Writings of the accused
Gabel’s words show early obsessions
By Mike Kluck
© 1996 DN Summer Edition
A man charged with murder de
tails an obsession with cats that drink
out of toilets and the color of plungers
in his writings to a Lincoln magazine,
but little is said about his peers and
family members.
Both facts may
give insight into the
mind of a possible
murderer.
Dr. Matthew
Nessetti, a Lincoln
psychologist, de
scribed Gregory
Gabel’s writings as
odd because the
WME% only attachment he
Gabel had as a youth was
toward a cat he had to give away and
a teacher who moved away during his
fourth grade school year.
“It seems that he never bonded
with anybody,” Nessetti said. “He also
shows some anti-social personality
traits as well.
“His primary remembrances when
he’s 11-years old are cats and a teacher,
who moved away during the school
year,” he said. “After his fourth grade
period of time it seems he is nbt con
nected to society and is beiiig shuffled
from one psychiatric association to
another.”
But Nessetti said the writings could
also show a possible link to the 1995
slaying of UNL student Tina
McMenamin.
At the age of 11, Gabel wrote in the
Lincoln literary review magazine “Big
Pile of Bones,” he became “rebellious
against authority.”
“No matter who all tried to help me
it was not the answer,” Gabel wrote.
Gabel ^as charged Thursday with
first-degree murder and the use of a
weapon to commit a felony in the July
25, 1995, slaying of McMenamin.
After the charges had been read
and Gabel said he understood the
charges,, he waved to the judge and
said “bye.”
Mark Baldridge a co-editor of “Big
Pile of Bones” said Gabel was a tal
ented writer and his stories had the
tone of an alienated voice, which
Baldridge liked for the publication.
Nessetti, a psychologist with the
Nebraska Mental Health Centers, said
Gabel’s writings are helpful in deter
mining a possible pattern to his be
havior, but more writings would be
needed to make an assessment.
“It certainly is odd writing,”
Nessetti said. “How we take it from
there to make a good psychological
evaluation, we would need other
pieces of information. But this does
point to some odd-thinking behavior.
“He could have done the murder if
he was in a psychotic state and con
cocted something in his mind that he
needed to do this in some shape or
form.”
Gabel submitted many pieces of
work for the literary review of Lin
coln authors, but only two selections
were used.
In the first selection, entitled “Story
of My Life,” Gabel wrote about hav
ing to give his kitten, Kitty, away
because his younger brother was al
lergic to the cat.
Then during his fourth-grade year
in Gering, his teacher, Miss
Schueneman, married and moved to
Coffeyville, Kan.
“Having two misfortunes were hard
on me,” Gabel wrote. “I did not know
how to rationalise when I was 11
going on 12 in 1975. Aside from the
cat and the teacher, I had began an
obsession with cats that drink out of
the toilet and color of plungers.”
Gabel wrote of noticing that a
classmate’s plunger was green and
then started asking other kids what
color plungers they had in their homes.
Gabel’s story about the plungers is
significant in analyzing him, Nesetti
said.
“It’s probably his first recollection
of apsychotic experience,” Nessetti said.
“His thinking becomes irrational and he
(Gabel) has recognized it as an unusual
and irrational thinking behavior. It was
probably an onset of the mental disorder
when it was occurring.”
Gabel wrote when he was 11, he
Tanna Kinnaman/DN
Surrounded by reporters, Sarah Bognich, Tina McMenamin’s
roommate at the time of her death, leaves the courtroom after Greg
Gabel’s charges were read in court Thursday. Bognich said the
hardest part of the trial will be when she has to testify.
was going to a mental health clinic in
Scottsbluff and was prescribed
Thorazine by Dr. Clark Wheland.
Sources in Scottsbluff told the Daily
Nebraskan that Dr. Wheland did prac
tice at the Scottsbluff Mental Health
Center in the 1970s.
The Thorazine caused Gabel pain
ful twitching in his neck and shoulder
muscles, so he was given Haldol “to
counteract with it.”
Nessetti said Thorazine, an
antipsychotic medication, can cause
twitching in the heck and shoulder,
but Haldol is only a stronger form of
Thorazine and can cause the same
problems.
By June of 1975, Gabel wrote his
parents sent him to a place in Omaha
where he stayed for over a year.
In Gabel’s second writing, entitled
“A Fiction”, which appeared at the
end of “Big Pile of Bones”, he wrote
about the same incidents, but used the
fictional television character Dr. Sam
Beckett.
Beckett, a character in the televi
sion series “Quantum Leap,” traveled
through time putting right historical
Please see GABEL on 7
Editor’s Note: Inis is a reprint of a story
written by Greg Gabel, who was recently
charged with the murder of Tina
McMenamin. The story, which was written
in all capital letters, was published in 1993
in “Big Pile of Bones,” a Lincoln literary
review.
“Story of My Life”
Greg Gabel
In 1974, that was the last full cal
ender year that I was living at home in
winter I had just go kitty, who was
inly an infant cat. By summer of that
year I wrongfully gave her up for a
readoption. My younger brother was
coughing alot. The family physician
readily concluded it was the cat. He
should have tested my brother for
what he really was allergic to rather
than conclude it was Kitty. I named
her Kitty simply because it was a
perfect name for a female cat. I wanted
to rear her and watch her grow up into
an adult cat. When I gave her away, I
gave her to my mom’s parents of
Lusk, Wyo simply because I know my
grandfolks. I should have given kitty
to someone in Gering, Nebr so I could
have easier access to her. I felt ex
tremely traumatised by this. As school
days 1974-75 begin I enter 4th grade
and get Miss Shirley Schueneman as
my teacher. I liked her. She previ
ously taught 1st grade. 1972-73 school
days she began teaching 4th grade. I
never had her when she had taught 1 st
grade in 1971-72 school days. She
married a man named Clyde Kygar.
