The antique store was located in Bluff Park which is approximately 10 minutes from Birmingham. It was considered a middle class small town during that time. There was only one grocery store, a few ma and pa stores, and two gas stations, just to give you an idea of the area. No, I'm not sure who owned it but it is possible my mother knows. I will ask her when I speak with her. The Quick Mart was basically put out of business by a larger gas station that sat right across the street from it.
I don't remember hearing about any missing women or children from the Birmingham area at the time. Again, I will ask my family if they can recall anything.
I did a newspaper search for missing or murdered women (named Kim or otherwise) within the Birmingham area but came up empty handed. It seemed all the articles I came across were eventually solved and another perpetrator caught. When I researched missing children, I came across Brenda Kay Green who went missing in 1988. She was only 15 and lived in Brookwood, Alabama. Sadly, there are few details about her disappearance. Brookwood, however, is about a 30-45 minute drive from Bluff Park. It was a similar small type town at the time. Yet even though Jack had full control of the store owners van, he would have had a limited time span to commit his crimes unless he committed them late at night. He reported to work everyday, and from what I remember, he was basically on call as well. What I mean by that is if the store owner needed him after hours or weekends, he would have had to come right then and deliver furniture. The store owner never had a problem with him as far as showing up or being late. She was very close to him and always spoke highly of him.
When I looked at the prison photos of Jack, he really didn't look like the same person I remembered. Believe it or not, he was actually a nice looking man back in those days who took pride in his appearance. My mother said he spoke about dating women and never seemed to have a problem in that area. She use to kid him about flirting with customers or whatnot and he would just be playful back. He seemed very harmless, and again, there was never any clues to this other side of him. Who knows what really lurked inside his mind though. I agree about the fantasy aspect of him.
When I told my mother about his last words before his execution, she said, "You see? A man with that kind of sickness does not usually apologize in the end for being that way" and maybe she's right or perhaps she just doesn't want to accept the fact that he was more sick then she ever could imagine. It's a lot to take in. For me, I do believe if he killed one woman then it is more than possible that there were many, many others. How do you track a completely secretive man's footsteps when his words just don't add up? It's mind boggling.