3 months ago, the execution of a notorious serial killer was delayed. His name was David Wood. Over the course of several months, he sexually assaulted and killed at least six girls and women.
Initially, David was supposed to be executed 16 years ago. However, just 24 hours before the execution, David claimed that he was intellectually disabled and that there was no one who could get him executed.
Although a judge later refuted his claim, his punishment has been postponed.
On March 11th of this year, 2 days before David’s execution by lethal injection, his lawyers filed a renewed motion with the court for a stay of execution, claimed that the two cellmates who had testified against David during the trial had fabricated the facts.
They had lied in exchange for commutation of their sentences or monetary rewards. Moreover, there was no evidence of actuality regarding David’s conviction, but rather it was based primarily on circumstantial evidence.
As a result, David, who was nearly 68 years old, had his death sentence delayed once again.
David was born on June 20th, 1957 in San Angelo, Texas.
His father, Leo, an electrical company executive. His mother, Betty, a potentially mentally ill woman. David was the second child in a family that consisted of four siblings.
In the 1960s, due to a job change, Leo moved with his entire family to a posh neighborhood in El Paso. This affluent family appeared to be happy. However, after arriving in El Paso, Betty turned the entire family into chaos, for she gradually shows signs of mental illness, was unable to take care of the children, and frequently argues with Leo.
Later, Leo sent Betty to a psychiatric hospital where she underwent electroconvulsive therapy. David and his siblings also enjoyed a short break.
For these poor children, their father was so busy that he had little time to accompany them and even beat them with a paddle. The once gentle and beautiful mother also became neurotic, made the family chaotic.
After a few months, Betty was allowed to return home, although she was still required to take psychotropic medication. However, she later became dependent on these psychotropic medications, which led to renewed arguments between Leo and Betty.
Because of his inability to pay attention to his four children, Leo sent David and his siblings to a relative’s home in Chapperel, New Mexico, and even allowed them to spend time in foster homes.
Having gone through all these things, David who showed neurotic and ADHD tendencies during his childhood was so much so that he was hospitalized and treated for it and he repeated a grade. From then on, David, the boy who was supposed to be curious about the unknown, lost all interest in school.
Later on, David claimed that he was sexually attracted to girls from a very young age and even had sex with a girl when he was 12 years old.
In the early 1970s, David spent most of his free time with bad boys, during which time he became addicted to alcohol and drugs.
After graduating from high school in 1974 at the age of 17, David attempted to enlist in the military, but was rejected. As a result, David entered society and relied on manual labor and odd jobs to earn a living.
2 years later, this adult man who had been fascinated with women since puberty officially began his criminal career.
On August 30th, 1976, David was arrested for molesting a 12-year-old girl, and he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. However, just 2 years later, David was eligible for parole and left prison.
The molestation charge was only a minor offense for this man because in 1980, he committed two consecutive rapes in only 8 days. In the first incident, David sexually assaulted his female friend, a 19-year-old girl, and in the second incident, he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old stranger. Eventually, this man was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
During his incarceration, David became a model prisoner and underwent several rehabilitation programs. After just six years, on January 14th, 1987, David was released on parole.
After his release from prison, David returned to El Paso, where he had lived for a long time, a place which with its backdrop of the Franklin Mountains was located in the Chihuahuan Desert, and which was also known as the Sunshine City because of its sunny and pleasant climate.
There, David found a job in a furniture store. He occasionally worked part-time as a manual laborer and a car repairman. Because in his spare time he often visits various bars and nightclubs. He likes places with naked dancers. In addition, David also has a strong interest in motorcycles, so he has become a member of the motorcycle club.
Meanwhile, however, cases of female disappearances began to appear in the El Paso area. Between February and August 1987, a total of nine girls between the ages of 13 and 24 disappeared.
On February 14th, 1987, 14-year-old Alice told her mother that she was about to go to the local Veterans Park to attend a Valentine’s Day party with the promise that she would be home by 10:00 at night.
After the party, Alice traveled to a friend’s house, which was about a 15 to 20 minute walk from her home. And Alice left the friend’s house at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. However, she did not return home and was never even heard from again. as an eyewitness reportedly had seen Alice at the entrance to the park talking to a young man driving a pickup truck.
3 weeks later, 13-year-old Melissa also disappeared. Her parents and Alice’s parents were both co-workers. On the day of her disappearance, Melissa was playing video games at a convenience store. Furthermore, 2 weeks prior to Melissa’s disappearance, she had run away from home after a family argument. On that occasion, she had returned home after only 2 days. No one expected that.
On March 7th, after Melissa left home, she was never seen or heard from again.
On June 2nd, 15-year-old Wheatley headed to school. Later that night, Wheatley asked her mother if she could go to a graduation party with her friends. Her mother agreed, but ordered that she had to be home by 8:30 p.m. and she needed to be accompanied by a friend. With her mother’s permission, Wheatley and her friend headed to the local veterans park, the same one Alice had been to on the day she disappeared.
After the party, Wheatley and her friend walked to a convenience store just a few minutes walk from Wheatley’s home. A witness then saw a tall blonde tattooed white man following Wheatley and her friend.
And at 9:45 p.m., Wheatley got into the man’s pickup truck. And then Wheatley was never seen again to that point.
On June 10th, 20-year-old Karen was reported missing. She was last seen on June 5th in the vacant lot of a motel. However, this case was more suspenseful because of conflicting accounts from Karen’s mother and witnesses.
Karen’s mother claimed that Karen was abducted and taken to Mexico.
On June 28th at 9:22 p.m., 19-year-old Cheryl was at a store helping a friend buy cigarettes, and a witness later saw Cheryl sitting in David’s pickup truck in the store’s parking lot talking to David, and the girl was never seen again.
On July 3rd, 17-year-old Janette was reported missing. The girl had been repeatedly running away from home since she was 12 years old and often not returning home for days or months. At the age of 15, Janette chose to drop out of school and work as a dancer at a bar frequented by David. In addition, during the investigation, the police discovered that on the day of Janette’s disappearance, she had been invited to take a ride on a motorcycle by a man.
On August 20th, 24year-old Maria, her parents contacted the police. They claimed that eight days earlier, Maria had gone to Suav Horez to visit her sister, and in the evening, Maria drove to El Paso to buy stamps. The next day, Maria’s Ford automobile was found abandoned on a street. Her belongings were still inside the car, even after a whopping 9 days had elapsed.
In early September, 14-year-old Smith was reported missing by her family. She had gotten into an argument with her parents and left home back in June and said she would never come home. In fact, the girl remained in contact with some family members until August 28th when she was never heard from again.
On September 4th, El Paso Water Company workers found the remains of a female in the northwestern desert.
The police arrived at the scene quickly after receiving the report. As they searched the area, they also found the remains of another body in a shallow grave about 100 meters away. After investigating the clothes and personal effects of the deceased found at the scene, the first body was identified as Maria.
Her cause of death was initially determined to be strangulation. The second was identified as Karen, whose cause of death could not be confirmed due to severe decomposition.
On September 19th, police were contacted by Judith, a sex worker and drug addict residing in El Paso, who provided officers with a significant tip that one day between July 26th and August 7th.
Judith encountered a young man who lured her into his pickup truck under the pretense of giving her a ride home. However, on the way, the man did not follow the prescribed route. Explained to Judith that he would drive her back after visiting a friend. He then parked outside an apartment building and entered the building alone. After about 3 minutes, the man returned with a rope.
Judith claimed that he then took her deep into the local desert, which was in the opposite direction of her home. He explained to her that there was a batch of cocaine buried there and he had to pick it up. Soon after, he stopped the pickup truck and asked Judith to get out of the car. Then he took out a blanket and a shovel from the back of the pickup truck, pointed a gun at her, and tied her to the car.
After digging a hole, he began to sexually assault Judith and tried to strangle her. Fortunately, some passers by were approaching their position and the man was forced to interrupt the action. After that, he took Judith to another place in the desert, pointed a gun at her again, and sexually assaulted her. However, several passers by interrupted his behavior again.
After completing her testimony, Judith marked on a map exactly where she had been attacked and was asked to look at photographs of five criminals who had been convicted of similar offenses in the past. One of them was David, whom Judith had no hesitation in identifying as her assailant.
On October 20th, a hiker found the remains of Wheatley and Smith buried in two shallow graves in close proximity approximately 1 and a half km from Maria and Karen’s graves.
a location that was highly consistent with the area where Judith testified that she had been attacked by David and thus making David a prime suspect in these murders.
On October 23rd, 1987, David was arrested by police on suspicion of kidnapping and raping Judith, but he refused to confess. Two weeks later, police found another shallow grave in the desert, not far from where Wheatley and Smith’s remains were found.
And the victim was identified as Janette.
On March 14th, 1988, a couple searching for aluminum cans in the desert accidentally discovered the remains of a partially buried woman at a site only a few hundred meters from where other known victims were buried. Through a jawbone match, police identified the victim as 23-year-old Ivy, who was from Colorado and had moved to El Paso to live after her marriage.
