Timeline Murders: High Profile
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The A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (1997) by
Harold Schechter
The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (2000) by Michael Newton
969
Dec 10, Nicephorus II Phocas, Byzantine
co-Emperor (963-69), was murdered.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1034 Apr 11, Romanus III
Argyrus, Byzantine emperor (1028-34), was assassinated by his wife.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1480 Apr 18, Lucretia Borgia
(d.1519), murderess, was born. Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara,
was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, and the sister and political
pawn of Cesare Borgia. She was also considered a patroness of the
arts.
(HN, 4/18/98)(WUD, 1994, p.171)
1531 Apr 5, Richard Roose was
boiled to death for trying to poison an archbishop.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1792 Mar 16, The popular
Swedish King Gustavus III was murdered by Count Ankarstrom at an
opera. It became the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in
Maschera.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1796 Mary Lamb (31) killed her
mother with a carving knife. England deemed her a lunatic and
released into the custody of her brother Charles. In 1806 they
published “Tales From Shakespeare.” In 2005 Susan Tyler Hitchcock
authored “Mad Mary Lamb.”
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.W6)
1829 Jan 28, William Burke,
murderer, body snatcher, was executed in Edinburgh.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1836 Apr 10, Helen Jewett, a
prostitute in a Thomas St. bordello in Manhattan, was murdered. Her
boyfriend, Richard P. Robinson (17), a clerk for a local merchant,
was tried for the murder but acquitted. In 1998 Patricia Cline Cohen
published “The Murder of Helen Jewett,” an account of the story.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.W6)
c1850 Jan 30, Charles
Steingraff (50), a bachelor farmhand, was hanged in Ohio for the
murder of a deaf and blind, 12-year-old girl. An estimated 25,000
spectators watched the execution.
(ON, 10/02, p.3)
1869 Apr 12, Henri-Desire
Landru (Bluebeard), French sex murderer, was born.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1878 Sep, Herbert Hayden, a
prominent Connecticut minister, used arsenic to murder Mary
Stannard, a young servant girl that he thought he had made pregnant.
The reverend, who was tried 1st for physical assault and later for
murder was acquitted. In 1880 he produced an exculpatory account of
the case. In 1999 Virginia A. McConell authored “Arsenic Under the
Elms: Murder in Victorian New Haven.”
(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)(http://tinyurl.com/amrk5)
1888 Aug 6, Martha Turner was
murdered by an unknown assailant, believed to be Jack the Ripper, in
London, England. Between August and November 506 women were murdered
in London’s Whitechapel district. In 1994 Philip Sugden authored
“The Complete History of Jack the Ripper.”
(HN, 8/6/98)(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.W8)
1888 Aug 31, Mary Ann Nicholls,
a 42-year-old prostitute, was found murdered in London's East End.
She is generally regarded as the first of at least five murder
victims of "Jack the Ripper." [see Aug 6]
(AP, 8/31/99)(YN, 8/31/99)
1890 Aug 6, Convicted murderer
William Kemmler became the 1st person to be executed in the electric
chair. He was put to death at Auburn State Prison in New York for
murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. In 2003 Jill
Jonnes authored "Empires of Light," and account of how Edison, Tesla
and Westinghouse brought electric power to public use. In 2003 Mark
Essig authored "Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and
Death."
(AP, 8/6/97)(HN, 8/6/98)(MC, 8/6/02)(WSJ,
8/19/03, p.D5)(Econ, 9/20/03, p.81)
1896 May 7, Dr. Henry Howard
Holmes (b.1860), serial killer, was hanged to death in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmantown, New
Hampshire, to a devout Methodist family, Holmes spent much of his
childhood torturing animals. He later graduated from the University
of Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education
with a series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for
nonexistent people and then presented corpses as the insured. In
1886, Holmes moved to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months
later, he killed the elderly owner of the store but told everyone
that the man had left him in charge. With a new series of cons,
Holmes raised enough money to build a giant, elaborate home across
from the store. The home, which Holmes called "The Castle," had
secret passageways, fake walls, and trapdoors. Young women in the
area, along with tourists who had come to see the 1893 World's Fair
in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in Holmes' castle, suddenly
began disappearing. Medical schools purchased many human skeletons
from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked how he obtained
the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after attempting to
use another corpse, his assistant Benjamin Pitezel, in an insurance
scam. He confessed, saying, "I was born with the devil in me. I
could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet
can help the inspiration to sing." Reportedly, authorities
discovered the remains of over 200 victims on his property.
(www.thecrimeweb.com/hhholmes.htm)
1905 Dec 30, Governor Frank
Steunenberg of Idaho was killed by an assassin's bomb. The former
Gov. of Idaho, was blown up by a booby-trapped gate in front of his
home in Caldwell, Idaho. Three Western Federation of Miners leaders
in Colorado, Charles Moyer, George Pettibone and William Haywood,
were “legally kidnapped” to Idaho and put on trial for the murder.
The event and surrounding circumstances were described by J. Anthony
Lukas in his 1997 book: “Big Trouble.”
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)(HN, 12/30/98)
1906 Feb 23, Johann Hoch, US
murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1908 Apr, Hootch Simpson, a
saloon keeper in Skidoo, Ca. (Death Valley), shot and killed Joe
Arnold, the town banker. Simpson was hung and buried the next
morning, but was dug up and re-hung for a newspaper reporter.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1908 Belle Gunness (48),
reportedly died in a fire at her farm in Laporte, Indiana. Many
locals believed Gunness, dubbed Lady Bluebeard, staged her death and
had killed at least 25 people before the fire.
(AP, 4/27/08)
1913 Apr 26, Mary Phagan (13)
was killed at an Atlanta pencil factory. She had stopped to pick up
her check on her way to Peachtree Street to see a Confederate
Memorial Day Parade. Leo Frank (29), a Jewish factory manager, was
falsely accused of raping and murdering the young working-class
girl. Georgia Gov. John M. Slaton later commuted Frank’s sentence to
life, but a vigilante crowd dragged him out of prison and lynched
him on Aug 17. In 1968 Leonard Dinnerstein authored “The Leo Frank
Case.” The story is covered in the 1997 novel "The Old Religion" by
David Mamet. In 1998 the musical "Parade" was produced based on the
Frank lynching.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.6)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)(WSJ,
6/9/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.W8)
1918 Dec 14, Sidonio Pais,
prince of Portugal, was murdered.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1921 May 27, Caryl Chessman,
kidnapper who got death penalty in 1960, was born.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1922 Sep 16, Rev. Edward
Wheeler Hall and his mistress, choir member Eleanor Mills, were
found shot to death in a New Jersey apple orchard. Hall’s wife and
her 2 brothers were indicted for the murder, but they were acquitted
at trial. In 1964 William Kunstler authored “The Minister and the
Choir Singer, “ an account of the double murder and trial.
(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1924 Feb 8, The gas chamber was
used for the first time to execute a murderer. Major D.A. Turner of
the US Medical Corps used hydrocyanic gas on an alleged Chinese Tong
member named Gee Jon at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nev.
(HN, 2/8/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(AP, 2/8/99)
1924 May 21, Bobby Franks (14)
was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr.
(19) and Richard Loeb (18), two rich college kids of the University
of Chicago. The meticulously planned crime might never have been
solved had Leopold's unique eyeglasses not been found near Franks'
body. They were defended by Clarence Darrow, who pleaded his clients
guilty in order to keep the case from a jury. Richard Loeb was a
cousin of Bobby Franks. The sensational two-month trial generated an
outcry in favor of execution, but Judge John Caverly sentenced the
two to life imprisonment. Loeb was killed in a prison fight in 1936.
Leopold, with the support of Prosecutor Crowe, was released from
prison in 1958 and died of a heart attack in 1971. In 1956 Meyer
Levin authored “Compulsion,” an account of the case. A play
dramatizing the case was written in 1995 by John Logan. In 2008
Simon Baatz authored “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the
Murder That Shocked Chicago.”
(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-12)(AP,
5/21/97)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W8)
1926 Oct 11, Walter Swanson,
Michael Petrovich and John Duane were murdered. Clarence "Buck"
Kelly was hanged at San Quentin Prison for the murders on May 12,
1928.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)
1927 In California Harry Hill
shot and killed state Sen. Charles W. Lyon of Los Angeles inside the
state capitol building, for engaging in a relationship with
Marybelle Wallace. Hill, a Sacramento lobbyist, then shot and killed
himself. Wallace was Hill’s mistress and an employee of Sen. Lyon.
(SSFC, 10/27/02, p.A16)
1929 In Nagyrev, Hungary, some
40 men were poisoned by their wives or daughters-in-law with arsenic
laced duck soup, tea and wine. 6 local women were sentenced to die,
but only 2 were executed. The midwife ringleader, who extracted the
arsenic from flypaper, committed suicide. The 2003 Hungarian film
“Hiccup” was based on the poisonings.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)
1932 Jan 8, Joseph Kahahawai
(21) was kidnapped and killed by a vigilante group following an
alleged gang rape. Thalia Massie, her husband, mother, and 2 other
suspects were convicted of manslaughter in the Kahahawai murder, but
their sentences were commuted to one hour in the custody of
Territorial Gov. Lawrence Judd. They then sailed to SF to avoid a
new trial. In 2005 David E. Stannard authored “Honor Killing: How
the Famous Masie Affair Transformed Hawaii.”
(SFC, 5/28/05, p.E1)
1932 Mar 1, Charles Lindbergh
Jr. (20 months), the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was
kidnapped from his nursery at the family home near Hopewell,
(Princeton) N.J. A handwritten note left at the scene demanded a
$50,000 ransom. Under relentless public scrutiny, the Lindberghs
complied with the ransom demands, but on May 12, the child’s remains
were found two miles from their home. German immigrant Bruno Richard
Hauptmann was arrested and convicted for the crime amid a frenzy of
biased media coverage. Hauptmann maintained his innocence until his
execution in 1936. In 1961 George Waller authored “Kidnap,” an
account of the kidnapping and trial.
(TMC, 1994, p.1932)(AP, 3/1/98)(HN, 3/1/98)(HNPD,
3/1/99)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1934 Mar 3, John Dillinger
broke out of jail using a wooden pistol.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1934 Apr 1, Bonnie and
Clyde killed 2 police officers near Grapevine, Texas.
(OTD)(ON, 7/02, p.2)
1934 May 23, Bonnie Parker and
Clyde Barrow were shot some 4 dozen times early in the morning in a
police ambush by Texas Rangers as they were driving a stolen Ford
Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, near Sailes, La. This ended
the most spectacular manhunt seen in America up to that time. The
pair had spent the previous 2 years killing and robbing banks in the
Midwest. Bonnie Parker was 19 and Clyde Barrow was 21 when they met
in Dallas in 1930. By the time the Barrow gang's crime spree ended
four years later, Bonnie, Clyde, Clyde's brother Buck and Buck's
wife had terrorized the Southwest and Midwest and were believed to
have committed 13 murders. In 1997 Clyde’s bullet-ridden shirt was
auctioned off to a Nevada casino for $85,000. His largest theft was
estimated at $4,000. In 1979 Ted Hinton and Larry Grove authored
“Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde.”
(SFC, 4/3/97, p.A13)(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A13)(AP,
5/23/97)(HNPD, 5/29/99)(HN, 5/23/02)(ON, 7/02, p.3)
1935 Feb 13, A jury in
Flemington, N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of
first-degree murder in the kidnap-death of the infant son of Charles
and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was later executed.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1936 Aug 14, Rainey Bethea was
hanged in the last US public execution.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1939 Jan 16, Albert Fish, mass
murderer, was executed.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1939 Jul 13, Howard Long was
hanged at the New Hampshire State Prison for the sex-killing of
10-year-old Mark Neville Jensen of Alton.
(http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/aug97/0184.html)
1941 Dec 6, Richard Speck, mass
murderer (killed 8 student nurses in 1966), was born.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1942 Mar 17, John Wayne Gacy,
serial killer (32 boys), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1947 Jan 15, A grisly,
still-unsolved murder case came to light in Los Angeles as the
mutilated remains of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short,
known as the "Black Dahlia" for the dark outfits she wore, were
found dumped in a vacant lot. Her body was severed at the waist,
drained of blood and fully posed in a vacant lot. The Black Dahlia
murder case remained unsolved even though 500 hundred men confessed
to the murder. In 1977 John Gregory Dunne authored "True
Confessions," a novel based on the case. In 1987 James Ellroy
authored "The Black Dahlia." In 2003 Steve Hodel authored "Black
Dahlia Avenger," in which he held that the killer was Dr. George
Hodel, his own father.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.C16)(AP,
1/15/01)(NW, 4/21/03, p.59)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D1)(SFC, 4/16/04, p.B7)
1948 Jul 3, Kidnapper Caryl
Chessman was sentenced to death.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1948 Dec 18, Janet Fay was
hammered to death by Honeymoon Killers.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1949 Sep 6, Howard Unruh (28)
killed 13 neighbors in 12 minutes in Camden, New Jersey.
(www.fact-index.com/h/ho/howard_unruh.html)
1954 Jul 4, Marilyn Sheppard
(31 and pregnant) was killed at her home near Cleveland and her
husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard (d.1970), was later accused, tried and
jailed for the murder. Sam was released from jail in 1964. His story
inspired the TV series "The Fugitive" and a film in 1993. DNA
evidence in 1997 indicated a third person was involved. Cleveland’s
chief prosecutor ruled in 1998 that the DNA samples were too old. A
civil trial in Cleveland in 2000 rejected the claim of Sam Reese
Sheppard that his father was innocent.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A6)(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A3)(SFC,
3/6/98, p.A3)(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A2)
1954 Dec 21, Dr. Sam Sheppard,
an osteopathic surgeon, was convicted of murdering his pregnant
wife, Marilyn, and was sentenced to life in prison. Sheppard spent
10 years in prison before the Supreme Court overturned the verdict;
he was acquitted at retrial in 1966 and died four years later. [see
Jul 4]
(AP, 12/21/04)
1955 Apr 28, Stephanie Bryan
(14) failed to return home from school at Willard Jr. High in
Berkeley, Ca. She was allegedly kidnapped by Burton Abbott, a
married accounting student at Cal. Abbott was convicted and executed
at San Quentin in 1957 just minutes before Gov. Knight called for a
stay. In 1995 Keith Walker authored “A Trail of Corn,” covering the
case. [see Jul 20]
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)(SSFC, 5/2/04, p.A2)
1955 Jul 13, Ruth Ellis, last
English woman (murderess), was executed by hanging.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1955 Jul 20, The body of
Stephanie Bryan was found in Trinity County, Ca., where Burton
Abbott owned a fishing cabin. Burton W. "Bud" Abbott, an ex-GI, was
later convicted and executed for her murder. The story is covered in
the 1997 book: "Shallow Grave in Trinity County" by Harry Farrell.
[see Apr 28]
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.D5)(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)
1955 Oct 31, William "Billy"
Woodward, Jr. (b.1920), heir to the Hanover National Bank fortune
(later Manufacturer's Hanover), the Belair Estate and stud farm and
legacy, and a leading figure in racing circles, was shot to death by
his wife, Ann. In 1985 Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) authored “The Two
Mrs. Grenvilles,” based on the Woodward murder case. The book was
turned into a television movie in 1987.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Woodward,_Jr.)
1957 Mar 15, Burton Abbot was
executed for the 1955 abduction and killing of 14-year-old Stephanie
Bryan.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)
1959 Feb 20, Joel Rifkind, NY
serial killer, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1959 Jun 25, Charles
Starkweather, spree murderer, was executed.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1960 May 17, Connecticut
executed Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky in the electric chair for a
series of murders and robberies.
(http://capitaldefenseweekly.com/chair.htm)
1961 Feb 16, Wilbert Ridieu
(19) robbed the Lake Charles, La., Gulf National Bank. He walked out
with $14,000 and 3 hostages, 2 of whom he shot and left for dead.
