Gene Brown attacked two women and killed Tommy Smith

Considering their ages in 1991 and the ferocity of Brown's attacks, Kasey Johnson's and Jennifer Logsdon's sheer bravery and will to live have to be admired. I've never been in a situation anything like what the young ladies endured, but I'm not sure I'd have been as courageous. Perhaps it was adrenaline mixed with fear, but each fought off Gene Brown's violent assault and preserved their lives. Jennifer was able to disarms Brown in their struggle, but he recovered the knife and stabbed her mercilessly. Amazingly, Kasey broke the blade from the knife while fighting. Her throat was also cut, but then it was Kasey's intelligence to play dead that saved her life.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Portions of each of the female victim's 911 call were shared during the episode's first segment. First, Kasey is heard on the phone with a 911 operator, trying to quietly provide vital information to summon help quickly:

Kasey: I need the cops.
911: I can't hear you.
Operator: She needs the cops.
911: What's going on?
Kasey: We have an intruder.
911: Huh?
Kasey: Intruder.
911: An intruder?

Next, from a neighbor's house, Jennifer is heard pleading with dispatchers to send aid:

Jennifer: I can't move, My, my, my throat is slit. I've lost a lot of blood.

The majority of the YouTube commenters were critical of the 911 operator. The sentiments ranged from frustration to anger, and I even inferred a death threat. The anonymity of internet comments provides liberties for some pessimistic people to share their bitterness. Only by hearing the call in its entirety can we begin to assess the effectiveness of the operator (and a potential need for better training as multiple commenters suggested).

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

There were a few YouTube comments offering unsolicited advice to victims who might find themselves in a similar situation. One suggestion mentioned Kasey's attempt to hide and call 911 was "ineffective", and if she or Jennifer helped Tommy fight off their attacker, they may've saved Tommy's life. Of course this advice doesn't factor in reality – these were young, frightened women. They'd just been awoken to the sudden violent commotion; they had no time to consider and strategize. Thankfully, a good number of comments were simple praise for Tommy Smith's bravery in helping save Kasey's and Jennifer's lives.

Similarities to other Forensic Files cases

Several key items in this episode had distinct correlations to other cases examined in Forensic Files. For example, start with Gene Brown's proclaimed motivation for wanting to break into his neighbor's house that July evening. Brown told police he had done crack cocaine earlier, before having dinner with his family. Then after going to bed, he was motivated to buy and smoke more crack. For this he needed money, and he figured to two young women next to him would make an easy target for robbery. It was also his addiction to crack cocaine that led James Whipple to murder Heather Stigliano in South Carolina. Both Tommy Smith's and Heather Stigliano's murders occurred in 1991, and Jennifer and Heather were approximately the same age. Forensic Files first aired Pressed for Crime (s12e13) four years after this episode.

The savagery of Gene Brown's attacks on Jennifer Logsdon and Kasey Johnson utterly dehumanized him. Stabbing and cutting each woman's throat in a selfish attempt to silence witnesses made Brown no better than a rabid dog. This same barbarity and seeming loathing for women reminded me of Mark Eskridge's sexual assault and attempted murder of Kaye Robinson. Despite a 3-hour ordeal ending in Kaye being stabbed over 25 times and having her throat cut, she managed to survive this animal's brutal assault. The episode Smiley Face (s13e21) documents Kaye Robinson's overwhelming will to survive and ultimately see her assailant behind bars for life plus twenty years.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Finally, identifying a perpetrator via ridge detail from his foot reoccurs in Forensic Files. A footprint on the party invitation from Jennifer and Kasey's house was matched to Gene Brown the morning after his vicious assault and murder. In 2000, Christina Sanoubane was found murdered in her bathtub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her neighbor Carlos Robinson was initially identified when his feet were found to have left multiple footprints, with some of the ridge detail actually in hamburger buns he'd stepped on. The case was described in Purebread Murder (s14e01), and Robinson got life in prison without parole. Another correlation: Carlos Robinson had also cut Christina Sanoubane's throat.

The rapid investigation points to Gene Brown

A violent fight where the assailant is stabbed and cut enough times that he succumbs to blood loss and dies. Two additional violent assaults on young women who are each stabbed and have their throats cut. And, NO ONE in the suburban neighborhood hears anyone screaming? As hard as this is to believe, police's initial interviews among Logsdon and Johnson's neighbors revealed just this. And no one hearing anything alarming means no one came outside. It was no wonder Gene Brown was able to make his way back home without seeing spotted by witnesses or police. He knew his third victim Kasey Johnson had been on the phone with the police. He believed he'd already killed the first two witnesses, Tommy Smith and Jennifer Logsdon. So he quickly (and unsuccessfully) tried to kill Kasey, grabbed her purse and the broken knife blade, and made his escape.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The police seemed to buy Brown's story that he'd cut himself on broken glass while taking out the garbage earlier in the evening. Used to explain blood on the screen door, his leg wound and glass inside the trash bag were enough to corroborate this version of events. But through their course of initially investigating a potential suspect, did police examine Brown's hands at the time? Assailants armed with a knife often cause self-injury during an attack. Sometimes a stab hits hard material, such as bone, causing the knife to stop abruptly. The hand continues forward with the force, and the inside of the attacker's palm or fingers are cut. Also, after repeated cuts and stabs, the perpetrator's hand and weapon become slippery with blood, also easily causing the knife to slip. But, perhaps the socks on Brown's hands prevented these types of wounds.

