Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] My name is Leland Hale. I'm the author of Butcher the True Crime Story of Serial killer Robert Hansen. My name is Cindy Paulson. This is my story.
[00:00:24] At age 17, Cindy Paulson escaped from serial killer Robert Hansen. Her escape ultimately led authorities to Hansen's arrest and conviction on four charges of murder.
[00:00:37] Ultimately, Hansen confessed to 17 murders, but there were more, at least 24.
[00:00:45] Cindy was one of the lucky ones.
[00:00:49] Note this podcast features adult themes and some salty language. Listener discretion is advised.
[00:01:00] Episode 8 It was one thing to have Cindy Paulson as a witness, as a potential fatal blow, as it were, to Robert Hansen, but it was another thing to keep her.
[00:01:19] She was used to a certain amount of freedom on the streets, moving around place to place, and the reality of her situation really started to get to her.
[00:01:35] Luckily, Glenn Flothi had someone on the inside of the massage parlor where she worked, and he knew of her comings and goings, obviously, most of the time a day late on a day dollar short.
[00:01:52] But when she just disappeared, it set out a panic.
[00:01:59] And Flothi and the troopers had to solve that problem immediately.
[00:02:07] With some luck and hard ass detective work, they found her. And ultimately she made the call, come and get me.
[00:02:22] I need this to stop.
[00:05:50] There was a reality to Cindy's life that even though she was in it, that didn't mean she completely recognized it. And that was that she was really struck out on drugs, particularly cocaine.
[00:06:06] And so one of the jobs for Sergeant Flothi was to get her clean, to take her somewhere off the streets where she could have a more normal life, because ultimately she had to testify in court.
[00:07:26] The cops knew, of course, that Cindy Paulson had a really big drug problem. They'd seen her, they, you know, the scabs and the loss of weight and all that. And they were hoping against hope that at least they could get her to a point where she was less on edge. Holding pattern, holding pattern.
[00:07:53] But they knew they would likely have to deal with it.
[00:07:59] They just hoped the two things coincided.
[00:09:18] When someone is going through drug withdrawal, it's a difficult process. I know I've known people who'd done that.
[00:09:29] And they couldn't really put Cindy in a hospital setting because that's too open.
[00:09:37] They really wanted someone who had some remedies, who had some experience, and that's where the peace lady came in.
[00:09:48] Ultimately, Cindy recognizes that, acknowledges it didn't make it easier, but she did remember she was going through her own secondary hell.
[00:11:49] What Cindy wanted, street person that she was, was the state of Alaska to put her up In a motel. That would give her the freedom, the range that she was used to not being cooped up.
[00:12:05] But the cops, of course, did not want to do that. That's what was causing all the problems. As far as they could see, she would have access to drugs, access to alcohol.
[00:12:19] That did not make her a better witness. That tended and trended in the opposite direction. No, that was not in the cards.
[00:14:26] Cindy's adamant rejection of what she calls the peace lady put the entire project in jeopardy. In fact, it sent Glenn Flothy scrambling. He needed to find another place. And easier said than done.
[00:14:46] In fact, one of the options, place where she ultimately ended up was with a woman who went to the same church as Darla Hansen. Darla Hansen, Robert Hansen's wife.
[00:15:02] Think about that.
[00:16:08] One of the advantages of placing Cindy with the Roto Rooter people was, of course, its isolation. It was far from downtown Anchorage in the what's called the Hillside neighborhood.
[00:16:23] In fact, it was in a new development.
[00:16:25] So there was sort of this back to nature sense about it.
[00:16:32] And any separation was good because Cindy didn't have a car. She really had no good way to get back to her people, to the drugs and alcohol and pimps and that whole scene. And it promised and even promised better recovery. Get ready for the ordeal of going to court and testifying against this monster named Robert Hansen.
[00:20:07] For the record, the Roto Rooter people were actually Jane and Whitey Heuerman.
[00:20:18] They had names.
[00:20:20] And Cindy was not the first person they'd opened their house to. No, they'd been doing it for years.
[00:20:27] It was part of the way they lived.
[00:22:22] As things turned out, there would be no trial.
[00:22:27] Robert Hanson, at the last minute, decided to confess. Well, not completely. He was gaming, gaming, gaming until the very end.
[00:22:40] Gaming. That is, until the authorities confronted him and said, look, we have this map, my man, and we're going to go looking for bodies come spring.
[00:22:54] All that was left now was his sentencing.
[00:22:58] Yeah, in court, but no trial.
[00:23:02] He would confess.
[00:23:05] For her part, Cindy wanted to see things through.
[00:23:09] Glenn Flothy said, you don't have to be there, but she wanted to be there.
[00:23:16] And Jane Yurman, as was her way, gave Cindy a ride in her nice new Chrysler New Yorker.
[00:23:29] What a way to get there in style.
[00:23:37] And of course, there's always one more story about Jane Yurman.
[00:26:09] Cindy and I both thank you for listening. We acknowledge that her story is often gritty and sometimes painful.
[00:26:17] That said, we promise not to a sugar coat anything.
[00:26:24] See you next time.