Rideau stabbed to death Julia Ferguson on a rural Louisiana road
following the bank robbery. He confessed and was sentenced to death
3 times. Rideau escaped death in the 1970s when the death penalty
was outlawed. In 2003 his case was still in court. While in prison
Rideau became a self-educated writer and elevated the prison
magazine, the Angolite, to national acclaim. In 2005 Rideau was set
free for time served after a racially mixed jury found him guilty of
manslaughter.
(NW, 1/13/03, p.52)(AP, 1/16/05)(SFC, 1/17/05,
p.A5)
1963 Mar 6, Jimmy Lee Smith and
Gregory Powell abducted 2 Los Angeles police officers from a
Hollywood street, drove them to an onion field in Bakersfield and
shot officer Ian Campbell to death. Officer Karl Hettinger managed
to escape. Smith served 19 years for his role in the case before he
was paroled. In 1973 Joseph Wambaugh authored “The Onion Field,” a
novel based on the murder. The novel was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 6/28/05, p.B8)
1963 Mar 16, Phung Vuong,
murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), was born in Saigon, Vietnam.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 Jul, Serial killers
Myra Hindley (d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors
Murderers), began abducting, molesting and killing children in
Britain. The pair were caught in Oct, 1965.
(AP, 11/16/02)
1964 Mar 13, Some 38 residents
of a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens failed to
respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she was being stabbed
to death.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1965 Apr 14, Perry E. Smith and
Robert E. Hickok, US murderers (In Cold Blood), were hanged.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1964 Jun 21, Three young civil
rights workers, Andrew Goodman 20, Michael Schwerner 24, and James
Chaney 21, disappeared near Meridian, Mississippi. Their car was
found burning late in the day. Forty days later their bodies were
found buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Miss. Eight
Klansman went to prison on federal conspiracy charges but none
served more than 6 years, and murder charges were never filed. The
event inspired the 1988 film Mississippi Burning. In 2005 Edgar Ray
Killen (80) was arrested in Philadelphia, Miss., and convicted of
manslaughter in the 1964 abduction and killing of 3
voter-registration volunteers.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 6/21/97)(HN,
6/21/01)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A1)
1965 Oct, In Britain
child serial killers Myra Hindley (d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian
Brady (the Moors Murderers), were caught. [see 1966]
(AP, 11/16/02)
1966 Jul 14, In Chicago Richard
Speck murdered 8 student nurses in a Chicago dormitory. He made a
videotape in prison and admitted to the killings. Gloria Davy,
Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne
Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina
Paison; all nursing students at the South Chicago Community
Hospital; were raped then strangled or stabbed to death by Richard
Speck. One survivor, Cora Amurao, identified Richard Speck,
and he was put in jail. He was serving consecutive sentences
of 50 to 150 years and died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. The
video shows him having sex and snorting cocaine in prison.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(TMC, 1994, p.1966)(AP,
7/14/97)(MC, 7/14/02)
1966 Aug 1, Charles Joseph
Whitman (25), architectural engineering student and ex-Marine, shot
and killed 15 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned
down by police. His mother and wife were the first victims before he
climbed to the tower at the Univ. of Texas in Austen and shot 14
people dead and wounded 31. The 1997 film "The Delicate Art of the
Rifle" by the Cambrai Liberation Collective of North Carolina was a
reimaging of the attack at the Austin Campus.
(AP, 8/1/97)(SFC,10/18/97, p.E1)(SFC,11/19/97,
p.A3)(MC, 8/1/02)
1966 Oct 30, The Zodiac killer
murdered a female college student in Riverside. In 1985 Robert
Graysmith authored "Zodiac" in which he identified the killer with
the pseudonym of "Robert Starr," and later identified him as Arthur
Leigh Allen (d.1992), a convicted child molester from Vallejo.
Graysmith authored "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002. In 2009 Deborah Perez
(47) asserted that her father, Santa Ana resident Guy Ward
Hendrickson (d.1983), was the Zodiac killer and that she had
accompanied him on some of the killings.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M6)(SFC,
4/30/09, p.A9)
1966 Myra Hindley
(d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors Murderers), were
sentenced to life in prison for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley
Ann Downey and 17-year-old Edward Evans. Brady was also found guilty
of killing John Kilbride, 12, and Hindley for sheltering her lover
after that murder. The pair confessed in 1987 to murdering Pauline
Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12. The serial killings from July 1963
to October 1965 horrified Britain. In 1997 a 13-foot high painting
titled “Myra” by Marcus Harvey was displayed at the Royal Academy of
Arts. It was created from children’s handprints and based on a mug
shot of Myra.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.E5)(AP, 11/16/02)
1967 Jan 18, Albert DeSalvo,
who claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," was convicted in
Cambridge, Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses.
Sentenced to life, DeSalvo was killed by a fellow inmate in 1973.
DeSalvo had confessed to being the Boston Strangler and killing 13
women. He was never convicted of murder. A portrait of him with
police interviews was made in 1996 for TV show Biography. In 1999
DNA evidence was sought to confirm DeSalvo's claims.
(SFC, 6/6/96, E9)(AP, 1/18/98)(SFC, 7/10/99,
p.A4)
1967 Jun 5, Murderer Richard
Speck (1941-1991) was sentenced to death in electric chair for the
murder of 8 student nurses on July 14, 1966. The Illinois Supreme
Court upheld his conviction and death sentence on November 22, 1968.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Speck)
1968 Feb 8, In South Carolina
Lee Roy Martin, called the editor of a local newspaper, and told him
where to find the bodies of two women he'd dumped in the woods. He
threatened to kill even more women until he was "shot down like the
dog I am." Clues in the area led to Martin's arrest. He was
convicted of four murders and sentenced to four life terms. In 1972,
he was stabbed to death in his cell.
(AP, 7/4/09)
1968 Linda Harmon (14) was
raped, beaten and stabbed to death in SF. In 2003 DNA evidence
identified William Speer (61), a convicted sexual predator, as the
murderer.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A13)
1969 Mar 3, Sirhan Sirhan
testified in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1969 Aug 8, Actress Sharon Tate
(26) and four other people were brutally murdered in her Beverly
Hills home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples
were later convicted of the crime. The best writing on the Manson
murders was by Joan Didion in "The White Album."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN,
8/9/98)(SFEC, 9/19/99, BR p.6)
1969 Aug 10, Leno and Rosemary
LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of
Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four
other people were found slain.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1969 Aug 31, Andrew Phillip
Cunanan, serial killer, was born. His victims included fashion
designer Gianni Versache.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1969 Sep, Susan Nason (8) of
Foster City, Ca., was bludgeoned to death. Her body was found 2
months later near Crystal Springs. In Dec 1989 Nason's neighbor and
schoolmate, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker, told police that she suddenly
remembered seeing her father batter her friend and hide the body. In
1990 George Franklin was convicted in the first case to use
recovered-memory testimony. Franklin was released after 6 1/2 years
when a federal judge ruled a mistrial. DNA evidence showed Franklin
was not responsible.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1969 Dec 31, In Clarksville,
Pa., Joseph Yablonski was murdered with his wife and daughter.
Yablonski had lost an election for the presidency of the United Mine
Workers 3 weeks earlier. [see Jan 5, 1970]
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1970 Jan 5, Joseph A.
Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the
United Mine Workers, was found murdered with his wife and daughter
at their Clarksville, Pa., home. Nine people were later charged in
the killing including UMW Pres. W.A. Boyle.
(AP, 1/5/98)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1970 Oct 19, John Linley
Frazier murdered Dr. Victor Ohta, his wife, 2 children and secretary
in Santa Cruz, Ca. He was convicted in Nov. 1970, and sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 1/27/05,
p.B7)(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/frazier.htm)
1971 Jan 25, Charles Manson and
three female followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and
conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress
Sharon Tate.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1971 Feb 20, Shalanda Burt, US
murderess, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1971 Apr 19, Charles Manson and
3 accomplices were sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/manson/23.html)
1971 May 18, Vampire rapist
Wayne Boden’s last victim was found.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1971 May 26, Juan Corona
(b.1934) was arrested for 25 murders. The farm labor contractor from
Yuba City Ca., had killed and mutilated 25 farm workers. He was
convicted to life in prison.
(SFEC, 5/4/97,
p.B12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Corona)
1971 Aug 28, Nathan Leopold, US
kidnapper, murderer of Bobby Franks (1924), died.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1971 Oct 30, Mack Ray Edwards,
California serial killer, hanged himself while on death row. He
admitted to 6 sexually motivated murders in the 1950s and 1960s and
later told a jailer that the number was closer to 20.
(SSFC, 10/12/08,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Ray_Edwards)
1971 Nov 27, Eric Menendez,
accused with his brother of killing their parents (1989), was born
in New Jersey.
(www.biography.com/notorious/crimefiles.do?catId=259455&action=view&profileId=259645)
1971 John Linley Frazier,
hippie revolutionary, was convicted of killing 5 people in Santa
Cruz and was sentenced to death.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1972 Dec 25, Lois Petrie was
raped and killed in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. In 2003
Adolph Theodore Laudenburg (77) was arrested for the murder based on
DNA evidence. He was suspected in a total of 6 murders between 1972
and 1975, 3 in LA and 3 in SF.
(SFC, 9/9/03, p.A13)
1972-73 Edmund Kemper III (b.1948) murdered 6
female college students and chopped up their bodies in the Santa
Cruz, Ca., area. In 1964, at age 15, he had shot and killed his
grandparents. He killed his mother and a friend of hers in Santa
Cruz on Easter weekend, 1973, and soon surrendered. He was sentenced
to life in prison at Vacaville, Ca.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/kemper/edmund_1.html)
1972-1994 Russian Andrei Chikatilo convicted and
executed in 1994 for killing and mutilating 52 women and children in
Russia over a 12-year period.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1973 Feb 5, Juan Corona was
sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms for 25 murders.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1973 Aug 19, In Santa Cruz,
Ca., Herbert Mullin (b.1947) was declared guilty of first-degree
murder in the cases of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis, because they
were premeditated, while for the other eight murders he was found
guilty of second-degree murder because they were more impulsive. His
story was alter told by Donald T. Lunde and Jefferson Morgan in “The
Die Song: A Journey in the Mind of a Mass Murderer.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Mullin)
1973 The 6 members of the Alday
family were killed on their farm during a robbery in southwest
Georgia. In 2003 Carl Isaacs (49) was executed for his role in the
killings.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A7)
1974 Jan 15, In Wichita,
Kansas, 4 members of the Otero family were found murdered. Their
murder was later associated with the BTK serial killer. In 2005
Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10-counts of 1st degree murder for
killings from 1974-1991.
(SSFC, 2/27/05,
p.A3)(www.kansas.com/214/story/16542.html)
1974 Feb 1, Lynda Ann Healy,
1st Bundy murder victim, was abducted in Seattle.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6664381)
1974 Mar 12, Bundy
victim Donna Manson (b.1954) disappeared from Evergreen State
College in Olympia, Wa.
(www.doenetwork.org/cases/565dfwa.html)
1974 Apr 17, Ted Bundy victim
Susan Rancourt disappeared from CWU, Ellensburg, WA.
(www.real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/VICKR.HTML#Rancourt,%20Susan)
1974 May 6, Bundy victim
Roberta Parks disappeared from OSU, Corvallis, Ore.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6664391)
1974 Jun 11, Georgann Hawkins,
Bundy victim, disappeared from UW, in Seattle, Wash.
(www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hawkins_georgeann.html)
1974 Jul 14, Bundy victims
Janice Ott and Denise Naslund disappeared at Lake Sammamish, WA.
(http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/horror/drlarry/bundy3.htm)
1974 Oct 2, Nancy Wilcox,
believed to have been a victim of the serial killer Ted Bundy
(d.1989), disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah.
(www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wilcox_nancy.html)
1974 Oct 28, Missionaries Mark
Fischer (19) of Milwaukee, Wis., and Gary Darley (20) of Simi
Valley, Calif., disappeared in Austin, Texas. Their bodies were
never found. Robert Elmer Kleasen, taxidermist, was convicted for
their murder and sentenced to death in 1975, but was released after
2 years due to a faulty search warrant. He moved to Britain and in
2001 was convicted again based on DNA evidence, but died in 2003
while awaiting possible extradition.
(AP, 4/21/03)
1974 Oct 31, Suspected Bundy
victim Laura Aime disappeared in Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1974 Nov 8, Debi Kent
disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was later identified as
another victim of Theodore “Ted” Bundy (1946-1989), the Green River
Murderer, who would be officially convicted of killing 36 women and
executed on January 24, 1989, in Florida.
(www.crimelibrary.com/bundy/attack.htm)
1974 Nov 24, Susan Murphy,
3-months pregnant, was killed in her Oakland home on her 19th
birthday. In 2002 DNA evidence identified and arrested Ellis Lorenzo
Lockett for the murder.
(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A23)
1974 Dec 1, L.A. Skid Row
slasher killed 1st of 8 victims.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1975 Mar 15, Ted Bundy victim
Julie Cunningham disappeared from Vail, Colo.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1975 Apr 6, Bundy victim Denise
Oliverson disappeared from Grand Junction, Colo.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1975 Apr 11, John Dadian (67),
cab driver, was shot and killed by Brandy Giggey (16) during a
robbery attempt on Ocean Beach, SF.
(SFCM, 11/10/02, p.13)
1975 May 6, Bundy victim
Lynette Culver disappeared from Pocatello, Idaho.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1975 Jul 1, Shelley Robertson,
a Bundy victim, disappeared in Colorado. Her body was found on
August 21,1975, in a mine in Berthoud Pass, Colorado.
(www.crimenews2000.com/memorial/00052902pg8.htm)
1975 Jul 4, Nancy Baird (23), a
Bundy victim, disappeared from a convenience store where she worked
in Layton, Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1975 Sep 29, Peter Sutcliffe,
who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper, killed his 1st victim.
(www.essortment.com/all/petersutcliffe_rnyb.htm)
1975 Sep 30, In Rome Donatella
Colasanti (17) was found bloodied and battered, but alive in the
boot of a car. Beside her was the dead body of her friend Rosaria
Lopez (20). Both had undergone hours of torture before Lopez was
finally drowned in a bath. Colasanti had escaped the same fate only
by playing dead. Andrea Ghira was found guilty in the "Circeo
Massacre," named for the town near Rome where two girls were held
captive for 36 hours and then left wrapped in plastic in a car
trunk, where one girl died. He was convicted in absentia for the
slaying. In 2005 his body was found in a cemetery in a Spanish
enclave in Morocco, where he was buried in 1994.
(AP,
10/29/05)(http://rome.wantedineurope.com/articles/complete_articles.php?id_art=559)
1975 Oct, Deborah Gardner (23)
was stabbed (22 times) to death in Tonga by Dennis Priven (24), a
fellow Peace Corps volunteer. In 2004 Philip Weiss authored
“American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps.”
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.M2)
1975 Dec, The bodies of
Tourists Connie Jo Bronzich (29) and Laurent Armand Carriere were
found badly burned in a field outside Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2003
Charles Sobhraj (59) was ordered to stand trial for their murder.
