The Killer at the Spy Store — Mayhem in the Desert

The mysterious disappearance of Ginger Rios after she visited a spy store in Las Vegas ultimately lead to several other murders that occurred in the Southwest during the mid-90’s. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)

A MISSING CUSTOMER

Ginger Rios, a young entertainer that performed with a group called Salsa Machine, and her husband pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center at 3507 Maryland Parkway not far from the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas on April 4, 1997. She and her husband were making a stop at the Spy Craft store to pick up a book on credit repair so the couple could fix their finances in order to purchase a house.

The Spy Craft store was a new addition to the Vegas business community. The establishment sold a variety of listening devices, surveillance equipment, and books on topics such as how to get away with murder. The store was novel enough that the owner, John Flowers, was interviewed shortly after its opening for an article by the Associated Press. Flowers liked to give others the impression he had “off the books” associations with the CIA, FBI, and DEA.

But on this day, something suspicious happened at the Spy Craft store. Rios’ husband waited outside in his car, but the time continued to pass without the young singer ever exiting the store.

**Ginger Rios, pictured on the left, disappeared after visiting the Spy Craft store in Las Vegas.**

QUESTIONS FOR JOHN FLOWERS

Police questioned the owner of the store, John Flowers, but he claimed Rios purchased a book on how to disappear and then left the establishment. Flowers also claimed a security camera caught Rios exiting the store, but he had since taped over the footage.

Cathy Scott, a local crime reporter, interviewed Flowers about Rios’ disappearance. The store owner complained that Rios’ disappearance was causing him bad publicity. Chillingly, Flowers told the reporter that once Rios reappeared, he would ensure she disappeared for good.

Flowers’ version of events was strange and out of character for Rios, but without a body or crime scene there was nothing tying the young store owner to Flowers’ disappearance.

Ginger Rios was born and raised in Las Vegas before her untimely disappearance after visiting John Flowers’ Spy Craft store in Las Vegas. Local Vegas press covered the pain suffered by Rios’ family as a result of her murder. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)

BODIES IN THE DESERT

Investigators would receive a major new lead three months later when Flowers’ wife, Cheryl Ciccone, came forward to tell police about discovering Ginger Rios’ lifeless body in the back of the Spy Craft store with a pool of blood surrounding her head. Flowers told Ciccone that he had struck and killed Rios after she “got in his face and he snapped.” Flowers stuffed Rios’ body into plastic garbage bags and then traveled to Arizona with his wife and their infant child, where he buried her body in concrete out in the desert.

Police searched the Spy Craft store and identified blood belonging to Rios on the floor of a back room. And Rios’ body was eventually uncovered in a grave in the Arizona desert.

Three months before Rios’ body was discovered, police uncovered the body of an unidentified teenage girl only about 1/8 mile from Rios’ gravesite. The remains were later identified as those of 15-year-old Christina Martinez, who had gone missing a week before her body was discovered. Investigators soon learned that Jacobsen owned another Spy Craft store only a few blocks from where Martinez disappeared and that the young girl had been yet another victim of opportunity for Flowers.

Flowers was arrested by U.S. Custom officials in Los Angeles in August of 1997 on an unrelated charge of assaulting a federal official. He was extradited to Nevada to stand trial in Las Vegas for the murder of Ginger Rios.

Rios’ murder devastated her family. Rios’ father stated after her body was discovered, “We don’t hate Las Vegas, per se. But we don’t like it anymore. If there was some way we could move away, we would in a minute.”

a.k.a. CRAIG JACOBSEN

After his arrest, police found out that “John Flowers” was actually Craig Jacobsen, who had a criminal record for counterfeiting and a warrant related to battery of a federal officer. Jacobsen was initially incarcerated at a facility for mentally ill offenders while being assessed for competency to stand trial. Jacobsen had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he made bizarre claims to investigators, such as concerns that “the Russians are after me.”

Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty, but the questions over Jacobsen’s mental state and a recent change to Nevada law making a first-degree murder conviction more difficult lead the State to accept a plea agreement. Jacobsen was convicted of murder after pleading no contest to the charges and was sentenced to twenty years with the possibility of parole.

Jacobsen was later extradited to Arizona in 2015 to stand trial for the murder of Christina Martinez. The same issues over Jacobsen’s mental health caused delays in his trial for the Martinez murder, but an Arizona judge eventually found Jacobsen was competent to stand trial.

John Flowers a.k.a. Craig Jacobsen was a potential serial killer, with victims in both Nevada and Arizona. Press coverage of circumstantial evidence supporting Flowers/Jacobsen being a serial killer. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)

SPY STORE SERIAL KILLER?

Flowers also confessed to the killing of another missing woman, Mary Stoddard, a teenager possibly abducted in the Las Vegas area. Jacobsen claimed that Stoddard’s body was buried near the site of Rios’ grave, but he has never been charged in relation with Stoddard’s death.

Crime reporter Cathy Scott believes Jacobsen/Flowers may be a serial killer - and there possibly may be more victims buried out in the Arizona desert. Adding support to this theory are the reports from a former employee of Jacobsen that he found the wedding bands of three women hidden in Jacobsen’s truck. That same employee also said Jacobsen instructed him to secretly photograph different women at casinos along the Strip.

John Flowers a.k.a Craig Jacobsen is undeniably a murderer. But it is still an open question as to whether the creepy owner of a chain of spy stores was also a serial killer that tried to conceal his worst impulses in the Arizona desert.