The Roach Haven

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Ross Michael Cochran, 17, a change boy in a pinball arcade on Daytona Beach's boardwalk was strapped to a table, and tortured for a day before being murdered by a group of young satan worshipers as a sacrifice. 

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Ross Cochran was murdered in 1973 by a group of satanists in Daytona Beach

May 3, 1973
Daytona Beach

It was not long before Daytona Beach police rounded up six young beach transients, and charged them with first degree murder for the death of Ross Cochran. It would turn out they were members of a devil's coven, and as the investigation progressed disturbing truths surfaced about a local school. There was more to this teenager's death than being the victim of ruthless satanists.

Cochran was a native of Fresno, California, and he ended up in Florida as a student at the Green Valley School in Orange City, Florida. This was a place where parents sent troubled youth, who had been expelled out of regular schools.

When Green Valley School opened it doors in September, 1964 it was described as a co-ed school for gifted children, to help them develop a greater measure of responsibility and independence. In truth, the students were described as having emotional, social or mental behavior problems who had run-ins with the law. Located on Heebner Road, it was the site of a former Good Shepherd Monastery built by members of the Order of Augustinians in 1950. It was the only Anglican Augustinian community in the United States.

Described as non-sectarian, it was established by Humanitas a "brotherhood of service", and under direct supervision of Rev. George Edwin Hilsheimer III (it's unknown when George Hilsheimer added "von" to the surname, since in most records the family name is listed only as Hilsheimer), who was a general superintendent of Humanitas. The headmaster was Charles Weatherford Jr., and Roland Chandler Nowicki, was the academic dean.  

In July 1972, The Floridian wrote a piece about the school,  describing that "Green Valley takes supposedly 'incorrigible problem youngsters' and treats them with unorthodox methods: strict punishments, massive vitamin doses and no psychotherapy. Criticism of the school is intense, but the outspoken director says his controversial treatment have a success rate of 86%."

What happened a few months later, indicated there was nothing successful about the school, and instead it housed and developed sexual predators.

In March 1973, two months before Cochran's death, a raid was conducted at 1 a.m. as a culmination of months of secret investigations, headed by the state attorney's chief investigator. The search warrant charged the school with "the felony offenses of false imprisonment, child abuse, lewd and lascivious behavior and the dispensing of illegal drugs" among other things. The warrant covered 44 acres of the 164-acre Green Valley main campus. The school owned an additional 20 acres at Deland, Florida where they had a marina, and a home. Police searched this house as well, and a 100-foot school-owned government surplus boat.

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Green Valley School c.1973

What was found in the raid was described as a large quantity of unknown drugs. Three movie reels, one classified by the state attorney as a "color Danish sex film", a number of publications classified as sex or adult magazines, a water pipe and 10 slide projector carousels were taken. Torture devices removed from the school included one set of leg irons, sex electric dog collars, one pair of handcuffs and an old fishing light with a bulb missing that was said to be called by the students as "the bullshocker."

Four arrests were made during the raid. Ron Nowicki the headmaster was arrested on felony charges of unlawfully imprisoning a child, and three temporary staff members were charged with marijuana possession.

The state attorney filed suit asking that its 78 pupils should be declared wards of the court.

Cochran was removed from Green Valley School for his own safety on the night of the raid, since he was one of the state's chief witnesses. The state wanted to close the school as a "place of lewdness".

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"Roach Haven" c.1973

There were allegations against the school which was said to condone sexual relations between students, required girls to take birth control pills, allowed boys and girls to swim together in the nude and placed pornographic literature in the school's library.

The school collected $1.3 million annually from its students in tuition.

A legislative group investigated the facility in 1969, and it had been a source of controversy for several years.

While the case against the school was developing, it seems that none expected Ross Cochran was in danger. The police chief at the time said, "They must have hated this kid like hell because they really tortured him." He described where Cochran was flogged with chains, and stabbed with cut glass while tied to a black wooden table in the basement "altar room" of a ramshackle, crumbling, two-story brick rooming house called "Roach Haven" by beach kids. It was located at 27 N. Grandview Avenue, two blocks from the beach.

His mangled body, trussed with ropes was found in a remote wooded area 15 miles southwest of Daytona Beach. The police initially were uncertain if he was killed during the alleged sacrifice, or died where his body was found.

The six that were initially charged with murder were: Kenneth M. Francis 17, with an address of Pope Air Force Base, N.C.; Charles M. Paige, 21, and John Colbert, 18, who gave the rooming house as their only address; Deborah Ann Shook 22, from Washington, NJ; Cindy Black, 17, of Rexdale, Ontario, Canada, and Howard Waellus 19, of Detroit. The police captain described the youths as transients.

According to police, Cochran had been "running his mouth" around the beach saying he was a narcotics agent, and it was speculated this may have angered the satan worshippers. The police believed Cochran was lured to the rooming house, overpowered, tied up in a second floor room and beaten for nearly five hours.

​Even though he was working at the arcade, Cochran it seemed had nowhere to stay, and on the morning of his murder he had gone to Roach Haven and spent the night there. When the others woke up, they were angered to find him there, especially Kenneth Francis who had also attended Green Valley, and blamed him for the temporary closure of the school. He was tied up and tortured that same day. The police were tipped off after a youth was arrested on an auto break-in, and told the police about the murder.

​The police chief described, "They went to the altar room about 3 pm and put him on the table as a sacrifice. They tortured him some more. He pleaded for his life." The altar was an old work table painted black and lined with black painted bottles and candles. Motorcycle chains and symbols in red paint adorned the walls of the room.

Dark rituals were not unheard of in Daytona Beach. In 1971, it was reported there had been an outbreak of grave robberies and other strange events. Six skulls had disappeared from disinterred caskets, and in one a cow horn with a leather thong was inserted. There was evidence of a ceremonial fire in a cemetery near a grave and dim figures were seen dancing around a tombstone at midnight.

