Retrospect: Who killed Jenny Low Chang?

In 1977 a 19-year-old SFSU student, named Jenny Low Chang, was murdered in the university library. Law enforcement believes that they know who killed her, but lack the evidence to convict. Her case remains unsolved. 

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Crime valley podcast. Today I am introducing a new series to Crime valley, called retrospect. All of the cases in this series are unsolved, and many of them are not well known. My main purpose for creating “retrospect” is to promote cases that have less coverage and little information, and today’s case is a great example of this… 

The year is 1977, the month is September and the location is San Francisco California. In the news US Catholic bishops rescind automatic ex-communications for divorced and remarried Catholics, 20,000 Scottish football fans rush the Wembley Stadium pitch after a 2/1 win for Scotland against England and Patty Hearst has just been released from prison. In the charts Dancing Queen by Abba, Hotel California by the Eagles, and Dreams by Fleetwood mac have all been recent big hits and at the movies,  Star Wars, Rocky and the Deep have been entertaining cinema-goers during the lead up to summer. 

Jenny Low Chang was a woman with big ambitions. In a time when the sciences weren’t a popular or socially normal choice for a female, Jenny was one of the pioneering women who bucked convention.  Born on the 5th of February 1958, to parents Yung Hong and Sook You Chang, and grew up with one sister and four brothers. Jenny grew up in the LA area, and attended Wilson High school, graduating in 1975.  By 1977 she was attending San Francisco state university and dating a 20-year-old man named Greg Angen, who was studying Criminology, at Long Beach State University.

Jenny had started at San Francisco state in 1975, where she majored in creative arts. After a semester of study, she started taking on biology and chemistry classes, quickly changing her major to pre-dentistry. Her goal was to become an orthodontist, and she seemed more than capable of achieving that goal, having made the Dean’s list for the prior 3 semesters. Jenny was described by people that knew her as always having her nose in a book, and her course load was intense, with stem courses such as Biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. She was an extremely studious woman and was known to have maintained brilliant grades throughout her years at the university. A deeply religious woman, friends were extremely fond of her and admired the fact that she was an extremely positive person. If you needed a pep talk, then Jenny was the type of friend who would quietly listen to your problem, before imparting some positive advice. According to her friend and classmate Pearl Yee, Jenny would jog every day to keep fit and had started taking self-defense classes. 

Jenny and her roommate Anne Thorson lived on campus at what was then called the Merced hall dormitory. Named after the nearby Merced River, Merced hall along with 2 other dormitories provided Coed housing to 1400 students. 

On Sunday the 11th of September Jenny told her roommate Anne Thorson that she was heading to the campus library. J Paul Leonard library was a 6 story building, which included a reserve library in the basement. It is thought that Jenny was planning to study there that night. At around 6 pm Jenny left the dorms on foot, for the 10-minute walk to the library. The library closed at 11 pm, which would mean that Jenny should be home well before 11:30 pm. 

The next morning when Anne woke up to find that Jenny was not in their dorm room she immediately became concerned. It was 6 am and Jenny’s bed had not been slept in. Anne called authorities and alerted them to Jenny’s disappearance. At around 8:40 that morning a psychology professor named Robert Suczek entered faculty reading room 432A, situated on the 4th floor of the J Paul Leonard library. As he walked into the reading room he was shocked by the scene before him. At first, he thought that what he was seeing was somebody’s macabre idea of a sculpture. It took him a few moments to realise that what he was seeing was actually the body of a woman, lying dead on the floor. The woman’s body was stripped of clothing, with a pair of women’s pants loosely tied around her throat. The room itself was in complete disarray, with upturned and broken furniture littering the room. On a chair, near the dead woman’s body was a pile of neatly stacked clothing and books, and study materials, a complete juxtaposition to the chaos in the rest of the room. There had clearly been a major struggle in that reading room. The victim was soon identified as Jenny Low Chang. Newspaper reports said that her roommate Anne was the one to identify her body at the coroner's office. On Tuesday the 13th of September an autopsy was performed. The results showed that Jenny had sustained massive head injuries as well as dozens of stab wounds to the stomach and chest area The stab wounds were believed to have been inflicted by a short blade knife. The head trauma was reported in many newspaper articles to have been caused by the killer hitting Jenny with a smoking stand, although a crime scene report also mentions a waste paper basket as a possible weapon. The same crime scene report also described what was referred to as a glistening material that was found on parts of Jenny’s body, which seems to be referring to Semen. Tests showed that Jenny had also been sexually assaulted.

