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  Archived Madmen & Women: Axeman of New Orleans | BTK Strangler | Elizabeth Bathory | Paul Bernardo & Karla Komolka | David Berkowitz | Lizzie Bordon | Ted Bundy | Andrei Chikatilo | Mary Ann Cotton | Jeffrey Dahmer | Albert DeSalvo | Albert Fish | Kendall Francois | John Wayne Gacy | Eddie Gein | Green River Murders | H. H. Holmes | Edmund Kemper | The Railroad Killer | Jack the Ripper | Richard Ramirez | Harold Shipman | Peter Sutcliffe | Coral Eugene Watts | Aileen Wuornos | The Zodiac Killer

Special Reports: Kids Who Kill | Forensics | Serial Killer Cannibals | Male vs Female | Serial Killers and Monsters

Note: unless otherwise stated, all reports researched/compiled by Absynthe


Axeman of New Orleans    

He came in the Night. The legend of "The Axeman of New Orleans" is a brutal tale of savage murder and false accusations. It is also a case of a mysterious serial killer that remains unresolved to this day.

In 1918, three Italian grocers and their wives were slaughtered by an axe-weilding assassin. The police found evidence of a break-in. A wooden panel had been chiseled out and removed from the kitchen door. It lay on the ground, the discarded chisel on top of it. A pile of men's clothing lay in the middle of the bathroom floor and an axe was found inside the cast-iron bathtub, leaning against one side. From all appearances, it had been hastily washed clean of blood, although some still clung to the blade and the tub. Also at the crime scene was a man's straight razor which police concluded was used on the victims as well, almost severing one of their heads.

Jake and Andrew Maggio, brothers of the victims lived in an adjoining room, they were both arrested. Jake was released the next day, while Andrew remained in jail several days after it was discovered the razor used in the killings belonged to him. He was released a few days later when there was not enough evidence to convict him.

Soon, however, a connection would be made to previous murders: Police discovered a message written on a sidewalk near the scene of the Italian grocery store owner's attack, reading, " Mrs. Maggio is going to sit up tonight just like Mrs. Toney." Toney was a reference to earlier victims and Mrs. Maggio and her husband were the latest. Both had been struck once with an axe and had their throats slit. Mrs. Toney and her husband had also been brutally murdered by an axeman.

Since the attacks had all been on Italian grocers and their wives, there was soon talk of the Mafia. Organized crime in New Orleans was in its hey day. There was rumor of a splinter group of the Mafia called "The Black Hand" which was believed to be responsible for numerous killings. The Mafia leaders denied the accusation saying they would never murder women.

The soap opera aspect of the slayings began in June of 1918 when Louis Besemer and his partner Harriet Lowe were attacked. Besemer survived but Lowe died, but not before she pinned the assault on Besemer despite the fact he was also seriously wounded. He was later acquitted on all charges. It must have been fairly obvious Besemer was innocent given the fact that on the same evening as Lowe's murder, The Axeman had struck again when he nearly killed a woman named Schneider, who was nearing the end of a pregnancy. She managed to survive and gave birth to a healthy baby girl soon afterwards.

On August 10, 1918, Joseph Romero was killed by The Axeman. As usual the perpetrator had chiseled out a door panel to gain entry and discarded his weapon immediately after leaving the residence. In March 1919, he struck again when Charles and Rosie Cortimiglia were attacked along with their infant daughter, The Axeman only managing to kill the small baby. In both the Romano and Cortimiglia incidents the murderer was seen, but descriptions led police no closer to a solid suspect. Then Rosie Cortimiglia identified her assailant out of the blue. Her own neighbors Iorlando Jordano and his son Frank. Rosie's husband Charles disputed his wife's claim but the two men were found guilty anyway in May of 1919. Eventually, Mrs. Cotimiglia changed her mind in late 1920 and police grudgingly released the Jordano's. She admitted that she had lied simply because she bore a grudge against the two men. Fortunately that debaucle of justice was corrected .

The Axeman had already made it obvious he was still on the loose by severely injuring grocer Steve Boca and Sarah Laumann, 19, in seperate instances. His trademark method of entry and habit of leaving his bloody axe lying just outside after hacking his sleeping victims left little doubt that the he was still on the prowl for prey. New Orleans is famous for its superstition and imagination. Rumors abounded that The Axeman was not human, he was a cloaked phantom. In March, 1919 the authorities recieved a letter much like the missives written by Jack the Ripper. Never authenticated, it simply fueled the mystery.

Titled "HELL" this is the letter:
Esteemed Mortal,
    They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a fell demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman.
    When I see fit, I shall come again and claim other victims. I alone know who they shall be. I shall leave no clue except my bloody axe, besmeared with the blood and brains of him whom I have sent below to keep me company.
    If you wish you may tell the police not to rile me. Of course I am a reasonable spirit. I take no offense at the way they have conducted their investigation in the past. In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to amuse not only me but His Satanic Majesty, Francis Josef, etc. But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it were better that they were never born than to incur the wrath of the Axeman. I don't think there is any need of such a warning, for I feel sure the police will always dodge me, as they have in the past. They are wise and know how to keep away from all harm.
    Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens, for I am in close relationship to the Angel of Death.
    Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to visit New Orleans again. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a proposition to you people. Here it is:
    I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of those people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.
    Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus, and as it is about time that I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that thou wilt publish this, and that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fantasy.
The Axeman

The New Orleans people took the letter seriously and held a wild party and jazzed it up as the Axeman requested. There were no murders that night.

His slaying's ended as quickly as they started, and he killed for the last time on October 27, 1919, splitting the head of a man named Mike Pepitone. The Axeman seemingly disappeared after the Pepitone killing, but on December 2, 1920, a New Orleans man by the name of Joseph Mumfre was shot to death on a Los Angeles street by Pepitone's wife. She claimed that she had seen The Axeman flee after her husband's killing and had located him. That man was Mumfre, so the distraught widow tracked him down and killed him. Mumfre was in fact a career criminal who was in and out of jail throughout his adult life and was free during all The Axeman's attacks. There was reportedly some circumstantial evidence that led many to believe Mumfre did kill Pepitone, but he was never linked to any of the other murders, which remain unsolved to this day. Mrs. Pepitone served three years of a ten year sentence for murder in Los Angeles.

There were no more Axe Murders in New Orleans and no one knows who the Axeman really was.

Read about the Axeman of New Orleans at the Crime Library
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BTK Strangler

A self titled serial killer, The BTK Strangler [Bind, Torture, Kill], is linked to eight unsolved homicides that terrorized Wichita Kansas between 1974 and 1986. After years of silence, the killer surfaced again in March (2004), sending cryptic messages and a letter to the Wichita Eagle newspaper with information on an unsolved 1986 killing...

The letter contained a copy of the victims driver's license and photos of her body. Also enclosed were photocopies of three pictures of the crime scene, with slight differences in each. These pictures could only have been taken by the killer as the body was transported by medical technicians before investigators could take any.

It was the first communication from the killer known as the BTK Strangler since the late 1970s, and police said it linked the serial killer to the 1986 slaying. The other seven slayings were in the 1970s, with BTK claiming responsibility for those deaths in letters to the newspaper and a television station.

Police have received thousands of tips from the public since March. But the identity of the BTK killer remains unknown. According to the Wichita Police, the following information about the killer has been made public:
  • BTK's father was killed in World War II, and he was raised by his mother, with his grandparents caring for him while she was at work. When he was about 11, his mother began dating a railroad detective.
  • His grandfather played the fiddle and died of lung disease.
  • BTK's communications include accounts of a cousin named Susan who moved to Missouri, and of a woman he knew named Petra who had a younger sister named Tina.

    The BTK murder timeline:
    On January 15, 1974, four members of the Joseph Otero family were brutally murdered in their home by an unknown intruder. Joseph had retired from the Air Force the previous August, and was a mechanic and flight engineer at Cook Airfield. Julie had been recently laid off from her job as a short term assembler for the Coleman Co., and was recomended for rehire. Two of their five children, Joseph Jr., and Josephine were the remaining victims of this attack, while the older three children were at school. The phone lines were cut, the family dog had been put out in the yard, and the killer used venetian blind cords that he brought with him to bind the victims, then strangled them. He took the Otero's car, leaving it less than a mile from the home. Officers at the crime scene described it as the worst they had ever seen.

    Less than two months later, Kathryn Bright and her brother Kevin were confronted in her home by a man who tied them up, cut the phone lines, and told them he needed a car because he was wanted in California. Kevin was able to work his bindings loose and grab the gun from the attacker, who then retrieved it and shot Kevin twice. Kevin was able to escape while the attacker was in another room, but by the time help was summoned, Kathryn had been fatally stabbed 3 times.

    In October of the same year, someone called the Wichita Eagle, directing them to a letter at the Wichita Public Library. It was from the killer, claiming the Otero killings, and offering details of the crimes as proof.

