Tommie Myles: The Second Victim of Jesse Anderson

On April 20, 1992, 18-year-old Tommie Myles and his girlfriend were filling out applications at Northridge Mall during the morning. The Milwaukee native was about to graduate from Shorewood High School and was about to start his first year of college at UW-Milwaukee.

Despite racial tensions that existed in Milwaukee during the time, Myles’ family kept him sheltered from the indifference going on in the city and made sure he was protected as he transitioned to adulthood.

While they were filling out job applications, a white man came and approached them under the pretense of buying something from random shoppers as part of a job interview.

“I remember looking for a job. I was unemployed at the time, and I was looking for a job at Northridge Mall,” Myles said in an interview.

“It was me and my girlfriend at the time. We were collecting all the applications we could through the mall, and we went to the food court to fill them all out. While we’re sitting in the food court, we are filling out the applications. A white guy pulls up and says, ‘Hey, you guys are filling out applications for a job?’ I’m like, ‘yeah.'”

The man continued, Myles recalled: “I am too. One of the jobs has me going out into the mall and just randomly selecting people to buy something from as part of the interview process. So I want to buy your hat, can I buy your hat for $20?”

The teen, who was only paid $14 for the Los Angeles Clippers hat and needed the extra money, agreed. The pair then proceeded to use the extra money at Taco Bell inside the food court.

The man was a 34-year-old Cedarburg native named Jesse Michael Anderson.

On April 21, the next day, Anderson took his wife Barbara out to the movies at the same mall to see City of Joy before taking her out to eat appetizers at TGI Friday’s near the mall. After dinner around 10:15 p.m., Anderson stabbed his wife 21 times in the face, head and upper body. He then stabbed himself in the chest four times, although one wound was superficial. He claimed that two Black men had assaulted the couple and that he knocked off the hat of one of the assailants. The hat presented to police was a Los Angeles Clippers hat.

Both were taken to the hospital. Barbara, who was in a coma, died from her wounds two days later after Anderson told the hospital to take her off life support at age 33.

The crime turned out to be one of the most heinous crimes to date in the state of Wisconsin. Tommie Myles has never given his point of view of the events that took place before and after the deadly deed took place.

Myles unknowingly became a victim of a horrible crime.

“He was pretty convincing,” said Myles, describing his infamous encounter with Jesse Anderson. “I mean now look in retrospect; I’m like, ‘What kinds of jobs sent you out on a mission to buy something randomly from somebody in a mall?’ but it was the mall and malls are pretty unique in how they handle their interview processes if that’s the case.”

“He seemed to be a middle-aged dude because his ceiling was missing on his hair–you know he had the George Jefferson going on with the hair on the sides and whatnot. I should’ve thought, ‘Dude, you look too old to be looking for a job at the mall,’ but whatever. He didn’t seem very intimidating. I’m assuming that I’ve had this demeanor all my life, so I felt safe for him, to come up and approach me on some sh*t like that. He seemed like a normal white guy. I was broke so it was a full $20 in my pocket.”

Northridge Mall opened in 1973. It was anchored by popular stores such as Boston Store, Younkers, Sears, and JCPenney’s; many restaurants in its food court including Taco Bell, Wong’s Wok, and even a Chick-fil-a; and a movie theater originally with three screens updated to six screens. Many people attributed this crime to the decline and closure of Northridge Mall.

During the 1980s, many people in Milwaukee began moving to the Brown Deer area close to Northridge Mall. Racial tensions became high in the area as more Blacks moved to the Brown Deer area. Many whites fled to different suburban areas, an act called “White flight.”

Blacks in turn had a sour relationship with many whites and the Milwaukee Police Department, in particular, because of an event the year prior in which a white Milwaukee police officer gave a minor victim back to serial killer Jeffery Dahmer despite the pleas of three Black women. The arrest of Dahmer could have saved the lives of Dahmer’s last four victims. The Anderson case occurred against the backdrop of the city’s racial history.

Jesse Anderson’s Early Years

Jesse Michael Anderson was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1957 in a middle-class neighborhood. His father died during his early teen years, and his mother later remarried. According to a study done on the case, Anderson and his stepfather did not get along. Anderson assaulted his stepfather and also committed small crimes during this time. Soon after his high school graduation, Anderson left town.

After getting married and divorced in the 1980s. Anderson married his next wife, Barbara E. Lynch, in 1985. The couple moved to Wisconsin in 1986, settling in Cedarburg, a little over 20 miles north of Milwaukee. Jesse was a well-respected businessman at Lakeside Oil Co. who had recently lost a close election for city council, and Barbara left her job to take care of the couple’s three children.

Those who knew Anderson described him as a family man with an “ideal” marriage, but letters written by Barbara showed that Anderson abused Barbara; he even threw a knife at her while she was holding their child. After having their third child, Anderson ridiculed Barbara for her weight gain. The Andersons went on a trip to Jamaica the month before the murder in which Barbara confided how miserable she was during the whole trip.

