Silent Terror

Soon the quiet Richmond District was ablaze with the flashing lights of police vehicles. Eight teams of patrolmen began house-to-house canvassing, and Deputy Coroner Willard Willarsohn examined the bodies and attributed the cause of death to “massive trauma caused by repeated knife thrusts and loss of blood,” adding that the couple had been dead for “at least 48 hours, maybe up to 52.” While comprehensive questioning of neighbors was being conducted, friends, relatives and the employers of the deceased were contacted. When expressions of shock, outrage and grief were set aside, the investigating officers knew this:

One — Sifakis and Miss Eversall were longtime lovers, and were last seen together dining at the Molinari Delicatessen in North Beach on Monday night, September 2, at 7:30, fifty-one hours before their bodies were discovered; and, two — both victims were known for frequent unexplained work absences. Thus, no one at their places of employment thought to report them missing. An anonymous acquaintance of the couple told our reporters: “Stevie and Jill were party people. They liked to get high and boogie, and they were careless about the company they kept. They picked up hitchhikers, and, well, Jill liked to swing. Stevie liked to drink with the bikers over in Oakland, and I think this is going to be tough to solve because they both knew so many transient-type people.”

Meanwhile, with no clues, police are broadening their efforts, and an S.F.P.D. spokesman has announced: “This is a major crime, and it will get major attention. We are appealing to the citizens of San Francisco for information to aid us in our investigation, and we will not cease in our efforts until the killer or killers is caught.”