Twin Peaks: The True Story

By H.E. Teter

In Twin Peaks, California, on a horrible night 40 years ago, a young woman was killed. One life ended, and the life of a young man forever changed. This real life murder mystery begs the question: is it the true basis of the hugely popular TV series Twin Peaks? Too many similarities exist; it cannot be coincidence.

A radio call in the early morning hours reporting a fully involved house fire becomes a firefighter’s worst nightmare when he realizes it’s his own. His first question is, “Where’s Nancy?” Too soon he learns his girlfriend was inside, raped, murdered, and the fire set to destroy evidence.

Due to the Sheriff’s Department’s unwillingness to cross the “Blue Line”, it may have remained a “Cold Case” forever had it not been for the stubborn determination of one man over many decades.

Cleared of wrong-doing, the author begins his own investigation to find the killer. Alone in his search with a suspect in mind, as rocks are overturned bit by bit, with hints, memories, and facts revealing themselves, Buzz searches for answers and justice.

The suspect’s family members, the suspect himself, case facts, and other secrets kept over the years help Buzz to discover things that challenge the TV series for strange oddities in a small town.

The personal cost is great on every level. Risks are taken, enemies made, memories buried resurface and open old wounds...all in honor of the victim’s memory and to expose a killer. While formal justice is never found, Karma is served and the limelight is given to the remake of the surreal TV show, Twin Peaks, allowing a timely opportunity for revealing the answer to the question: “Who killed Nancy Easton?”

• Language: English
• Publisher: H.E. Teter
• Release date: Mar 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310427350

H.E. Teter

Harry E. “Buzz” Teter reared in Lake Arrowhead, California began his working career as a young boy in his parent’s spice shop at Santa’s Village, Sky Forest. After graduating high school, receiving an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, he then returned to the Lake Arrowhead area to work as a fireman and law enforcement officer for the U.S. Forest Service and a fireman/EMT for the Lake Arrowhead Fire Department. In 1979 he was accepted by the elite USFS Smokejumper Unit, where he fought fire while parachuting out of perfectly good airplanes, dispatched from the Redding Base in northern California for 6 years.His next career adventure took him to the Kwajalein Missile Range, Marshall Islands, as a Haz-Mat Firefighter and Aviation Life Support Equipment Specialist, to teach open water survival techniques to contract and TDY fixed-wing and rotary pilots. As a certified PADI Dive Instructor he taught SCUBA classes and served as Chief Divemaster for the Kwajalein SCUBA Club. In addition to these accomplishments, he secured a permission to live on Enubuj Island where he and his family became the first, and to his knowledge, only non-Micronesians to live “off island” on the atoll, providing them a true “Gilligan’s Island” experience that lasted many years.Returning stateside Buzz worked at various jobs, until he left his corporate position as the Director of Research & Development at American Leak Detection to relocate to the Pacific southwestern coast of Mexico where lives with his wife, Debi, a black Labrador Gilhooly, and Pearl the Wonder Cat. Having published Twin Peaks-The True Story, he is now writing his next manuscript. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on its release.

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TWIN PEAKS

THE TRUE STORY

H.E. Teter

Because sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction

2nd Edition

Copyright © 2015 by H.E. Teter

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals who are still living at the time of this writing.

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Twin Peaks-The True Story

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This book is dedicated

To the memory of

Nancy Easton

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN

TWIN PEAKS: THE TRUE STORY and

TWIN PEAKS: THE TV SHOW

TWIN PEAKS: THE TRUE STORY

Nancy lived in a mountain sawmill town named Twin Peaks

Nancy had been a Homecoming Queen*

Nancy worked at the Lodge across the Lake

Nancy used drugs, mostly pot

Nancy had a good friend who was a drug smuggler/dealer

Raped-Murdered**

TWIN PEAKS: THE TV SHOW

Laura lived in a mountain sawmill town named Twin Peaks

Laura had been a Homecoming Queen

Laura worked at the Lodge across the Lake

Laura used drugs, mostly coke

Laura had a boyfriend who was a drug smuggler/dealer

Raped-Murdered**

* Nancy never talked about this with me. Friends that knew her before I did had two different stories. One was that, yes, she had been a Homecoming Queen at her High School. The other story was that she was elected Homecoming Queen and declined the position.

