Serial Killer Profile: Angel Maturino Resendiz

Angel Maturino Resendiz was born on August 1, 1959 and was an illegal immigrant residing in the United States. Angel Maturino Resendiz gained the nick name The Railroad Killer after he spent a few years in the late 1990's travelling America on trains and killing and committing other serious crimes along the way. Angel Maturino Resendiz managed to escape the notice of the authorities because of his illegal status and because she didn't have a permanent residence. Angel Maturino Resendiz killed up to 15 people using mostly rocks and other basic objects. The motive of most of his murders appeared to be to steal money for drugs and alcohol. The following is a list of some of Angel Maturino Resendiz's victims: * Christopher Maier, 21 years old on August 29, 1997. He was walking near railroad tracks with his girlfriend when they were attacked by Angel Maturino Resendiz. Maier was bludgeoned to death and his girlfriend was raped and beaten to the point of near death. * Leafie Mason, 81 years old on October 4, 1998. Angel Maturino Resendiz beat her to death with a fire iron.

* Claudia Benton, 39 years old on December 17, 1998. Angel Maturino Resendiz entered her home and proceeded to rape, stab and beat her to death. * Norman J. Sirnic, 46 years old and Karen Sirnic, 47 years old on May 2, 1999. They were killed by Angel Maturino Resendiz after he bludgeoned them to death with a sledgehammer in the parsonage of the church where Norman was a pastor. * Noemi Dominguez, 26 years old on June 4, 1999. Angel Maturino Resendiz was beaten to death in her apartment that was near railroad tracks. * Josephine Konvicka, 73 years old on June 4, 1999. She was hit on the head with a pointed object while she was sleeping. * George Morber Senior, 80 years old, and Carolyn Frederick, 52 years old on June 15, 1999. Angel Maturino Resendiz shot George in the head with a shotgun and then beat Carolyn to death. * Jesse Howell, 19 years old on March 23, 1997. He was beaten to death with an air hose coupling. * Wendy VonHuben, 16 years old on March 23, 1997. Angel Maturino Resendiz raped, strangled and suffocated her. * Michael White in July of 1991. He was shot to death but Angel Maturino Resendiz didn't admit to this killing until 2006. Angel Maturino Resendiz, the Railroad Killer, was arrested in July 1999 and was sentenced to death. On June 27, 2006 he was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas.

Serial Killer Profile: David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz who was born on June 1, 1953 is better known by his nicknames Son of Sam or The .44 Caliber Killer. Regardless of which name he used he has become one of the most famous serial killers in America. David Berkowitz has claimed that his first killings were in late 1975 when committed a knife attack on two women. However, he has never been charged with these attacks and the killing spree that would make him infamous began on the streets of New York in the summer of 1976. On July 29, 1976, David Berkowitz shot Jody Valenti and Donna Lauria. They had been sitting in a parked car outside of Donna Lauria's apartment when they were shot. Jody Valenti managed to survive the attack and the attack didn't get much media attention. Then on October 23, 1976, David Berkowitz went to Queens and attacked another pair sitting in a park car. This time Carl Denaro survived being shot in the head but his companion wasn't injured. Just over a month later on November 26, 1976, David Berkowitz shot teenagers Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino when they were walking home from a trip to the cinema. Donna DeMasi recovered from the shooting but Joanne Lomino was left paralyzed.

David Berkowitz took a few months off but on January 30, 1977 he started his shootings again. This attack was on engaged couple, Christine Freund and John Diel. John Diel survived but Christine Freund died from her injuries. It was after this attack that the police determined that the weapon used in the shootings was a .44 caliber Charter Arms Bulldog. The weapon used in the other shootings had been from a similar gun and so they began to suspect the shootings were connected and the killer was giving the nickname the '.44 Caliber Killer'. The police also made the connection that shootings targeted young women with long, dark hair and/or young couples parked in cars. On March 8, 1977, David Berkowitz shot Virginia Voskerichian as he walked by her and she died on the spot. Once again, the bullet came from a .44 caliber gun. With this information the police went public on March 10, 1977 and announced that the same .44 caliber gun had been used in a number of the shootings. The media went nuts and began following up every little detail so that the stories they published could become more and more sensational. On April 16, 1977, David Berkowitz shot and killed Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani. A police officer found a hand-written letter near the bodies that was addressed to Captain Joe Borelli of Operation Omega. Operation Omega was the task force set up to investigate the shootings. The letter from David Berkowitz was full of bad spelling and grammar and read: I am deeply hurt by your calling me a woman-hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the "son of Sam". I am a little brat. When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean. He beats our family. Sometimes he ties me up to the back of the house. Other times he locks me in the garage. Sam loves to drink blood. "Go out and kills" commands father Sam. Behind our house some rest. Mostly young - raped and slaughtered - their blood drained - just bones now. Pap Sam keeps me locked in

the attic too. I can't get out but I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I am on a different wavelength then everybody else - programmed to kill. However, to stop me you must kill me. Attention all police: shoot me first - shoot to kill or else keep out of my way or you will die. Papa Sam is old now. He needs some blood to preserve his youth. He has too many heart attacks. "Ugh, me hoot, it hurts, sonny boy." I miss my pretty princess most of all. She's resting in our ladies house. But Ill see her soon. I am the "monster" - "Beelzebub" - the chubby behemoth. I love to hunt. Prowling the streets looking for fair game tasty meat. The woman of Queens are prettiest of all. I must be the water they drink. I live for the hunt my life. Blood for papa. Mr. Borelli, sir, I don't want to kill any more. No sir"., no more but I must, "honor thy father". I want to make love to the world. I love people. I don't belong on earth. Return me to yahoos. To the people of Queens, I love you. And I want to wish all of you a happy Easter. May God bless you in this life and in the next. And for now I say goodbye and goodnight. Police: Let me haunt you with these words: I'll be back. I'll be back. To be interpreted as - bang, bang, bang, bang - ugh. Yours in murder, Mr. Monster. The letter changed David Berkowitz's name in the media from the ".44 Caliber Killer" to the "Son of Sam". On May 30, 1977, columnist Jimmy Breslin of the New York Daily News received a hand-written letter from David Berkowitz. After getting advice from the police the paper ran the letter and that issue of the paper sold in huge numbers. Part of the letter from David Berkowitz read: Hello from the gutters of N.Y.C. which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from the sewers of N.Y.C. which swallow up these delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. Hello from the cracks in the

sidewalks of N.Y.C. and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed in the dried blood of the dead that has settled into the cracks... On June 26, 1977, David Berkowitz shot another couple that were sitting in a car but neither of them were injured seriously and were able to give the police a description of their attacker. The other survivors in the past were also able to give some account of their attacker and the police were able to draw up sketches of a suspect. Nearly a year after the first shooting in his killing spree, David Berkowitz went to Brooklyn and shot both Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante in the head as they sat in a car. Stacy Moskowitz died and Robert Violante was left blind. That same evening, Cacilia Davis, who lived near the crime scene, had witnessed a man remove a parking ticket from his car that had been parked too close to a fire hydrant. The event had taken place right before the killing and the woman called the police to inform them. Putting two and two together, the police assumed that whoever had gotten that ticket must have been a witness to the shootings. So, they called another police department and asked for help in tracking down the owner of the car. When the name David Berkowitz came up in connection with the car it came to light that the police in Yonkers had Berkowitz in the frame as a suspect for some of the crimes referenced in one of the Son of Sam letters. However, until then they hadn't thought he was the actual Son of Sam. When the police searched David Berkowitz's car they found a .44 caliber Bulldog pistol, maps of the crime scenes and a letter to Sgt. Dowd of the Omega task force. David Berkowitz was arrested on August 10, 1977 when he was leaving his building. His first words upon arrest were reported to be "What took you so long?" When David Berkowitz's apartment was searched by police they found it in disarray, with "occult" graffiti on the walls. The police also found a diary where Berkowitz took credit for dozens of arsons throughout the New York area. In a 30 minute

interview at the police station, David Berkowitz confessed to the Son of Sam killings. David Berkowitz made a series of claims that left his mental state in question. For example, he claimed that the "Sam" mentioned in the first letter was one Sam Carr, a former neighbor of Berkowitz. Berkowitz claimed that Carr's dog, Harvey, was possessed by an ancient demon, and that it issued commands to Berkowitz to kill. Berkowitz said he once tried to kill the dog, only to see his aim spoiled due to supernatural interference. He also caused a disturbance in the courtroom during his sentencing hearing when he was heard to be chanting "Stacy was a whore" over and over again at a level that could just be heard by some of the people in the room. It was assumed he was referring to Stacy Moskowitz who was his final victim. June 12, 1978, to six life sentences in prison for the killings, making his maximum term some 365 years behind bars.

Serial Killer Profile: Dennis Rader

To his neighbors, he was a pillar of the community, a churchgoer, a scout leader, a respectable family man. What they failed to see in him was the sickening serial killer who managed to evade justice for 30 years. His name was Dennis Rader, but he was better known by his nickname 'BTK' because of his method of murder: Bind, Torture, Kill.

'BTK' was his nickname. It stood for 'Bind, Torture, Kill'

His sick crime spree left 10 dead. He strangled four members of one family, hanged a 11-year-old girl from a sewer pipe to watch her die, photographed the bodies of his victims and taunted police by sending them trophies taken from the corpses. Yet, to the most who knew him, father-of-two Rader seemed 'an ordinary guy'. A US Air Force veteran, he was a attentive parent who took his children on camping and fishing expeditions. He ran his son Brian's scout troop; He was an usher at his local church in Wichita, Kansas, where he worked as a 'code compliance officer', enforcing petty rules for the city authority.

Dennis Rader was an apparent pillar of the community, but behind the facade he was a serial killer who claimed 10 lives.

He was however, a secret sadist, with the classic serial-killer background of torturing small animals. His depths of evil finally found full expression in

1974 when, at the age of 28, he burst into the home of the Otero family, he held them at gunpoint, bound, and gagged them. Joe Otero, 38, his wife Julie, 34, and nine-year-old son Joey were strangled one by one. But it was the fate of 11-year-old Josephine 'Josie' Otero that was to send a wave of revulsion through the Kansas town. Josie's body was found hanging in the basement sewer pipe. Her hands were bound behind her back and she wore nothing but socks and a sweater. the rest of her clothes were in a pile by the foot of the stairs, left by her killer before he carried out a sex act on her corpse. His next victim was 21-year-old student Kathryn Bright, who returned home with her younger brother Kevin to be confronted by a gun-toting intruder

Police work in front of Dennis Rader's house in Park City, Kansas, following his arrest in February 2005.

Wearing a black stocking cap, camouflage jacket, and black gloves. Rader tied them up and stabbed Kathryn to death. Kevin was shot in the head but survived.

Police at first failed to link the attack to the Uterus massacre-but Rader seemed to want recognition for his crimes and wrote to the Wichita Eagle newspaper, claiming to be the 'BTK', bragging about the slaughter and promising to kill again. He did not do so for three years. Then, in March 1977, motherof-three Shirley Vian, 24, was found bound and strangled in her Wichita home. A plastic bag had been placed over her head and panties had been removed as a trophy. Nancy Fox, a 25-year-old secretary, was next. Rader broke into her home, handcuffed her and stripped her, before assaulting her and finally throttling her with a belt. To ensure recognition for the crime, radar rang police from a payphone to report the murder. As 'BTK' he later sent letters to local media asking: 'How many do I have to kill before I get some national attention?' 'BTK' then went to ground for almost eight years and police assumed he had died. But in April 1985, his urge to kill returned and he murdered his 53-year-old neighbour,Marine Hedge. Rader took her body to the Christ Lutheran Church where he congregated president, placed the corpse on the altar and took bondage photos before dumping it in a ditch. The following September he entered the home of Vicki Wegerle, 28, after posing as a telephone repairman and strangled her. His final victim was Delores Davis, 62, abducted and strangled in 1991. He dumped her body under a bridge- then returned to place a mask over the corpse's head and take photographs. As always, he performed a sex act at the scene.

A news conference outside the Sedgwick County Courthouse in Wichita, Kansas on March 1, 2005

Police failed to link the deaths to the earlier 'BTK' murders until, in 2004, Rader again wrote to the local media, sending them and the police trophies from his crimes. They included pictures of Vicki Wegerle's body, Nancy Fox's driving license, and a doll symbolizing Josie Otero's murder. 'BTK' was finally captured in February 2005 when a floppy disk he sent to a TV station was traced to Rader's church. Confronted with a DNA test that matched him with a sample found in Josie Otero's body 31 years earlier, Rader admitted to all 10 murders. In a written confession, he said: 'Josephin, when I hung her really turn(ed) me on. Her pleading for mercy... then the rope took (hold): she helpless: staring at me with wide terror fill(ed) eyes, the rope getting tighter-tighter'. At his trial in August 2005, the bespectacled 60year-old looked relaxed as he admitted planning further murders, adding " I was thinking about it but

i was beginning to slow down". Since the crimes were committed before Kansas reintroduced capital punishment, the judge handed down the maximum prison sentence he could deliver: 175 years with no chance of parole.

A manacled radar, flanked by police officers. The evil killer was sentenced to 175 years in prison.

Dennis Rader's victims included: * 1974: Four members of one family (Joseph Otero, his wife Julie Otero, and two of their five children: Joseph Otero II and Josephine Otero) * 1974: Kathryn Bright * 1977: Shirley Vian * 1977: Nancy Fox * 1985: Marine Hedge * 1986: Vicki Wegerle * 1991: Delores Davis

Serial Killer Profile: Ed Gein

Ed Gein is one of those serial killers whose crimes were so extreme that the killer and his crimes become a matter of fascination for many and begin to take on a sort of folklore status. Ed Gein was born on August 27, 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin to a violent father and extremely religious mother. Ed Gein's mother made sure that her son knew her views on what she saw to be the evils of the world including drink and stressed that all women should be considered whores. Ed Gein was once caught masturbating and to teach him a lesson his mother poured scalding water over his genitals. Ed Gein is also reported to have experienced an episode of sexual arousal when he watched his mother and father slaughter a hog. Ed Gein's father died in 1940 and his brother Henry had started to turn his back on the teachings of their mother. In 1944 Ed Gein and his brother found themselves caught up in a brush fire. Ed Gein ran to get help and told the police that he had lost sight of his brother in the blaze. However, when he brought the police to the fire he brought them straight to the location where his brother's dead body was located. The official report of Henry Gein's death said he died of asphyxiation from the fire even though he had received strong blows to the head. In

December 1945, Ed Gein's mother Augusta died and Ed Gein was left an emotional wreck. On November 17, 1957 police searched Ed Gein's property in connection with the disappearance of a woman named Bernice Worden. The police may have suspected Ed Gein but they couldn't have been prepared what they would see when they entered his home. The first thing they saw was the corpse of Bernice Worden. She had been killed by being shot with a .22-caliber rifle but it wasn't just her death that shocked the police but instead it was the condition of her dead body. She had been decapitated, split open like a deer and left to hang from her ankles. When the police searched the rest of Ed Gein's property they found the following sickening items: * severed heads acting as bedposts in the bedroom; * skin used to make lampshades and upholster chair seats; * skullcaps made into soup bowls; * a human heart (it is disputed where the heart was found; the deputies' reports all claim that the heart was in a saucepan on the stove, with some crime scene photographers claiming it was in a paper bag); * a face mask made out of real facial skin found in a paper bag; * a necklace of human lips; * a waistcoat, called a "mammary vest," made up of a vagina and breasts; * and other items fashioned from the parts of human bodies, including a belt made from nipples. Of all the items discovered during the investigation into Ed Gein the most infamous was a wardrobe Ed Gein had made for himself that was made of human skin. The wardrobe included leggings, a gutted torso (including breasts) and an array of tanned, dead-skin masks that looked leathery and almost mummified. Ed Gein claimed that he would dig up the graves of women that had recently died and then take their

bodies back to his home where he tanned their skin to make the items in his wardrobe. Importantly, he admitted that the women he set about digging up were those that held a resemblance to his own mother. According to accounts, Ed Gein had begun to desire a sex change shortly after the death of his mother. It is thought that Ed Gein created this 'woman suits' from the bodies of dead women so that he could put them on and have the body of a woman. Ed Gein was at first found was found mentally incompetent and unable to stand trial and therefore was sent to a mental hospital. However, in 1968 Ed Gein was said to be sane enough to stand trial. At this trial, Ed Gein was found not guilty by reason of insanity and he spent the rest of his life at Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Ed Gein died of respiratory failure in 1984 at the age of 77. However, the legacy of Ed Geins crimes has been captures many times in popular culture and therefore will carry on for years to come. Ed Gein is largely thought to be inspiration for the character of Normal Bates in the book and resulting film Psycho.Ed Gein's crimes were also inspiration for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and parts of The Silence of the Lambs.

Serial Killer Profile: Richard Ramirez

Richard Ramirez's random and inexplicable murder spree began on June 28, 1984, in Glassel Park, Calif., a small suburban community in Los Angeles. He parked his car down the street and quietly made his way up to a two-story apartment building. His eyes began scanning the area looking for an easy target. A heat wave was moving through the area, so he had little trouble finding an apartment with an open window. The open window he chose belonged to 79-yearold Jennie Vincow. Murder was the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. He was more interested in stealing the woman's valuables to support his growing drug addiction. With gloved hands, he quietly removed the screen from the window and crawled inside. According to Philip Carlo's 1996 book, The Night Stalker, Ramirez immediately made his way to the bedroom and began looking through the drawers, careful not to make a sound. Nothing. There was not one thing of value for him there. He became enraged at the elderly woman sleeping on the bed and decided to take his anger out on her. He quietly removed his hunting knife from its sheath and made his way toward her bed. He stood over her momentarily and contemplated his next move. Killing was something new to him and he did not want to make any mistakes. He held the knife up high and quickly brought it down on her chest. She immediately awoke and began screaming for

her life, but he ignored her cries and continued to stab her again and again. After he tired of stabbing her, he placed his hand over her mouth and with one quick flick of the knife slit her throat. It was suddenly over just as quickly as it began. The elderly woman was dead and her killer stood over her panting. The act had excited him beyond his expectations and the thrill of the kill aroused him sexually. He quickly disrobed and performed necrophilia on the corpse Later that day, Mrs. Vincow's son discovered the grisly scene and reported it to police. Investigators were stumped. There was no apparent motive for the murder and the suspect had left few clues behind. Less than a year later, on the night of March 17, 1985, Ramirez struck again. Hiding in the shadows of a Rosemead condominium complex he waited and watched for a victim to appear. He did not have to wait long before spotting 20-year-old Maria Hernandez pulling into one of the driveways. As she stepped out of her car, Ramirez jumped out from the darkness and raised his gun. Maria pled for her life as she instinctively raised her hand to protect herself. Ramirez pulled the trigger. Maria fell to the ground and Ramirez stepped over her body and walked into her condo. But Maria was not dead. Amazingly, the bullet had deflected off the car keys she had been holding and she was only pretending to be dead. Upon entering the condo, Ramirez was taken off guard by the sight of Maria's roommate, 34-year-old Dayle Okazaki. Ramirez quickly raised his gun and fired a shot directly at her head. A single bullet entered her brain, killing the young woman instantly. Ramirez quickly fled, but in his hurry he dropped his baseball cap, with an AC/DC insignia. Maria, still badly shaken, described her assailant as tall, gaunt man with bulging eyes and widely spaced, rotten teeth. She also said she thought he might be Hispanic. According to Clifford L. Linedecker's 1991 book, Night Stalker, Ramirez was angered by his foul up and waited less than an hour to strike again. He drove to

the Monterey Park area and ambushed 30-year-old TsaiLian Yu. Ramirez dragged the young woman out of her car and fired several shots in rapid succession. Afterward, he got into his own car and drove away just as quickly as he had appeared. Less than two weeks later, on March 27, 1985, Ramirez broke into the home of 64-year-old Vincent Zazarra and his 44-year-old wife Maxine. Vincent was sleeping on the sofa when Ramirez snuck up on him and shot him point blank in the head. Vincent died almost immediately, however his wife was not so lucky. Ramirez shot her three times and then began to continuously stab her all over her body. When he tired of the motions, he slowed down and began carving designs into her flesh. Afterward, he ransacked the house, and then, before leaving, he carved out both of Maxine's eyes. Carlo wrote that when investigators were summoned to the scene a few days later they discovered footprints in the flowerbed, which they photographed and casted. The bullets were later determined to have come from the same gun as the ones in previous attacks and investigators were now certain that they had a crazed serial killer on their hands. The killer waited a little longer before striking again, but by April 14, 1985, he broke into the Monterey home of 65-year-old Harold Wu and his 56year-old wife Jean. As Ramirez made his way towards the bedroom, he cocked his gun in anticipation. Chambering the bullet made a loud clicking noise, which immediately alerted Harold. As Ramirez entered the bedroom he noticed Harold reaching for his 9millimeter pistol. Ramirez quickly raised his own gun and fired one shot, striking the man just above the upper lip. Ramirez went to fire a second round, but his gun jammed. He then used his gloved fists to beat Harold unconscious. Afterwards, he picked up the 9millimeter pistol and set his sights on Jean, who was now awake and trembling. The elderly woman was unable to run away and Ramirez began to pummel the woman with his fists. After a few minutes he decided to

have a look around and bound the elderly woman's hands together with thumb cuffs. Ramirez ransacked the home looking for valuables, but found nothing of great significance. The thrill of the crime had excited him, so he returned to the bedroom and violently raped Jean Wu. Afterwards, he kissed her and left the home with whatever belongings he could carry. Moments later, Harold came to and crawled to the telephone. He dialed 911 and when the operator answered he muttered, "Help, please help me," before passing out again. Emergency personnel quickly arrived at the scene and began treating the elderly couple. Harold was in a dire state and Jean was in catatonic shock. At first they thought Harold was going to make it, but their best efforts were not enough to save him and he died during the trip to the hospital. Jean survived the attack, but was unable to tell investigators what had happened. Dark skinned man, bad teeth, and a black gun were about the only things they could get out of her. Once again footprints were discovered at the scene. The prints, along with the bullet, were later matched to those left behind at the other scenes. The Los Angeles Times dubbed the unknown killer "The Night Stalker." On May 29, 1985, 83-year-old Malvia Keller and her invalid sister, 80-year-old Blanche Wolfe, were attacked in Keller's Monrovia home. Ramirez beat both women with a hammer and ransacked the home. Afterward, he took lipstick and drew a pentagram on Keller's inner thigh. He then drew a second one on the bedroom wall. Four days later a horrified gardener discovered the sisters and contacted the police. Keller survived, but Wolfe died soon thereafter. It was later revealed that Ramirez had tried to rape Keller during the attack. On May 30, 1985, in Burbank, Ramirez attacked 41year-old Ruth Wilson in her home. Linedecker wrote that after tying up the victim's 12-year-old son, Ramirez raped and sodomized her. "Don't look at me," he snarled. "If you look at me again, I'll shoot

you." Afterward, he slashed her once with his knife and told her she was lucky. "I don't know why I'm letting you live," he whispered. He then let her son out of the closet and handcuffed them together. Ramirez left them there and later the young boy was able to get to a phone and call 911. When police later questioned Ruth she described her attacker as a tall Hispanic with long dark hair. Just 10 years earlier Los Angeles had dealt with The Hillside Stranglers and now it was sheer panic all over again. The police department placed extra manpower in every area of the city. Sketched pictures of The Night Stalker were distributed throughout the region and police stopped and investigated numerous men who fit the bill. Residents began buying guns and hardware stores began selling out of locks and deadbolts. Nonetheless, Ramirez was not scared of being caught and felt that Satan himself was protecting him from danger. On June 27, 1985, Ramirez raped a 6-year-old girl in Arcadia and the following day the body of 32-year-old Patty Elaine Higgins was found in her Arcadia home. Ramirez had beaten the woman within an inch of her life and then slit her throat. Afterwards he ransacked her home. Just five days later, on July 2, Ramirez struck again and murdered 75-year-old Mary Louise Cannon. Like Patty Higgins, she had been beaten, her throat slit, and the house ransacked. Three days later, On July 5, Ramirez attacked 16year-old Deidre Palmer in Arcadia. He savagely beat the young girl with a tire iron and left her for dead. Amazingly, she survived her injuries. Just two days later, the body of 61-year-old Joyce Lucille Nelson was found in her home in Monterey Park. Ramirez had bludgeoned her to death. Later that same night, in Monterey Park, Ramirez attacked 63-year-old Linda Fortuna. He attempted to rape her, but was unable to maintain an erection. Frustrated, he quickly ransacked her house and left without killing her.