According to the investigation, Ivy was last seen on May 30th, but her family and friends did not report her missing. On further investigation, the police found that Ivy had worked as a dancer in a club and had contact with people from the motorcycle scene. The autopsy report revealed that Ivy had multiple stab wounds on her body and even her face was not spared.
On June 16th, David was convicted of kidnapping and raping Judith, a crime that was considered an aggravating circumstance because it violated the conditions of his previous parole and was ultimately sentenced to 50 years in prison.
After being convicted, the police obtained a search warrant for David’s car, personal belongings, and apartment based on the testimony of friends, and acquaintances of the murdered girls and women.
These witnesses said that David had contact with each victim. David’s roommate told the police that in the fall of 1987, a few weeks before David was arrested, he had carefully cleaned the pickup truck with a vacuum cleaner. When searching the apartment, the police seized a vacuum cleaner and found yellow and orange fibers in its filter bag.
After expert analysis, these fibers were exactly the same as the fiber samples found on the victim’s clothes. After his arrest, David was held in prison. Some of his cellmates claimed that David had bragged about his crimes in prison. He described his victims as scantily clad dancers and prostitutes, and claimed that he would offer drugs, lure them into his car, then took them to the desert, tie them to his truck, rape and kill them, and finally bury their corpses in shallow graves by the side of the road. Ultimately, based on this highly circumstantial evidence and not entirely reliable testimony, the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office charged David with the murders of Ivy, Wheatley, Karen, Janette, Maria, and Smith. Although the victims, Alice, Melissa, and Cheryl, were never found. David remains the only suspect in their respective cases.
Since the charges were made public, David and his legal team have been attempting to delay the start of the trial using every possible legal maneuver. Their first attempt was a motion to change the venue of the trial to Dallas on the grounds that the extensive coverage surrounding the murders might prejudice the jury and thus the fairness of the trial.
After a series of pre-trial hearings, this motion was ultimately granted and a September 1992 trial date was set.
Throughout the proceedings, David maintained his innocence and stated that he knew many of the girls in the northeast El Paso area and that many remained in contact with him even after his arrest.
As a former convicted criminal, David admitted that he had researched ways to kidnap and rape women without being arrested, but he vehemently denied that he had committed any murders. He stated that if he did kill someone, he would bury the body deep in the mountains where not even wild animals could find it.
During a court hearing, David admitted that he had indeed been present in the parking lot on the day of Cheryl’s disappearance, but denied that he had anything to do with the case, claiming that he had been with a 16-year-old girl that night and had even spoken her name, a claim that was later proven to be true.
David also admitted to knowing Karen, but claimed they had broken up 5 months before her disappearance. When asked about Wheatley and Smith’s murders, David insisted that he had never met the two.
In November 1992, after a comprehensive evaluation of the testimony of prison inmates and the results of an examination of fibers found in a vacuum cleaner, a jury ultimately found David guilty of six murders.
On January 14th, 1993, David was formally sentenced to death.
Since his conviction, David has maintained his innocence and has filed numerous appeals with the help of his lawyers, although all of his appeals have been rejected. David’s initial execution date was set for August 20th, 2009, but was postponed the day before the execution due to his claim that he may be mentally challenged and ineligible for execution.
David’s lawyers provided the court with the results of six IQ tests showing David’s IQ scores to be 111, 64, 71, 101, 67, and 57. However, these tests did not provide sufficiently detailed background information, and the forensic psychiatric findings were deemed unreliable, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately ruled that David had failed to provide clear evidence of intellectual disability.
In subsequent appeals, David’s lawyers repeatedly requested DNA testing of physical evidence in the case, claiming that it would prove David’s innocence. In 2011, DNA testing of one of the physical exhibits, blood on victim Smith’s clothing, showed that the DNA did not belong to David. However, the Texas Attorney General’s office objected to further DNA testing, arguing that it was a deliberate means of delaying David’s execution.
In 2024, the court ultimately ruled that David’s request for DNA testing was unreasonably prolonged and denied his petition.
On March 11th, 2025, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals again staved David’s execution just two days before the original March 13th execution date. This day was based on David’s latest appeal, which included multiple claims of his innocence, destruction of evidence, and false testimony at trial.
As of March 2025, David remains on death row in Texas.
Looking back at the history of crime around the world, most serial killers have had a childhood filled with violence and conflict.
Warren, known as the babyface killer, was born on October 15th, 1967 in Kendall, North Carolina. Over the course of 3 years, this man committed a series of horrific crimes, using his good looks and charm to get close as victims.
Warren’s childhood was turbulent. As a child, he tried hard to establish an emotional connection with his family, but his father, Douglas, was an alcoholic. His mother, West, did not care about him. As time passed, this became apparent after Warren’s younger brother, Rey, was born. West cherished Rey, almost ignored Warren.
Raising two children at the same time, this family, which was already not very well off, found itself in financial difficulty. Douglas, who loved to drink, couldn’t keep up with the family expenses, and he started abusing his family. Once he set fire to the family trailer while drunk, nearly killing his wife and one of his sons.
Even though it was an accident, West chose to divorce her husband after the incident. She moved in with relatives with two sons, but Crazy Douglas continued to stalk and harass her. In the end, West was granted custody of the two children and obtained a restraining order against her ex-husband, prohibiting Douglas from approaching them again.
Nevertheless, even though he was far away from his violent father, Warren’s psychological problems were not resolved. In addition, his peers at school often bullied this frail, fatherless child. So, Warren spent most of his childhood in the office of a psychologist.
In 1981, Warren entered high school. At the same time, he began arguing with his mother, accusing West of being too indulgent toward his younger brother, caring too much about him, not caring about Warren.
From birth, Warren was abused by his father and did not receive love from his mother as he grew up. The pressure of not being cared for by his family weighed heavily on Warren’s mind and spirit. Even in high school, Warren still went to the school psychologist’s office for treatment. However, speech therapy had little effect.
Warren’s mental state rapidly deteriorated. He began to relieve stress by committing minor crimes. In early 1982, Warren began mailing threatening letters to his peers, burglarizing homes, and using cocaine and marijuana. Warren was arrested by the police for sending threatening letters and was sent to the hospital for a psychological evaluation.
A psychiatrist diagnosed Warren with antisocial personality disorder and skitsoid personality disorder. He described Warren as an unsocialized person with depressive characteristics, meaning someone who has not adequately learned and followed social norms, lacks social skills, and exhibits symptoms of depression such as bad mood and pessimism.
After undergoing treatment for some time, Warren returned to school, but he was expelled because he had missed 20 days of school in a month.
In October 1982, West found marijuana in Warren’s room. She did not want her children to become addicted to drugs, so a heated argument ensued. Warren was eventually kicked out of the house for the night.
However, impulsive Warren immediately took a gun and kidnapped their neighbor, Betty. He dragged Betty to the basement and tied her up. Not on October 4th, Warren was arrested for the shooting incident. During the interrogation, he confessed to the crime. A month later, he attempted to hang himself in his cell, but failed. Later, he was sent to a mental hospital for treatment.
After his release, he was charged by the police with kidnapping and attempted murder. Since he was not yet an adult, Warren was transferred to a juvenile assessment center until his release on January 28th, 1986.
Later, Warren returned to Candler and lived with his mother. Due to loopholes in the background checks conducted during the draft, at that time the Department of Defense relaxed its moral exemption requirements for applicants with criminal backgrounds in order to meet recruitment needs.
As a result, Warren joined the military in April 1986 and was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia. There he married a girl named Tracy who bore Warren two sons, but he was not a faithful husband.
At the end of 1986, Warren was transferred to Fort Drum for deployment. In midMay 1987, his colleague Michael was sent to participate in field exercises.
However, his wife, 20-year-old Paty, had an affair with Warren. On May 15th, when Paty and Warren began dating, she was drugged by Warren, who then raped and strangled her. In the end, Warren dumped Paty’s body into the Black River near Saxport.
On February 25th, 1988, Warren was arrested by military authorities for desertion, sentenced to 75 days in prison, and demoted to private first class.
On April 28th, Warren was ordered to report to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana to continue his service, but he secretly traveled to New York City and spent the entire summer there. During this period, he lived in a homeless shelter and spent his days addicted to drugs.
On June 17th, Warren was discharged from the army for dishonorable conduct and branded a deserter.
At the end of June, Warren left New York and traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested for vagrancy. After serving his sentence in prison, he moved with his wife and children to Spartanberg, South Carolina in the fall of 1988. Due to his drug addiction, Warren frequently argued with his wife, and eventually he abandoned his family and returned to Candler.
There he found a job as a cashier at a store near his mother’s house and participated in a three-month truck driver training program.
On March 10th, 1989, Warren completed his training and began working as a driver for a trucking company in Anderson, South Carolina. That summer, Warren briefly reunited with Tracy, who later informed him that she was pregnant with their second child and that she intended to file for divorce in order to obtain child support.
