Case FileDaniel Johnson
Profile
| Full Name: | Daniel Todd Johnson | |
| Age: | 34 (1993), 59 (2018) | |
| Height: | 5'11 | |
| Weight: | 176 | |
| Hair: | Black | |
| Eyes: | Dark Brown | |
| Aliases: | Jed Olsen | The Ghost Face |
Notes from Dr. Natasha Butler,
Administrator at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally InsaneAlthough not much is known about this patient, these are the facts about his life and upbringing that we have learned, either through investigatory efforts back in 1993, or through Johnson, himself, during court proceedings. An effort has been made to substantiate all of Johnson's claims. However, some cannot be verified, or they simply land in the category of possible delusions.Johnson, who prefers to be called "Danny," was born in Mt. Pleasant, Utah in 1959. He is an only child. His family was one of a handful in the area that were not members of the Mormon faith.His mother, Margret, died from an untreated respiratory infection when he was about four years of age.His father, Todd, was a Vietnam Veteran, who served for two years before coming home and marrying Margret. Danny was born just a year later.As a single parent, Todd raised Danny as though he were training a soldier. He would have Danny do drills, would drop a penny on Danny's bed to make sure it was made properly, and would tell him his war stories, among other things. However, this is all Danny has divulged and he has not gone into specifics other than to say that the military training, as well as the stories, began not long after his mother's passing.When asked about his mother, he does not say much. He says he can barely remember her. Although that is entirely possible, given his young age at the time of her passing, as well as the abuse he suffered under his father, we cannot be certain that he is telling the truth, and some doctors who have spoken with him think that there is a possibility that Margret may just be a sore subject that he does not wish to discuss.Although I will not be discussing the details of Mr. Johnson's crimes, there is one that I feel is important to note here, as it was his first and the catalyst for all the rest.When Johnson was twenty-two, he went camping with his father. We know now that Danny killed Todd during that trip, but all that neighbors and the few friends that Todd had could say was that it was as though the two had simply vanished. Due to Todd's increasingly militaristic mindset, and apparent decline in his mental health as he got older, most did not think it was anything to be concerned about. They all assumed that Todd and Danny decided to live away from society.This is when Johnson reinvented himself and took on the alias of "Jed Olsen." He would live as Jed Olsen for the next eleven years, working for various newspapers, mostly covering stories about violent crime. We also now know that he was committing most of the murders that he reported on as he moved through numerous states.Now, I shall discuss the reason for his institutionalization in this facility, which was the grounds for his insanity defense.After his disappearance, following a confession letter he left on his editor's desk at the Roseville Gazette back in 1993, there is no accounting for his whereabouts from that time until the time he was discovered in an unconscious state last year. Just as mysteriously, Johnson, who is nearly sixty years old, still appears to be a thirty-four-year-old man.When questioned about his whereabouts throughout all these years, Johnson was reluctant to answer at first. However, in cooperation with the psychiatrists secured by both the court and his legal council, he eventually gave an answer.At first, he stated that he had been living in the woods, just how his father taught him whenever they would go camping together. However, although he mostly kept his story straight, when pressed for more details, he contradicted himself a couple of times. Furthermore, the area that Johnson claimed to have inhabited was searched and it was determined through a lack of evidence that Johnson was not being truthful.Upon further pushing, Johnson provided a different answer. According to Johnson, he was taken to a different realm where he was given the task of hunting and killing people over and over again in service to a being he refers to as "The Entity." When asked what he did with the bodies of these people that he hunted (in case there were more victims for law enforcement to find) he stated that there were no bodies because he killed the same people over and over again.Unlike his original answer, his statements on this "Entity" and its realm have been consistent, as though he truly believes that this is what happened to him.More on this subject can be seen in the doctors' notes, particularly Doctors Jane Olivera and Paul Brown, who were the evaluating doctors for Johnson's trial.
Murder Timeline
| State | Confirmed | Years |
|---|---|---|
| UT | 1 | 1981 |
| CO | 6 | 1983 |
| IA | 8 | 1984 |
| IL | 7 | 1985 |
| KY | 10 | 1985-1986 |
| OH | 8 | 1987 |
| PA | 16 | 1988 |
| MD | 11 | 1989 |
| NC | 9 | 1990 |
| GA | 7 | 1991 |
| FL | 18 | 1993 |
| Total: 101 |
Doctors' Notes
It should be noted that this is only a small sample of the numerous doctors who have tried to speak with Johnson. To date, there have been ten. These were the doctors he spoke to for any length of time that would make their inclusion noteworthy.
