Young. Rich. Handsome. And deadly. An excerpt from Murder & Mayhem in Houston Houston Chronicle January 13, 2015 houstonchronicle/local/gray-matters/article/The-wig-shop-murder-6010615.php?t=e6d4fe12dfb05374ef#/0 Each new generation tends to forget the history of the one that preceded it, write Mike Vance and John Nova Lomax in the preface to their new book, Murder & Mayhem in Houston. In writing about gruesome crimes, they say, they tried to spotlight stories that have slipped into the recesses of this citys gargantuan memory hole. Vance and Lomax will read and sign copies of the book tonight at Brazos Bookstore. In the following excerpt, they describe 1998s wig-shop murder, one of Houstons most shocking killings. -- Lisa Gray Jazz Age America was gripped by the epic trial of Leopold and Loeb, two well-heeled Jewish teens from Chicago who kidnapped and murdered a young friend just because they wanted to attempt the perfect crime. To save them from the death penalty, their families hired Clarence Darrow, then Americas most famous and eloquent defense attorney. Darrows impassioned speeches swayed the judge, and the thrill killers lives were spared. Seventy-four years later, Houston would suffer its own version of the Leopold and Loeb case. Dror Haim Goldberg, a troubled teen from a broken home in one of the citys toniest suburbs, barged into a West University Place wig shop and carved up three employees for reasons that remain known only to Goldberg himself. To mitigate his punishment, Goldbergs parents hired Dick DeGuerin, Houstons most famous and eloquent defense attorney. And in this case, as in several other high-profile murders, DeGuerin would be matched against the flamboyant Kelly Siegler, then a rising star of the prosecution bar and today the host of TNTs Cold Justice reality show. Despite the horrific nature of Goldbergs crime and the fact that he embarked on a glabe-spanning backpacking trek even as he knew the Houston Police Department was closing in on his arrest, Goldberg was sentenced to neither death nor life in prison. November 27, 1998 -- the day after Thanksgiving, Buy Nothing Day -- was an unseasonably warm one even for subtropical Houston. At around four oclock in the afternoon, it was almost 80 degrees, the sun baking the pavement at the Weslayan Plaza Shopping Center, just north of Houstons Mayberry-with-a-Visa-Black-card enclave city of West University Place. Wigs by Andre sits at the back of the complex, perpendicular to its anchor, a Randalls Flagship supermarket. Inside, employees Manuela Silverio, Roberta Ingrando and her husband, Roland, were winding down another long business day. Suddenly the doors opened, and Silverio and Mrs. Ingrando saw a young man who had come in earlier and left without saying a word. He had nothing to say this time either. As Mrs. Ingrando would later testify, he strode directly to Ms. Silverio and punched her in the neck. Mrs. Ingrando ran to the phone and dialed 911. Goldberg slashed at her hand with what she now knew was a knife, causing her to drop the phone. Goldberg continued his attack, stabbing and cutting at Mrs. Ingrando. Do you like it? he asked at one point. At another point, he said he would make her pretty by slashing her nose and ears. Hearing his wifes screams, Roland Ingrando came running from the office at the rear of the store, threw a tray of hair rollers at Goldberg and closed ranks to grapple with the teen. Though he cut and slashed the unarmed Mr. Ingrando, Goldberg fled the store, ran across the parking lot and hopped into a dark Lincoln Navigator. A witness, Dr. Randall Beckman, tossed a bag of dog food purchased at a nearby pet store into his Volkswagen Golf, got in and followed the Navigator, taking note of its plates and eyeballing the driver in the process. Dr. Beckman then turned around and headed over to Wigs by Andre. There he found the scene of a massacre. The bloodied Mr. and Mrs. Ingrando were frantically trying to call police. Silverio, age 54, was already dead, splayed on the floor with 1.7 liters of blood pooled inside her lifeless body. Roland Ingrandos injuries were minor, but his wife, who was stabbed 14 times, required life-saving emergency surgery and spent a week in the hospital. It was vicious, Housotn police sergeant George Aldrete said near the time of the attack. We dont know the exact reason for it, but we suspect (the killer) may have done it for the pure pleasure of killing somebody. Beckman gave police a description of the driver -- white male, around six feet tall, slim, short, sandy blonde hair, around 18 years old. He also gave them the Navigators license plate -- 1WL V84 -- which came back to a woman named Loren Nelson, the girlfriend of Goldbergs father, Dr. Isaac Goldberg, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist. Between five and seven Columbia-blue squad cars descended on Nelsons address: 2202 Dunstan St., a 1938 brick bungalow in Southampton, then the favored neighborhood of Houstons go-go, but immediately doomed, Enron execs. Police found the Navigator parked behind the house, its engine still warm, the keys in the house. There was no sign of Goldberg. The housekeeper told police that Nelson and Dr. Goldberg were out of town and that young Dror was in charge of the place while they were away. At 6:07 p.m., Goldberg drove up to the house in his own car, a white pickup truck. From about 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., immediately after the massacre, hed been playing sandlot football with his buddies. Upon confirming his identity, officers cuffed Goldberg and read him his Miranda rights. Though not the murder weapon, police found a double-edged dagger under the seat of Goldbergs truck. On the way to the police station, Goldberg told the cops a laughable story -- that an unknown miscreant had stolen the Navigator on several prior occasions but had always returned the swanky SUV to its rightful owners once his or her errands were done. Faced with a photo array, Dr. Beckman said he was 80 percent certain Goldberg had been behind the wheel of the Navigator near the wig shop. You cant say Goldbergs family -- and even law enforcement -- did not see this coming. Three years earlier, Dror Goldberg had predicted this very crime in writing. Houston Independent School District Police had seen it with their own eyes. At 10:30 a.m. on April 10, 1995, HISD officer Duggan was patrolling the parking lot at Bellaire High School when he was almost hit by a beer can Goldberg tossed out his car window. (Unlike Leopold and Loeb, child prodigies with off-the-charts IQs and