On August 26th, Warren encountered 42-year-old Velma, who had been involved in a traffic accident on a road just 5 miles from the rest stop. Warren, who happened to be passing by, lured Velma into his truck under the pretext of offering assistance. He then drove to a nearby forest where he beat and strangled her before disposing of her body in Bowen Lake.
Later, Velma’s body was discovered by two fishermen and her vehicle was also found in Greenville County.
On December 25th, he met with Jaime, a 39-year-old consultant at a youth assessment center. The man attacked her and strangled her to death. The next day, Warren confessed to Rey that he had killed Jaime, and Rey helped Warren bury Jaime’s body in a pit in Pisgga National Forest.
2 days later, Jaime’s father contacted the police about his daughter’s disappearance and informed them that her boyfriend, Warren, was the last person to see her.
On May 28th, Warren was detained by the police, but he denied any connection to Jaime’s disappearance. Although the police found Jaime’s wallet in Warren’s car, they only charged Warren with theft and failure to produce proof of vehicle ownership because they did not find Jaime’s body.
On June 6th, Warren’s grandfather paid $1,000 bail, allowing Warren to be released pending trial. During this time, Warren confessed to Tracy that he had killed Jaime and to West that he had killed Paty. 2 days later, West told the police everything Warren had said. Warren was immediately listed as a suspect in the murder cases.
On July 11th, Warren stole a Kawasaki motorcycle and fled to High Point.
On July 13th, Warren met his friend Terry at a hotel. Warren had played on an amateur baseball team with her brother and had visited her home, which was how they became friends.
On July 15th, Terry invited Warren to join her, her children, and some of her friends for a picnic.
There, Warren met Terry’s friend, 21-year-old Catherine, a part-time student at the University of North Carolina. Because the motorcycle Warren stole was very stylish, Catherine asked to take a ride on Warren’s motorcycle. He then took her to an abandoned soccer field, an extremely secluded place where almost no one would be there.
He raped and strangled Catherine, then hid her body in the trunk of her car, which was parked in the parking lot.
As early as July 7th, police held a press conference and publicly announced that Warren was a major suspect in three murder cases. A few days later, Rey contacted the police and admitted that he had helped Warren dispose of Jaime’s body and informed the police of the specific location where they had buried it.
Meanwhile, on July 21st, Warren was arrested by the police. During the arrest, he gave up resistance and allowed police to handcuff his hands.
After his arrest, Warren confessed to three murders, agreed to cooperate, and told the police that he had killed Catherine. In addition, Warren stated that in addition to these four murders, he had committed four other murders.
When asked about Jaime’s murder, Warren insisted that he had no intention of killing her or harming her, and that Jaime died of a drug overdose.
At the end of 1990, officials from North Carolina, South Carolina, and New York held a meeting. Because four murders had occurred in different states, they needed to carefully formulate a strategy to prosecute Warren.
After careful consideration, the officials decided to prioritize extraditing Warren to South Carolina, where he would first face charges for the Velma murder and then extradite him to North Carolina to address the remaining murder charges.
On August 23rd, 1991, Warren was extradited to South Carolina to stand trial.
First, at the request of his lawyers, Warren underwent a psychiatric evaluation. In April 1992, the evaluation results showed that Warren was of sound mind and capable of standing trial.
On April 13th, 1993, the trial officially began. The trial lasted only 2 days because Warren chose to plead guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Velma.
And then Warren was extradited to North Carolina to stand trial for Jaime’s murder. Due to the conclusive evidence of guilt and the testimony provided by Rey, Warren was found guilty and sentenced to death.
After the trial, New York prosecutors stated that although Warren remained the prime suspect in the Paty murder case, he had already been sentenced to death in North Carolina.
So they would not prosecute Warren for the Paty murder case.
In early 1996, Warren was tried for the murder of Catherine. The jury recommended the death penalty and after 75 minutes of deliberation, Warren was again sentenced to death. During the sentencing, he remained extremely calm and showed no emotional reaction.
After this trial, Warren was transferred to death row at the North Carolina Central Prison in Raleigh.
Later, he worked with lawyers and filed an appeal in hopes of overturning the death sentence, but it was rejected.
In 2009, Warren and 147 other prisoners appealed under the newly implemented Racial Justice Act, arguing that the court’s verdict was unfair. The judge and jury had decided on the severity of the punishment based on the victim’s skin color.
Because Warren’s victim was white, he was sentenced to death. This appeal was ultimately rejected because the appeals court found that Warren had received a fair trial. There was no racial bias that could have affected the sentencing.
However, due to the high profile of the case, Warren remains on death row awaiting execution as of 2025.
Looking back at the history of crime around the world, it is hard to count the number of murders that have been committed as a result of sexual desire. Some of these cases of sexual assault and murder of children are even more heinous and outrageous.
From 1971 through 1973, three child murders occurred in Rochester, located in Monroe County.
The three victims were Carmen, Wanda, and Michelle.
In 1995, a grieving mother interviewed by the media claimed that although she had been poor all her life, if she could have one thing on her deathbed, she wouldn’t want wealth. She only had the luxury of an answer. She wanted to know who murdered her daughter. She said,
“If I could die knowing who the murderer was, I would die peacefully without any hesitation.
The only thing I would want is to make the murderer pay for the horrible things that were done to my little girl.”
On November 16th, 1971, as the day was getting dark, as usual, people preparing to go home were driving on Interstate 490. When at about 5:10 p.m., drivers traveling on this highway noticed a girl running along the road.
The girl’s appearance panicked, frantic, yelling, and waving her skinny arms repeatedly in what looked like an attempt to stop the cars that passed by her vehicles passing her. The girl was completely naked from the waist down and not far behind her, another dark-coled Ford was backing up in her direction. Unfortunately, no one heard what the girl said.
And the drivers who were not sure of the exact situation did not dare to recklessly get out of their cars. They just watched as the girl made some gestures with a message of distress and then drove past her. And 10 minutes later, it was witnessed that the fleeing girl being forced by a man into the dark-colored ford. 2 days later, two teenagers found the remains of a girl in a ravine near a village called Churchville, not far from Interstate 490.
And after a coroner’s examination, the girl had been sexually assaulted prior to her death. She suffered a fractured skull and a section of a vertebrae and extensive scratches to her body, and her cause of death was asphixxiation caused by being strangled from the front. Police later confirmed the girl’s identity as the girl who had been reported missing by her family 2 days earlier at the age of 10 named Carmen.
On the day of the murder, the girl had gone to the drugstore alone to help her grandmother buy prescription medication. However, when told that she would have to wait, she told the owner,
“I have to go. I have to go.”
And then she walked out of the drugstore and got into a car on the side of the road. A couple of hours later, Carmen, half naked, was on an interstate highway calling for help.
The murder case quickly drew the attention of the local media in New York State, and an angry public blamed the drivers who had coldly watched Carmen try to escape the kidnapping, but did nothing about it. In addition, several newspapers and businesses, as well as private individuals, put up rewards in the hope that someone would be able to provide clues about the murderer.
However, the most surprising thing was that even if no one can see the murderer’s face clearly, there should be a large number of sighting clues, but there were no useful clues. And a month after the murder, the police seemed to have lost interest in the case. The number of investigators in charge of the murder was reduced to three.
The public was outraged by the police’s negativity. And in response to this, in early 1972, the Rochester Outdoor Advertising Company took it upon themselves to erect five large billboards alongside the main highways in Rochester, which featured a picture of Carmen and which said,
“Do you know who killed Carmen?”
There was a $6,000 reward for any valid leads you could give.
They wanted to use this opportunity to pressure the police to reopen the investigation. This time, the police characterized the case as the work of an acquaintance. For example, Carmen’s strange behavior, the fact that she did not have her grandfather accompany her, and the fact that it was not as if she had been lured into the car, but more as if she had been invited to get into the car by a person close to her.
So, they named as a suspect Carmen’s uncle, her father’s brother, Miguel. A few weeks before the murder, Miguel had purchased a car that closely resembled the vehicle seen by the witnesses, and the police examined the car and found that the interior and exterior of the car had been extensively cleaned and that the trunk had been purposely cleaned.
Furthermore, 2 days after Carmen’s death, Miguel told his friends that he was planning to leave the United States because of some things that he had done wrong in Rochester, and he then moved from Rochester to Puerto Rico. In March of 1972, investigators traveled to Puerto Rico and intended to interrogate Miguel.
The local newspaper picked up on this information and they published in their paper that the police were about to interrogate Miguel, who chose to run away. Although a few days later, he chose to turn himself in again. During the interrogation, Miguel was unable to provide any alibi and there was no one to verify his whereabouts.
But due to the limitations of forensic techniques, they did not have any substantial evidence to use against Miguel. Although there was strong circumstantial evidence that Miguel had killed Carmen.