    The next time the killer appeared was March 17, 1977, when he showed up at the home of Shirley Vian. It is thought that her children may have opened the door to him. He tied Shirley up with venetian blind cords that he brought with him, then strangled her while her children were locked in another room (some reports say closet, some say bathroom). He later commented in a communication that the children were saved by their crying and by the ringing of a phone.

    On December 8, 1977, a phone call was made from a phone booth in Wichita.
    Dispatcher: Dispatcher
    Caller: Yes, You will find a homicide at 843 S. Pershing. Nancy Fox.
    Dispatcher: I'm sorry, sir, I can't understand you. What is the address?
    2nd Dispatcher: 843 S. Pershing
    Caller: That is Correct

    Nancy Fox's body was found by police in her home. The killer had entered after smashing a rear window, and her purse contents were dumped out and her drivers license was missing. Her phone line was cut, and she was bound with her own pantyhose. She was fully clothed, but her murderer left physical evidence behind.

    Two more communications followed within the next several months. A poem titled "Shirleylocks" and addressed to the Wichita Eagle was misdirected at the newspaper to the classified section due to confusion that it was a Valentines ad. The other was the more directly titled poem "Oh! Death To Nancy". Both of these poems were rewordings of other works.

    On April 28, 1978, the killer waited in the home of 63 year old Anna Williams. It is believed that he entered through a basement window. Fortunately for her, he grew tired of waiting, and left before she returned home around 11:00 pm. She found that she was missing $35, and some articles of clothing and jewelry. Two months later she received what was possibly an original poem titled "Oh Anna, Why Didn't You Appear?", along with an article each of her clothing and jewelry. The next day, KAKE TV received a duplicate of these items.

    In December of 1987, a letter was received by a woman whose husband and two daughters had been murdered and suspicion had fallen on BTK. The letter purported to be from BTK and claimed not to be responsible for these killings.

    Nothing more was heard from the killer until March 19, 2004 - A letter arrived at the Wichita Eagle containing a photocopy of Vicki Wegerle's driver's license and three pictures of the crime scene that apparently were taken by her killer. (Relatives said the license was the only thing missing from Wegerle's home.) The BTK case was once again a full-scale investigation.

    April 7, 2004: An anonymous letter containing a photo of an unidentified baby was received by Wichita's KSN-TV station. Apparently believing it could be a clue from BTK, the station immediately publicized the photo in an attempt to identify the baby. Apparently it was unsuccessful.

    May 5, 2004: Wichita's KAKE-TV station received a multi-page letter from BTK, with the heading "The BTK Story" and a chapter titled "P.J.'s." The letter also included word puzzles and hints at his method of gaining access to the homes of his victims.

    June 17, 2004: The Wichita Police Dept. received a letter from BTK that apparently included more details of the Otero murders.

    July 17, 2004: A suspicious letter was discovered at the main branch of the Wichita Public Library and turned over to the FBI. It was eventually determined to be an authentic communication from BTK, although the contents have not been revealed.

    Aug. 21, 2004: The Wichita Police Dept. announced that the folklore song 'Oh, Death' was used in an English literature class at Wichita State University during the 1970s, taught by Dr. P.J. Wyatt. Since BTK used an adaptation of that song in a 1978 letter, police theorized BTK had a relationship of some kind with Wyatt, who died of cancer in 1991.

    Nov. 30, 2004: The Wichita Police Dept. revealed new information about BTK's alleged background.

    Dec. 14, 2004: A package containing the driver's license of victim Nancy Fox was found in Wichita's Murdoch Park by a nearby resident. Reports indicate that nearly a week earlier on Dec. 8, an unknown man called a local QuickTrip convenience store to draw attention to the package. The park was immediately searched by police, however nothing was found.

    Who is this killer who revels in the media attention, emulates the Zodiac Killer and taunts the police with cryptic messages and evidence only the killer would know? Why did he disappear from 1978 until 2004? Will he kill again? No one knows but the BTK Strangler. Until then, lock your doors and be very wary of strangers.

    UPDATE: March 1,2005 - On Friday, the 25th February, the Wichita police arrested 58 y/o Dennis Rader who the police believe to be the BTK Strangler. Rader's daughter, believing her father to be the suspect, offered her DNA to the police. That DNA susbsequently matched DNA found at the crime scenes. Two new victims have been found raising the suspected number of killings from 8 to 10. If Rader is found guilty, he most likely will not recieve the death penalty as all the known murders were committed prior to 1994 when the death penalty was put into place in the Wichita penal system. There are however suspicions that another murder was committed after the 1994 date. Rader's Bail was set at 10 million dollars. No trial date has been set.

    Read more at the Crime Library or follow breaking news at Catch BTK

    UPDATE: On June 28th, 2005 Dennis Rader pled guilty to ten murders dating back to 1974. In a matter-of-fact manner, the 60 year old recalled the murders and referred to them as 'projects' or 'hits'. Expected to receive life in prison, the BTK killer is allowed priviliges to speak to the media and to Kristin Casarona, a Topeka woman who plans to pen a book about the famous Wichita killer.
    Go here for a complete update on the trial.
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    • Elizabth Bathory - The Blood Countess

    Elizabeth Bathory was born in 1560 into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Transylvania. She had many powerful relatives - a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary. The most famous Bathory was King Steven of Poland 1575-86.

    At fourteen Elizabeth gave birth to an illegitimate child, fathered by a peasant boy and conceived at the chateau for her intended mother-in-law, Countess Ursula Nadasdy. Elizabeth and Count Ferencz Nadasdy had been betrothed since she was eleven years old. Elizabeth was married to the Count when she was 15, he was 26. The count added her surname to his, so the countess kept her name. They lived at Castle Csejthe in the Nyitra country of Hungary. The count, whose nickname was "The Black Hero of Hungary" spent a great deal of time away from home fighting. While he was away, Elizabeth's manservant Thorko introduced her to the occult.

    Elizabeth eloped with a dark stranger briefly, but came home. Luckily the count forgave her. Back at the castle, Elizabeth couldn't stand her domineering mother-in-law. She began torturing the servant girls with the help of her old nurse Iloona Joo. Her other accomplices included the major-domo Johannes Ujvary, Thorko, a forest witch named Darvula, and a witch Dorottya Szentes.

    In 1600 Ferencz died and Elizabeth's period of real atrocities began. First, she sent her hated mother-in-law away. Elizabeth was very vain and afraid of getting old and losing her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentially pulled her hair while combing it -- Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood, which fell onto her own hand. She immediately thought her skin took on the freshness of that of her young maid. She was sure she found the secret of eternal youthful skin! She had her major-domo and Thorko strip the maid, cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth bathed in it to beautify her entire body.

    Over the next 10 years Elizabeth's evil henchmen provided her with new girls for the blood-draining ritual and her blood baths. But one of her intended victims escaped and told the authorities about what was happening at Castle Csejthe. King Mathias of Hungary ordered Elizabeth's own cousin, Count Cuyorgy Thurzo, governor of the province, to raid the castle.

    On December 30, 1610 they raided Castle Csejthe. They were horrified by the terrible sights in the castle - one dead girl in the main room, drained of blood and another alive whose body had been pierced with holes; in the dungeon they discoverd several living girls, some of whose bodies had been pierced. Below the castle, they exhumed the bodies of some 50 girls.

    Elizabeth was put under house arrest. A trial was held in 1611 at Bitcse. She refused to plead guilty or innocent and never appeared at the trial. A complete transcript of the trial was made at the time and it survives today in Hungary. Johannes Ujvary, major-domo, testified that about 37 unmarried girls has been killed, six of whom he had personally recruited to work at the castle. The victims were tied up and cut with scissors. Sometimes the two witches tortured these girls, or the Countess herself. Elizabeth's old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed.

    All the people involved in the killings, except the Countess Bathory and the two witches were beheaded and cremated. The two witches had their fingers ripped out and were burned alive. The court never convicted Countess Elizabeth of any crime. Stonemasons were brought to Castle Csejthe to wall up the windows and doors of the bedchamber with the Countess inside. They left a small hole through which food could be passed. King Mathias II demanded the death penalty for Elizabeth but because of her cousin, the prime minister, he agreed to an indefinitely delayed sentence, which actually meant solitary confinement for life.

    In this way she lived for three years, almost wasting away with cold and hunger without showing the slightest sign of repentance. Countess Bathory wrote her last will and testament on July 31st, 1614. Later in the year, she was found face-down on the floor, dead, by one of her guards. The date is reported as either August 14th or the 21st. Elizabeth Bathory, the "Blood Countess" was dead. The local folklore says that she is one of the legendary ghosts that still haunt certain areas in the Carpathians.

    *Note* There are some connections between the Bathorys and the Draculas. The commander of the expedition that helped Dracula regain his throne in 1476 was Prince Steven Bathory. A Dracula fief, Castle Fagaras, became a Bathory possession during the time of Elizabeth. Both families had a dragon design on their family crests.