On July 20, 1985, Ramirez broke into the Glendale home of 66-year old Maxson Kneeling and his wife Lela, also 66. Ramirez shot both of them in the head and mutilated their corpses. Just hours later Ramirez struck again. This time in Sun Valley, where he broke into the home of 32-year-old Chitat Assawahem and his wife Sakima, 29. Ramirez shot Chitat as he slept and then raped and beat his wife. Ramirez then tied up Sakima and gathered up $30,000 in cash and jewelry. He was not yet ready to leave though and turned his anger on the couple's eight-year-old son, whom he brutally sodomized before leaving. Less than a month later, on Aug. 6, 1985, Ramirez broke into the Northridge home of 38-year-old Christopher Petersen and his wife, 27-year-old Virginia. Ramirez shot both of them in the head, but amazingly both survived. Mr. Petersen was a large man, and despite his injuries, he was able to chase the intruder away. Ramirez waited just two days to strike again, this time in Diamond Bar, Calif. He broke into the home of 35-year-old Ahmed Zia and his wife, 28-year-old Suu Kyi. Ramirez quickly disposed of Ahmed with a bullet to the head and then raped and sodomized Suu Kyi. The police were now facing a barrage of criticism from the public. The crimes were becoming more frequent and the cooling-off periods were becoming even shorter. With all the added publicity about his crimes, and the manhunt to find the killer, Ramirez began to panic and fled north to continue his murder spree. On Aug. 24, 1985, Ramirez travelled to Mission Viejo, some 50 miles south of Los Angeles. According to Michael Newton, author of the Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, he then broke into the home of 29-year-old Bill Carns and his fiance, 27-year-old Inez Erickson. Ramirez shot Carns in the head and then proceeded to rape Erickson. Afterwards, he demanded she swear her love for Satan and then he tied her up and left. Erickson quickly worked herself free of her

constraints and ran to the window just in time to see the assailant get into an orange coloured car. She then called 911. Earlier that same night, a young man had noticed an orange Toyota circling the neighborhood. It struck him as suspicious and he wrote down the license plate number. The following day he contacted the police about the car. When investigators ran the license plate, they learned that the car had recently been stolen. An APB was immediately put out and two days later the car was found abandoned in a seedy Los Angeles neighborhood. Police spent the next several days watching the car, but their suspect never came back for it. Later, as crime scene specialists and finger print technicians went over the car they came up with a single print on the rear-view mirror. It took several hours for the computer to match the print, but it eventually identified the suspect as Ricardo "Richard" Leyva Ramirez. Finally the police knew the Night Stalker's identity. Now they had to find him. On Aug. 30, 1985, an all-points bulletin was issued for Ramirez's arrest. By mid-afternoon, his face was plastered on newspapers and was shown throughout the day on television news reports. Ramirez stepped from a Greyhound bus, not knowing that everyone in the city was looking for him. When he walked into a liquor store a woman yelled, "It's him. It's the Stalker!" He quickly looked up as other customers rose from their seats, forcing Ramirez to flee. He was heading towards the Hispanic area of East Los Angeles. He ran for three miles and then tried to steal a getaway car. Nonetheless, the angry mob caught up with him and he was quickly surrounded. Four citizens grabbed and subdued him, while another began hitting him with a steel pipe. The police quickly raced to the scene. According to reports in the Los Angeles Times, as one of the officers went to handcuff him, Ramirez raised his hands and begged for his life. "Save me. Please. Thank God you're here. It's me," he cried out. "I'm the one you want. Save me before they kill me." In retrospect it seems odd that he would thank God for help, rather than Satan.

Following his capture, Ramirez, 26, was charged with 14 murders and 31 other felonies. A fifteenth murder in San Francisco also hung over his head, with the possibility of a trial in Orange County for rape and attempted murder. He had several medical examinations performed, but his records are currently unavailable. One anonymous source claimed that Ramirez suffered from a testosterone imbalance, which caused his brain to malfunction. Richard Ramirez was born on Feb. 28, 1960, in El Paso, Tex., where he lived with his parents, Julian and Mercedes, along with three brothers and two sisters. His family was poor by most standards and throughout his childhood he looked up to his hardworking father and wanted to be just like him. Around the age of 12 Ramirez found a new mentor, his cousin Mike. A Vietnam veteran and ex-Green Beret, Mike had returned home with four medals pinned to his chest. He also brought with him a Polaroid odyssey of rape, torture, and mutilation, which undoubtedly had an immense impact on Ramirez's views of the world. Mike enjoyed telling Ramirez about his time in Nam and began teaching him how to fight and kill. Mike's wife disapproved of his behavior and they frequently argued. The arguments gradually intensified and finally one day, in front of Ramirez, Mike shot his wife in the face. Mike went to trial for her murder, but pled temporary insanity. With his impressive war record, he was committed to a mental hospital. Mike's influence on Ramirez was indelible and his interest in school vanished. In junior high school he failed ninth grade twice, and soon thereafter began his first criminal activities. He was arrested several times for burglary, each time being shipped off to a work program. Throughout high school, Ramirez spent most of his time smoking pot and studying Satanism. He felt that Satan was protecting him and guiding him. His first formal arrest as an adult was for possession of marijuana, for which he was fined. He was arrested

again several months later for the same offense. On his third arrest, for reckless driving, he avoided prison by agreeing to work with troubled youths and was ordered to be on probation for a period of three years. After his probation ended, Ramirez left El Paso and moved to California. Once there, he encountered minor run-ins with the law. He was often strung out on cocaine, LSD and PCP. In 1984, he was taken into custody and photographed while suspected of driving a stolen car. Little did he know at the time that this mug shot would be the one plastered all over Los Angeles that would lead to his arrest. The process of trying Ramirez took four years, during which time he married a 41-year-old serial-killer groupie named Doreen Lioy. Three years later, on Sept. 20, 1989, Ramirez was found guilty on 43 counts: 13 murders and an assortment of charges including burglary, sodomy, and rape. "Ramirez Guilty on All Night Stalker Murder Charges," boasted the headline of the Los Angeles Times. Less than two months later, on Nov. 7, Judge Michael A Tynan sentenced Ramirez to death. Currently Ramirez waits on death row in California's San Quentin Prison, where he is scheduled to remain until he has exhausted all of his appeals.

Serial Killer Profile: Aileen Wuornos

Just 12 days before Christmas 1989, a body was found outside Ormand Beach, Florida, wrapped in an old carpet. The police identified the victim as Richard mallory, a 51-year-old electrician with a previous conviction for rape. The autopsy showed he had been shot four times with a .22 caliber handgun. Over the next 12 months, five more victims were discovered in different locations but in almost identical circumstances: a 43-year-old construction worker, David Spears, shot 6 times with a .22 handgun; rodeo worker Charles Carskaddon, aged 40, with nine bullets in him; a 50-year-old truck driver called Troy Burress was killed by two .22 caliber bullets; a 56-year-old child abuse investigator, Charles Humphreys, was found shot six times in the torso and once in the head; and finally, on 19 November, the body of Walter Gino Antonio was discovered, murdered with four .22 caliber bullets. In every case, money, valuables and the victims vehicle had been stolen. Used condoms were also found at most of the crime scenes. Since the same handgun was being used in each of the murders, the police realized they had a serial killer on their hands. The

FBI's psychological profiling unit concluded that this was probably a woman. On 4 July 1990, the killer and her girlfriend skidded off the road in a car she had stolen from Peter Seims, a 65-year-old part-time missionary she had murdered in early June. Witnesses told the police that they had seen two women - one tall and blonde, the other a short, heavy-set brunette - abandon the damaged Pontiac Sunbird after removing the license plates.

Serial Killer Profile: Zodiac Killer

Zodiac Killer a mysterious murderer known only as the 'Zodiac'(signed from his taunting letters sent to newspapers), killed five people in San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. The Zodiac killer selected his victims at random and killed them usually by a blitz shooting attack. The first known murder by the Zodiac Killer happened on 20 December 1968, a man approached a couple sitting in their car in Vallejo, California, and shot them dead.

On the 5 July 1969 the Zodiac struck again, shooting a couple in their car near the Vallejo area, leaving a woman dead and a man wounded. Letters were sent to newspapers in San Francisco supposedly claiming to be from the killer, and were signed 'Zodiac' which was adopted by the media to name the mysterious killer. In some of the letters there was lines in code which was decoded by a cipher expert, this read some things such as - 'hunting humans was the most exciting of all sports'. The Zodiac Killer struck again on the 27 September 1969 at Lake Berryesa. A hooded plump man wearing glasses held a couple at gunpoint at a picnic area and then stabbed them both, killing the woman. The killer then notified the police with a telephone call. The last known murder happened on the 11 October when a San Francisco taxi driver was shot dead. A letter was sent to a San Francisco newspaper accompanied by a bloodied piece of the taxi drivers shirt. That was the last known murder although the Zodiac sent more letters threatening more murders. The Zodiac Killer case remains unsolved. It is still believed that the Zodiac Killer is continuing his tally. The Zodiac Killer stalked Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he killed 5 people beginning in 1968 and claiming responsibility for 17 murders in the San Francisco area in the late 1960s. The Zodiac killer claimed he chose his victims based on their astrological signs. The Zodiac has been profiled as a sexual sadist, a person who cannot achieve sexual fulfillment any other way than through the torture and ultimate death of another human being. The only victims officially attributed to the Zodiac Killer are Cheri Jo Bates, 18, killed at Riverside

City College. Betty Lou Jensen, 16 on a first date with David Faraday, 17 killed while trying to escape. Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Mike Mageau, 19. Mageau survived. Cecelia Shepard age 22 and Bryan Hartnell age 20 were tied and stabbed. Shepard died at the hospital. Hartnell survived. The last victim is Paul Stine age 29.

Serial Killer Profile: Ted Bundy

Mention the term "serial killer" and Ted Bundy's name is frequently the first to pop into mind. Before he was executed in 1989, he admitted to murdering 40 young women in almost a dozen states during his fouryear reign of terror in the mid-'70s. In the process he became one of the most feared and prolific serial killers in U.S. history. But what sets Bundy apart is how different he was from the stereotype of the homicidal madman: He was so mainstream that the Washington State Republican Party hired him, so cunning that he twice escaped from jail, so dashing a figure that women sent marriage proposals to him on death row. What caused Ted Bundy to snap and murder countless young women and girls as young as 12 years old for no apparent reason? The devil is in the details. Many of his early victims bore a physical resemblance to Bundy's first girlfriend, who was tall and slender

and wore her long brown hair with a part in the middle. Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont. Bundy's mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell, was unmarried and just 22-years-old at the time of his birth. Bundy's father, Lloyd Marshall, apparently wanted nothing to do with him, so he and his mother moved to Philadelphia to live with her parents. In an unusual twist, Eleanor's parents, out of fear that their daughter would be criticized for having a bastard child, raised Bundy as their own son, leaving him to believe that his mother was his older sister. In 1950, Eleanor and Bundy moved to Tacoma, Wash., to live with relatives. Once there, Eleanor legally changed their names. Ted Cowell became Theodore Robert Nelson, and Eleanor became Louise Cowell. A year after their move, Eleanor married a military cook by the name of Johnnie Culpepper Bundy. From then on Ted Cowell became known as Ted Bundy. As time went by Louise and Johnnie had four other children of their own, whom Bundy spent much of his time looking after. Ted never seemed to form a bond with his stepfather. He had his own ideas of how things should have been and considered himself a Cowell rather than a Bundy. In the book The Only Living Witness, by Stephen G. Michaud, Bundy's adolescent years are described as unhappy ones. As a child, Bundy was shy and often teased by bullies. Bundy graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1965, and by way of a scholarship began attending the University of Puget Sound. He took courses in psychology and Asian studies, but after attending just two semesters, he transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1967, Bundy met a beautiful young woman named Stephanie Brooks. The two hit it off quickly and Bundy was soon head over heels in love. It was the first time in his life that he ever felt close to a

woman and also, according to the book The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule, the first time he engaged in any form of sexual activity. During the fall of 1968, Bundy once again transferred, enrolling in Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Shortly thereafter, Stephanie graduated from the University of Washington and abruptly ended their relationship. She later explained that she felt like Bundy had no real direction or future goals and that she had not been not ready to commit. Bundy was devastated at losing his first love and was unable to concentrate on anything. Eventually his grades suffered so badly that he decided to drop out of college. As Bundy tried to get his life back on track, he began traveling around the country. He eventually decided to visit his birth town in Vermont, where he was dealt yet another damaging blow while looking up the record of his birth: He discovered that his sister was actually his mother, and the woman who had raised him as her son was actually his grandmother. During the fall of 1969, Bundy re-entered the University of Washington and excelled in all of his classes. He was a man on a mission, hoping to win Stephanie back. Nonetheless, she still had no interest in rekindling their previous romance. Undaunted, Bundy worked harder and became increasingly involved in local politics, working on and off for various campaigns. In his spare time he worked the phones at the Seattle Crisis Clinic, where he soon met and befriended Ann Rule, the woman who years later would write of Bundy's life and crimes in her best-selling book, The Stranger Beside Me. It was also during this time that Bundy met Meg Anders, a divorcee who worked as a secretary. The two began dating and Meg was soon deeply in love. Bundy treated her well and took on the role of a father figure for her young daughter. Regardless, Bundy was not yet ready to settle down and unbeknownst to her continued to keep in contact with Stephanie through letters and phone calls.

Bundy spent the next two years working on political campaigns and applying to various law schools. At one point during this time he was commended by the Seattle Police as a "hero" for saving the life of a 3-year-old boy whom he rescued from drowning. With his life on track and his future looking up, Bundy graduated from the University of Washington in the summer of 1973, and was quickly accepted into the University of Utah Law School. However, whether it was because of his on-going relationship with Meg, or his job with the Washington State Republican Party, he chose not to attend until the following school year. During one of Bundy's business trips for the Republican Party, he decided to meet up with Stephanie, to reminisce about old times. The new Bundy profoundly impressed Stephanie and sparks began to fly once again. The two began spending as much time together as possible and even talked of marriage. Meg had no idea Bundy was secretly meeting Stephanie, all the while he continued to profess his love to her. Stephanie felt that Bundy was now the man of her dreams and began looking forward to their future together. While neither woman knew about the other, they were also unaware of the transformation Bundy was undergoing. For unknown reasons, he began focusing his energy into a murderous downward spiral, which began just three days after New Years. Each victim was methodically chosen and each evoked Stephanie's slender build and hairstyle. On January 4, 1974, 18-year-old Joni Lentz became Bundy's first victim. Joni shared a large house in Seattle with several roommates. No one suspected anything was wrong when she failed to come down for breakfast. As the day drew on, her friends grew concerned and decided to check on her. Joni appeared to be asleep when her roommates walked in, but upon closer inspection they were horrified when they noticed that she was lying in a pool of blood. When they pulled back the covers, the seriousness of the situation was amplified to that of pure terror a bed rod had been broken off and rammed deep into her

vagina. Joni appeared to still be breathing, so her roommates quickly called paramedics and local police. Joni was in a comatose state when the EMT's arrived, but she had amazingly survived the attack. Bundy's next known victim was Lynda Ann Healy, a 21year-old weather forecaster and law student at Seattle's University of Washington Law School. On Jan. 31, 1974, one of Lynda's roommates received a call from Lynda's boss saying Lynda had not shown up for work. The roommate went into Lynda's basement bedroom and saw that her bed was made and her bicycle was sitting in the corner. As day turned to night and no one heard from her, her worried parents called the police and asked them to look into their daughter's disappearance. As part of their investigation the police performed a routine search of Lynda's room. When one of the officers decided to pull back her bedcovers, he was shocked to discover that the pillowcase and sheets were soaked in blood. Another officer soon found Lynda's nightgown, the neckline of which was crusted with dried blood. The investigators were unable to find any evidence pointing to a suspect. As local law enforcement kept busy searching for Lynda, Bundy kept busy going about his everyday life with little concern that he would be discovered. In February 1974, without warning, and for no apparent reason, Bundy dumped Stephanie Brooks, just as she had him years earlier. Stephanie never saw or heard from Bundy again. Over the course of the next few months, seven more women mysteriously vanished within the states of Utah, Oregon, and Washington. Each case was remarkably similar: each of the victim's was a slender Caucasian female, wore her hair parted in the middle, and had disappeared in the evening hours. As the investigation of the disappearances intensified, investigators learned from several witnesses that a handsome man, driving a VW bug, and wearing a cast on either his arm or leg, had been seen during many of the incidents. Several women who had been approached by him recalled him mentioning his name was Ted.

No one knew what happened to the girls until two bodies were found in Washington in August of 1974, just four miles from Lake Sammamish. It appeared to investigators that the victims, Denise Naslund and Janice Ott, had been murdered during a crazed sexual frenzy. There was little evidence at the scene, but the similarities between the Washington and Oregon murders quickly caught the attention of investigators in Utah. The three states began working together and soon agreed that one man was committing the crimes. Investigators got their first break on Nov. 8, 1974, when a man driving a VW bug attempted to kidnap 18year-old Carol DaRonch from a mall in Salt Lake City. The young woman managed to escape and was able to give investigators a description of the man and his vehicle. As investigators in Salt Lake City looked for their suspect, authorities in Bountiful, Utah, were notified that a 17-year-old girl, Debby Kent, had disappeared from Viewmont High School. A witness later reported seeing a tan Volkswagen bug speed away from the high school parking lot. The killings stopped for four months before resuming in Colorado where at least four women mysteriously vanished. Almost a month later, one of those missing women was found just miles from where she had disappeared. Following an autopsy, it was discovered that she had been sexually assaulted and murdered with a blunt instrument. Back in Washington, the Taylor Mountains were becoming well known as the burial site for the killer, as the mountain slowly revealed the remains of several women, one of which was later identified as 21-year-old Lynda Ann Healy. On Aug. 16, 1975, investigators finally got the break they were hoping for when a highway patrolman in Granger, Utah, noticed an unfamiliar man in a VW bug. When the officer turned on his spotlight to look at the plate, the driver sped away. A chase ensued, but after just a few blocks the VW pulled off to the side of the road. When the officer asked the driver for identification, he was given a driver's license with the name Theodore Robert Bundy. Suspecting the man

was up to no good, the officer searched the vehicle, discovering a pair of handcuffs, a length of rope, a crowbar, a ski mask, an ice pick, and a nylon stocking. Bundy was placed under arrest for suspicion of burglary. It did not take long for investigators to notice the physical similarities between Bundy and the suspect wanted in the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. However, they knew that they would need more evidence to support their suspicions. Shortly after Bundy's arrest, Carol DaRonch and several other witnesses were able to pick Bundy out of a police line-up. Although he denied having any knowledge of the attempted kidnapping or murders, police were convinced they had their man and launched an extensive investigation into his background. Over the course of the next several weeks, several witnesses from Lake Sammamish Park came forward and identified Bundy as the man named Ted that they had seen walking around the area in an arm or leg cast. During a subsequent search of Bundy's apartment, investigators discovered plaster of Paris, a substance used in the making of casts. It was also learned that Bundy was very familiar with the Taylor Mountains, where several bodies of victims had been found and that he had used his credit card to purchase gas in the towns where some of the victims had initially disappeared. The evidence against Bundy was mounting up, but he continued to claim his innocence. As Bundy went to trial on February 23, 1976, for the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch, investigators scrambled to link him to the murders. According to the book The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule, the 29-year-old Bundy, always the polite and handsome charmer, made a great impression on the Utah courtroom. He was confident, unnerved, and apparently highly offended by the charges against him. While he denied ever meeting DaRonch, he was unable to provide a solid alibi of his whereabouts the day of the attack. Even though Bundy was confident he would beat the charges, the judge found him guilty of aggravated kidnapping, sentencing him to one to 15 years in prison.

On Oct. 22, 1976, Colorado police charged Bundy with the murder of 23-year-old Caryn Campbell. Her raped and battered body had been found on Feb. 17, 1975, and investigators felt they had sufficient evidence to link him to the crime. During April of 1977, Bundy was extradited to Colorado and placed in the Garfield County Jail in Colorado, to await trial for Campbell's murder, which was scheduled for Nov. 14, 1977. Faced with prison time already, Bundy had no desire to sit through another trial and began planning his escape. Having been given special privileges to use the Pitkin County Courthouse library in Aspen, Bundy waited until no one was looking and jumped out a second story window on June 7, 1977. He was recaptured eight days later while trying to leave town in a stolen car. Almost seven months later, on December 30, 1977, Bundy would escape again. In the intervening months he had eaten very little food and had shed 30 pounds, enough to allow him to shimmy through a small light fixture hole in the ceiling of his cell at the Garfield County Jail. Once inside the ceiling, Bundy made his way through a crawl space and into the closet of his jailer's apartment. He waited until all was quiet and then casually walked out the front door. It took jailers nearly 15 hours to realize he was gone. After making his way to Chicago, Bundy boarded a plane for Florida. Investigators were stumped and had no idea where he had gone. By January of 1978, Bundy had acquired an apartment near Florida State University. He supported himself by committing petty thefts. He went by the alias Chris Hagen, and grew a beard in order to change his appearance. According to the book The Only Living Witness by Stephen G. Michaud, Bundy was not content with his newfound freedom and was unable to control his murderous impulses. On the night of Saturday Jan. 14, 1978, he entered the Chi Omega House and attacked four sleeping coeds one at a time by sneaking into each victim's room and knocking the victim unconscious. Two of the young women suffered such severe injuries that they died as a result, while the other two survived the brutal attack. The pathologist who performed the autopsies discovered that one of the coeds had been beaten with a club, raped, and strangled. He also discovered bite marks on

her buttocks and nipples. In addition, she had been sexually assaulted with a metal hair spray can. The autopsy on the other victim showed that she had also been beaten with a club and strangled. Bundy waited less than a month before striking again. On Feb. 9, 12-year-old Kimberly Leach was reported missing by her parents. Even though police were quick to launch an extensive search, they were unable to locate her. Just six days after Kimberly's disappearance, a Pensacola police officer, patrolling a residential area, noticed a man who seemed to be casing the neighborhood in an orange VW bug. The officer ran a routine check on the plates and discovered that the plates had been stolen. The officer quickly turned on his lights and moved in. The suspect sped away but after a brief chase, pulled off to the side of the road. The officer ordered the driver out of the car and instructed him to lie down on the ground. As the officer attempted to apply handcuffs, a brief scuffle ensued and the suspect attempted to run off. The officer fired one shot at the suspect and the suspect fell to the ground. As the officer approached, the suspect jumped up and attacked him. Another brief scuffle took place, but this time the officer was able to subdue the man and handcuff him. Once the Pensacola police were able to identify the suspect as Theodore Robert Bundy, Florida investigators immediately ordered impressions of his teeth, to compare with bite marks on one of the Chi Omega victims. The match was indisputable and would seal Bundy's fate once and for all. On July 23, 1980, Bundy was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to die in Florida's electric chair. Subsequently, a third conviction and death sentence was also obtained in the case of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, whose body had been discovered just weeks after his arrest. Following Bundy's arrest, authorities in Seattle were convinced that Bundy's first victim was 15-year-old

Kathy Devine, who had disappeared on November 25, 1973, and whose mutilated corpse was found less than a month later. While Bundy freely confessed to every murder prior to his death, he always maintained his innocence in that particular case. Regardless, authorities labeled the girl a "Bundy victim" and gave it little more thought. However, on March 8, 2002, a man named William E. Cosden, Jr., 55, was arrested for the murder after DNA evidence, which had been preserved from Devine's body, linked him to her murder. Cosden has subsequently been tried and found guilty of the crime. After nearly 10 years of appeals, Bundy was executed on Jan. 24, 1989. During his final interview, he confessed to a total of 40 murders. One of Bundy's most famous quotes regarding his crimes can be found in Dr James Dobson's book, Life on the Edge: "We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, and we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow." Following Bundy's execution, in an unusual twist, his remains were cremated at the request of his family and spread over the mountains in Washington State, where the bodies of several of his victims had been discovered.