accomplishments to match, Goldberg was a mediocre student and athlete who excelled, if you can call it that, at partying. To be fair, a former manager at a West U-area Italian restaurant said that Goldberg was one of the best employees he ever had.) Duggan and fellow officer Griest apprehended the 16-year-old and found several more full beer cans in a cooler in the trunk and three joints in Goldbergs ashtray, along with a small knife on a keychain. Goldberg was taken to the assistant principals office, where a conference with his parents awaited. Goldbergs backpack was seized and searched, and in looking for LSD or smashed marijuana buds, Officer Griest examined several spiral notebooks. What she found inside chilled her to the bone. As she would later testify, there was a drawing of the devil with blood all over it and blood everywhere, and it was just -- it was striking. She turned the page and found an essay of sorts entitled, How to Kill a Woman. It... talked about abducting, she testified in response to questions from prosecutor Kelly Siegler. It wasnt a poem, it wasnt a letter, and it took you from beginning to end. Talked about using a knife to make several cuts so that when she bled, the body would be covered, I mean, in red. Talked about her begging for her life. You could feel it. I mean, it was disturbing. Talked about her begging for her life and then the joy when she looked into his eyes and he realized they were dead and that he had no use for the [expletive deleted]. Siegler then asked if she remembered any of the words that Goldberg fantasized about using. Yes, Griest replied. Goldberg planned to say things like, Do you like it? Want me to do it some more? Im going to do this. Just really talking. It was very talkative to the victim while she was being stabbed. Very tormenting. [The notebook] described how she would sweat, how her eyes would look, just the terror..... The notebooks were handed over to Goldbergs parents. Thanks to the little keychain knife, Goldberg was placed on juvenile probation. At his trial, other letters would come forth, no less disturbing. In a letter to an Israeli friend, Goldberg seethed with rage over bomb attacks in Tel Aviv and yearned for vengeance. The fact that I may be given a chance to kill an enemy of our state is keeping me going. [Loren Nelson] has noticed the change in my behavior and rarely stops to talk to me. She says I scare her. No offense, Josh, but sometimes I want to pop her in the head like a zit. After some small talk, Goldberg abruptly changes tack: I am now dating a slut named Christina. I want to cut her throat. I am changing into a violent young man, and I like it.... Police released Goldberg just before midnight on November 27, the night of the slaying. According to a court document, his mother smacked him for talking to police. Goldberg, a dual United States-Israeli citizen, flew to Israel in December and returned to America in January 1998. By the time he was indicted in February 1998, he was gone again, to Thailand this time. Goldberg traveled the world for the next five months, his arrest finally coming in the Frankfurt airport just as he was about to board a Mexico City-bound plane. (Goldbergs parents later stated they had not known his whereabouts during that five-month period.) Three months later, Goldberg was flown back to Houston alongside several United States marshals. Goldbergs trial got underway in the spring of 2000. The evidence against him was overwhelming. Siegler and co-prosecutor Lester Buzzard had found wig fibers matching some from the shop inside the Navigator, which was festooned with a license plate handed over to police by an eyewitness. Police testified about the warmth of the SUVs engine when they arrived at Dunstan. Goldberg had no credible alibi for his whereabouts between 3:50 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. In making her case, Siegler also presented his deeply disturbed writings and questionable post-murder globe-trotting. DeGuerin, less a flamboyant orator than tenacious bulldog of a defense attorney, attempted to discredit every bit of damning evidence against his client. As an attorney pal of his once put it, DeGuerins ethic is to proclaim the innocence of the client until the last syllable of recorded time. He attempted to discredit the police lineups as being biased against Goldberg and claimed Mrs. Ingrandos identification of Goldberg was tentative and the result of being asked leading questions. DeGuerin said that 18 dark-colored Navigators with very similar license plates had been sold at a nearby dealership and pointed out that there was no blood or DNA evidence linking Goldberg to the crime. The letter to the Israeli friend? Goldberg was enraged over the Palestinian bombings. Plus, who could ever believe that a handsome doctors son from one of Houstons wealthiest neighborhoods would butcher one woman and attempt to slaughter another woman in cold blood? (Goldbergs team would later claim in an appeal that How to Kill a Woman and How to Rape a Woman had been obtained through an illegal search. The appeal was denied.) On April 14, 2000, after 17 hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict. While Goldberg showed little emotion, his relatives and those of Silverio wept. One of Goldbergs buddies tried to cold-cock a news photographer as the families gathered in a hallway outside the courtroom. DeGuerin said he was very, very disappointed. Siegler and Buzzard cited a gag order and declined comment, but in her closing argument, Siegler left us with the questions that an entire city has been trying to answer since Buy Nothing Day 1998 -- the same questions Chicago and the nation grappled with in Leopold and Loebs wake in 1924. Their defense is, you have to have reasonable doubt because how can you believe that someone like Dror Goldberg, whos so nice-looking, whos so educated, whos so intelligent, with the wonderful, beautiful mother and prestigious doctor dad and the loving stepmother and two loving brothers, raised in Bellaire, Texas, with all that money and that position and everything the world had to offer -- how could you believe that someone who looks like him could do a murder like this? Since the case was not filed as capital murder, Goldberg faced anything from probation to life behind bars. He wound up with 48 years, a sentence confirmed on appeal, and is currently serving time in the Stringfellow Unit, a former prison farm not far from Sugar Land.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:31:16 +0000
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