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Patterson and hite

Julius Patterson and Paulette Hite

Real Names: Julius Patterson and Paulette Hite
Aliases: Collete Hoop, Pauletta Price (Paulette)
Wanted For: Armed Robbery, Assault, Parole Violation, Questioning in Murders
Missing Since: September 1991

Case[]

Details: Thirty-eight-year-old convicted rapist Julius Patterson and his forty-four-year-old girlfriend, Paulette Hite, are wanted for questioning in the death of his twenty-six-year-old sister, Jessie Jean Patterson, and the disappearance of an eighty-six-year-old man named Hall Luther Gordon. On September 10, 1991, Detective Patricia “Pat” Brennan was stunned to receive not one, but three telephone calls from Julius. Those calls would launch one of the most bizarre and disturbing murder investigations the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has ever known.
Out of the blue, Julius confessed to a shocked Detective Brennan that he and Paulette had killed two people – one in 1986 and the other in 1988. Incredibly, he admitted that one of the victims was his own sister, Jessie. He even revealed where her body could be found. He said that Paulette was the one that killed Jessie, and that she continued to collect Jessie’s monthly disability payments after her death.
Detective Brennan says Julius was like “a man on a mission.” He was out to convince her and anyone else that would listen to him that what he had to say was real, and he was out to make the police act on it. With the urgency in his voice and the details of what he was saying to her, it made her feel that everything he was saying was the truth.
Detectives were immediately dispatched to the address Julius had given: a South Philadelphia row house in the 700 block of South Cleveland Street. The current resident had lived there for several months and had a difficult time believing there might be a body in the basement. The resident and the detectives hoped it would be a crank call. Julius told detectives to look for a discolored patch of cement on the basement floor. At the foot of the steps, under an old tattered carpet, they found an area that fit the description. But it remained to be seen what, if anything, might be buried beneath the floor.
At almost the same moment, Detective Brennan received another call from Julius. Earlier, he had said that Paulette could be found at a motel in New Jersey. Now, he was demanding to know if she had been arrested. He also wanted to know if Jessie’s body had been found. Detective Brennan told him that she did not know if Paulette had been arrested, and asked him to come to the station to make a statement. Once she confirmed to him that detectives were at the crime scene and that there were detectives en route to South New Jersey, he stated he would call back. He hung up, but he never called back.
Using sledge hammers and shovels, the anxious investigators began to excavate the row house’s basement floor. Soon, their worst fears were confirmed: bones were found wrapped in a sheet underneath the concrete. Julius had been telling the truth. Detective Dennis Dusak says that Julius has to be the worst type of person possible. He says it is mind-boggling to think that someone would want to kill their own sister. He had never seen that before in his entire police career, especially something that tragic.
Police soon learned that from 1984 to 1986, Julius, Paulette, and Jessie had lived together in the house. Other members of the Patterson family confirmed that Jessie had mysteriously vanished in July 1986. At around that same time, the couple was evicted from the house for not paying rent. Dental records and other testing later confirmed that the bones were Jessie’s. She had been born blind, deaf, mute, and mentally disabled. It is almost too horrible to imagine that Julius, who had been entrusted with her care after their father’s death, had murdered her, apparently as part of a devious scheme to cash in on her Social Security benefits.
But the investigation was just heating up. Julius had confessed to a second murder and had identified the victim as “Gordy.” He said that Paulette was collecting Gordy’s Social Security benefits as well. He also said that Gordy’s body would never be found.
Police eventually learned that during the 1980s, a man named Hall Luther Gordon, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, had also been under the care of Julius and Paulette. Though unlicensed, Paulette made her living by providing home care for the elderly. She had met Hall at a local boarding house. He was last seen in July 1988. At around the same time, his two caretakers moved away from the neighborhood.
Special Agent Steven Lang of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that both Jessie and Hall, for totally different reasons, were incapable of taking care of themselves and were completely at the mercy of the people that were entrusted with their care. Someone took advantage of their situations; Agent Lang notes that that in itself is not that unusual, unfortunately. But the fact that they went on to kill them, for no other reason than to increase their own wealth, made the case especially significant to investigators.
Pictures of Julius and Paulette were taken by a bank ATM camera in August and September 1991. Authorities believe that over a ten-year period, the pair may have stolen as much as $150,000 in Social Security checks from their victims, both before and after their murders. The couple were permitted to sign and cash checks for the victims. It was discovered that Jessie’s checks were being mailed to a post office box opened by Paulette in 1981. A few years later, Hall’s checks began being mailed to the same post office box.
FBI agent Richard Kane and Detective Dusak traced the missing fugitives to a motel on Route 130 in South New Jersey. They arrived only to discover that Julius and Paulette had moved out the week before. Agent Kane and Detective Dusak were able to track Paulette to another hotel down the road. They found that she had stayed there for a night or two under an assumed name and had left there hurriedly, abandoning her possessions. She and Julius were last seen in Philadelphia in September 1991. They robbed an old friend of the Patterson family at gunpoint and then promptly dropped from sight.
Julius is wanted for questioning regarding Jessie’s death and Hall’s disappearance. He is also wanted for armed robbery, assault, and parole violations. Paulette is wanted on charges of armed robbery and fraudulent receipt of Social Security payments. In February 1992, a warrant was issued for her arrest on these charges. She is also wanted for questioning regarding Jessie and Hall.
The police believe that some kind of dispute with Paulette prompted Julius to call them. However, they now feel the two have settled their differences and disappeared together.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the April 21, 1993 episode. It was re-aired on June 16, 1993, and was updated on November 17, 1993.
  • No photographs of either victim were shown during the broadcast.
  • Sources vary on: Jessie’s age (thirty-three, twenty-seven, or twenty-six); Paulette’s age (forty-two or forty-four); when Hall was last seen (1982, 1986, or 1988); who was caring for Jessie before Julius (either their mother or their father); and the relationship between Julius and Paulette (some say they were husband and wife).
Patterson hite arrested