Police said he had killed as many as 20 people. In 2004 he was
convicted in Nepal and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 11/21/03,
p.D1)(www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1175776.htm)
1975 Thailand issued a warrant
for the arrest of Charles Sobhraj on charges of drugging and killing
six women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya. Sobhraj is
also accused of killing more than 20 young Western backpackers
across Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink, in the 1970s
and 1980s. Sobhraj, serving 20 years in India, escaped from prison
in the mid-1980s, but was caught and returned to jail until 1997. In
2003 French national Sobhraj was arrested from a casino in Kathmandu
on charges that he traveled to the Himalayan nation on a fake
passport 32 years ago. He was subsequently sentenced to life in
prison for murdering an American backpacker in 1975.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
1976 Feb 15, In Los Angeles
Elizabeth McKeown (67) was beaten, raped and strangled. A young
homicide detective found her body 3 days later in a car trunk. In
2009 John Floyd Thomas Jr. (72), an insurance claims adjuster, was
arrested based on DNA evidence. A series of attacks stopped in 1978,
the year Thomas went to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 9/24/09, p.D3)
1976-1977 David Berkowitz, aka "Son of Sam,"
killed six people and wounded seven others in New York City. Serving
six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1977 Aug 10, Postal employee
David Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, N.Y., accused of being the
"Son of Sam" gunman responsible for six slayings and seven
woundings. Berkowitz was sentenced to six consecutive
25-years-to-life sentences.
(AP, 8/10/07)
1977 Aug 15, Police in Cape
Girardeau, Mo., found Mary Parsh (58) and her daughter, Brenda (27),
lying nude side by side on a bed at home, their hands tied behind
their backs. Each had been shot in the head. In 2007 Timothy Krajcir
(63), a graduate from Southern Illinois with a degree in law
enforcement, confessed to their rape and murder and at least 4 more.
(AP, 12/12/07)
1977 Sep 11, Lou Ellen Burleigh
(21) of Walnut Creek, Ca., went missing. Roger Kibbe was later
identified as a suspect confessed to her rape and murder. In 2009
Kibbe, who had become known as the I-5 strangler, was convicted of
her murder and that of 5 others. In 2011 remains of Burleigh were
found in a dry riverbed near Lake Berryessa.
(SFC, 6/28/11, p.C6)
1977 Sep, In Philadelphia Helen
“Holly” Maddux, a Bryn Mawr College graduate from Tyler, Texas, was
murdered and stuffed into a steamer trunk for 18 months until her
body was discovered. Ira Einhorn, “hippie guru” was arrested for the
murder in 1979 but released on bail. He fled to hide in France. Fred
Maddux, Holly's father, committed suicide in 1988. Einhorn was
convicted in absentia in 1993. In June,1997, he was arrested in
France. A French court ruled against extradition and released
Einhorn. Einhorn was arrested in 1998 under a new extradition
warrant. The events were broadcast as a TV crime story in 1999
titled "The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer." In 1999 The French Supreme
Court ruled that Einhorn should be returned to the US. In 1999 a
civil suit ordered Einhorn to pay $907 million to the Maddux family.
Einhorn was extradited to the US in 2001. he was convicted of murder
Oct 17, 2002.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A2)(SFC,12/5/97, p.A17)(SFC,
9/22/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(SFC,
5/28/99, p.D3)(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A8)(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)(SFC,
10/18/02, p.A7)
1977 Dec 30, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), serial killer, escaped from jail in Colorado. His
absence was not noticed until the next day. He was re-captured in
Florida on February 15, 1978, after 3 more murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1979 Jul 23, Ted Bundy was
convicted of 2 Florida slayings. In 1980 he was convicted of the
murder and rape of Kimberly Leach (12). Bundy eventually confessed
to more than 30 killings and was executed in 1989.
(AP,
1/13/04)(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/14.html)
1977-1993 In Missouri a serial killer committed at
least 12 murders during this period. In 2004 Kansas City police used
DNA technology to charge Lorenzo Gilyard with 12 murders.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
1978 Oct 12, Nancy Spungen
(b.1958), girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found
dead on the bathroom floor of their NYC hotel room.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Spungen)
1978 Jan 15, Lisa Levy and
Margaret Bowman, two students at Florida State University in
Tallahassee, were murdered in their sorority house. Theodore Bundy
(1946-1989) was later convicted of the crime, and executed.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1978 Feb 9, Kimberly Leach (12)
was killed by Ted Bundy in Lake City, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Leach)
1978 Feb 15, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), American escaped serial killed, was recaptured in
Pensacola, Fla. Bundy eventually confessed to 29 murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1978 May 11, Carol Schmal (23)
and Lawrence Lionberg (29) were murdered in Chicago. Four men were
arrested for rape and murder and 2 of the men were sentenced to
death. In 1999 Kenny Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson and
Dennis Williams were released after a journalism class proved their
innocence. The men then filed a suit and settled with Cook County
for $36 million.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A3)
1978 Jul 23, Franklin Bradshow
was killed in SLC, Utah. His daughter, Frances B. Schreuder
(d.2004), had persuaded her son to kill her wealthy father due to
"his stinginess." Schreuder was convicted in 1983.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.B6)
1978 Sep 6, Bulgarian defector
Georgi Markov, living in London, was stabbed in the leg by a man
carrying an umbrella; Markov died four days later, an apparent
victim of the Bulgarian secret police.
(AP, 9/7/08)
1978 Sep 11, Kippi Vaught and
Rhonda Scheffler (17) were kidnapped from a shopping mall in
Sacramento. Their bodies were found 2 days later east of town.
Gerald Gallego (b.1946) and accomplice Charlene Williams (24) began
a rape and murder spree that left 9 women and one young man dead.
Williams served 17 years in prison. Gallego was sentenced to death
but was still alive with appeals.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)
1978 Sep 11, Georgi Markov, a
Bulgarian defector, died at a British hospital four days after being
stabbed by a man wielding a poisoned umbrella tip. British
investigative reporter Peter Earle (d.1997 at 71) revealed that
Markov was jabbed by an East German agent with a poison tipped
umbrella on Waterloo Bridge. The original report stated that Markov
died of a heart attack. In 1993 Danish authorities charged a Dane of
Italian origin, Francesco Guillino, with killing Markov. Guillino,
who reportedly had worked for the Bulgarian secret services since
1972, denied any wrongdoing and eventually was freed. In 2005
journalist Hristo Hristov authored “Kill Vagabond,” in which he
presented new evidence confirming that the hit was planned and
carried out by Bulgaria's communist-era secret service.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)(AP, 9/11/98)(AP,
6/16/05)(SFC, 6/17/05, p.W5)
1978 In Italy Maurizio
Minghella was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing
4 women. In 1995 he was given partial liberty and prosecutors say he
killed 4 prostitutes. In 2002 his trial continued in Turin.
(AP, 1/3/03)
1978-1983 Scottish-born Dennis Nilsen (b.1945),
British serial killer, murdered 15 men during this period. In 1983
Nilsen was sentenced to life in prison after admitting the murders.
(AP,
1/13/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Nilsen)
1978-1992 Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men and boys,
most in Milwaukee, during this period. He was convicted and
sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms and was killed in prison in
1994.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1979 Jan 12, Kenneth Bianchi,
LA's Hillside Strangler, was arrested in Bellingham, Wa. He and his
cousin Angelo Buono (d.2002 at 67) sexually assaulted and murdered
as man as 13 young women (12-28) in 1977-1978, and dumping their
bodies on LA-area hillsides. Bianchi testified against Buono to
escape the death penalty. Buono was convicted on 9 of 10 murder
counts and was sentenced to life in prison
(SSFC, 9/22/02, p.A7)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A17)
1979 Jun 20, Robin Samsoe (12)
was kidnapped in Huntington Beach, Ca. Her dismembered and
decomposing body was found 12 days later in the Angeles National
Forest. Rodney Alcala was arrested and convicted of the slaying in
1980, but the sentence was overturned. He was convicted again in
1986 but a judge faulted the ruling in 2005 and a retrial was
scheduled. Alcala pleaded innocent to 4 other sex-torture killings
that dated back to 1977.
(SFC, 11/23/05,
p.B3)(www.kleph.com/story/ruling.htm)
1979 Jun 24, Brenda Lynn Judd
(13) and Sandra Colley (14) were kidnapped in Reno by Gerald Gallego
(33) and Charlene Williams. The bodies of Judd (14) and Colley (13)
were found in Dec 1999 in Lassen Ct., Ca., near the Nevada state
line. Gallego died in 2002 at age 56.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)(SFC,
7/20/02, p.A15)
1979 Jul 24, A Miami jury
convicted Theodore Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of
Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa
Levy.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1979 Aug 14, In northern
Wisconsin Rob Pfiel (27) was killed by a shotgun blast to the back
of his head. 2 months earlier Rusk County sheriff’s deputies killed
his 3 dogs because they had gotten loose. Rusk County DA Robert
Rogers (d.1984), his wife Cherie Barnard, and 3 brothers were later
accused of plotting to kill Pfiel, who had threatened to get even.
In 2005 police arrested 2 of the Rogers brothers for Pfiel’s murder
as well as Barnard.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.B1)(SFC, 10/17/05, p.A1)
1979 Oct 21, In SF the body of
Mary Frances Bennett was found at Lands End. She had been stabbed at
least 25 times. In 2010 DNA evidence tied her murder to David Joseph
Carpenter, who was on death row at San Quentin for 7 other murders.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A7)
1980 Mar 10, "Scarsdale Diet"
author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y. Jean
Harris (56) shot and killed her unfaithful lover, cardiologist
Herman Tarnover, co-author of “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet”
in Purchase N.Y. She was granted clemency by Gov. Mario Cuomo after
she served 12 years of a 15 year sentence. Harris was released in
January 1993.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/10/00)
1980 Mar 11, Marilyn McIntyre
(18) was beaten, stabbed and strangled to death at her home in
Columbus, Wis. In 2009 Curtis Forbes, a friend of her husband, was
charged with 1st degree murder based on DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/31/09,
p.A6)(www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/11251061.html)
1980 Mar 12, A Chicago jury
found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys.
The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in 1994.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1980 Apr 5, Sister Margaret Ann
Pahl (71) was stabbed about 30 times and strangled to death. Her
body was found in the chapel of Mercy Hospital, Toledo, Ohio. In
2004 Rev. Gerald Robinson (63) was arrested for the murder.
(SFC, 4/24/04, p.A2)
1980 Jun 4, In northern
California the body of Anna Menjivas was discovered in Mt. Tamalpais
State Park. Her murder had not been connected with the "Trailside"
slayings at the time. Investigators later learned she was a
long-time friend of David Carpenter, who often let him drive her
home from work. In 1988 Carpenter was convicted of 4 killings
in Marin County.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/carpenter.htm)(SFC,
2/24/10, p.A7)
1980 Oct 11, In northern
California Cynthia Moreland (18) and fiance Richard Stowers (19)
were shot to death on Mount Wittenburg in the Point Reyes National
Seashore. David Joseph Carpenter was arrested in May 1981. In 1984
he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death.
In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings in Marin County and again
sentenced to death.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A7)
1980 Oct 13, In northern
California Anne Evelyn Alderson (26) of San Rafael was raped and
shot to death on Mount Tamalpais. David Joseph Carpenter was
arrested in May 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa
Cruz and sentenced to death. In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings
in Marin County and again sentenced to death.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A7)
1980 Dec 4, In El Salvador the
bodies of four American nuns slain two days earlier were unearthed.
Colonel Edgardo Casanova was the military commander of the area at
the time. Five [four] national guardsmen were later convicted of
murder and sentenced in May 1984 to 30 years in prison. In 1998 the
guardsmen admitted that they were acting on orders from above. In
1993 a UN Truth Commission report concluded that Colonel Carlos
Eugenio Vides Casanova, director of the National Guard and brother
of Edgardo, and Gen’l. Jose Guillermo Garcia, the minister of
defense, had organized an official cover-up. Both men were granted
residence in the US. 3 of the 5 convicted guardsmen were released in
1998 due to prison overcrowding. In 1999 families of the victims
filed suit against Casanova and Garcia who were living in Florida.
In 2000 a federal jury cleared the 2 retired generals.
(AP, 12/4/97)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)(SFC, 4/23/98,
p.A16)(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A10) (SFC, 7/23/98, p.C2)(SFC, 5/13/99,
p.C3)(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A3)
1980 Dec 8, John Lennon,
musician and one of the Beatles, was shot and killed by Mark David
Chapman outside his New York City apartment building. Chapman was a
schizophrenic with the delusion that he himself was John. In 1984
Prof. Jonathan M. Wiener wrote a book on Lennon and later got the
FBI to surrender its secret files on Lennon.
(Beat. For., 1995, p. 74)(SFC, 9/25/97, p.A2)(AP,
12/8/97)
1980-1990 Herbert Baumeister (1947-1996), an
Indianapolis businessman, killed 16 men, most of them gay, and
dumped them in the woods behind his home and along rural roads in
Indiana and Ohio. Baumeister committed suicide in Canada at age 49.
(www.mayhem.net/Crime/morg9804.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Baumeister)
1981 Jan 2, "Yorkshire Ripper"
Peter Sutcliffe (b.1946), murderer of 13 women, was arrested on a
traffic violation. On Jan 4 he declared he was the ripper and
charges were filed on Jan 6. Stuart Kind (d.2003), a leading
forensic biologist, helped British police crack the "Yorkshire
Ripper" serial murder case. Sutcliffe was convicted on May 22 on 13
counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2003 Michael
Bilton authored “Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire
Ripper.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutcliffe)(AP, 4/30/03)
1981 Feb 24, A jury in White
Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder
in the fatal shooting of “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman
Tarnower.
(AP, 2/24/01)
1981 Mar 3, In Los Angeles,
Ca., Stanley "Tookie" Williams (1953-2005) was convicted in the 1979
killing of 4 people and sentenced to death. The co-founder of the
Crips street gang (1971), who denied the murders, took up writing
for children while in prison and created the Internet Project for
Street Peace. In 2000 a member of the Swiss parliament nominated him
for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. A TV film on Williams, "Redemption,"
was scheduled to air in 2004. In 2005 he received a “President’s
Call to Service Award.” Williams was executed Dec 13, 2005.
(www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/williams1003.htm)(SFC,
2/13/04, p.A25)(SFC, 8/6/05, p.A2)
1981 Mar 20, Jean Harris,
former girls’ school headmistress, was sentenced in White Plains,
New York, to 15 years to life in prison for slaying “Scarsdale Diet”
author Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris ended up serving almost 12 years.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1981 Mar 29, In northern
California Ellen Hansen (20), a UC Davis student, was shot to death
after resisting a rape attempt at Henry Cowell Redwood State Park,
near Santa Cruz. Her boyfriend was wounded but survived and later
identified David Joseph Carpenter as the assailant. Carpenter was
arrested in May 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa
Cruz and sentenced to death. In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings
in Marin County and again sentenced to death.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A7)
1981 Apr 23, Stacy Benjamin
(19) and Patty Geddling (23) were murdered in Redwood City, Ca.,
under drug-related circumstances. Beardslee had killed a woman in
Missouri in Dec, 1969. In 2003 A federal appeals court upheld
the conviction of Donald Beardslee of San Mateo. Psychiatric
evidence later showed that Beardslee suffered from brain damage due
to an accident in 1964. His execution was set for Jan 19, 2004.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A4)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.B4)(SSFC,
1/16/05, p.A1)
1981 Apr 29, Truck driver Peter
Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the "Yorkshire
Ripper," the killer of 13 women in northern England during a
five-year period. He convicted and was sentenced to serve a minimum
of 30 years.
(AP, 4/29/00)(AP, 1/13/04)
1981 Jun 13, Tom Snyder
interviewed Charles Manson on "Tomorrow."
(www.serialkillercalendar.com/briefcharlesmansonbio.html)
1981 Jul 1, The "Wonderland
Murders" took place at 4763 Wonderland in the Hollywood Hills.
Ronald Launius, William Deverell, Barbara Richardson and Joy Miller
were murdered. The killings were said to have occurred in
retaliation for a drug robbery 2 nights earlier. Federal prosecutors
unveiled in indictment in 2000 against Eddie Nash, a former
nightclub owner, Gregory DeWitt Diles, his bodyguard, and porn star
John Curtis Holmes. Holmes died in 1988 of an AIDS-related illness.
