Jerry Davich: Cop car hijacker: ‘Under circumstances of great stress I have made poor decisions’
JERRY DAVICH jdavich@post-trib.com January 21, 2012 9:42PM
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Updated: February 23, 2012 8:06AM
William Blankenship III frantically pondered what to do next as he sat handcuffed in the backseat of a Kouts police car.
Unlike nearly every other handcuffed passenger in the back of a police car, he didn’t just sit tight and face the legal consequences awaiting him.
Irrational, even desperate thoughts told him he would no longer see his wife of three years and his 1-month-old baby boy, William. Those thoughts hijacked any voice of reason that day, Jan. 10, by a man with a self-confessed history of mental illness.
The 22-year-old Knox native jumped over the front seat of the fully marked Chevy Impala and, after second-guessing the decision, jumped in the backseat again. Then he changed his mind, hopped into the driver’s seat, and sped off on a headline-grabbing, two-day adventure that later reminded him of one his favorite movies, “Vanishing Point.”
The 1971 cult classic profiled a car delivery driver who recklessly navigates a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco while being chased by cops until he crashes his car in spectacular fashion.
“I used to watch that movie with my father,” Blankenship told me earlier this week during a face-to-face interview at Porter County Jail.
He wore a black and white-striped jail outfit, but sported no handcuffs or shackles during our hour-long chat. He was polite, articulate, and intelligent, not exactly who I assumed to meet. He also joked about charging me $3 a word for my interview.
“Just kidding,” he said nervously.
Initially, Blankenship told me he could not talk about the stolen police car, his arrest, and his two days on the lam. But then, without much coaxing, he answered every question I had in vivid detail.
It’s up to you, however, to decide what exactly is truth and what is not.
“The media made me look horrible and I am not a horrible person,” he told me flatly. “I am a family man ... with a full-time job, a house and a car.”
He also claimed he drives a car for a living, transporting medical supplies and other goods. But not drugs, he insisted.
A wrong turn
On Jan. 10, Blankenship said he was driving southbound on Interstate 65 to the Knox area to do some mechanic work for a friend. But he missed his exit, made a wrong turn, and instead took the U.S. 231 eastbound exit. From there, he made an unexpected stop.
“I had to use the bathroom,” he said.
At a Family Express in Kouts, a police car pulled up behind him with its lights on. A traffic stop for speeding, he figured. Blankenship handed over his driver’s license and registration and waited.
The Kouts police officer later asked to search his car, a 2004 Ford Taurus, and Blankenship agreed, he said. The officer put handcuffs on Blankenship, and he asked him to wait near the police car.
The officer soon found something in the car, reportedly drugs and drug paraphernalia.
“He told me that what he found could put me away for life,” Blankenship said. “But what he found I have never seen before in my life.”
Except, he admitted to me, a small scale that is used to weigh marijuana or other drugs. He also admitted to smoking marijuana in the past.
“They found something, but I’m not being charged with drug possession,” he said.
Indeed, the charges against him so far are auto theft, criminal mischief, and fleeing law enforcement, all Class D Felonies, and escape, a Class C Felony.
He was placed into the backseat of the police car, where he made another wrong turn on that day, and in his life.
Regarding his reasoning process, he cited mental illness problems in his past, including bipolar tendencies.
“Under circumstances of great stress I have made, in the past, poor decisions. I will admit that,” he said. “But I wanted to see my wife and child again.”
Another wrong turn
Blankenship said he attended Knox High School but earned a GED instead of graduating. He later joined the U.S. Army because he couldn’t find a job anywhere else, but he got a medical discharge after only a few months away at boot camp.
Until his arrest, he said he was living in Brookfield, Ill. trying to make ends meet. His marriage was rocky, he said.
In the past few months, since buying his used car, Blankenship said he cleaned it “with a fine-tooth comb” and never once saw a stash of any drugs in it. So how did any drugs find its way into his car? He claims he has no idea.
After stealing the Kouts squad car, he chatted with police on the radio for 25 minutes about handcuff keys and his longing to smoke a cigarette, among other topics, He wasn’t worried of operating a speeding moving vehicle while handcuffed.
“I am an extremely talented driver,” he told me proudly.
But Blankenship missed a sharp turn at a high rate of speed. The police car zoomed into a drainage ditch of water.
“The car sank almost immediately, like a rock,” he said.
Blankenship pushed the power window button, which surprisingly worked, to escape the sunken vehicle. (For the record, all weapons inside were later recovered.)
Handcuffed, dripping wet, cold, sore, and unsure exactly where he was, Blankenship said a witness gave him a ride to North Judson, where a friend lived.
The witness didn’t notice the handcuffs, Blankenship said.
In North Judson, he used a friend’s tool to remove his handcuffs and then began walking through a wooded area towards Knox.
“I still wanted to see my wife and son,” he explained.
He spent the night under a pine tree, he said, noting it would provide him shelter from a police helicopter’s infrared cameras.
“And pine trees produce heat, too,” he added matter-of-factly.
Heroic behavior?
At this point in our chat, I had to ask the obvious question: How can someone so seemingly smart do something so stupid?
“I ask myself that every day I’m in here,” he replied. “I am not a cocky person. I don’t think this is in any way funny or heroic as some people seem to think it is.”
Heroic? I asked, who thinks what he did was heroic?
“A lot of people were rooting for me and I think that this is wrong,” he said. “I made a wrong decision. It was desperate and sad and I am very apologetic for it.”
After arriving near Knox, and while at another gas station, Blankenship said he called his wife at her parents’ home.
“It’s me,” he told her.
“Sweetie, you have to turn yourself in,” she told him.
She helped arrange for an Indiana State Trooper to take him into custody under a peaceful surrender at his in-laws’ house, he said. But not before he was able to spend brief time with his wife, and his baby, who he fed one last time.
A few minutes later, the trooper took him into custody and transported him to Porter County Jail, where he’s been since Jan. 12. He hopes to soon be bailed out, by his wife.
“She’s a wonderful woman, and she is why I surrendered,” said Blankenship, whose father died in 2005, and whose mother died in 2008.
He’s been evicted from his Brookfield, Ill. home and he plans to move back to the Knox area when or if he gets released.
“I regret the whole thing,” he said referring to his ordeal.
Near the end of my interview, I had to ask if he extracted any sense of recognition or infamy for his Hollywood-like actions.
“I’m not going to lie,” he said with a chuckle.
That’s when he mentioned the movie “Vanishing Point,” and his enjoyment of watching it with his father.
“I loved that movie. Everyone told him, ‘go go go, you’re a hero,’” he said, referring to the lead character of the film who ends up dying in a fiery crash.
Blankenship now regrets his wrong decisions that day. Of course he does. But somewhere in his psyche he certainly felt like a movie hero, if only for a few minutes or hours.
His sad odyssey ended in a watery crash and he’s now facing several years in prison.
Watch a video recording of my jailhouse interview with Blankenship at www.post-trib.com.
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