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The Doris Nelson Tragedy - Page 2 (Return to page 1)
The following events were pieced together largely from interviews with Doug Nelson - other sources are noted. When Doris left the hospital, she had completely lost the use of both legs. Her left hand had been amputated. Her right arm was usable, but very weak. She could only see out of one eye, and her face was scarred beyond recognition. The one thing that was still remaining seemed to be her hatred of Doug. When they reached their house, Doug wheeled Doris in through the back door, and arranged her wheelchair by the front window. Doris yelled at Doug, telling him, "Close the damn curtains, I don't want anyone to see me like this!" Doris then began to demand drink. Doug told her they didn't have any Seagram's but he would go get some. Doris started screaming, "I bought six bottles you prick! You sat and drank my Seagram's you little rat shit. I was in the hospital, and you sat here having a little party! I will see to it that you die." Doug left the room, got into the car, and drove to the Starlight Market. When he asked for a bottle of Seagram's, Pete Goodall said, "Well I guess the missus finally got home. Hope she's okay now. That was the damnedest accident I ever seen out there." Doug replied, "Oh yeah, she's getting better." Doug got home and brought Doris a drink- Seagram's over ice. He had also bought some bread, butter, potatoes, and ground beef to make dinner. Doris told Doug that she didn't want that dinner, she wanted Campbell's chicken noodle soup. She turned to the window and didn't say another word. Doug went back to the market and bought the soup. He heated it on the stove and brought the bowl to Doris. "You'll have to feed me" she said, not being able to use her arms. Doug brought a spoonful of soup to her lips, and she spat at him. "Not such big bites you asshole- are you trying to kill me?" Doug dipped the spoon back into the soup, this time less than half full. He brought the spoon to her mouth and she took a sip. He put the spoon back into the soup and returned it to her lips. She turned her head and said, "I'll tell you when I want more soup!" and pursed her lips. She sat with her eyes closed for 5 minutes before she told him it was time for more soup. This repeated until she said the soup was too cold, and he needed to reheat it. It took over two hours to finish her first meal at home after the accident. The next few weeks went by in agonizing slowness. Doris ate three meals of chicken soup each day at the same pace. She demanded to be rolled around to different parts of the house at her whim. All the while she berated Doug, telling him, "You're a piece of shit you know. If you weren't always after me for sex, I wouldn't have been in that car when that truck hit me. You were supposed to be in the car that day, not me, and you would have deserved it, I would say." During this time, Doris also demanded that Doug close off access to the stairs leading to the second floor. "I don't want you going up there where I can't see you" she told him. Before boarding up the stairs, he brought down all the furniture and clothing from their bedroom. The only thing he left was Doris's wedding dress, which had always stood on a stand in the corner of their room- to Doug it was a reminder of one of the last happy days he had with Doris. After four weeks, Doug told Doris that she would need to withdraw more money from her bank account. They were out of cash. "How can we be out of cash you ass? Are you stealing from me? What are you doing with my money? I knew I couldn't trust you." Doug told her that he had to spend a lot of their money to repair the car, and nothing was left. Doris still had plenty of money in the bank, but Doug did not have access to it. The next day they went to the bank and withdrew $300 from her account. The banker told Doris that Doug could be added to the account, "It would make things easier for you." Doris stared at him and said, “You and that worthless prick I call my husband are trying to steal all of my money! I’ll die before he gets control of my money!” That night, while Doug fed Doris her soup, she told him she would handle her money. Doris would 'support' Doug, but he would have to help her and make it worth her while. She had him write a list of their approved expenses, which included Seagram's V. O. (3 bottles per week), Campbell's chicken noodle soup (3 cans each day, split between them), saltine crackers ( 2 boxes per week) and tuna fish (if on sale). She also decided she wanted to take up smoking and had Doug add to the list: Virginia Slims (24 cigarettes per day). She told Doug that the cigarettes were to keep him busy, because he had too much free time. She would need help smoking them of course. Two or three months went by and they were in the same pattern. Doris regained enough use of her right arm and could feed herself. If she was unhappy with something Doug did or said, she would tip her soup-bowl over, or flick a lit cigarette onto the carpet, making Doug scramble to clean the mess up. Money was always a sore issue. Doris went into a screaming fit every time Doug needed to spend money that was not on their list. After she broke the last of their bowls, Doug told her he needed more money to buy new bowls. "Oh, the little shit man without a job wants to spend all of my money. I'll have none of that, buster. You can eat from the soup can." The diet of soup, crackers and tuna fish was starting to take its toll on Doug. On a few occasions he had asked for more money to buy more food. Doris refused. Finally, she told Doug that he could earn the money. "Put your hand out you prick." He put his hand out, and she took a drag on her cigarette. Then slowly, shakingly, but deliberately, she lowered the cigarette towards his hand. She told him "If you move, or even quiver, you're not getting a single penny from me." She rubbed the smoldering Virginia Slims Menthol 500 into the knuckle of his ring finger. Doug didn't move at all. She said, "Now see, that was easy. I think you've finally found your talent." Once her cackling was over, she told him that he could take an extra two dollars of her money. On his way out of the room she said, "And if you liked that, I've got plenty more for you!"
