Ron Chepesiuk

The Charlotte Observer, however, investigated the charge of racism and in a report published March 21, 1994, concluded that the facts didn’t support the racism charge. Among other findings, the breakdown by race of Black females for unsolved murders in 1993 found 35 percent unsolved, Black males, 22 percent unsolved, white females, 20 percent unsolved, and white males, 60 percent unsolved. Further statistics for unsolved rapes broken down by race in 1993 indicated Black females, 52 percent unsolved, white females, 54 percent unsolved. The newspaper concluded: “In the end the facts about this

case will speak for themselves. But those known so far don’t establish a pattern of racist neglect.”

February 4, 1994, Wallace was arrested for shoplifting from an area mall within walking distance of most of the murder sites

booked on shoplifting charges, given a court date, and released

A computer check might have revealed his lengthy police record, which included burglary convictions and sexual assault charges in two states. If they had, they might have caught on to Wallace being the Taco Bell killer and lives would have been saved.

He did not get any money from his last victim, Vanessa Mack, and he was too broke to get a fix. He was desperate. And his life was falling apart.

lost his job at the Black Eye Pea Restaurant

February 1994, girlfriend Sadie McKnight threw Wallace out after she discovered he had been using crack. She reportedly filed reports with the police, complaining he had pushed her around and taken money for drugs. They also argued over the other woman, Wanda Harrison, who had had Wallace’s baby.

I asked her to try to understand what the addiction was like, and she stood by me for a little while, but she left me when I really needed her the most,” Wallace later recalled for police investigators. “I am not blaming her for my actions because it started way before her, but the things that were going on within the last week, if she was just there when I needed somebody, these other three women (Baucom, Henderson (sic) and Slaughter) would not be dead.”

Larry Spencer, who lived near Wallace