We all have crazy stories from when we were little. When my brother and I were little, we went trick-or-treating and ended up at a house where everyone was tripping on acid and almost ran us over with their car. Shit happens, you know?
But reporter Jamilah King‘s story is so much more haunting than most people’s stories, and it’s stayed with her forever: when she was a kid, she met a famous serial killer.
Hi. I have a story to tell about meeting a serial killer. It's nuts. But it's true. So here goes.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Honestly, it started out as a pretty standard day for her.
It was the spring of 1997. I was in the sixth grade.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Every day after school, I'd go to the park by my house, the Panhandle, to play basketball.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
One day after school, the park was more empty than usual. I usually practiced on the half courts. But the full court was open, so I was pumped.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Except she started to feel a little off when she realized someone was watching her as she played.
So I'm there, doing my best MJ impression. And then I notice this guy who's watching me.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
He's older than me, an adult, but still pretty young. He's wearing a long dark green coat. He's standing on the sideline, between the park's grass and the court.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
I tried to just ignore him. If you know the Panhandle in SF, you know that there are always characters lurking around, sketchy, but not dangerous.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Besides, I was really pumped about having this full court to myself and I didn't wanna give it up quite yet.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
But dude keeps staring. Soon, he walks from the sideline and stands beneath the basket. Now, I'm annoyed. But when I look at him, he looks…sad.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Even though she was only 11, she knew something was seriously up with this man, so she did what anyone would do: she ran.
But I'm not an idiot. So I start to gather my things to leave.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Then he stops me. "Hey, you're really good," he says. I mutter a thank you and walk toward my bike, which is on the ground a few feet away.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Then he calls toward me, "You should keep practicing." I'm almost at my bike and fo some reason I'd turned around. Not sure if I was curious, or irritated, or what.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
And then he's like, "here's a dollar."
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Ah, the oldest trick in the book. Every child is told not to take things from strangers because, duh, they’re probably going to kidnap and murder you.
Now, 11-year-old me knows better than to take anything from a stranger.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
And this dude is super sketchy.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
But also, hey, she was a kid, and she had other things on her mind, too.
But a dollar is also real American currency, enough to buy two Baby Ruths.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Should I ignore the dude and go on about my business?
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
I mean, every adult has always told me my whole life that taking things from a stranger is dangerous because that person could be a serial killer.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
But also sugar is a thing that I like, and a dollar would allow me to buy said sugar.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
So in a matter of moments, I'm doing the math in my head: Yes, I could die in this empty ass park.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
But there are two major streets on either side of the park, Fell on one side, Oak on the other. If he tries something, someone will hear me scream, right?
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
In the end, she made her decision.
Anyway, I run up and take the dollar from the dude, barely looking at him. And then I hop on my bike and speed away.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
But she survived, right? That’s what really matters here. Overall, the experience wasn’t that horrible… right?
I don't think much of it until months later, when I see that there's a manhunt for some guy who's going on this cross-country murder spree.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
And then on the news, there's his mugshot. It's the same guy who gave me a dollar. His name is Andrew Cunanan.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
For those of you who don’t know who Andrew Cunanan is, he was the serial killer who killed at least five people, including famed fashion designer Gianni Versace. In fact, there’s a TV show airing about him right now called The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
Of course, no one actually believed her when she tried to tell them she’d met that very same man months ago.
So now I'm freaking out. And I do what all 11-year-old's do in cases of emergencies: I tell my friends.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
I remember being in the yard at Roosevelt Middle School, and telling the homies: "yooooo! i met that serial killer dude on the news. he gave me a dollar and told me i was good at basketball!"
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Of course, no one believed me.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
But even though no one would believe her story, no one could forget it, either.
To this day, they still think I'm making this shit up. When I heard about the new Versace movie, I texted one of my best friends, a woman I've known since we were sixth graders.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Her response: pic.twitter.com/I9uRjpUC4R
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
There’s a moral to this story somewhere in there, I think.
So anyway, I guess the moral of the story is this: believe your friends when they tell you crazy shit happens or else they will put you on blast via twitter cc @dreab839
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Oh, and also: I think I did buy that Baby Ruth and it was probably delicious because Baby Ruth's always are and I am about all of the men that Cunanan killed and RIP Versace. The end.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
Anyway, a lot of people agreed that, looking at the timeframe, her story checks out.
This is a fascinating thread. And the timing makes me wonder if Cunanan was mid-spree when this happened. For over a month no one had any idea where he was. https://t.co/oOxmDSA0vN
— STEVE HUFF (@SteveHuff) January 18, 2018
I haven't looked super closely at the timeline in years, but I do know that he was in San Francisco for a while, and went off from there.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
He was off the grid so much—had a striking ability to elude capture. Your story makes me wonder if he gave off a weird vibe to others all his life. Some people just don't sense that, or they think it's just them.
— STEVE HUFF (@SteveHuff) January 18, 2018
It’s crazy, honestly, to think that you may have run across a serial killer in your lifetime and you had no idea. If not for that news coverage, Jamilah would have been clueless about who she’d encountered.
I guess the real moral of the story is this: only take the dollar if you know you can outrun them. Actually, just don’t take the dollar. Somehow, I don’t think the Baby Ruths are worth it. 