Paulette and Julius after their arrests

Results: Captured - In June 1993, following a repeat broadcast of this story, a former employer of Paulette’s called the telecenter to report that she had been working in a fast food restaurant in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, under an assumed name. According to Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Joseph Witte, the employer gave them the Social Security number Paulette was using. The FBI tracked that number to a welfare recipient in New York City. FBI agents and the NYPD staked out the location where she was picking up her checks. When Julius and Paulette arrived at the location on June 22, they were both apprehended.
After his arrest, Julius led police to an empty warehouse at 12th Street and Glenwood Avenue in North Philadelphia, where he said he had left some of Hall’s dismembered remains. Police records confirm that some human bones were found buried there in November 1989. The police now believe that they were Hall’s remains. While in jail, Julius wrote a letter to police, saying that even more victims, including a woman he had killed in 1990, were buried in a field in North Philadelphia, near where Hall’s remains were found.
Three weeks later, on August 6, Julius was escorted by police to the area, promising to point out the exact locations of the other bodies. During the search, the unexpected happened. While behind the warehouse, he assaulted one of the detectives and knocked him down. He then ran down the adjacent railroad tracks and jumped off a ten-foot high railroad trestle onto the street below. He then escaped into a nearby neighborhood. No other victims were found in the area; police believe he used that as a ruse to escape.
Three days later, on August 9, Julius was captured at an intersection in North Philadelphia. Julius’ brother called the Channel 10 news station, saying that Julius wanted to surrender to a reporter at 63rd Street and Lancaster Avenue. The station immediately called the police. As detectives were driving to that location, they spotted Julius standing at a bus stop. He was arrested without incident. When he was apprehended, he was wearing severed handcuffs concealed under a coat.
On August 18, Julius and Paulette were arraigned on charges of armed robbery and assault. In September, he was charged with Jessie and Hall’s murders. Police believe he strangled and/or smothered them both. Through a plea bargain, Paulette was charged only with armed robbery. She was sentenced to six years in prison and has since been released.
Paulette was scheduled to testify against Julius at his murder trial. At a preliminary hearing, she said that Julius physically abused both Jessie and Hall when they lived with them. She said that shortly before he told her that Jessie had died in their home, she had heard Jessie screaming. She also said she witnessed him wrapping Jessie’s body up in a sheet and dumping her in a hole in the basement. Furthermore, she said that Julius had dismembered Hall’s body, placing his head in a bucket of cement and taking other body parts out of the house in plastic bags.
In April 1994, Julius was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in the Social Security fraud. He was later convicted of robbery and escape, and given a sentence of twelve-and-a-half to twenty-five years in prison. In May 1995, he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in Jessie’s case and involuntary manslaughter in Hall’s. As part of the plea agreement, he was given a concurrent ten-to-twenty year sentence for Jessie’s murder and a two-and-a-half to five year sentence for Hall’s death.
In February 1996, Julius and another inmate tried to escape but were unsuccessful. He pleaded guilty to attempted escape and was given an additional two to five years in prison.
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