In 2003 the film "Wonderland" starred Val Kilmer as Holmes.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B5)(ST, 10/17/03, p.22H)
1981 Aug 27, Rene Soto clubbed
to death Anselmo Covarrubias in LA County. Maria Suarez (21), a
battered "sex slave" to Covarrubias and witness to the murder, was
convicted of first-degree murder and sent to prison. In 2002 Gov.
Davis rejected a recommended parole for Suarez. In 2003 Gov. Davis
issued a parole. Suarez was released in 2004.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A20)(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
4/6/03, p.A12)(SFC, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1981 Nov 3, In Milpitas, Ca.,
Anthony Jacques Broussard, a high school student (16), strangled and
killed Marcy Conrad, his girl friend (14), dumped her body on a
river bank and gave tours to his friends, who never reported the
crime. The 1986 film "River's Edge" was later made based on the
murder.
1981 Nov 30, Porn star John
Holmes was arrested on fugitive charges.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1981 Dec 9, Porn star John
Holmes was charged in the Los Angeles Laurel Canyon murders. He was
later released.
(MC, 12/9/01)(ST, 10/17/03, p.22H)
1982 Feb 27, Wayne B. Williams
was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose
bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1982 Dec 3, Rebecca Marrero
(b.1962) was last seen in Seattle, Wa. She was believed to have
become a victim of Gary Ridgeway, the so-called Green River Killer.
In 2010 her skull was found by children playing in a ravine south of
Seattle. On Feb 7, 2011, Ridgeway, already serving 48 life terms,
was charged with her murder.
(SFC, 12/24/10, p.A6)(SFC, 2/8/11, p.A6)
1982-1998 Gary Ridgway killed a number of women
in the northwest US. He later pleaded guilty to killing 48 women in
the Seattle-area "Green River" killings and was sentenced to life in
prison without parole.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1983 Jun 4, In Chino Hills,
Ca., Douglas and Peggy Ryen and their 10-year old daughter, Jessica,
were killed in the master bedroom of their home. Christopher Hughes
(11), a neighbor, was also killed. Joshua Ryen (8) survived despite
serious wounds. Kevin Cooper, who escaped from Chino prison on June
2, was arrested 47 days later and was convicted for the murders in
1985 and faced execution. Cooper claimed he was innocent and called
for DNA testing of the evidence in 2000. In 2003 an execution date
of Feb 10, 2004, was set for Cooper. Cooper won a last minute
reprieve on Feb 9 pending a re-examination of the case.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B3)(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A21)(SFC,
2/11/04, p.A4)
1983 Sep 25, Leslie Michelle
English (2) was raped and murdered in Griffin, Georgia. Her uncle,
Eddie Albert Crawford was convicted of the murder and sentenced to
death. After 20 years on death row Crawford was executed July 19,
2004.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A4)
1983 Oct, In Australia Edwina
Boyle disappeared from her Melbourne suburb home. Her husband
Frederick William Boyle (35) of Carrum Downs, dismembered her, and
hid her body in a 44-gallon drum. In 2006 his son-in-law opened the
drum a found her remains. A post-mortem showed she died of a bullet
wound to the head. In 2008 Boyle was convicted of murder.
(AFP, 1/31/08)(Reuters, 2/9/08)
1983 Nov 26, Angela Bugay of
Antioch, Ca., 5-years-old, was found in a shallow grave in Concord,
Ca. She had been kidnapped a week earlier. Larry Graham, who dated
Angela’s mother, was later arrested as a suspect and prosecutors in
1995 received a court order to draw his blood for DNA evidence. In
1996 police matched the DNA of Graham, with samples recovered from
the girl’s body and arrested him on charges of murder. Use of the
DNA evidence was cleared in 1998. Graham was convicted Aug 20, 2002,
and sentenced to death Oct 22.
(SFC, 4/26/96, p.A-19)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A19)(SFC,
3/18/99, p.A19)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A15)(SFC,
10/23/02, p.A16)
1984 Jul 18, James Huberty
opened fire at a McDonald's fast-food restaurant in San Ysidro,
Calif., killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.
(AP, 7/18/97)(MC, 7/18/02)
1984 Jul 24, In American Fort,
Utah, Ron and Dan Lafferty stabbed to death their sister-in-law,
Brenda Lafferty, and her daughter Erica, aged 15 months. In 2003 Jon
Krakauer authored "Under the Banner of Heaven," an account of the
murder and the Mormon background of the Laffertys.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W15)
1984 Jul 26, Ed Gein
(78), mass murderer (movie "Psycho" based on him), died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1984 Delores Dye was murdered
in a New Orleans supermarket parking lot. Curtis Kyles was tried 5
times for her murder and walked free in 1997. In 2005 Jed Horned
authored “Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in
New Orleans.”
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B4)
1984 Michael Ross, former
life-insurance salesman, was arrested in Connecticut. He had
strangled at least 6 girls and young women. He later pleaded guilty
to 2 killings in 1985 and was convicted of 4 killings in 1987. He
was sentenced to death in 1997 and signed a letter in 1998 to be
executed. Ross was executed May 13, 2005.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A6)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.31)(SSFC,
1/30/05, p.A10)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A4)
1985 Aug 18, Peter and Barbara
Pan were found in their blood-soaked bed in Lake Merced, a housing
development in San Francisco. Both had been shot in the head. Peter
Pan (66), an accountant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs. Pan
(64) survived but would be an invalid for the rest of her life.
Scrawled on the wall in lipstick were an inverted pentagram and the
words "Jack the Knife." The murder was later attributed to Richard
Ramirez, the “night stalker.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez#Peter_and_Barbara_Pan)(SSFC,
8/22/10, DB p.42)
1985 Aug 31, Richard Ramirez,
later convicted of California's "Night Stalker" killings, was
captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1985 Sep 22, The body of Betty
Stuart (22) was found at Aquatic Park in Berkeley, Ca. In 2008
prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already
in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her
murder. He had been arrested in 1986 and was already serving a 63
year sentence for the rape and murder of 3 other women. In 2008
McKnight, a former sailor, was convicted on an additional 5 counts
of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)(SFC, 9/18/08, p.B2)
1985 Sep 29, The body of Diane
Stone (17) was found near an elementary school in Oakland, Ca. In
2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54),
already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for
her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1985 Oct 8, The body of Talita
Dixon (13) was found on a trail in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland,
Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight
(54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was
responsible for her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1985 Dec 9, The body of Monique
Davis (18) was found behind a business in Richmond, Ca. In 2008
prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already
in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her
murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1985 Dec 16, Reputed
organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a
New York City restaurant.
(AP, 12/16/97)
1985 Dec 24, The body of
Beverly Bryant (24) was found at an elementary school in Oakland,
Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight
(54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was
responsible for her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1986 Aug 20, Mail carrier
Patrick Sherrill of Edmond, Ok., shot 14 fellow workers dead.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1986 Sep 16, In Wichita,
Kansas, Vicki Wegerle (28), homemaker and mother of 2, was found
strangled in her home. Her murder became the 8th and last associated
with the BTK serial killer.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
1986 Sep, In Ohio University of
Akron students Dawn McCreery (20) and Wendy Offredo (21) were
sexually assaulted and killed. Richard Cooey (19) and a co-defendant
(17) were convicted for the sexual assaults and slayings. The
co-defendant was sentenced to life in prison because of his age.
Cooey was executed in 2008.
(AP, 10/14/08)
1986 Dec 15, Army cook Ronald
A. Gray raped and killed Army Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay of
Fayetteville. She was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol that
Gray confessed to stealing. She suffered blunt force trauma over
much of her body. Gray (42) was convicted in connection with a spree
of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, NC, area
between April 1986 and January 1987 while he was stationed at Fort
Bragg. He was convicted at Fort Bragg in April 1988 and unanimously
sentenced to death.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1986 Dec 17, Richard Kuklinsky,
a Mafia hitman known as the Iceman, was arrested in New Jersey. He
was found guilty of all charges May 25, 1988. Anthony Bruno later
authored “The Iceman.”
(www.crimelibrary.com)
1986 In California 5 women were
murdered in the Central Valley along I-5. In 2008 Roger Reese Kibbe
(68) was charged with the 5 murders along with a 1977 murder of a
woman from Walnut Creek. He was already serving a life sentence for
the murder of a West Sacramento prostitute, whose body was found in
1987.
(SSFC, 3/9/08, p.B3)
1986-1987 Joseph Martin Danks stabbed to death 6
Korean immigrants in Los Angeles. He was convicted and sentenced to
life in prison. In 1990 he strangled his cellmate, Walter Holt (67).
Danks was sentenced to death in 1993 and the decision was upheld by
the state Supreme Court in 2004.
(SFC, 2/4/04, p.A19)
1987 Jul 27, In Warwick, RI,
Craig Price (13) crept across his neighbor's yard, broke into a
little brown house on Inez Avenue and stabbed Rebecca Spencer 58
times. She was a 27-year-old mother of two. On Sep 1, 1989, he
butchered Joan Heaton (39) with kitchen knives she had bought
earlier that day. The bodies of her daughters, Jennifer 10, and
Melissa 8, were found in pools of blood, pieces of knives broken off
in their bones; Jennifer had been stabbed 62 times. Price was
scheduled to be released in 1994 but was sentenced to 15 years,
seven to serve and eight suspended, following contempt charges and
belligerent statements. Fights in prison added more time to his
sentence. As of 2007 Price's scheduled release date was February
2022. He will be 48.
(AP,
12/16/07)(www.projo.com/extra/2004/craigprice/content/timeline.htm)
1987 Aug 19, In Britain Michael
Ryan (27) shot 16 people dead in Hungerford, Berkshire. He wounded
another 15 before turning the gun on himself.
(Econ, 6/5/10,
p.63)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre)
1987 Dec 28, The bodies of 14
relatives of R. Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover,
Ark., following a shooting spree by Simmons in Russellville that
claimed two other lives. Simmons was later executed.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1987 William Thompson (61), a
San Diego newspaper publisher, was found dead with 55 stab wounds.
In 2005 DNA evidence linked prison inmate Stanley Clayton to the
murder.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.B3)
1987-1998 Chester D. Turner, a pizza delivery man,
raped and strangled at least 10 women in South Los Angeles. In 2004
DNA Turner (39) was charged with 10 murders based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 10/27/04)
1987-2001 In France Michel Fourniret, dubbed the
"Ogre of the Ardennes", admitted in his 2008 trial to murdering,
raping and kidnapping seven young girls and women during this
period. His wife, Monique Olivier, was accused of helping him trap
victims. Both were convicted and faced life in jail.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
1988 Feb 16, Richard Wade
Farley gunned down 7 people at ESL Corp. during an office rampage in
Sunnyvale, Calif. Farley was later convicted of murder and sentenced
to death.
(AP, 2/16/98)(SFC, 10/27/04, p.B1)
1988 Mar 25, In New York
City's so-called "preppie murder case," Robert E. Chambers Jr.
pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of
18-year-old Jennifer Levin. Chambers was convicted of the killing
after what he described as a session of rough sex. Chambers received
a sentence of five to 15 years in prison. He walked out of the
Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, N.Y, Feb, 2003, after
serving a full 15-year maximum sentence for the 1986 Central Park
killing.
(AP, 3/24/98)(Internet)
1988 May 20, 30-year-old Laurie
Dann walked into a Winnetka, Ill., elementary school classroom,
where she shot to death 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounded
several other children. After wounding a young man at his home, Dann
took her own life.
(AP, 5/20/98)
1989 Jan 24, Confessed serial
killer Theodore Bundy (42) was put to death in Florida's electric
chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1989 Mar 23, Joel Steinberg was
sentenced to 25 years for killing his adopted daughter.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1989 Apr 10, In Ohio Jeffrey
Lundgren (b.1950), a self-proclaimed prophet, led his cult in
planning and executing murders of the Avery family in order to bring
about a prophecy he interpreted from the Old Testament. Lundgren was
convicted of five counts of murder and executed on October 24, 2006
at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Lundgren)
1989 Apr 14, Former winery
worker Ramon Salcido killed 6 relatives, including his wife and
daughters, and a co-worker in Sonoma County. He was tried and
convicted in Oct. 1990 by Judge Littrell (d.1997) and sentenced to
death. In 1997 Salcedo was still on death row with his case in the
appeal process.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.E2)(AP, 4/14/99)
1989 Apr 20, Ramon Salcido, a
California winery worker later convicted of killing six relatives
and a co-worker, was deported from Mexico to the U.S.
(AP, 4/20/99)
1989 Aug 20, Entertainment
executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were murdered in their
Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion. Eric and Lyle Menendez stood accused
of murdering their parents. In their first trial the jury
deadlocked, but in 1996 they were convicted of first-degree murder.
They based their defense on a history of parental abuse.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-15)(WSJ, 3/21/96, p.A-1)
1989 Dec 6, 14 women were shot
to death at the University of Montreal's school of engineering by
Marc Lepine, who then took his own life.
(AP, 12/6/97)(MC, 12/6/01)
1990 Jan, In Oregon Keith
Hunter Jesperson began his career as a serial killer with the sexual
assault and murder of Taunja Bennett. He went on to murder 8 women.
In 2002 Jack Olsen (d.2002) authored “I: The Creation of a Serial
Killer.”
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.M2)
1990 Mar 8, NYC's Zodiac killer
shoot his 1st victim, Mario Orosco.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1990 May 31, NYC's Zodiac
killer shot a 3rd victim, Joseph Ponce.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1990 Aug 26, The bodies of two
slain college students were found in their off-campus apartment in
Gainesville, Florida; three more bodies were discovered in the days
that followed, setting off a wave of panic.
(AP, 8/26/00)
1990 James Michael Wilcox was
murdered in Texas. Robert Smith (22), with an IQ estimated at 63,
was convicted and sentenced to death. In 2004 Gov. Rick Perry
commuted the death sentence due to a 2002 Supreme Court decision
barring the execution of developmentally disabled inmates.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.A2)
1991 Mar 22, High school
instructor Pamela Smart, accused of manipulating her student-lover
into killing her husband, was convicted in Exeter, New Hampshire, of
murder-conspiracy.
(AP, 3/22/01)
1991 Jul 22, Police in
Milwaukee arrested serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer, who was later
murdered in prison. He was murdered while in prison in 1994.
(AP, 7/22/97)(SFC, 5/29/96, A4)
1991 Aug 10, Nine Buddhists
were found slain at their temple outside Phoenix, Arizona. Two
teen-agers were later arrested; one pleaded guilty to murder, the
other was convicted of murder.
(AP, 8/10/01)
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who
murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart
attack in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP,
12/5/97)
1991 Dec 19, Donna Ann Morrow
was murdered in Menlo Park, Ca., following an argument with her
husband, Joseph Morrow, who fled the country. Her body was found in
2003 in the Santa Cruz Mountains on property that had been owned by
Joseph Morrow. Police tracked Morrow to Manila, where he was
arrested.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A14)
1991 Jennifer Soto (19), a Taco
Bell manager, was killed during a robbery attempt in Dallas. LaRoyce
Lathair Smith (19) was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for
her murder. In 2004 his sentence was overturned by the US Supreme
Court because jurors did not consider his learning disability and
other evidence. Smith’s IQ was reported to be 78.
(SFC, 11/16/04, p.A4)
1991 In Margate, Scotland,
Vicky Hamilton (15) was last seen. In 2007 her skeleton was
discovered at a house where handyman Peter Tobin used to live. Her
remains were found during a search for another missing teenager,
Dinah McNicol (18) from the county of Essex, eastern England, who
was last seen returning from a 1991 music festival. The remains of
McNicol were found a few days after the Hamilton find. Tobin (61)
was charged with the murders.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AFP, 11/17/07)
1992 Jan 13, US serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane in fifteen of the seventeen
murders he confessed to committing.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1992 Jan 24, The state of
Arkansas executed convicted cop-killer Rickey Ray Rector after Gov.
