BUG MAN WAS A STREET PERSON, very slender, about 5’ 6”, 125 pounds, just a little guy with black scrawny hair. He wore a brown belt on brown gel pants, with black three-holed shoes, and beige socks. He was usually clad in an old black sports jacket over a thread-bare white dress shirt. Bug Man Harvey collected bugs of all kinds and kept them in plastic lure boxes in his pockets until he was ready to use them. He claimed they were excellent sources of protein and he made it a habit to supplement his protein intake with bugs. Ugh! How disgusting! Harvey collected his food supply wherever he could. He scoured the sidewalks, the gutters, the alleys, the parks and the waterways for his menagerie. Bees, beetles, butterflies, and roly-polys, crickets, caterpillars, cockroaches and ants were on the menu. The only insect that was not fair game was the silver fish. Bug Man declared that silver fish were ugly and unclean. Wasps, worms, water-bugs, and grasshoppers were a delight. Ladybugs, however were revered because they brought good luck.
We would stop Bug Man occasionally and ask how he was doing and would check to see that he had been eating. He would pull his little lure boxes from a pocket and show us his catch. Removing a bug, he would gleefully place it in his mouth and would either chew it or just swallow it to show us that he had plenty of food. Most of my rookies threw up when they first saw this, and I would admonish them for their insensitivity. Bug Man, however, seeing what they had done, politely offered one of his bugs to them to replenish what they had just lost. That would usually make the rookies gag and vomit again. It’s all in the makins of a good, seasoned officer, I thought. Maybe with a little salt or pepper? Maybe not!
That was how Bug Man lived and survived. He never caused trouble, and he never accepted help from us, not even anti-freeze in the winter. One day I was feeling particularly sorry for Bug Man and I offered to buy him a hotdog at the Foxy Dog. Smiling, he accepted and walked with me on patrol to that spot. I asked, “What would you like on your hotdog, Harvey?”
He replied, “Just plain, thank you, Officer Randel.”
The clerk handed the wrapped hotdog to Harvey who walked to the trash can, opened the wrapper, placed the bun in the trash and ate the link by itself. Harvey took the opportunity to look under and behind the trashcan for any extra protein that might be lurking there. I shook my head at the clerk and I thanked him as we left. Of course, the clerk would not charge me for the hotdog. One of the perks of the job. Thanks!
One day as we were just finishing debriefing, I was instructed that Officer Pruitt had a man that called himself Harvey the Bug Man at the front desk. Officer Pruitt said, “Officer Randel, Harvey told me that he needs to see you ASAP. He has something important to tell you and to show you. He won’t talk with anyone else.” Well hell! I thought my day was over, but it ain’t over till it’s over.
I went to the front desk and sure enough, there stood Bug Man Harvey. He looked worried and a little upset. I greeted him and asked what he needed. He motioned me to a quiet reclusive corner outside in the plaza and whispered, “Officer Randel, I found a dead girl in a dumpster.”
“Where is she, Harvey?” I questioned.
“In a dumpster behind the Showboat. I was afraid to tell anybody but you.”
“Let’s go take a look, Harvey. Did you see anyone that might have killed her?”
“I didn’t kill her I promise. But she was murdered, I’m sure.”
“Did you see who killed her?”
He was shaking as we spoke. “No, Officer Randel. She was already cold and blue when I found her. I was looking for bugs around the dumpster and I saw a leg sticking out of the dumpster. I climbed up and looked down and there she was, naked and strangled with a plastic bag over her head and tied around her neck. Her eyes were wide open, and I wanted to close them, but I didn’t dare touch her.”
“Did you touch anything, Harvey?”
“No, just the dumpster where I climbed up to look. Poor little woman was so pitiful. I wanted to help her, but I knew she was a gonner.”
“Let’s go take a look then, Harvey. I’ll need you to identify her.”
“Oh no, Officer Randel, I can’t go there again. I’m so sorry; I just can’t stand terrible things like that. Who would want to kill a poor little girl like that? I won’t ever be able to look for bugs there again. It’s goodbye Showboat for me.”
I could not convince Bug Man to come with me, so I asked where he could be found when I needed his interview and he told me he was going to the park to look for night-crawlers and that I could find him there all evening.
I called Sikes; he might as well go with me. If I’m not finished, neither is he. We both want to find out more about these murdered young women. “Sam, meet me in the alley behind the Showboat. Bug Man says that there is a dead woman in a dumpster. I want to take a look before we call Homicide.”
“Be there before you are Hawk,” dared Sikes. “I’m already in my vehicle.”
“I’ll be there first, Grumpy, or dinner is on me.” Man how fast can I get there. It’s my area and I know it better than Grumpy. Off I went, driving with my redheads flashing. I was going to a murder, wasn’t I? I pulled into one end of the parking lot behind the Showboat in time to see Sikes turning into the other end from Fremont St. Tie! Who gets to the dumpster first? Of course, you can guess who it was.
We did indeed find the body of a young woman, approximately eighteen or nineteen years of age, with a disfigured face, wrapped in a clear plastic bag and with the plastic wrapped tightly around her neck. She had been mutilated, sexually assaulted and then suffocated by the plastic bag. Who the hell is this damned killer? His MO is different every time. Maybe that’s part of his game. It has to be a game with him.
I called for Homicide and advised them that they could find a young, white woman, dead and in a dumpster behind the Showboat just next to where you go into the bowling alley. We waited until Homicide arrived and cleared us before we took our leave. Detective Kaabel Hatch questioned us and we told him about Bug Man Harvey, a street person, finding the woman and told him that Bug Man said he would not return there for anything. Hatch wondered if Bug Man knew more than he had told us but I assured him that I felt Bug Man Harvey was innocent and that he would not even hurt a flea. He might eat one though.
Before we returned to our individual cars, Sikes asked, “Randel, where do you want to eat?”
I replied, “At the Blue Onion if I won the race and at Taco Bell if you won.”
“Hell, I was for sure here first,” rejoined Sikes. “I’ll cut you long, hard and deep if you want to argue about it.”
“No, Grumpy, I’m too tired to argue, and I hate bloodshed, especially mine. See you at the Onion, and you’re buyin’.”
“Not if I get there first, you scrawny-ass bastard.” The hustle was on again!