And the police didn't dismiss Gene Brown just because he could account for the blood on his door. Other suspicions led police to seek and obtain a warrant to search Brown's home. These must have been compelling, because it seemed to only take hours before police were back and combing Brown's home and person for additional evidence. The video from the search was timestamped July 19, 1991 and just after noon. And it took investigators very little time to uncover enough damning evidence to convince Brown to confess: The bent knife blade, bloody socks, one of which contained his wedding ring, a victim's purse, and tiny flecks of blood in Brown's hair were more than enough physical evidence to convince authorities they'd identified their culprit.

Gene Brown's selfish choices and downfall

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Police were likely keeping an eye on Gene Brown to make sure he didn't try to dispose of any potential evidence while they obtained their search warrant. Otherwise, one would think Brown would've gathered the socks, purse, and blade to either hide or destroy. But he could have at least taken a shower to wash the victims' blood from his hair.

During his interrogation and confession, wrappings can be seen around Brown's wrists. The episode didn't reference these, but is it possible Brown inflicted self-harm at some point – made a vague attempt at suicide by cutting his wrists? Sometimes to garner sympathy, self-serving perpetrators like Brown will do just this – act like they're in mental or emotional distress in an attempt to humanize themselves in the eyes of the investigators. But professional detectives are used to this tactic, and they don't fall for it.

Some of the language Brown used during his confession attempts to lessen his culpability in his atrocious attacks. While our episode's version has Brown smoking crack earlier in the evening and then getting up from bed to rob his neighbors, another version I read stated Brown had just smoked crack before targeting his victims. Either of these scenarios suggest that Gene Brown may have been impaired enough to not remember all the details of his actions that night, but the minimizing statements he makes after discussing the facts are frustrating.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

At about the 15:00 mark, Brown states, "I can't say I stabbed him [Tommy]. I don't know, we was struggling, it was more or less he was trying to get the knife and I was trying to keep the knife, and at the same time he was being cut." The phrase "he was being cut" is the most passive possible way Brown could understate the fact, "I intentionally and brutally cut and stabbed Tommy Smith." What a cop out! I can't stand when offenders try to diminish their role and somehow makes themselves seem less accountable for their violent actions. This reminded me of the dismissive way Bobby Joe Long described his series of violent rapes and murders with, "It's sad, what happened to them," in The Common Thread (s02e01).

Near the 19:35 mark, Brown again minimizes his responsibility with, "I don't know why this happened, but it did." But he knows exactly why "this happened".

What was Gene Brown's true motivation?

When discussing what motivated Gene Brown to break into the girls' house, Officer James Bridges clearly was not buying Brown's version. He told police that he'd simply planned to rob the young ladies – he wanted to break in quietly, steal money to buy more crack, and make a stealthy escape. But we know Brown would want to minimize his intentions just as he tried to downplay his actions. The fact that he didn't wear any disguise and that he went into the victims' house armed told Bridges that Brown's true intentions were to commit rape and possibly murder. I'm not entirely convinced, though I certainly don't believe Brown's account.

Described above, maybe it comes down to whether Brown was actually looking for money to buy more drugs, or if he had just smoked crack before breaking in. Bare feet with socks on ones hands seem to indicate that he meant to be quiet and leave no fingerprints. This supports simple burglary. But arming himself with the knife can be interpreted multiple ways. And choosing to not wear a disguise when you know your victims can readily identify you (though they couldn't) describes a situation where Brown either intended to go wholly undetected, or be the only person to leave their house alive.

An uncertainty about the confrontation

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

I'm left with a lingering question about the case, triggered by a statement made by Officer Mike Johnson around the episode's 4:00 mark. In describing Tommy Smith's heroism, he states, "He took it upon himself to apprehend the suspect, put him in a chair, and stand over top of him – hold him there until police arrived." Which version of events was Officer Johnson describing? Tommy Smith may have had the upper hand on Gene Brown for a time, but Brown was not restrained "until police arrived", nor even long enough to prevent him from assaulting both female victims. Why the stark departure from the episode's narrative?

Finally, as a moderate fan of Stephen King's work, I'm curious: Which Stephen King movie did the young victims watch before going to bed that night?

Where is Gene Brown now in 2024?

This was a capital case, so Gene Brown avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to the murder of Tommy Smith and the attempted murders of Jennifer Logsdon and Kasey Johnson. He received a life sentence for the murder and another 30 years for each of the additional assaults. He also received an extra 15-year sentence for residential burglary. Gene Brown was (re)incarcerated on January 16, 1992 and is serving his sentence at the Western Illinois Correctional Center.