. Some anonymously told her that pursuing the conviction of Luther could be hazardous: they had her telephone number and obviously knew where she worked in Denver. She lived in constant fear of monsters who hid in the shadows.
    At last, she sought help from Carolyn Agosta, a Denver psychologist who had formed a group for women such as Mary called Ending Violence Effectively. Within five days of her first counseling sessions, Brown began experiencing nightmares and flashbacks of the attack. In one flashback, she recalled looking over her shoulder and seeing a gun pointed at her.
    Agosta consoled Mary, telling her that the nightmares and flashbacks were all part of the healing process. She would have to deal with the attack, not blot it out, if she ever wanted to regain her life.
    To the court, Agosta testified at a preliminary hearing that the attack could prevent Mary Brown from ever again wanting an intimate relationship with a man. The violence had also impacted her family who, fearing that Luther and his friends might come after them to silence Mary, had moved from their residences. “It is all part of the continuing victimization of [Mary Brown],” Agosta wrote. “It will affect the rest of her life.”
    Brown would never be the same naive young woman she had been before that terrible ordeal, but she was determined to go on. She knew that real peace would come only when she had faced Thomas Luther in court and sent him to prison for as long as the law would allow. She promised herself that she wouldn’t let him skate by on the insanity defense; she would testify, and he would stand trial and be found guilty of attempted murder, which carried the possibility of 45 years in prison.
    So she went to every hearing, even when the district attorney assured her it was not necessary at that juncture in the proceedings. That’s why she was standing in the hallway when the dark-haired young woman approached.
    Sue Potter had remained faithful to Thomas Luther despite the evidence against him. In later years, investigators would wonder why.
    Potter walked up to Mary Brown and said, “You got the wrong man. He’s glad you’re doing all right.”
    Mary stood stunned, realizing who the woman was from the police reports. How could she still believe in that monster? But she was too frightened to speak. She turned and fled into the courtroom.
     
     
    In September 1982, Luther was back in the Summit County Jail waiting for another court hearing when he spotted John Martin, who was also back at the jail from the penitentiary for a hearing.
    Word was out that Martin was a snitch, the lowest form of life in the convict world—below even child molesters and rapists. When Luther saw him, Martin told jail officials, he walked over and said, “I’m going to kill you just like those girls.”
    The younger man then grabbed him, but Martin screamed for help and was rescued by a deputy. Martin told an undersheriff at the jail that Luther wanted to kill him because of something Luther had said the previous spring.
    The undersheriff made notes of the conversation. “Luther stated he killed two up here and dumped their bodies in the woods. Luther said he would have killed the third one but something clicked and he didn’t. Luther stated also if he gets out of this deal, he is going to kill this girl.”
    Martin said he would testify and was willing to try to remember more details. In exchange, he wanted his current prison term reduced six months.
    The undersheriff contacted the Summit County district attorney and was told to make a deal if the information was solid.