** Both women were killed in the same manner.

Preface

For 40 years I’ve played the What If game. If I’d done things differently, would my girlfriend still be alive? What did I do so wrong that caused a beautiful young girl to lose her life in an extremely violent manner? Well, after 40 years, you come to find that some questions just don’t have answers. You make yourself crazy thinking about it. That old axiom, Time heals all wounds, is total B.S. Time might take the rough edges off, but that’s about it.

This is the true story of the violent murder of a young woman in Twin Peaks, California, in the 1970s. It’s also a story that has been an albatross around my neck for the last 40 years. The impact of the murder has had far-reaching effects on my life, good and bad. Mostly bad. The two worst are developing a lifelong fuck it attitude, and consuming large amounts of alcohol. More on that later in the story.

When I first watched David Lynch’s Twin Peaks on TV, it was like a knife stab to the gut. I had spent many years trying to ease the memory of what happened on that winter night so long ago. Then comes along a friggin’ TV show, opening up all the old scars. My wife, Debi, really liked the show, as did my son, Bryan, so I was stuck with it playing in the house. I ignored it, but it was impossible not to pick up bits and pieces. After a while, I was convinced Mr. Lynch had gotten his idea for the show from the real murder mystery that happened several years prior in a small, ex-mill town in the mountains of Southern California.

Here’s how I think it happened. David Lynch lived in Los Angeles from 1971 to 1979 – the same years the murder and following investigation took place. The type of Hollywood people Mr. Lynch would associate with are the same people who have hideaway vacation homes in nearby Lake Arrowhead. Lake Arrowhead is a mountain community in the San Bernardino National Forest comprising a mosaic of small towns, with Twin Peaks being one of them. The area, only an hour and a half drive from Hollywood, has long been the refuge for celebrity types looking for a quick escape from the killer pace of movie-making. Many big-name stars, producers and writers have owned homes in the area since the 1930s, when Noel Coward first set up shop there. I don’t know if Mr. Lynch ever owned a home at Lake Arrowhead, but he undoubtedly had friends who did…friends who lent their homes to friends for weekend stays.

Also during this time, the commander of the Sheriff’s substation was a guy named Ken Blackstone. Ken would know the particulars concerning the murder since it happened on his turf. It was well-known in town that Ken was a major league suck-up when it came to visiting celebrities. It’s very possible that Ken leaked details of the crime to Mr. Lynch or one of his friends.

One other thing tells me Mr. Lynch was familiar with the Lake Arrowhead/Twin Peaks area. In 1985 or ‘86, Mr. Lynch pitched a movie project to Dino De Laurentiis just before he went out of the movie-making business. Not much is known about the project, other than that it was a mystery story. The name of it was Up at the Lake. Anybody in the movie business from Hollywood asks you, Where you been? and you answer, Up at the Lake, they know you mean Lake Arrowhead.

So, let’s take a look at the similarity of the fictional TV show and the real murder. Obviously, we’ll start with the town itself. The fictional Twin Peaks is a mill town situated in a mountainous, forested area. The real Twin Peaks was a mill town up until 1956. Many parts of the Dexter Mill exist to this day. The town is in a mountainous, forested area.

Next up would be the age of the victims and how they died. In the TV series, Laura Palmer is 17. She was raped and stabbed to death. In the real murder, the victim had just turned 20. She was raped and stabbed to death. In both cases, real and fictional, the women were Homecoming Queens, very attractive, very independent.

As to One-eyed Jacks, the lodge across the lake, Lake Arrowhead had its own Lodge. Opened in 1923, Lake Arrowhead Lodge was of Norman-style architecture and was situated on the lake shore…just like the fictitious One-eyed Jacks. During prohibition in the 30s, it was a hotbed of illegal boozing and prostitution. If Mr. Lynch stayed on the north shore of Lake Arrowhead, which is where all the celebrities’ homes are, the Lake Arrowhead Lodge would have been referred to by the locals as The Lodge across the lake. Nancy worked there for almost a year as a maid. It was torn down in 1976 to make way for the new Lake Arrowhead Village.

