Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas' Most Notorious Female Killer (Berkley True Crime) by Glenn Puit

Author:Glenn Puit [Puit, Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2005-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Brookey Lee West had everything going for her in 1994. She had a lucrative job, a nice house in the rural community of Los Banos, California, and a Jaguar parked in her driveway. She seemed an unlikely match for Howard Simon St. John—a penniless, homeless drunk with rotting teeth.

But after her relationship with Wayne Ike faltered, West set her sights on St. John, and she asked him out to dinner despite their starkly different positions in life.

“When I first met Howard, he looked kind of bad,” West said. “He was real overweight, and his hair was sort of long. Yet I could see that if he lost some weight, and if he got his hair cut, he would be really good-looking. He had a gentleman quality about him, and that part of him was unbelievable. I view life this way—people can be down. They can be sick, and they can have a lot of bad things happen, and they can pull themselves back up. That’s the way I saw it.”

St. John’s friends, however, were at a loss to explain West’s interest in him. West was an attractive, professional businesswoman, and she was hooking up with an obese, convicted felon in rehab.

“I was shocked,” Thomas Gutierrez said. “I was like, what is this good-looking woman doing with Howard?”

Thomas and his wife, Dana, remember meeting West for the first time. She showed up with St. John at Dana’s mother’s house in 1994, and Thomas noticed St. John was no longer in his street clothes. He was well dressed, his hair was cut and he was groomed.

“When he came to the house, and brought her over for the first time, I said, ‘Holy mackerel,’” Thomas Gutierrez said. “She looked like she was well put together, and she had her stuff together. Real responsible, and she was pretty.”

Dana Gutierrez found the relationship extremely strange as well.

“The first time I ever saw her, I definitely got a bad feeling,” she said. “I thought, this is not right.”

Thomas Gutierrez was baffled by West’s generosity, so he pulled his friend aside and politely expressed his misgivings about West.

“I had this bad feeling,” Thomas Gutierrez said. “I told Howard, ‘You know what? I’m glad for you, Howard. I’m glad you are getting straight. This might be what you need to get your feet on the ground.’

“But I said, ‘Howard, what is she doing with you?’” he recalled. “Howard started laughing, and I started laughing, and I think he thought I was playing it off. But I said, ‘Howard, look at you, and look at her. Is this really love, Howard?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah.’

“I said, ‘Well, the best of luck to both of you, but if there’s an insurance policy out there, you better be careful, ’” Thomas Gutierrez said. “I was joking, but at the same time I wanted to put the thought in his head.”

Tony Mercado was shocked by the relationship as well.

“I just said, ‘Something is wrong here,’” he said.

Tyla Knotchapone was concerned, too. She

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