    Full Case Details: Crime Library
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    Paul Bernardo & Karla Komolka - Ken & Barbie

    No one would ever expect Karla Komolka to become a psychopathic killer. She was a pretty girl with blonde hair who did well in school.

    Born on May 4, 1970 in Port Credit, Ontario, Karla had loving parents and grew up in a family with two sisters and several pets. She lived in a nice home in a middle class neighborhood.

    Karla was a normal teenager. Her friends flocked to her house where they sat around the pool, listened to music and talked 'girl talk.' Karla seemed to be a normal teenager. There were never any outward signs to indicate to those that knew and loved her that she had a psychopathic personality.

    In October 1987, at age 17, Karla met Paul Bernardo at a pet convention in Toronto. The couple engaged in sexual intercourse the same day. From that moment on, Karla was obsessed with the handsome, young accountant. Paul, dominating the relationship, quickly took control of her life telling her what to wear, what music to listen to, and what she could and could not do. What Paul said was law. Karla seemed to be happy with this arrangement and once stated that she would do ANYTHING to make Paul happy.

    It is not known whether Karla was aware that Paul was committing a series of rapes in Scarborough at the time. Karla did know that Paul wanted to claim her younger sister Tammy's virginity, they had long talks and fantasized about the younger sister. Karla stole Halothane, an anesthetic used on animals, from the veterinary clinic where she worked. She was prepared to fulfill Paul's fantasy.

    On December 24, 1990, Karla administered Halothane to Tammy while their parents slept upstairs. Paul had intercourse with the fifteen-year-old while Karla commited sex acts with her sister. They video taped the entire episode. But something went horribly wrong! The Halothane, intended for animals was much too strong and Tammy died on her way to the hospital one week before her sixteenth birthday. The official cause of death was aspiration. Tammy had choked to death on her own vomit. Karla grieved her sister for a short period of time but soon her thoughts were completely filled with her upcoming wedding to Paul.

    Indifferent at having killed her own sister, a happily engaged Karla Homolka and her fiancé rented a bungalow in the quiet suburb of Port Dalhousie and began prowling the city for young girls. On June 15, 1991 Paul Bernardo abducted 14-year-old Leslie Erin Mahaffy and brought her to their home where they held the girl hostage for several days, sexually assaulting her over and over. They recorded this on video tape and in one scene Homolka pretties herself for the camera before raping the girl. Soon tiring of the teenager, they killed her and Paul Bernardo cut up her body with a chainsaw. On June 29, a couple canoeing on a lake at the edge of the city of St. Catharines found parts of Leslie Mahaffy's body in shallow water, encased in cement. The only way her body could be identified was from dental records.

    On the same day that the girl's body was found, Karla Homolka was married in a lavish ceremony, resplendent in an all-white wedding dress and riding with her husband in a horse-drawn carriage at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

    On April 16, 1992, Kristen French was abducted from a church parking lot in St. Catherines Ontario, on her way home from school. Paul and Karla took her to their home. Kristen knew where the house was and could identify them. She would have to die.

    Karla and Paul made Kristen their sex slave. They tortured her unmercifully in ways too horrific to mention. These indignities continued for several days. The couple killed Kristen on Easter Sunday, before Karla's parents came for dinner. On April 30, Kristen's body was found in a ditch not far from the grave of Leslie Mahaffy. Her beautiful long, dark hair had been cropped. Because she had not been dismembered, police didn't link the two crimes.

    Paul Bernardo's name continued to surface time after time in connection with the Scarborough Rapist. In February 1993, a blood analysis done at the forensic laboratory in Toronto pinpointed Paul as the perpetrator. Had the forensic team tested his blood when it was first taken several years before, Paul would have been in jail when the girls were murdered.

    After the blood analysis, the police put Paul under surveillance. They learned that Karla had filed assault charges against him for physcial abuse. Their crimes began to unfold but Karla presented herself as the abused victim and she left Paul in January 1993.

    In February, the Ontario Green Ribbon Task Force, which had been formed to solve the 'Ken and Barbie,' murders, decided to interview Karla. They took her fingerprints and questioned her about a Mickey Mouse watch in her possession that was very similar to the one worn by Kristen French when she disappeared. She was detained for five hours. At this time she realized that investigators had linked her husband to the Scarborough rapes.

    Karla knew her time was up. She told her uncle that Paul had committed the rapes and murdered Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. She failed to admit that she was an active and willing accomplice.

    In mid-February, Paul was arrested on both the rape and murder charges. On February 19, armed with a search warrant, the police searched the couple's Port Dalhousie home. They found a video of Karla engaged in sex with two women. A week later, Karla's lawyer and a plea-bargain specialist for the attorney general cut a deal with her. She would be sentenced to twelve years in prison for the deaths of each of the girls. The sentences would be served concurrently. It would prove to be the worse plea-bargain in Canadian history.

    In exchange for the reduced sentence, Karla agreed to tell the absolute truth about what had occurred in the wood frame house in Port Dalhousie. Prosecutors didn't realize that the entire plea process on Karla's part was a blatant lie.

    Paul's trial didn't take place for two years because he had placed his lawyer, Ken Murray, in an unethical position. Paul had given him the videotapes that he and Karla had made of their sexual escapades. After Ken Murray was removed from the case, he turned the videotapes over to police. On September 1, 1995, Paul was convicted on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for twenty-five years. Karla was sent to jail to serve her twelve-year term. Paul's appeal was set for 2000. The appeal was denied. Karla was eligible for parole in 2001.

    On March 8, 2001, Karla went before the National Parole Board after undergoing psychiatric evaluation. The findings were exactly the opposite of what was found when she was first arrested. Experts testified that they believed Karla was a psychopath. She has shown no remorse for any of the crimes, including the death of her sister, Tammy. She still portrays herself as a victim.

    The National Parole Board denied Karla's application for parole. They ruled as follows: "The board believes that, if released, you are likely to commit an offense causing the death of or serious harm to another person before the expiration of the sentence you are now serving."

    Again in 2003, Karla was up for parole: The National Parole Board ruled Jan. 17, 2003 that Karla Homolka must stay in prison until her sentence is completed in July of 2005. The board's decision represented the third time that Homolka's request to be transferred to a half-way house was refused.

    Two reasons for the refusal were given. One reason was her sexual relationship with another convict at the detention center. The other reason stated by the board was her refusal to participate in rehabilitation programs.

    In 2005, when she has served her full sentence, she will be released without being eased back into society. Under Canadian law, she cannot be kept in prison indefinitely. A psychopath will once again be free to murder, torture, and rape.

    More information on Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka can be found at the Crime Library

    UPDATE: July 4, 2005 was independence day for the most reviled woman in Canada - Karla Komolka. After serving a 12 year sentence for the rape and murder of teenage girls including her sister, the 35 year old, who now calls herself Karla Teale, plans to settle in Montreal.

    Sentenced in 1993, Komolka was convicted of manslaughter and given the relatively light sentence of 12 years for her role in the rapes and murders of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. In return, she agreed to testify against ex-husband Paul Bernardo who is now serving a life term for two counts of murder in a Toronto Prison.
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    David Berkowitz - Son of Sam

    "I didn't want to hurt them, I only wanted to kill them" That was a statement given to police by David Berkowitz. He was describing an attemped attack he made on two women in 1975 a full year before he began his Son of Sam killings. He hadn't yet bought the famous .44 revolver then. This time he was using a knife and was too cowardly to go through with it when the women fought back.

    Like other serial killers of the late 20th century there is an occult connection. This, of course is a twisted perverse version of true Paganism and or Wicca. Much like modern terrorists and their false version of Islam. In fact the Son of Sam story might not ever be truly solved. But what we know is that David Berkowitz committed at least some of the murders during the period of July 1976 through July 1977.

    He bought the .44 caliber revolver on June 12 1976 in Houston Texas. He was accompanied by John Wheat Carr aka John Wheaties. John's brother Michael and their father Sam Carr were Berkowitz's neighbors. The Carr family were deeply entwined in the murders. Sam Carr was the "Sam" whom Berkowitz claimed to be the son of. It was The Carrs' family dog that Berkowitz claimed gave him his orders. They were all suspected to have been involved in the Four Pi Movement, a murder cult that practiced animal sacrifices in the area. Another interesting note is that six of the seven shootings fell on recognized "satanic holidays" practiced by the this same cult. John carr died under mysterious circumstances six months after David Berkowitz's arrest. And it was the death of his brother Michael on October 4 1979 that lead the NYPD to reopen the Son of Sam case. That case is still open.

    Rather than get into any more of the strange details surrounding the Son of Sam let's discuss the facts. David Berkowitz had not yet known the pleasures of a woman, any woman, at the time he was arrested. He was a virgin. There were seven separate shootings. Six people were killed, seven were injured. Of the injured one woman was paralyzed and a man was blinded permanently. Berkowitz narrowly missed being found insane and stood trial. He entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 365 years in prison.

