Sniper on the Loose (page 8 of 8)

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One mans confession led to another mans realization.

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We are all closer than blood ... Any one of them would give me their life's savings if they thought I needed it, and I'd do the same thing for them.

The Evidence Couldn't Be Better

Uncomfortable facing Dieteman alone, Horton brought Gary Gang with him to the Stardust. Standing nervously at the bar, the two finally caught sight of Dieteman walking toward them. He was his old self, full of jokes and happy to see his friends. Dieteman wanted to know about the others from the old crowd, how they were doing, and he talked of his recent visit with his kids. Horton tried to seem relaxed as they talked, but he noticed that the bar was filling up with undercover agents who looked too much the part. "One guy had this big cop mustache and was drinking water instead of beer and just staring at Sammy," Horton says. "Gary and I kept exchanging looks. We were sure Sammy had to see these guys. What would he think?"

When Dieteman excused himself to go to the bathroom, Horton placed a hurried call to Smith and demanded that he get the most obvious cops out of the bar right away. A minute later, Horton saw a nearby cop touch his hand to the wire in his ear, pay his bill and leave.

In another quick conversation, Smith asked Horton if he could find a way to get Dieteman and Hausner together at the end of the night. They couldn't risk grabbing them before they had certain proof of their guilt or a judge might just let them walk, Smith explained. The killers needed a bit more rope to hang themselves.

Horton had already offered to let Dieteman crash at his house, so he had to quickly come up with a new plan. After more drinks, Horton casually suggested that the three of them hit a casino across the valley—a spot that would put Dieteman far closer to his own home. That sounded good to Dieteman, but Gang decided not to join them. Having arrived on his motorcycle, Horton rode it back to his home and returned soon after with his truck to take Dieteman to the casino. It was a very odd feeling, Horton recalls, when he stepped into his truck with his old friend, knowing that hundreds of police officers would be aware of every turn his vehicle took but that none of them would have a clue about what was happening inside.

Horton was glad he'd thought to put a .32 under the driver's seat that night, just in case. When they were inside his truck, he instinctively reached down and touched the hidden weapon. "I was tempted to end Sammy's shooting spree right there," Horton says, "and save everyone in Phoenix the trouble of settling the matter in court." Reason prevailed, and he drove them on to the casino, where they spent several more hours gambling. At one point, Dieteman was playing slots and, after several losses, complained that they were all cold. Horton put his dollar in the same machine and pulled the lever, instantly winning $300. "Lady Luck isn't smiling on you tonight," Horton said.

After a few hours, at about 2 a.m., Horton told Dieteman he needed to head home to get a few hours of sleep before going to work. Could someone pick Sammy up and give him a lift home? Just as Horton hoped, Dieteman arranged for Hausner to come get him. They said their goodbyes and Horton walked out, relieved that the tense charade was over. Within minutes he had dialed Smith again. "I put them in one place," he said to the officer. "Now don't lose the sons of bitches."

Two more days passed, with Horton nervously awaiting word. Had the police screwed it up somehow? Then his phone rang at 3 a.m. "We got 'em!" Smith said. The cops had put Hausner's apartment under 24-hour surveillance from a next-door apartment. When they moved in, they found an arsenal of weapons, spent gun casings, a map with every shooting pinpointed, Serial Shooter news clippings and gunpowder residue. The evidence couldn't be better.

"You saved a lot of lives, Ron," Smith said. "You let people walk the streets again." He then added that there'd be a press conference in the morning.

His mind spinning, Horton knew he'd never get back to sleep, so he turned on his TV. In an hour, a ticker ran along the bottom of the screen: "The police made two arrests in the Serial Shooter case—Dale Hausner, 33, and Samuel Dieteman, 30."

It was August 3—almost 15 months after the Serial Shooter had claimed his first victim in Phoenix and four weeks since Horton had first called the tip line. At long last, the rampage was over.

Today, Samuel Dieteman and Dale Hausner are being held in jail without bond. The Maricopa County Attorney's office is seeking the death penalty against them, charging Dieteman with 53 felony counts and Hausner with 83. Both men have been charged with shooting 15 people and killing two. Hausner has also been charged with an additional five murders and shooting two other people. Police continue to investigate earlier unsolved crimes.

Both men deny any wrongdoing and have entered not-guilty pleas to all charges. Since the arrests, however, the streets of Phoenix have been free from any killings that fit the pattern of the Serial Shooter.

From Reader's Digest - October 2007

• • Terrorism
• • Cracking Cases

• Stalker Uses GPS to Track Victim
• No matter where she went, he was there.
• 
• The Coldest Case
• Forty-six years after two cops were brutally murdered, an L.A. law enforcement team nabs the killer.
• 
• Two Million Reasons for Murder
• Justin Barber said his wife was killed during a late-night robbery. But the details didn't add up.
• 
• The BTK Serial Killer
• No one ever suspected this ordinary man could be the killer next door.
• 
• Vanished Without a Trace
• Thousands of adults vanish each year. Kristen Modafferi was one of them.
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