5. Charlene Gallego
Charlene Gallego was born in Sacramento in 1956 and grew up with wealthy parents. By high school, she started drinking heavily and bragged about having a black lover, and her parents grew concerned for her. Eventually she married a rich man with a heroin habit, and begged him to have a threesome with a woman. He denied and they argued over it. Charlene started using large amounts of cocaine, and her first two marriages and parents’ constant intervention failed as a result. She then met Gerald Gallego and the two fell in love.
They rented a house together and one day Gerald brought home a sixteen year old. The three had a threesome but he ordered the women not to touch each other. The next day he found the Charlene and the teenager having sex and threw the girl out the window. Charlene pleaded with him and eventually the couple agreed on having sex slaves. They lured lured young teenagers into their vans, promising they could make money delivering flyers. The couple raped a total of 10 victims before killing them and disposing their bodies in abandoned rural areas.
Charlene often watched Gerald rape the victims until he was satisfied; afterwards, he shot them. He also forced Charlene to perform sexual acts with the slaves for his pleasure.
Sandra Colley and Brenda Judd were the couple’s youngest slaves, at ages thirteen and fourteen. The teenagers were listed as runaways before Charlene confessed to their murders during Gerald’s trial. Their last victim was a couple whose friends wrote down Gerald’s license plate number. After they went missing, the police caught them.
Gerald was tried for murder in California and Nevada, and Charlene testified against him. In exchange for her testimony, she was not tried and received a sentence of sixteen years. Gerald was sentenced to death and died of rectal cancer in 2002. Charlene was released from prison in 1997.