Law enforcement began to investigate and soon determined that the upper levels of the library had been locked up at 5 pm the night before. The floors of the library were still accessible, but all of the individual rooms should have been locked. There was some talk that the lock on The psychology professor who found Jenny’s body was certain that he had used his coded card to unlock the reading room door. It was decided that the only way that Jenny could have ended up in the reading room is if somebody with a faculty card or master key had been with her. The next logical step was to question the individuals at the university who had access to these master keys and faculty cards. It may have been unsurprising that 1200 people at the university had faculty key cards, but no doubt the fact that 400+ people had master keys was astounding! Over 400 custodians, members of staff, university administration, security guards, and who knew who else had access to keys that would unlock every door within that library. No one could remember seeing Jenny after she left for the library on the evening of the 10th. Although it was reported that Jenny was heading to the basement reserves library on the night of her murder, detectives believed otherwise. In the pile of books found near Jenny’s body, a rough copy of an English essay, blank typewriter paper, and carbon sheets were found, showing that Jenny had most likely gone to the fourth floor that night to use the bank of typewriters there. 

In its 75 Years plus of being, this was San Francisco state’s first homicide. In an era when crime rates were rising and personal safety and awareness isn’t what it is today, it was perhaps unsurprising that Campus security at the time was described as lax. 

After word spread of Jenny’s brutal rape and murder, it didn’t take long for both parents and students to voice their concerns about San Francisco State university’s security. The university policy was to turn off Corridor lighting in the dorms at 11 pm each night, but in reaction to the murder, the university began to leave the lights on all night. Staffing concerns were also considered, the library staff was increased and the number of security guards doubled. An escort service was also created, which provided women with a designated escort. Females on campus could now call for an escort to meet them anywhere on campus and safely take them to their destination. Students also complained about the poorly lit parking areas, and soon the university had installed better lighting across the entire campus. A second night manager was also appointed, to work between the hours of 8 pm and 1 am. This may have placated some, but the fact that Jenny’s killer was still at large, made it a frightening time for those on campus. In the wake of Jenny’s murder, a 1$ million wrongful death was filed against the school board, trustees, and the university police, by her heartbroken parents. They felt that the school had failed to provide adequate security or supervision on campus and that the college was at fault for providing keys to people who never should have had them. The lawsuit was reportedly settled outside of court, over 5 years after its filing. 

Four days after Jenny’s murder a damning article was published in the Phoenix, a student newspaper at the time. The article alerted people to the fact that the sonic ceiling alarms were not operational on the night of Jenny’s murder. The sonic ceiling alarms were what is known now as sensor alarms, and were in place to detect movement on level 1, the main floor of the library. If the system had been in working order, it would have been activated when library staff left for the night at around 5 pm. The basement level of the library remained open until 11 pm. Upper levels of the building were still accessible by elevator, due to fire codes which meant that the elevators could be used in an evacuation situation. After the newspaper report, the administration admitted that the sonic alarm system had been malfunctioning and that the system had been under repair for 3 months. Unsurprisingly, the system was back up and running within 24 hours of the article's release. It is important to note that even if the alarm system had been in working order the night Jenny died, the system had a major flaw. Effectively anyone with the elevator key wanting to access the upper floors, via the basement after hours could do so, and bypass the first floor without setting off the alarm. The elevator locking system would later be changed in response to Jenny’s murder. 

A few other pieces of information soon came to law enforcement's attention. The university admitted that at least 2 unauthorised people had keys and that a set of keys had gone missing on August 10th, 1977. The missing keys included a master key and a key to the elevators. A week after Jenny’s murder the police chief was relieved of his duties and given other investigative duties. A statement from the office of university president Paul Romberg said “There is absolutely no connection between this personnel action and the investigation of the slaying”. 

 Interestingly, Floyd McCoy, the young library security guard on duty the night of the murder was fired on the 19th of September 1977. No reason for his firing was made public, although later newspaper reports said that McCoy had gone homesick on the night that Jenny was murdered. The firing was apparently a direct response to the fact that he had left his shift two hours early, without alerting anyone to his absence. Floyd himself was quoted as saying “ I was hired with the understanding that this was a temporary position, and that this was the time that they chose to terminate it.” McCoy’s duties on the night of Jenny’s murder included doing a final check of the first floor at 5 pm, before stationing himself in the basement reading room, until it closed at 11 pm. 

A week after Jenny’s murder a memorial service was held at the university to remember her. After the service, Jenny’s fellow students planted a tree in her honor. 

