Episode 4:
“Too great of stigma”
Johnny Lamm said in 2018,
“His case is 95% solved. We think a young man from Golden Valley did the shooting. I think Dewey was the lucky one. He didn’t suffer. The other person is still in a wheelchair suffering everyday.
We miss Dewey a lot and wonder what could have been. He had lots of talent and was easy going.”
You can listen to episode 4 everywhere you get your podcasts or you can listen here:
Around Golden Valley since 1974, people have heard whispers of a boy killing his entire family. An event that wasn’t talked about much after it initially happened.
And some wonder if the boy responsible for the murders was the one responsible for the “Down in the Valley” attack.
It all began on the morning of December 10th, 1974 when friends earlier in the morning at the Glaeser home repeatedly knocked and called for John’s wife Mary Jane but got no response.
When Dr. John Glaeser didn’t show up to operate on one of his patients in the Twin Cities. This being extremely unlike him, co-workers feared something was wrong and notified security at the hospital he worked at and contacted law enforcement to do a welfare check.
As an officer approached the Glaeser residence, he could hear the family’s white poodle barking. The officer tries to open the front door but finds it locked.
The calls, knocking, and the doorbell ringing brought no response.
He walks around the house and tries looking through the window but finds the drapes are closed.
He goes to his car and notifies the dispatcher that he was unable to rouse the family.
More officers arrive on scene and they track someone close to the family named Jackie who had a key to the home who could let them in and Jackie came to help investigate what was going on.
She arrives at the home, unlocks the front door and lets the officers and herself into the home.
Jackie immediately goes up the front steps right into the master bedroom before screaming,
“Oh my God! Oh my god!”
Then turned around and bumped into an officer.
The officer peers into the bedroom and sees 50 year old Mary Jane dead in a pool of blood on the floor with the telephone receiver off the hook next to her.
They attempted to get the hysterical Jackie out of the home.
After she was put in a car with an officer, the other officers returned to the bedroom upstairs where they also found 53 year old John Glaeser on the other side of the bed.
In the bedroom next to theirs they found 17 year old daughter Ann Glaeser in her bed but completely covered with blankets.
All bodies had no movement and officers then requested assistance from the detective division and crime lab to come to the home.
They have a brief conversation with Jackie and she asks if they have found the body of Bobby Glaeser yet.
Stating that Bob Glaeser apparently had some type of psychological problems. She further went on to state that he had a basement bedroom.
Officers then proceeded to the basement portion of the home and after searching they discovered the body of 19 year old Bobby Glaeser laying on top of a .12 gauge shotgun with most of the top of his head missing.
The detectives arrive at the home and the investigation into the four deaths of a family begins.
No one in the neighborhood saw or heard anything out of the ordinary the evening and night of December 9th, 1974. They learn the couple usually retires early because they get up very early in the morning.
During investigation of the initial scene, the outside light for the house was on. The lights in the master bedroom of the house were off, the lights located within the bedroom where Ann Glaeser’s body was located were on.
To further note the lights in the bedroom where Robert Glaeser’s body was found was also on.
All other lights within the house were off.
The master bedroom is referred to as Bedroom 1 in the case file. This is where the bodies of John and Mary Jane were located. Both are found on the floor by the sides of their bed.
Both had two gunshot wounds including head wounds.
They both were dressed in nightclothes.
Bedroom 2, next to the master bedroom, was a room of a teenage girl with a multi-colored, flowered quilt on the bed.
Underneath the quilt and green sheet lies Ann Glaeser.
Detectives pulled the sheet back from her clutched fists and they found two gunshot wounds to her head.
Ann was clutching the blankets so tightly that physical force had to be used to dislodge the blanket from her hands.
There were bullet holes through the blankets indicating she was trying to hide underneath the blankets and was shot through the covering.
Her face was completely unidentifiable.
She was wearing a pink and white flower nightie.
All three were shot at close range with a 12 gauge shotgun.
Bedroom 3, the basement of the house, finds Bobby Glaeser with one gunshot wound to his head and a shotgun later identified as a Remington, Model 110, automatic 12 gauge, lying under his body.
No other markings were on his body other than a bruise on the underside of his left forearm which was probably a result of firing the fatal shot.
John Glaeser and his friend Richard had gone hunting on Sunday, December 9th. At that time John related to him that he didn’t know what to do with Bob. He was thinking of needing to commit his son.
Note: It may be speculative but John may have discussed this with Bob on Monday evening, possibly provoking Bob to attack.
One neighbor states that the vehicle in the driveway was the son’s and that she normally had seen movement at 6 or 6:30 in the morning but this morning there had not been any movement around the house at all.
Mary Jane brought some type of ornament to hang in a friend’s house and seemed to be in very good spirits stating her shopping was almost done, etc. the day of December 9th.
Mary Jane also said she hadn’t seen her son Bobby for over one month.
She had always shown concern for her son and knew that even though he was an adult, she wanted to help.
Bobby leaves the house for months at a time never telling his parents where he was and then returns and that is when the trouble began.
John Glaeser was advised by the psychiatrist that his son was very dangerous and to remove any guns from the home. He apparently did remove all the shotguns.
However, John had just been on a hunting trip that day and a rifle was left available in the home.
Robert got ahold of this shotgun and used it that night.