August 17, 1970: Doug Nelson walked into the Starlight Market for what would be his last visit. He picked up the usual items, chicken noodle soup, crackers, Seagram's, and Virginia Slims. Pete Goodall remembers the visit, and recounted this story to the police: "Ah, Mr. Nelson walks in the store, and he's not the same man he was before. He's skinny and looks bad...real bad. He went and got his usual stuff, you know, the crackers, whiskey, and stuff. Then he asked if we had anything on sale. I told him that we had hamburger on sale. Hamburger and potatoes. Well darn it if he didn't actually ask for a pound of hamburger and two potatoes. I mean, after four years of nothing but soup and crackers, he up and orders a pound of beef and potatoes. I wrapped it up for him real quick because he was in a hurry. I noticed his hands though, they were scabbed over, lookin' real horrible like. I don't know what it was, circles all over his hands, musta been at least a hundred of 'em." (Transcript from W.P.D. Report, August 20 1974. Interrogation of Doug Nelson by Detective Kennelworth.) Kennelworth: So tell me what happened after you left the store. Nelson: Well, I took the bags to the car and put them in the back seat. I got in the car and Doris started screaming at me again. "What the hell did you buy? I didn't say you could buy anything else! What is it? Show me! Show me!" So I reached back to get the bags and she burnt me. Kennelworth: With a cigarette? Where did she burn you? Nelson: Oh she got me on the neck, real good. She burnt me all the time and I hated it. I got the bags and showed her the Seagram's and her other groceries. Then I took out the hamburger and potatoes. I told her that we could have a feast, I mean we would be eating like kings for one night. She told me to unwrap the hamburger and I did. Then she picked it up and spilled it on the floor. Right there on the floor of the car, I looked at the hamburger and she started to laugh. She was laughing and I knew then. I knew that I couldn't do this anymore. Why did she have to do that? Why did she have to ruin it? Kennelworth: Is that when you decided to kill her? Nelson: I never decided to kill her. That was an accident really. We were driving home and she was still laughing. I was mad, and she was laughing. So when we got home, I was getting out of the car and she told me to stop. She told me to pick up the hamburger on the floor and throw it on the ground. "Throw it down and step on it. I don't want you eating that hamburger." This was funny to her. Then she told me to clean up the car. I went to the house to get a bucket. I came back and she was in the car just laughing, laughing at me so much. I couldn't stand it anymore. I went back into the house because I didn't want to hear her laugh. Kennelworth: Why didn't she just open the door? Nelson: She couldn't. When the car was repaired after her accident the doors were stuck. I had to kick the door to get it to open at all and the windows didn't roll down. Her legs didn't work and she had no strength in her arms....She didn't want to spend the money to get it fixed, or to buy a new car. Kennelworth: So you left her then? Nelson: Well I went in the house for a while, maybe an hour. I came back out with the bucket and she was screaming at me. I mean, it was a hot day, probably 95 degrees. She was mad, really raw this time. I got near the car and I could see her there on the seat, just yelling and screaming at me. Telling me that she was gonna burn me really good. So I turned around and went back in the house. I looked out the window a few times and I saw her yelling. I knew it wasn't good, but I couldn't go out there again. I sat up all night, I was afraid to turn the lights on, or even look out the window. She was so mad. I just sat in the living room. The next morning, she was just sitting there. I could see her face through the window staring at the house. I knew she was good and mad, so I did't even go out there at all. That day was hot, real hot. Musta been about 100 degrees outside. I sat in the house, and I was real quiet. Finally at 4:30 I looked out the window and I saw her laying down. I still didn't want to go out there. I stayed inside and ate a can of soup. Kennelworth: When did you know she was dead? Nelson: I never knew it. I just never went over to the car. I just left her I never knew when she died. (Transcript ends.)