Bill Clinton refused to intervene.
(AP, 1/24/02)
1992 Jan 27, Aileen Wuornos, a
Florida prostitute, was convicted of slaying the first of seven men
she'd admitted killing, claiming self-defense.
(AP, 1/27/02)
1992 Feb 15, A Milwaukee jury
found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15
men and boys.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(AP, 2/15/02)
1992 Feb 17, Serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison. He was
beaten to death in prison in November 1994.
(AP, 2/17/98)
1992 Mar 11, Manuel De Dios
Unanue (48), US anti-drug journalist, was murdered.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1992 Mar 30, Walter Mickens Jr.
robbed, attempted sodomy, and stabbed Timothy Hall (17) 143 times in
Newport News, Va. Mickens was convicted of murder in 1993 and was
executed in 2002.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A3)(SFC, 6/13/02, p.A5)
1992 Apr 9, Barbara Muszalski
disappeared from her Livermore, Ca., goat ranch. Her slashed body
was found 2 days later at the SF airport parking garage. Benjamin
Pedro Gonzales, who had stayed at the ranch for odd jobs, was
arrested in San Diego for the murder. He was also accused of the
murder of a Los Angeles college student and a New York stripper.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A15,19)
1992 Apr 21, Robert Alton
Harris became the first person executed at San Quentin by the state
of California in 25 years as he was put to death in the gas chamber
for the 1978 murder of two San Diego teen-age boys. Harris left some
art that was later put on sale at Expressions Art Gallery in
Oakland.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)(AP, 4/21/97)(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A13)
1992 Sep 2, Nine-year Michael
Nguyen was murdered in San Francisco. Two men were later found
guilty of murdering the boy for profit based on insurance
claims.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A13)
1992 Oct 9, In Alabama Jack
Trawick abducted and killed college student Stephanie Gach (21) in
Birmingham. Trawick (62), a serial murderer, was executed in 2009.
(SFC, 6/12/09,
p.A6)(www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/09/jun09.htm)
1992 Dec 1, In Mineola, N.Y.,
Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting
and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco. Fisher was released in
1999 after serving 7 years.
(AP, 12/1/97)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A9)
1992 Dorthy Harris (41) and
Louis Oates (63) were shot to death at their oil company office in
Palestine, Texas. Kelsey Patterson, a paranoid schizophrenic,
was arrested and convicted of the murder. Patterson was executed May
18, 2004.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A7)
1992-1993 Australian Ivan Milat killed seven
young backpackers in the nation's worst serial killing. He was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1993 Jan 5, The state of
Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd, an admitted child sex
killer, in America's first legal hanging since 1965.
(AP, 1/5/98)
1993 Jan 8, In Palatine, a
suburb of Chicago, 7 people were shot to death at a fried chicken
restaurant. In 2002 Juan Luna and James Degorski were arrested and
confessed to the killings. “They just did it to do something big.”
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A9)
1993 Jun, Volunteers picking up
litter in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Ca., discovered a suitcase
containing the remains of a woman later identified as Stephanie
Jensen (31). Police used DNA to identify her in 2004 and in 2005
arrested her boyfriend Kirk Bennett (54) in Idaho.
(SFC, 7/12/05, p.B8)
1993 Jul 7, Mia Zapata (27), a
rising punk-rock star, was last seen alive in Seattle. In 2003 Jesus
C. Mezquia was arrested in Florida on DNA evidence.
(SSFC, 1/12/03, p.A6)
1993 Aug 3, James Jordan, the
father of basketball star Michael Jordan, was found dead in a South
Carolina creek, 11 days after he was slain; his remains were not
identified until Aug. 13.
(AP, 8/3/98)
1993 Aug 26, Landlady Dorothea
Puente was convicted in Monterey, Calif., of murdering three of her
boardinghouse tenants; she was later sentenced to life without
parole.
(AP, 8/26/98)
1993 Nov 24 Two 11-year-old
boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, were convicted of the
February murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool, England.
Shortly after the trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief
Justice, ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten
years behind bars. Thompson and Venables were released on a “life
license” in June 2001, after serving eight years of their life
sentence. An injunction remained in force following their release,
so that details of their new identities and locations could not be
published.
(AP,
11/24/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger)
1993 Dec 1, US Navy Ensign
George Smith shot and killed his ex-fiancée and a friend and
then himself. In Oct. he had passed a Navy screening test to gauge
his psychological fitness for nuclear submarine duty.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A2)
1993 Little Rock, Ark., hit a
record 76 murders for the year.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.F6)
1993 In Canada Karla Homolka
pleaded guilty in the sex slayings of two southern Ontario teenagers
Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. She was sentenced to 12 years in
prison and was set for release in 2005. Her husband Paul Bernardo,
eventually convicted of raping 13 Ontario women or girls, committed
many of the assaults during the first three years of his
relationship with Homolka.
(AP, 6/3/05)
1994 Feb 15, Andrei Tsjikatilo,
[Rostov Ripper], Russian mass murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1994 May 9, Mass murderer Joel
Rifkind was found guilty in NY.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1994 May 10, The state of
Illinois executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy (52) for
the murders of 33 young men and boys. He was executed at Stateville
Correctional Center near Joliet. A search for more bodies was
continued in 1998. Gacy left behind some clown art that was
auctioned and purchased for $20,000 by Joe Roth, who burned all of
it.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A2)(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A13)
1994 May 11, Arkansas put to
death two convicted murderers; it was the first time a state
executed two people on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court
allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976.
(AP, 5/11/99)
1994 Jul 22, O.J. Simpson
pleaded innocent to the slaying of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her
friend, Ronald Goldman.
(AP, 7/22/99)
1994 Jul 29, Abortion opponent
Paul Hill (40) shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton (69) and
Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center
clinic in Pensacola, Fla. Hill was later convicted and sentenced to
death. Hill was executed Sep 3, 2003.
(AP, 7/29/99)(SFC, 9/2/03, p.A7)
1994 Aug 22, DNA testing linked
OJ Simpson to the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1994 Nov 1, In Cherry Hill,
Pa., Len Jenoff and Paul Daniels clubbed to death Carol Neulander
(52), the wife of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander (53), under a contract
from Rabbi Neulander. Neulander stood trial in 2001 in New Jersey
and was convicted of murder Nov 20, 2002.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A6)
1994 Nov 2, A jury in
Pensacola, Fla., convicted Paul Hill of murder for the July 29
shotgun slayings of an abortion provider and his bodyguard; Hill was
sentenced to death. He became the first person to be executed for
killing an abortion provider when he was killed by electrocution on
September 3, 2003 at the age of 49 at the Florida State Prison in
Raiford, Florida.
(AP,
11/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jennings_Hill)
1994 Dec 30, John Salvi opened
fire at two abortion clinics in suburban Boston and killed 2 clinic
receptionists, Lee Ann Nichols and Shannon Lowney. He committed
suicide in prison on Nov 29, 1996. His conviction was voided in 1997
because he died before his appeal was heard.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A1,15)(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A3)(AP,
12/30/99)
1994-1995 South African Moses Sithole raped and
strangled 38 women in the Johannesburg area. He was sentenced in
1997 to more than 2,400 years in jail.
(AP,
1/13/04)(http://members.skcentral.com/html/articles.php?cat_id=13)
1995 Jan 1,
Briton Fred West hanged himself in his London prison while awaiting
trial in the murders of a dozen girls and women. The victims
included his wife's 16-year-old daughter and 8-year-old stepdaughter
and several young runaways.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1995 Jan 20, Bruno Jordan, suit
salesman and brother a drug enforcement officer, was shot dead in El
Paso. In 2002 Charles Bowden authored “Down By the River,” an
account of the murder and narcotics traffickers.
(NW, 1/13/03, p.61)
1995 Feb 17, Colin Ferguson was
convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island
Rail Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200
years in prison.
(AP, 2/17/00)
1995 Mar 22, Convicted Long
Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in
prison for killing six people.
(AP, 3/22/00)
1995 Mar 31, Mexican-American
singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus
Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club. Yolanda Saldivar was
convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/31/00)
1995 Jul 22, In San Luis
Obispo, 15-year-old Elyse Pahler was murdered by 3 teenagers of the
death metal band called Hatred patterned after the group "Slayer."
Her body was not found for 8 months until revealed by Joseph
Fiorella (16), who received a 26 year to life sentence in 1997 as
part of a plea bargain. Royce Casey (18) and Jacob Delashmutt still
faced trial as adults. Death metal was a sub-genre of heavy metal
that featured explicit lyrics dealing with murder, torture and
occult practices.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A15)
1995 Sep 11, In Florida Jimmy
Ryce (9) was kidnapped, raped and murdered. In 1998 Juan Carlos
Chavez, a Cuban ranch hand was convicted. His defense was that he
was framed by his bosses into a confession for fear of being
deported. The defense held that Edward Sheinhaus, the son of
Chavez’s bosses, was the killer.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A4)
1995 Oct, In Kewanee, Ill.,
Scott English killed Jami Pollock (3) as she and her mother slept.
Tabitha Pollock, the mother, was later convicted of 1st degree
murder for not preventing the murder and sentenced to 36 years in
prison. In 2002 the state Supreme Court overturned the sentence.
English was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J3)
1995 Dec 5, Stanley Keith
Runcorn (73), a professor in geophysics, was killed by Paul Bradford
Cain (26), a kickboxer, at the Hotel San Diego. Cain was convicted
in 1997 of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A20)
1995 Dec 7, US paratrooper
James N. Burmeister (21) shot and killed Jackie Burden and Michael
James. He was convicted on Feb 27, 1997 of 1st degree murder and
conspiracy in the hate crime and faced the death penalty. The jury
deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of death so the judge sentenced him to 2
consecutive life terms in prison. He will have to serve at least 50
years before becoming eligible for parole. Malcolm Wright, a fellow
soldier, was also charged in the murders and convicted on May 2,
1997.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1995 Dec 20, Three teenagers
were found shot through the head on a remote logging road in Lane
County, Oregon. One was a 15-year old girl, who was also raped.
Later Jonathon Wayne Susbauer, 22, and Conan Wayne Hale, 20, were
arrested. Authorities taped a confession by Hale while he confessed
to a Roman Catholic priest. Catholic leaders in Portland have
requested that the tape be destroyed.
(SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-3)
1996 Feb 16, In Vista, San
Diego County Joshua Jenkins, 15, stabbed his parents and
grandparents to death. The next day he axed his sister. In 1997 he
was sentenced to 116 years in prison.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.A22)
1996 Mar 13, Thomas Hamilton
killed 16 kindergarten children, a teacher and himself in a
classroom in Dunblane, Scotland.
(WSJ, 3/14/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/13/01)
1996 Mar 18, Rejecting an
insanity defense, a jury in Dedham, Mass., convicted John C. Salvi
III of murdering two women in a pair of attacks at two Boston-area
abortion clinics in December 1994. Salvi later committed suicide in
his cell.
(AP, 3/18/01)
1996 Apr 30, In Fort Myers,
Florida, members of a teen militia called the Lords of Chaos slew
high-school band director Mark Schwebes. They had begun a crime
spree on Apr 13 with acts of arson and vandalism. Arrested were
Kevin Foster,18, Derek Shields, 18, Peter Magnotti, 17, Christopher
Black, 18, Christopher Burnett, 17, and Thomas Tarrone, 16.
1996 May 3,
Gregory Clepper was charged with killing 12 women on the South side
of Chicago in a string of slayings that began in 1991.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-10)
1996 Jun 1, The bodies of
Julianne Williams (24) and Laura Winans (26) were found in
Shenandoah National Park, a week after they were last seen alive.
Their hands were bound and their throats were slashed. On Apr 10,
2002 Darrel David Rice (34) of Maryland was indicted for the murders
along with hate charges.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A15)
1996 Aug 5, A jury in San Jose,
Calif., recommended the death penalty for Richard Allen Davis,
convicted of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
(WSJ, 8/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/97)
1996 Aug 15, Frederick
Davidson, a graduate student at San Diego State University, shot and
killed three engineering professors; he was later sentenced to three
life terms in prison.
(AP, 8/15/97)
1996 Aug 28, In Poland
Agnieszka Kotlarska, fashion model, was knifed and killed by a thief
outside her home.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.A14)
1996 Dec 3, In Mexico Fernando
Balderas, lawyer-journalist, and his wife Yolanda Figueroa and 3
children were beaten to death. The couple had reported exposes on
drugs and corruption in the government. Balderas published the
magazine Fourth Power. Alejandro Perez, the family chauffeur, later
confessed to participating in the killings with 2 others because
Balderas had raped the gardener’s wife and attempted to rape his
wife. Balderas had helped his wife write “The Boss of the Gulf,”
about drug cartel leader Juan Garcia Abrego.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A10)(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B4)
1996 Dec 26, In Boulder,
Colorado, 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled
in the basement of her family home 8 hours after the mother
discovered a ransom note demanding $118,000. To date, the slaying
remains unsolved.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 12/26/97)
1996 Eric Nesbitt (21), an
airman at Langley AFB, was shot and killed after he was abducted and
forced to withdraw money from an ATM machine by Daryl R. Atkins and
another man. Atkins scored 59 on an IQ test in 1998, below the
Virginia cut-off of 70 for retardation. In 2002 the US Supreme Court
ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded.
In 2004 Atkins scored 74 and faced another trial.
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A9)
1997 Jan 3, In NY in
Centereach, Long Island, William Sodders (21) shot and killed, James
Halverson, a firefighter out on a jog, in a random murder. Sodders
was later turned in to police by his father after admitting to him
the murder. Sodders was said to be influenced by the film “Natural
Born Killers.” Halverson left a wife pregnant with twins and a
4-year-old daughter.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 5, In Rwanda a mother
and father and 7 children were murdered. The mother had testified
against the former mayor of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, for the murder
of some 2,000 villagers.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 7, Serial killer Henry
Louis Wallace was convicted in Charlotte, N.C., of raping and
murdering 9 women over a 20 month period.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 16, Enis Cosby (27),
son of Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles while changing a tire
in an apparent roadside robbery. A Ukrainian émigré
teenager, Mikail Markhasev, was picked up and charged for the murder
in March. Eli Zakaria and girlfriend Sara Peters were in a car with
Markhasev. Markhasev was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Markhasev admitted his guilt in 2001 and made a public apology.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.E4)(WSJ, 3/14/97, p.A1)(SFC,
3/15/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/16/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/12/98,
p.A1)(WSJ, 2/12/00, p.A1)
1997 Feb 19, Larry Singleton
murdered Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute, in Tampa, Fla. He had served 8
years of a 14-year sentence for the 1978 rape and maiming of
15-year-old Mary Vincent in Ca. A trial in Dec ended in a mistrial
and another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998 but
died of cancer in a prison hospital in 2001.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/98, p.A3)(SFC,
1/1/02, p.A13)
1997 Mar 9, In Los Angeles
black Gangsta rapper Christopher G. Wallace (24), The Notorious
B.I.G. or aka Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed in a drive-by
shooting. He had been accused of being involved in a 1994 robbery in
which Tupac Shakur was shot and robbed of $40,000. In 1999 Amir
Muhammad, aka Harry Billups, was named as the suspected gunman.
Muhammad was suspected to have been hired by former LAPD officer
David A. Mack. In 2005 a judge declared a mistrial when large
numbers of LAPD documents were found that hadn’t been turned over to
the court.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A8)(AP, 3/9/98)(SFC, 12/9/99,
p.A11)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A3)
1997 Mar 12, Authorities in Los
Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev as a suspect in the shooting death
of Bill Cosby's son, Ennis, almost two months earlier. Markhasev,
who later admitted his guilt, is serving a life sentence without
possibility of parole.
