Gerald and Charlene Gallego

"We had this sexual fantasy see, so we just carried it out....I mean, like it was easy and fun and we really enjoyed it, so why shouldn't we do it?" - Charlene Gallego

Gerald Armond Gallego and Charlene Adelle Gallego were a killing team sometimes nicknamed "The Love Slave Killers" or "The Gallego Sex Slaves Killers".

Charlene Gallego
Charlene Gallego was born Charlene Adelle Williams; she was born near Sacramento, California, in October 1956. Her father Charles was a respected entrepreneur who was the vice-president of a supermarket chain. He and his wife Mercedes often traveled as part of their business life. Early school reports suggest Charlene was a quiet and shy child, who had good attendance. Charlene's mother was hurt badly in a car accident; this was the reason she stopped traveling around with her husband. Charlene took over her mother's duties, and would often travel with her father on business trips. It was there she was often praised by her father's clients for being an intelligent and well-spoken child. But by high school, Charlene was taking drugs and bragged to friends about a black lover. Charlene eventually married a young, wealthy man who was a heroin addict. He claimed that Charlene was obsessed with lesbian sex and begged him to have a threesome with her and a prostitute. She was also using a large amount of drugs and didn't care about her appearance. Her first husband hated that Charlene's parents also intervened in their relationship, so the marriage failed and they got divorced. Charlene's next husband was a soldier who Charlene described as a "mother's boy". She grew bored of him and they got divorced. Charlene then had an affair with a married man who soon ended the relationship after she asked if they could have sex with his wife. After the breakup, she attempted suicide but survived. It was not long after this that she met Gerald.

Gerald Gallego
Gerald's own background was a brutal one. His mother and her numerous boyfriends had beaten him during his formative years, and, when his mother became a prostitute, he was abused by some of her clients. He was often left hungry and dirty and was always pleading to be held and hugged. His natural father, who had played no part in his life, was executed for killing two policemen. Like Charlene, Gerald had failed as a lover and spouse and married numerous women but left them after they had ran out of money. He also started sexually abusing his daughter. Gerald liked rough sex and Charlene responded to this. At first, their sex life was so good that they couldn't get enough of each other. Gerald particularly enjoyed sodomizing Charlene, but she later said in court that she hated the painful experience.

Killings
Charlene was sexually submissive; sexual submission relies strongly on conversational power play. The submissive often indicates to the dominant party what he or she enjoys so, in a way, it is the submissive that's in charge. Charlene was disliked in work for being too flirtatious with her male co-workers, but she wanted a man who would take charge and be dominant. Gerald appeared streetwise and very masterful. Within a week of meeting, the new couple had rented a house and moved in together. Gerald soon moved beyond flowers and chocolates, and Charlene accepted that he was more interested in his own sexual satisfaction. Charlene was fascinated by his machismo and was soon sharing in his illicit fantasies.

After they had been living together for a few months, Gerald brought home a sixteen year old dancer, and they had a threesome together. He made sure that the two women only touched him and not each other. After he returned home from work, however, he found Charlene and the dancer in bed together. Enraged, he threw the girl out an open window, then hit Charlene. He then withheld sex from her saying he had become impotent, in reality though he most likely found her unattractive, because she'd shown she wasn't fully dependent on him for sexual kicks. Gerald soon sodomized his now fourteen year-old daughter and her friend, and he did so with Charlene's knowledge. It is unclear if she was in the room with them or just in the same apartment, but evidently she didn't find anything immoral in what Gerald had done. This suggests she had the lack of conscience found in a sociopath.

With Gerald working as a bartender, Charlene suspected he was sleeping with his customers as he was now disinterested in her sexually. When the couple had been together for a year, he said that he needed a pair of love slaves to turn him on and asked Charlene to procure them. Some sources suggest she agreed because she saw his word as law and that she only wanted to please him. But no one is completely self-effacing, so it's more likely she wanted to satisfy her own strong lesbian desires and totally control a helplessly tied up girl. Whatever her motivation, she agreed to lure teenage victims to their certain deaths.

Modus Operandi
The Gallegos targeted women. Their first victims were in their teens, but the later ones were in their early 20s. More often than not, they abducted two at a time. They would abduct them from public or semi-public places, often at gunpoint with a .357 Magnum, with Charlene acting as the lure, and take them into their van, where Gerald would rape them repeatedly before killing them in various ways, usually by shooting them with a .25 Beretta or bludgeoning them with some incidental object. Linda Aguilar and Virginia Mochel, both of whom were abducted alone, were strangled.

Known Victims

 * September 10, 1978: Rhonda Scheffler and Kippi Vaught :
 * Rhonda Scheffler, 17
 * Kippi Vaught, 16
 * June 24, 1979: Brenda Judd and Sandra Colley :
 * Brenda Judd, 14
 * Sandra Colley, 13
 * 1980:
 * April 4: Stacey Redican and Karen Twiggs :
 * Stacey Redican, 17
 * Karen Chipman Twiggs, 17
 * June 7: Linda Aguilar, 21
 * July 16: Virginia Mochel, 34
 * November 2: Craig Miller and Mary Sowers :
 * Craig Miller, 22
 * Mary Elizabeth Sowers, 21

On Criminal Minds
The Gallegos were mentioned in Jump Cut as an example of killing teams.