When word got out about the attack on the Andersons, the media went into a local frenzy. Being the typical white middle-class suburban family, the Andersons were relatable victims of an area where fear was slowly developing towards Northridge Mall. Local radio hosts warned the public about the dangers of Northridge and many people interviewed simply blamed the crimes on people “moving north.” A cartoon was even created to play on the fact that Black gang members had assaulted a white couple. Many people were on edge after the attack with, many people on the lookout for Black assailants who fit the description of being at the scene of the crime.

Then came the Clippers hat that was presented by Anderson at the scene of the crime, the same hat he had bought from Myles the day before. Accompanied was a knife that Anderson used to kill Barbara.

“I believe it was the day after that, Crimeline Anonymous had done their little feature on Fox 6 or whatever it was called back then, and they would have a ‘Hey we’re looking for this suspect’ kind of feature on their show, and this time they had talked about the murder that happened and the items that were left behind which was a knife and baseball cap,” said Myles. “I happened to be watching TV with my girlfriend at the time at her house, and they showed the picture of the knife, and it showed the picture of the hat, which was my hat.”

At the time, according to Myles, Los Angeles Clippers gear was rarely seen in Milwaukee.

“And I remember the hat because I was a Los Angeles Clippers fan. Not wholeheartedly, but I was just following them because they were, you know, they’re not the most successful franchise in history, but at that moment, they had like Danny Manning, Larry Brown was their coach, they had Ron Harper,” Myles said.

“They had a squad. I was like, I like the Clippers so I bought a Clipper hat, and I saw that hat and I was like, ain’t nobody in Milwaukee got a Clipper hat, and that was my hat. So I called Crimeline anonymous and said, ‘Hey, I believe that’s my hat.’ And they were like, ‘Hey, so can you come down for the questions?’ I’m like, ‘Sure, I’ll come down to answer some questions.’ So after that, I called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I was watching TV, and they got my hat,’ and she was like ‘Don’t call the police.’”

Myles had already informed police that the hat seen on TV was his hat. The police then told Myles to come down to the police station.

“I went down there, and so this is when it all started, so to answer your question, and it all started there because they took samples of my hair from my head, they pulled hair out of of my hat on my head to match that hair in the hat…and I was pretty low-key at that point,” said Myles. “My girlfriend at the time was low-key, but my parents were keeping me isolated from any news reporters. So, anybody who came to the house, wherever, they kept them at bay. They didn’t let them talk to me, and so nobody even knew who I was. I was pretty much incognito until they went to my girlfriend’s house.”

Myles’ then girlfriend however had invited police over to her house. There she told the police more information about Myles and provided a picture of him that was soon plastered all over the news.

“I was ironically wearing a Brewers Jersey in the picture because it was my senior picture, and I bought a Milwaukee Brewers jersey to take my senior picture,” said Myles, “but that was the picture that was plastered all over the news. So at that point, they knew exactly who I was, and then they started to locate me and find me at my house. So they started coming to my house. I was scared for my life. Because now I feel like a murderer knows that I exist, and I am out there testifying against him, and I kind of went into hiding a little bit. Broke up with the girlfriend, because I just kind of just laid low. I went, you know, just went into hiding for a minute, which eventually turned me into going to Grambling State University. I left the city.”

Unknown to the public, the police already suspected Anderson murdered his wife. He changed his story multiple times, his wounds in the struggle were superficial while Barbara was noted to have severe and defensive wounds in her autopsy report, and Anderson had told police he didn’t know how much his wife’s insurance policy was, but it was discovered he had called the insurance agency a month prior, obtaining information that her life insurance was valued at $300,000. He also told police that he and Barbara did not have marital problems, but a letter from Jesse in her purse during the attack showed there were in fact problems going on in the marriage.

“Well, the community was aware of the situation being an attack by a Black man because they said you know, they were looking for Black men wearing such and such, ” said Myles. “I fit the description of everybody they were looking for literally, but I knew when I went down there to the police station after identifying my hat that the police were out on the prowl to collect as many people as they possibly could because one guy while I was sitting down there was like, ‘Man, they tried to pin that on me kind of thing,’ and I’m like, “Why are they trying to pin it on you,’ like for real like they were finding people and accusing them of whatever, and trying to question them on all the different aspects of that case.”

Myles realized he was in the same room with the EMT that had reported to the scene and the person who had sold Anderson the knife. Myles remembers sitting in the room quiet listening to all the stories. He then discovered that police had already suspected Anderson as the perpetrator of the crime.

“They knew that the wounds that he had had on him were self-inflicted,” said Myles, “but they knew right from when they investigated they just needed all the evidence to corroborate what they were trying to do because they could tell by the angle of the knife that he had stabbed himself.”

Charles Stuart, an American murderer, murdered his wife and unborn son on Oct. 23, 1989. He blamed the attack on a raspy-voiced Black man in Boston, but his brother later confessed to police that his brother killed them to collect insurance money. When Stuart learned he was a suspect in the case he committed suicide by jumping off a bridge.