(AP, 3/12/02)
1997 Apr 21, Police in
Franklin, N.J., arrested 2 teen-agers they say lured two pizza
deliverymen to an abandoned house before opening fire, killing both
men. Thomas Koskovich and Jayson Vreeland were convicted in 1999 of
murdering Jeremy Giordano and Giorgio Gallara. Koskovich was
sentenced to death, but had the sentence overturned by the New
Jersey Supreme Court, and faced a second sentencing trial; Vreeland
was sentenced to life. [see Apr 19]
(AP, 4/21/02)
1997 May 27, In Kobe, Japan,
11-year-old Jun Hase was beheaded by a killer who left the note:
“So, this is the beginning of the game. I desperately want to see
people die. Nothing makes me more excited than killing.” [see Jun
28]
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 May 30, Child
molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of
raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994
murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be
notified when sex offenders move in. Timmendequas was later
sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/30/98)
1997 Sep 2, In Miami Beach,
Florida US postal worker, Jesus Antonio Tamayo (64) shot and
critically injured his former wife, Manuela Acosta (62) and a friend
and then killed himself.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 1, Michael Carneal
(14), opened fire on a prayer circle and killed 3 classmates and
wounded five during a shooting spree at Heath High School in West
Paducah, Ky. In 1998 he pleaded guilty but mentally ill in a plea
agreement and was given a life prison term with no parole for 25
years.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/6/98, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/98)
1997 Dec 2, In California
Vanessa Lei Samson (22) was abducted while walking to work in
Pleasanton. Her body was later found off Highway 88 in Alpine Ct.
Michelle Michaud and her boyfriend, James A. Daveggio, were later
picked up by police. The couple had a van converted into a “murder
and abduction chamber.” The couple were arrested on a kidnap and
rape charge for a separate attack on a Reno college student in Sep.
and faced charges for raping 12 and 13-year old girls in Sacramento.
Michaud confessed to Samson’s murder. The pair were charged in 1998
for the kidnapping and murder of Samson. In 2001 Robert Scott
authored “Rope Burns,” an account of the case. Daveggio and Michaud
went on trial in 2002.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A21)(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A18)(SFC,
1/21/02, p.B1)
1997 Dec 4, In Santa Claus,
Ga., Jerry Scott Heidler (20) was arrested for the murder of a
couple and their two children and the kidnapping of three foster
children.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 9, In Texas Michael
Lee Lockhart was put to death by lethal injection for the 1988
murder of a Beaumont police officer. He was also wanted by Florida
and Indiana where in 1987 he killed a 14-year old girl and 16
year-old girl. He was the 37th to be executed by Texas this year.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 9, In Virginia Michael
Charles Satche (29) was put to death for the rape and murder of a
woman. It was the state’s 8th execution this year.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 12, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the international terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal,"
went on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French
investigators and a Lebanese national. He was convicted and began
serving a life prison sentence.
(AP, 12/12/98)
1997 Dec 30, In Algeria
marauders slit the throats of 34 people in Ain Boucif. Later reports
raised the number killed near the city of Relizane to over 400 for
this first day of Ramadan. The single deadliest massacre in
Algeria's insurgency began in four mountain villages as armed men
killed 412 men, women and children in an attack that lasted from
dusk until dawn.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A8)(AP,
12/30/98)
1998 Jan 4, Nirmal Singh Gill
(65) was found beaten and bleeding in the parking lot of a Sikh
temple in Surrey near Vancouver. He soon died. 5 young men linked to
a white supremacist group, White Power, were later jailed on
charges of murder.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1998 Feb 3, In Texas Karla Faye
Tucker (38) was executed by lethal injection with sodium thiopental
for the 1983 pickax slaying of 2 people during a break-in in 1983.
She was the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.R4)(AP,
2/3/99)
1998 Mar 10, In Alabama a
teenager killed his parents with an ax and a sledgehammer. Jeffery
Franklin (17) also wounded 3 siblings and led police on a “wild car
chase” before being captured.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 11, In Los Angeles
Efren Saldivar, a respiratory care therapist, claimed to have killed
as many as 50 terminally ill patients from 1989 to 1997 at the
Glendale Adventist medical Center. He later recanted his confession.
Exhumations to verify the claims began Apr 30. In 2001 Saldivar was
arrested for the murder of 6 patients whose remains indicated that
they were murdered. In 2002 Saldivar pleaded guilty to murdering 6
patients. In 2002 Saldivar was sentenced to 6 life terms in prison
plus 15 years to life for attempted murder.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.C7)(SFC,
1/10/01, p.A5)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A7)(USAT, 4/18/02, p.3A)
1998 Mar 21, In Germany
Christina Nytsch (11) was found raped and murdered in woods 8 miles
from her home in Struecklingen. In April Police began collecting
saliva from 18,000 local men to test for a DNA match. Police found a
match and arrested a suspect in Elisabethfehn in May, 1998. The man,
a father of 3 children, confessed to another rape of an 11-year-old
girl in Jan, 1996.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A24)
1998 May 10, In Clearfield,
Pa., Kimberly Jo Dotts (15) was hanged to death by teenagers who
planned to run away to Florida. Seven young people 14-24 were
arrested for murder and the trial of Jessica Holtmeyer (16) and
Aaron Straw (19) began in 1999. Holtmeyer was convicted Jan 28.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/29/99, p.A6)
1998 May 21, In Springfield,
Ore., Kipland Kinkel (15) killed 1 classmate and wounded 19 more at
Thurston High School. His parents, William (59) and Faith (57) were
found shot dead at home. A 2nd student died the next day. Kipland
had been expelled from school the previous day for bringing a gun to
school.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 24, In Jonesboro,
Ark., 2 boys, Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11), opened
fire on a group of schoolchildren and killed four girls and one
teacher and wounded 11 others. The older boy was angry at a girl who
had broken up with him. Golden had stolen 7 guns from his
grandfather. The boys were remanded to the Division of Youth
Services until their 18th birthdays.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A1)(SFC,
8/12/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun, In England Dr. Harold
F. Shipman came under suspicion of murder when former Preston Mayor
Kathleen Grundy (81) was found dead and toxicologists later found
that she'd been given a large dose of heroin. Her revised will
arrived at a law firm on the same day with her $640,000 estate
willed to Shipman. 14 other female patients were also suspected to
have been murdered by Shipman. Shipman was convicted in 2000 and
sentenced to 15 life sentences. In 2001 Shipman was suspected of
having injected hundreds of elderly women with diamorphine over his
24-year career. In 2002 an investigation reported that Shipman had
killed at least 215 people over 23 years.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.C8)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A1)(SFC,
7/20/02, p.A8)
1998 Aug 5, Marie Noe of
Philadelphia (69), was arrested and charged with murdering 8 of the
10 children by suffocation over a 19 year period beginning in 1949.
Noe later received 20 years' probation.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A3)(AP, 8/5/99)
1998 Aug 11, Mitchell Johnson
(14), one of the shooters in the March 24 Jonesboro, Ark.,
schoolyard massacre, pleaded guilty to murder and battery. He and
Andrew Golden (12) were both convicted. The boys were detained by
Arkansas juvenile authorities until they turned 18, then transferred
to federal custody. Federal authorities released the two when they
turned 21. In 2008 a US District Judge sentenced Johnson (24) to 4
more years in prison for possession of a 9mm pistol, a Federal
violation of his parole. Charges remained pending on the possession
of marijuana and a stolen credit card.
(AP,
8/11/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Golden)
1998 Sep 7, In Colorado 6
people were found shot to death at 3 locations in Aurora. Two
teenagers killed 5 people and then one of the teens killed the
other.
(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 29, In Dalton, Mich.,
Seth Stephen Privacky (18) and Steven Wallace (18) shot a killed
Privacky’s father (50), mother (49), grandfather (78), brother (19)
and brother’s girlfriend, April A. Boss (19). Seth Privacky pleaded
no contest to the charges and was sentenced to life in prison in
late May, 1999. Privacky confessed that he committed the murders
because his father had threatened to kick him out of the house.
(www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/dec/12-02-98/news/news10.html)(SFC,
12/1/98, p.A4)
1998 Dec 10, In Detroit Andrzej
Olbrot (52), a Wayne State Univ. engineering Prof., was shot and
killed while administering final exams. A 48-year-old graduate
student turned himself in the next day.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D6)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A2)
1998/99 Dec 30-Jan 1, Some 500 people were
massacred in eastern Congo during the 3 day New Year holiday. The
killings were by soldiers aligned with rebels led by Tutsi, but the
victims were not Hutu.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1999 Feb 15, In California
Carole Sund (42), Julie Sund (15) and Silvina Pelosso were last seen
at the Cedar Lodge motel in Portal. The trio were visiting the area
from Eureka. Carole Sund's wallet and credit cards were found in
Modesto on Feb 19. The FBI acknowledged Feb 21 that the
disappearance was being treated as a kidnapping and a $250,000
reward was offered. Their rented Pontiac was found burned near Long
Barn in Tuolemne County on Mar 18 and 2 burned bodies were found in
the trunk.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 16, Testimony began in
the Jasper, Texas trial of John William King, charged with murder in
the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later
convicted and sentenced to death.
(AP, 2/16/00)
1999 May 3, A jury in Orange
County declared that Charles Ng should die by lethal injection for
the murder of 6 men, 3 women, and 2 baby boys during the 1980s.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 22, Joie Ruth
Armstrong (26), naturalist for the Yosemite Institute, was found
murdered in Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner (38), a motel
maintenance man, was sought in relation to the murder. Staynor was
arrested and admitted to the February murders of Carole Sund, Juli
Sund and Silvina Pelosso. Stayner pleaded guilty in 2000 to federal
murder charges.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A1)(USAT, 7/26/99, p.1A)(SFC,
9/14/00, p.A10)
1999 Jul 26, Cary Stayner, a
motel handyman, described in detail for an off-camera jailhouse
interview with San Francisco TV station KBWB how he’d killed a
naturalist and three Yosemite sightseers.
(AP, 7/26/00)
1999 Jul 29, In Atlanta Mark O.
Barton (44) shot and killed 9 people in 2 day-trading offices in the
Buckhead district of Atlanta. He wounded another 13 before shooting
himself to death. Police also found the dead bodies of his wife
Leigh Ann Barton (27) and 2 children, Matthew (11) and Elizabeth
Mychelle (7) in suburban Stockbridge. Barton had been a suspect in
the 1993 murders of his first wife and mother-in-law.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/00)
1999 Aug 10, In Granada Hills,
Los Angeles County, Buford Oneal Furrow (37) opened fire at a Jewish
day camp center and wounded 1 adult, a teenager and 3 children.
Buford also shot and killed postal worker Joseph Ileto.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A1)(SFC,
8/12/99, p.A17)
1999 Dec 3, In Monaco
billionaire banker Edmund Safra (67), founder of the Republic
National Bank of New York, was suffocated to death in a fire set by
intruders at his home in Monte Carlo. His American nurse, Ted Maher
(41), was jealous of other servants and later admitted that he had
set the fire and fabricated the intruder story to gain attention.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 30, In Tampa, Fla.,
Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva, an employee at the Radisson Bay Harbor Inn,
shot and killed 4 co-workers and a motorist as he tempted to steal a
car before police arrested him.
(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/00)
1999 The FBI helped launch the
1st Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) to support
federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies. By 2005 there
were 6 such labs.
(Econ, 3/12/05, TQ p.32)
2000 Jan 19, Michael Skakel, a
nephew of Robert F. Kennedy, was charged with bludgeoning to death
15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1975, when
he was also 15.
(AP, 1/19/01)
2000 Feb 14, In Colorado 2
teens, Nicholas Kunselman (15) and Stephanie Hart (16), from
Columbine High School were shot and killed in a sandwich shop near
the school, which was still reeling from the April 1999 massacre.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/01)
2000 Mar 20, In Texas Robert
Wayne Harris (28) shot 5 people to death and critically injured one
person at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. Harris was arrested the
next day. He had recently been fired for exposing himself to 2 women
at the business. Harris was sentenced to death on Sep 29.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Apr 12, Detroit police
arrested John Eric Armstrong (26), a suspected serial killer.
Armstrong was reported to be responsible for killing some 20
prostitutes since 1992, when he served in the US Navy aboard the
Nimitz.
(SFC, 4/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 19, In Arizona Richard
Glassel killed 2 women and injured 4 others in a retirement
community in Peoria.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 19, In Tennessee
Robert Glen Coe, convicted for the 1979 murder and rape of Cary Ann
Medlin (8), was executed by injection. This was the state’s first
execution in 40 years.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC,
4/20/00, p.A4)
2000 Apr 28, In Pennsylvania
Richard Baumhammers (34) shot and killed 5 people in a racially
motivated shooting spree in McKees Rocks. He was sentenced to death
in 2001.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A3)(BS, 5/12/01, p.3A)
2000 May 24, Two gunmen killed
5 workers in a Wendy’s restaurant in the Queens borough of NYC. John
Taylor (36) and Craig Godineaux (31) were arrested 2 days later.
Taylor was sentenced to death in 2002.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A2)(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A2)(WSJ,
11/27/02, p.A1)
2000 Jun 2, In Olathe, Kansas,
John Edward Robinson was arrested on sexual assault charges. 2
female bodies were found on his property in La Cygne, Kansas, the
next day and 3 more 2 days later in 55-gallon drums in a storage
locker in Missouri. 3 of the women were identified as Beverly Bonner
(49), who disappeared in 1994, Suzette Marie Trouten (28), and
Izabela Lewicka (22). Another 6 missing women were linked to
Robinson. In July Robinson was charged in connection with the death
of Lisa Stasi, who disappeared in 1985. In 2003 Robinson pleaded
guilty to another 5 murders in Missouri.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A10)(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A9)(SFC,
7/29/00, p.A7)(ST, 10/17/03, p.A7)
2000 Jun 21, In San Leandro,
Ca., Stuart Alexander (39), owner of the Santo Linguisa sausage
factory, shot and killed 3 government meat inspectors, Jean Hillery
(56), Tom Quadros (52), and Bill Shaline (57). In 2004 Alexander was
convicted of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder. In 2005 Alexander was
sentenced to death.
(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A6)(SFC,
10/20/04, p.B1)(SFC, 2/16/05, p.B5)
2000 Jul 1, Lucie Blackman
(21), a British citizen working in Tokyo, became the 8th Western
woman to disappear in the last 5 years. In 2001 police found her
remains encased in concrete near the residence of Joji Obara, a
wealthy businessman and prime suspect. Obara was formally accused
Apr 6, 2001. Some 4,800 tapes were found that linked Obara to some
400 rapes over 25 years [see April 24, 2007]. On Dec 16, 2008, Obara
was convicted for the abduction and dismemberment of Blackman, but
acquitted of her murder. The court also upheld an earlier conviction
for the rapes of 9 other women. In 2011 Richard Lloyd Parry authored
“People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman.”
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A13)(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A11)(SSFC,
2/11/01, p.C2)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A7)(AP,
12/16/08)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.90)
2000 Aug 1, Glenn and Justin
Helzer murdered Anette and Ivan Stineman in Concord, Ca. In 2004
Justin Helzer was convicted for 5 murders. A jury gave Glen Helzer
received 5 death sentences on Dec 17, 2004. The brothers were
formally sentenced to death Mar 11, 2005.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.B1)(SFC, 6/17/04, p.B1)(SFC,
12/18/04, p.B1)
2000 Aug 2, Glenn Taylor Helzer
murdered Selina Bishop (22) in Concord. [see Aug 1,3]
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.B1)
2000 Aug 3, In Woodacre, Marin
Ct., Ca., Jennifer Villarin (45) and James Gamble (54) were murdered
in the early morning. Villarin was the former wife of blues
guitarist Elvin Bishop. Bishop’s daughter, Selina (22), was missing
and police later arrested her boyfriend Glenn Taylor Helzer, along
with Helzer’s brother and roommate Dawn Godman (26) in Concord. Body
parts were discovered Aug 7 on the banks of the Mokelumne River and
linked to Helzer, as was the disappearance of an elderly couple, the
Stinemans from Concord. The body parts were soon identified as the
remains of Ivan and Annette Stineman and Selina Bishop. In 2004
Glenn Helzer (33) pleaded guilty to 18 counts. [see Aug 1,2]
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A15)(SFC,
8/9/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A1,6)(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A22)(SSFC,
2/07/04, p.A23)
2000 Sep 2, In Alaska Joshua
Alan Wade killed Della Brown (33), a native Alaskan, by smashing her
head with a rock in Anchorage. Wade was acquitted in 2003 in her
killing, but was convicted of tampering with her body and served
several years in prison. In 2010 Wade acknowledged her murder.