Serial Killer Profile: Pedro Alonso Lopez

Pedro Alonso Lopez also Known as 'The Monster of the Andes', accused of killing more than 300 girls across South America. In 1983 was convicted of murdering 110 girls in Ecuador, but later confessed to killing more than 240 others in Peru and Columbia. Incredibly, he was released from Ecuadorian prison after only 14 years and extradited back to Columbia. There he served just 3 years in a Columbian mental institution before being released and 'The Monster' has since disappeared. Biography: Pedro Alonzo Lopez was one of thirteen children, born to a prostitute in Santa Isabel, Columbia. Early indications of his future occurred when he was eight years old and he was caught fondling his younger sister. He was kicked out of the family home, only to be taken in by a pedophile that repeatedly abused and sodomized him. Eventually he escaped that existence, but by the age of eighteen he was in trouble with the law, jailed and suffered a gang rape at the hands of a group of hardened criminals in the prison. Lopez claims to have exacted revenge by killing three of the rapists while he was incarcerated. Shortly after his release from prison, he began preying on young girls in Peru. It is believed that within a year he had claimed over 100 victims. It was then that he was caught by a native tribe that demanded his execution. He was saved by an

American missionary who persuaded them to release him into the custody of the state police. Wanting nothing to do with him, the Peruvian police released him under the condition that he return to Columbia, however, Lopez first went to Ecuador to continue his killing spree. Lopez was eventually arrested, convicted and ultimately released and his whereabouts to this day are unknown.

Serial Killer Profile: Albert Fish

Albert Fish, also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria and possibly the Brooklyn Vampire, boasted that he molested over 100 children, and was a suspect in at least five killings. Fish confessed to three murders that police were able to trace to a known homicide, and confessed to stabbing at least two other people. He was put on trial for the murder of Grace Budd, and was convicted and executed. Fish was visited in prison by the mother of his victim Billy Gaffney to get more details about the death of her son. Fish said: I cut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears, nose, slit his mouth from ear to ear.

Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then. I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood. I picked up four old potato sacks and gathered a pile of stones. Then I cut him up. I had a grip with me. I put his nose, ears and a few slices of his belly in the grip. Then I cut him through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. Then through his legs about 2 inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head, feet, arms, hands and the legs below the knee. In addition to this horrifying description, Fish confessed to eating parts of Billy: I made a stew out of his ears, nose, pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when the meat had roasted about 1/4 hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions. At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did. At his trial, several psychiatrists testified about Fishs sexual fetishes, including coprophilia, Europhilia, pedophilia and masochism. X-rays of Fishs pelvis show needles which he inserted in to his skin for sexual pleasure.

Serial Killer Profile: Andrei chikatilo

Andrei Chikatilo was a Ukrainian serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov and The Red Ripper. He was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. In 1978, Chikatilo moved to Shakhty, a small coal mining town near Rostov, where he committed his first documented murder. On December 22, he lured a nine-year-old girl to an old house which he bought in secret from his family and attempted to rape her. When the girl struggled, he stabbed her to death. He ejaculated in the process of knifing the child, and from then on he was only able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm through stabbing and slashing women and children to death. Despite evidence linking Chikatilo to the girls death, a young man, Alexsandr Kravchenko, was arrested and later tried and executed for the crime. He established a pattern of approaching runaways and young vagrants at bus or railway stations and enticing them to leave. A quick trip into a nearby forest was the scene for the victims death. In 1983, he did not kill until June, but then he murdered four victims before September. The victims were all women and children. The adult females were often prostitutes or homeless tramps who could be lured with promises of alcohol or money. Chikatilo would usually attempt intercourse with these victims, but would usually be unable to get an erection, which

would send him into a murderous fury. The child victims were of both sexes, and Chikatilo would lure them away with his friendly, talkative manner by promising them toys or candy. In the USSR at the time, reports of crimes like child rape and serial murder were often suppressed by the state-controlled media, as such crimes were regarded as being common only in hedonistic capitalist nations. In 1988 Chikatilo resumed killing, generally keeping his activities far from the Rostov area. He murdered a woman in Krasny-Sulin in April and went on to kill another eight people that year, including two victims in Shakhty. Again there was a long lapse before Chikatilo resumed killing, murdering seven boys and two women between January and November of 1990. He was finally caught when trying to approach young children whilst under police surveillance. He went to trial on April 14, 1992. Despite his odd and disruptive behavior in court, he was judged fit to stand trial. During the trial he was famously kept in a cage in the center of the courtroom; it was constructed for his own protection from the relatives of the deceased. The trial had a very disturbing atmosphere. The relatives kept shouting threats and insults to Chikatilo, demanding the authorities to release him so that they could execute him on their own. He was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death for each offense. He was executed by firing squad (shot in the back of the head) on February 14, 1994 after Russian president Boris Yeltsin refused a last ditch appeal by Chikatilo for clemency.

Serial Killer Profile: Javed Iqbal mughal

Javed Iqbal Mughal (1956?-2001) was a serial killer from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. He claimed he killed 100 boys during an 18 month period. He had been arrested in June 1998 for sexually abusing 2 boys for money. He went off on bail, and began murdering boys shortly afterwards. Iqbal found boys on the street, charmed them into his confidence, and then drugged, raped, and strangled them. He then cut the body into pieces and put them in a vat filled with hydrochloric acid. Once all of the remains were liquefied, he dumped them. He first used the sewer, until neighbors complained of an acrid stench. He then decided to use the Ravi River. The partially liquefied remains of two boys, one of whom was named Ijaz, were the only ones found of Iqbals victims. He kept the rest in an acid drum outside his house. He also kept clothing and shoes as trophies of his crimes. When he got to his fiftieth victim, he started taking pictures of them. No one had noticed the disappearance of the boys that Iqbal killed. Iqbal claimed that he could have killed 500 if he had wanted to. He reportedly said I am Javed Iqbal, killer of 100 children I hate this world, I am not ashamed of my action and I am ready to die. I have no regrets. I killed 100 children.

From a letter written by Iqbal: I had sexually assaulted 100 children before killing them, read the first placard. All the details of the murders are contained in the diary and the 32page notebook that have been placed in the room and had also been sent to the authorities. This is my confessional statement. Iqbal was sentenced to death by hanging, although the judge said he would have liked Iqbal to be strangled 100 times, cut into 100 pieces, and put him in acid. Before this sentence could be carried out, he was found strangled with his bed sheets in his prison cell on October 7, 2001. One of his accomplices, Sajid, was also strangled. Pakistani authorities say that the men committed suicide. Another accomplice had previously fallen to his death from a CIA window. No Documentary Exists.

Serial Killer Profile: Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo

Karla Homolka was born on May 4, 1970 to Dorothy and Karel Homolka of Port Credit, Ontario. She was a pretty girl with blonde hair who did well in school. She had loving parents and the family grew to include two sisters and several pets. She was brought up in a nice home in a middle class neighborhood. Karla was very popular. 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, 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 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 has never been divulged whether or not 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 Tammys virginity. Karla stole Halothane, an aesthetic used on animals, from the veterinary clinic where she worked. She was prepared to fulfill Pauls fantasy. On December 24, 1990, Karla administered Halothane to Tammy while their parents slept upstairs. Both Paul and Karla had intercourse with the fifteen-year-old and videotaped the entire episode. But something went horribly wrong! 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. Leslie Mahaffy was fourteen when she met Paul Bernardo prowling in her backyard in the early morning hours of July 15, 1991. She was an only child and quite rebellious. Paul lured her to his car under the ruse of giving her a cigarette. He pulled a knife, held it to her throat and drove away. He and Karla held Leslie hostage in their home in Port Dalhousie, where they raped her. The sessions were videotaped. She was never seen alive again. On June 29, 1991, a couple canoeing on Lake Gibson found Leslies body encased in cement. The braces Leslie wore on her teeth gave a positive identification. 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. Leslie 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 Karlas parents came for dinner. On April 30, Kristens 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 didnt link the two crimes.

Paul Bernardos 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. Paul continued to physically abuse his wife. Karla left him in January 1993. In February, the Ontario Green Ribbon Task Force, which had been formed to solve the Ken and Barbie, murders as they were dubbed, 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 the jig 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 couples Port Dalhousie home. They found a video of Karla engaged in sex with two women. A week later, Karlas 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 pleabargain 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

didnt realize that the entire plea process on Karlas part was a blatant lie. Pauls trial didnt 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 twentyfive years. Karla was sent to jail to serve her twelve-year term. Pauls 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 Karlas application for parole. They ruled as follows: The board believes that, if released, you are likely to commit an offence causing the death of or serious harm to another person before the expiration of the sentence you are now serving. 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.

Serial Killer Profile: Charles Starkweather & Caril Fugate

Charles Starkweather also known as "Chuck" or "Charlie" was born on November 24, 1938, At Saratoga Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska, the boys picked on him because of his thick glasses and speech impediment. When he fought back with a knife they backed off. Starkweather was a bowlegged, high school dropout. His copper coloured hair and piercing green eyes, gave him a striking resemblance to James Dean. He believed the world had always been against him. He was recently fired from a job on a garbage truck for laziness, and banned from his rented room until he paid up his rent. After robbing a Lincoln service station, On December 1, 1957, Starkweather abducted employee, Robert Colvert, 21, and took him to a secluded location to shot him in the head.

His only interests were guns, guitars, hot-rods, (his most prized possession was his souped-up 1949 Ford) and Caril Fugate. He was forbidden see Caril who he had proposed to numerous times, by her parents. Caril Ann Fugate was born 1943. In 1956, at the age of fourteen she was in love with Charlie who was five years older than her. On January 21, 1958, Caril Ann came home from school to her familys rundown, onestory frame house in the poor Belmont section of Lincoln, Nebraska into the midst of her familys massacre. After an argument with Starkweather, Caril's stepfather, Marion Bartlett, 57, and her mother, Velda Bartlett, 36, were shot in the head. Caril's two-and-a-half-year-old baby sister, Betty Jean was clubbed to death in her bed. Afterwards the couple prepared sandwiches and had lunch. Starkweather hid the bodies outside and the young couple lived in the house for days. Twice relatives came by to find out why nobody from the family had been seen. Caril sent them away at the door, telling them everyone was sick. Detectives were called to investigate by Caril Ann's grandmother. They found a note on the front door: "Stay away. Everybody is sick with the flu. Miss Bartlett."

A search turned up the body of Marion wrapped in paper in the chicken house. Caril's mother, Velda, and baby Betty Jean were found in an outbuilding. The lovers were already long gone driving across Nebraska killing and stealing. What the cops didn't know was that four hours earlier the couple drove to a Highway 77 service station to buy gas, a box of .410 shotgun shells and two boxes of .225 before heading to the rural farmlands of Bennet (pop. 350), 16 miles SE of Lincoln. Starkweather knew where they could hideout, in a nice neat farmhouse owned by old family friend, 70-year-old August Meyer, who frequently invited the Starkweather family to hunt on his property. In the early evening, on the way Meyers, their car got stuck in the mud when the Bennet High School Junior Class President, Robert Jensen, 17, and his date, Carol King, 16, drove by in a Ford with offers to help. Starkweather shot them in the head with a .22 rifle, and made an unsuccessful attempt to rape the girl, before stuffing their bodies in an abandoned storm cellar. They drove to Meyer's house to get more guns and ammunition. Starkweather killed the old family friend with a .410-gauge shotgun, before shoving his body in a washhouse before heading back to Lincoln. As a garbage collector, Starkweather knew his way around Lincoln's city's exclusive opulent southeast side. After he pulled into the garage of large French provincial home belonging to C. Lauer Ward, president of the Capital Steel Company, he forced his way inside the home. He pushed Clara Ward, 46, and Housekeeper Lillian Fend, 51, to the second floor, before he tying them to a bed, gagged, and fatally stabbing them. At about 5:30 PM, Lauer Ward, 47, returned from a conference with Nebraska's Governor, Victor Anderson Starkweather was waiting in the hall. Ward was shot in the head and neck, and then stabbed in the back as soon as he opened his front door. Starkweather and Caril took his 1956 black Packard, and headed west out of Lincoln on Highway 2 to Wyoming. Lincoln was gripped with terror. When Sheriff Merle Karnopp called for a posse, 100 men deputized and armed with deer rifles, shotguns and pistols. The

National Guards were called into protect the National Bank of Commerce. District court recessed. Businesses reserved hotel rooms for employees working late. Parents kept their children indoors, even taking them out of school. Over 1,200 law enforcement officers and National Guardsmen were searching for the young lovers. Chuck and Caril were already 500 miles away striking outside Douglas, Wyo. (pop. 2,500). Merle Collison, 37, a traveling shoe Salesman from Montana pulled his new Buick off Highway 87 to sleep. Caril quietly climbed into the back seat while Starkweather opened the driver's door, and shot Collison in the head nine times. Believing someone needed help, Joe Sprinkle, 40, a geologist, stopped to help. A rifle was immediately shoved into his head, but he wrestled away the rifle just as Deputy Sheriff William Romer approached. Sprinkle ran to the deputy yelling, "Its Starkweather, he's going to kill me." Caril, who was still in the car, ran to the deputy screaming. Starkweather hopped into Sprinkle's Packard, and sped off, racing through a roadblock, at over a 100 M.P.H. until a police rifle bullet shattered his windshield.

Charged with murder an exhausted, Charlie and Caril were locked up in a Douglas, Wyoming, four-cell jail. Neither displayed much remorse after being arrested. Caril wailed for her mother until a doctor gave her a sedative. Starkweather smiled for the media while he

admitted to the killings and agreed to extradition. He confessed to murdering 19-year-old Lincoln Service Station Attendant Robert Colvert, two months before. Initially Starkweather claimed he held Caril Ann captive, but when she turned against him, Starkweather claimed Caril shared the guilt. Starkweather waived his right to a preliminary hearing on March 1, 1958, in Lancaster County Court. T. Clement Gaughan and William Matschullat were appointed to defend Starkweather. At his arraignment on March 26, 1958, he pleaded not guilty. His trial began May 5, 1958, in Lancaster District Court. Psychiatrists attributed the murders to paranoia. Stark weathers friends said it was because everyone was against his plans to marry Caril. His father said he was a slow boy growing up too fast. On May 23 a jury found him guilty.

On October 27, 1958, the Caril Fugate trial began. She claimed she was held hostage. Throughout her trial, Caril insisted she was held hostage and feared for her life. Starkweather was brought to the court from his death cell to testify that she was a willing participant and could have escaped when he left her alone with loaded guns. November 21, after ten hours of deliberation the five women and seven men jury gave her a sentence of life in prison. "You've got

hope and you've got life," her grandmother told the sobbing 15-year-old. She went to the Nebraska Correctional Centre for Women in York. Governor Ralph Brooks refused Caril's request that Stark weathers execution be stayed. June 5, 1959, Charles father, Guy Starkweather, wired the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to spare his son's life. Starkweather was executed by electrocution in the Nebraska State Prison on June 25, 1959, giving him the distinction of being the last person to be electrocuted in Nebraska. He is buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska. Caril completed her high school education at the Nebraska Centre for Women, where she read over 1,000 books, learned to sew, write and ran a "Dear Gabby" column in the prison paper. She was allowed to bowling, swimming, and shopping the town. In 1973 the Nebraska Parole Board, said that based on her age at the time of the tragic event," they recommended commutation of the sentence. When it was cut to 30 to 50 years, it made her eligible for the parole after serving 18 years, in 1976. She told the board, "I'd just like to settle down, get married, have a couple of kids, dust the house, clean the toilet, and be just an ordinary little dumpy housewife. That's all I want to be. There were no objections to her petition for freedom. The Nebraska Centres Superintendent Jacqueline Crawford testified: "Whether she's guilty or innocent is irrelevant. Nebraska has got its pound of flesh." Caril was given her freedom in June 20, 1976 with plans to settle in Clinton County, Mich., where she had a clerical job and a family was willing to supervise her. She hoped to pursue a career as a medical assistant. September 28, 1981, Carils parole was discharged by the Nebraska Board of Parole, based on a recommendation by her parole officer in Michigan, ending all restrictions on her. She did not marry. She has never discussed the case publicly.

* The murders were fictionalized by Terrence Malik for his film Badlands.

Badlands - DVD - VHS -- Inspired by the 1958 murders in the cold, stark badlands of South Dakota by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, the film's plot, on the surface, is similar to that of other killing-couple films, like Bonnie and Clyde and Gun Crazy. Martin Sheen, in an understated, sophisticated performance, plays the strange James Dean-like social outcast who falls in love with the nave Sissy Spacek-and then kills her father when he comes between them. The two flee like animals to the wilderness, until the police arrive and the killing spree begins. * These crimes were the basis for The Sadist and Natural Born Killers, and Murder in the Heartland, a 1993 TV miniseries.

* Starkweather is the subject of the Bruce Springsteen song " Nebraska" originally titled Starkweather."

* Starkweather is mentioned in the Billy Joel hit "We Didnt Start the Fire" 1989. * Liza Ward, the granddaughter of victims C. Lauer and Clara Ward, published a bestselling novel, "Outside Valentine," in 2004, which refers to the Starkweather spree.

Victims Murdered on December 1, 1957: Robert Colvert 21, Lincoln gas station attendant Murdered on January 21, 1958: Marion Bartlett, 57, Caril Ann's stepfather Velda Bartlett, 36, Caril Ann's mother Betty Jean Bartlett 2 1/2, Caril's half-sister, Marion and Velda's daughter. Murdered on January 27, 1958: August Meyer 70, Stark weathers friend in his Bennet Farm home. Robert Jensen, 17 and his girlfriend Carol King, 16, near Bennet.

Murdered on January 28, 1958, in their Lincoln home: C. Lauer Ward 48, Lincoln businessman Clara Ward, 46, C. Lauer Ward's wife Lillian Fencl, 51, Clara Ward's maid Murdered on January 29, 1958: Shoe Salesman Merle Collison, 37 from Montana.

Serial Killer Profile: John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was a born on St. Patricks Day 1942 at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago. Johnny was the second of three children. His older sister Joanne had preceded him by two years and two years after his birth came that of sister Karen.

The Gacy children were raised as Catholics and all three attended Catholic schools where they lived on the north side. Growing up, Gacy was a quiet boy who worked odd jobs for spending money, like newspaper routes and bagging groceries, and busied himself with Boy Scout activities. He was never a particularly popular boy but he was well-liked by his teachers, co-workers and friends from school and the Boy Scouts. He seemed to have a normal childhood, except for his relationship with his father and a series of health problems that he developed.

When Gacy was 11, he was playing on a swing set and was hit in the head with one of the swings. The accident caused a blood clot in his brain that was not discovered until he was 16. Between the time of the accident and the diagnosis, Gacy suffered from blackouts that were caused by the clot. They were finally treated with medication. At 17, he was also diagnosed with a heart ailment that he was hospitalized for several times during his life. He complained frequently about it over the years but no one could ever find a cause for the pain that he claimed to be suffering. In his late teens, he began to experience problems with his father, although his relationship with his mother and sisters remained strong. His father was an alcoholic who physically abused his wife and berated his children. His family problems extended out into his schoolwork and after attending four high schools during his senior year and never graduating, Gacy dropped out

and left home for Las Vegas. He worked part time as a janitor in a funeral home and saved his money to buy a ticket back to Chicago. Lonely and depressed, he spent three months trying to get the money together. His mother and sisters were thrilled to see him when he returned. After his return, Gacy enrolled in business college and eventually graduated. While in school, he gained a real talent for salesmanship and he put these talents to work in a job with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. He excelled as a management trainee and he was soon transferred to a mens clothing outlet in Springfield, Illinois. Soon after his move, Gacys health took a turn for the worse. He gained a great deal of weight and began to suffer more from his mysterious heart ailment. He was hospitalized and soon after getting out, was back in the hospital again, this time with back problems.

While living in Springfield, Gacy became involved in several organizations that served the community, including the Jaycees, to which Gacy devoted most of his efforts and was eventually a vice-president and named "Man of the Year". Many who knew Gacy considered him to be ambitious and working to make a name for himself in the community. In September 1964, Gacy met and married a co-worker named Marlynn Myers, whose parents owned a number of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Iowa. Gacys new father-in-law

offered him a position with the company and soon the newlyweds were moving to Iowa. Life seemed to hold great promise for Gacy and there was no foreshadowing of the horrific events to come.

Gacy began learning the restaurant business from the ground up, working 12 to 14 hours each day. He was enthusiastic and eager to learn and hoped to take over the franchises one day. When not working, he was active with the Waterloo, Iowa Jaycees. He worked tirelessly performing volunteer work and he made many friends. Marlynn gave birth to a son shortly after they moved to Iowa and not long after, added a daughter to the happy family. They seemed to have the picture perfect life -- a loving and healthy family, a good job, a house in the suburbs -- and it seemed almost too good to be true. And it was Rumors were starting to spread around town, and among Jaycees members, about Gacys sexual preferences. No one could help but notice that young boys always seemed to be in his presence. Stories spread that he had made passes at some of the young men who worked in the restaurants but those close to him refused to believe it -- until the rumors became truth. In May 1968, a grand jury in Black Hawk County indicted Gacy for committing an act of sodomy with a teenaged boy named Mark Miller. The boy told the courts that Gacy had tricked him into being tied up while visiting Gacys home and he had violently raped him. Gacy denied the charges but did say that Miller willingly had sex with him in order to earn extra money. Four months later, more charges were filed against Gacy. This time, he was charged with hiring an 18 year-old

boy named Dwight Anderson to beat up Mark Miller. Andersson informed the officers who arrested him for the assault that Gacy had hired him to attack the other boy.

A judge ordered Gacy to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to see if he was mentally competent to stand trial. He was found to be competent but psychiatrists stated that he was an antisocial personality who would likely not benefit from any known medical treatment. Soon after the report was submitted, Gacy entered a guilty plea to the sodomy charge. He received ten years at the Iowa State Reformatory, the maximum time for the offence, and entered prison for the first time at the age of 26. Shortly after he went to prison, his wife divorced him on the grounds that he had violated their wedding vows. Gacy adhered to all of the rules in prison and stayed out of trouble. Described as a model prisoner, he was paroled after only 18 months. On June 18, 1970, he left his cell and made his way back to Chicago. He moved in with his mother and obtained work as a chef in a city restaurant, settling into the position and trying to get his life back on track after serving time. Gacy lived with his mother for four months and then decided to move out on his own. She helped him to obtain a new house at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in the Norwood Park Township. Gacy owned one-half of the house and his mother and sisters owned the other. He was very happy with his new, two-bedroom ranch house.

