Joanne Sandor was both the mother of a young girl and, using the stage name Calamity, a dancer at the Ruby Tip club. In early February 1996, she had a friendship with another dancer there, known as Tuesday, but was brutally murdered by the Frenchman after having given him a private dance in the club. (MM: "Pilot")
Profile[]
Biographical Information[]
Joanne Sandor gave birth to her daughter in circa 1991. She was neither a prostitute nor did drugs and the only reason she danced was for the money, so that she could afford to raise her young daughter.
- The birth year of Joanne Sandor's daughter can be extrapolated from the fact that her daughter is established as being five-years-old in 1996.
While trying to make a phone call, Calamity talks with Tuesday.
Finishing her shift on February 2, Calamity entered the Ruby Tip club's dressing room, adjusting a skimpy black bra she was wearing. She headed to a pay phone in the room, walking past Tuesday, who casually asked her how she was. She explained that she wanted to ensure that her daughter's baby-sitter hadn't left yet. As she waited for her call to be answered, Calamity told Tuesday that the Frenchman was back in the club, referring to him as "that weird French guy." Calamity then spoke to her daughter on the phone, confirmed that the babysitter, Cindy, was still with her daughter and asked to talk to the babysitter.
Shortly thereafter, Calamity was almost finished getting dressed into her off-duty clothes and was pulling on a cream-colored sweater when a young man entered the changing room and gave her the news that she had "a private." Even though she told him she was finished work, the man implied an insistence that she perform the private dance, telling her that it was $200 for a ten-minute performance.
Calamity dances for the Frenchman.
Calamity later danced for the Frenchman in a private booth, seductively saying to him repeatedly to tell her what he wanted and that she knew he liked to watch her body. Unbeknown to her, the Frenchman had visions of her immersed in blood and fire, while she danced. Calamity was duly paid for the dance and finally headed home.
Murder[]
Wearing the same off-duty clothes as before, Joanne Sandor was attacked by the Frenchman in her own home but she fought back. Although she was a strong woman, she suffered blunt trauma wounds and ante-mortem impact abrasions on her upper torso. She screamed in terror during the incident, which was bloody and cruel. Defeating her, the Frenchman finally murdered Joanne Sandor with a carving knife he had taken from a kitchen set in her home. She landed on her back and he severed her head, although doing so was no mean task. He also crossed her arms over her chest, cut off her fingers and planted two head hairs, from a black male, on her deceased body.
Joanne Sandor's daughter hid from the killer and did not witness the murder, after which she was held in protective custody at DSHS. A newspaper report about the murder was subsequently published in the Seattle Evening Post, written by David Adamsky, with the headline "Mother Found Murdered in Home" and the subheading "5-year-old Daughter Hid From Slayer." Retired FBI agent Frank Black came across this article, two days after the murder. He then helped investigate the case, assisting Lieutenant Bob Bletcher and a group of investigators from the Seattle Public Safety Building. As well as learning information about Calamity and her murder, Frank also saw visionary flashes of her death, with the use of his gift; he experienced these flashes while both standing over her corpse, which was hidden beneath a sheet, and at the end of the investigation, upon finally encountering the killer. The investigation of Joanne Sandor's murder was muddled by the two hairs from a black man but, while the investigation expanded to include other victims of the same killer, Frank noticed, in a photograph showing a small section of Joanne Sandor's body, that there was a tiny needle puncture mark on the corpse and Bletcher, while later with Frank, found Sandor's severed head, in a bag hidden in a coffin next to one of the other victims.
Years after her death, an article about her with the partial headline "Angry Citize-" was published in the Grand Falls Gazette reporting the police still looking for the black male suspect. The article mentioned that the daughter had awoken a neighbor who had then called 911 to alert the authorities. (MM: "In Arcadia Ego")
Use of Names[]
Joanne Sander's stage name of Calamity was written on a locker she used in the club's changing room. She was also known by the name to other employees of the club, including Tuesday; shortly after Joanne Sandor's murder, Tuesday was interviewed by Frank Black and began answering his questions by saying that the victim's name had been Calamity.
In the newspaper article written about her, Joanne Sandor was referred to by that name rather than her stage name. (MM: "Pilot")
Background Check[]
The character of Calamity was played by April Telek.
Flashes of Calamity's murder constitute the first glimpses of Frank's gift shown in Millennium.
The presence of the article regarding Joanne's death as seen in a newly-published paper in "In Arcadia Ego" seems to be a mistaken production error, given how it frames the events of the murder as having occurred recently rather than several years before.