Just a few of hours ago I was doing the same thing English teacher, Diane Peterson, was doing 47 years ago: cleaning up a classroom, and packing a few things before summer vacation.
Tragically, for Peterson, a student arrived at Branham High School in south San Jose with plans of his own, stabbing the young English teacher in the chest in one of the school’s corridors, and then running away.
This happened on June 16, 1978.
Peterson was 26.
The case has been cold for almost 50 years.
Until now.
DNA results from the DA’s crime lab failed to identify the killer. But recently, a family member of the assailant identified him as Harry Nickerson, a then 16-year-old student. Some reports indicated that he pursued Peterson because she had caught him dealing drugs. But this allegation was never corroborated.
Five years after the incident, another student said he saw Nickerson commit the crime, but recanted so the case eventually went cold.
This story piqued my interest because I walked the same corridors at Branham High School four years after this tragedy, and never heard a thing about it, not from teachers, students, no one.
In fact, over the last two days I’ve read several posts from former Branham students who have held onto their frustration for decades. One even said this: The school never mentioned a word and swept everything under the carpet. No grief counseling for the students, no memorial for the teacher!
Another said: Definitely was a shocking and tragic time. Interesting that the murderer was not a student at the school.
I wasn’t able to confirm the latter.
Some of you may remember the tragedy involving a young teen at Milpitas High School in 1981. In that case, 16-year-old, Anthony Jacques Broussard, murdered 14-year-old Marcy Renee Conrad, a middle schooler he was enamored with. I’ll spare the details, but not only has that story carried on, a movie was made about it, “Rivers Edge,” starring Keanu Reeves and Crispin Glover.
More alleged macabre about the Branham killing is that Nickerson carried a knife inscribed with the words “Teacher Dear” during his crime sprees.
Even today there seem to be more questions than answers. And that’s probably how it will remain. Nickerson — after a life replete with run-ins with the law, including a case of kidnapping — took his own life in 1993.
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