Encyclopedia of Murder, Crime and History of the World

Case #4: Penny Bjorkland

Hello and welcome back to my book. This case, I have heard about but it was ultimately suggested by a reader on my Marilyn Monroe death theory chapter. There is a Deadly Women episode on her case but I couldn't find the specific video on YouTube  video to link above so, yeah. Hope you guys enjoy.

I just wanna say also before I begin, finding specific information on this case was extremely hard so if some details aren't completely accurate then I apologize.
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Who is Penny Bjorkland ?

Rosemarie Diane "Penny" Bjorkland was born sometime in 1941 near Daly City, California (about 20 minutes from San Francisco, California.) And she was only 18 years old when she brutally shot and murdered Gardener and Former Marine, August "Auggie" Norry in February of 1959.
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Childhood and Teenage Years:

As a child, Penny seemed a normal Blonde Haired, Blue - Eyed young girl growing up in Daly City.

She was known as a pretty weird kid to other students and teachers and was known to carry around and show off a knife in a shoebox and talking publicly of her fantasy's to murder someone.

By 18, she was living with her parents and was deemed depressed by her mother. She refused to get out of bed and would do nothing all day. Until the 1st of February, 1959 when she would finally carry out her Dark fantasies and change the lives of everyone involved forever.
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August "Auggie" Norry and his murder:

August "Auggie" Norry was known as a very kind man to all who knew him. This trait, unfortunately, would end up being his downfall.

Auggie was a Korean War veteran living in San Francisco, California. By February 1959, he had been married for around 18 months to Darlene Norry.
(Ironically enough, she was a classmate of Penny's.)

After the Korean War ended, Auggie began working as a gardener to try and support his wife.

On February 1st, 1959. Penny Bjorkland left her house and decided to take a walk around San Francisco. The only thing she took with her was a .38 Caliber Pistol she kept tucked in her waistband of her skirt.

That morning, she decided that she was going to kill someone. Deciding that she would kill the first person she encountered on her walk. Which unfortunately, happened to be August Norry. Who was on his way home from work.

During the car ride, Penny took out her pistol and told Auggie to pull over his car. Thinking that complying with her orders would save his life, he did as she told. All the while begging for his life.

She ignored his pleas for mercy and shot him 5 times from the passenger seat of his car. After she did this, she got out of the car, walking to the drivers door and shot him multiple times again.

(There are reports she went back to the passenger side again and shot him multiple times again but I couldn't confirm it.)

After she shot him, she yanked him out of his car and left him dead on the side of the road before driving off in his car. He was shot a total of 18 times with 14 of the bullets going completely through his body.

His body wasn't found until 10:00 that evening.
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Investigation and Arrest of Penny:

After Auggies body and later his car were found on the side of the road of Lovers Lane on Christmas Tree Hill, a boy came to investigators claiming around 4:30pm he saw a blonde girl driving basically like a bat out of hell away from the crime scene.

During the investigation, Investigators ruthlessly interrogated Darlene Norry. This is understandable in the case, because when someone is shot 18 times which is usually seen in cases of extreme rage towards someone close to them.

They later ruled out Darlene as a suspect as she would have no reason at all to kill her husband.

2 months later, investigators still had no solid leads on the killer. During this time, Investigators took the shell casings found at the crime scene to a manufacturer in New Jersey. Where they eventually tracked the weapon back to Penny.

When they searched her property, they were shocked when they saw a beautiful young girl with Strawberry - Blonde Hair and freckles. While searching her room though, they found newspaper clippings of Auggies case.

When Penny was interrogated by police, she at first remained tight lipped. But after an hour or two began happily confessing to the murder. During the confession when police asked her why she did it, she responded "For about a year or a year and a half I've had the urge to kill someone,"

Saying quote, "I'll admit that the motive sounds crazy, but I wanted to know if a person could commit a crime like this and not worry about the police looking for her or have it on her conscience." And in the end she stated "I've felt better since I killed him. "

After the confession, she was taken back to the scene with police and journalists and asked to explain how it went down. And oh my god if you didn't think this girl was insane yet, just buckle up bitches.

Throughout this entire this she literally couldn't even try to act remorseful. She was fucking giggling and happily showing off to everyone how she brutally murdered an innocent man !
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Trial and Aftermath:

During her incarceration before the trial, she refused to talk to Mental Health experts, Priests, hell even her Attorney at some points.

Her attorney was so dumbfounded at how much she didn't care about any of this case. Later on, an entire board of Psychiatrists evaluated Penny and found nothing at all psychologically wrong with her as far as mental illness goes.

In July of 1959, Penny pleaded guilty to second - degree murder and was sentenced to Life Imprisonment in California State Prison.

This is the first time during the entire situation that Penny showed any kind of emotion. When she was asked how she felt after the case, she literally said "I'm Unhappy."

Like, what the actual fuck Penny ! If there's literally any time at all to say anything and you say that ?!

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 good for you.

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Aftermath:

Shortly before Auggie's murder, his wife Darlene, found out she was pregnant with their first child.
After Auggie was murdered, however, she became understandably depressed knowing her daughter would never know her father.

Darlene later said in an interview she remembered being in the waiting room waiting to give birth to her daughter and was talking to a woman complaining that her husband wasn't there. Then thinking to herself how the woman would be lucky because her husband would be alive to be there and see their child.

9 months later, Darlene gave birth to daughter, Cynthia, on September 17th, 1958.

There are no records on Penny Bjorklands release, but it is widely believed she was paroled in the Mid - 1960's. At this time, Cynthia would have been in Elementary School. And since her release, Penny hasn't been heard from and nothing is really known of her life after that time.

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Well ... that's all folks. I hope you like this chapter. Comment down below any suggestions for cases to be discussed, like, share and do all that fun stuff. I will see you guys later. Byee

- Ava