It was located in a clean, quiet neighborhood and he quickly went about making friends with his neighbors, Edward and Lilla Grexa, who had lived in the neighborhood since it had been built. Within seven months of moving in next door, Gacy was spending Christmas with the Grexas. They became close friends and often gathered for drinks and card games. The Grexas had no idea of Gacys criminal past -- or his most recent run-in with the law. Just a month before the Grexas had invited Gacy over for Christmas dinner, he had been charged with disorderly conduct for forcing a young boy, whom he had picked up at the bus station, to perform sexual acts on him. He managed to slip through the system when the charges against him were dropped, thanks to the fact that his accuser never showed up in court.

In June 1972, Gacy married Carole Hoff, a newly divorced mother of two daughters. Gacy romanced her when most vulnerable and she fell for his charm and generosity. She knew about his time in prison but believed that he had changed his life for the better. Carole and her daughters soon settled into Gacys home and forged a close relationship with the Grexas. The older couple was often invited over to the Gacys house for elaborate parties and cook-outs. However, they were often bothered by the horrible stench that often wafted throughout the house. Lillie Grexa was convinced that an animal had died beneath the floorboards of the place and she urged Gacy to do something about it. He blamed the odor on a moisture build-up in the crawlspace under the house though -refusing to reveal the true, and much more sinister,

cause for the smell. He would keep this secret for years to come.

In 1974, Gacy started a contracting business called Painting, Decorating and Maintenance or PDM Contractors, Inc. He hired a number of teenaged boys to work for him, explaining to friends that hiring young men would keep his payroll costs low. In truth, Gacys desires were starting to get out of control and he was having trouble hiding his true nature from those closest to him, especially his wife. By 1975, Carole and Gacy had drifted apart. Their sex life had ended and Gacys moods became more and more unpredictable, ranging from jovial to an uncontrollable rage that would have him throwing furniture. He had become an insomniac and his lack of sleep seemed to make his mood swings even worse. And if his personality changes were not enough, his choice of reading material worried her even more. Carole had started to find magazines with naked men and boys in them around the house and when confronted, Gacy casually admitted they were his. He even confessed that he preferred young men to women. Naturally, this was the last straw for Carole and she soon filed for divorce. It became final on March 2, 1976. Gacy dismissed his marital problems and refused to let them hamper his need for recognition and success. To most people, Gacy was still the outgoing and hardworking man that he always had been. So many people had experienced divorces that no one thought a

thing about it. Gacy made up for any lingering questions about him with his natural talent for persuading others to his ideas and thoughts and he always came up with creative ways to get himself noticed. It was not long before he gained the attention of Robert F. Matwick, the Democratic township committeeman for Norwood Park. As a free service to the committeeman, Gacy volunteered himself and his employees to clean up and repair Democratic Party headquarters. Unaware of the contractors past and impressed by his sense of duty and dedication to the community, Matwick nominated Gacy to the street lighting commission. In 1975, Gacy became the secretary treasurer but his political career was short-lived -- no matter how he thought he was hiding it, rumors again began to circulate about Gacys interest in young boys. One of the rumors stemmed from an actual incident that took place during the time that Gacy was working on the Democratic headquarters. One of the teenagers who worked on the project was 16 year-old Tony Antonucci. According to the boy, Gacy made sexual advances toward him but backed off when Antonucci threatened to hit him with a chair. Gacy recovered his composure and made a joke out of it. Several weeks later, while visiting Gacys home, Gacy again approached Antonucci. He tricked the young man into a pair of handcuffs and then tried to undress him. Antonucci had made sure that he was loosely cuffed though and when he slipped free, he wrestled Gacy to the ground and cuffed the older man instead. He eventually let him go when Gacy promised not to bother him again. That was the last time that Gacy ever made advances toward Antonucci and the boy remained working for the contracting company for almost a year after the incident. Tony Antonucci would not realize how lucky he had been that day. Others would not fare as well.

Johnny Butkovich, 17, began doing remodeling work for Gacys company in an effort to raise money for his racing car. He enjoyed the position, it paid well, and he maintained a good working relationship with Gacy until one pay period when Gacy refused to pay Johnny for two weeks of work. This was something that Gacy often did in order to save money. Angered that Gacy had withheld his pay, Johnny went over to his employers house with two friends to collect what was rightfully his. When he confronted him, Gacy refused to pay and a loud argument erupted. Finally, he realized there was little that he could do and Johnny and his friends left. Butkovich dropped off his friends at home and drove off -- never to be seen again.

Michael Bonnin, 17, enjoyed working with his hands, especially carpentry and woodworking, and often had several different projects going at the same time. In June 1976, he had almost completed restoring an antique jukebox -- but the job was never finished. When on his way to catch a train to meet his stepfathers brother, he vanished.

Billy Carroll, 16, was a long time troublemaker who had first been in trouble with the authorities at the age of 9. Two years later, he was caught with a gun and he spent most of his life on the streets of Chicago, making money by arranging meetings between teenaged boys and adult men for a commission. Although he came from a very different background that Michael Bonnin and Johnny Butkovich, they all three had one thing in common -- John Wayne Gacy. Like the others Carroll also disappeared suddenly. He left home on June 13, 1976 and was never seen alive again.

Gregory Godzik, 17, started working for PDM Contractors in order to finance parts for his 1966 Pontiac. He considered it an eyesore but it was a consuming hobby for him. The work that he did for Gacy paid well and he liked it a lot. On December 12, 1976, Gregory dropped his date, a girl he had had a

crush on for a while, at her house and drove off towards home. The following day, the police found Gregorys Pontiac but the boy was missing.

On January 20, 1977, John Szyc, 19, also vanished. He had driven off in his 1971 Plymouth Satellite and was never seen alive again. Interestingly, a short time after Szyc disappeared, another teenager was picked up by police in a 1971 Plymouth Satellite while trying to leave a gas station without paying. The boy said that the man he lived with could explain the situation -- John Wayne Gacy. He told the officers that John Szyc had sold him the car some time earlier. The police never checked the title, which had been signed 18 days after Johns disappearance. Szyc had not worked for PDM Contractors but he was acquainted with Gregory Godzik, Johnny Butkovich and fatally, John Wayne Gacy.

On September 15, 1977, Robert Gilroy, 18, also disappeared. Gilroy was an avid outdoorsman and on

that date, was supposed to catch a bus to meet friends for horseback riding. When he never showed up, his father, a Chicago police sergeant, immediately began searching for the boy. A full scale investigation was launched but Robert was nowhere to be found.

More than a year later, another young man named Robert Piest would vanish as well. The investigation into his disappearance would lead not only to the discovery of his body but the bodies of Butkovich, Bonnin, Carroll, Szyc, Gilroy and 27 other young men who suffered similar fates. These discoveries would horrify not only Chicago, but all of America.

Before Robert disappeared though, a weird event would occur that would later turn out to be a chilling prediction of events to come -- or rather a stunning revelation of events that had already occurred. At a pre-Christmas party that was held on December 2, 1978, a well-known local psychic known as Florece (Florence Branson) had been hired to provide cards readings for the guests. The party was held at the home of a contractor associate of Gacys and Gacy was one of the many in attendance.

The evening was almost over when it came time for Gacy to have his fortune told. Up until this point,

the party and the readings had been going well and everyone was having a great time, including the psychic, and then Gacy approached her for his reading. As soon as he spoke to her, Florece later reported that she sensed something was very wrong with the man. She also said that she became physically ill when she laid out his cards. She was unable to discern any details but knew there was an evil hiding below the surface of this man. She bluffed her way through the reading, much too frightened to say anything to Gacy.

At the end of the evening, she speak to the hostess about her of Gacy. She told what she had she was afraid of him and that and violent."

felt compelled to horrific impressions sensed and added that Gacy was "perverted

The hostess refused to hear such things as "John" had been a family friend for several years. Florece didnt argue with her but was not surprised several weeks later when the story of Gacy and his murderous crime spree made the papers.

Gacys web of secrets began to unravel with the vanishing of a young boy named Robert Piest. Robert, 15, disappeared mysteriously just outside the doors of the pharmacy where he worked. His mother, who had come to pick him up after his shift, was waiting outside for him when he vanished. He had told her that he would be back in just a minute because he was going to talk to a contractor who had offered him a job -- but he never returned. She began to get worried but as more time passed, her worry turned to terror. She searched the pharmacy and looked outside but Robert was nowhere to be seen. Finally, three hours after his disappearance, the Des Plaines police

were notified. Lieutenant Joseph Kozenczak led the investigation.

The first lead to follow was the most obvious one and officers quickly obtained the name of the contractor who had offered Robert the job. Kozenczak went straight to Gacys home and when the Gacy came to the door, he told him about the missing boy. He also asked him to accompany him to the police station for some questions. Gacy refused. He explained that there had been a recent death in his family and that he had to attend to some telephone calls but he agreed to come down later. Several hours later, Gacy arrived and gave a statement to the police. He said that he knew nothing about the disappearance and was allowed to leave with no further questioning.

Something about Gacy did not sit right with Kozenczak though. and he decided to do a background check on him. He was stunned when he discovered that Gacy had earlier done time for sodomy with a teenaged boy. He quickly obtained a search warrant for Gacys house and on December 13, 1978, a legion of police officers entered the house on Summerdale Avenue. Gacy was not at home at the time.

Items found during the search would lead to the discovery of Gacys dark side. Some of them items included a box containing two drivers licenses and several rings, including one that was engraved with Maine West High School class of 1975 and the initials J.A.S.; a box containing marijuana and pills like amyl nitrate; a stained section of rug; a number of books with homosexual and child pornography themes; a pair of handcuffs; police badges; sexual devices; a hypodermic needle and small brown bottle; clothing that was too small for Gacy; nylon rope; and other items. The police also confiscated three automobiles that belonged to Gacy, including a 1978 Chevrolet truck with a snow plough attached and the name "PDM Contractors" on the side, a van with "PDM Contractors" also painted on the side and a 1979 Oldsmobile Delta 88. In the trunk of the car were pieces of hair that were later matched to Robert Piest.

As the investigation continued, the police entered the crawl space under Gacys home. They were discouraged by the rancid odor but believed it to be sewage. The earth in the crawl space had been

sprinkled with lime but appeared to be untouched. They left the narrow space and returned to police headquarters to run tests on the evidence they had obtained.

Gacy was again called to headquarters and was told about the evidence that had been removed from his house. Enraged, he immediately contacted his attorney, who also told him not to sign the Miranda waiver that was presented to him by detectives. The police had nothing to arrest him on and eventually had to release him after more questioning about the Piest disappearance. They placed him under 24-hour surveillance but this was the best they could do.

In the days that followed, friends were called into the station and were also questioned. The detectives were unable to get any information from Gacys friends that connected him to Robert Piest and all of them insisted that Gacy simply was not capable of murder. Gacy had told his friends earlier that the police were trying to charge him with murder but that he had nothing to do with it.

In the midst of the investigation, one of these same friends was asked by Gacy to stop by his house and to check on his dog, making sure that the animal had enough food and water. Gacy said that he didnt want to go there because the police were harassing him and trying to pin the crime on him. The friend agreed, borrowed a house key from Gacy and went over to 8213 West Summerdale. Nervous about being seen going to Gacys house, even though at this point, he was sure that his friend had nothing to do with any criminal activities, he decided to go around to the back door instead.

He put the key into the door lock and just as he began to turn it, he heard what sounded like a group of people moaning and crying inside of the house. The groans were so chilling that he immediately closed the door, re-locked it and left. He hurried away from the house and when he returned to the site where Gacy was working, he lied to him and told him that everything in the house was fine, including his dog.

There is no way to know if the sounds the man heard in the house were natural or supernatural. Its possible that one of Gacys victims was still alive and that his eerie cries sounded like a chorus of moans to the already unnerved friend, but this seems unlikely as by this time, Gacy had begun disposing of the bodies of his victims in locations outside of his home. It seems more likely that, if this account is true, that the friend may have actually heard the voices of victims whose deaths were yet to be avenged. Could the spirits of some of Gacys victims have lingered behind in the house -- or at least could some sort of supernatural energy have been pressed on the atmosphere of a place where such horrid things had occurred?

The investigation continued and the police became increasingly discouraged by their attempts to gather information from Gacys friends and acquaintances. Finally, frustrated by the lack of evidence connecting Gacy to the Piest disappearance, the police decided to book him on possession of marijuana.

While Gacy was being charged with possession, the police lab and investigators were coming up with critical evidence against Gacy from the items taken from his home. One of the rings found in Gacys house belonged to another teenager who had disappeared

about a year earlier -- John Szyc. They also discovered that three former employees of Gacys had also disappeared. Furthermore, a receipt for a roll of film that was found in Gacys home had belonged to a co-worked of Robert Piest and he had given it to Robert on the day of the boys disappearance. With this new information, the investigators suddenly began to realize the enormity of the case that was starting to unfold.

Detectives and crime lab technicians returned to Gacys house again. With everything starting to crumble around him, Gacy finally confessed to the police that he had killed someone but that it had been in self-defense. He said that he was frightened and had buried the body under his garage. He told the police where they could find the body and investigators marked the gravesite in the garage but did not immediately begin digging. They decided to search the crawl space first -- and minutes after starting to dig, they found the remains of the first corpse.

That evening, Dr Robert Stein, the Cook County Medical Examiner, was called into help with the investigation. He began to organize the search by marking off areas of earth in sections, as would be done with an archaeological site. The excavation of a decomposing body has to be carried out in a meticulous manner in order to preserve the integrity of the evidence and so throughout the night and into

the days that followed, the digging progressed under the medical examiners watchful eye.

On Friday, December 22, 1978, detectives confronted Gacy with the news that digging was being done under his house. With this, the monster finally broke down. He admitted to the police that he had killed at least 30 people and that most of their remains were buried beneath the house. The first murder took place in January 1972 and the second in January 1974, about a year and a half after he was married. He explained that his lured his victims into being handcuffed and then he would sexually assault them. To muffle their screams, Gacy stuffed a sock or their underwear into their mouths and would often kill them by placing a rope or board against their throats as he raped them. He also admitted to sometimes keeping the corpses under his bed or in his attic for hours or days before burying them in the crawl space.

Meanwhile, the police discovered two bodies during the first day of digging. One of these was John Butkovich, who was found under the garage, and the other was in the crawl space. As the days passed, the body count grew higher. Some of the victims were found with their underwear still lodged in their throats and others were buried so close together that investigators believed they had been killed, or at least buried, at the same time.

By December 28, the police had removed a total of 27 bodies from Gacys house. Another body had also been found weeks earlier, not in the crawl space but in the Des Plaines River. The naked corpse of Frank Wayne "Dale" Landingin had been found in the water but at the time, the police were not yet aware of Gacy and his crimes. It would not be until his drivers license was found in Gacys house that he could be connected to the young mans murder. And he would not be the only victim to be found in the river

Also on December 28, the body of James Mazzara was removed from the Des Plaines River. His underwear was found stuffed down his throat, linking him to the other victims. Gacy told the police that he had started disposing of bodies in the river because he was running out of room in his crawl space and because all of the digging was bothering his chronic back problem. Mazzara was the 29th victim to be found -- but was still not the last.

Much to the horror of the neighbors, the police were still excavating Gacys property at the end of February. They had gutted the house but had found no more bodies in the crawl space. Bad winter weather had kept them from resuming the search but they believed there were still bodies to be found. While workmen began breaking up the concrete of Gacys patio, another horrific discovery was made. They found the body of a man, still in good condition, preserved in the concrete. The following week, another body was found.

The 31st victim to be linked to Gacy was found in the Illinois River. Investigators were able to learn his identity thanks to a tattoo on his arm, which friends of the victims father recognized while reading a newspaper article about the grim discovery. The victims name was Timothy ORourke and he was believed to have been acquainted with Gacy.

Around the time that ORourke was discovered and pulled from the river, another body was found on Gacys property, this time beneath his recreation room. It was the last body to be found on the property and soon after, the house was destroyed and reduced to rubble.

Although the death toll had now risen to 32, the body of Robert Piest was still missing. Tragically, his remains were discovered in the Illinois River in April 1979. The body had been lodged somewhere in the river but strong winds had worked it loose and carried it to the locks at Dresden Dam, where it was finally discovered. An autopsy report showed that Robert had been strangled by paper towels being shoved down his throat.

Police investigators worked hard to identify Gacys victims, using dental records and other clues, and eventually, all but nine of the young men were identified. A mass burial was held for these unknown victims on June 8, 1981. And while the investigation had ended, Gacys trial was just beginning.

John Wayne Gacys murder trial began on February 6, 1980 at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building in downtown Chicago. Jury members, five women and seven men, listened closely as prosecutor Bob Egan outlined the case for them, detailing the short years of Robert Piests life, his gruesome death and how Gacy was also responsible for the murders of at least 32 other young men. He told them about the investigation that led to the horrible discoveries under Gacys house and also noted that Gacys actions had been carefully planned and were rational and premeditated. He knew that the defense would work to make Gacy

appear insane and Egan needed to counter this as much as possible. When he finished, it was obvious that Egans statement had a chilling effect on the jury and on the courtroom spectators.

Egans opening statement was followed by one of Gacys defense lawyers, Robert Motta, who opposed Egans statement and insisted that Gacys actions had been completely irrational and impulsive. He had been insane and no longer in control of his actions. And while most would agree that only a madman would commit the acts that Gacy was being tried for, the legal definition of insanity is much harder to prove. Besides that, prosecutors wanted to make sure that Gacy was kept off the streets -- permanently if possible -- and only a "guilty" verdict would accomplish this. If Gacy was found to be insane, he would become a ward of the state mental health system with no time limits on the how long he might be incarcerated. In many cases, killers were freed when they were deemed mentally stable to re-enter to society, only to kill again. Prosecutors did not believe that this type of commitment was just punishment in Gacys case.

After the opening statements, the prosecution bought their first witness to the stand, Marko Butkovich, the father of Gacys victim, Johnny Butkovich. He was the first witness on a list that included the family and friends of many of the other victims. Many of them broke down on the stand, recalling their loved ones or recounting their last goodbyes. This testimony was followed by those who worked for Gacy and who survived sexual or violent encounters with him. They spoke of his mood swings and how he tried to trick them into handcuffs, using magic tricks that he perfected as "Pogo the Clown". The testimony continued for several weeks and included friends and neighbors of Gacy (legitimately shocked at the various clues to his behavior they had missed over

the years), police officers involved in the investigation and psychologists who examined Gacy and found him to be sane. Before the state rested, prosecutors had called some 60 witnesses to the stand.

The defense then took over, never trying to refute the evidence that established their client as a killer but rather to paint him as insane and unable to controls his actions. They called friends and family members of Gacy to the stand, including his mother, who testified that her husband would often beat Gacy with a leather strap. His sister told of how she saw Gacy being verbally assaulted by their father on many occasions. Others who testified for the defense told of how Gacy was a good and generous man, who helped those in need and who always had a smile and kind word for everyone. Lillie Grexa even took the stand and spoke of what a wonderful neighbor he was. However, she also said something that turned out to be damaging to the case. She refused to say that he was crazy and instead told the court that she believed him to be a "very brilliant man". One has to wonder if she knew that her statement would conflict with the defense theory that Gacy was insane and out of control.

The defense then called Thomas Eliseo, a psychologist who had conducted interviews with Gacy before the trial. He said that he found Gacy to be extremely intelligent but believed that he suffered from borderline schizophrenia. Other medical experts who testified gave similar testimony, reciting a litany of schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder and antisocial behavior. They also reported that Gacys mental disorder prevented him from understanding the magnitude of his crimes. In conclusion, each of the experts found him to be insane at the time of the murders and with the testimony of the medical experts, the defense rested its case.

In their closing statements, both sides emotionally argued their side to the jury but it only took them two hours of deliberation to come back with a verdict -- "guilty". Gacy had been convicted of the deaths of 33 young men and had the notoriety of being convicted of more murders than anyone else in American history. Gacy received the death penalty and was sent to the Menard Correctional Centre to await execution. After years of appeals, he was put to death by lethal injection on May 9, 1994. Finally, Gacys terrifying string of crimes could be relegated to memory -- or could it?

By the spring of 1979, Gacys home at 8213 West Summerdale had been reduced to ruin. Once the remains of the house were cleared away, it became a muddy, vacant lot and a continuing reminder to the neighborhood of the monster who had once been in their midst. All vestiges of the house, even the driveway and barbecue pit, were hauled away but still the onlookers came, macabre curiosity-seeking

tourists who flocked to the once peaceful residential area. Neighbors hoped that with all traces of the house removed that the line of cars would finally stopped. The quiet would return, they believed, once the notoriety of the spot began to fade, warmer weather came and the grass began to grow back over the open scar where the house of John Wayne Gacy had once stood.

Unfortunately though, the grass did not return. Even more than 18 months after the house was destroyed, the land remained strangely barren. Some weeds had started to grow near the front sidewalk but the back of the lot, where the house had stood and where the bodies had been buried, remained completely empty of plant life, despite the fact that there was no logical reason for the soil to be bare.

Those searching for an explanation suggested that perhaps the lime that Gacy had dusted the bodies of his victims with had contaminated the soil in some way but police officers who were involved in the actual recovery of the bodies disputed this. They insisted that Gacy had never used enough lime to cause any damage to the lot. The shallow graves where the bodies lay had been carefully unearthed and then later, a backhoe had been brought in to dig down 8 to 10 feet to be sure that nothing was missed. The small amount of lime that had been used would not have survived this and even so, no lime had been used under the garage or in the backyard -- and yet no grass would grow there either.

It was as though the evil deeds that had occurred on the spot had left a supernatural mark on the site, not allowing the grass to grow or for the events to be forgotten. The mystery of the barren soil lasted for a few more years and then the lot was sold and a

new house was built on the site. The new owners even went to the trouble of changing the physical address of the location so that the stigma would be removed. Fortunately for them, their efforts worked and once the construction was completed, the grass began to grow once again. The nightmare, it seemed, was finally over. Identified victims (age in parentheses) Only twenty-five of Gacy's victims were ever identified. By the time of Gacy's trial, twenty-two victims had been identified. In March 1980, Dr Robert Stein was able to identify two further bodies unearthed from Gacy's crawl space as those of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino; two teenage friends who were reported missing on October 25, 1976. One further unidentified victim was eventually identified in 1986 as Timothy McCoy, Gacy's first victim. For John Wayne Gacy Videos Click Here

Timothy McCoy (15) January 3, 1972

John Butkovitch Age (17) July 29, 1975

Darrell Sampson Age (18) April 6, 1976

Randall Reffett Age (15) May 14, 1976

Samuel Stapleton Age (14) May 14, 1976

Michael Bonnin Age (17) June 3, 1976

William Carroll Age (16) June 13, 1976

Rick Johnston Age (17) August 6, 1976

Kenneth Parker Age (16) October 25, 1976 Unknown picture

Michael Marino Age (14) October 25, 1976 Unknown picture

Gregory Godzik Age (17) December 12, 1976

John Szyc Age (19) January 20, 1977

Jon Prestidge Age (20) March 15, 1977 Unknown picture

Matthew Bowman Age (19) July 5, 1977

Robert Gilroy Age (18) September 15, 1977

John Mowery Age (19) September 25, 1977

Russell Nelson Age (21) October 17, 1977

Robert Winch Age (16) November 10, 1977 Unknown picture

Tommy Boling Age (20) November 18, 1977

David Talsma Age (19) December 9, 1977 Unknown picture

William Kindred Age (19) February 16, 1978 Unknown picture

Timothy O' Rourke Age (20) June 1623, 1978 Unknown picture

Frank Landingin Age (19) November 4, 1978

James Mazzara Age (21) November 24, 1978

Robert Piest Age (15) December 11, 1978 Unidentified victims Eight victims remain unidentified: seven from Gacy's crawl space and one from beneath his barbecue pit. Experts used the skulls of the unidentified victims to create facial reconstructions. Based upon Gacy's confession, where the victims were buried in his crawl space relative to Gacy's identified victims, and forensic analysis, police were able to determine

the most likely dates when his unidentified victims were killed.