On the 29th of October 1977, just 6 weeks after Jenny’s murder a man was arrested for the Pistol Whip assault of a woman, 3 months earlier. The man that was arrested for the crime was Floyd McCoy, the same Floyd McCoy who was the lone library security guard on the night of Jenny’s death. The charges leveled at McCoy were assault with a deadly weapon, assault with intent to commit rape, and false imprisonment. A woman had gone to police back on the 26th of July 1977, alleging that a man had assaulted her the day before. The unidentified woman was a sex worker who had placed an ad in an underground publication called the Berkley Barb. Her ad was answered by a man who called her on her business number, on Sunday the 24th of July 1977. The man on the phone told the woman that he was a professor at SFU and that he was calling from the director's office of the computer center. The woman wanted to make sure that he was telling the truth, so she told him to hold while she called him from her private number. She said that the man answered the phone, and seemed surprised that it was her, considering that he was waiting for her on the other line. told her where they would meet. The man told the woman that he was working late on a project and that he would be alone. He mentioned that no other people could access the office as it was after hours, and they would need a special elevator key to do so. He gave her a phone number to call when she arrived at the library. The woman noted that the number he gave was almost identical to the number that the man had called on. The man instructed the woman to call him once she arrived and he would either come down and get her or unlock the elevator so that she could come up to the fourth floor. The woman remembered that she got to the library at around 5:20 that afternoon and proceeded to call the man on the courtesy phone, situated on the first floor. At first, she went to the wrong set of lifts, before finding the right ones which the man had presumably unlocked. The woman arrived on the fourth floor and started to walk around, calling out to the man. There was no sign of anyone, but when she started to walk amongst the stacks she was certain that she saw some movement. She called out the name given to her by the men, several more times, before deciding to give up and head home. 

Sometime after arriving home, the woman called the man and the two agreed to meet at a different location the following day. The location was outside 23 Collingwood st. The lady claimed that upon arrival at the designated meeting spot, the man had forced her into a nearby building at gunpoint, and attempted to assault her. The building the woman was forced into was the apartment building that security guard Floyd McCoy lived in. A detective said that upon his arrest the 23-year-old proclaimed his innocence and that he broke down crying. Was it a coincidence that the solo guard on duty the night of Jenny’s murder, a guard who reportedly carried a ring of keys belonging to the library, had attacked a woman 6 weeks prior to the attack on Jenny? A woman that he had arranged to meet on the same night of the week, on the same floor of the library where Jenny would be murdered? McCoy spent a year in the County jail for the assault. 

In 1982 Floyd McCoy’s name again surfaced in the media, this time in the state of Nevada. By this point, McCoy was an employee of the Reno fire department where he worked as a fire inspector. On the 14th of July 1982, he was indicted by the Washoe county grand jury and subsequently arrested. The charge? Sexual assault against a 55-year-old woman. The woman claimed that on the 1st of May that year, Floyd McCoy had come to her home saying that he had been sent to perform an inspection of her home. According to the woman McCoy was dressed in the Reno Fire department uniform and was wearing a name badge, displaying his last name. The woman claimed that as McCoy was inspecting another part of the house, she went to use the bathroom. According to her McCoy then forced his way into the bathroom where he forced her to perform oral sex on him. The woman said that she had been extremely fearful and was worried about the harm that would be done to her if she didn’t submit to his demands. The woman then alleged that after McCoy left her home she called the fire department who confirmed that they did have an employee with the last name McCoy. After he was arrested Floyd McCoy was held at the Washoe County jail, with bail set at $20,000. In May 1983 a trial was held. McCoy claimed that he and the woman had been having an affair after meeting at a bar 2 years before. He said that he went to the woman’s home to break things off with her and after the jury deliberated for 12 hours they weren’t able to reach a unanimous agreement and a mistrial was declared. The District Attorney chose to re-try the case and a new trial was held ending with the same result of a hung jury. Charges against Floyd McCoy were dropped and he walked free. The 55-year-old woman filed a civil suit against McCoy, the city of Reno, and the Reno fire department. The suit suggested that Floyd McCoy had been hired in a job that gave him access to private homes even though he had propensities for violence”. The suit was settled and although the amount awarded to the woman was said to be an undisclosed amount, sources came forward with the amount of 35,000. The fact that Floyd McCoy had been hired two months prior to the alleged attack, when he had a prior felony conviction was part of a grand jury investigation into the Reno police and fire department.  It was also reported that McCoy had lied on his initial application when he claimed to have a college degree. 