On April 2nd, 1973, about 5:00 p.m., 11-year-old Wanda, who was reported missing on the east side of Rochester, Wana’s mother said that earlier that day, she instructed Wanda to go to the delicatessan to buy things, but the girl did not answer until 8:00 p.m.
, so she chose to call the police. Then the police questioned the owner of the delicate tessan. He said that he had indeed met Wanda at about 5:15 p.m. She bought some groceries here and then left. At first, the police just thought that the girl didn’t go home just because she was playful. However, just as the police sought out people in the neighborhood, several residents recalled seeing a girl struggling with a bag of groceries and walking in the direction of her house at around 5:00 p.m.
In addition, three of Wanda’s classmates pointed out that at that time they noticed a dark-coled automobile passing Wanda’s side and then stopping again. Noticing something unusual, the police sent nearly 50 detectives to search the neighborhood when they had disappeared. And the area of the Jese River, where Wanda often played, but came up empty.
The next day, at 10:15 a.m., after a non-stop search, a police officer found Wanda’s body at the bottom of a hillside near Webster Highway, a place roughly 7 miles from Rochester. The autopsy report showed that Wanda had been sexually assaulted, and they extracted the killer’s residual semen. And the cause of the girl’s death was confirmed to be strangulation, suspected to be by the murderer who choked her with a leather belt from behind.
There were also several defensive wounds, proving that the girl had put up a fierce resistance. When found, Wana’s clothes were neat and tidy. Apparently, the murderer had tidied up the body after carrying out the attack. In addition, the police found several white cat hairs on the girl’s clothes, which were confirmed to be not belonging to any of the animals in Wanda’s house.
The police later found an eyewitness who said that on the day of the murder, roughly 300 meters from Wanda’s house, he saw the girl standing next to the passenger door of a brown car and talking to the driver, but he did not get a clear view of the driver’s face.
On October 21st, a 30inut program aired on local television where they reconstructed Wanda’s abduction and appealed to witnesses to be able to contact the police with any leads.
And despite receiving over 200 calls, the police were not able to get any useful leads. A month after the program aired, a new case occurred again in the Rochester area.
On the evening of November 26th, 11-year-old Michelle was reported missing by her mother. The police took the suspected case of what was becoming a serial murder extra seriously, and they immediately launched an investigation.
Michelle’s classmates reported that they saw Michelle walking alone in a shopping plaza near her school at approximately 3:20 p.m. Michelle’s mother explained that she had sent Michelle there to retrieve her purse that she had accidentally left in a store earlier in the day and that the next thing that happened was that at approxima tely 3:30 p.m. A witness saw Michelle sitting in the passenger seat of a beige or brown car, the car was traveling down the street at a high rate of speed before entering Webster Avenue. And the witness explained that at first he saw Michelle crying constantly and he paid attention because he thought it was a domestic dispute.
In addition to this, an employee of a fast food restaurant in Bloomfield Township and a driver provided clues as to the killer’s subsequent actions. At approximately 4:30 p.m., the fast food employee noted that a white male between the ages of approximately 25 and 35 entered the restaurant and purchased a burger with a young girl suspected to be Michelle.
The male was approximately 6 feet tall and weighed around 165 lbs. At approximately 5:30 p.m., located along the highway in the town of Walworth, a driver saw the man standing next to a beige or brown car with a flat tire. He was carrying the little girl who was suspected to be Michelle.
At first, the driver thought that the duo was a father and daughter in need of help. So, he stopped his car. However, when the man saw that someone was stopping and wanted to be nosy, he firstly pushed her behind his back to keep the driver from seeing the girl’s face. He also covered the license plate number and kept staring at the driver with a threatening look on his face, causing the driver to get scared and leave the scene.
Michelle’s body was found around 10:30 a.m. on November 28th, lying face down in a ditch on a rural road in Macedonia, a place about 15 mi from Rochester. Following the same pattern as the Wanda murders, the girl was sexually assaulted and the cause of death was human strangulation. Suspected to have been strangled by the murderer with a belt from behind.
Her clothes were covered in a lot of white cat hairs. Due to forensic technology limitations, the police could only confirm from the semen extracted from the body that there was no possibility of multiple offenses in this case and could not confirm through this evidence that the person who killed Michelle was Wanda’s murderer.
In addition, the residue in the victim’s stomach was identified as a burger from a fast food restaurant, which confirmed to the police that the fast food restaurant employees testimony was correct and that there was no error in the description of the killer’s features. Based on the eyewitness’s description of the murderer’s appearance, the police produced a composite sketch of the suspected murderer and also set up a special telephone hotline to hunt for the murderer.
Any caller providing information would be anonymized and there would also be a reward for valid information. This time the police got the public support and in a short period of time they obtained a large number of clues including more than 800 potential suspects who might be related to the murder case. With so many potential suspects, the police believed that the murderer was hiding among them.
However, as the suspects were continuously eliminated from suspicion, the fact once again dashed the public’s hope. The murderer, who had been witnessed by countless people, disappeared as if he had evaporated from the face of the world and never appeared again, never committing the same case again. Miguel was held responsible by the police only for Carmen’s death.
And the killers of Wanda and Michelle were identified as the same person because of the similarity of their death scenes, having been sexually assaulted and strangled by the killer using a belt and the fact that after both girls deaths, their clothes were organized by the killer and that the white cat hairs that were stuck to their clothes were a similar marking.
In addition to the two serial killers, Kenneth and Joseph, Dennis was identified as a major suspect. The man was a Rochester firefighter who committed at least 14 sexual assaults on girls and young women during the period of the triple murders. And although police found no traces of Dennis’s crimes at the crime scenes, more and more similar clues were unearthed as the police investigated.
Dennis lived near where Michelle was last seen alive. He also had a beige car which upon examination had traces of white cat hair remaining in the interior. And in 2007, in an attempt to confirm whether Dennis had committed suicide, the police exumed his body and they matched the semen remaining from Wanda’s murderer with Dennis’s DNA.
However, the test results prove that he was not responsible for Wanda’s death. These three murders plagued the Rochester area for more than 50 years. Parents no longer dared to leave their children alone, and students began to go to school in groups. And although it would almost never have been the work of the same asalent, the public connected the cases because of a few unbelievable coincidences, such as the fact that the families of the three girls were all poor and that their personalities were weak, introverted, and were all at the age of 10 or 11. In addition, each girl’s last name and initials were the same, as were the names of the remote towns or villages in which the remains were found. Carmen in Churchville, Wanda in Webster, and Michelle in Macedon. And thus, the series of murders became collectively known as the alphabet murders or the double initial murders.
In New South Wales, there is one of the best preserved inland Georgian style towns, Burma, which is just a 90minute drive from Sydney. Although only around 200 people reside there today, the historic town of Burma was once a significant settlement. It boasted a court and jail and governed several surrounding towns and villages.
There’s a saying, “Men die for wealth as birds die for food.” Looking back through criminal history worldwide, murders born of greed are countless. Consider the acid bath murderer who forged signatures to plunder his victim’s assets and insurance payouts. Or the brides in the bath case, the murderer George, who for money killed all the women he married.
In the 19th century, a disturbing serial killer emerged in Burma. He not only killed the Mulligan family, but also disguised the identities of the victims and took over their farm. 5′ 3 in with fair skin and brown hair, John Lynch. Greed was his motive for the crime. A sharp axe was his weapon.
He was known as the Berma axe murderer and is also widely regarded as one of Australia’s first serial killers.
On February 19th, 1842, a carrier received an order for a large volume of goods. He needed to set off from Barma with several workers to reach the market located in Sydney. Although the journey was too long, it was still relatively easy with carriages and bullet carts.
On the way, when the convoy passed the Ironstone Bridge spanning the Winga Caribbe, the carrier halted the convoy because he intended to let the bullet carrying the goods take a bath to cool down. However, a dingo by the roadside caught his attention. It was frantically digging at the bushes as if there was something very attractive inside.
Finding this strange, the carrier sent a worker to check it out. When the worker named George approached, he saw a man’s body lying motionless there. The Windy Caribbe flows near Barma. The police swiftly arrived at the scene. An initial examination revealed the deceased wore only a shirt and had several wounds on his head consistent with blunt force trauma.
In order to identify the deceased, the body was transported to Barma. There, the deceased was confirmed to be 27-year-old Landregan, described as a reserved and quiet man who worked for an inkeeper. Just days prior, he had stated his intention to visit his brother. However, when seen again, he had become a corpse. When the time came on February 25th, a man named Chalker arrived in Berimma.
Learning that a murder case had occurred in the town, he curiously went to the police station to view the body. Chalker was troubled by a persistent feeling that he had seen the deceased before. After some thought, Chalker recalled that a few days earlier, the deceased and another man seemed to have had dinner at his inn before taking a carriage to Barma.