January, 1974. Body 28. Barbecue pit. Male aged 1820.

July 29, 1975May 1976. Body 10. Crawl space. Male aged 1517.

June 13August 6, 1976. Body 21. Crawl space. Male aged 2024.

JuneDecember, 1976. Body 13. Crawl space. Male aged c. 17.

AugustDecember 1976. Body 26. Crawl space. Male aged 1921.

AugustDecember 1976. Body 24. Crawl space. Male aged 2228.

January 20March 15, 1977. Body 5. Crawl space. Male aged c. 25.

JulySeptember, 1977. Body 19. Crawl space. Male aged 1820.

Serial Killer Profile: Fred and Rosemary West

The House Of Horrors The world of brutality and degradation sank to a new low with the series of grisly discoveries at Cromwell Street, Gloucester in 1994. The occupants, Rosemary and her husband Fred West, were accused of murdering 10 women and young girls over a 16 year period ending in 1987. They had taken pleasure in luring away vulnerable runaways with offers of rides, lodging or jobs as nannies. Once in their clutches inside the House of Horrors the young women were stripped, bound with tape, abused, tortured, then killed, some were dismembered and buried. The killer couple was arrested at their home, 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, in 1994. Police, armed with a search warrant, dug up the remains of the Wests' 16 year old daughter, Heather, who vanished in 1987. Further excavations under the house and in the garden produced eight more female bodies and a further body was found under the kitchen of a former home in Gloucester. The Wests shared a fascination with BDSM. Police

found pictures and tapes of Rose bound, gagged and whipped. They also found a wide variety of apparatus including gags, hoods, and huge dildos. Their victims were often abducted, then bound and gagged before being subjected to hideous torture over a period of days in their cellar. Rosemary it seems loved to torture by the insertion of huge dildos and they both had a fascination with an extreme form of bondage and suffocation. When they went too far, as they often did, Fred would dismember and bury the bodies. Even their own children were abused, raped and tortured by this wicked couple, being used as guinea-pigs for their sexual experimentation. Rose would usually do the tying up, and the children would be tied naked and spreadeagled on a metal bedframe. One of the children said later She had canes and whips, including a cat of nine-tails. She might use all of them or just a selection. When she had completed her experiments on us she would encourage Dad to rape us or insert objects into us herself". It was a standing joke amongst the children that one of them, Charmian, was buried in the garden under the patio that Fred had laid. This family joke eventually led police and social workers to discover the whole grisly truth.

Fred Aged 7 Fred West Fred was born in 1941 in the village of Much Marcle, approximately 120 miles west of London, to Walter and Daisy West. It is believed that incest was an accepted part of the West household and Fred claimed that his father had sex with his daughters, using the logic, "I made you so I'm entitled to have

you." Fred left school when he was fifteen, almost illiterate, and went to work as a farm hand. Fred's troubles with the police began in 1961 when he was fined for minor thefts in Hereford. A few months later, he was accused of impregnating a 13-year-old girl who was a friend of the West family. Fred was uncooperative and didn't see that there was anything wrong with what he had done. This attitude and the ensuing scandal caused a serious breach with his family. Fred was ordered to find somewhere else to live and it wasn't long before he was caught stealing from the construction sites where he worked and having sex with young girls. When Fred was seventeen, he had been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. After his recovery from the accident, he met the pretty 16-year-old Catherine Bernadette Costello, nicknamed Rena. They were to marry 4 years later, in November 1962. By then Rena was pregnant by another man. Her daughter, Charmaine, was born in March 1963, and in July 1964 Rena bore Fred a daughter named Anne-Marie. Even though Rena had been a prostitute at various times, she was not happy to be a prisoner to the voracious sexual appetite of Fred West. Colin Wilson in The Corpse Garden tells how Fred's interest in "normal sex" was minimal. "He wanted oral sex, bondage and...sodomy...at all hours of the day and night."

Anna McFall, first known victim

First Kill Fred started a job driving an ice cream truck which afforded him unlimited access to many young women. For someone as highly sexed as Fred, it seemed like paradise. His politeness, apparent trustworthiness and sincerity, and his ability to spin interesting tales made him attractive to the teenagers who flocked around his ice cream truck. His continual seductions turned Rena and Charmaine into afterthoughts. One young girl he met was called Anna McFall who, in early 1967, became pregnant with Fred's child. She was trying unsuccessfully to get Fred to divorce Rena and marry her. Fred's response to the stress of her demands was to kill her and their unborn child, and then to slowly and methodically dismember her corpse and bury her along with the foetus. Oddly enough, he cut off her fingers and toes, which were missing from the grave site. It would be his ritualistic signature in future crimes. The following year Fred met Rose Letts, on November 29th, 1968, her fifteenth birthday.

Rose as a child Rose Rosemary Letts was born in November 1953 in Devon, England. Her father was a violent domestic tyrant who demanded unconditional obedience from his wife and children. He enjoyed disciplining them and seemed to look for any excuse to beat them. .Rose was not a star performer in school and was known as 'Dozy Rosie'. Also, she was overweight, which made her the butt of cruel jokes by her peers. She lashed out at them and attacked anyone who teased her. Consequently, she became known as an illtempered, aggressive loner. As a teenager, Rose showed signs of being sexually precocious, walking around naked after her baths and climbing into bed with her younger brother and fondling him sexually. Her father's rules forbade her to date boys her own age and her heaviness and temperament kept boys from being interested in her. She focused her interest in sex on the older men of the village. When she met Fred West there was an immediate sexual

attraction but her father objected strongly to the relationship, and resorted to contacting Social Services and threatening West directly, but to no avail; she was soon pregnant with West's child and found herself looking after his two children by Rena Costello, when West was sent to prison on various petty theft and fine evasion charges. She gave birth to daughter Heather in 1970. With three children to care for, a boyfriend in jail and constant money problems, Rose's temper flared constantly. She resented having to take care of Rena's children and treated them badly.

A Young Fred and Rose Killing Together After Heather's birth, and shortly before Fred's release, it appears that Rose killed Fred and Rena Costello's daughter, Charmaine. Since Fred was in jail when Charmaine was murdered, his involvement probably extended to burying her body under the kitchen floor of their home on Midland Road where it lay undiscovered for over 20 years. Before he buried Charmaine, he took off her fingers, toes and kneecaps.

Charmaine (left), baby Heather and Anna Marie Rena Costello was killed in August 1971 by Fred West. Fred saw that he had no choice but to kill Rena. In all likelihood, he probably got her very drunk and then strangled her at his house on Midland Road. He then dismembered her body and mutilated it in the same odd way that he had Anna McFall's body: he cut off Rena's fingers and toes. Then he put her remains into bags and buried her in the same general area as he buried Anna McFall. On 29 January 1972, Fred and Rosemary married in Gloucester, and on 1 June that year, Rose gave birth to their daughter, Mae. Like Fred, Rose came from a family where incest was considered normal and even after the birth of her fourth child Rose's father, Bill Letts, with Fred's approval, would often visit the West's for sex with his daughter.

Rose's magazine ad for prostitution Torture, Rape, Incest and Murder The Wests were both indulging their unconventional sexual appetites by this time, with Rose matching her husband in her extreme sexual needs. She had a

voracious sexual appetite and enjoyed extreme bondage and sadomasochistic sex. She was bisexual, and many of their victims were picked up for both her and her husband's sexual pleasure. West also worked as a prostitute (often while Fred watched). Fred West himself had an almost insatiable appetite for bondage and violent sex acts on underage girls. He fitted out the cellar at No 25 as a torture chamber, and his 8-year-old daughter, Anne-Marie, became one of its first occupants, subjected to a horrifically brutal rape by her father whilst her stepmother held her down. This became a regular occurrence, and the child was threatened with beatings if she told anyone of her ordeal. In December 1972 the Wests carried out a sexual assault on 17-year-old Caroline Owens whom they had hired as a nanny. Caroline was very attractive, so much so that Rose and Fred competed with each other to seduce her. When Caroline told them she was leaving the couple abducted, stripped and raped her. Caroline escaped and reported the couple to the police. As a result the Wests were fined for serious sexual assault in January of 1973.

Rose and Fred

Cellar of Death

Over the next five years eight young girls were lured to a horrific death in the Wests' cellar. Lynda Gough, Lucy Partington, Juanita Mott, Therese Siegenthaler, Alison Chambers, Shirley Robinson and 15-year-old schoolgirls Carol Ann Cooper and Shirley Hubbard, all became victims of the West couple's insatiable appetite for violent sex. After brutal sexual attacks, all were murdered, dismembered and buried in the cellar under No 25, having first had their fingers and toes removed. Bondage was becoming a major thrill for Fred and Rose. Shirley's head had been wrapped entirely with tape and a plastic tube was inserted in her nose so that she could breathe. Juanita had been subjected to even more extreme bondage and her body had been suspended from the beams of the cellar. At least one girl, Lucy Partington, was sexually abused for over a week before her death. Rose continued to produce children at regular intervals and the birth of daughter Louise in November 1978, brought their offspring to six, although not all were fathered by West. Barry joined the brood in June 1980, with Rosemary Junior following in 1982 and Lucyanna in 1983. They were aware to some extent of the activities in the house, but West and Rose exercised strict control over them. West's incestuous interest in his own daughters continued, and when Anne-Marie moved out to live with her boyfriend, he switched his attentions to younger siblings, Heather and Mae. Heather resisted his attentions and, in 1986, committed the cardinal sin of telling a friend about the goings on in the house. The Wests responded by murdering and dismembering her, and burying her in the back garden of No 25, where son Stephen was forced to assist with digging the hole. Justice Finally Given that the West's vicious sex acts did not result

in murder every time, and the sheer number of attacks, it was inevitable that someone would expose their activities, which resulted in them coming to the attention of Detective Constable Hazel Savage, who led a search at Cromwell Street in August of 1992 that found pornography and clear evidence of child abuse. West was arrested for rape and sodomy of a minor, and Rose for assisting in the rape of a minor. In the course of the investigation DC Savage uncovered the abuse of Anne-Marie, as well as the disappearances of Charmaine and Heather, that warranted further investigation, as well as rumors about what might be buried under the patio. The younger West children were taken into care, and Rose attempted suicide at this time, although she was found by her son, Stephen, and revived. On 24th February 1994 a warrant was obtained to search the Cromwell Street house and garden, and police found the remains of two dismembered and decapitated young women, one of whom the police suspected might be Shirley Robinson. West claimed sole responsibility for the murders and, when Rose heard of the confession, she denied all knowledge of Heather's death. As the case against them developed, Rose tried increasingly to distance herself from West, claiming that she was also a victim, but police were not convinced of her innocence, given the sheer number of murders which had occurred, and her participation in the rapes. On 13th December 1994, West was charged on twelve counts of murder, and he was taken into custody at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, pending trial where, on 1st January 1995, he hanged himself in his cell with knotted bed sheets. Rose West went on trial on 3rd October 1995 in the glare of media frenzy. Witnesses including her daughter Anne Marie and Caroline Owens, one of their first victims, testified to her participation in

sexual assaults on young women. Her defense counsel tried to argue that evidence of assault was not evidence of murder but, when Rose testified on her own behalf, her violent nature and dishonesty became clear to the jury, and they unanimously found her guilty on ten separate counts of murder on 22nd November 1995. She was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in jail. Rose West's sentence was later extended to a "whole life" sentence by the Home Secretary, effectively removing any possibility of parole.

No 25 Cromwell Street, or the "House of Horrors", as it was dubbed by the media, was eventually pulled to the ground in October 1996, and in its place is a pathway that leads to the town Centre. There remains a widespread belief both with the public and within the police that Fred and Rose West's victims numbered far more than the twelve with which they were charged and it is still considered highly likely that Fred West maintained another burial site yet to be discovered. And 12 women and children are definitely gone, forever, and two of their unborn babies, and we'll never know how many more, simply listed as 'missing' during the Sixties and Seventies.

KNOWN VICTIMS

Anna McFall Killed in July 1967

Charmaine West (born 22 February 1963): Killed in June 1971

Catherine Bernadette "Rena" West (born 14 April 1944): Killed August 1971

Lynda Gough (born 1 May 1953): Killed April 1973

Carol Ann Cooper (born 10 April 1958): Killed November 1973

Lucy Katherine Partington (born 4 March 1952): Killed December 1973

Theresa Siegenthaler (born 27 November 1952): Killed in April 1974

Shirley Hubbard (born 26 June 1959): Killed November 1974

Juanita Marion Mott (born 1 March 1957): Killed April 1975

Shirley Anne Robinson (born 8 October 1959): Killed May 1978

Alison Chambers (born 8 September 1962): Killed August 1979

Heather Ann West (born 17 October 1970) Killed June 1987

Mary Bastholm (not known): Missing January 1968 Mary Bastholm vanished from a bus stop. Mary was going to meet her boyfriend and play Monopoly. Some of the game pieces were found on the ground in the snow near the bus stop. Police believe she was a victim of Fred West. Mary worked at a cafe as a waitress. Fred West was a customer and did building work at the rear of the cafe. Mary was also seen by witnesses in Fred's car. 1995 --Stephen West visited Fred West in prison. Fred refused to tell his son where body of Mary Bastholm was buried. Fred boasted "They are not going to find them all, you know, never." Stephen asked him: "Mary?" and claims his father replied: "I will never tell anyone where she is.

Serial Killer Profile: Gary Leon Ridgway

On August 15, 1982, Robert Ainsworth, 41, stepped into his rubber raft and began his descent south down the Green River toward the outer edge of Seattle's

city limits. It was a trip he had made on many occasions, yet this time it would be different. As he drifted slowly downstream, he noticed a middle-aged balding man standing by the riverbank and a second, younger man sitting in a nearby pickup truck. Ainsworth suspected that the men were out for a days fishing. He asked the older man if he had caught anything. The man replied that he had not. According to Smith and Guillen's book, The Search for the Green River Killer, the man standing then asked Ainsworth if he found anything, to which Ainsworth replied, "Just this old singletree." Soon after, the two men left in the old pick-up truck and Ainsworth continued to float down the river. Moments later he found himself surrounded by death. As he peered into the clear waters his gaze was met by staring eyes. A young black woman's face was floating just beneath the surface of the water, her body swaying beneath her with the current. Believing it might be a mannequin, Ainsworth attempted to snag the figure with a pole. Accidentally, the raft overturned as he tried to dislodge the figure from a rock and Ainsworth fell into the river. To his horror, he realized that the figure was not a mannequin, but a dead woman. Seconds later he saw another floating corpse of a half nude black woman, partially submerged in the water. Quickly, Ainsworth swam toward the riverbank where the truck stood earlier. In shock, he sat down and waited for help to arrive. Within a half hour, he noticed a man with two children on bicycles. He stopped them, told them of his gruesome discovery and asked them to get the police. Before long, a policeman arrived at the scene and questioned Ainsworth about his find. The officer disbelievingly walked into the shallow river and reached out toward the ghostly form. The officer immediately called for backup. Soon after reinforcement arrived at the scene,

detectives sealed off the area and began a search for evidence. During the search, a detective made another macabre discovery. He found a third body, that of a young girl who was partially clothed. Unlike the other two girls, this one was found in a grassy area less than 30 feet from where the other victims lay in the water. It was obvious that she had died from asphyxiation. The girl had a pair of blue pants knotted around her neck. She also showed signs of a struggle, because she had bruises on her arms and legs. She was later identified as Opal Mills, 16. It was believed that she had been murdered within 24 hours of her discovery. Following an examination of the bodies at the scene, Chief Medical Examiner Donald Reay determined that all three girls died of strangulation. The two girls found in the water, later identified as Marcia Chapman, 31, and Cynthia Hinds, 17, were both found to have pyramid-shaped rocks lodged in their vaginal cavities. They were both held down by rocks in the water. Reay further determined that Chapman, a mother of two who had gone missing two weeks earlier, had been dead for over a week. She had shown advanced signs of decomposition. However, Hinds was believed to have been in the river for a period of only several days. The three bodies were not the only ones to be found in and around Washington state's Green River. Several days earlier, the body of a woman named Deborah Bonner was discovered. Her nude body had been found slumped over a log in the Green River. She too had been strangled to death. Just a month earlier, another young girl identified as Wendy Lee Coffield was found strangled and floating in the Green River. Moreover, six months prior to Coffield's discovery, the body of her friend Leanne Wilcox was found several miles from the river in an empty lot. It was not believed that the Green River Killer murdered Wilcox, but the opinion of the investigators has been recently challenged. Within the space of six months, six bodies had been

discovered in or near the river. The police detectives at the scene quickly realized that there was a serial killer on the loose. They knew that they had to find and catch him as soon as possible before any more women disappeared. A special task force was assembled of King County detectives to investigate the Green River murders. According to The Seattle Times, it was the largest police task force ever assembled since the Ted Bundy murders less than a decade earlier. Major Richard Kraske, the head of the Criminal Investigation Division and Detective Dave Reichert of the King County Major Crime Squad led the team. They enlisted the help of FBI serial killer profiler John Douglas and criminal investigator Bob Keppel, who was known for his unique and successful approach of compiling evidence in the Ted Bundy case eight years earlier. The investigation got off to a shaky start because a massive influx of information swamped the police force within a relatively short period of time. They simply did not have the means to process the everincreasing amount of data and evidence and much of it was lost, misplaced or overlooked entirely. In fact, the situation got so bad that at one point they enlisted the help of volunteers to assist the police in the on-going investigation. During their investigation, detectives learned that the many of the murdered girls knew each other and shared a similar history of prostitution. Investigators decided to begin their search for the killer in the area where the girls were known to frequent. They conducted hundreds of interviews with many prostitutes who worked the main strip in Seattle, stretching from South 139th Street to South 272nd Street. Investigators tried to obtain information on any suspicious characters they might have encountered. However, many of the girls were reluctant to talk because of their blatant mistrust for the police. One of the prostitutes who worked the strip filed a

report with police, stating that a man who raped her made reference to the Green River murders. Soon after the report, the task force began to search for the assailant. On August 20, 1982, the police announced that they had him in custody as a potential suspect in the Green River murders. However, they were unable to find any plausible evidence connecting him with the crime. He was eventually released and the search resumed for the killer. There were other prostitutes who filed reports with the police that were of special concern to the task force. It was believed that the reports could be related to the Green River murders. Interviews taken by two separate prostitutes claimed that a man in a blue and white truck abducted them and attempted to kill them. According to one account by Susan Widmark, 21, a middle-aged man in a blue and white truck solicited her. Once Widmark was in his truck, he pointed a pistol to her head and sped off toward the highway. He took her to a desolate road, turned off the engine and proceeded to violently rape her. Following the rape, he allowed her to dress while he began to drive away from the scene with her still in the car. While driving, he made reference to the recent river murders, while continuing to hold a gun to her head. Fearing for her life, she managed to escape from the vehicle while at a stoplight. Widmark was able to make out part of the registration number of the truck before the man sped away. A similar incident happened to Debra Estes, 15, who filed a report with police in late August 1982, concerning a rape. Estes told police that she was walking down the highway when a man in a blue and white pick-up truck approached her and offered her a ride. She accepted and climbed into the vehicle. To her amazement, the man pulled a pistol out and pointed it at her head. He violently forced her to give him oral sex before releasing her into the woods, handcuffed and driving off. She immediately

fled the scene looking for help. Seeing an emerging pattern that could have been related to the Green River murders, the task force decided to follow the lead and search for the truck and driver. They hoped that new information concerning the man would lead them to a break in the case. That September, a meat butcher named Charles Clinton Clark was pulled over in his blue and white truck while driving along Seattle's main strip. After a background check was conducted, it was learned that Clark owned two handguns. Investigators believed that Clark might be the man they were looking for. They obtained his driver's license photo and showed it to both Widmark and Estes. Both women positively identified Clark as their attacker. Clark was arrested and his house and vehicle were searched. The police found the two handguns that were allegedly used in the assaults. After interrogation by police, Clark admitted to attacking the women. However, there was speculation as to whether he was the Green River Killer because he was known to release his victims following an attack. Moreover, Clark had a solid alibi during the time many of the Green River victims disappeared. When Clark was being booked with the rape of Widmark and Estes, 19-year-old Mary Bridgett Meehan disappeared during a walk. Meehan was more than eight months pregnant and went missing near the Western Six Motel. The motel was located on the strip and was a frequent hangout and workplace for many of the prostitutes that fell victim to the Green River Killer. Based on a hunch, Detective Reichert began to suspect that one of the volunteer civilians working on the case might be the Green River Killer. A 44-year-old out-of-work taxi driver became the focus of the investigation and was vigorously interviewed by the police. They were concerned because two weeks prior

to Meehan's disappearance, two 16-year-old girls, Kase Ann Lee and Terri Rene Milligan, mysteriously disappeared. They too were thought to have had a history of prostitution. It was suspected that they had fallen victim to the Green River Killer. The taxi driver seemed to fit the profile of the killer devised by FBI Agent John Douglas. According to Douglas, the Green River Killer was a confident, yet impulsive middle-aged man who would most likely frequent the murder scenes, in order to re-enact the crimes in his mind. The killer was probably familiar with the area and was likely to have deep religious convictions. Moreover, Douglas believed that he might have an active interest in police work, especially the investigation into the recent murders. The killer might even contact the police in an effort to assist in the on-going investigation. During most of the winter of 1982, police heavily monitored the taxi driver's movements, although he continuously denied having anything to do with the Green River murders. The taxi driver eventually became the primary suspect in the killings. He was arrested for unpaid parking tickets, because investigators had no solid evidence connecting him to the murders, except that he knew five of the victims. On September 26, 1982, the decomposing remains of a 17-year-old prostitute named Gisele A. Lovvorn were discovered. She had gone missing for more than two months before a biker found her nude body near abandoned houses south of the Sea-Tac International Airport. She had been strangled to death by a pair of men's black socks. Intriguingly, at the time of her disappearance, she was blonde. Yet, when her body was discovered her hair was dyed black. Although her body was not found in the direct vicinity of the now infamous river, police believed that she was a victim of the Green River Killer. Between September 1982 and April 1983, approximately 14 girls disappeared. Those missing included Mary