November 14, 1974: Two teenagers left a Woodland High School football game at 11:15 PM and headed west on Highway 16. Jorge Ramos and Alejandra Garcia had been dating for three months. They were headed to Jorge's aunt's house in Esparto, but they decided to make a stop at the Nelson house. According to Jorge, he wanted to "scare" Alejandra. The kids parked in front of the house and climbed over the fence. Jorge Ramos took his 16-year-old girlfriend by the hand and led her to the back of the house "to have a little fun." The kids were leaning against the old car parked on the driveway when they were attacked. Alejandra told the investigators, "He looked like an animal, or a werewolf." Jorge reported to police that the man seemed intent on killing his girlfriend, waving a piece of metal at her and shouting "you whore! You're all alike" before swinging the pipe and smashing her wrist as she tried to protect herself. The teenagers ran to the front of the house and escaped in Jorge's car. The attack was not reported to police until Alejandra ended up in the Woodland General Hospital three days later. November 17, 1974: Police investigators Kennelworth and Johnson arrived at the Nelson house. They pulled their car around the back of the house near the 1964 Ford Fairlane. Johnson got out of the car and walked over to the Fairlane and tried to look in the window. It was so dirty, he had to use the sleeve of his shirt to make a clean spot to look in. He saw a well-preserved human skeleton lying on the front seat. He could make out hair and some skin on the face. The rest of the skin and muscles had deteriorated completeley, or had been eaten by insects. Johnson called Kennelworth over to take a look. The two men got back into their car and headed back to Woodland, where they contacted the city's Police Chief. The police chief wanted a full investigation. The entire six man force was brought in. There had not been an investigation of a homicide for over 6 years in the town of Woodland, and the chief wanted to get as much out of this as he could. They searched the house and found most of it in the same condition it was in back in 1970. A layer of dust had settled over everything. In the living room sat a wheelchair. In the corner of the room was a bed, unmade and covered with dust. The kitchen had the only other chair in the house. Officers found that the stairs had been boarded shut. They pulled off the boards and went up to take a look at the two bedrooms on the top floor. The only thing they found was a wedding dress on a fitting stand. Detective Kennelworth walked behind the house and headed toward the barn. When he opened the barn, the light streaming in illuminated the dust in the air. Kennelworth couldn't see a thing, and he lowered his head and coughed, as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He walked into the barn and looked around in the mottled light. Hundreds upon hundreds of empty cans of Campbell's soup littered the barn. The air was full of a putrid smell, rotten food mixed with a smell that reminded him of his two prized hounds at home. In one corner of the barn was a pile of rags and blankets. It looked like a bed, possibly a place where a dog had been laying, it was flattened and dirty. In the far corner, Kennelworth saw a tall shape and stepped forward to get a better look. It was a man, tall and emaciated. He had long hair and a full beard. His clothes were a collection layered rags, ripped and torn. On his feet were two different shoes, both ripped and barely held together. The man had his arms clutched around his chest, and his head was lowered. He was shaking, and mumbling, nearly sobbing. Kennelworth stepped out of the barn and yelled to his partner, "Hey Johnson, I need your help over here, and maybe bring the other guys too." Johnson came into the barn and Kennelworth pointed at the man in the corner. "Holy shit, what is that?" The two police stood a good distance from the bedraggled figure who had switched from mumbling to moaning. "Hey buddy," Kennelworth said, "what's going on here? How long you been living here?" The man continued his moaning, without even looking at the officers. After trying to coax him out of the corner for another minute, the two cops descended upon him. Kennelworth had played high school football as a defensive lineman, and he charged into Doug Nelson like he was sacking a quarterback. He slammed into him with his right shoulder, wrapping his arms around the gaunt man as they fell to the ground. Kennelworth had the man on the ground face down, his knee pressed into his head. Sgt. Johnson came in behind him with handcuffs, pulling the man's arms around his back. "Oh shit! His arms are all bleeding and shit. I hope this guy doesn't have fucking leprosy or something." Epilogue In fall of 1978, Doug Nelson died from tuberculosis at the Chino Correctional Facility hospital. During the three and a half years he was in prison, Nelson was hospitalized 17 times for self-inflicted wounds on his hands and arms. Detective Kennelworth was shot and killed in 1979 outside of the Yolo County Fairgrounds. A relative of Jorge Ramos was suspected, but never charged. James Williams inherited the Nelson house on Highway 16, along with the remaining $52,000 from Doris' estate. The house was never sold, and remains vacant.
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