So, Chalker sought out the police chief. He claimed he could identify the man who had murdered Landrean as he remembered the killer’s appearance. He recounted the events of that evening, adding that during their meal, he had overheard the killer offer Landrean£14 to hire him as a guard on his farm. Since there were several towns, villages, and numerous farms near Barma.
After eliminating possibilities one by one, Chalker accompanied two police officers to a farm belonging to a man named Don Levy. Upon seeing Don Levy, Chalker immediately confirmed he was the man who had dined with Landrean at his inn that night. Furthermore, during a search of the property, one of the officers discovered a belt belonging to Landrean concealed on the farm.
Consequently, armed with the eyewitness testimony and the physical evidence, the police arrested Don Levy and conducted further searches. Eventually, they found an ID in Don Ley’s room bearing the name John Lynch. This name was linked to a figure notorious throughout the region. Not only a member of a robbery gang, but also a suspect in a murder case.
By early March, Don Levy’s identity had been fully confirmed as Jon. Although Jon stood only 5′ 3 in tall, his decent looks and dark beard made him look serious and relatively good-looking at the same time. He was also formally charged with the murder of Landrean. Upon learning Jon was Landrean’s murderer, a man named Gordon reported to the police.
He stated that the farm was actually originally leased to a man named Mulligan, who lived there with his wife with their two children. However, several months prior, Mulligan and his family had suddenly departed the farm and had not been heard from since. It is wellknown compared to the modern era where cars, high-speed trains, and airplanes can cover thousands of kilome in just a few hours.
The 19th century seems like an ancient age. Some people never even left their local towns. Furthermore, on the very day the Mulligan family left, a major fire broke out at the farm. At that time, Gordon observed the farm’s new tenant, John, standing in front of the fire. He watched intently as the fire grew and then gradually died down.
Therefore, Gordon strongly suspected that the Mulligan family had been murdered by Jon. In addition to this, police received reports from several other people. For instance, the deaths of a father and son named Fraser were linked to Jon, and a stockman named Thomas claimed he had personally seen Jon driving Thomas’ wagon and bulocks.
the very wagon and bulocks leased to a merchant named Edmund who had vanished along with Thomas’s Aboriginal servant. A Berma newspaper reporter said,
“We doubt whether there ever existed in this colony a man so deep in crime as this man, and yet his appearance is not in the least such as would lead one to suppose he was a murderer.”
A few days later, police returned to the Mulligan farm. Following Gordon’s directions, the officers saw that the grassland scorched by the earlier fire had since been planted with potatoes. Hoping to find clues or evidence, the police took up shovels and began to dig. After removing a large quantity of potatoes, they uncovered several badly damaged human bones and a broken tooth.
Charred black from the fire. The surface of these remains was deeply darkened. Informed of the discovery, Jon scoffed in reply. No one could swear they were Mulligan’s bones, or even that they were the bones of a white man.
On March 21st, Jon stood trial at the Barma Court. Based on the most direct and admissible chain of evidence, the prosecution formally charged him solely with the deliberate murder of Landrean.
After the trial began, Jon did not choose to plead guilty. Instead, he said to the judge,
“I hope your honor will ensure I receive a full and fair trial, for my other crimes would prejudice the jury.”
The judge replied,
“The respect for the jury is a sufficient safeguard. The prisoner will receive justice.”
On March 23rd, Jon was again brought before the Barma court for the pronouncement of his fate.
The judge declared,
“John Lynch, your long career of bloody transactions is now ended. This is not due to any remorse on your part, nor from satiety of your appetite for slaughter, but driven by the actions of zealots, deterred by the appalling spectacle of atrocity presented in the final tragedy of your worthless existence.”
He continued,
“Greed appears to have been your sole motive for crime. You shall be taken back to your cell, and on the appointed day, you shall be delivered to the executioner to suffer death by hanging. Whether arrested by the police or sentenced to death, Jon always insisted on his innocence and stated that he was determined not to publicly admit his crimes.
However, the day before the execution, when the priest came to John’s death cell to pray for him, John made a full confession to him, admitting all his crimes. John was born in County Cabin, Ireland in 1813. In 1831, his brother was convicted of sheep stealing and transported to Sydney. The same year, John was sentenced for obtaining goods by false pretenses, and his father was convicted for receiving stolen property.
In 1832, Jon was transported to Port Jackson, Australia, and assigned to work as a laborer on farms around Bereimma. Not long after, he joined a gang of robbers known as the Bush Rangers. They usually committed minor offenses, robbing miners, indigenous people, farmers, herdsmen, settlers, and almost everyone they met. In 1835, an incident led to John and two other men being charged with the murder of Smith.
However, although Jon confessed to the crime, the jury did not believe him and set him free while the other two men were hanged. In July 1841, John returned to the town of Barma. He first stole eight cattle from the farm where he had worked, planning to take them to Sydney, sell them, and start a new life.
On the way, as John herded the cattle past a quarry, he encountered a merchant named Edmund and Thomas’s Aboriginal servant. They were driving a wagon and bulocks laden with wheat, salt pork, and other farm produce bound for Sydney to sell. For safety, Jon and Edmund agreed to travel together to Sydney. However, driven by greed, Jon resolved to kill both men and seize their wagon and heavily laden bulocks.
Early the next morning, while the Aboriginal servant was watering the bulocks, Jon seized an ax and savagely struck the back of his skull, killing him instantly. He then approached Edmund’s wagon where the man was still asleep. Like the servant, Edmund was murdered as Jon caved in the back of his skull with the ax.
To cover up the deaths of the two men, Jon dragged their remains into the nearby bush and covered them with stones and branches. Several days later, Jon arrived near Liverpool, close to Sydney. There, he encountered Thomas, the owner of the wagon and bullocks. Jon explained that he was a friend of Edmunds.
Unfortunately, Edmund had sprained his leg. Fearing the servant might abscond with the wagon and Bulocks, Edmund had asked Jon to transport the goods to market while he and the servant went to the hospital. Thomas accepted this explanation, preferring to trust the word of a fellow white man than believed the servant wouldn’t run off.
Upon reaching Sydney, Jon sold the eight stolen cattle and Edmund’s goods at a steep discount to a merchant. He then set off back towards Barma with the wagon and bulocks. During the return journey, Jon encountered another party led by a father and son named Fraser. Due to the threat of bush rangers, they accepted Jon’s offer to travel together.
When night fell, the Frasers, Jon, and two others in the party, a man and a woman, entered a designated way station for traveling merchants to spend the night. However, Thomas had seen through J’s lies. He reported the matter to the police, providing a detailed account. Consequently, the police dispatched mounted troopers to search for J’s trail along the road from Sydney.
While the group dozed around the campfire, a mounted policeman entered the campsite. He explained the situation and inquired if anyone had seen the fugitive. John, lying on the ground, trembled with fear. Fortunately, the Frasers stated they hadn’t seen the murderer and had no information. The trooper then continued his journey towards Barma.
Realizing his crimes were exposed, Jon resolved to abandon Thomas’ wagon and Bulocks and he decided to kill the Frasers and take their wagon. As these thoughts crossed his mind, Jon said that he then prayed to God, hoping that God would help him. But even without any response, he still decided to kill the Frasers.
Early the next morning, Jon drove his wagon and bulocks into nearby Scrubland. Then he returned to the camp and told the Frasers his animals had gone missing. He suspected they might have wandered off towards Barama and asked to travel with the Frasers back to town. A day later, seizing the moment when the Fraser son went to fetch the horses, Jon pulled an ax concealed in his sleeve and caved in the back of the young man’s skull.
He then returned to the camp leading one horse and told the elder Fraser that his son had spotted some stray horses and was trying to catch them. Minutes later, as Fraser Senior bent over, Jon struck him from behind with the axe, crushing the back of his skull. Finally, Jon took a shovel, dug a shallow grave, buried both father and son, and chillingly even slept near the grave site for a time.
On August 18th, Jon rode back to Barma. He first went to the farm occupied by the Mulligan family. Mulligan had previously purchased stolen goods from Jon and still owed him money. Confronting Mulligan, Jon demanded the outstanding 30. Strapped for cash, Mulligan could only spare £9. Taking the money, Jon went to a nearby inn and bought two bottles of rum.
An hour later, Jon returned to the farm with the rum. He told Mulligan that since they had repaid part of the debt, he was pleased and wanted to share a drink with the family. However, a horrific tragedy unfolded. It was a chilly evening, and as time passed, the temperature dropped further. Jon suggested that Muigan’s 18-year-old son accompany him outside to chop some wood for the fire.
Once they reached a small cops, as the young man prepared to cut a tree, Jon quietly took his axe. Without hesitation, he brought it down, crushing the youth’s skull. Jon then hastily buried the body and gathered some branches to carry back to the hut. Returning alone, Jon told Mulligan that because it was so cold, he had asked the young man to stable his horse for him.
But after several tense minutes passed without the son’s return, Bridget, the mother, grew anxious. She flung open the door, calling repeatedly for her son. Met with silence, she feared the worst. She pleaded with Mulligan to take his gun and go with her to find out what had happened to their boy.