Dr. Jane Olivera, Psychiatric Expert for the Defense
I was brought on board to assess Mr. Johnson's mental state ahead of and during his trial. When I first met him, my impression of him was that he is an intelligent and clever man. However, he was also clearly troubled. He had wanted to put in a guilty plea, but due to his reasoning (that he wanted the death penalty), Judge Calloway ordered that he undergo psychiatric evaluations before he would even consider accepting such a plea.As we continued our sessions, it became easier to see why nobody would suspect him. He told me of his "Jed Olsen" persona, and we had a full session in which I spoke to him as Jed, to better get an understanding of the character he had played for so long.Where Danny is self-admittedly cynical, Jed tried to find compassion in the world. Where Danny scoffs at "small town life," Jed values suburban hometown simplicity.I will admit, I was skeptical of what Danny was telling me when he first spoke of "The Entity's Realm." I thought, perhaps, he was trying to make a joke of the judicial system (a concern that Judge Calloway echoed when this was first presented to the court), or that, maybe, he had had a change of heart about wanting "to be sent to the chair." However, unlike his story of hiding in the woods for all those years, Mr. Johnson never wavered a single time in his description of the Realm and everything that he said happened there. He never once seemed as though he were looking for the next thing to say.After several sessions, and lengthy discussions with him, I am (and remain) of the strong belief that Mr. Johnson truly believes that the Entity and its Realm are real. I believe that, in his mind, he was truly there and carried out all those "trials" for the Entity.My assessment, which I testified to, is that Mr. Johnson might have felt all along that he was in service to this greater being, but the stress of being on the run painted a more vivid picture for him. His victims were these "Survivors" that he talks about. His careful planning was all to craft the perfect sacrifices to this spider god.
Dr. Paul Brown, Psychiatric Expert for the Prosecution
My learned colleague, Dr. Olivera, and I agree on a couple of things regarding Danny Johnson. For example, we agree that he is intelligent. We agree that he is resourceful. We also agree that he is quite skilled at manipulating and fooling people.That is where our agreement on Mr. Johnson ends.Mr. Johnson sought the death penalty because he couldn't bear the idea of spending the rest of his life in prison. That seems fairly straightforward at first blush. However, the reason he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison is that he feared it would damage his legacy. He would have gone from a "legend," who mysteriously vanished without a trace and could return at any point, to a man sitting in a jail cell.It is my belief that, when he realized he wouldn't be getting his way, he decided to make up some fantastical story to keep people talking about him and debating on him for a long time.Unfortunately, it seems to have worked.
Dr. Terrence Bishop
Mr. Johnson allowed me to interview him for an article I was writing.In the two sessions I had with him, I found myself wondering quite often what he was thinking. However, I learned quickly that he didn't respond to direct approach.If not for the chains and the guard outside the room, I'm not entirely convinced that he wouldn't have attacked me. I was so unnerved in our second session that I decided against forging ahead with the final one.It's difficult to explain. It wasn't so much anything he said or did. It was more a sense that he wasn't altogether there with me. It was something in his eyes.
Dr. Rachel Merrick
My primary focus was to attempt to discuss Mr. Johnson's family with him. I wanted to see if we could pin down a specific moment when something set off in his mind that would later put him on the path he followed. He exhibited no signs of psychopathy in his early life (at least according to him). He has no history of harming animals, for example. He has even mentioned holding a degree of sympathy for them. It might not be a large degree, but it's more consideration than he has for human beings.We discussed his mother. Or, at least, I attempted to broach the subject. However, Mr. Johnson claims to have little recollection of her. His exact words to me were, "What happened, happened. What's the point of dwelling on it?" And that was the end of that line of questioning.It was when we discussed his father that I believe I found that moment that I had been looking for. Once again, he didn't give me much, but he told me about the moment he killed his father. How he had wished he could have given him a proper sendoff, but he guessed he had too much bottled up inside of him that he wasn't aware of and it all came out at once.
Dr. Frederick Chilton
Since his arrest, I had been interested in the mind of the Ghost Face. I wanted to learn more about him. I wanted to tell his story.Things seemed to go well at first, and we had some lengthy conversations in our first few meetings. I believed that I had fostered an environment of mutual trust and consideration.However, we came to a stalemate during one of our last sessions together, and Danny took to mocking and otherwise juvenile behavior towards me.Needless to say, the opinion of him that I formed is that he is woefully ordinary and needs to create delusions of grandeur to feel any self worth. Therefore, I will not feed into it by making him the subject of my next book.Additionally, I have given Dr. Butler a recommendation or two of other psychiatrists that might actually get Mr. Johnson to open up.
As promised, this is part of the transcript from my first meeting with him.