    In July of 1979 he was attacked in prison and his throat was slashed. His attackers were not identified (big shocker there). Uunlike Jeff Dahmer, he survived his attack. He didn't become a freak prison bitch like Richard Speck. So the only other option was of course to "find Jesus". You can read his thoughts about such things as the DC sniper case at forgivenforlife.com As of this writing I haven't visited the above website. But if you're interested in the world of serial killers, curiousity would seem to dictate a visit. Let's do this again soon shall we?
    ...as compiled/reported by FatDaddy
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    Lizzie Borden - took an axe...

    Lizzie Borden took an ax
    And gave her mother forty whacks,
    When she saw what she had done
    She gave her father forty-one.

    We all know this child's rhyme, but do you know the full truth behind the story? It was actually 19 and then 10 whacks...

    Lizzie Bordon, born in July 19, 1860, was accused of brutally killing her father and step-mother. The long hidden hatred for the woman ended with a 5-inch hole in her head and the skull being basically hacked to ribbons. Her father was then attacked with such fever as to slice through his cheekbone, sever an eye in half, and covered the room with blood spatters... Spatter patterns that in todays criminal science labs would show that there was no way for the attacker to come away clean. Yet in less than 10 minutes Lizzie changed, removed all traces of blood from her person, and scour the keen blade and handle.

    The facts of the case are quite interesting:
  • the same day of the murders she tried to purchase the quickesst-acting poison available and was positively identified in doing so.
  • lizzie, by her own time line, would have been in the house while her step-mother was killed and yet heard and saw nothing
  • three days after the murder she burned a dress in the kitchen stove, a fact unknown until quite some time later
  • she gave varying reason for being in the barn and even told the police that, on the hottest day of the year, she had gone into the sweltering hayloft and spent 20+ minutes searching through boxes for a lead sinker [a penny item in any store]
  • no footprints other than the investigators were found to be disturbing the dust in the hayloft
    BUT...
  • later scientific tests failed to show the slightest trace of blood on the weapon even in hidden crevices
  • in less than 10 minutes, ALL traces of blood were removed [if they were ever there] from Lizzie...and her hair was NOT wet, merely 'sweaty' around the edges...

    A jury of her peers found her innocent...but was she? Is it easier to say they were wrong and this was just a case of the 1800's version of Johnny Cochran? Or is it just that we have so few women in our historical horrors that we want to cling to the possibility that she, a well bred socialite, could turn into a savage murderer?

    What are your theories, thoughts and comments???
    Full Case Details: http://www.crimelibrary.com/lizzie/lizziemain.htm
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    • Ted Bundy - Ladies man

    Theodore "Ted" Bundy, all American boy, considered handsome by most - and one of America's most famous serial killers. Born to an unwed mother, Ted never knew his father. He was lead to believe his grandparents were his parents until he was four years old. This charade is believed to have caused a confusion that stayed with Ted through out all of his life. He admitted he always felt like an outsider, never fitting in.

    In 1967 Ted met a girl that was everything he ever dreamed of in a woman. This relationship would change the rest of his life. After this girl, who he was madly in love with and planned to marry, broke off the relationship Ted was devastated. He lost interest in everything including school and life in general. He was obsessed with this woman and this obsession led to events that would change Ted's life and shock the world.

    Clean-cut serial killer Theodore "Ted" Bundy confessed to 28 killings, but other estimates indicate that he killed as many as 33 to 100 female victims during the1970's. Often he sexually assaulted his victims with such instruments as crowbars or hairspray bottles. While under arrest, Bundy managed to escape twice, one time living for months on the run in Tallahassee.

    Ted a one time law student, served as his own defense attorney, but not even his smooth talking demeanor could save him from a death sentence.

    Ted Bundy was executed January 24, 1989. The hundreds of people holding a vigil outside the prison held up signs such as "Burn Bundy Burn", and celebrated once news of his death was announced.

    Was Ted Bundy killing these women as revenge for a lost love or was he just crazy? Read more about Ted Bundy at The Crime Library
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    Andrei Chikatilo - the Rostov Ripper

    "What I did was not for sexual pleasure. Rather it brought me some peace of mind."

    Chikatilo was the worst serial killer in Russian history, murdering at least 53 young girls and boys before he was captured November 20, 1990.

    Andrei Chikatilo grew up in the town of Novocherkassk, in a area steeped in the macho culture of the Don Cossacks. By the time he reached puberty, females loomed large in Chikatilo's fantasy life. He wanted them meek and submissive. But the reality was far different. He found it hard to establish a relationship with girls, who tended to laugh at his clumsy attempts to woo them.

    It was to compensate for his lack of sexual prowess that he turned to the task of self-improvement through education, graduating from Rostov University with a degree in Russian Literature. Even during his compulsive army service he studied at the Lenin Library while his comrades were out chasing girls.

    In the mid-seventies he moved to a new job, teaching literature in a boarding school in nearby Novo Shatinsk. There he saw the early sexual encounters between young boys and girls. He grew frustrated and embittered, mad with jealousy and rage. It was not long after this that children began to go missing.

    The series of murders began in 1978, when the body of a girl was found in the woods near Rostov. A child molester was arrested and executed for this killing, but when more killings of the same type continued, the police realized they had convicted the wrong man.

    Chikatilo was first apprehended near the scene of one of his murders in 1979, but managed to convince the police that he was a innocent nature-lover. Five years later he was picked up again, this time with a knife in his attache case, but managed to talk his way out of being arrested by again claiming that he was out in the woods studying nature. In the summer of 1984 he spent three months in prison for theft of government property. After he was released, and as if in revenge for his incarceration, he killed eight people in a single month.

    The butchery was so appalling that top investigators were sent from Moscow to help in the hunt. They confessed they have never seen anything like it. The killer first cut the victims tongues to prevent them from crying out, before bursting their eardrums and gouging out their eyes. While they were still alive he would finally acheive sexual gratification by carrying out bizarre operations. The boys had their testicles removed, the girls their wombs.

    Originally Chikatilo had sought his victims in the loney forest strips, but in 1989 he managed to get a good job as head of supplies at Rostov's Lenin locomotive repair plant. This job gave him the perfect excuse for hanging around the trains and station, looking for his young prey, picking them up in railway carriages or even on buses.

    Chikatilo was in the train station when observed by under-cover officers, trying to pick up children. They searched his bag, and found Vaseline, dirty towels, rope, and a kitchen knife. His blood was tested, and he was found to be A-blood. The killer was determined to have AB-blood; from tests done on seman samples took from some of the dead victims. He was released. Chikatilo was said to have a rare blood disorder, where the Blood and semen type are different.

    It wasn't until the death toll had reached twenty that the police realized they were dealing with a "super-killer". During the long hunt for him, hidden cameras had photographed thousands of men walking with teenagers, and policemen acted as decoys in trains and other public places. The officers at the stations began to take the names of anyone who looked suspicious. One of the names that kept coming up was Andrei Chikatilo. An officer on the case contacted Andrei's work, and found that Chikatilo was absent on the days of the murders.

    Chikatilo was finally caught seven days after burying his last victim. On November 6, 1990, he was stopped for a routine check by a policeman who noticed blood on his face. When a body was found a few days later, Chikatilo was placed under surveillance. On 20 November he was spotted approaching two boys. The decision was made to arrest him immediately.

    Once the suspect was taken to police headquarters for questioning, he confessed to being the killer they were looking for; who by this time was known as the "Rostov Ripper". Chikatilo even took officers to sites in the forest where he had hidden some of the bodies and recreated the crime scenes. The officers were appalled and sickened with the nonchalance or which Chikatilo spoke of the horrible crimes.

    Andrei Chikatilo admitted to at least 53 murders, and having had sex with at least one corpes. This man with a university degree in Russian literature, a wife and children, and no apparent background of child abuse, clearly had a savage heart. As he said of himself, he was apparently "a mistake of nature."

    On February 15, 1994, when his appeal was turned down, he was taken to a special soundproof room and shot behind the right ear, ending his life.

    Full Case Details: Crime Library
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    British Serial Killer: Mary Ann Cotton

    Mary Ann CottonFrom a Victorian England children’s nursery rhyme: Mary Ann Cotton– She's dead and she's rotten! She lies in her bed with her eyes wide open. Sing, sing! "Oh, what can I sing? Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string." Where, where? "Up in the air – selling black puddings a penny a pair."

    Mary Ann Cotton was Britain’s first female serial killer. Living in Victorian era Britain she used poison, specifically arsenic, to kill her victims. Suspected of murdering as many of twenty-one people including her children, mother and husbands, she was considered the most prolific serial killer in British history before Dr. Harold Shipman. Her modus operandi was less flamboyant than that of Jack the Ripper, but nonetheless deadly.

