I know Halloween is over, but the eerie stories about a house near Flag Pole Hill continue to re-emerge.
On Oct. 31, we mentioned reports of scary vibes and happenings at the house, whose builder committed suicide by hanging from the inside balcony shortly after finishing the place.
Anyone who’s seen Amityville Horror knows that distraught spirits can linger and cause people to do horrific things — am I right? (No, but it makes for a good set up).
Neighborhood resident Brian Hart’s family lived in the house on Blackbird Lane for a while in the early 80s.
He reports a weird feeling that was always present, even before they knew about the house’s history.
The Harts didn’t stay too long and the next buyer, a lawyer named Jeffrey Licker, was in 1985 charged with a murder for hire.
Said murder, a violent bludgeoning, took place in a bedroom at the Blackbird Lane home.
According to an old Dallas Morning News story, a Richardson man and a Dallas woman were found beaten to death in a bedroom of the home near White Rock Lake/ Flag Pole Hill on Feb. 28, 1985.
Licker was convicted of hiring two men to kill 30-year-old Richardson man Koby Sandosky, whom he reportedly lured to the house with drugs.
The female victim was 22-year-old Lesia Kahl, a model and waitress who had posed in a “Girls of Texas” spread in Playboy published the same month she was killed. She apparently walked in on the murder in progress. Below is the full story
Police arrested a Dallas attorney Wednesday for allegedly arranging a murder-for-hire scheme that resulted in a double homicide at his Northeast Dallas home last month.
Jeffrey Licker, 29, was charged Wednesday night with investigation of capital murder and murder in the deaths of a Richardson man and a Dallas woman who were found beaten to death in a bedroom of his home in the 7800 block of Blackbird Lane near White Rock Lake on Feb. 28.
The victims were Koby Sandozsky, 30, an Israeli national living in Richardson, and Lesia Kahl, 22, a model and waitress.
Licker’s arrest completed a monthlong investigation and brought the number of men charged in the double murder to three, police said.
Raymond Hackman, 31, and Joel G. Arnold, 34, both of Dallas, were arrested March 2. Both men remained in Lew Sterrett Justice Center Wednesday; Hackman in lieu of $200,000 bond charged with two counts of murder and Arnold in lieu of $100,000 bond charged with one count of murder.
In an interview from Lew Sterrett Wednesday night, where he had been denied bond on the capital murder charge and been given $100,000 bond on the murder charge, Licker called the charges a “total travesty of justice,’ although he said he was not surprised at the arrest.
“I had an idea I might be arrested because of the confession of a murderer. It is quite obvious, based on the circumstances, the only reason the murderer is saying that is to get a reduced plea,’ Licker said referring to Hackman and Arnold.
Police had previously said Licker was not a suspect in the case, but homicide investigator J.J. Coughlin said interviews with associates of the tax attorney had revealed a murder-for-hire scheme linked to missing money and drugs.
Coughlin said Licker hired Hackman and Arnold through a third party to accost Sandozsky at his home and demand the man repay them for money and drugs the attorney believed Sandozsky had stolen from his home in November.
“(The) arrangement appeared to be to either collect money from the man or cause injury to him,’ Coughlin said.
Licker lured Sandozsky to the home “on the pretense of a drug deal,’ the investigator said.
Police believe Sandozsky was bludgeoned to death because of this arrangement and Ms. Kahl was killed when she stopped waiting for Sandozsky in a car outside the home and walked in on the slaying.
Licker said he had left his downstairs office in his home fearing for his safety after he heard “thumping’ noises overhead.
“I realized what was going on and was swift enough to get myself and the two ladies out before anything happened to us. I didn’t know I was saving my life or the girls’ at the time,’ he said.
Licker said he “had an idea’ of what the fight was about, but declined to elaborate on advice of his attorney, Edwin Sigel. He said he thought Sandozsky, a client and friend, was “just being beat up.’
Licker went to a bar where he and the women had several drinks and he called two friends to check on his house. The friends never got the chance, Licker said, because the police had already arrived.
“The woman driving had to be at an interview in the morning and wanted to go home. We drove back by the house and saw the police were there and had it under control. I was very sleepy and had had some drinks – I was in no condition to talk to the police,’ Licker said.
Licker said as soon as he heard about the murders on the radio the next morning, he went to the police and gave them a voluntary statement.
When asked if he hired Hackman and Arnold to murder Sandozsky and Ms. Kahl, Licker replied “certainly not.’
Licker said he has cooperated fully with authorities since the murder and was angry officers would place him “in the same jail with two men who want to murder me.’