As to the crazy characters depicted in the TV series, Lake Arrowhead certainly had more than its fair share. Still does today, though I can’t say we had anything as cool as a Log Lady. Lake Arrowhead and Twin Peaks in the ‘70s were exactly those kinds of small towns that Mr. Lynch would love to dissect. There was just so much material there to work with.

Last but not least, drug use. Both the fictional and the real victim used drugs. Also, in the series’ investigation, one of Laura’s friends, Jacques Renault, is identified as a drug dealer/smuggler. In the real life story, one of the Nancy’s friends is identified by police as a drug dealer/smuggler. So, are all these similar incidences coincidence? All six of them?

I think not. I can’t say this is where David Lynch definitely came up with the story, but the similarities are compelling. I will stand by the facts as I’ve written them. I think the best thing to do is let the reader decide.

This is also the story of a bungled police investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and how that institution used its authority to protect its reputation once it discovered how badly it had screwed up.

My big problem was I could never stop thinking about it. Over time that preoccupation paid off when I eventually uncovered a nest of monsters that had been living right in front of everybody involved…the whole time.

The albatross around my neck got a whole lot lighter when the monster who murdered my girlfriend died a miserable, lingering, cancerous death. I think writing about what happened will be cathartic and help remove the rest of the leftover weight.

Nancy, it’s been 40 years. It’s time to tell the story.

Harry E. Buzz Teter

Chapter 1

Thursday, April 26, 1972

The United Airlines DC10 gave a shudder as it hit the seasonal, mid-afternoon thermals coming off the coastal range in Southern California. A normal occurrence. Losing altitude on its final approach to Ontario International Airport, it was easy to observe the mountains and lakes of the San Bernardino National Forest off the starboard side of the plane.

One lake was of special interest to the occupant of seat 30H—me, PFC Harry Buzz Teter, recently discharged from the U.S. Army. I had my eyes on Lake Arrowhead as it glided past my window. My hometown. Gone for more than a year, I had been stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where I’d been assigned to a training brigade. Funny thing though, I didn’t do much training. That was left to the soldiers returning from Vietnam. My main jobs consisted of going to the motor pool, checking out a truck, then picking up Captain Buchanan’s three German Shepherds and taking them into the woods for a vigorous game of ‘Fetch the Stick’—which was quite alright with me. Through someone’s oversight, I had been able to almost completely avoid the stateside military B.S. The only time my name showed up on the duty roster was to support the live-fire demonstrations twice a month for civic groups. I found the live-fire demos to be a lot of fun, and they gave me tons of experience firing thousands of rounds from just about every weapon the Army had. Unfortunately, it was a skill that had little use in the civilian world I was about to return to.

Still, it was like the Army didn’t even know I was there. After watching the stateside Army in action for a while, I thought that was a real possibility.

With an Honorable Discharge tucked away in my Class A’s coat, I tightened my seat belt for the imminent landing. Two, maybe three hours and I’ll be home, I thought. And then it’s time for sex, drugs, and rock & roll. I’m a true California boy.

I was picked up at the airport by my parents, Harry and Helena. We had an emotional, hug-filled reunion in the baggage claim section of the airport. Since it was mid-afternoon, we decided to drive over to Pomona to the Castaways restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner.

That’s where the trouble started.

At the beginning of April of ‘72, President Nixon had escalated the bombing campaign over Vietnam, and student protests were growing bigger by the day. Kent State was just around the corner. When we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a VW Micro-bus covered with anti-war slogans and three hippie guys standing next to it. I hoped there wouldn’t be a problem as I remembered I was wearing my Class-A military uniform,

No dice.

As my parents and I got out of the car and started to walk to the restaurant, I heard a shout: Fuck you, baby killer.

I stopped and started to turn around, but Dad put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me. Ignore them. They’re trash.

I nodded, turned, and headed toward the restaurant again. After walking about 20 feet, however, I felt a sharp pain in my lower back, like something had bitten me. Son of a bitch! Bastard hit me with a rock!

Turning around, I saw one of the three hippies flipping me the bird. I took off my coat and handed it to my Dad. "Hold this for