    Born Mary Ann Robson in October, 1832 in the village of Low Moorsley in Tyne and Wear, Northern England, her father was a staunchly religious miner and a strict disciplinarian of Mary Ann and her younger brother, Robert. When Mary was eight, the family moved to Murton. A year later, her father, who continued working in the mines, fell down a deep mine shaft and suffered an early death.

    Life was harsh for a working class family in the 19th century, especially for one whose head of household had died prematurely. Children would often be sent to workhouses and separated from their families. No doubt Mary Ann had ominous nightmares about her fate. This fear may have planted a seed that may have been the driving force for Mary Ann’s future choices. Mary Ann’s mother remarried, but her stepfather was cruel and she hated him. Mary Ann was smart enough to realize that her stepfather’s salary had been her only saving grace. It became ultimately important to her that she always have money no matter what the cost.

    Mary Ann left her home at age 16 and worked as a housemaid for a prosperous family. Her work was competent, but she soon became the subject of a sexual scandal because of her illicit meetings with a church scholar. She stayed in service with the family for three years then trained as a dressmaker. Never shy and always in the company of men, Mary Ann soon found herself pregnant and married the father, William Mowbray, in 1852. During the first 4 years of the marriage, Mary Ann bore 5 children, 4 of which died soon after birth. The infant mortality rate in the 19th century was high so their losses were simply considered coincidental and unlucky. Mary Ann was unhappy and continued to nag William because there was never enough money. Probably to make more money and get away from Mary Ann’s nagging, Mowbray took a job in Sunderland several miles away. He returned home in 1865 with an injured foot. Mary Ann nursed him through his injury, but within a month he was dead from a sudden and mysterious stomach illness. The family doctor visited Mary Ann intending to console the grieving widow only to find Mary Ann dancing around the room wearing a new dress she had bought with her husband’s insurance money.

    After Mowbray’s death, Mary Ann moved with her remaining two children to Seaham Harbour where she had an affair with a local man, Joseph Nattrass. Nattrass was engaged to another woman and Mary Ann tried her best to break up the relationship, but this time she did not get her man…not yet anyway. Mary Ann left Sunderland after Nattrass’ wedding and after burying her 31/2-year-old daughter. During her 13 years of marriage to William Mowbray, Mary had bore 9 children, 8 of which had now died of a mysterious ‘gastric illness’. Her remaining child, Isabella was entrusted to the care of her maternal grandmother while Mary Ann started work at The Sunderland Infirmary, House of Recovery for the Cure of Contagious Fever, Dispensary and Humane Society where she scrubbed the floors with a mixture of soap and arsenic. While working, she met and married a former Sunderland Infirmary patient George Ward who mysteriously developed a stomach ailment and died in October of 1866, within months of their marriage. Mary Ann staunchly accused the physician treating her husband of malpractice. She was shifting the focus away from herself. Later at her trial, many questioned why no one took note of this woman’s trail of dead husbands and children, but the fact was Mary Ann moved often and never used the same physician. Not only was Mary Ann Cotton deadly, she was sly as a fox.

    Mary Ann decided it was time to move on, erasing any trail behind her. She was now alone, having never retrieved her only child, Isabella, from her mother’s home. In November 1866, she applied for a job as a housekeeper for a Pallion shipwright James Robinson, whose wife Hannah had recently died. She was hired and on December 23rd, under her care, the youngest of the Robinson children died of ‘gastric fever’. The unsuspecting shipwright turned to Mary Ann for comfort after losing his wife and youngest child. Mary Ann obliged and was once again pregnant. Any marriage at this time was deterred as Mary Ann’s mother became ill and summoned her to take care of Isabella.

    By the time Mary Ann arrived, her mother was feeling better, but Mary Ann took charge of the household. One of her very first tasks was to clean and scrub the walls and floors with her special cleaning solution of soap and arsenic, which she always seemed to have an ample supply. Nine days after her arrival, Mary Ann’s mother developed a sudden ‘gastric fever’ and died. After burying her mother, Mary Ann took Isabella and returned to the Robinson household. By the end of April, Isabella and two more of the Robinson children had died of a mysterious gastric ailment.

    Despite the loss of three of his children, James Robinson never suspected Mary Ann of any misdoing. He married her in August, their first child Mary Isabella was born in late November. Mary Isabella fell severely ill in March 1868. Despite her recovery, James became suspicious of his wife. Mary Ann was demanding money from him and constantly nagging him to secure life insurance. He questioned his remaining children and they told him Mary Ann had coerced them to pawn valuables from the house and give her the money. Furious, James threw her out into the streets. She took Mary Isabella with her. In late 1869, after wandering the streets in the kind of life that Mary Ann had anxiously feared, Mary Ann and her daughter visited an acquaintance. During the course of the visit, Mary Ann asked her friend to watch the girl while she went out to mail a letter. Mary Ann never came back, Mary Isabella was returned to James on the first day of 1870.

    The first few weeks of 1870 were desperate ones for Mary Ann living on the streets alone with no money. Was her nightmare coming true? We can only imagine what was going through her mind in the midst of her desperation. Things began looking up in February when Mary Ann was introduced to Frederick Cotton. Frederick was also a grieving widower who had lost two children. His sister Margaret was acting as substitute mother of his household. Unfortunately, Margaret died suddenly in March from a mysterious gastric ailment. The door was wide open for Mary Ann to move in and that she did after discovering herself pregnant with Frederick’s child. Mary Ann and Frederick were married in September despite the fact that she was still married to James Robinson. Bigamy was now part of her growing list of crimes.

    Quickly, Mary Ann set up housekeeping in the Cotton home. Remembering her earlier desperation she secured life insurance for her husband and his two remaining sons. In 1871 Mary Ann gave birth to a son, Robert. Her interest in Frederick was waning. She discovered her former paramour Joseph Nattrass was recently divorced and living in nearby Auckland. Under a false pretense, she insisted the family move to Auckland. By December of that year, Frederick succumbed to a bout of gastric fever. Joseph Nattrass began living with the family in March 1872, but Mary Ann’s fear of being poor still nagged at her. She began working as a nurse for John Quick-Manning, an excise officer recovering from smallpox. She must have thought Quick-Manning was a better catch than Nattrass because she soon was carrying his child. A marriage was hindered by the remaining Cotton family and Joseph Nattrass. Mary Ann began working furiously as any sociopath could. Frederick Jr. died in March of 1872 and the infant Robert died soon after. Joseph Nattrass was severely ill when Mary Ann convinced him to revise his will and leave everything to her. He soon died never suspecting Mary Ann of anything but love and devotion.

    James Robinson was the only husband that had escaped a relationship with Mary Ann with his life. All other husbands, children, and most stepchildren had succumbed to gastric fever or stomach ailments, except for young Charles Cotton and Robinson’s children. Fortunately, the Robinson children were safely away from Mary Ann’s motherly care, but Mary Ann still had the insurance policy taken out on Charles. In the spring of 1872, Mary Ann sent Charles to the local chemist to buy arsenic. The chemist refused to sell it to him as he was under the age of 21, which was the law at the time. Undeterred, Mary Ann asked one of her neighbors to buy it for her. In July Charles died of gastric fever.

    Perhaps Mary Ann had stayed in one place too long, or her crimes were catching up with her, but the neighbors were gossiping. A local government official, Thomas Riley went to the police after his suspicions about Mary Ann. He told the police Mary Ann had consulted him about sending Charles to a workhouse. He told Mary Ann that the only way the boy could go would be for Mary Ann to accompany him. After declining Mary Ann made the statement, “I won’t be troubled long. He’ll go like all the rest of the Cotton family.” Riley said the boy looked to be in perfect health, yet had died 5 days later.

    Mary Ann was becoming more careless and rousing more suspicion; within hours of Charles’ death she went to the insurance office to collect money even before fetching the physician to sign the death certificate. Informed that she could not collect insurance money without a death certificate, Mary Ann proceeded to call the doctor. She was surprised to learn there would be no death certificate until a formal inquest was performed. The inquest showed no unnatural findings and Mary Ann might have gone on killing and collecting insurance monies, but the press fueled by gossip and rumors took hold of the story and painted Mary Ann as a ruthless killer. By this time Quick-Manning was looking at Mary Ann in a different light. Fearing his own demise, he severed all relationships with her.

    Mary Ann felt like it was time to move on, although friends advised her that leaving Auckland would make her look guilty. Unbeknown to her, the doctor who treated Charles kept some of his stomach contents and they tested positive for arsenic. The doctor went to the authorities with his results. The authorities ordered Charles’ body to be exhumed and tested further. The body of Joseph Nattrass was also exhumed after 6 other corpses were accidentally dug up because the church sexton could not remember where Joseph’s grave was situated. There was talk of other exhumations, but the courts had enough evidence and decided to proceed with her prosecution in the death of Charles Cotton. The trial was delayed until the delivery of Mary Ann’s daughter fathered by Quick-Manning.