As an adult and the murderer, Jon also went out with the Mulligans. As they neared the scene of his earlier crime, Jon realized he could hesitate no longer. Seizing his ax, he first struck down Mulligan, who was carrying the gun. Bridget did not notice that her husband was already dead because she was staring at her son’s body.
Before she could even call out to her husband, Jon had pushed her to the ground and ended her life with the axe. At this moment, the Mulligan family had only one remaining member, a 13-year-old girl named Mary, who was quietly waiting for her family’s return in the hut. However, it was not her parents who came back to the hut, but Jon covered in blood.
According to Jon’s confession, he said that he actually did not want to kill the girl, but he understood that if he spared her, Mary would inevitably discover his crimes, accuse him, and see him hanged. So, Jon could only say to the frightened girl,
“You have 10 minutes to pray for your soul.”
10 minutes later, Jon sexually assaulted Mary and killed her.
He then gathered the corpses of all four victims together, built a p over them using wood, and set them ablaze. Early the next morning, he collected the fire scarred remains and buried them on the far side of the farm. John’s desire was to secure enough money and start his life a new. So, after murdering the Mulligan family, he forged a letter claiming that the Mulligan family, fearing that their dealings and stolen goods were about to be exposed, had fled the Bereimma area.
Moreover, he found the farm’s owner, William, and told him that he would continue to run the farm and pay the due expenses to him.
On April 22nd, 1842, John was hanged on a temporary gallows erected in the Berma prison. He left this world with reluctance and anger. No one believed that he ever felt remorse for his crimes.
In reality, within the criminal history of Austria, there was a notable case involving a serial killer who harbored delusions of manipulating public opinion through the media. This serial killer was known as Jack. Psychological evaluations diagnosed him with sadistic psychosis, accompanied by narcissistic and histrionic tendencies, as well as prone to agitation and anger.
While incarcerated in a dark cell, he garnered public and literary attention through his literary talents, evoking sympathy. Following his release from prison, he skillfully employed his charm and public persona to conceal his enduring violent inclinations. The most disturbing aspect was that as a criminal journalist, Jack interviewed the police and reported to the public on the investigations and details of the murder cases.
No one knew that it was he who committed these murders. Jack, a paradoxical combination of guilt and talent is a story full of darkness and irony. 42 years ago, an autobiography entitled Purgatory or the Journey to Jail was published in the Austrian press. This book was written by Jack, who also wrote some fairy tales and poems.
In this book, Jack shows in vivid words how he was marginalized by society when he was growing up and how he gradually fell into the abyss of crime in the absence of proper guidance. He describes the terrible environment in the prison, the smallalness and simplicity of the cells, the outdated facilities inside the cells, how those inmates helped or cheated each other in the prison.
He also delves into how he transformed himself from a cold-blooded killer to a man who loves life, including his psychological transformation process and the formation and evolution of his criminal mind. As a result, the book generated a certain degree of discussion in Europe and other countries upon its release, especially attracting the attention of the literary elites in Germany and Austria since Jack was Austrian and his first victim was from Germany.
For example, Alfred, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature, praised the autobiography for its clarity and outstanding literary quality. Austrian historian and talk show host Peter found the book to be authentically written with genuine weeping and confessions. The editor of the publishing house also visited Jack in prison where he told the people that Jack was a gentle and talented man and that they must pardon him.
It is well known that there are those who believe that even those who commit serious crimes have goodness in them and the possibility of reform who long to see the goodness of human nature triumph over evil and depravity. And Jack’s actions seem to confirm them. Imagine a cold-blooded killer who because of the remorse in his heart, even though he stayed in a prison in a very poor environment and even though he was an illiterate man, was able to become a literary creator through continuous learning and touch the hearts of many people with his heartfelt and evocative words. That’s why Jack supporters see this autobiography as evidence that Jack has been rehabilitated. Born on August 16th, 1950 in Judenberg, Syria, Austria, Jack undoubtedly had a childhood and adolescence marred by violence and neglect.
Jack’s mother, Teresa, was a repeat offender with multiple convictions for minor crimes such as fraud, forgery, and embezzlement. She was even in prison while pregnant with Jack. Later, Jack revealed in his book that Teresa had engaged in prostitution on multiple occasions, which deepened his hatred towards her. and Teresa claimed that Jack was lying and fabricating everything to boost the sales of his book.
Jack’s father was an American soldier stationed in Italy who had only a brief relationship with Teresa. He played no role in Jack’s life and may not have even known of Jack’s existence. When Jack was one-year-old, his mother, Teresa, was arrested by the police for a previous fraud offense. Jack, who had already been deprived of parental care, was sent to live in a foster home.
A year later, Jack was taken in by his grandfather, with whom he lived for the next six years. Later, Jack described his grandfather as a violent alcoholic who not only frequently had Jack help him steal animals from the farm, but also brought strange women home and forced young Jack to watch them have sex. However, Jack’s claims were contradicted by different evidence, such as government records, testimonies from neighbors and relatives, and some pointed out that Jack’s grandfather, who hardly left the house due to his perennial poor health, partial facial paralysis, and near deafness in his left ear. When Jack was 8 years old, his grandfather, weakened by old age, reached a point where he needed to be taken care of by others and could no longer take care of Jack. So Jack began to move between various foster homes. It is well known that if a child does not receive parental care during his early years, he will develop serious psychological problems.
By the age of 16, Jack had already been arrested 16 times for crimes such as theft, burglary, pimping, and assaulting prostitutes. Between 1966 and 1974, Jack spent most of his time in prison. In 1974, Jack found a girlfriend called Barbara. The couple’s relationship was not normal. Their relationship was more like master and sex slave.
For example, Barbara would work with several other girls to support Jack through prostitution. On December 11th, 24year-old Jack committed the first murder of his life, which was against Barbara’s friend, an 18-year-old German girl named Margaret. That night, Jack, who was penalous, he took Barbara with him to prepare for burglaries.
At first, Barbara took Jack with her to steal the money that her parents had kept in the house. However, a girl happened to be passing by and noticed their theft. So, in order to keep from going to jail, Barbara and Jack wanted to catch the girl and intimidate her to prevent her from reporting it to the police. When the girl walked under the street light, Barbara recognized her as her friend Margaret.
She warmly invited Margaret to get into the car. However, once in the car, Jack struck Margaret’s face and tied her hands behind her back. He also stole her wallet. Margaret in a state of panic kept crying for help and pleaded with Jack and Barbara to let her go. Hearing this, Jack promised to release her in the countryside. But after driving to the edge of woods, he forced Margaret out of the car and made her follow him into the woods.
Upon entering the woods, Jack said that he would let her go if she agreed to have sex with him. However, Margaret refused. Enraged by her refusal, Jack grabbed an iron rod and struck Margaret fiercely. She fell to the ground in agony, continuing to beg for mercy. But Jack did not stop. He first tied Margaret up with a pair of tights and then used the iron rod to brutally humiliate her, eventually strangling the girl to death.
Finally, he tied her bra around her neck and covered her body with dirt and leaves. During the trial, Jack claimed that he killed Margaret because of the effects of psychotropic drugs. He said that when he beat Margaret with an iron bar, he saw his mother’s reflection in her eyes and became so enraged that he waited until he gradually came to his senses only to find the girl dead.
In order to mislead the judge and jurors, he completely omits his burglary and sexual humiliation of Margaret, claiming only that his crime was the result of childhood trauma. But Barbara confessed everything such as how they burglarized the house and how they met Margaret including the fact that at the end she saw Jack and Margaret go into the woods and 10 minutes later Jack returned alone holding an iron bar covered in blood and hair.
Jack was sentenced to life in prison for this murder and Barbara was sentenced to 8 years as an accomplice. In 1985, a protest for the forced pardon of Jack was initiated by dozens of intellectuals and government officials. Shockingly, one of the supporters statements even claimed that Austrian justice would be measured by the Jack case.
However, no one paid attention to some disturbing signs indicating that Jack had not completely rid himself of his obsession with murder and violence. Jack wrote,
“There’s no more poetic theme than the death of a beautiful woman.”
In another poem, he wrote,
“You still look strange and distant, vibrant, death, but one day you will come close, full of flames. Come, lover, I’m there. Take me, I am yours. The protest was ultimately rejected by the Austrian president on the grounds that the court mandated minimum 15-year imprisonment had not been served. Nevertheless, Jack had already realized the power of controlling public opinion. 3 years later, in order to gain more attention, he republished his book.
Additionally, a renowned Austrian film director adapted his book into a movie titled Jack the Writer as a mockery of the historical Jack the Ripper. Newspapers, media, and the literary world were all discussing Jack. By this time, the majority of the public, as well as intellectuals and public figures, had begun to speak out in support of Jack.
