NOVEMBER NOVEL STORY
IDEA 8
THE MAGICIAN:
THE KILLER WHO MADE WOMEN
DISAPPEAR
Robert Porter West compared himself to the actor Lon Chaney;
with each new face he took on a new name and a new identity. What he could not
change were his fingerprints.
One newspaper reporting on a possible serial killer in the Midwest
labeled the killer the Chameleon because he changed his appearance and identity
with each new woman who disappeared. Another news outlet called him the Actor
because he played different parts. The task force hunting him called him the
Magician, because he made women disappear.
The Department of Justice’s National Missing and
Unidentified Persons database reports over 600,000 persons missing each year. A
quarter of a million cases involve women and girls often connected to violence
by men. Even when there is evidence of foul play, a missing person case takes
on less importance until there is a body.
In 2023, a fortune teller in a traveling carnival was
reported missing. Investigators found evidence of foul play, but her body was
not found. Two days later, a high school teacher, Robert Westport, was listed
as missing by his fiancé, Ginny Hagland. According to Miss Hagland, she and
Robert had their fortunes told by the missing gypsy.
Fingerprints found in the missing woman’s trailer were sent
to the FBI’s National Crime Database; several matches were found in the
identity theft section: Robert Porter West, Billy Bob Porter, Wes Roberts, and
Bob West. Robert Westport’s name was added to the database’s identity theft
list.
Robert Porter West was fingerprinted in 2011 when his high school
girlfriend, Helen Gale, disappeared. Robert was questioned and released.
Bob West was one of two students attending Western Michigan
University who were reported missing in 2013. West worked as a student disc
jockey at WMU’s radio station. Twenty-one-year-old Mariam Ingles was a senior
in communications. She was a reporter on the school’s newspaper. West and
Ingles disappeared on the same day. It was believed that they had run off
together.
In 2016, B.B. Porter disappeared from his job as a
photographer and cub reporter with the Bloomington Star, in Bloomington,
Illinois. Porter’s disappearance coincided with the disappearance of Constance
Blackwell, a publicist and social media specialist working in Normal, Illinois.
Wes Roberts worked as a writer in an Indianapolis public
relations firm. He disappeared in 2019, two days after a report was filed for Deana
Bailey, a high school teacher who failed to show up for class.
In photographs Robert Porter West, Bob West, B.B. Porter,
Wes Roberts, and Robert Westport looked different. They had unique physical
descriptions and backgrounds, with different occupations and skills. What tied
them together in the database was that their fingerprints matched.
The fact that the disappearance of a woman or girl was
connected to each of these men was not realized until one of Robert Porter West’s
“victims” reappeared.