Another case in 1994 occurred when a woman named Susan Smith murdered her two sons by allowing her car to roll into a lake with the children inside, drowning them. The case gained international attention because of Smith’s false claim that a Black man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking.

Determined to not repeat the same mistakes as their colleagues in Boston and from the previous year’s encounter with Dahmer, the Milwaukee Police arrested Jesse Anderson on April 29 for murder. He was allowed to attend his wife’s funeral in handcuffs in an effort by police to get him to confess to murdering his wife prior. His bail was set at $1 million. The media was heavily criticized for what was deemed to be an irresponsible reporting of the case which contributed to racism.

Jesse Anderson’s trial began in August later that year. Myles and his girlfriend were cross-examined during the trial.

“I was told I was the state’s number one witness, so it was pretty nerve-racking. I remember describing who I thought Jesse Anderson looked like and the prosecuting attorney pretty much roasted me pretty bad off of one thing that I thought I saw. I thought he had glasses. I pointed him out in a lineup, but I thought he had glasses on when he was there, which he probably could have had glasses on, but he pretty much nailed me to the cross with his cross-examination and it was I was on the stand for a good 30 minutes.”

“I would not like to relive that situation ever again.”

On Aug. 13, Anderson, who declined to testify during the trial, was found guilty of the first-degree homicide of his wife Barbara. The trial lasted eight days.

On Sept. 29 Anderson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole until 2052. Jesse never confessed to his wife’s murder and maintained his innocence.

“I’ve been made a scapegoat in a farce that some people call a trial. In a fair and impartial trial, my innocence would have been proven,” said Anderson.

To get away from the aftermath of the trial, Myles transferred to Grambling State University in Louisiana during his sophomore year, but the effects of the Anderson trial still lingered from time-to-time.

“It’d pop up every so often when I least expected it when I was at Grambling. I know my superintendent, my principal, teachers, they all knew about it because when I saw them after the fact, it was maybe a couple of years after the fact they would say things to me,” he said.

“I remember a couple years after the fact–I don’t remember the verdict, I don’t remember him being sentenced, I don’t remember me being celebratory or happy or anything. I just remember being in Grambling every so often, like the current affairs would come on like it was an old tabloid TV and that came on and while I was at Grambling, and I went to the Union one day and people were like, ‘Dude I saw you on A Current Affair.’ So A Current Affair was a national tabloid. It was the TMZ at the time. So it’s coming on while I’m in college, and people were like, ‘Dude, I saw you on TV.’ I went down and didn’t tell anybody that was going on and I had to tell that story all over again.”

Seeing his story published in national tabloids and talking about the story to his peers did not prepare him for what happened next.

“While he was in jail, Jesse Anderson sent a–he had me summoned to appear in court. I remember it like it was yesterday because the mail ran on– it don’t run at all–but all of a sudden I got a special delivery on Sunday and it was a post office worker coming to my door to serve me with papers to say that I needed to appear in court on behalf of Jesse Anderson, on behalf of him trying to gain custody of his children or some type of custody of his children. I thought he was in jail. How was he going to try to get custody of his children? I sent the paperwork to my stepdad and my mom and were like don’t worry about it, and that was that; but the fact that I had escaped Wisconsin, nobody knew where I was, and that a private investigator had been following me and found me in Grambling. If you’ve been to Grambling, Grambling is– you cannot just stumble upon Grambling, you go there with purpose, because it’s not in a major city, it’s in the sticks–it’s in the backwoods. There’s no way you can find where I lived. He found me. That just proved to me that you can be found. That was scary.”

Anderson’s children were taken into custody by Barbara’s family after his arrest. The Anderson case brought attention to the fact that, under Wisconsin law, a parent being convicted for the murder of their child’s parent was not grounds for revoking their paternal rights, which prevented the Andersons’ children from being put in foster care. The Barbara Lynch-Anderson Bill was introduced by legislators to change the law and eliminate the situation.

Anderson was serving his sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, WI. On the morning of Nov. 28, 1994, Anderson and notorious serial killer Jeffery Dahmer were left unattended for about 15 minutes while cleaning a restroom at the prison’s gym along with fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Although Scarver’s story of what happened has changed multiple times over the years, he had a disdain for the two men because they were white men who did crimes that affected Blacks. After confronting both men, he followed Dahmer into the locker room and beat him with a steel bar from the weight room. He then tracked down Anderson and beat him as well. Dahmer was declared dead about an hour after the attack and Anderson died two days later. Scarver claimed Anderson defaced an MLK mural and framed another inmate for doing it while in prison.

When Myles was asked how he felt about Anderson’s death he said, “So morbid, but I was relieved, and I was happy.”

Myles graduated from Grambling State University in 1997 with a degree in art education. Myles has three daughters and is currently a producer at TDR Network and So Greedy Studio. He also works for the State of Wisconsin as a youth apprenticeship coordinator.