Who Killed Chrissy?: The True Crime Memoir of a Pittsburgh girl's Unsolved Murder in Las Vegas by Beverly Simcic Read Free Book Online

that point so I sat back down on
the sofa, wringing my hands and starting to sweat.
    I
recognized the Samoans as the fire dancers from the Hukelau and for an instant
wondered where their costumes where.
    I
heard a crash that sounded like a door being busted down.  Then I heard loud
thuds like furniture being tossed around, and the screams followed.  I don’t
know how many people were in that apartment at the time, but I knew they were
all getting beat up. Once I realized that by listening to the screams coming
upstairs through the floor of my apartment, I put my feet up on the sofa and
lit a cigarette to calm my nerves.
    It
was over in an instant it seemed, thunder came up the steps and out the door,
and they were gone. Five minutes later an ambulance came screaming down
Riverview Avenue and parked in front of my building.
    Chris
was banging on my door and I let her in. She was laughing hysterically, and by
now she knew what had happened. I was still nervous and shaken. 
    We
both stood by the sun porch window and watched as the paramedics brought a
young male out on a stretcher.  He looked up at us and pointed. We both ducked
back into the living room and fell on the sofa together laughing.
    Needless
to say, there were no more incidents of drinking and breaking bottles outside
my bedroom window. Peace was all around me, but I knew I still had to get the
hell out of the North Side forever.
    I
loved and respected Rick for protecting me and my child and returning us to
feeling safe in our own home. There is much to be said for a man who makes you
feel no fear in your life.
    I
believed these young thugs had to have learned a hard lesson about the real
world of pay back and retribution. I thought that maybe someone had failed to
inform them that when you go around picking on strangers, you should also
prepare yourself for the possibility that these strangers may have
connections.  I decided to take that to heart and from here on in to live my
life never assuming that I knew what could possibly happen with total
strangers. Strangers are strangers, and you never know who they are or where
they came from, so why the hell would anyone want to mess with a stranger they
didn’t know?
    I
called my dad the next day and told him the story. He said, “North Side justice
honey; you should be fine now, but please get another place as soon as you
possibly can so I don’t have to worry about you.”
     

THREE: LAS VEGAS VACATION
     
“Las Vegas was and is a hard town that
will make you pay for your inability to restrain your desires.... If you have a
weakness, Las Vegas will punish you.”
–Hal Rothman
     
    A.I.W.F.
(Alan I.W. Frank) Corporation was filing for bankruptcy and I knew I was going
to lose my sales rep job soon.  It also meant that my company car would go
away, and I’d have to buy another vehicle on my own.
    I
immediately started job hunting, but I knew I was months away from finding
another job as a manufacturer’s rep. I thought it would be nice if I could take
my time and look around for my dream job of working for a major fragrance
company, such as Estee Lauder or one of the other famous brands. The food
service industry was bland and felt like an aluminum pot to me. I wanted the
glamour of a real sales rep that dressed the part and traveled in style. Un-fortunately,
I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for anything to happen in my life; I had to
find a job as quickly as possible.
    The
company’s demise was swift, and I was left jobless, but I knew that in
bankruptcy there would be no urgency in returning the company vehicle, so I
kept mine until they came and towed it away months later.
    It
is now May of 1982. I hadn’t seen Chris in months since I moved out of the
Riverview apartments—we spoke by phone when we could, but it wasn’t often. I
felt safe and settled in my new location at the White Oak apartments on
McKnight Road in the suburbs of the North Hills of Pittsburgh. They had a
swimming pool for my