On May 23rd, 1990, Jack was released from prison. The then prison warden claimed that we would never find a prisoner so well prepared for freedom. However, it turned out that Jack was prepared for freedom and his supporters were prepared. But the victims were not prepared for the harm they should not have suffered. After his release from prison, Jack virtually became a celebrity who could represent Austria.
The book Purgatory was regarded as a masterpiece by schools and radio stations broadcast children’s stories written by Jack. Moreover, leveraging his newfound fame, Jack continuously held lecture events. On a popular talk show of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Jack, dressed in a distinctive white silk suit with a red carnation on his lapel and a gold chain around his wrist, discussed reducing the stigma surrounding individuals with criminal histories with the host, his fingers adorned with gold rings, constantly gesturing, and also Jack became a journalist specializing in crime reporting and hosted a television program discussing criminal rehabilitation.
In October 1990, a sex worker was found dead. her death mirroring that of Margaret with her bra tied around her neck. In the following months, seven more women were murdered, each a sex worker, and each killed in the same manner, strangled with a bra, and then buried in the woods.
As more women continued to disappear from Vienna’s red light district, Jack, as a crime journalist, was assigned to a popular evening radio program to report on these very murders that he had committed. During an interview with Jack, a senior police officer said,
“Unfortunately, it hasn’t been solved. Despite extensive investigations, we haven’t made any breakthroughs so far.”
Another officer added,
“In Vienna, we don’t have experience dealing with a serial killer, so we don’t know what his motives are.”
In the summer of 1991, Jack traveled to Los Angeles on a reporting assignment for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. tasked with exploring the dark underbelly of the city known as the city of angels.
He needed to understand the dangers of the streets and interview sex workers. During a street interview, one sex worker said,
“It’s ugly. It’s dirty and it’s terrifying. Every time you get in a car, you might die. Every time you drive away, you don’t know if he’s going to kill you.”
On June 20th, Shannon was discovered as the first deceased female, followed by Arena and Peggy.
Similar to the murders in Vienna, all three victims were strangled with their brass. During the investigation, a criminal profiler stated,
“This unique behavior allows us to reasonably conclude that we are looking for a serial killer.”
All three victims were killed by the same perpetrator. Although Jack seemed to be in the limelight at this time, and most people believed he had been redeemed, not everyone was convinced that Jack could truly reform.
A crime journalist who was investigating two murders in Gratz noted that like the victims in Vienna, both victims there had also been strangled with their brass. Because the modus operandi of these serial murders closely matched the way Jack’s victims had been killed, the journalist became suspicious of Jack.
He said,
“For me, there’s a single thread connecting all the crime scenes. I am convinced that we are on the right track.” So I informed the Gratz police. At first, in order to find clues about the suspect, the Gratz police found three sex workers living in the red light district. They showed three sex workers a photo of Jack and asked if they had seen this man.
All three of them answered yes. A sex worker also told a disturbing story. She said that on that evening, a man in a white suit driving a white Ford Mustang entered the red light district. Then he found her and said he was a journalist who wanted to learn about the real lives of sex workers in the red light district.
However, he took her to a forest and forcibly handcuffed her. Just as the woman was imagining her own death, the man unlocked her handcuffs and drove her back to the red light district. A police officer commented that the story matched their assumed modus operandi and the identity of the murderer in every aspect except that she wasn’t killed.
Just as Jack returned to Austria, the police forces of the United States and Austria also got in touch. They talked about the similar murder cases that occurred in both countries from beginning to end. And since Jack left Austria, no new murder cases had emerged there. Moreover, with his arrival, sex workers in Los Angeles began to die.
So, Jack was identified as the sole suspect by the police of both countries. Eventually, the Gratz police gathered sufficient evidence to arrest Jack. But when they entered his home with the arrest warrant, Jack had already fled. During his escape, Jack still kept trying to manipulate public opinion through the media, continuing to describe fabricated details, including that his motive for the murder was rooted in childhood trauma rather than sexual motives in order to convince the ignorant that he was innocent.
On February 27th, 1992, Jack was arrested in Miami, Florida. Jack was arrested because of his passion for public opinion. That day, the police tricked him into believing they were reporters from a magazine. They promised to pay him $10,000 and let him share his story with the public. However, when Jack dressed up and entered the interview room, the people waiting for him were not reporters, but police officers.
On May 27th, Jack was extradited back to Austria, where he was charged with 11 murders.
On June 29th, 1994, Jack was sentenced to life in prison without parole. On the night of his conviction, Jack hanged himself by tying a thin cord from his sweatpants around his neck. I can’t stand being back in a cell, Jack had said after his arrest.
Then he kept his word and chose to die. An Austrian politician commented,
“It was Jack’s best murder.”
Later, it seemed that Jack’s fans, who had been obsessed with him, finally had a wakeup call. For example, Peter, who had still supported Jack even after he was convicted of nine murders, said,
“At the time, I truly believe that Jack was a reformed person.
But now, I feel that I was cheated and that I need to take some responsibility. In both ancient and modern times, the desecration of a corpse was an outrageous act. However, in the development of anatomy, dissecting corpses has been crucial for gaining knowledge about the human body. 200 years ago, anatomists were so obsessed with the human body that a renowned surgeon even hired someone to steal a corpse.
In the 18th century, there was a man named Charles Burn, known as the Irish Giant due to his height about 2 m 31. At 21-year-old, Charles came to London. He made a living by showing off his height in the circus. And only a few months later, Charles became a local celebrity. However, good times did not last long. Once he was drunk in a tavern, all 700 lb he was carrying was stolen.
This hit him hard, after which he began to drink heavily and contracted tuberculosis. His health deteriorated dramatically. News of the Irish giant’s serious illness and imminent death quickly spread through the city. Some anatomists were also informed of the news, notably John Hunter, a prominent surgeon who had originally taken a strong interest in Charles body, but had only suffered from a lack of opportunity.
Learning his body would most likely be desecrated and dissected, Charles lay dying in his apartment. No parents, no relatives, only his circus companions to keep him company. A dwarf stood by his bedside on tiptoe listening to Charles last wish. He said,
“Remember to bury me in the depths of the sea so that I will never again be made a laughingstock.”
On June 1st, 1783, Charles passed away. His circus friends placed his body in a lead coffin and transported it to Margaret by the sea, preparing for a burial at sea as per his wishes. However, Hunter bribed the undertakers with £500 to remove Charles’s body from the coffin and replace it with stones. In the end, the lead coffin filled with stones was dumped into the sea while Charles’s skeleton was stored in Hunter’s Museum, displayed publicly for two centuries as an exhibition piece.
Hunter’s theft of corpses was not exceptional. In the 19th century, Scotland was one of Europe’s top medical education centers. Numerous medical students gathered to train. To be qualified surgeons, they needed to dissect corpses to learn anatomy and surgical skills. But legal corpse sources were very limited, such as unclaimed remains, donated corpses, and executed criminals, which couldn’t meet the demand.
It said that a professor and his students could only get one corpse per year. This shortage led to widespread grave robbing and underground corpse trading. Anatomy professors would pay up to£10 for a fresh corpse. Moreover, while disturbing graves and taking the deceased property was considered a crime, stealing corpses wasn’t regarded as illegal.
As a result, a special occupation emerged in Europe. Resurrection men who stole corpses and sold them. November 29th, 1827. In an apartment in Edinburgh’s Westport, an old man named Donald died of dropsy. The owner of the apartment, Leair, complained to her husband, Hair, that Donald was still 4 lb in a rears on his rent.
Hair then found his tenant, Burke, a man who often drank heavily and talked about it. The two men, over whiskey, contemplated how to recover the money. Burke recalled hearing that a local anatomist, Knox, was acquiring some fresh corpses because he dissected a new one every time he took a class. Since Donald couldn’t repay the rent, grave robbing wasn’t a crime and they could get paid handsomely, her and Burke decided to sell Donald’s body to Knox.
Under the cover of night, they opened Donald’s coffin and took his body to Knox’s residence. Knox didn’t question the source. He just checked if it was fresh and offered £7 and 10 shillings. As they left, Knox’s assistant informed them Knox would welcome them again for similar transactions. Realizing Knox needed a steady supply of fresh corpses, Hair and Burke go from stealing corpses to murdering humans.
They chose those who were vulnerable, the homeless, the drunks, the prostitutes, the disabled, and the elderly. But the question was, in what way to kill them? After discussion, they planned to lure victims to Lar’s apartment with the promise of drinks. Once there, they’d get the victims drunk. Then, Burke would pin the victim’s upper body while hair suffocated them by covering their mouth and nose.
The identity of the first victim was hard to confirm, as Hair and Burke often got drunk during the crimes, making it difficult for them to remember the order of the murders. However, their murders definitely started in January 1828. Joseph, a miller living in Leair’s apartment at the time, was suffering from the flu.
Lar was worried that having a potentially contagious disease in the apartment would certainly be bad for their business. So hair found Burke and they decided to kill Joseph and sell his body. In the dead of night, the partner lured Joseph to drink. Once drunk, Burke pressed against his chest and hair covered his mouth and nose until Joseph suffocated.
