Criminal Minds Wiki
Criminal Minds Wiki
Criminal Minds Wiki
4,200
pages
in: Real People, Real Life Killers, Real Killing Teams,
and 8 more

Gerald and Charlene Gallego

Sign in to edit

“ 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 (née Williams) were a team of serial killers, serial rapists, and abductors sometimes nicknamed "The Love Slave Killers" or "The Gallego Sex Slave Killers".

Backgrounds[]

Charlene Gallego[]

Charlene Gallego was born Charlene Adelle Williams near Sacramento, California, on October 10, 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 number 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 with 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 was born on July 17, 1946. 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 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.

Capture and Trials[]

The Gallegos were apprehended on November 17, 1980. They were eventually found guilty of their crimes and Gerald was found guilty & received a sentence of execution by gas chamber. He died of cancer before his sentence could be carried out. Charlene had taken a plea deal and testified against him in court and only received sixteen years and eight months in prison. She completed her sentence and was released.

Modus Operandi[]

The Gallegos targeted women. Their first victims were in their teens, but the later ones were in their early 20s, while Virginia Mochel was in her mid-thirties. 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[]

Gallego's victims

Several of their victims.

  • September 10, 1978, Placer County, California: Rhonda Scheffler and Kippi Vaught (both were sexually abused, raped, bludgeoned with a tire iron, then fatally shot in the head):
    • Rhonda Scheffler, 17
    • Kippi Vaught, 16 (shot three times in the head)
  • June 24, 1979, Reno, Nevada: Brenda Judd and Sandra Colley (both were forced to perform sexual acts with each other and then beaten with a shovel and a hammer):
    • Brenda Judd, 14
    • Sandra Colley, 13
  • 1980:
    • April 4, Citrus Heights, California: Stacey Redican and Karen Twiggs (both were sexually abused and beaten with a hammer):
      • Stacey Redican, 17
      • Karen Chipman Twiggs, 17
    • June 7, Port Orford, Oregon: Linda Aguilar, 21 (was four months pregnant; bludgeoned with a rock, strangled, buried alive, and left for dead)
    • July 16, Clarksburg, California: Virginia Mochel, 34 (raped and strangled with a nylon fishing cord)
    • November 2, Sacramento, California: Craig Miller and Mary Sowers:
      • Craig Miller, 22 (was shot three times in the head)
      • Mary Elizabeth Sowers, 21 (raped repeatedly and shot three times)

On Criminal Minds[]

  • Season Two
    • "The Perfect Storm" - While never directly referenced in the shows, the Gallegos appear to be an inspiration for the episode's main unsub, The Canardos - Both teams consist of serial killers, rapists, and abductors with a dominant member who was physically and sexually assaulted at home, and a submissive member with a previous criminal record, one member had an unstable home life and a parent in prostitution, both abducted young Caucasian female victims, sexually and physically tortured them, left their remains in open areas after killing them, portrayed a dominant male and submissive female act throughout their relationships (though the Canardos only did this to fool law enforcement), and the female partner sold out the male partner when arrested.
  • Season Six
    • "Compromising Positions" - While never directly mentioned or references in the shows, Gerald appears to be an inspiration for the episode's unsub, James Thomas - Both are sexually motivated serial killers with wives who left them, were the dominant partners in their relationships, were motivated by demands on their sex lives threatened by emasculation, killed their victims by shooting (though Thomas also stabbed victims), and were turned in by their wives.
  • Season Nine
    • "Mr. and Mrs. Anderson" - While never directly mentioned or referenced in the shows, the Gallegos appesr to be inspirations for the episodes main unsubs, Alan and Judith Anderson - Both are serial killer couples consisting of a sexually sadistic dominant husband and submissive wife, killed to enhance their private sex life, targeting Caucasian female victims (though they also targeted a male victim), the husbands also raped at least several of their victims they killed, and the wives turned on their respective partners once the couples were arrested.
  • Novels
    • Jump Cut - The Gallegos were mentioned as an example of killing teams.

Sources[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.