He worked for an oil reninery that my
dad had worked for. The 2 men were
coworkers. Clyde gets a transfer to
Coffeyville, Kan. I could not bear
seeing Mrs Kygar leave, Mrs. Judy
Margheim takes the position that Mrs
Kygar left. I didn not hate Mrs
Margheim I just missed Mrs Kygar.
As 1975 begins things go downhill for
me. Having 2 misfortunes were hard
on me. I did not know how to
rationalise when I was 11 going on 12
in 1975. Aside from the cat and the
teacher, I had began an obsession with
cats that drink out of the toilet and
color of plungers. It all started out
when I was at Kip Gross’ house. He
was a class mate from 4th grade. He
was making sight and sound effects of
cats drinking out of the toilet. I no
ticed his plunger was green with a
white handle. I asked other kids what
color their plungers were to find if
Kips was the only green headed
plunger in town. I felt that I was not
getting enough freedom when I was
11. So I became rebellious against
authority. No matter who all tried to
help me it was not the answer. I was
already going to a mental health clinic
in Scottsbluff. Dr. Clark Wheland put
me on thorazine. That drug was a bad
drug. It caused me to have painful
twitching in the neck and shoulder
muscles. I was given Haldol to coun
teract with it. I was even put in the
hospital. I was taking up a bed that
someone else could have needed worse
than me. I never finished my 4th grade
year up at Westward Elementary.
Rumors got around fast. I never fin
ished my 6 week summer school class.
On 6-21-75 my parents sent me to a
place in Omaha Nebr where I did not
get out of until 8-31-76.
01993 “Big Pile of Bones”
Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of a story
written by Greg Gabel, who was recently
charged with the murder of Tina
McMenamin. The story, which was written
in all capital letters, was published in 1993
in “Big Pile of Bones,” a Lincoln literary
review.
“A Fiction”
Greg Gabel
In 1974, Dr Sam Beckett witnesses a
Gering, Nebr boy goes through 2
missfortunes. Sam tells Dr Walter
Harvey Jr. a general practitioner that
he must test Brian Gabel’s allergies to
make sure that it is not the cat at all.
Sam spares the older boy from
reliquishing ownership of Kitty. Next
goal Sam sees into the future as Marty
McFly would. A 4th grade teacher,
Miss Shirley Schueneman is getting
married to Clyde Kygar. Sam is not
even invitied the wedding he objects
to their marriage, he knows what will
happen if the 2 get married. Clyde will
get a job transfer to Coffeville, Kan
and Shirley will quit and end up leav
ing her students. Brian Gabel’s older
brother will act up in class in 1975, he
will get expelled from school and not
be able to maintain attendance. Dr.
Clark Whealand will drug him with
Thorazine, 6-21-75 his parents will
commit him to a mental hospital in
Omaha, Nebr for 14 months and 10
days all locked up and drugged up.
After that he will be all drugged up in
6th grade and will be real sick and and
his parents will commit him to an
other hospital in Lincoln, Nebr al
though drug free, will get whistled at
by a huge Native American in the
summer of 1977 and will not wear
shorts openly in public (until spring
1985) never be enroll in another pub
lic school again even when 2nd se
mester of school days, 1978-79 comes
by and lost all interest in public schools
The last 4 months (4-19-79 to 8-17
79) will be the 1st time a summer is
experienced in the community of Lin
coln, it falls short by being sent back
to home to Gering where the teen is
wasting his valuable life living at home
in 1979-80 school days, attending a
day program against his will, and
winds up being recommitted to the
same hospital in Lincoln on 4-14-80,
but will live at the teen house for 28
months rehabilitating all over again
because the 2nd coordinator runs the
house like another hospital, she gets
overthrown on 10-2-81. Rehabilita
tion under the former head nurse of
the adolescent ere hospital helped it
speed up until 10-18-82. The day he
hits age 19. The preacher does not
marry the couple after he sees a film of
“1975 to 1982, A Lost Teen Life”.
The Gering boy of 1974 does not go to
Omaha in 1975, lives in Gering until
3-27-77 and becomes a permanent
Lincoln resident. He never lives in
Gering between 8-17-79 to 4-18-80,
spends 8-20-79 to 3-13-80 free from
partial care and never knows Pat
DeFeyter who no kid liked. She lost
the chance to push 1 guy around. Dr
Sam Beckett saves a man’s teen life,
by allowing him to go to Lincoln
Northeast and he graduates in 1983 as
a senior at age 19. He is drug free in
the public schools in 7th, 8th,and 9th
grade, in Lincoln. The G.E.D. is not
needed because Sam believed that
Greg Gabel could make it in the pub
lie schools. Most of all 1977 through
1984 he openly wears shorts in public
around female age mates in who wore
short themselves. Dr Sam Beckett ar
gued with py schiatrists, and persueded
a regular family doctor to test for
allergies before blaming it on cats. He
prevented a gal from marrying, a
couple from commiting their older
son to 2 different hospitals, spared a
boys shorts wearing during adoles
cent years, kept his education intrests
alive so he would not be on any wel
fare at age 19 and beyond and owns a
home so he could have cats and rent
homes out. Sam made a land lord out
of a man who lives off his tenants that
pay their rent.
C1993 “Big P9e of Bone*”