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George von Hilsheimer c.1973

Nickolas Frazee from Ohio said that initiates to the coven were asked "to denounce God and everything he stands for." He said that he and Deborah Shook slashed their stomachs in their wedding ceremony in the basement altar room. He displayed a jagged scar to a newsman. His wife was known in the coven as "Ledorra", and a satanic priest was the one who presided over the ceremony. Frazee said anyone who wanted to join the coven signed their name to a register in blood, and were asked to denounce God and everything he stood for. He had heard someone was being held captive in the basement but knew nothing about the murder.

In October, 1973, it was reported that Deborah Ann Shook, who turned state's evidence, said she was the priestess of a satanic cult, and that Cochran was sacrificed to "appease the master, satan." She wiped up the blood after Cochran was taken away. She said David O. Hester told her that they had blessed the satanic knife to slit Cochran’s throat.

​It was determined that Cochran was killed by a blow from a club. He was heaved into a car trunk and taken to the woods near Satsuma. It wasn't known if he was dead when he was transported. His body was found 100 yards off State Road 415 S. He was still tied up, and a pine log was found by his head, possibly used to kill him, since he had massive skull fractures which caused his death.

The murder was carried out close to May 1, known in pagan groups as Beltane, and an important date to satanists. Perhaps the timing had something to do with it, but there was also a pragmatic angle to the crime, which was do away with a vital witness in a massive investigation into a school promoting pedophilia, and disguising itself with a quasi-religious mantle.

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Kenneth Francis (Source - DOC)

In October, 1973, David O. Hester, the self proclaimed "high priest" of the satan worshipping group was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Hester who was 17 had pled innocent to the charges. Five other members of the "The Devil's Children" were charged. He was the first to be convicted. The others agreed to produce evidence for the state, and pled guilty to lesser charges.

Hester, who was pronounced sane by a psychiatrist, said he only pretended to club Cochran with a pine log but that another cult member, Kenneth Michael Francis actually hit the youth over the head 4 or 5 times. Francis was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in December, 1973.

In May 1973, George Von Hilsheimer a controversial protestant lay minister who founded Green Valley School, held a press conference to explain that he believed it doubtful that Francis had any connection with the cult. He said, "It is our belief that this boy could have had only the most casual acquaintance with such people. For nearly two months before this tragedy, Kenneth Francis had been in New Mexico on a Green Valley field trip." Supposedly Francis had returned a few days before the murder and was officially listed as a Green Valley runaway. Kenneth Francis died in prison in 2003, while serving his sentence.

George von Hilsheimer was no stranger to controversy. In 1963, he was tied to another location about an hour’s drive from Asheville, North Carolina. It was a remote place called Camp Summerlane. Von Hilsheimer leased the 168 acre tract from Mr. and Mrs. N.A. Miller who had run it for 14 years as Camp Skytop. During those years it was known as a "nice family place" occupied mostly by Florida people.

A cub reporter for a North Carolina newspaper went out there in 1963, on a tip that something was going to take place. The camp was described as a "pedophilic community orgy." The reporter interviewed some neighbors who said that at first the camp seemed rustic and rather ordinary, but as time went on the less ordinary things appeared. It seemed that reports of nudity, free love and open sexuality became rampant, and the citizens of Rosman the nearby town, didn’t want any of it. They asked police to escort the staff, and about 50 students out of the place. Hundreds of locals amassed to witness the exit.

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Green Valley school in later years

A police captain described the place as filthy, and the people were dirty as well. The campers established their own type of recreation, and did what they wanted to do.

Someone who attended in 1963, in an interview about 45 years later said, "Those people were a nudist camp; they went swimming naked and all that stuff right on the side of the road where one of the camp's lakes was located." This was the reason the mountain town wanted them out of there.

Camp Summerlane then settled at Camp Midvale in Ringwood. According to von Hilsheimer Summerlane was a "democractic camp". He said, "We Believe that democracy assumes integration." During these years, von Hilsheimer was in his late 20s. He was married to Dion a North Carolinian, and they had a baby boy. Rev. von Hilsheimer was born in Florida and was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister at the age of 13. His parents were George E. Hilsheimer Jr. and Ruth Virginia Peebles. The family hailed from West Virginia, who had relocated to Miami and then central Florida. Ruth Peebles' own father was a Baptist minister as well.

His plans were to organize a year-round school encompassing all 12 grades. The school would embrace the Summerhill philosophy of education espoused by progressive educator A.S. Neill in his book A Radical Approach to Child Rearing.

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The Green Valley School was dogged by controversy

After 3 weeks von Hilsheimer's plans changed and they relocated again. Part of the problem was that Midvale had it own problems, since they were being watched by the FBI. They hosted children and families from the Northeastern wing of the labor and civil rights movements.

Summerlane ended up in New Jersey, and lost most of its participants. After this is when von Hilsheimer founded the Green Valley School in 1964, in Orange City, Florida.

By 1974, of the twelve men and women between the ages of 16 and 23, who were charged with first degree murder in the death of Ross Cochran, two went to trial and all but five were released.

Cindy Black was turned over to juvenile authorities and sent to Lancaster Juvenile Development Center in Trenton, where she was released in December, 1973. Frazee, Skaggs and Waellus were sentenced to five years in prison for their parts in the murder. All three provided key state testimony. Smith, Paige and Shook  pled guilty to various lesser charges and were each sentenced to 11 months.

The school did not survive the scandal and subsequent investigation, and closed in 1973. Von Hilsheimer died in 2013. He practiced clinical psychology in DeLand and Maitland for several years. He authored three books and several scientific papers.

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