If you search Jenny Low Chang’s name you will quickly stumble across theories about who killed her. The Zodiac killer’s involvement seems to be a popular theory. So apart from geography, what could people possibly find that would make them believe that Jenny Low Chang was one of his victims? Well, there actually seems to be more to argue that it wasn’t the zodiac than it was. Jenny’s murder occurred 8 years after the Zodiac killer’s last official killing which took place in the Autumn of 1969. The circumstances of Jenny’s murder did not appear to fit the pattern of the zodiac. The lack of control at the crime scene, evident in the broken furniture and the general chaos of the fourth-faculty room was very different to known zodiac crime scenes, and the fact that Jenny had been sexually assaulted all seem to indicate that the Zodiac theory is far fetched. I believe that the reason that some people link Jenny’s murder to the Zodiac killer, is because of 18-year-old Cheri Jo Bates. Cheri Jo Bates was found murdered near the riverside city college library on October 30th, 1966. Cheri’s body was found in a laneway near the library, and she had died from knife wounds. Some people believe that Cheri Jo Bates may have been the Zodiac’s first victim. 

Other infamous killers, who have been vaguely suggested as being Jenny’s killer are Ted Bundy and Rodney Acala. 4 months after Jenny’s murder, on Jan 15th, 1978, Bundy would attack 4 college women in their sorority house, along with another college girl in a nearby apartment. killing Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy and seriously injuring Kathy Kleiner, Karen Chandler, and Cheryl Thomas. Bundy had escaped from Colorado county jail just two weeks earlier. At the time of Jenny Chang’s murder, Bundy was in a Colorado jail. From what I could find, Alcala had been paroled a few months before Jenny’s murder. 

In a 1982 article by the San Francisco examiner, one of the lead detectives on Jenny’s case said “we came close, but just not close enough, it still really bothers me to this day”. DA investigator George Stell was even more forthright when he said “Every time I pass by San Francisco state I think of her. It’s one of those things that you don’t forget easily because you know who did it but your not allowed to say so”. 

A May 1998 newspaper article out of Salt lake city Utah describes how a 41-year-old man had been charged for raping a woman who was visiting his home. It was alleged that the man invited the woman, who he met through the internet, to his home, before giving her a drugged drink, and sexually assaulting her. After the alleged assault, the man produced a badge and told the woman that he was a DEA agent. The article went on to describe how the man had been released on bail, after posting bail for another sexual assault charge 4 months prior. Another article dated late June of 1998 reported that a judge had ordered the man to stand trial on the March 1998 charges. The DNA found on the woman after she reported the assault had been matched to Floyd G McCoy. There was also a third woman who accused the man of an almost identical attack the year before. The man’s name was Floyd G McCoy, and in 1998 he was 41. I am unable to say for certain if this is the same Floyd McCoy linked to San Francisco and Reno, but it is a possibility. I do believe that Floyd McCoy the security guard may have had his age reported incorrectly in either 1977 reports from San Francisco or in 1982 in reports from Reno, where he was listed as 23 years old and 26 years old respectively. If the Reno age was correct then it is possible that the Salt lake city Floyd McCoy is the correct age to be the same man. It may or not be the same person, but the whole pretending to be a DEA agent was reminiscent of George McCoy the security guard pretending to be a college professor and using his fire department inspector status as a way to gain entry into a woman’s home. 

Before she died Jenny was a part of a group called the women of science. After her death, the group quickly worked to establish a scholarship in Jenny’s honor. There is a scholarship in Jenny’s name at SFSU. The 1500 Scholarship is awarded annually to applicants who show that they are working towards the empowerment of women in the bay city area. The scholarship places particular emphasis on those in the nursing, technology, and science fields. 

Jenny Low Chang's murder remains unsolved. Her death at the hands of her killer was brutal and without mercy. Jenny’s surviving family members deserve justice. It is unclear whether DNA samples were collected from Jenny's body or the reading room crime scene.  It is also not clear whether Jenny’s murder is still an open case, or not, and as a result of this, there aren’t any specific law enforcement numbers to call in relation to her murder. If anyone listening does have information pertaining to the murder of Jenny Low Chang in 1977 at San Francisco state university, then your best bet is to call The San Francisco police department on  1-415-553-0123. 

Thank you for listening to the very first installment of Retrospect on Crime valley. If you would like to get involved in a very new online community, then come over to the crime valley community page on Facebook and say hello. Links are provided in the show notes. Take care everyone. Stay safe, stay informed and I will see you next time in crime valley.