He’s Convicted of Slaying, Freed, Then Found Guilty Again : Bible Student’s Dream of Neighbor’s Death Becomes Nightmare

WHITEHALL, Pa. —  Like most of those who knew Steve Linscott, his Bible school teacher was stunned when the “born-again” Christian was charged with murder.

What made it stranger still was that the brutal slaying he described to police was, he swore, only a dream.

Linscott was convicted, then freed when the verdict was overturned for insufficient evidence. Now, with the guilty verdict reinstated, he and friends like Gordon Haresign, his former teacher and the author of a new book about the case, are hoping for a retrial.

“The thing that I’m angry about,” Haresign said, “is the injustice of this case.”

Hence, the title of his book: ‘Innocence.”

Neighbor Slain

The book, and the murder case, turn on what Linscott insists was a bad dream he had one night in October, 1980--the same night that Karen Ann Phillips, a neighbor, was beaten to death with a tire iron at her apartment.

When police knocked on doors in the neighborhood, routinely canvassing for leads, Linscott said he had dreamed of a woman being attacked.

His disclosure of the dream, prosecutors argued later, amounted to a confession. Despite his cries of innocence, they said, only the killer could possibly have known so much.

Linscott was found guilty June 16, 1982, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Chicago Suburb

At the time, Haresign was a teacher of Linscott’s at Emmaus Bible College in Oak Park, Ill. The killing occurred in that Chicago suburb. Haresign now teaches in Whitehall, outside Pittsburgh.

Three years after Linscott was convicted, the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the conviction, saying the evidence was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and Linscott was released from prison. Last October, a divided Illinois Supreme Court reinstated the guilty verdict.

Linscott, now 32, is seeking a new trial.

Haresign, 49, is offering his help. “My ears are constantly open” to new developments, he said.

The Cook County, Ill., prosecutor’s office refuses to comment on the case while it is pending. Others are quick to criticize.

‘Little Similarity’

“The thing that makes it incredible, that I found absolutely amazing, the dream bears very little similarity to the circumstances of the crime itself,” said Rob Warden, editor since 1978 of the Chicago Lawyer, an independent monthly journal.

“You should never think the justice system is there to serve justice,” Warden said. “It’s there to convict people . . . and I think that’s what happened in this case.”

Haresign met Linscott and his wife, Lois, in Oak Park in 1979.

During the next year, Haresign and his wife, Nancy, often entertained the couple. At one point, Linscott asked Haresign to be a spiritual adviser. A month later, Linscott was accused of the murder.

“Just because a person is studying in a Bible college, is a ‘born-again’ Christian, that doesn’t exempt them, unfortunately, from committing heinous crimes,” Haresign acknowledged.

Then he added, “But Steve, no way.”

Studied Files

Haresign helped the Linscotts hire a lawyer, then obtained copies of the police files in the case. “We went through them and we were shocked at . . . their failure to fully investigate.”

He and other church members launched their own investigation, eventually discovering what Haresign called a likely suspect, a neighbor of the victim who had been implicated in a number of sexual assault cases. “The authorities were not the least bit inclined to cooperate,” Haresign said.

Oak Park’s acting police chief, Joseph Mendrick, who investigated the case, declined to comment for this story.

Wife Not Awake

In interviews with Haresign, Linscott repeated that he was merely trying to help when he told police about his vivid dream of a young woman being bludgeoned to death by a man at her home. Although he said he awoke twice in the dream, his wife did not wake up and therefore could provide no alibi.

Under police questioning, Linscott declined to consult a lawyer. He had no idea he was a suspect until too late, he said.

Linscott and his wife said they did not know Phillips, a 24-year-old nursing student.

A police officer testified that when Linscott first talked with police, he said the weapon in the dream had been a tire iron. Linscott now says he never identified it as such.

In his dream, he said, the victim appeared to be black, the assailant husky. The real victim was white, and Linscott is slim.

Light-Colored Hair

The actual killing and the one Linscott said he dreamed were both bloody. Linscott, who has light-colored hair, said he dreamed of a blond killer.

Semen found in the victim’s vagina and hairs found in her apartment were consistent with Linscott’s. But they also could have been consistent with many other men, the defense argued.

The victim was a practicing member of the Kriya Yoga religion, and her index finger and thumb were pressed together when she was found, interpreted by some as an ommudra , a symbol used in her religion to signify the passive acceptance of death. Linscott said the victim in his dream was rendered unconscious during most of the attack, which the Illinois Supreme Court majority construed to mean that she passively accepted her death.

‘Knowledge’ Cited

In reinstating the guilty verdict by a 4-2 vote, the Supreme Court majority wrote: “Defendant voluntarily came forward with an account of a ‘dream’ that contained many unusual details which correlated with the actual murder. In particular, defendant’s account of the beating, his knowledge of the murder weapon and his knowledge of the victim’s passive acceptance of the attack showed knowledge of the crime which would not likely be available to anyone other than the murderer.”

One of the dissenting justices, Seymour Simon, wrote: “More striking than the similarities between Linscott’s dream declarations and the real murder are the differences.

“The evidence, at best, as a matter of law leaves a reasonable doubt regarding Linscott’s guilt.”

In the preface to “Innocence,” Haresign wrote: “I have had to remind myself that the standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ should apply to the prosecutors of a case as well as the defendant.”

Relied on Journal

In writing it, he relied on a journal Linscott kept in prison and notes taken by Linscott’s wife, in addition to his own investigation.

He became consumed by the case, despite his family’s protests.

“Anyone who came into our home would ask about the case,” he said. “I would immediately feel the kick under the table. You know, ‘Just keep it short, we’ve heard all this before.’ ”

“Innocence,” published by Zondervan Publishing House of Grand Rapids, Mich., has sold about 6,400 copies.