Meehan, Debra Estes, Denise Bush, Shawnda Summers, Shirley Sherrill, Rebecca Marrero, Colleen Brockman, Alma Smith, Delores Williams, Gail Matthews, Andrea Childers, Sandra Gabbert, Kimi-Kai Pitsor and Marie Malvar. Most of the girls, ages ranging from between 15 and 23 years old, were known prostitutes who frequented the strip. The Green River Task Force's attention was temporarily drawn to one possible suspect, allegedly involved in the disappearance of the last girl to go missing, Marie Malvar. On April 30, 1983, Malvar's boyfriend saw her talking with a potential customer in a dark-colored truck as she was soliciting on the strip. The boyfriend claimed that he saw Malvar get into the truck before it sped away. According to Smith and Guillen, Malvar's boyfriend stated that Malvar and the unknown man seemed to be engaged in an argument. Suspicious of the driver of the truck, the boyfriend followed them. Before long, the truck with his girlfriend in it gave chase and eventually disappeared when the boyfriend was held up by a stoplight. It was the last time he ever saw his girlfriend. He later notified the police of Malvar's disappearance. Less than a week after the incident, he, along with Malvar's father and brother, spotted the suspicious truck near the place where he initially lost sight of it days earlier. They followed the truck to a house located on South 348th Street and called the police. The police eventually arrived at the house and spoke with the owner, Gary Ridgway, who denied having ever seen Malvar. Satisfied, the police left the residence and failed to pursue the matter any further. A similar truck to that owned by Ridgway was also involved in the April disappearance of a young prostitute named Kimi Kai Pitsor. While in the process of turning a trick, Pitsor's pimp saw her getting into a dark green pick-up truck with an attached camper. He described the driver of the

vehicle as having a pockmarked face. He watched as the two drove off and he never saw Pitsor again. He later informed police, but the information concerning Pitsor's disappearance and Malvar's was never fully connected. By the spring of 1983, the investigation into the Green River Killer and related murders was collapsing. The task force detectives realized that the probability of the taxi driver being the killer was low, yet they continued to keep him as a prime suspect. They had no new leads and prostitutes continued to rapidly disappear throughout the city. Inundated with an avalanche of tips, the task force was unable to keep up with the massive influx of information. They enlisted the help of Bob Keppel to help organize the mountain of information. In late April, Keppel spent three weeks going through all the information available pertaining to the murders believed to have been attributed to the Green River Killer. Upon completion of his analysis, he compiled a report for the sheriff of King County, Vern Thomas. To the task force's dismay, the report was highly critical of the on-going investigation. According to Keppel in his book, The Riverman, if the killer were to be found, many changes needed to be made. The report compiled by Keppel stated that most of the data, including evidence, files and witness accounts connected with the crimes were in total disarray. The first thing that was needed was a complete reorganization and accurate categorization of all the data. Then, once that was completed, similarities and dissimilarities among the cases needed to be identified in order to find common threads possibly connecting the murders to one or more killers. There was no doubt that a successful and thorough investigation would cost the county a lot more time and money than they previously expected. Already the investigation was the largest operation in the history of the country. The amount of money needed to

implement Keppel's suggestions would far exceed the estimated $2 million dollars. However, something needed to be done in an effort to stop the murderous rampages of the killer. On May 8, 1983, another body was discovered that was later identified as Carol Ann Christensen, 21. Her remains were found by a family hunting for mushrooms in a wooded area near Maple Valley. When Christensen's body was found, the killer displayed her corpse in an unusually gruesome way. Christensen was found with her head covered by a brown paper bag. When it was removed, it was found that she had a fish carefully placed on top of her neck. Smith and Guillen state that the killer also placed another fish on her left breast and a bottle between her legs. Her hands were placed crossed over her stomach and freshly ground beef was placed on top of her left hand. Further examination revealed that she was strangled with a cord. Intriguingly, she also showed signs of having been in water at some point, even though the river was miles away. The task force speculated that she was yet another victim of the Green River Killer. During the spring and summer of 1983, nine more young women, many of whom were prostitutes, disappeared. Those missing included Martina Authorlee and Cheryl Lee Wims, 18, Yvonne Antosh, 19. Carrie Rois, 15, Constance Naon, 21, Tammie Liles,16, Keli McGuiness, 18, Tina Thompson, 22, and April Buttram, 17. A majority of the girls were placed on the ever-growing list of possible Green River Killer murders. However, there were some who did not make the list because they were found outside of the parameters where the Green River Killer was known to dump many of the bodies. That summer, several more bodies were discovered. In June, the unidentified remains, which were believed to be of a 17 to 19-year-old white woman was found on SW Tualatin Road. On August 11, the body of missing Shawnda Summers was discovered near the Sea-Tac

Airport. One day later the remains of another body, which remained unidentified, was found at the Sea-Tac Airport North site. The fall and winter of 1983 would also yield as many disappearances and even more corpses. Between September and December of 1983, nine more women went missing and seven bodies were discovered, all of who were believed to have been abducted and murdered by the Green River Killer. The missing women, who were mostly prostitutes included, Debbie Abernathy,26, Tracy Ann Winston, 19, Patricia Osborn and Maureen Feeney, Mary Sue Bello, 25, Pammy Avent, 16, Delise Plager, 22, Kim Nelson, 26, and Lisa Lorraine Yates. Those whose bodies were discovered included, Delores Williams, 17, who had gone missing March 8, 1983. Her remains were discovered on September 18 at Star Lake. That same day, the remains of Gail Matthews, 23, were also discovered at Star Lake. Over the next few months, the bodies of five more women were discovered. On October 15, the skeletal remains of Yvonne Antosh, who was last seen on May 31, was found near Soos Creek on Auburn-Black Diamond Road. She was one of the few victims to have had a missing person's report filed on her. Twelve days later, the partially buried skeleton of Constance Naon was found in an area south of Sea-Tac Airport. The task force investigators believed that there were probably more bodies to be found in that area, so they decided to conduct a search with the assistance of a team of teenaged Explorer Boy Scouts. On October 29, during a sweep of the empty lots surrounding the airport, one of the scouts found a skeleton covered with trash beneath some bushes. The remains were later identified as Kelly Ware, 22. The killer's deadly rampage claimed two more victims whose bodies were discovered before the New Year. On

November 13, following an extensive search of several lots surrounding an area south of Sea-Tac near South 192nd Street, the badly decomposed remains of Mary Meehan and her unborn baby were found. According to the Cold Serial Web site, Meehan and her child were the only victims attributed to the Green River Killer, who were fully buried. Several unexplainable items were found on or close to the body, including two small pieces of plastic, a large clump of hair near the pubic region of the body, a patch of skin attached to the skull, which contained fibres on it, three small bones, two halved yellow pencils and clear plastic tubing. One month later, on December 15, the skull of KimiKai Pitsor was found in Auburn, Washington, near Mountain View Cemetery. It seemed as if the killer found a new burial site to place his victims. It would be the fifth known "dumping ground" used for the disposal of the bodies. Two weeks following Pitsor's discovery, the Green River Task Force increased by more than half, due to the increasing number of murders in the area. It was feared many more murders would occur in the coming months. Their predictions would prove to be correct. Although the "official" count of Green River victims was estimated at this time to be 11 or 12, the number has been and continues to be challenged. The precise number to this day remains unclear and it is believed to be much higher than initially estimated. Near the final months of 1983, there were approximately 18 bodies discovered in the Seattle region. Many victims were not included on the list, even though they were killed in very nearly the same fashion as the other victims. There was no explanation given as to why the women were excluded from the list. In January 1984, the Green River Task Force came under new leadership headed by Captain Frank Adamson, who previously headed the police department's internal affairs unit. During the first few months of Adamson's assignment, drastic changes took place. He

first decided that it would be in the investigation's best interest to relocate the task force headquarters to the Burien County precinct, which was near the airport and closer to where the crimes were occurring. Following Keppel's advice, Adamson divided up various tasks and assigned them to individuals within the team. It was believed that this method would facilitate a more thorough organization, integration and assemblage of the vast amounts of information and lead to more successful results in the case. Smith and Guillen stated that one team composed of seven investigators and one sergeant/team leader was assigned to handle the victims of the Green River Killer. Another team of similar construction was assigned to information pertaining to probable suspects. Adamson then assigned three detectives to a newlyconstructed crime analysis section, whose duties involved the follow-up of leads and analysis of possible trends and methodologies utilized by the killer, as well as other pertinent information relevant to the case. Twenty-two police officers were also assigned to the task force's proactive squad, which developed new strategies to monitor prostitute activities on The Strip and any unusual events or dealings in the area. Moreover, a new strategy was imposed by Keppel that changed the investigators' focus from a suspect's possible guilt to the suspect's possible innocence. The implication of this strategy allowed investigators to quickly eliminate people under suspicion who had alibis and instead concentrate on more probable suspects. The suspects that remained were prioritized according to their threat: those who were most closely linked to victims, fit the profile of the killer and his movements were put in category "A"; those who were less closely linked with the crimes were assigned to categories "B" or "C" before being eventually

eliminated. Just when it seemed as if the newly revised task force was better prepared to capture the Green River Killer, the inevitable occurred. On February 14, 1984, the skeletal remains of a woman, who was later identified as Denise Louise Plager, were discovered 40 miles from the city close to interstate 90. She was the first victim to be found that year, but not the last. Over the next two months approximately nine more bodies would be found. Some of those found included those of Cheryl Wims, 18, Lisa Yates, 26, Debbie Abernathy, Terry Milligan, 16, Sandra Gabbert, 17, and Alma Smith, 22. The other victims remained unidentified. Most of the girls had one primary thing in common, a history of prostitution. Although it appeared as if the Green River Task Force was making few advances in the investigation, 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. With the exception of Meehan, the bodies that were 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." During 1983 dumping grounds moved away from the river and concentrated mostly around the Sea-Tac Airport and Star Lake. In 1984, the victims' remains were concentrated in the areas of Mountain View Cemetery and North Bend off of or near to Interstate 90. The victims were also disappearing from two primary areas, the strip and the downtown area of Seattle. The task force worked under the assumption that the killer worked or lived close to the area where he was disposing the bodies. The task force determined that

the areas where the bodies were found, when plotted on a map, roughly formed a triangular shape. It was believed that the killer might live somewhere within that triangle. An important discovery was also made in April when the skeletal remains of some of the victims were found. Shoe impressions, possibly that of the killer, were revealed when investigators removed the brush that partially concealed the bodies. Upon examination of the prints, investigators learned that they were made by a size 10 or 11 man's walking shoe. It was a vital piece of evidence that could connect the killer with his victims. In mid-April, a volunteer task force worker and psychic, Barbara Kubik-Pattern, had a vision that another woman's body would be found close to Interstate 90. Kubik-Pattern immediately contacted the police and told them about her vision, but became increasingly frustrated when they failed to act on the new information. Taking matters into her own hand, she and her daughter set out to find the woman. Following the leads revealed by her vision, KubikPattern and her daughter eventually came across another body. Immediately after the discovery, the two women drove to a nearby search area that was patrolled by the police. When she informed one of the officers of her discovery, she was rebuffed and even threatened with arrest for obstruction of the guarded perimeter. Angered, Kubik-Pattern informed reporters that were stationed nearby her discovery. Finally, members of the task force approached her as she talked with the reporters and asked her to show them the body. Shortly thereafter the police were confronted with the gruesome discovery. The decomposing remains were that of Amina Agisheff, 36. She was last seen on July 7, 1982 walking home from her work at a restaurant in downtown Seattle. Agisheff did not fit the description of many of the

other victims. She was older than the other victims and a waitress, not a prostitute. Agisheff was also in a stable relationship at the time of her disappearance and was a mother of two. Although there were obvious differences between Agisheff's lifestyle and those of the other victims and the location of where her body was disposed, investigators believed that she was the victim of the Green River Killer. Moreover, she was listed as one of the killer's first victims, even though several murders prior to her disappearance matched the M.O. of the killer. On May 26, two children playing on Jovita Road in Pierce County were shocked when they discovered a skeleton. The police and task force were immediately alerted to the new finding. Following a medical examination, it was discovered that the remains were that of fifteen-year-old runaway Colleen Brockman. Investigators still had no new leads to the identity of the killer, apart from the location of the bodies and the shoe print. After almost three years, the murderous killing spree continued. Following the discovery of Brockman, the rash of murders seemed to be diminishing. However, the desire to catch the killer remained a top priority for the task force. In August 1984 investigators believed their big break in the case arrived when two criminals in a San Francisco jail confessed to the Green River murders. After extensive interviews with the two prisoners, the confessions were determined to be a hoax. Several months later, the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy offered from his prison cell on death row to assist Keppel and the task force in finding their man. Bundy offered his old antagonist a rare glimpse into the mind of a serial killer, an offer that Keppel could not refuse. The two men conversed mostly via letters, where Keppel asked detailed questions that he hoped Bundy could answer.

Much of the information that Keppel received greatly interested Keppel and the task force investigators. Bundy suggested that the killer knew his victims, probably even befriending them before he lured them to their deaths. According to Keppel's book The Riverman, Bundy suggested that the killer likely disposed of even more bodies where they found the more recent ones. Moreover, he believed the disposal pattern of the bodies led closer to the killer's home. Bundy was able to give unusual insight from a killer's prospective, much of which was helpful to the case. The information received from Bundy assisted the detectives in their general understanding of serial killer behaviour. In fact, Bundy became one of the primary consultants, next to Douglas and Keppel that contributed to the build-up of the killer's profile. Despite this unusual advice, the task force remained stymied as to the identity of the Green River Killer. Although the murders seemed to have slowly diminished, they did not cease altogether. Between October and December 1984, two more bodies, identified as Mary Sue Bello, 25, and Martina Authorlee, 18, were discovered. Both bodies were found off of Highway 410. The total body count had climbed to 31, although only 28 of the victims actually made it on the ever-growing "official" Green River murder list. Fourteen women were still believed to be missing. On March 10, 1985, another partially buried body was found near Star Lake Road. The victim was eventually identified as Carrie Rois, 15. She disappeared during the summer of 1983. In mid-June, a man bulldozing a patch of land in Tigard, Oregon, discovered the skeletal remains of two more women. The remains were later identified as Denise Bush, 23, and Shirley Sherrill, 19. Both girls were known prostitutes in Seattle. The discovery of the two women confirmed the fact that the Green River

Killer's parameters had extended out of state. It seemed as if a new dumping ground had been revealed. Meanwhile, FBI profiler John Douglas re-evaluated the previous profile of the killer and came to a new conclusion, that there were two separate killers. Douglas suggested that, although the profiles of both killers were similar in many ways, the way in which they disposed of the bodies slightly differed. To Douglas, it seemed as if one of the killers went to greater effort to conceal the bodies than the other. Whereas some of the bodies were partially covered or buried in isolated areas, other bodies lay openly exposed to detection, such as those found in the Green River. Although the theory seemed to be plausible, there were no suspects available that could support his theory. The case had run cold and no likely suspects could be connected with any of the murders. Pressure mounted on the task force for its inability to capture the killer(s) after more than three years. It was not until the winter that the skeletal remains of yet three more victims were found. The first remains were identified as those belonging to Mary West, which were found in a wooded area in Seward Park in Seattle. The other two remains were that of Kimi-Kai Pitsor and another unidentified white female between 14 and 19 years old. The unusual aspect of this more recent discovery was that Pitsor's remains had been located in two different locations. In December 1983 her skull was discovered in Mountain View Cemetery and two years later the remainder of her body was found a short distance away in a ravine. It could have been possible that an animal dragged the skull from the body sometime after death, however there was no evidence that this occurred. The police believed it was the work of the killer. Investigators were uncertain as to the killer's motive for dividing the body between two different locations. They speculated that it was done to taunt the police or confuse the investigation.

In February 1986, the Green River Task Force seemed to get the break it had been hoping for. A man described by investigators as a "person of interest" was brought in to the police station and searched. The event received a great deal of media attention. An FBI agent and Detective Jim Doyon of the task force extensively questioned the new suspect. However, before long they realized he was not the man they were looking for. Shortly thereafter the man was released. During this time, the public became increasingly aware of the task force's lack of results. Thus far there had been several suspects taken into custody and each one proved to have no connection with the murders. Public anger and fear reached a boiling point. The media referred to the Green River Task Force as a joke. To make matters worse, that summer the skeletal remains of three more women were discovered off of I90, east of Seattle. The remains were those of Maureen Feeney, 19, Kim Nelson, 26, and another unidentifiable young woman. Feeney was the only one of the three that investigators were able to link to a career in prostitution. The number of victims was quickly climbing toward a staggering 40. By the end of 1986, the staff had been reduced by 40 percent and Adamson was reassigned to another project. Captain James Pompey became the new leader of the Green River Task Force. Pompey immediately began to reorganize the team and the data related to the investigation. Just as Pompey was beginning to get started, two more bodies were discovered in December. This time the bodies were found much further away than expected in an area north of Vancouver, British Columbia. Yet again, the killer seemed to be taunting investigators. Even more intriguing was that the partial remains of several other women had been

scattered alongside the bodies of the two women. Even though the bodies were located a great distance from the others, there was no doubt in the investigators' minds that the work was that of the Green River Killer. In the beginning months of 1987, investigators had a new suspect in relation to the Green River murders. Previously known to police, the newest suspect had been picked up for attempting to solicit an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute in May 1984. However, the man was released after he successfully passed a lie detector test. When investigators looked deeper into the man's past, they discovered that he had been accused of choking a prostitute in 1980 near the Sea-Tac International Airport. Yet, the man pleaded self-defence after claiming the woman bit him and he was soon after released from police custody. One of the task force detectives, Matt Haney, was highly suspicious of this suspect and decided to dive even further into the man's history. He discovered that the police had at one time stopped and questioned the man back in 1982 while he was in his truck with a prostitute. The investigator learned that the prostitute he was with was one of the women on the Green River murder list, Keli McGinness. Moreover, the police approached the man again in 1983 in connection with the kidnapping of murder victim Marie Malvar. A witness, Malvar's boyfriend followed the truck to the suspect's house after recognizing it as the one that he last saw his girlfriend in. Haney believed he might be on to the Green River Killer. Haney learned from the man's ex-wife that he often frequented the dumpsites, where many of the bodies had been discovered. Also, several prostitutes claimed to have seen a man matching the suspect's description regularly cruising the strip between 1982 and 1983. It turned out that the man passed the strip almost daily on his way to work. Some of the most damaging evidence discovered was that the man, who

worked as a truck painter, was found to have been absent or off duty on every occasion a victim disappeared. Finally, on April 8, 1987, the police 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. Several weeks following Ridgway's release, Captain Pompey died from a massive heart attack related to a scuba-diving accident. The unfortunate event was picked up by the media and sensationalized. It was suggested that the Green River Killer was actually a police officer that murdered Pompey, regardless of the fact that there was absolutely no substantiating evidence to support the theory. One newspaper even called for an official investigation into the death of Pompey. It seemed as if the public's nerves had become raw after so much death in the city. The task force, which was now led by a Captain Greg Boyle, was called once again in June. Three boys stumbled across the partially buried skeletal remains of a young woman, while searching for aluminium cans. The girl, who was identified as Cindy Ann Smith, 17, was found in a ravine behind the Green River Community College. She had been missing for approximately three years before her discovery. More bodies of missing young women were discovered in the year that followed. Some of which included, that of missing runaway Debbie Gonzales, 14, and Debra Estes, 15, who disappeared six years earlier. Their deaths were attributed to the Green River Killer. Although there were still bodies being discovered, there were no recent killings attributed to the Green River Killer in the Seattle region. In 1988, the discovery of more than 20 bodies of

prostitutes in San Diego led to the belief that the Green River Killer moved and continued his murderous rampage in California. Detective Reichert and the new task force commander Bob Evans temporarily joined forces with the San Diego police department in an effort to find the killer. In December 1988, investigators had a new suspect. A man named William J. Stevens caught the attention of the police after several callers phoned him in as a potential suspect during the airing of the popular true crime detective show "Crime Stoppers." Stevens was a prison escapee who was on the run for eight years, after a two-year stint behind bars for burglary. At the time he was rediscovered by police, he was enrolled at the University of Washington as a pharmacology student. As task force investigators delved into Stevens' past, they learned that he was already a suspect in the Green River killings. It was also learned that Stevens had a blatant contempt for prostitutes and was known to have on several occasions talked about murdering them. When police searched his home they found masses of firearms, several drivers licenses, credit cards in assumed names and sexually explicit nude photos of prostitutes. Stevens was highly involved in robbery and credit card fraud, which he used to survive. Task force investigators exhaustively interviewed Stevens about the Green River murders and searched the premises of his home throughout the summer and fall of 1989. Investigators even searched Stevens' father's home for clues tying him to any of the murders. However, nothing was found linking him to the murders. Moreover, credit card records and photographs produced by Stevens' brother provided a tight alibi against his involvement with the crimes. According to the numerous records and receipts, Stevens was traveling across the country during the summer months of 1982, when many of the murders occurred.

Eventually, Stevens was cleared of all involvement in the Green River murders. In October 1989, two more skeletal remains of young women were found. One of the victims, identified as Andrea Childers, was found in a vacant lot near Star Lake and 55th Ave. South. Like many of the young women found before her, the cause of death remained unclear due to the state of decomposition. In early February 1990, the skull of Denise Bush was found in a wooded area in Southgate Park in Tukwila, Washington. The remainder of Bush's body was located in Oregon five years earlier. Once again, it seemed as if the killer was purposely moving the bones around in an effort to confuse investigators. Task force investigators were beginning to believe that the killer had defeated them. Morale among the officers was at an all-time low. According to the Seattle Times, in July 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 April 2001, almost 20 years after the first known Green River murder, Detective Reichert, who had become the sheriff of King County, began renewed investigations into the murders. It was a case he refused to let go of and he remained determined to find the killer. This time the task force had technology on their side. Reichert formed a new task force team initially consisting of six members, including DNA and forensic experts and a couple of detectives. It wasn't long before the force grew to more than 30 people. All the evidence from the murder examination was re-examined and some of the forensic samples were sent to the labs.

The first samples to be sent to the lab were found with three victims that were murdered between 1982 and 1983, Opal Mills, Marcia Chapman and Carol Christensen. The samples consisted of semen supposedly taken from the killer. The semen samples underwent a newly-developed DNA testing method and were compared with samples taken from Ridgway in April 1987. On September 10, 2001, Reichert received news from the labs that reduced the hardened detective to tears. There was a match found between the semen samples taken from the victims and Ridgway. On November 30, Ridgway was intercepted by investigators on his way home from work and arrested on four counts of aggravated murder. The charges included that of the three girls and also Cynthia Hinds, in which circumstantial evidence was also found connecting him with her death. The man that investigators had sought for 20 years was finally in police custody. This time they wouldn't let him go. Ridgway, originally 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 owned many trucks during that time, one of which was of special interest to investigators. According to Seattle's KING5 television station, a 1977 black Ford F-150 owned by the suspect, allegedly was connected with some of the victims. Today, the truck remains under investigation. According to Time Magazine's Terry McCarthy, 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. Neighbours knew him to constantly complain about prostitutes conducting business in his neighbourhood, but at the same time he frequently took advantages of their favours. It was possible that he was torn by his uncontrollable lusts and his staunch religious beliefs. McCarthy states that according to one of his wives, he became a religious fanatic, often times crying following sermons and reading the bible. Millions around the world wait for one question to be answered. Is Ridgway the only Green River Killer? You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who has read a great deal about the case or any of the investigators who would say the Ridgway is good for EVERY Green River killing. There has long been a theory that the "Green River Killer" actually encompassed two or more killers acting independently of each other. So one down...how many to go? Gary Leon Ridgeway got 49 life sentences which will keep him in Walla Walla, Washington forever. For videos click Here R.I.P To His Many Victims youre sorely missed by your families.
Name Found Age Disappeared

1 1982

Amina Agisheff April 20, 1984

35

July 7,

2 1982

Wendy Lee Coffield July 15, 1982

16

July 8,

3 1982

Gisele Ann Lovvorn September 25, 1982

17

July 17,

4 1982

Debra Lynn Bonner August 12, 1982

23

July 25,

5 1982

Marcia Fay Chapman August 15, 1982

31

August 1,

6 12, 1982

Opal Charmaine Mills August 15, 1982

16

August

7 29, 1982

Terry Rene Milligan April 1, 1984

16

August

8 15, 1982

Mary Bridget Meehan November 13, 1983

18

September

9 20, 1982

Debra Lorraine Estes May 30, 1988

15

September

10 26, 1982

Linda Jane Rule January 31, 1983

16

September

11 8, 1982

Denise Darcel Bush June 1985

23

October

12 9, 1982

Shawnda Leea Summers August 11, 1983

16

October

13 22, 1982

Shirley Marie Sherrill June 1985

18

October

14 24, 1982

Colleen Renee Brockman May 26, 1984

15

December

15 1983

Alma Ann Smith April 2, 1984

18

March 3,

16 1983

Delores LaVerne Williams March 31, 1984

17

March 14,

17 1983

Andrea M. Childers October 11, 1989

19

April 14,

18 1983

Kimi-Kai Pitsor December 14, 1983

16

April 16,

19 1983

Sandra Kay Gabbert April 1, 1984

17

April 17,

20 1983

Gail Lynn Mathews September 19, 1983

23

April 22,

21 1983

Marie M. Malvar September 29, 2003

18

April 30,

22 1983

Carol Ann Christensen May 8, 1983

21

May 4,

23 1983

Martina Theresa Authorlee November 14, 1984

18

May 22,

24 1983

Cheryl Lee Wims March 22, 1984

18

May 23,

25 1983

Yvonne Shelly Antosh October 15, 1983

19

May 31,

26 1983

Carrie A. Rois March 10, 1985

15

June 2,

27 1983

Constance Elizabeth Naon October 27, 1983

19

June 8,

28 1983

Kelly Marie Ware October 29, 1983

22

July 18,

29 1983

Tina Marie Thompson April 20, 1984

21

July 25,

30 23, 1983

April Dawn Buttram August 31, 2003

16

August

31 5, 1983

Debbie May Abernathy March 31, 1984

26

September

32 12, 1983

Tracy Ann Winston March 27, 1986

19

September

33 28, 1983

Maureen Sue Feeney May 2, 1986

19

September

34 11, 1983

Mary Sue Bello October 12, 1984

25

October

35 26, 1983

Pammy Avent August 16, 2003

15

October

36 30, 1983

Delise Louise Plager February 14, 1984

22

October

37 1, 1983

Kimberly L. Nelson June 14, 1986

21

November

38 23, 1983

Lisa Yates March 13, 1984

19

December

39 6, 1984

Mary Exzetta West September 8, 1985

16

February

40 1984

Cindy Anne Smith June 27, 1987

17

March 21,

41 17, 1986

Patricia Michelle Barczak February 1993

19

October

42 Roberta Joseph Hayes 21 Last seen leaving a Portland, Oregon jail on February

7,1987 Kurran 1987

43

Rose Marie 16 August September 1987

44 Marta Reeves 36 between March 5th and April 13, 1990 September 20, 1990

45 1998

Patricia Yellowrobe August 6, 1998

38

January

46 Unidentified White Female prior to May 1983 March 21, 1984

12-17

Died

47 19

Unidentified White Female 17Unknown April 22, 1985

48 Unidentified Black Female 1982 and 1984 December 30, 1985

18-27

Between

49 Unidentified White Female 14-18 From December 1980 to January 1984 January 2, 1986

Serial Killer Profile: Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for a series of gruesome murders of 17 young men from 1988 until he was caught on July 22, 1991, in Milwaukee.