(SFC, 2/17/10,
p.A6)(http://www.ktva.com/iteam/ci_14413092)
2000 Sep 6, Michael Swango, a
former doctor suspected in a string of poisoning deaths, pleaded
guilty to killing three patients in a Long Island, N.Y., hospital,
and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 9/6/01)
2000 Aug 9, Nicholas Samuel
Markowitz (b.1984), having been kidnapped in Los Angeles, was
murdered near Santa Barbara after a feud over drug money between his
half-brother Benjamin Markowitz and Jesse James Hollywood (20). The
murder inspired the 2006 film “Alpha Dog.” Hollywood was not present
at the murder, but ordered it. He immediately skipped town, but was
arrested five years later in Saquarema, Brazil with his pregnant
girlfriend Marcia Reis. In July, 2009, he was convicted of
first-degree murder and kidnapping and jurors recommended life in
prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Markowitz)(SFC, 7/16/09,
p.A6)
2000 Dec 22, In Germany 3
American teenagers were convicted of murder for the Feb 27 deaths of
2 people, killed from rocks thrown from a freeway overpass.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 24, Susan Berman (55),
writer and Las Vegas mobster’s daughter, was found slain in her Los
Angeles home. She authored “Easy Street” in 1981.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A1,14)
2001 Feb 23, David Edward
Attias (18), a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, rammed his Saab into a
crowd in Isla Vista and killed 4 students, Nicholas Shaw Bourdakis
(20), Christopher Edward Divis (20), Ruth Dasha Golda Levy (20) and
Elie Israel (27). A 5th victim, Albert Arthur Levy (27), was
severely battered. Attias was charged with murder the next day.
Attias was convicted on 2nd degree murder in 2002 and jurors found
him insane.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A13)(SFC,
6/13/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A17)
2001 Mar 5, Charles Andrew
Williams (15), a freshman at Santana High School in Santee, Ca., a
San Diego suburb, shot and killed 2 students and wounded 13 others.
Williams was sentenced 50 years to life in prison on Aug 15, 2002.
(SFC, 3/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/16/02, p.A3)
2001 Apr 28, A young girl’s
decapitated body was found near an intersection in Kansas City, Mo.
In 2005 she was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green. Her mother
and stepfather were charged with murder.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A7)
2001 Apr 30, Chandra Levy (24),
an intern from Modesto, Ca., was last seen at a health club
near her apartment in Washington, DC. On July 5 the aunt of Chandra
Levy reported that her niece told her of a relationship with US Rep.
Gary Condit before she disappeared. Levy’s remains were found May
22, 2002, in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC. In 2009 Ingmar
Guandique (27), a Salvadoran immigrant already serving a 10-year
sentence for attacking 2 women in the same park, was charged in her
murder. In 2010 Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz authored “Finding
Chandra: The True Washington Murder Mystery.” In Nov 22, 2010, a
jury found Guandique guilty of 2 counts of 1st degree murder. On Feb
11, 2011, Guandique was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.A3)(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A1)(AP,
4/30/02)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/23/09, p.A4)(SSFC, 5/9/10,
p.F1)(SFC, 11/23/10, p.A12)(SFC, 2/12/11, p.A6)
2001 Aug 20, Near Sacramento,
Ca., Nikolay Soltys (27), a Ukrainian immigrant, stabbed to death
his pregnant wife and 4 other relatives including 2 young cousins.
He fled the area with his 3-year-old son. The body of Sergey Soltys
(3) was found the next day in a blood-soaked carton in Placer
County. Soltys was caught in his mother’s backyard near Sacramento
Aug 30. Soltys committed suicide Feb 13, 2002.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/22/01, p.A1)(SFC,
8/31/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A17)
2001 Aug 30, In Iowa Leticia
Aguilar (31) was found dead with her 5 children at her home in Sioux
City. A 7th victim, Ronal Fish (58) was also found. Adam Matthew
Moss (24) was arrested the next day and charged in the murders. Moss
pleaded guilty on Sep 25 and was sentenced to 7 consecutive life
terms.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A4)(SFC, 9/26/01, p.C12)
2001 Aug 30, Nikolay Soltys was
captured hiding under a desk in his mother's back yard in Citrus
Heights, Calif., after a ten-day nationwide manhunt for the
Ukrainian immigrant accused of butchering six relatives. Soltys
committed suicide in his jail cell in February. [see Aug 20]
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/30/02)
2001 Sep 10, In Switzerland
nurse Roger Andermatt (32) was reported to have confessed to killing
of 27 elderly and ailing patients over a 6-year period (1995-2001).
In 2005 he was sentenced to life in prison for killing 22 elderly
nursing home residents.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.C4)(AP, 1/28/05)
2001 Sep, Derrick Todd Lee
began a series of murders in Louisiana that continued to Mar, 2003.
He was arrested in 2003 and linked to the murder of 6 women.
(USAT, 1/16/04, p.1D)
2001 Nov 30, Gary Leon Ridgway
(b.1949) was arrested in connection with 4 of 7 Green River serial
killings in Washington state. Four murders were linked to him
through DNA and three through paint he used at his job. In 2003 he
pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated murder, although the
estimates ran much higher. On December 18, 2003, King County
Superior Court Judge Richard Jones sentenced Ridgway to 48 life
sentences with no possibility of parole and one life sentence, to be
served consecutively.
(AP,
11/30/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway#Victims)
2001 Dec 6, In Indiana Robert
L. Wissman, an employee of the Nu-Wood Decorative Millwork plant on
the edge of Goshen killed manager Greg Oswald, wounded 6 others, and
then killed himself. A love triangle was later aid to be the cause.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A3)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A7)
2001 Dec 10, In Philadelphia a
gunman opened fire outside the Great Valley Shopping Center in East
Whiteland Township and killed 2 people. A 3rd was wounded.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A9)
2001 Dec 19-24, Christian
Michael Longo (27) killed his wife and 3 children. The bodies of
Mary Jane Longo and 2-year-old daughter were found in an inlet along
the central Oregon coast a week after the bodies of 2 other Longo
children were found. Longo was arrested in Mexico Jan 13. Longo was
convicted and sentenced to death Apr 16, 2003.
(SFC, 12/31/01, p.A9)(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A3)(SFC,
4/17/03, p.A10)
2001 Dec 28, Lawrence Singleton
(74), rapist, died at a Florida prison hospital where he was
awaiting execution for a 1997 murder. Singleton had raped Mary
Vincent (15) in 1978 and chopped off her forearms. He was paroled in
1987.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A1)
2001 In South Carolina
Christopher Pittman (12) killed his grandparents with a shotgun and
then torched their rural home. He later blame the anti-depressant
zoloft for his actions. In 2005 he was found guilty and sentenced to
30 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/16/05, p.A4)
2002 Jan 6, Christa Worthington
(46), fashion writer, was found dead at her home in Truro on Cape
Cod, Mass. Her 2-year-old daughter was next to her, covered in blood
but unharmed. In 2005 DNA evidence identified Christopher Mccowen, a
local trash collector, as the murderer.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A5)
2002 Feb 5, In Canada a police
raid on the farmstead of Robert and David Pickton in Port Coquitlan,
BC, turned up evidence of 2 missing women. Since 1984 at least 50
prostitutes had vanished from the streets of Vancouver. Robert
Pickton was arrested Feb 22. In 2003 the murder charges against
Pickton rose to 22.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)(SFC,
12/16/03, p.A14)
2002 Mar 12, In Houston a jury
found Andrea Pia Yates (37) guilty of capital murder for drowning
her 5 children. On Mar 15 she was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 15, Jackson Carr (6)
was killed and buried by his older sister (15) and brother (10) in
Lewisville, Texas. His body was found the next day.
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 19, In California a
5th body was found in New Melones Lake near Sonora. Meyer Muscatel
(58), a Sherman Oaks contractor, was found last October. A Russian
crime gang was suspected.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A3)
2002 May 23, In Great Falls,
Montana, Nathaniel Bar-Jonah (45), accused of butchering a
10-year-old boy and feeding his remains to unsuspecting neighbors,
was sentenced to 130 years in prison without parole.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 20, The US Supreme
Court ruled that the constitution bans the death penalty for
mentally retarded convicted killers.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 15, In Stanton, Ca.,
Samantha Runnion (5) was kidnapped. Her body was found the next day
in Riverside county. On July 19 police arrested Alejandro Avila
(27), previously acquitted for child molestation. In 2005 Avila was
convicted of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault. On May 16 a jury
called for the death penalty. He was sentenced to death on July 22.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A2)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A1)(SFC,
4/29/05, p.A4)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.B8)(SFC, 7/23/05, p.B7)
2002 Jul 25, Cassandra
Williamson (6) vanished from a suburban St. Louis home; her body was
found hours later at an abandoned glass factory. Johnny Johnson
(24), an acquaintance of Cassandra's father who had spent the night
at the house was later indicted for murder.
(SFC, 7/27/02, p.A3)(AP, 7/26/03)
2002 Aug 4, Holly Wells and
Jessica Chapman vanished while walking near their homes in Soham, 12
miles northeast of Cambridge, England. [see Aug 16] On August 17,
2002 a game warden found their partially burned bodies in a
six-foot-deep ditch close to the RAF Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk.
(AP,
8/9/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Huntley)
2002 Aug 16, In Soham,
Cambridgeshire, England, police arrested two people on suspicion of
murdering a pair of 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells (b. 10-4-1991)
and Jessica Chapman (b. 9-1-1991), who vanished from a rural village
on August 4th. On December 17, 2003 Ian Huntley (28), a caretaker at
the local secondary school, was convicted by two eleven-to-one
majority jury verdicts, and on that day began serving two concurrent
life sentences. On September 29, 2005, the High Court announced that
Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years,
a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at
least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. His girlfriend
Maxine Carr (25), a classroom assistant, was charged with attempting
to pervert the course of justice. She was given three-and-a-half
years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice but cleared of
two counts of assisting an offender. She was freed and
electronically tagged within 30 days, because she had already spent
16 months in jail.
(AP,
8/17/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders)
2002 Aug 24, In Oregon City,
Ore., the FBI uncovered human remains in an outbuilding behind the
house of Ward Weaver III, a suspect in the case of two missing girls
who lived across the street. Authorities recovered the remains of
Ashley Pond (12) and Miranda Gaddis (13). In 2004 Weaver pleaded
guilty to aggravated murder and no contest to other charges of
sexual abuse. A plea bargain allowed him to avoid the death penalty
and he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
(AP,
8/24/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Weaver_III)
2002 Sep 6, A jury in
Pensacola, Fla., convicted 13- and 14-year-old brothers of murdering
their sleeping father with a baseball bat in an unusual case in
which an adult friend was acquitted of the crime under a different
prosecution theory. The judge threw out the convictions and ordered
mediation; Alex and Derek King later pleaded guilty to third-degree
murder. Alex was sentenced to seven years and Derek to eight years.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2002 Sep 23, Hong Im Ballenger,
a beauty shop manager in Baton Rouge, La., was shot to death. Her
murder was later attributed to John Allen Muhammed, the Washington
area sniper.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 23, Rachel Burkheimer
(18) of Marysville, Wa., was shot to death by her boyfriend John
Anderson. On Oct 5 Matthew Durham led police to her body. 8 people
were later arrested for her murder. In 2004 Yusef Jihad, head of a
gang involved in the killing, was convicted of 1st degree murder.
Anderson was convicted of aggravated 1st degree murder on May 19,
2004. In 2004 Tony Williams (22) was sentenced to 9 years in prison
and Maurice Rivas (20) to 26 years.
(ST, 4/6/04, p.B5)(ST, 5/20/04, p.B1)(ST,
7/29/04, p.B1)
2002 Oct 22, In Aspen Hill,
Maryland, Conrad Everton Johnson (35), a bus driver, was shot in the
chest and died during surgery. The shooting was suspected to be
related to the serial sniper who already killed nine people this
month. This was the 13th and final attack linked by authorities to
the Washington-area sniper attacks.
(AP, 10/22/02)(SFC, 10/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 24, John Allen
Muhammad (41), an Army veteran who recently converted to Islam, and
John Lee Malvo (17) were arrested near Frederick, Maryland, in
connection with the sniper shootings that left 10 dead and 3
wounded.
(AP, 10/24/02)(SFC, 10/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 23, At Loughborough,
England, 4 people were charged with murdering Adam Morrell (14),
whose body parts were found scattered around the town. The suspects
included three men and a girl. On December 17, 2002 the following
sentences were handed down: Matthew Welsh (19), the dominant figure
in a gang, was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison. His girl
friend Sarah Morris (17), was found guilty of deliberately
assaulting the youngster but cleared of his murder. Nathan Barnett
(27) was ordered to be detained indefinitely in secure accommodation
under the Mental Health Act after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter
on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Daniel Biggs (19) was
cleared of murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm, but sentenced
to two and a half years in custody for conspiring to pervert the
course of justice.
(AP,
11/23/02)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3255720.stm)
2002 Dec 21, In Oregon the
bodies of Renee Morris (31), Bryant (10), Alexis (8), and Jonathan
(4), were found by hunters in Tillamook State Forest. Edward Morris
(37) was arrested Jan 4.
(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 12, Phoenix police
arrested Corey Morris (24) in connection with the deaths of at least
5 prostitutes.
(SFC, 4/14/03, p.A9)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of
rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead
School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and
wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was
later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP,
5/9/08)
2003 May 26, FBI and state
police issued fugitive and murder warrants for Derrick Todd Lee, a
prime suspect in the killings of 5 women in south Louisiana. Lee was
arrested May 27 in Atlanta. Georgia.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A3)(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 Jun 11, Patrick James
Dennehy (21), a Baylor Univ. basketball player, disappeared in Waco,
Texas, and was feared to have been killed by team mates. Carlton
Dotson (21) later confessed to the slaying and was arrested in
Maryland on Jul 21. Dennehy's body was found Jul 25. In 2005 Dotson
was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.A25)(SFC, 7/22/03, p.A1)(SSFC,
7/27/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.B5)
2004 Jul 19, Lori Hacking (27)
of Salt Lake City, Utah, went missing. Her husband Mark (28) said
she failed to return from a jog. She was reportedly five weeks
pregnant. Police found her husband Mark Hacking running naked around
a motel not far from his home the next day. He was put into a
psychiatric hospital after police found him. Police arrested hacking
on Aug 2 and filed 1st degree murder charges on Aug 9. In 2005 Mark
Hacking pleaded guilty to her murder.
(SFC, 8/2/04, p.A3)(SFC, 8/3/04, p.A2)(SFC,
8/10/04, p.A4)(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A5)
2003 Nov 5, In Seattle, Wa.,
Gary Leon Ridgeway pleaded guilty 48 consecutive times for the Green
River murders that began in 1982. On Dec 18 he was sentenced to 48
consecutive life terms and ordered to pay $480,000.