    The trial of Mary Ann Cotton began in March 1863. The prosecution had numerous witnesses who testified that she purchased arsenic and many who detailed the sudden deaths of those who in previous days appeared perfectly healthy. There was also the statement she made about Charles being ‘in the way’ of her marriage to Quick-Manning.

    The defense argued that Charles could have inhaled the arsenic from fumes used in the dye of the green wallpaper in the Cotton home. The judge dismissed this frail theory and the jury retired for only 90 minutes before finding Mary Ann Cotton guilty of murder in the death of young Charles Cotton. Mr. Justice Archibald donned the black cap and passed sentence upon her, saying: "In these words I shall address you, I would earnestly urge you to seek for your soul that only refuge which is left for you, in the mercy of God through the atonement of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It only remains for me to pass upon you the sentence of the law, which is that you will be taken from hence to the place from whence is that you came, and from thence to a place of execution, and there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and your body to be afterwards buried within the precincts of the gaol. And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul." On hearing her sentence Mary exclaimed "Oh no! Oh no!” She had to be carried from the dock in a state of collapse.

    Mary Ann maintained her innocence and wrote a letter to James Robinson. She insisted everything was his fault for putting her on the street with her baby in her arms. She begged him to bring her child and two remaining stepchildren to prison to see her. He sent his brother in law in his place. Despite her anger that James did not come, she asked about the children and asked that petitions be circulated for her support. Her child by Quick-Manning was adopted. She wrote a letter to the family stating, “Kiss my babe for me”.

    Mary Ann was led to the scaffold on March 24th, 1873. It is rumored she made the warders wait while she brushed her long dark hair. The elderly hangman misjudged the logistics of the hanging and it took Mary Ann Cotton a full three minutes of struggling before she died.

    The exact number of deaths at the hands of Mary Ann Cotton is unknown. Perhaps some of the deaths were natural, we may never know. The following is an estimate of those that died while living with Mary Ann: ten of her children by various husbands, three of those husbands, five stepchildren, her mother, Cotton’s sister Margaret, and her lover Nattrass. Her motives were typically sociopathic in nature and determined to be money and the desire to get rid of those who stood in her way.

    The last house where Mary Ann Cotton lived and killed is still occupied on Front Street in West Auckland. A three-story building with a pink front can be clearly seen from the A68 as you pass through the village. On Halloween it is said that if you sing the children's rhyme at the top of the page over her grave, you can hear children crying. Faces have been seen in the attic window of the house that holds the mysteries of Mary Ann Cotton.

    More info at The Crime Library
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    Jeffrey Dahmer - Milwaukee Cannibal

    Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most infamous serial killers in America. Dubbed the Milwaukee Cannibal, Dahmer had an obsession with death that began in early childhood. Jeffrey would take small animals, torture and skin them, use chemicals on them to remove their flesh down to the bones. He cut the head off of a neighbor's dog and left it in the woods hanging on a stick.

    By the time he was 16, he was already an alcoholic. Fellow classmates described him as an unusual guy, who was always trying to get attention. At the age of 18, his parents divorced, neither wanting him to live with them. Jeffrey moved in with his grandmother, where he committed some of his murders. Jeffrey then went to live by himself, in infamous apartment 213, where his death lab was discovered.

    Jeffrey killed homosexuals and male prostitutes, and lured them to his apartment by offering them money in exchange for sex or posing nude.

    Dahmer was finally caught when one of his intended victims escaped and alerted the police of Dahmer's actions. What police found in his apartment shocked the nation. There were photos of dead bodies, some dismembered. A head was found in the refrigerator, 5 skulls were found in a box, a kettle on the stove was full of hands and male genitalia. Police also found a drum full of chemicals, and 3 decomposing torsos. Other body parts were scattered around the apartment. Dahmer's tools included a chainsaw he used to dismember his victims.

    The police found no food in Dahmer's apartment...he had been living off his victims. Dahmer confessed to these murders and other atrocities.

    Dahmer was found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was murdered by a fellow inmate while in prison, and was found with a mop handle stuck in his eye. A controversy surrounded the use of his brain for research. A judge ruled against it preventing a possible look into what makes a serial killer kill.

    Want a glimpse into Dahmer's demented psyche?
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    Albert DeSalvo - Boston Strangler

    He wasn't like Tony Curtis at all. A lot of people don't think he was the "Boston Strangler" either. What Albert DeSalvo was, was the "Measuring Man" and later the "Green Man".

    His demands for sex as often as six times a day, and his wife's refusal to comply, led him to begin victimizing women for his own desires. As the "Measuring Man" he would go to random houses claiming to be a representative for a modeling agency and would proceed to talk his victims into measuring them for his company. During these measuring sessions he would grope the women. There was no rape at this point in his career. Although there was a claim of numerous seductions by DeSalvo later in his life.

    An arrest for assault, lewd conduct, and attempted breaking and entering led to his confessing to all the measuring man assaults. It seems he liked confessing, I believe it was more bragging than confessing. It would be this love of confessing that got him the Boston Strangler title. (Too bad someone didn't neuter him at this time) He had already molested a 9 year old girl while in the army but the family refused to press charges. Amazingly he was convicted on the breaking and entering charges only.

    The predator was paroled after eleven months and was now raping women during his work day. His repairman clothes got him the name "Green Man". In the spring of 1961 Albert DeSalvo launched a campaign of rape in a four state area. Over the next couple years sexual assaults were reported in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. In this same time frame 11 rape/ murders were committed in the Boston area.

    The first five to happen had victims that were older, the youngest one was 55 years old. The next three were women in their 20s. The last of these women was repeatedly stabbed. The second of these victims was covered with her blanket lying in her bed instead of laid out in a pose or left on the floor with the strangulation tool tied around their necks. The next victim was 58 years old like the first five victims. And then the last two were young women in their 20s again.

    Ten months after the last strangler victim was found DeSalvo was brought in for questioning about a rape case and immediately confessed to 300 rapes he had committed since 1961. He was committed to Bridgewater State Hospital for observation. He belonged in prison for being a sexual predator, but there he was lounging in the cuckoos nest. That's where he met another prince of a fellow named George Nassar. A few months of this famous friendship resulted in DeSalvo confessing to the eleven murders.

    Students of the strangler case believe that Nasser was the real strangler. Or at least that he committed some of the murders and had a partner in the killings. You can't help but wonder who was more pleased at DeSalvo's confession addiction, George Nasser or the police, who had a quick resolution at last to an embarrassing situation.

    Well, George Nasser collected a reward for help in "capture" of the strangler. F. Lee Bailey got more famous negotiating a deal so DeSalvo never went to trial and instead served a life sentence for the "Green Man" assaults. The Boston Strangler got made into a movie the following year in 1968. Bales of facts got swept away. And little baby justice? Well nobody's seen her in a long, long time children.
    ...as compiled/reported by FatDaddy
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    Albert Fish - Cannibal Extrordinaire

    Albert Fish aka The Brooklyn Vampire, The Grey Man, and a real life model for Hannibal Lecter.

    Albert Fish was born in Washington DC in 1870. At the age of 5 he was placed into an orphanage by his mother who was alone and out of work. At the orphanage, there was documentation that he took sexual excitement in being abused which fuelled his mind for his fascination with sado-masochism.

    At age 7 his mother took him out of the orphanage because she had obtained a job. Shortly after he had a severe fall off a cherry tree which caused a head injury from which he would have permanent problems with such as headaches and dizzy spells. Could this head injury have caused his radical, bizarre behavior? Possibly, there is a theory that many serial killers began stalking and murdering their victims after trauma to the head.

    At the age of twenty he moved to New York, by then he had been involved in numerous masochistic-homosexual relationships. He began raping children and particapated in bizarre sexual acts.

    In 1910, he commited his first murder and act of cannibalism. From then on he indulged in torturing and killing children. In the 1920's Fish travelled across 23 states posing as a house painter.This was a perfect opportunity to commit his perverted acts on children.

    Fish also frequently read the bible and said that god-like voices had told him to kill. He also liked inserting needles into his body near the genitals, acts of pain sexually excited him.

    On 28 May 1928 a man calling himself Frank Howard made acquantices with the Budd family. One day Mr Howard asked if he could take Grace, their 10-year-old daughter, to a party. The Budds allowed him and they never saw their daughter or the old man ever again. The elusive Mr Howard was in fact the 58-year-old Albert Fish, who formulated the idea to kill Grace Budd so he could use her body for acts of cannibalism.

    Six years after the disappearance of young Grace, the Budd's received an anonymous letter from the murderer who admitted to killing Grace and afterwards cooked and ate her body. The police tracked the letter back to some apartments where they matched the writing of the letter to Albert Fish who was a tenant.

