Key Highlights :
1. An alleged double murderer who was widely considered to be the inspiration behind the cult Texas Chainsaw Massacre films lived in Barton-upon-Humber for more than a decade after marrying his pen pal from the area - who had "no idea" that he had previously spent years on Death Row.
2. On October 28, 1974, two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Gary Darley, 20, and Mark Fischer, 19, vanished in the Oak Hill area of the city.
3. The last person to see them alive was Kleasen, who had invited them to his trailer to eat venison.
4. He had been living in the trailer behind the taxidermist shop where he worked following his divorce from his third wife - who had left him after finding him in the bath with the body of a deer he had killed and disembowelled.
5. He was convicted for the murders after Mr Darley's hair, blood and tissue was found on a mechanical saw inside the shop where Kleasen worked, and the missionaries' name tags were found with bullet holes shot through them inside his trailer.
6. The victim's bodies were never found, and prosecutors alleged that Kleasen had used the mechanical saw to cut up the bodies before burying the remains of the young men.
7. In 1977, after spending three years on Death Row, his conviction was overturned on appeal after evidence from the trial was judged inadmissible because an illegal search warrant had been carried out during the initial investigation.
8. He relocated to New York, and was imprisoned again on assault charges.
9. It was during his time in prison that he struck up a friendship with Barton-upon-Humber woman and policeman's widow, Marie Longley, through a pen pal scheme.
10. In 1990, Kleasen left his home country to start a new life with Marie in the North Lincolnshire town, on Whitecross Street.
11. The couple married within just four months - but his new wife "knew nothing" about his past.
12. Kleasen had told her he was a prison teacher - and not an inmate - a Korean war veteran and CIA operative, among other things.
13. Kleasen and his wife Marie Longley spoke in the 2003, Channel 4 documentary The Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre producer and director Andrew Mackenzie-Betty said: "Kleasen had struck up an unlikely pen pal correspondence from prison with a policeman’s widow, Marie Longley from Barton. "She knew nothing about his conviction, believing his story that he was a prison teacher and war hero. On his release, Kleasen found himself hounded by the US
This month marks 20 years since Robert Kleasen's death - he is thought to have murdered two men in Texas in 1974 and chopped up their bodies with a mechanical saw - his conviction was overturned and he moved to Barton-upon-Humber. Kleasen, who was born in 1948, had a troubled childhood and was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. He was also known to have a violent streak and was convicted of murdering two men in 1974. Kleasen was originally sentenced to death but his conviction was overturned on appeal and he was given a life sentence. He was released from prison in 1995 and moved to Barton-upon-Humber, where he lived under the name of John Barton. Kleasen died in 2006, aged 61.
Continue Reading at Source : grimsbytetelegraph