(SFC, 11/6/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 4, Federal prosecutor
Jonathan Luna was attacked after leaving his office in Baltimore
around midnight. His body was found 6 hours later, stabbed 36 times
apparently in a furious fight for his life before drowning in a
Pennsylvania creek.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 15, Charles Cullen
(43), a former nurse, was charged with murder after telling
prosecutors that he killed 30-40 severely ill patients in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 1987 by injecting them with drugs.
In 2004 Cullen pleaded guilty to 16 murders in New Jersey.
(SFC, 12/16/03, p.A4)(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A3)(WSJ,
4/30/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/20/04, p.A3)
2003 Dec 18, Lee Boyd Malvo
(18) was convicted in Virginia for his role in the 2002 sniper
shootings.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A3)
2004 Mar 12, In Fresno, Ca.,
Marcus Wesson (57) was arrested on suspicion of killing 9 family
members, aged 1-24. He lived a bizarre life of polygamy and incest,
even fathering two of his victims with his own daughters. In 2005
Wesson was convicted on 9 counts of murder and sentenced to death.
In 2009 reporter Alysia Sofios authored “Where Hope Begins: One
Family's Journey Out of Tragedy-and the Reporter Who Helped Them
Make It.”
(AP, 3/14/04)(SSFC, 3/14/04, p.A1)(SFC, 6/18/05,
p.B7)(SFC, 7/28/05, p.B4)(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A1)
2004 Jun 13, Robert Lees,
former screenwriter, was decapitated at his Hollywood home. Keven
Lee Graff (27) was later charged with Lees’ murder and that of a
neighbor.
(SFC, 7/29/04, p.B3)
2004 Oct 1, The Utah state
medical examiner's office used dental records to identify Lori
Hacking's remains about six hours after they were discovered in a
landfill.
(AP, 10/2/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A2)
2004 Geoffrey Abbott authored
"The Executioner Always Chops Twice," a collection of vignettes of
badly executed deaths over the centuries.
(WSJ, 4/9/04, p.W6)
2005 Jan 8, Richard P.
Rodriguez (29) stabbed to death Angela M. Smith (51) in Tucson, Az.
Rodriguez was found dead of a gunshot wound the next day in Blythe,
Ca., near the Arizona border. He had grown up in the evangelical sex
cult “Children of God” also known as the Family. Smith, a member of
the cult, was involved in his upbringing.. The cult was later linked
to the San Diego based Family Care Foundation.
(SFC, 1/11/05, p.B8)(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 25, Kansas police
arrested Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker at his suburban
home in Park City. They believe he is the notorious BTK (bind,
torture, kill) serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the
1970s. He resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Mar 1, In Geneva, Switz.,
Edouard Stern, French financier and former Lazard banker, was found
dead in his home. Swiss police later arrested Cecile Brossard (36),
his French lover, who allegedly confessed to the sex-related killing
of banker Edouard Stern.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/16/05)(WSJ, 4/14/05,
p.A1)
2005 Mar 31, It was reported
that Shirin Gul (39), an Afghan housewife, stood accused with her
lover and son (18) of murdering 27 men over the last 4 years in
order to sell their cars across the border in Pakistan.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 9, Sarah Michelle
Lunde (13) was last seen in Ruskin, Fla. Her body was found April 16
at an abandoned fish camp about a half mile from her home. David
Onstott (36), a sex offender who once dated the girl’s mother, was
arrested April 12. Onstott confessed and was charged with 1st degree
murder on April 17.
(SSFC, 4/17/05, p.A13)
2005 May 10, In Riverside
County, Ca., David McGowan (44) killed his wife, mother and 3
children, a boy (14) and 2 girls (8 and 10), while they slept. He
then killed himself at their home in Garner Valley.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.A5)
2005 David Buss, Univ. of Texas
psychology professor, authored “The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind
Is Designed to Kill.” Buss held that the male mind developed
adaptations for killing because the trait provided an evolutionary
edge for leaving more descendants.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.B1)
2005 John Emsley authored “The
Elements of Murder,” a history of the use of poison as a murder
weapon.
(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)
2005 Stacy Horn authored “The
Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad.” She noted
that NYC had 8894 unsolved murders dating back to 1985.
(SSFC, 7/10/05, p.E6)
2006 Mar 2, "Killer nurse"
Charles Cullen, who'd killed at least 29 patients, was sentenced in
Somerville, N.J., to spend the rest of his life in prison. In 2010 a
jury awarded $95 million in damages to families of 8 people who
claimed their loved ones were among those killed by Cullen.
(AP, 3/2/07)(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A8)
2006 Apr 14, In Oklahoma Kevin
Ray Underwood (26) was arrested after investigators found the body
of Jamie Rose Bolin (10), missing since April 12, in a bedroom
closet in his apartment. The girl's unclothed body was inside a
large plastic tub. Police said she was killed as part of the
neighbor's elaborate plan to eat human flesh. On February 29 2008, a
jury found him guilty of first degree murder after deliberating for
twenty-three minutes. This quick verdict was attributed to the
showing of Underwood's videotaped confession. On Thursday, April 3,
2008, McClain County District Judge Candace Blalock approved a
recommended death sentence.
(AP,
4/16/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ray_Underwood)
2006 Jun 1, A German court
jailed Sabine Hilschenz (40) for 15 years for killing eight of her
newborn babies in the worst case of infanticide in the country's
criminal history. She had buried them in flower pots and a fish tank
at her parents’ home.
(AFP, 6/1/06)(SFC, 4/8/08, p.A3)
2006 Sep 6, In Phoenix,
Arizona, police arrested Mark Goudeau (42), a construction worker,
for 2 sexual assaults. In December police identified Goudeau as the
Baseline Killer and recommended charging him with 71 counts
including 9 murders committed from August, 2005, to June, 2006. His
trial opened in 2011.
(www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=39736)(SFC,
12/8/06, p.A13)(SFC, 6/7/11, p.A4)
2006 Sep 22, Yvan Keller (46),
arrested a week earlier in France’s eastern city of Mulhouse in
connection with a robbery, hanged himself while in custody. Mr.
Keller admitted to killing dozens of elderly women who lived alone,
all within 40 miles of Mulhouse, in the border region straddling
France, Switzerland and Germany, starting in 1989.
(www.newagebd.com/2006/sep/27/inat.html)
2006 Nov 1, Adrienne Shelly
(b.1966), actress and director, was found by her husband hanging by
a bed sheet in their Manhattan apartment in an apparent suicide. In
2008 Diego Pillco (20), an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, pleaded
guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Shelly)(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A4)
2007 Jul 23, Jennifer
Hawke-Petit and her two daughters were killed during a violent home
invasion in Cheshire, Conn. Dr. William Petit, was badly beaten but
escaped. His wife and one daughter were sexually assaulted. The
girls, aged 11 and 17, were tied to their beds, doused in gasoline,
and left to die in a fire. Steven Hayes (44) and Joshua
Komisarjevsky (27), on parole at the time for other burglaries, were
accused of their murder. Prosecutors later said they will seek the
death penalty. In 2010 Hayes was convicted of murder.
(AP,
7/23/08)(www.nbc30.com/news/14405181/detail.html)(AP, 10/5/10)
2007 Aug 3, In Alaska Mindy
Schloss (52), a nurse practitioner, was last seen alive in
Anchorage. Her body was found on Sep 13 near Wasilla. In 2010 Joshua
Alan Wade (29) acknowledged that he had shot and killed Schloss, who
lived next door to him.
(SFC, 2/17/10,
p.A6)(www.amw.com/missing_persons/recovered.cfm?id=47985)
2007 Oct 28, A Moscow court
sentenced Alexander Pichushkin, convicted of 48 murders, to life
imprisonment, ending one of Russia's worst serial killer cases.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Nov 7, In southern Finland
at least 7 people were killed and 11 wounded after an 18-year-old
man opened fire at a high school.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Dec 1, Cheryl Dunlap, a
nurse from Crawfordsville, Florida, went missing. On Dec 16 her
decapitated body was found in the Apalachicola National Forest. In
2011 a jury recommended the death penalty for Michael Hilton (64),
who was already serving life in prison for the 2008 slaying of
Meredith Emerson of Athens, Georgia.
(SFC, 2/22/11,
p.A4)(www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/12542231.html)
2007 Dec 9, A Canadian jury in
British Columbia convicted Robert 'Willie' Pickton (58), a pig
farmer, of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life
sentence but finding that the killings were not planned. Pickton
still faced 20 more murder charges for the deaths of women, most of
them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver
neighborhood. On Dec 11 Pickton was sentenced to life in prison with
no hope of parole for 25 years. Canadian authorities spent more than
C$100 million ($98 million) to catch and convict Pickton.
(AP, 12/9/07)(Reuters, 12/12/07)(Reuters,
11/17/10)
2008 Jan 5, Georgia authorities
served a warrant charging Gary Michael Hilton (61) with the
kidnapping with bodily injury of Meredith Emerson (24). Emerson was
last seen on New Year's Day hiking with her black Labrador
retriever, Ella, in Vogel State Park. On Jan 7 he led investigators
to a spot in a wooded area in north Georgia where they found her
body. In March Hilton was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 1/6/08)(AP, 1/8/08)(SFC, 3/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 24, In England police
in Leeds found Damien Oldfield (33) stabbed to death. Anthony Morley
(36) attacked Damien Oldfield (33) during a night the pair spent
together at Morley's home. Morley slit Oldfield's throat as he lay
in his bed, stabbed him repeatedly and cooked some of his flesh. On
Oct 20 Morley was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)(http://tinyurl.com/6nw7hx)
2008 Jun 12, In Minnesota
Katricia Daniels (36) and her son, Robert Shepard (10), were found
murdered. Daniels was stabbed and cut more than 100 times and her
son had a television smashed over his head. On June 18 Stafon Edward
Thompson (17) and Brian Lee Flowers (16), both of Minneapolis, were
charged as adults with first-degree murder.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 25, Brooke Bennett of
Braintree, Vermont, disappeared and was found dead on July 2.
Federal prosecutors later charged Michael Jacques (42) with
drugging, sexually assaulting and killing his 12-year-old niece.
Prosecutors also said that he coerced another girl into aiding his
plot by claiming to be part of a child-sex club that sometimes
selected girls for "termination."
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Dec 31, SF ended the year
with 98 homicides. In Milwaukee, Wisc., the total number of
homicides dropped 32%, from 105 in 2007 to 71 in 2008, the lowest
number since 1985. Detroit had 344 slayings, a 13% drop from the 396
in 2007; Philadelphia's 332 killings were a 15% drop from the 392 in
2007; and the 234 homicides in Baltimore were 17% less than the 392
the year before. Cleveland recorded 102 homicides in 2008, down from
a 13-year high of 134 in 2007. Homicides in New York rose 5.2%, to
522 from 496 the year before. Slayings in Los Angeles were down to
376 in 2008 compared to 400 the prior year. Preliminary data in
Chicago showed 508 homicides were reported in 2008, the first time
the city had more than 500 murders since 2003 and about 15% more
than the 442 homicides reported in 2007. Washington, D.C., ended
2008 with 186 homicides, up from 181 in 2007.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.1)(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jul 2, In South Carolina 2
victims were found in their family's small furniture and appliance
shop near downtown Gaffney around closing time. Stephen Tyler (45)
was killed, and his 15-year-old daughter was shot and seriously
injured. A day earlier and about seven miles away, family members
found the bodies of Hazel Linder (83) and her 50-year-old daughter,
Gena Linder Parker, bound and shot in Linder's home.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Sep 5, Milwaukee police
arrested Walter Ellis (49) after DNA evidence linked him to the
slaying of 9 women, including 8 suspected prostitutes, dating back
to 1986. On Feb 18, 2011, Ellis was convicted in the deaths of 7
women and faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
(SFC, 9/8/09, p.A6)(SFC, 2/19/11, p.A6)
2009 Sep 8, In Connecticut
Annie Le (24), a California graduate student at Yale, disappeared
after entering a laboratory building. She was due to be married on
Sep 13. On Sep 13 police found her body stuffed behind a wall in the
high-security laboratory building where she worked. On June 3, 2011,
Raymond Clark III was sentenced to 44 years in prison for the
murder.
(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.A16)(AP, 9/14/09)(SFC, 6/4/11,
p.A4)
2009 Sep 17, In Connecticut
Raymond Clark III (24) was arrested at a hotel and charged with
murdering Annie Le (24), whose body was found on Sep 13, stuffed in
the wall of a research building at Yale on what would have been her
wedding day. On March 17, 2011, Clark pleaded guilty to killing Le
and faced 44 years in prison.
(AP, 9/17/09)(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A4)
2009 Oct 29, In Cleveland,
Ohio, police found the remains of 6 bodies at the home of Anthony
Sowell (50) as they tried to arrest him on charges of felonious
assault and rape. Sowell, a convicted rapist, was arrested on Oct
31. 5 more bodies were soon found at Sowell’s home.
(SSFC, 11/1/09, p.A20)(SFC, 11/5/09, p.A10)
2010 Mar 9, Rodney Alcala (66),
an amateur photographer, was convicted in southern California of
killing a girl and 4 women between 1977 and 1979. The Santa Ana jury
recommended a death penalty. Photographic evidence from a Seattle
storage locker linked him to at least one woman listed for decades
as missing.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)
2010 May 14, In Tennessee truck
driver Bruce Mendenhall (59) was convicted in the June 2007 death of
a woman at a Nashville truck stop. Authorities said he preyed on
prostitutes at truck stops. Mendenhall has also been charged with
killing women in Lebanon, Ten., Indianapolis and Birmingham, Ala.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A4)
2010 Nov 15, In Germany a girl
(14) was slain in Bodenfelde. On Nov 19 a boy (13) was slain nearby.
On June 27, 2011, Jan O. (26), whose last name was withheld in
accordance with German privacy laws, was convicted in Goettingen
state court of two counts of murder for the slayings and sentenced
to life in prison. Jan O., dubbed the "cannibal killer," had
confessed to eating the flesh and drinking the blood of one of his
teenage victims.
(www.thelocal.de/society/20101127-31449.html)(AP,
6/27/11)
2010 Nov 23, Alfred Gaynor
(43), a serial killer from western Massachusetts admitted to
strangling a woman in 1995, his first victim of eight.
(SFC, 11/24/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 21, British man
Stephen Griffiths (40), who called himself the "Crossbow Cannibal,"
was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing
three prostitutes. Griffiths admitted murdering Suzanne Blamires
(36), Shelley Armitage (31) and Susan Rushworth (43), who all worked
as prostitutes near his home in Bradford.
(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 23, In South Africa
serial killer Thozamile Taki (36) was convicted of murdering 13
women and dumping their bodies in sugarcane plantations around the
country. The bodies of the women had decomposed in the fields when
they were found in 2007.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2011 Mar 24, In London Delroy
Grant (53) a former British taxi driver dubbed the "Night Stalker",
was found guilty of preying on 18 men and women over a 17-year
period. Grant had preyed on the elderly for nearly two decades and
may have assaulted scores of victims.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Apr 4, In NY investigators
found 3 more sets of remains at a beach area 45 miles east of NYC
bringing the total number of bodies to 8, all victims of a
suspected serial killer.
(SFC, 4/5/11, p.A6)
2011 Apr 11, New York police
found human remains at two more locations at Jones Beach State Park
on Long Island, bringing to 10 the number of potential victims of a
possible serial killer.
(SFC, 4/12/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 23, A British court
convicted Levi Bellfield (43) of abducting and murdering Milly
Dowler (13) after she walked past his home. It took Milly's parents
Bob and Sally nine years to get justice, even though her killer had
been living 50 yards from where she was last seen in Station Avenue,
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The former wheelclamper and bouncer went
on to kill Miss McDonnell and to murder Amelie Delagrange (22), and
attempt to murder Kate Sheedy (18) in 2004. Bellfield was jailed for
life for those crimes in February 2008 and was told he would never
be released.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
Go to
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Subject = Murders
End of file