Chapter 1: "A real family man"
Jesse attended Knox College for two years, studying pre-med and military science, and dropped out in 1977 when his scholarship ran out. He moved to Iowa and began working at Happy Joe’s, a local chain pizza restaurant. A fellow employee, Bill Rees, introduced Jesse to his sister Debra. Debra fell in love with Jesse, despite the warnings of her parents and brother that he was untrustworthy, and married him. Meanwhile, Bill Rees’ suspicions grew when he found that Jesse was taking Debra on expensive dates he couldn’t possibly afford on Happy Joe’s wages. The owner of the restaurant soon found that Jesse was stealing money from the cash register and he was fired, but he avoided any criminal charges for the theft.
Jesse would later tell Debra that he had committed several burglaries when he was in high school, and had never been caught. He became a controlling husband, frequently criticizing Debra’s weight and lying to her about basic things like her own work schedule, although she would later say that he never physically abused her. Jesse moved the two of them to Chicago so he could finish a degree in business administration, and after receiving it he filed for divorce, claiming that Debra had subjected him to “extreme and repeated mental cruelty.” Ultimately, Debra won the battle for custody over their child, and Jesse briefly paid child support before leaving town.
Barbara Ellen Lynch was born December 9, 1958 in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, Illinois. Neighbors and friends remembered her, her parents, and her seven siblings fondly, and as devout Christians. Those who knew her closely, including her parents, said that she was “a private person” who was unlikely to tell other people about her problems. Barbara first met Jesse Anderson in Chicago in 1983, when he was still studying business and still married to Debra. Months after the divorce, Jesse and Barbara were married, and by 1987, they had moved to Cedarburg, Wisconsin and had their first child. Barbara’s brother, Thomas Lynch, was a police officer in suburban Chicago, and he expressed concern after investigating his brother-in-law’s past and finding his criminal record, which allegedly included a 30-day jail sentence for battery (which Milwaukee police were unable to corroborate during their investigation).
Upon moving to Cedarburg, Jesse took a job as a salesman at the Lakeside Oil Company in Milwaukee. He had worked in various positions at the Chicago and North Western Railroad since he was twenty-one, and already had connections at Lakeside, which was one of the railroad’s suppliers. The owner of Lakeside described Jesse as a “model employee” and “a real family man,” but admitted that as a salesman, Jesse was not in the office much. He also applied to work for both the FBI and the CIA, and later claimed that the FBI had told him “they were not hiring white males because of Affirmative action”. FBI records confirm that Jesse applied for a job there, but the details of his job interview remain confidential.
In 1987, the same year that her first child was born and her husband started working at Lakeside Oil, Barbara wrote a letter to her husband which was found after her death, in which she mentioned being beaten by him, and his consistent threats of divorce. In March, a month before the attack, Jesse and Barbara spent four days on a “second honeymoon” in Jamaica, leaving their three children behind with Barbara’s brother. While this vacation seemed to contribute to the idyllic picture of the Andersons’ lifestyle that the Milwaukee media would soon begin to paint, Barbara told a friend how miserable Jesse had made her on the trip, and how on multiple occasions she had “feared for her life.” At one point, Jesse attempted to convince her to climb up the side of a waterfall while wearing sandals, ridiculing her for being unable to do so. Upon her return, she decided she would never go on vacation alone with Jesse again.
April 7th was the date of the county board election in Ozaukee County. Jesse Anderson ran against a 24-year veteran of the local school board, Clarence Boesch. In the nonpartisan race, Jesse touted his experience as a businessman and stated that “it’s time to… start running our county government as a business.” He was described by friends as having a “burning yet unfulfilled desire to attain political office,” and the county board race was not his first political campaign. He ultimately lost that race by twelve votes, two weeks before he and Barbara would go to Northridge.
On March 30, Jesse visited the county dog pound and dropped off the family’s English setter, Shane, as well as a cat. Barbara had recently been upset about the dog’s behavior, distressed that it could harm her children because of its temperament, and that when it frequently ran away she and the children would have to go looking for it, without help from Jesse. A week before Shane was given away, Barbara told a friend “that it was either the dog or her who had to go.” Shane was euthanized at the pound on April 14.