Dahmer's Childhood Years Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. From all accounts Dahmer was a happy child who enjoyed typical toddler activities. It was not until the age of six, after undergoing hernia surgery, that his personality began to change from a jubilant social child to a loner who was uncommunicative and withdrawn. His facial expressions transformed from childhood smiles to a motionless blank stare, a look which remained with him throughout his life.

Pre-Teen Years In 1966, the Dahmers moved to Bath, Ohio. Dahmer's insecurities grew after the move and his shyness kept him from having many friends. While his peers were

busy listening to the latest songs, Dahmer was busy collecting road kill and stripping the animal carcasses and saving the bones.

Other idle time was spent alone, buried deep inside his fantasies. His non-confrontational attitude with his parents was considered an attribute yet in reality it was his apathy towards the real world that made him appear obedient.

Disturbing High School Years Dahmer continued being a loner during his years at Revere High School. He had average grades, worked on the school newspaper and developed a bad drinking problem. His parents, possibly distracted from their own struggles, divorced when Jeff was almost 18. He remained living with his father who travelled a lot and was busy nurturing a relationship with his new wife.

After high school Dahmer enrolled at the Ohio State University and spent most of his time skipping classes and getting drunk. After two semesters he dropped out and returned home. His father issued him an ultimatum - get a job or join the Army. In 1979 he enlisted for six years into the Army, but his drinking continued and in 1981, after serving only two years, he was discharged because of his drunken behaviour.

First Kill Unknown to anyone, Jeffery Dahmer was mentally disintegrating. In June of 1988, he was struggling with his own homosexual desires, mixed with his need to act out his sadistic fantasies. Perhaps this

struggle is what pushed him to pick up a hitchhiker, 19-year-old Steven Hicks. He invited Hicks to his father's home and the two drank and engaged in sex, but when Hicks was ready to leave Dahmer bashed him in the head with a barbell and killed him.

He then cut up the body, placing the parts in garbage bags, which he buried in the woods surrounding his father's property. Years later he returned and dug up the bags and crushed the bones and disbursed the remains around the woods. As insane as he had become, he had not lost site of the need to cover his murderous tracks. Later his explanation for killing Hicks was simply, he didn't want him to leave.

Prison Time Dahmer spent the next six years living with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin. He continued drinking heavily and stayed in trouble with the police. In August 1982, he was arrested after exposing himself at a state fair. In September 1986, he was arrested and charged with public exposure after masturbating in public. He served 10 months in jail, but was arrested soon after his release after sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy in Milwaukee. He was given five-years probation after convincing the judge that he needed therapy.

His father, unable to understand what was happening to his son, continued to stand by him, making certain he had good legal council. He also began to accept that there was little he could do to help the demons which seemed to rule Dahmer's behaviour. He realized that his son was missing a most basic human element a conscience.
Steve Toumi

Murder Spree In September 1987, while on probation on the molestation charges, Dahmer met 26-year-old Steven Toumi and the two spent the night drinking heavily and cruising gay bars, then went to a hotel room. When Dahmer awoke from his drunken stupor he found Toumi dead.

Dahmer put Toumi's body into a suitcase which he took to his grandmother's basement. There he discarded the body in the garbage after dismembering it, but not before gratifying his sexual necrophilia desires.

Passive Sex Unlike most serial killers, who kill then move on to find another victim, Dahmer's fantasies included a series of crimes against the corpse of his victims, or what he referred to as passive sex. This became part of his regular pattern and possibly the one obsession that pushed him to kill.

On His Own Killing his victims in his grandmother's basement was becoming increasingly difficult to hide. He was working as a mixer at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory and could afford a small apartment, so in September 1988, he got a one bedroom apartment on North 24th St. in Milwaukee.

Dahmer's Ritual Dahmer's killing spree continued and for most of his victims the scene was the same. He would meet them at a gay bar or mall and entice them with free alcohol

and money if they agreed to pose for photographs. Once alone, he would drug them, sometimes torture them and then kill them usually by strangulation. He would then masturbate over the corpse or have sex with the corpse, cut the body up and get rid of the remains. He also kept parts of the bodies including the skulls, which he would clean much like he did with his childhood road kill collection and often refrigerated organs which he would on occasion eat.

Known Victims Name - Age - Date Murdered Stephen Hicks - 18 - June, 1978
Stephen Hicks Jun 1978 -

1Steven Tuomi - 26 - September, 1987 Jamie Doxtator - 14 - October, 1987 Richard Guerrero - 25 - March, 1988 Anthony Sears - 24 - February, 1989 Eddie Smith - 36 - June, 1990 Ricky Beeks - 27 - July, 1990 Ernest Miller - 22 - September, 1990 David Thomas - 23 - September, 1990 Curtis Straughter - 16 - February, 1991 Errol Lindsey - 19 - April, 1991 Tony Hughes - 31 - May 24, 1991 Konerak Sinthasomphone - 14 - May 27, 1991 Matt Turner - 20 - June 30, 1991 Jeremiah Weinberger - 23 - July 5, 1991

Oliver Lacy - 23 - July 12, 1991 Joseph Bradeholt - 25 - July 19, 1991

A Near Escape His murdering activity continued uninterrupted until an incident in May 27, 1991. His 13th victim was 14year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, who was also the younger brother of the boy Dahmer was convicted of molesting in 1989.

Early in the morning the young Sinthasomphone was seen wondering the street nude and disoriented. When police arrived on the scene there were paramedics, two women who were standing close to the confused Sinthasomphone and Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer told police that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old lover who had become drunk and the two had quarreled.

The police escorted Dahmer and the boy back to Dahmer's apartment, much against the protest of the women who had witnessed Sinthasomphone fighting off Dahmer before the police had arrived.

The police found Dahmer's apartment neat and other than noticing an unpleasant smell nothing seemed amiss. They left Sinthasomphone under Dahmer's care.

Later the police, John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, joked with their dispatcher about reuniting the lovers. Within hours Dahmer killed Sinthasomphone and performed his usual ritual on the body.

The Killing Escalates In June and July 1991, Dahmer's killing had escalated to one a week until July 22, when Dahmer was unable to hold captive his 18th victim, Tracy Edwards.

According to Edwards, Dahmer tried to handcuff him and the two struggled. Edwards escaped and was spotted at around midnight by police, with the handcuff dangling from his wrist. Assuming he had somehow escaped from the authorities the police stopped him. Edwards immediately told them about his encounter with Dahmer and led them to his apartment.

Dahmer opened his door to the officers and answered their questions calmly. He agreed to turn over the key to unlock Edwards's handcuffs and moved to the bedroom to get it. One of the officers went with him and as he glanced around the room he noticed photographs of what appeared to be parts of bodies and a refrigerator full of human skulls.

They decided to place Dahmer under arrest and attempted to handcuff him, but his calm demeanour changed and he began to fight and struggle unsuccessfully to get away. With Dahmer under control the police then began their initial search of the apartment and soon discovered skulls and other various body parts along with an extensive photo collection Dahmer had taken documenting his crimes.

The Crime Scene The details of what was found in Dahmer's apartment were horrific, matching only to his confessions as to what he did to his victims.

Items found in Dahmer's apartment included: A human head and three bags of organs, two being a heart were found in the refrigerator.

Three heads, a torso and various internal organs were inside a free-standing freezer.

Chemicals, formaldehyde, ether, and chloroform plus two skulls, two hands and male genitalia were found in the closet.

A filing cabinet which contained three painted skulls, a skeleton, a dried scalp, male genitalia, and various photographs of his victims.

A box with two skulls inside.

A 57-gallon vat filled with acid and three torsos.

Victims' identification.

Bleach used to bleach the skulls and bones.

Incense sticks. Neighbours often complained to Dahmer about the smell coming from his apartment.

Tools - Claw hammer, handsaw, 3/8" drill, 1/16" drill, drill bits.

A hypodermic needle.

Various videos, some pornographic.

Blood soaked mattress and blood splatters.

King James Bible. The Trial Jeffrey Dahmer was indicted on 17 murder charges which were later reduced to 15. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Much of the testimony was based on Dahmer's 160-page confession and from various witnesses who testified that Dahmer's necrophilia urges were so strong that he was not in control of his actions. The defence sought to prove that he was in control and capable of planning, manipulating, then covering up his crimes.

The jury deliberated for five hours and returned a verdict of guilty on 15 counts of murder. Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life terms, a total of 937 years in prison. At his sentencing Dahmer calmly read his four page statement to the court. He apologized for his crimes and ended with, "I hated no one. I knew I was sick or evil or both. Now I believe I was sick. The doctors have told me about my sickness, and now I have some peace. I know how much harm I have caused... Thank God there will be no more harm that I can do. I believe that only

the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sins... I ask for no consideration."

Life Sentence Dahmer was sent to the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. At first he was separated from the general prison population for his own safety. But by all reports he was considered a model prisoner who had adjusted well to prison life and was a self-proclaimed born-again Christian. Gradually he was permitted to have some contact with other inmates.

Murdered On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and inmate Jesse Anderson were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while on work detail in the prison gym. Anderson was in prison for killing his wife and Scarver was a schizophrenic convicted firstdegree murder. The guards for unknown reasons left the three alone only to return 20 minutes later to find Anderson dead and Dahmer dying from severe head trauma. Dahmer died in the ambulance before reaching the hospital.

Fighting Over Dahmer's Brain In Dahmer's will he had requested upon his death that his body be cremated as soon as possible, but some medical researches wanted his brain preserved so it could be studied. Lionel Dahmer wanted to respect his son's wishes and cremate all remains of his son. His mother felt his brain should go to research. The two parents went to court and a judge sided with Lionel. After over a year Dahmer's body was released from being held as evidence and he was cremated as he had wished.

Serial Killer Profile: Arthur Shawcross

Known also as the 'Genesse River Killer' after a place where many of his victims were found, Arthur John Shawcross was convicted of some of the most savage slayings and cannibalistic perversions that America had known in recent years. And the fact that he was able to kill and kill again was largely down to a tragic blunder-for he claimed most of his victims after being paroled early following the murder of two children. Born in 1945 in Kittery, Maine, Shawcross's parents moved to Watertown, New York State, where he was a surly, aggressive child with a particularly low IQ. As a teenager, Shawcross had a tendency toward bullying and violence, and received several probationary sentences for minor crimes. In 1967, he was drafted to Vietnam, where his sadistic tendencies seemed to have flourished. According to his own accounts, he raped, slaughtered, and cannibalized two Vietnamese peasant girls during a combat mission on his tour of duty. Back on United States soil, Shawcross was well into his third violent marriage when, in May 1972, a neighbor's son, 10-year-old Jack Blake, disappeared

from his home in Watertown, New Your. It would be five months before the boy's body was finally located. He had been sexually assaulted and suffocated. Four months later, the body of 8-year-old Karen Hill was found under a bridge. She had been raped and murdered, and mud, leaves and other debris had been forced down her throat and inside her clothing. Witnesses linked Shawcross to the two murders and, in October 1972 he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Due to lack of evidence tying him to Jack Blakes death, Shawcross was charged with only Karen Hill's killing. He received a 25-year jail sentence, of which he served 15 years.

ABOVE: A police mugshot of Arthur Shawcross taken in January 1990. Later that year he was convicted of killing 10 women.

Released on parole in March 1987, he settled in Binghamton, NY, but angry citizens learned of his bloody history and ran him out of town. After two other communities turned him away, desperate parole authorities finally smuggled the homicidal pedophile into Rochester, NY. Neglecting to alert police and

sealing Shawcross's criminal record to avoid further public outcry seemed the only way to keep him from being uprooted again, but this gross incompetence would later cost more victims their lives. It wasn't long before Shawcross began killing again, but now he preyed primarily upon prostitutes. In the spring of 1988, mutilated corpses started turning up in woods and marshland, under ice and floating in streams near the Genesse River. The women had been either strangled, battered to death and most, as in the case of his first victim, 27 year-old prostitute Dorothy Blackburn, had undergone a vicious attack revealed by bite marks in the groin area. As more bodies turned up in the similar condition, detectives knew that this was the work of a serial killer, and one that indicated previous criminal or possibly military experience. Yet as Shawcross' criminal records have been sealed, he was not a suspect. Eleven victims were found dead or went missing in the space of less than two years before police finally caught up with the killer.

ABOVE: Shawcross after pleading guilty on first degree manslaughter in the deaths of two children, in October 1972.

In January 1990, the body of a 34-year-old prostitute June Cicero was discovered by aerial surveillance in the Rochester area. Quite by chance, as the helicopter flew above, Shawcross was relieving the pleasure of the attack by masturbating at the bridge above where the body lay on the frozen river. His vehicle license plate was noted and he was later arrested. Shawcross confessed to all the murders after a piece of jewelry given to his fourth wife was traced back to one of his victims. In his confession, he stated that he killed one woman cause she bit him, another for trying to steal his wallet, a further was murdered because she call him " a wimp" and one simply because she made too much noise during sex. He admitted that he would sometimes return to his victims decomposing remains weeks after the murder to cut out and eat pieces of the corpses, and he bragged of doing similarly disgusting things to young Jack Blake's body after killing the boy.

ABOVE: A painting by Shawcross from 2001 entitled 'What dreams are made of'. It was part of a display of inmate art at The New York Legislative Office Building in Albany.

In December 1990, Shawcross was convicted of killing 10 of the women. His lawyers attempt to obtain a lighter sentence - citing mental illness and blaming a supposedly abusive upbringing and a traumatic spell in Vietnam- were rejected and he was given 10 life sentences. Three months later, Shawcross pleaded guilty to strangling a further woman whose body had been found in November 1989, in woods in neighboring Wayne County and he received a further life sentence. While serving time at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York for the murder of the 11 women Shawcross complained of pains in his leg and later died from a massive coronary on November 10, 2008.

Serial Killer Profile:Charles Ng & Leonard Lake

THE OPERATION MIRANDA BUNKER

When it is compared to the horrific crimes that have been committed by Charles NG, shoplifting seems such a trivial offence. Yet the simple theft of a bench vice was enough to seal NG's fate and that of his partner in crime, Leonard Lake. Ng was born in Hong Kong on Christmas Eve, 1960, to a wealthy, if unstable, family. His father, a highlyplaced company executive, maintained discipline through constant beatings. The adolescent Ng was a poor student with no friends, so he distinguished himself by attacking and beating younger children. At the age of 15 he was caught shoplifting for the first time. He was sent to an English boarding school, but he was expelled after setting fire to a classroom. At the age of 18 he moved to the United States, where he attended Notre Dame de Namur University, a small Catholic institution that is located in Belmont, California. He lasted just one semester. Despite his dismal academic background, Ng was accepted into the United States Marine Corps in 1980. Less than a year later, he was caught stealing

various kinds of weapons, including machine guns, from the Hawaiian base at which he was stationed. His attempt to escape added a charge of desertion to his record. After being dishonorably discharged, he was sentenced to 14 years in a military prison, but was released in late 1982. Ng's bad experience with the marines was something he shared with Leonard Lake. Born on 29 October 1945 in San Francisco, Lake had not enjoyed anything like Ng's Privileged childhood. His parents had separated when he was only 6 years old, which resulted in the Lake children being sent to live with their grandparents. Unlike Ng he had been a fairly good student as a child. He had also pursued some odd hobbies. He kept mice and, when they died, watched with interest as he dissolved their bodies in acid. He also enjoyed taking nude photographs of his sisters, an activity that was encouraged by his grandmother. His favorite book was The Collector by John Fowles, a novel about a seemingly mild young man who imprisons an attractive art school student, Miranda Grey, while he tries to make her love him.

Personality Disorder
Lake was 19 when he joined the Marines. He completed two tours of duty in Vietnam as a radar operator, but he was discharged in 1971 after having been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. Once more a civilian, he enrolled in San Jose' state University, but he lasted only one semester. Lake's 1975 marriage was equally brief. It ended when his wife learned that he had been making amateur pornographic films. Even worse, he had been starring in them. He remarried in 1981, though his return to marital status was brief. His second wife did not want to act in his pornographic films, most of which featured bondage and sadomasochism. By the time he was arrested on a firearms violation in the following year, Lake had already gone through with his second divorce.

It was Lake's second brush with the law. He had already served some time for car theft and he had no intention of returning to prison. Skipping bail, he hid out in a isolated property in Calaveras County, California, that belonged to his wife. It was not long before Lake met Charles Ng. They were both visiting San Francisco's red-light district at the time. The two men immediately recognized each other as kindred spirits. Among other things they shared a common interest in firearms and other weapons, as well as a belief in a coming nuclear holocaust. Before long, Ng joined lake in Calaveras County, where he assisted him in setting up ' Operation Miranda', a project that was named after the woman who had been held captive in The Collector. Leonard Lake explained the plan in a video he had mad of himself in October 1983, shortly before his 38th birthday. 'What I want is an off the shelf sex partner. I want to be able to use a woman whenever and however I want. And when Im tired or bored I simply want to put her away'.

To this end, the pair built a bunker in the side of a hill. It was intended as the first of many that would house the pair's sex slaves. The women would be used to repopulate the planet after the expected nuclear war. Crudely constructed, it consisted of a main room that contained the power saws and the other tools that were need for disposing of bodies. There was also a smaller, sparsley- furnished room. Beneath it there was a cramped, windowless cell, which could be accessed through a trapdoor in the floor. On its walls were photographs of the young women that Lake and Ng abducted, tortured, raped and killed. The pair had also murdered a number of men and children- usually those who had been with the women when they were captured.

Lake and Ng built a bunker in the side of the hill. It was intended to house sex slaves. The women would be used to populate the planet after the expected nuclear war

Most of the victims' bodies were burned in a homemade crematorium that had been built beside the bunker. Exactly how many people Ng and Lake killed is unknown, though the number is usually estimated between 15and 25. What can be said with more certainty is that Operation Miranda came to an end on 2 June 1985. On that day, customers as a San Francisco hardware store noticed Ng stealing a bench vice. Police officers caught sight of the former Marine as he was putting the stolen item in the back of a Honda, but he managed to flee on foot. Lake had been sitting at the wheel, so he was easily apprehended. He was taken to the local police station where a quick search uncovered a revolver, complete with silencer. As the detectives prepared to question their suspect, the driving licence he provided was run through the system. The name on the document, Robin Scott Stapley, was that of a man who had been missing for nearly four months. It was then discovered that the Honda was registered to Paul Cosner, a man who had disappeared in the previous November while delivering the vehicle to a prospective purchaser. While he was waiting in the interrogation room, Lake asked for a pencil, and a sheet of paper and some water. Minutes later, he was found slumped in his chair, barely alive. He was also rushed to hospital, where it was discovered that he had swallowed cyanide pill. He

died four days later. The pencil and paper had been used to write one last letter to his second wife, the owner of the Calaveras County property:

Dear Lyn, I love you. I figure your freedom is better than all else. Tell fern I'm sorry. Mum, patty and all. I'm sorry for all the trouble. Love Leonard

After Lake's death, investigators from the local sheriff's office visited his isolated mountain home. There was some suspicion that he and Ng had been trading stolen goods. They had, after all, been advertising used items for sale. One look at the house was enough to make them realize that petty theft was the least of their crimes. The living room ceiling was stained with blood and there were bullet holes here and there. In the master bedroom, the investigators found a collection of lingerie, much of it stained with blood. The mattress on the bed was also stained and electrical cords had been tied to the bedposts.

The view from the secret peep-hole into the bunker

After searching the grounds, the investigators found ashes, teeth and human bones buried in a long trench. Because the act of cremation had made the identification difficult, the authorities relied on other clues. For example, Lake had been trying to sell some furniture that belonged to his neighbours. He explained that the items had been left as payment for a debt when they had moved to Los Angeles. Yet, those same neighbours - Lonnie Bond, his girlfriend Brenda O' Connor and their baby - were nowhere to be found. An impressive array of expensive video equipment was found in the house. It was traced back to Harvey and Deborah Dubs, a young couple who had disappeared from their San Francisco home in the previous year. Their 16-month-old son was also missing.

Among the victims that the police were able to positively identify was Donald Lake, Leonards brother. After two weeks, the police had discovered nine bodies and nearly 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of charred teeth and bones. Though it was painstaking work, which involved dozens of people sifting through tons of soil, some progress had at least been made. The same could not be said about the hunt for Charles Ng. Like his many victims, he seemed to have vanished. Could it be that Ng, too, had taken his own life.

Fugitive
In fact, Ng was very much alive. He had fled some 1,500 km (940 miles) to the north, where he had managed to cross the border into Canada. On 6 July 1985, after he had been on the run for more than a month, he was spotted shoplifting in a downtown Calgary department store. When he was approached by two male security guards, Ng pulled out a revolver and shot one of the men in the hand. Incredibly, the injured guard still managed to overpower the former Marine and keep him restrained until the police arrived.

Above Jim Stenquist, Calaveras County information officer, reveals the

bunkers secret entrance It did not take the Canadian authorities long to identify Ng, but his extradition created a legal problem. Canada was a country that had abolished capital punishment, so the authorities were reluctant to send Ng back to California, where the death penalty was still in force. That is not to say that Ng was a free man. In December 1985 he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for shooting the department store security guard. As Ng sat in a Canadian prison, American lawyers fought to have him returned to the United States. One of the arguments was that Canada risked becoming a safe haven for criminals who faced the death penalty ay home.

Bone fragments are examined outside Lake and Ngs house.

Then on 26 August 1991, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Ng could be extradited. Minutes after the ruling, the murderer was on a flight back to the United States. Ng's trial did not begin until October 1998, more than 13 years after his last murder. Eight months later, he was found guilty of the murder of three women, six men and two babies. He was sentenced to death. In 1999, pending appeal, he took up residence on San Quentin Prison death row.