In the garage of the home detectives found numerous boxes and cases of shotgun shells.
Pointing out a workbench area with built-in cabinets and drawers. Inside the cabinet to the extreme left or against the West wall, many boxes of shotgun shells were found.
A box with 10 missing, Remington .12 gauge #4 shotgun shells were confiscated.
The Detectives when collecting evidence recovered 7 seven sent shotgun casings and took possession of 3 unfired shells removed from Bob Glaeser’s pockets.
The entire home was searched as well as Robert’s pockets for a suicide note but none was found.
Also taken into custody was a bluish, green snorkel type parka with orange fur lining found in Bob Glaeser’s bedroom closet.
A switchblade knife found under his body and a hunting knife in a sheath found in the garage were seized as evidence.
Who exactly was Bobby Glaeser and what was he up to the final months of his life?
Some described him as a very quiet soft-spoken person, indicating that he would probably be one of the kids that would be most unlikely to succeed.
Introverted and did pretty well in school.
Neighbors had a lot to say about most of the family but when it came to Robert, they didn’t know much.
He was living on the University of Minnesota campus but returned to his parents in September. He believed his roommates were plotting to give him a skin disease.
Robert was convinced he had sores and scabs all over his body and went to several dermatologists who reported nothing was wrong with his skin at all.
In February when Robert was told he should be committed, he ran out of the doctors office.
The psychiatrist in September specialized in involuntary treatment. John and Mary Jane Glaeser started proceedings but called them off at the last minute.
The people in charge of that unit later told authorities the Glaesers made the decision based off of,
“Would constitute too great a stigma on his future.”
They felt if he decided to go back to school that it would be something that could hold him back.
Newspapers from the time report that about a week before the family murders, the family was extremely close to involuntarily committing Robert.
He confronted his parents and demanded to know why they wouldn’t look him in his eyes and why they were spying on him.
He felt everyone around him was plotting against him.
An appointment was made for someone to come to their home and try to take Robert to get help.
Then Robert moved out and refused to tell his parents where he was and after a few days of not hearing from him – his parents canceled the committal process.
Supposedly, he returned home last Saturday before their deaths for a Christmas family reunion.
Robert had an apartment the final months of his life on East
Medicine Lake Road, Plymouth.
The landlady stated that Robert Glaeser had rented this apartment since July of 1974.
She stated that she did not have too much contact with Robert, stated that he was a quiet, reserved type of person, and didn’t talk to too many people in the area to her knowledge. She didn’t know if he had any friends who came to visit him or not.
She also stated that, about the first of the month, he had given notice that he would be moving out on the 15th of the month. She stated he moved out earlier than the 15th, apparently giving her no reason for doing so.
Robert was really suffering the final months of his life and today I feel families may feel they are in the same helpless situation.
“Since February of 1974 including delusions of a somatic nature involving the belief that his roommates had caused him to itch.
Accordingly, he sought relief from several dermatologists for the imaginary condition of scabies. There were other examples of paranoid thinking which culminated in a challenge by Robert to his parents for spying upon him and his demanding to know why they did not look him directly in the eyes.
This occurred within a few days prior to the slaying incident which formed the basis for your investigation. We were aware that two psychiatrists had seen Robert and had recommended to the family that he be hospitalized for care and treatment.
Your question specifically has been directed to whether such a condition could or would have caused Robert Glaeser to kill his parents, his sister and himself in the family home on or about the 10th day of December. I found occasion to discuss these symptoms with various psychiatrists including one of those who had examined Robert earlier and thus have the benefit of their firm collective opinion that Robert Glaeser suffered from an acute state of paranoid schizophrenia as recently as December 4th or 5th according to reported symptoms, and accordingly was very likely operating in a delusional plane of consciousness which could easily, if not predictably, accounted for his apparent homicidal conduct on or about the 10th.”
– Gary W. Flakne
Because of the circumstances of the case, the rule of confidentiality was lifted to receive information from mental health units.
George Elwell, head of the mental health unit at the time, said doctors on his board of examiners agree that Glaeser exhibited “a classic textbook case of the kind of mental illness that is categorized as paranoid schizophrenia.”
They wanted their son to be hospitalized – they just wanted him to do it voluntarily.
They refused to do it involuntarily.
The family were members of the Valley of Peace Lutheran Church in Golden Valley.
The Glaeser family had three other children, two sisters and a brother, who were all grown and out of the home.
It was an absolutely devastating and traumatizing event for them.
John and Mary Jane Glaeser were said to be great parents and deeply cared for all of their children.
Robert liked to tinker with his 1966 Chevrolet. Often his father John would help him.
John Glaeser was absolutely loved by his coworkers and considered a very good medical man. He had been at this job for 18 years and at one point was the chief of surgery.
Ann was a senior at Robbinsdale High School. She was said to be a very kind and smart young girl emerging into adulthood.
It’s an absolutely horrific tragedy that took place that still leaves anyone who remembers the four haunted.
Steve Hyland had been haunted by the thought of Robert. He had seen Robert Glaeser shopping at “Down in the Valley” a few times.
He believed Robert could’ve been responsible for the robbery and murder at the store.
Next episode we will look into the evidence possibly linking Glaeser family murder with the murder of Dewey Lamm and robbery at “Down in the Valley.”
Rest in Peace to the entire Glaeser family.
Until next time.
