Psychopathic Sniper Hunted In 2 Slayings

Help Find Couple’s Killer, Public Asked

Police said yesterday a young sailor and his bride may have been shot to death by a psychopathic killer.

Because the sniper slayer may still be at large in San Diego, Police Chief Wesley S. Sharp requested the public to help find the slayer. The couple was killed Wednesday night in Ocean Beach.

“Everything in the investigation of this double murder points to a psychopathic killer,” Sharp said. “We need all the help we can get from the public to locate the killer and his weapon.”

SNIPER MOVES IN

Detectives said the two were first shot from a distance. Then they said, the sniper moved in close to fire fatal shots in the head with a .22-caliber weapon.

The victims were Johnny R. Swindle, 20, and his blonde bride, Joyce Ann, 19, of 5073 Voltaire St.

NEAR SEA

They were found on what is called a patio area of the Silver Spray apartments at 5116 Narragansett Ave., overlooking the sea. She was dead. He died two hours later in a hospital.

An open box of Valentine’s Day candy was found on a ledge above her body. Detective Inspector O. J. Roed said Swindle had bought the candy for his bride at an Ocean Beach store 20 minutes before they were slain.

Last night 15 detectives headed by Lt. Raymond Hoobler, continued the search for weapons and clues. Hoobler was called into the investigation after recently being promoted to lieutenant and transferred from homicide to the narcotics detail.

BULLET IN HEAD

An autopsy revealed Mrs. Swindle died instantly when a bullet struck her in the back of the head. Other bullets had hit her under the left arm and in the left side of the back.

Swindle was hit in the left ear, right upper temple, left thigh and left side of the back.

Seven .22-caliber bullets were found in the bodies of the two, and seven empty .22-caliber shell cases were found at the scene.

Five casings were found 50 feet up the cliff from the area where the victims were found. Two other casings were near the bodies.

These shell casings gave police some indication of how the couple was slain. Detectives said the sniper fired five shots from the cliff. Then the sniper approached and at close range fired fatal wounds into the heads.

“It is a possibility they were killed by someone they never knew,” Homicide Lt. William Schenck said. “The landlady where they lived said they had no visitors since they moved in, and were a quiet couple.”

The couple were married in Alabama Jan. 18 and were honeymooning here awaiting his reporting for duty aboard the radar picket ship Chevalier DDE805, now in Bremerton, Wash. They lived a week at 5073 Voltaire St. nine blocks from where they were shot.

Police homicide investigative teams concentrated all night and through yesterday on Ocean Beach for clues and for the missing weapon.

Detective Capt. Edwin De Bolt said relatives of the victims in Jasper, Ala., reported they knew of no enemies of the couple.

The relatives said Swindle married the girl next door whom he had known eight years, and they left five days after their wedding for San Diego, arriving here Jan. 29.

PHOTO CAPTION

Navy Radioman 3.C. Johnny R. Swindle, 19, and his wife, Joyce, 19, were slain by a sniper on cliff at foot of Narragansett Avenue.