Serial Killer Profile: Donald Harvey

How Donald Harvey ever got a job working in hospitals is a mystery to many of the families of those he murdered. In 1987, he confessed to killing between 85 and 100 patients. His mental state made it difficult to sift fact from fiction, however, and, in three separate trials, he was convicted of 40 murders.

Scourge of the ' Angel of Death'

Born in 1952 and raised in Booneville, in the Appalachain Mountains, Harvey was a homosexual obsessed with the occult. He also had a fascination for all things medical. At the age of 18, he took a part-time post as a junior orderly at Marymount Hospital in London Kentucky. There, he was later to confess, he killed 12 patients in 10 months by suffocation or removing their oxygen supply " to ease their suffering". In 1972 he joined the US Air Force but was discharged less than a year later and was subsequently committed to the Veterans' Administration Medical Center in Lexington, where attempts were made to cure his mental disorders by the application of electroshock

therapy. Undeterred by this dramatic treatment, Harvey disguised his recent medical history and secured part-time jobs as a nursing assistant at two Lexington hospitals and as a clerk at a hospital in Fort Thomas. There are no records of any deaths at his hands in those hospitals but the killings started anew when he moved to Ohio in 1975 to work at the Cincinnati Veterans' Association Medical Center in jobs ranging from nursing aide to the laboratory technician to mortuary assistant. Harvey literally got away with murder for 10 years. In 1985, he was searched by security guards and was found to have been carrying hypodermic needles, cocaine-snorting equipment, and a .38 caliber pistol. He was fined $50 and fired but that was not impediment to his getting another hospital job. Within a few months he picked up a new post as a nurse's aide at the city's Drake Memorial Hospital. Patients were now regularly dying at Harvey's hands, his methods including injecting air into their veins, sprinkling rat poison on their food, disconnecting life support machines, and suffocation with plastic bags and wet towels. He sometimes inserted a coat hanger into a catheter, causing an abdominal puncture and subsequent peritonitis. His favorite methods, however, were poisoning by arsenic, cyanide, insulin, morphine or fluid tainted with hepatitis B or HIV. Harvey's colleagues were now calling him 'Angel of Death' because so many patients died on his shifts. Yet it took an autopsy on one of his victims to reveal that a poisoner was on the loose. Harvey was arrested in April 1987 and was found to have kept a diary of his crimes. It revealed that during his 10 years at the Cincinnati Veterans Association Medical Center, he had murdered 15 patients. In his 13 months at Drake Memorial, he murdered another 23 patients. He had also attempted to murder his gay lover, Carl Hoeweler, after they had fallen out. Hoeweler ended up in hospital but survived. So did Hoeweler's mother, to whom he had also administered poison. His father was similarly admitted to hospital but died in

May 1983 after Harvey had visited him and sprinkled more poison on his food. As Harvey's trial date loomed, the killer began a spate of plea bargaining to avoid Ohio's death penalty. In an apparent bid to demonstrate insanity, he first confessed to 33 murders, then 50, then 80plus. The view of the Cincinnati prosecutor's office was clear, however 'This man is sane and competent but is a compulsive killer'. In court in Cincinnati on August 18, 1987, Harvey was given four consecutive 20-years-to-life sentences after pleading guilty to 25 counts of murder. A further trial opened in Kentucky in November, when he pleaded guilty to 12 murders at the Marymount Hospital and was sentenced to eight life terms. Back in Cincinnati in February 1988, he pleaded guilty to three further murders and three attempted murders, drawing three further life sentences. That made a total of 40 murders far short of his last confessed total of 87. Since Harvey is notable for keeping his crimes undetected over 17 years, their true extent may never be known.

Serial Killer Profile: Ivan Milat

In September 1992, ramblers in the Belanglo State Forest, New South Wales Australia, discovered a corpse. The following day, police discovered a second body nearby. The corpses were those of two British girls, 21-year-old Caroline Clarke and 22-year-old Joanne Walters, who had been missing since hitch hiking from Sydney.

Hitch-Hikers Executed By The ' Backpack Killer'

Caroline had been stabbed and shot in the head several times, the angle of the bullets' entry suggesting to forensic scientists that the killer had used her for target practice. Joanne had been stabbed in the heart and lungs, one cut penetrating her spine and probably paralyzing her before the wounds that finally killed her. The discoveries sparked a hunt for one of Australia's most notorious and evil serial killers: Ivan Robert Marko Milat. Born in 1945, one of 14 children of a Croat immigrant, he became known as the 'Backpack Killer' because of the way he targeted young hikers. Belanglo State Forest seemed to be his favorite ' killing field'.

Other corpses began turning up in the forest. In October 1993, a walker discovered the remains of James Gibson, and his girlfriend Deborah Everist, both 19 and from Victoria, who had disappeared while hitch-hiking in December 1989. Forensics later confirmed that James had suffered the killer's ' trademark' knife wound through the spine, paralyzing him before he was killed. The same fate had been suffered by Simone Schmidl, 21, whose body was found the following month. The German girl, missing since January 1991, had been sexually assaulted. Clothing found at the scene was not Schmidl's, however, but matched that of another missing backpacker, 20-year-old Anja Habschied. What was left of Anja and 21-year-old boyfriend Gabor Neuebauer was discovered a few days later. Her head was missing, together with two of her vertebrae. She had been decapitated with a sword while alive and in a kneeling position, Gabor had been gagged and strangled. His skull showed six bullet entries. It was now clear that a ritualistic serial killer was on the prowl. Police received hundreds of calls from the worried parents around the world who wanted assurance that their backpacking children were safe. But the news of the killing spree also brought the first clue as to the identity of the perpetrator. British student Paul Onions, 20, had been picked up by a driver in southern New South Wales in January 1990. The man acted so peculiarly that Paul fled and, with his pursuer chasing him gun in hand, Paul flagged down another passing vehicle and escaped. He reported the attack but was told by police that, without a license plate number, there was little chance of tracing the gunman. Tragically for other, less lucky victims, that proved to be the case. But when Paul Onions repeated his story four years later, police had a description of the ' Backpack Killer'. And when Ivan Milat was subsequently fingered as a prime suspect, Paul was

shown a photograph of Milat and was able to identify him straight away.

Above: the scene outside Campbelltown Local Court in May 1994 as Ivan Milat is charged in relation to the Paul Onions case.

The final breakthrough came when a woman called to say that her boyfriend worked at a ready-mixed concrete company with a man called Ivan Milat who lived near the forest and was a gun fanatic. Detectives established that Milat had been absent from work on the probable dates of the murders, and they pounced on him at his home in Eaglevale while he lay in bed with his girlfriend. Milat vehemently denied knowledge of the slayings but a search of his house produced items of property belonging to his victims, along with cartridges that matched those found near the backpackers bodies. Charged with the seven murders, Milat was finally found guilty on all counts and, in June 1995, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was taken to a high-security jail in Maitland, southwest of Sydney, bragging that he would one day escape. He made one failed escape attempts in July 1995.

Six years later, a closely-guarded Milat was brought from prison to appear at a reopened inquest into the deaths of three girls who had disappeared in 1978 and 1979 in similar circumstances to those surrounding Milat's other victims. The killer refused to cooperate, and the deaths of the girls 20, 17, and 14 remained unattributed. However, Milat is still suspected of being responsible for many other murders. Over the years, Milat continued to raise appeals against his conviction. Several times, he injured himself in prison, swallowing razor blades, staples, and other metal objects. In January 2009, he cut off his little finger with a plastic knife, planning to mail it to the high court.

Above: The prison van used to transport Milat to court to face various charges in May 1994.

Serial Killer Profile: The Long Island Serial Killer

The Long Island serial killer, wanted for the murders of 10 people, may have learnt how to cover his tracks by watching television crime dramas like CSI. The investigation's leading officer said that a familiarity with such shows, which have popularised the techniques of crime scene investigation, could explain how the killer has avoided capture and delayed the identification of his victims. The theory comes after the police said that they are now looking for a single killer for the deaths of eight women, a man and a baby whose remains have been found over the past year.

'Craigslist killer': Amber Lynn Costello, 27, (top left), Megan Waterman (top right), Melissa Barthelemy, 24, (bottom left) and Maureen Brainer-Barnes, 25 have been positively identified as bodies found on a Long Island beach.

Detectives had earlier suggested that several killers could have been responsible and there had been speculation that one could be a former police officer. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told The Times newspaper; 'We havent determined that a police officer is involved. 'Anyone who watches these shows on TV - they are very familiar with police investigative techniques.' The killer has attempted to remove an identifying tattoo from one of the victims and has dismembered the bodies before dumping the remains in different locations on the island in efforts apparently to thwart the identification of his victims. Only five of the 10 victims have been identified, all of those identified were women working as escorts who advertised on Craigslist.

Victim: The fifth victim to be identified was Jessica Taylor, who died in 2003 above Picture.

Mr Dormer told The Times: 'There are a lot of similarities that now point to one person. 'The first four bodies discovered near Gilgo Beach wrapped in burlap sacks last December were identified as those of women who had been working as prostitutes and posted adverts on Craigslist. The women identified were Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Megan Waterman, 22, and Maureen Brainer-Barnes, 25. In March they found the head and forearm of 20-yearold Jessica Taylor whose torso had been found in 2003, in Manorville. By April they had found the remains of three more women, a young Asian man and a toddler. The man, who is aged between 17 and 23 and is believed to have died between five and ten years ago - was wearing female clothes. 'The Asian male was a small type of person wearing womens clothes,' Mr Dormer told The Times newspaper.

Unidentified: Police sketches of the Asian male victim and one of the three unidentified female victims known only as 'Jane Doe No. 6' Above picture.

'Our theory is that he may have been involved in the sex trade. 'Then there was a toddler in the same area. It was connected to the remains of a female found miles away in the Jones Beach area.' DNA evidence suggested they were mother and daughter. Mr Dormer describes limbs dismembered and dumped separately apparently to delay the police investigation. 'We have remains (from the same body) found near Gilgo Beach and over 40 miles away in Manorville,' he said.

Serial killer: The Long Island killer, wanted for the murders of 10 people, may have covered his tracks by watching television crime dramas like CSI

'We have remains found off Ocean Parkway (near the shoreline) connected to two legs found at Davis Park, on Fire Island,' (nearly 20 miles to the east). He said: 'Those two legs were found on Fire Island in 1996. The killer is believed to have been operating for 15 years. 'Its a long period of time. The theory is his familiar with and comfortable with the Long Island area,' said Mr Dormer in The Times report. 'He covered the distances between where the body parts were dumped-this person would be driving with remains in the vehicle. He had to be very comfortable with where he was.'

Location: Gilgo Beach where the bodies of 10 prostitutes have been found including the body of an Asian man in women's clothing

Vernon Geberth, a former commanding officer of the Bronx Homicide Task Force and the author of the police textbook Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation, told The Times newspaper the killers techniques appeared to have altered over time. He said: 'The two bodies they found inland, they were beheaded and their hands were removed and dumped separately. 'That was so the victims couldnt be identified. But the hands and head were never found. He thinks: Hmm, its a pain in the ass to move, maybe next time I will just put the bodies in burlap The search team that found the first of the bodies wrapped in burlap were looking for New Jersey prostitute Shannan Gilbert, 23, who also advertised as an escort on Craigslist. She has still not been found.

Serial Killer Profile: John Bunting and accomplices

On May 21, 1999, Adelaide ploice reopened a missing persons investigation that led them to a disused bank vault in rural Snowtown, South Australia. What they found there was a chamber of horrors that would stun the nation. Six acid filled plastic barrels contained the grisly, mummified remains of eight dismembered bodies. Three days later, two further bodies were found buried in a backyard in a suburb north of adelaide. A day later, four men were arrested, and the search for justice began.

Dismembered Bodies In Chamber Of Horrors

Former abattoir worker John Justin Bunting, born in Queensland in 1966, was the ringleader of a dysfunctional group of victims of child sex abuse and incest who shared an overriding hatred for homosexuals and pedophiles. Bunting, a psychopathic killer, and himself a victim of childhood sexual abuse, enlisted the help of friends ( Robert Wagner and Mark Haydon, Bunting's second wife Elizabeth Harvey and stepson James Vlassakis) to partake in various acts of abduction, torture, and disposal of bodies. Usuallyy based on flimsy evidence or rumour, victims were murdered if suspected of being pedophiles. Others were killed because they were obese,

illiterate, mentally disabled, gay or drug addicted. Most of the victims were friends, acquaintances or family members of at least one of the group. Although not the motive for the killings, the murders took on the identity of their victims to claim their welfare benefits, forging their signatures to pocket $95,000 and in some cases 'inheriting' their cars. Bunting's killing spree began in August 1992. Clinton Trezise, 22, was struck about the head with a hammer several times in Bunting's living room after being invited round for a social visit. For the neext seven years, Bunting and his accomplices took the lives of various men and women using torture methods such as electirc clamps, pliers, cigarettes, and lit sparklers inserted in the penis in order to 'cure' their victims of their crimes. The victims were forced to call their torturers 'God','Master', 'Chief Inspector', and 'Lord Sir'. Among the death toll was Suzanne Allen, 47, a friend of Bunting; Elizabeth Haydon, 37, wife of one of Bunting's co-conspirators; and Thomas Trevilyan, 18, who had helped murder one victim but was later killed after discussing the crime with others. In September 1998, Bunting's stepson, James Vlassakis, was persuaded to participate in the murder of his own half-brother Troy Youde, just 21, who was killed in his house after being dragged from his bed while asleep. David Johnson, 24, was the last to be murdered, in May 1999. He was lured to the disused bank with the promise of a low price computer. There he was handcuffed and made to give his bank details. Two of the killers left to confirm the details were correct and Bunting strangled Johnson before they returned. In the final stages of a complex, year long missing perons investigation, police entered the former Snowtown branch of the State Bank of South Australia

after a tip off from neighbors. The discovery there of the eight dismembered bodies horrified hardened cops. Days later, two more bodies were uncovered at Bunting's former house and were linked to the same killers. Bunting, Haydon, Wagner, and Vlassakis were arrested and charged with murder. After 11 months of shocking evidence in South Australia's longest and most complex criminal trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict against John Bunting and Robet Wagner. The jury found Bunting killed 11 people while his accomplice, Wagner, a bisexual muscleman, murdered seven. They were each sentenced to life imprisonment on each count, to be served cumulatively. The presiding judge, Justice Brian Martin, said the men were ' in the business of killing for pleasure' and were 'incapable of true rehabilitation'. In a separate trial in the Adelaide Supreme Court, 22, year old James Vlassakis, pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and was handed a life sentence with a 26 year non-parole period. The prceedings against Mark Haydon continued into September 2005, when murder charges against him were dropped in return for guilty pleas to charges of assisting in the killings, including that of his wife, Elizabeth. The convictions proved what South Australians first gathered four years previously: that a group of sadistic killers had operated unchecked in their midst for most of the previous decade. Finally, their reign of terror had been brought to an end.

Serial Killer Profile: Harold Shipman

A jubilant cry of 'Yes' rang out from one of the deceased's relatives after the guilty verdict was announced in the case against Dr Harold Shipman. Britain's 'Doctor Death' was going to prison for life. That day, January 31, 2000, ended a chilling chapter in criminal history. For Shipman's 24-yearlong trail of corpses made him the country's most prolific serial killer ever.

'Doctor Death': Britain's Most Prolific Serial Killer

The doctor was convicted of murdering 15 patients. A year later, a government report put the number of his victims at 236, of whom 218 could positively be identified. That immediately placed him just behind recent history's most prolific serial killer, Colombian Pedro Lopez, dubbed the 'Monster of the Andes' Shipman hid his murders behind the mask of a respected suburban doctor. His victims tended to be elderly females, although the 20 percent who were males included his youngest, aged 41. The doctor hoarded lethal drugs like candy and often caringly patted his victims hands as he injected them with

heroin along with an assurance that it will cure their illness or at least ease their suffering.

Above: Harold Shipman hid behind a mask of caring GP to murder at least 236 of his patients over a 24-year-period.

School of Medicine in 1970 when he was aged 24. In 1976, while practicing in West Yorkshire, he pleaded guilty to forging prescriptions and stealing drugs, and asked for 74 other offenses to be taken into consideration. He next got a post conducting baby clinics in County Durham but was supervised throughout because of his past criminal record. By the end of 1977, he was considered to have sufficiently rehabilitated himself to be allowed to go back into general practice and moved to Hyde, Greater Manchester, where he worked as a GP through the 1980's and 1990's. But Shipman was far from rehabilitated.

Above: 'Doctor Death' ended his own life while in Wakefield Prison, hanging himself in his cell in January 2004.

Shipman's first murder victim in Hyde was believed to have been a 76-year-old who visited him in September 1984 complaining of a cold. On a follow up home visit, he said he found her 'lying dead on her bed'. There was then an average of one suspicious death a year until Shipman left the Hyde group practice where he was working until 1992 and founded his own surgery in 1993. Then a number of deaths escalated- eight that year, starting with a 92-year-old who was found dead within hours of a visit by Shipman. It was neither suspicious police nor worried patients who brought Shipman's deadly bedside manner to a close. It was the intervention, in March 1998, of a 28-year-old local undertaker, Deborah Bamroffe, who decided 'there were just too many deaths for a one doctor surgery'.

Above: Elaine Oswald, believed to have been the first intended victim of a serial killer in 1974, arrives to give evidence against him.

She voiced her suspicions to one of the other doctors who had been countersigning Shipman's deaths for cremation purposes. Within days, coroner John Pollard was briefed and he called in Greater Manchester Police. However, Shipman still managed to kill three more patients before his arrest. One of them was a fit 81-year-old, Mrs. Grundy, who was found dead at her home in June 1998. Shipman gave the cause of death as old age but when it was discovered that her will left her entire 386,000 estate to the doctor, he daughter contacted police. The will had been typed on Shipman's typewriter and had his fingerprints on it. Mrs. Grundy's body was exhumed and lethal levels of morphine were found. Shipman, by then a 52-year-old married father of four, was arrested in September and brought to court in Preston the following October, when he denied one charge of forging the will and 15 charges of

murdering old ladies. 'All of them died most unexpectedly', said the prosecuting counsel, 'and all of them had seen Dr Shipman on the day of their death'. He added that Shipman's drive to kill was fed by a god-like belief that he had power over life and death. After the jury returned guilty verdicts, the judge, Mr. Justice Forbes, told Shipman: 'these are wicked, wicked, crimes. Each of your victims was your patient. You murdered each and every one of your victims by a calculating and cold-blooded perversion of your medical skills. For your own evil and wicked purpose, you took advantage and grossly abused the trust of each of your victims put in you. I have little doubt each of your victims smiled and thanked you as she submitted to your deadly administrations. None of your victims realized that yours was not a healing touch'. Shipman was jailed in top-security prisons and told he would never be released. He carried out his own death sentence, hanging himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, on January 13, 2004.

Serial Killer Profile: Dennis Nilsen

Dennis Nilsen was a prolific serial killer, preying on men throughout London in the 1970's and 80's. Insisting he had no control of his actions, he claimed to be in a trance throughout and would 'wake up' to find a dead man in his home. While he argued that his murders were the fault of a personality disorder, the sheer ruthlessness of his killings and disposal of the bodies demonstrated a deadly instinct. Nilsen's own efforts to end his rampage would prove to be his downfall.

Killer Boiled Human Head In A Cookpot

Nilsen killed for the first time in 1978. He picked up a stranger in a pub and they slept together. As dawn broke he realized that he could not bear this newfound bedfellow to leave. He used a tie to strangle the sleeping man, then finished him off by plunging his head into a bucket of water. Nilsen was at first shocked by his own barbarity but he soon overcame his qualms. His compulsion to kill led to bodies being stored beneath floorboards of his apartment at Melrose Avenue, Willsden. One nameless victim was so physically appealing to Nilsen that it was a week before the body was put underneath the

floor. The killer kept him in the room, returning form work to 'chat' with him and have sex with the corpse.

Above: Dennis Nilsen developed a fascination with corpses, aged five, following the death of his grandfather.

Above: Nilsen at Highgate Magistrates Court, London, during his trial for murder.

Another of his many victims had the misfortune to suffer an epileptic fit outside Nilsen's home. Nilsen tended him and , when the man returned the next day

to thank him, he was murdered. Nilsen eventually disposed of his stash of corpses by chopping them up and burning them in backyard fires. When Nilsen moved to an apartment at Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill, he no longer had access to a garden, so he was forced to dissect corpses more fully, flushing the skin and bone down the toilet. Eventually the plumbing failed and kindly neighbors posted warning signs on his door. Nilsen knew he had to work fast for if plumbers entered his apartment, they might find the malodorous body of a 20-year-old man killed the previous week and hidden in his wardrobe. Nilsen laid plastic sheets across the floor of his front room and, with a kitchen knife, dismembered the body and served the head, placing it in a large cooking pot simmering on the stove. The body parts, including the boiled head, were put into black plastic bags. Nilsen had no time to dispose of them, however, because neighbors had decided to resolve the plumbing problems by calling in industrial drain cleaners. When an engineer removed a manhole cover, he found decomposing matte was still evident. Police were called and a forensic scientist confirmed that it was human flesh.

Above: Nilsen's apartment in Melrose Avenue. Victims were murdered and their bodies stored under floorboards.

When Nilsen returned home from work on Febuary 9, 1983, detectives were waiting for him. He confessed, showing them bags containing body parts stored in his wardrobe. He went on to relate a macabre series of murderous crimes committed by one of the most unlikely looking villains ever. For Nilsen just did not look like part of a serial killer. He seemed just too 'ordinary'. Yet it transpired that his fascination with human corpses had been spawned in him when he was very young... Dennis Andrew Nilsen was born in November 1945 in Fraserburgh, Scotland, the second son of Olav Nilsen, a Norwegian serviceman. Dennis grew up without his father but received enough love and attention from

his grandfather, Andrew Whyte, with whom he and his mother lived. When the old man died of a heart attack at the age of 62, he was laid out at home. And it was noticed then that little Dennis, just five years old, was fascinated by the corpse. He later admitted that the powerful image of death loomed large in his mind for years.

Above: Nilsen during his spell in the Army in the 1960's. He worked as a butcher in the Catering Corps.

Aged 16, Nilsen enlisted in the Army, serving as a butcher in the Catering corps, learning the skills that served him so well during his five-year killing spree. On leaving the Army in 1972, he took up police training but resigned and went on to become a recruitment interviewer. In 1975, he moved into the Melrose Road apartment with another man, although he later denied it was a homosexual relationship. Their friendship lasted two years but when the man left, Nilsen's life began a downward spiral into alcohol and loneliness that culminated in the first murder 18

months later. Nilsen resolved that nobody would walk out on him again and, for many visitors, that really did mean 'never'.

Above: The lack of outside space at Nilsen's apartment in Cranley Gardens led him to flush his victims remains down the toilet.

One visitor who did live to tell the tale was a male model who, during the wave of publicity following Nilsen's arrest in Febuary 1983, told policed that he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the mass killer after meeting Nilsen in a bar and returning with him to his apartment in Cranley Gardens. The model had later awoken gasping for breath, with a swollen tongue and burn marks on his neck. Nilsen had not only tried to strangle him but also thrust his head into a bucket of water. The would-be victim sought hospital treatment but did not go to the police.

In court, Nilsen's defense counsel tried to persuade the jury that the killer was mad. Thanks in part to the male model's evidence; the panel at the Old Bailey did not believe it. He was found guilty of six murders and two attempted murders. The full tally was reckoned to be at least 15. On November 4, 1983, still showing not a shred of remorse, Dennis Nilsen was jailed for life.

Above: Nilsen during a police interview. He was found guilty of six murders and two attempted murders and jailed for life.