    Albert Fish was also the 'Brooklyn Vampire' because in his confession he claimed to be overcome by blood lust and a need to kill. He claimed the lives of four children in 1932-34 and was sent to trial for the murder of Grace Budd. His defense was insanity. Even though the gray haired, gray bearded man looked like he could not hurt a fly, the jury found him guilty and Fish was sentenced to death.

    At Sing Sing Prison on 16 January, 1936 Albert Fish, who described the death sentence as 'the supreme thrill of my life,' was electrocuted. The first electrical charge failed as it was short circuited by all the needles Fish had inserted in his body over the years. Albert Fish had committed hundreds of sexual assaults and 16 or more murders and an indeterminable amount of cannibalistic acts.

    Read more about the Grace Budd murder and the trial of Albert Fish at The Crime Library
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    Kendell Francois - Close to home...

    Compiled by FatDaddyOtis, and much too close to home!

    It all happened a block from Vassar College. The Kendall Francois Murders occurred in a house that sits a block from the campus of the venerable Ivy League College, founded for the higher education of women in the 19th century. That's where Kendall Francois strangled women that were known to be prostitutes. This is probably one of the most stomach churning cases I have ever seen, because it happened in the city where I lived.

    During 1997-1998 women began disappearing from the city known as Poughkeepsie, NY. It took until about the fifth one for anyone to take notice because these weren't members of the PTA or The Junior League. They were hookers, skanks, white trash, or whatever else the local IBM people talked about during their constant engineering or middle management meetings at the Big Blue HQ on the shores of the Hudson River. The families of these women were tireless in making the community take notice, it was not easy. They cared, these were not the above mentioned epithets to them. To them they were mothers, daughters, sisters, but at first still nobodies. Yeah it took a while for anyone to take this seriously.

    I am not blaming the police here, not at all. The person to blame is sitting in prison, unfortunately not on death row, but that comes later. What I'm saying here is that it was very interesting to watch the public reaction to the ongoing case, and how the great liberal Wicker Men and Women were so outraged. They wrote to the local fish wrapper that poses as the area newspaper venting this indignation. Until that is, that it turned out to be a black man that killed these eight white women. The silence was deafening then. It doesn't sell newspapers, nor does it make for good party chat to speak of racially unpopular crime. It was thought that he killed a black woman as well, but that was a unrelated disappearance.

    Let's get to the facts of the case. Kendall Francois strangled 8 women after hiring them for sex. He was a school monitor at a local middle school during some of his murder spree. My son attended this same school during this period. He earned the nickname "Stinky" while working here and was let go in 1998 because of his behavior toward the female students. His M.O. was usually the same: drive to Main Street in Poughkeepsie, pick up a small-in-stature woman with offers of payment for sex or crack cocaine, and strangle them. He weighed about 400 pounds and his victims generally weighed one hundred or one hundred twenty pounds. Not much of a battle to be had.

    The stomach churning part is what he did with the bodies. He kept the bodies of eight women that he killed right in the family home. The smell of a dead human being is quite pungent you say? Well you're right, it is. He told Mom, Dad, and little sister that some raccoons died in the attic and he couldn't find the carcasses. Hey! Maybe they're under the body of that woman that you killed and stashed behind the couch! A total of nine bodies, all women, were eventually found in the Francois home. The ninth was identified as a resident of New Rochelle. Seems he was branching out.

    His mistake was letting a victim talk him out of killing her with an offer of sex for free. She escaped from his disgusting custody afterwards and went to the police. He went willingly to the police station later that day. He was charged and booked, and then the police got the warrant and the true face of horror was revealed. His family, clueless as they were(and without a sense of smell it would seem), through an attorney, asked for "privacy and personal respect". Now that makes me want to gag.

    The next part is as revolting to me as the dead body scene. The State Court of Appeals gave our good buddy Kendall, a get out of death row free card by ruling that a defendant may not plea prior to the DA's filing of a death penalty case. So his plea of guilty, after withdrawing the inital not guilty plea would get him a life sentence rather than the death penalty. Dutchess County DA, William Grady, took the prudent move in then withdrawing the Death Penalty request just to make sure this low life went away. He had a bird in the hand this way and would not have to face the criminals best buds at the State Court of Appeals. Desecration of dead bodies that you killed doesn't carry any weight with those guys. He was found guilty, and with any luck will only leave prison feet first.

    This festering pile of garbage should be residing in HELL but prison will have to do. For a closer look at this case go to Crime Library. It ain't pretty.
    ...as compiled/reported by FatDaddy
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    John Wayne Gacy - the Killer Clown

    John Wayne Gacy, Jr. killed thirty-three boys in Chicago between 1972 and December 1978.

    When Gacy was eleven years old he was playing by a swing set when he was hit in the head by one of the swings. The accident caused a blood clot in the brain. Gacy suffered blackouts until the age of sixteen when the clot was discovered and he was given medication to dissolve it. During this time there were documented behavior disorders such as theft and assault on young boys.

    As and adult, Gacy was a successful building contractor and regarded as a family man who loved children, he would even visit hospitals posing as 'Pogo the clown.' What caused this man to hunt down young men, torture, rape, and murder them - then bury their bodies? Was it insanity or pure evil?

    Gacy would go cruising in his car for victims, usually posing as a police officer with a red light on his car. He would then chloroform the victims, take them back to his house where he would rape them, strangle them and bury them in the crawlspace under his house.

    Gacy was finally arrested in 1978 when a boy he had invited to his house, Robert Piest, had disappeared. Robert told his parents that he had been offered a job by Gacy, and when he failed to return, the police were notified. When the police went to Gacy's house they were alerted by a strange odor and searched his house over a period of several months.

    Twenty seven bodies were found buried in the crawlspace beneath his house, one body was buried beneath his garage and one preserved in the concrete of his patio. Two other bodies were found in the Illinois river, one of them was the missing Robert Piest. Gacy explained that he disposed of the bodies in the river because he was running out of room in the crawl space beneath his house. The last body found on Gacy's property was buried beneath his recreation room. The Gacy house was destroyed and reduced to rubble after the removal of the last body. All but nine of the bodies were identified.

    Gacy made three confessions, but declined to testify at his trial for murder. The Jury who tried him were told by a psychiatrist that Gacy was suffering from a personality disorder that did not amount to insanity. Seeing this, on the 13 March 1980, Gacy was sentenced to life imprisonment, but this was changed to a death sentence. Just after midnight on 10 May, 1994 Gacy was executed by lethal injection at Stateville prison in Joilet, Illinois.

    Find out more about the infamous Killer Clown at Crime Library
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    Ed Gein - Butcher of Plainfield

    AKA - The Butcher of Plainfield, The Plainfield Butcher, The Mad Butcher, The Plainfield Ghoul.

    Ed Gein was an unusual character, born on a farm and raised by a domineering mother. In the space of a few years his entire family died and he was left to raise the farm all by himself. In the next few years he became a grave robber, a necrophiliac, a cannibal, and also took up arts and crafts with body parts. He is seen as one of the most bizarre serial killers of the twentieth century. His crimes also inspired the movies Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs, among many others.

    Born in 1906, Ed Gein and his brother Henry were raised by a domineering mother on their 160-acre farm seven miles outside Plainfield, Wisconsin. She was a very religious woman with a protective attitude towards her boys and a definite conviction of sin. She discouraged them from women and kept them busy with farm work.

    Gein's alcoholic father died in 1940 and a few years later his brother Henry [1944], while fighting a forest fire. Shortly thereafter his mother suffered her first stroke, and in 1945 she had her second stroke from which she never recovered. Ed was left alone.

    It was then that he sealed off the upstairs, the parlour, and his mother's bedroom by boarding it off and set up his own quarters in the remaining bedroom, kitchen and shed of the big farmhouse. He stopped working the farm because a government soil-conservation program offered him a subsidy, which he augmented by his work as a handyman in the area.

    In his spare time Ed read books on human anatomy and Nazi concentration camp experiments. He was quite interested by it all, especially the female anatomy. Alone in the farmhouse he thought endlessly about sex, until one day he saw a newspaper report of a woman who had been buried that day.

    Gein enlisted the help of an old friend named Gus. Gus was a weird loner too, and quite definitely odd. Gus was Ed's trusted buddy, and agreed to assist Ed in opening a grave to secure a corpse for "medical experiments". Gus helped dig the graves. The first corpse came from a grave less than a dozen feet away from the last resting place of Gein's mother.

    Over the next ten years Ed did the same, checked the newspaper for fresh bodies, always visiting the graveyard at the time of a full moon, got the whole female corpse or just the parts he wanted, filled in the grave and took his 'trophys' home.

    His experiments with the dead bodies was bizarre. He would construct objects from the bones and skin and would store the organs in the fridge to eat later. He also committed acts of necrophilia on the bodies. He even dug up his own mothers corpse.

