The Joseph Palczynski Story

On March 7, Tracy Whitehead had completed her first day as an assistant store manager at D. E. Jones and paid a visit to the tanning salon. She was walking back to Gloria Shenk's apartment in Bowley's Quarters when a car pulled up beside her. It was Joby in his mother's Plymouth Voyager.

Tracy, I love you. Please, can we talk? Joby said.

I'm through with you, she replied. Leave me alone.

Tracy knew Joby was furious she had gotten him locked up. But when she'd left before, he had never followed through on threats to harm her or her family. As long as they weren't alone together, she wasn't afraid of him.

Less than two hours later, Tracy was watching "Walker, Texas Ranger" with Gloria and George Shenk when Joby, armed with two guns, entered through the unlocked sliding glass door.

Tracy, you are coming with me!

Stunned, Tracy froze, then dropped to the ground. She was looking down when Joby shot Gloria. She didn't see him shoot George, either. But the screams of two children visiting the couple filled her head as she crawled toward the door.

Don't touch the doorknob! he yelled.

Joby dragged her barefoot, by the hair, into the cold night, where her screams attracted a neighbor. When David Meyers tried to stop Joby, he was shot , too. Oh, my God! she heard the man say before Joby shoved her into his mother's van and drove off.

He ordered her to put on combat boots and a black jacket and cap. Then he parked the van and took her into the woods, where he punched her in the nose and told her to lie on the ground. He held a gun to the back of her head.

I should kill you right now.

Tracy begged Joby to let her live long enough to tell her son she loved him. Instead, he began to describe the tortures he planned: He would blow away her arms and legs and leave her to live in a wheelchair. He would pull out her teeth, one by one.

Please kill me. Please just kill me, she pleaded.

He told her to get up, then hit her in the chest with the rifle. Hands over her head, gasping for air, Tracy walked on through the mud and brush.

Are you going to kill me?

Hurry up!

Finally they stumbled upon a vacant camper. Shaking, freezing and thirsty, Tracy collapsed inside on a blue blanket. Joby pulled down her pants.

At daylight, when he woke her, his anger was gone. He fashioned a bed under a tree with the blanket.

Come on, let's pray, Tracy told him. Ask God to forgive you for what you've done.

Joby told her he loved her so much because she was down-to-earth, the kind of girl he didn't have to impress. He said he always did want to marry her, though he had never really come out and asked.

Now, on that blanket, under the tree, it was time. He had brought the wedding band that matched the ring he had given her.

"He put the ring on my finger," Tracy recalls. "He said he knew it wasn't good timing, and it ain't never going to happen, but he wanted to ask me anyway, and I said yes, that I would, and I cried ..."

Then he took off his necklace with the golden baby ring that had been intended for their first child and put it around her neck. And he asked Tracy to tell his mom that he loved her.

On the blanket they had sex again. Numb, certain he would soon kill her, Tracy prayed silently, over and over: Please, God, I'm not ready to go. Please, God, spare my life.

Joby said he was afraid to go back to jail. He would rather be dead.

You wouldn't have gotten much time and I would've visited you, Tracy told him. But now you done killed three people - and it's over.

No. You would've married somebody else and gone on with your life.

At nightfall, Tracy convinced Joby to leave the woods to find food. They were drinking from a hose behind a house in Chase when the owner drove up. After Joby pulled out his gun, the man ran to the street and began waving down cars for help.

Joby pushed Tracy into the homeowner's car. Later, he ditched it and stole another. They stopped at a drive-through window at a McDonald's, then went to the El-Rich Motel on Pulaski Highway.

The clerk didn't recognize Joby when he paid $40 for the room. It was just after 11 p.m. when they turned on the television. On the news were pictures of the people he had killed. Tracy put down her head and cried. Joby smiled, then grew fearful: We've got to get out of here!

The guns were in the car. As they walked toward it, Joby stopped abruptly: A police cruiser was in the parking lot.

No, Tracy! he cried as she ran toward the police car. Then he bolted in the opposite direction.