Panama City: "Wild Bill," a suspected US
serial killer accused of killing at least five people in
Panama, openly admired Adolf Hitler and wanted to set up a
church for drunks and lead it as pope, witnesses say.
William Datham Holbert, 31, was locked up along with his
wife, Laura Michelle Reese, 27, in separate facilities in
Panama yesterday.
They had allegedly made friends with wealthy US citizens
and offered to buy their property before killing them and
burying them in the garden of their hostel on the Bocas del
Toro Atlantic archipelago.
They then took over their property deeds.
The symbol for their property, "Villa Cortez," included a
skull.
"Wild Bill" used a pseudonym, William Adolfo Cortez
Reese, but was known by his nickname.
"The man is a racist who defended white supremacy," said
Donald Winner, a tourism professional based in Panama who
persuaded authorities to start a probe.
"He thinks that whites are better and that the
descendants of Afro-Americans, blacks, cancer or AIDS
sufferers, for example, have to die."
"Wild Bill" told his friends that he was setting up a
church and that he would be its first pope, Winner said.
"He made a kind of church in his bar: 'The First Temple
of Drunks,' and he was, supposedly, the first pope. He
actively sought people he could dominate and manipulate."
Winner's suspicions were raised after American Cheryl
Linda Hughes disappeared in March.
"The first time I heard of the case was on June 29, when
friends of 'Cher' called me to say that people had disappeared
at Bocas del Toro," said the former US army officer.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 23:32