    What Ed Gein didn't reveal to Gus was his own growing desire to become a woman himself; it was for this reason he'd studied anatomy, thought about the possibilities of an "operation" which would result in a change of sex, desired to dissect a female corpse and familiarise himself with its anatomy. The closest he would get to this is dressing up in his full woman bodysuit, complete with mask and breasts constructed entirely of human skin. His collection of trophies grew, and so did the range of his experimentation and obsession.

    Then Gus was taken away to the asylum, and Ed was all alone again. Ed thought that fresher bodies would be better for his collection so he turned to murder.

    Ed Gein's first victim was Mary Hogan. Mary Hogan was a 51-year-old divorcee who operated Hogan's Tavern at Pine Grove, six miles from home. She was alone when he came to her on the cold afternoon of December 8th, 1954. He shot her in the head with his 32-caliber revolver, placed her body in his pickup truck, and took her back to his shed.

    There may have been other victims in the years that followed, but nothing definite is known about Gein's murderous activities until that day on 16 November, 1957, when he shot and killed Bernice Worden in her hardware store on Plainfield's Main Street. The sheriff Art Schley and captain Lloyd Schoephoester set off for the farm, seven miles outside Plainfield.

    Gein's Residence:
    There was no electricity in the dark house so they conducted their inspection with oil lamps, lanterns, and flashlights.

    The place looked like it had not been cleaned in years, there were piles of rubbish everywhere. The few rooms that weren't nailed off were littered with books, old papers, magazines, utensils, tin cans, cartons and a lot of other junk.

    What those police officers also found in that house was bizarre and extreme. A small inventory: two shin bones, four human noses, a quart can converted into a tom-tom by skin stretched over both top and bottom, a bowl made from the inverted half of a human skull, nine "death masks" (from the well preserved skin from the faces of women), ten female heads with the tops sawn off above the eyebrows, bracelets of human skin, a purse made with a handle of human skin, sheath for a knife made in human skin, a pair of leggings made from human skin, four chairs with the seats being replaced by strips of human skin, a shoe box containing nine salted vulvas of which his mother's was painted silver, a hanging human head, a lampshade covered with human skin, a shirt made of human skin, a number of shrunken heads (Ed always joked that he had a collection of shrunken heads), two skulls for Gein's bedposts, a pair of human lips hanging from string, Ed's full woman body suit constructed with human skin and complete with mask and breasts, Bernice Worden's heart in a pan on the stove, and the refrigerator which was stacked with human organs.

    The bodies of 15 different women had been mutilated to provide Gein's trophies. Gein often brought house gifts of fresh venison to his neighbours although Gein admitted he had never shot a deer in his life.

    Gein was examined extensively at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally insane. He was found insane. The reasons for his actions were believed to be caused by the love/hate relationship he had with his mother. It is said that Mary Hogan had more of a passing resemblance to his mother.

    Gein denied being a cannibal or necrophiliac, but he did admit to grave robbing.

    The case created a sensation because of the true nature of the crime. Thousands of people drove to Plainfield to get a look at the 'murder farm'. Eventually the place was burned down by the Plainfield citizens as they regarded it as a place of evil. It is still a topic of contention in the town today - 50 years later...

    At Christmastime, 1957, Gein was judged insane and he was committed to Waupan State Hospital for a life sentence. Gein died of cancer on 26 July 1984, at the age of 78. He was buried back in Plainfield next to the graves of his family.

    What motivated this man to murder, eat and wear his victim's skin? We may only be able to theorize as to the possibilities feuled by his demented mind. Read more about Ed Gein here and make your own conclusions
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    *caught/solved* Gary Leon Ridgeway - Green River Killer

    "I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight."

    Gary Leon Ridgway was good at one thing, he would tell investigators, "and that's killing prostitutes." His obsession became his "career".

    Ridgway, like many serial killers, took pride in the details. He chose his victims carefully, spending hours before and after work "patrolling" Pacific Highway South and other stretches known for prostitution. He'd pull his truck into a convenience store, sometimes popping the hood to throw off suspicion, and then watch "the traffic," waiting for young women and girls who looked easy to kill and wouldn't be missed.

    He preferred to strangle them. Guns and knives "would have been messy." Choking was "more personal and more rewarding," he would later say.

    Within the space of six months in 1982, six bodies had been discovered in or near Washington State's Green River. The police realized they had a Serial Killer on their hands. One of the largest task forces ever formed began the search for the 'Green River Killer.'

    It would be over 20 years before that killer would face his justice.

    Between September 1982 and April 1983, approximately 14 girls disappeared. Gary Ridgway was named a suspect in one of the murders. He was identified by one of the victim's boyfriends who saw the victim get into a truck matching that of Ridgway's. When investigated by police he denied ever seeing the murdered woman and passed a polygraph.

    Very little progress was made in the '80s in the search for the Green River Killer. However, distinct patterns began to emerge that allowed the team to create a more accurate profile of the killer and his movements. The killer seemed to have several dumping grounds where he would dispose of the bodies of his victims. Nearly all the bodies discovered were found partially buried or covered with garbage or foliage. Most of the bodies had been found off of isolated roads in or near illegal waste dumping areas. The FBI's profiler John Douglas concluded that the bodies were dumped in the areas because the killer thought of the women as "human garbage."

    By 1984, the murders seemed to have diminished. The investigative task force was shaken up and the public was angry that the killer had not been caught. There were bodies turning up at a greater distance from the others. There was no doubt in the investigators' minds that it was still the work of the Green River Killer.

    On April 8, 1987, the police had a suspect, obtained a warrant, and searched the man's house. According to the Seattle Times, the police also took "bodily samples" of the suspect so that they could compare them with the evidence they had from the Green River victims. However, there was insufficient evidence to arrest him and the man was released from police custody. The suspect was identified as Gary Ridgway.

    By 1991 the task force was reduced to just one investigator named Tom Jensen. After nine years, roughly 49 victims and $15 million dollars, the task force still had not caught the Green River Killer. The investigation became known as the country's largest unsolved murder case. The case remained dormant for 10 years.

    In 2001 a new task force was formed in the Green River Murders investigation. This team included DNA forensics specialists. The bodily samples taken in 1987 from Gary Leon Ridgway matched those found on three of the victim's bodies. On November 30, Ridgway was intercepted by investigators on his way home from work and arrested on four counts of aggravated murder.

    Ridgway, born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 18, 1949, worked for a computer company at the time of his arrest. During the time of the murders, he was employed as a truck painter for 30 years at the Kentworth truck factory in Renton, Washington.

    Ridgway had an unusual sexual appetite. His three ex-wives and several old girlfriends told the reporter that he was sexually insatiable, demanding sex several times a day. Often times, he would want to have sex in a public area or in the woods, even in the areas where some of the bodies had been discovered.

    Ridgway was also known to have been obsessed with prostitutes, a fixation that bordered on a love-hate relationship. Neighbors knew him to constantly complain about prostitutes conducting business in his neighborhood, but at the same time he frequently took advantages of their favors. It was possible that he was torn by his uncontrollable lusts and his staunch religious beliefs. According to one of his wives, he became a religious fanatic, often times crying following sermons and reading the Bible.

    November 5, 2003, Gary Leon Ridgway confessed to the murder of 48 women, most of them murdered in the 1982-84 time frame. By confessing and cooperating with authorities, Ridgway recieved 48 consecutive life sentences without possiblity of parole and escaped the death penalty in Washington State, but two of the murders were commited on Oregon soil, so he may still have to face the death penalty in other jurisdictions.

    Ridgeway's detest for women and especially prostitutes can be seen here in his plea bargaining statement:
    "I picked prostitutes as my victims because I hate most prostitutes and I did not want to pay them for sex. I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."

    Is it really over? Do the authorities have the only killer? Did Ridgway confess to more murders than he committed for the fame? There are many questions still to be answered.

    For full case details visit the Crime Library
    For a list of the murder victims and Time-line check out Komo 1000 News
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    H. H. Holmes - America's 1st Serial Killer

    "Like the man-eating tigers of the tropical jungle, whose appetites for blood have once been aroused, I roamed about this world seeking whom I could destroy"

    Howard Holmes (AKA Herman Mudgett, AKA The Torture Doctor) appears to have been forgotten by many true crime enthusiasts. At the same time he was committing his crimes, "Jack the Ripper" was terrorizing London. There are several different accounts of Holmes's activities, not the least of which is the doctor's own confession written in 1896.

    Dr. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett on May 16, 1860 in Gilmantown, New Hampshire. Holmes was beat regularly by his drunken father and the local neighborhood bullies. At an early age he was fascinated by all aspects of surgery. He would often capture stray animals and perform strange and crude experiments on them.

    Herman graduated high school at the age of 16, married Clara Loveringat, at the age of 18, and graduated medical school at the University of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor in 1884 at the age of 24. While studying medicine at the University of Michigan, he had an eerie fascination with the dead.