Charmer

Charmer

George Walterfield Russell Jr. was described as a nice, intellectual, always smiling and having fun type of kid. George could blend in where ever he went. He always had interesting stories to tell. He could carry on conversations with just about anyone, adults or children his own age. He did very well in school and he had an above average IQ. George moved around when he was young. His mother gave him to his grandmother who lived in Maryland at age 6, so she could go to college and receive an education to make a better income for her and Russell. Once she graduated and married a man she met in college, she went and picked up Russell. At age 10 his family moved to Mercer Island. It was a small community north of Seattle. Shortly after they arrived in their new home on Mercer Island, George's mother gave birth to a baby girl. On Mercer Island the average home was on the lake, and property values were anything but cheap. His stepfather was a dentist and his mother taught African American history at the University, both of his parents made a very comfortable salary. There were very few black families on Mercer Island; in fact there were only three. George was teased by the other black children because his family was too busy to participate in the activities the other African American families held. As a child George had friends, most were women. He had few male friends and seldom did he bring his friends to his house to play. George had a wooden fort that he built that was hidden deep in the brush behind a local tavern not far from his home on Mercer Island. When he did have others to play with, he often took them there. When his friends would ask about his family he would always say "My dads a dentist and owns a Lamborghini and a Porsche, my moms a college professor at the university, she teaches black history." To outsiders everything seemed to be normal other than George spent very little time with his parents. When he did have friends come over it never seemed to be very pleasant. His parents never talked or even said "hi" to anyone and did very little talking to each other.

The local police department would always see him walking his St. Bernard late at night. The police would stop and ask him what he was doing and he would start talking to them like they were old friends. George was always curious what the officers were up too and what type of work they did. Since the officers always seen him out by himself they became good acquaintances. Shortly after running into George when he was walking his St. Bernard the officers soon found the boy in their station helping answer phones and other miscellaneous duties. They couldn't understand why he wasn't at home, but his parents never reported him missing. The local police men kind of felt sorry for him and would invite him in. George loved working at the station and the cops felt they were keeping him off the streets and away from trouble. For many months George hung around the station. The officers found themselves talking to George like he was one of them. Several months later George asked for more to do around the station and the cops increased his work load. After school he would come directly to the station and help out how ever he could. As George approached junior high school the officers started to notice a difference in him. George spent less time at the station and more time with friends. Word started to spread about Georges drinking and hanging out with a hard group of friends. One time George told his friends he had something to show them and all three of them took the bus into Seattle. George showed them where to climb into an air duct and they would look threw this crack and watch porno movies at one of the adult arcades in down town Seattle. George took his friends there several times, one time when they were peaking threw the crack in the ceiling they watched two men have oral and anal sex. As the cheesy porno was playing, one of the boys started to laugh at something they heard in the movie and one of the men heard them and the boys took off running. His friend did remember thinking "How did a kid so young know where this place was." Whenever George would be over at a friend's house, things would come up missing. One time, one of George's friends noticed him wearing another friend's coat. When George was confronted he said "the kid gave it to me." Not long into junior high the cops busted George with some pot. When George realized what kind of trouble he was in, he offered to help his friends at the station with a contact of the person who sold him the marijuana. George soon became an informant. He would find out where the kids where buying their alcohol, drugs and where they were partying at. Then he would tell the officers all the information he had and then was paid a small amount. George's mother Mrs. Mobley found out that Dr. Mobley was cheating. Soon after, she told the news that she was moving back to Maryland and was taking the baby with her. George said she offered to take him as well but he declined because all of his friends were here on the island. He never had a close relationship with his step father; he spent very little time at home. George left home a year later and slept where ever he could, behind bushes, in his fort, or he would break into boat houses and sleep there. Residents of Mercer Island started to report things missing. One couple said "When I went to sleep the night before I had forty dollars in my wallet and now I only have twenty." The police couldn't do anything because they couldn't catch the perpetrator. Another family said she thought she had seen someone in her house while she was sleeping. There were a rash of burglaries on the island, but did not have a suspect.

After George went to jail, the first time, all of his friends didn't want much to do with him. So George started hanging out with a much younger crowd. He met some thirteen year old girls at a party. At this time George was in his late twenties. He started partying with a girl named V and Lynn Brown. He became obsessed with Lynn. He would come over to her house late at night and they would talk all night long, till 4:00am. They started hanging out every night. Lynn Brown's parents never met George and her parents' never knew that he was there, they would have freaked. Shortly after when Lynn would come home from school, George would be sitting on her bed, she had no idea how he got in and she knew her parents didn't let him in. When George was confronted with his entry, he would just change the subject. They started having sex, George always refused to use protection and several times when he went down on Lynn he would cause her pain. Lynn was young and this was the first time she had ever