This type of murder was safe and efficient because the victim was defenseless. The next three victims were a British traveling salesman, an unidentified elderly woman, and an elderly woman named Simpson. Like Joseph, the salesman suffered from a contagious disease, jaundice. Thus, hair and Burke killed him without hesitation.
Simpson was the first victim to be lured to his death by Leair. Simpson would often come to Edinburgh to sell salt and make ends meet, and occasionally she would spend the night at Leair’s apartment. No one cared about a lonely old woman, so Lear invites her to join her for a drink. During this time, Leair kept filling Simpsons glass with alcohol, and by the time the old woman was drunk, Burke and Hair murdered her.
The unidentified old woman suffered a similar fate. These corpses were sold to Knox at £10 each. Records state that seeing Simpsons extremely fresh corpse, Knox just gave a meaningful look to her and Burke without questioning. In early April, Burke met two women, Mary and Janet, at a tavern.
He paid for their drinks and invited them to his place for breakfast. Then the three left with two whiskey bottles. Back at Lair’s apartment, they continued drinking. When Mary was drunk on the table, Janet kept chatting with Burke. But Burke’s wife, Helen, discovered her husband flirting with a younger woman, and she angrily accused them of having an affair.
Immediately afterward, a heated argument broke out. Burke complained that Helen was interrupting his work. He took a glass and slammed it into her, causing a cut to the corner of her eye. Witnessing this happen, Janet said she didn’t know Burke was married and then she abandoned her friend and left on her own.
Later, Burke had Helen fetch hair and leared while he moved Mary to another room. Soon, hair arrived, and together they locked the women out and suffocated Mary as she slept. Helen took Mary’s clothing and her body was sold to Knox. Impressed by Mary’s corpse, Knox preserved it in whiskey for 3 months before dissection.
Haldane, a stout old woman living in Lair’s apartment, was found asleep in a stable by her and Burke after getting drunk. The duo smothered her to death on the spot. Incredibly, just a few months later, Haldane’s daughter also moved into Lar’s apartment. Fond of drinking, she became friends with Burke, who predictably murdered her while she was drinking with him.
In May, an old woman was murdered, followed by a woman named Effie, a scavenger. In June, an old woman and her grandson, a mute boy, and both residents of the apartment were also killed. Later, in his confession, Burke recalled how the boy sat by the kitchen fire while his grandmother was being killed in the bedroom. After her death, the boy was taken to the same room and murdered.
Burke said it was the murder that disturbed him the most because the look on the boy’s face before he was murdered always bothered him. On June 24th, Burke took Howen to visit her father. However, upon his return, he discovered poor hair, was dressed in new clothes, and had extra cash. Realizing Hair had carried out the murder and sale of the body on his own, he lashed out at Hair.
Later, he left Larair’s apartment and moved in with his cousin. In fact, the rift between the two men did not last long. As accompllices in crime and driven by the fear of becoming destitute, Burke and Hair reconciled and resumed their murderous activities. At the end of September or early October, Hair visited Burke.
During the time they killed Alundress, followed by a relative of Burke’s wife, a woman named Anne. Around this time, concerned about potential leaks, Leair suggested killing Helen as she had not actually participated in their crimes. But Burke refused her proposal. James, a well-known figure on the streets, had a club foot that caused him to limp and also had intellectual disabilities.
He relied on begging to make a living. However, Burke and Hair selected him as their next victim. In early October, Hair lured James to Lair’s apartment with the promise of whiskey, then sent for Burke. The two men took James to a bedroom, claiming they could drink in peace there, and had Lair lock the door. But James didn’t like whiskey.
He preferred his snuff so he didn’t get drunk. Regardless, Hair and Burke attacked. Hair covered James’ mouth and nose while Burke held him tightly. Although James fought back, the locked door and his restrained body made resistance impossible. Eventually, James was murdered. His clothes and snuff bottle were taken and his body was sold.
On October 31st, Margaret, a middle-aged Irish woman and the last victim, was enticed to Burke’s house by the promise of a drink. Burke drank with her, and after finishing half a bottle of whiskey, he said he would buy more whiskey, claiming some friends were coming. Then he asked the Grays, who lived next door, to stay at Larair’s apartment for the night to avoid disturbing them.
Once the possibility of being witnessed was eliminated, Burke along with hair and Helen returned home with more whiskey and continued drinking with Margaret. Later, Leair joined them. Around 9:00 in the evening, the Grays briefly returned to prepare some clothes for their children and saw Burke, Hair, Margaret, and Leair singing and dancing.
After the Grays left, Burke and Hair killed Margaret and hid her body in a pile of straw in the Gray’s room. The next day, when the Grays returned with their children and tried to enter their room, Burke stopped them, which aroused their suspicion. After Burke and Helen left, the Grays searched their room and found Margaret’s body in the straw.
This shocked the Grays, who immediately reported their discovery to the police. As the Grays were reporting to the police, Burke and Hair moved Margaret’s body to Knox’s residence. When the police arrived at the crime scene, they found no body, but discovered blood stained clothes. Burke was arrested by waiting police when he returned home.
Initially, Burke claimed that Margaret had left Edinburgh. However, the bloodstained clothes told another story. The officers then took Burke and Helen back to the station for questioning. Although the inquest details were not revealed, the next day, the police located Knox’s autopsy room where they found Margaret’s body.
Hair and Leair were also arrested. Although Margaret’s body was found, the medical evidence was insufficient to prove that she was murdered and the remains of the other victims have been autopsied by Knox. It was almost a perfect murder. However, in the final moments, the chief disciplinary officer of Scotland stepped forward.
He told her that if he could testify that Burke and Helen committed the murders, then he and his wife would be immune from prosecution. Hair, a man of unscrupulous means, agreed to the scheme.
On December 24th, 1828, at 1000 a.m., Burke and Helen stood trial. After a series of arguments, Burke was found guilty of Margaret’s murder, and Helen was released for lack of evidence.
Ultimately, Burke was sentenced to death, as well as a public autopsy after death. The judge said to Burke,
“Your body should be publicly dissected, and I am sure that if it becomes customary to preserve the skeleton, your bones will be preserved as well, so that your atrocities will be remembered by future generations.”
After the trial, Helen returned to her residence. Even though she was found not guilty, the public’s anger was far from being able to stop. The next day, when she went to buy whiskey, a mob surrounds her, and Helen even hides in a police station for protection. Fearing for her life forever, she left Edinburgh a day later and disappeared.
On the morning of January 28th, 1829, Burke was hanged before 25,000 spectators. On February 1st, his body was publicly dissected by one of Knox’s rivals. To this day, his skeleton remains in the anatomical museum of the University of Edinburgh.
On February 5th, hair left Edinburgh. When checking into a hotel, he was recognized.
And immediately afterwards, a crowd of angry residents gathered in front of the hotel. They smashed the hotel’s windows and street lights with stones, and the police even deployed 100 policemen to maintain order. In the early hours, Hair left town under police and militia escort and has since disappeared. Because Burkenhair had not been questioned about where those very fresh bodies came from, Knox was also seen as an accomplice to the serial killer.
However, although he was struck off the role of members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he continued to practice medicine until his death in 1862. Up the close and down the stair, go inside with Burke and Hair. Burke is the butcher. Hair is the thief. Knox the boy that buys the beef. Baby farming is always a disturbing topic.
It is well known in Victorian times. Lots of people lived with their partners, even if they weren’t married, and lots of extrammarital sexual relations. But in reality, the mainstream moral values of this period emphasized abstinence and sexual restraint with great importance placed on female chastity. Although the times changed fast, education was not comprehensive.
The living conditions of the underclasses were so difficult. They lacked education and moral discipline with regard to sex. As a result, two scenarios emerged during this period. Middle-class women remained chased and dignified, focusing on the sanctity of marriage and the legitimacy of sexual behavior, while poor women were more casual in their sexual behavior.
Because of social morality, unmarried mothers were socially ostracized in the event of unmarried pregnancy. So, a sad situation occurs where once pregnant, most unmarried mothers abandon their baby outside the orphanage. In 1852, there was even a magazine article claiming that the womb of an unmarried mother was Satan’s crucible.
In such times, an organization known as the baby farm was born. Back then, numerous ads seeking child care help were on the streets. Some middle-aged women pretending to be reputable married ladies with good-looking families and claiming a love for child care offered to take care of baby for women at a good charge. These transactions look perfect, but the reality was cruel.
Unmarried mothers think that by handing over their kids to baby farms, they can start their lives over again without any worries. But only few children who lose the protection of their mothers survive because some farmers used baby farms made dark money. In the dark and damp corners, milk bottles were just chucked out and the glass bottles and rubber hoses became a breeding ground for bacteria.
Baby farmers have no qualms about using these dirty bottles to feed their innocent babies. And with their delicate intestines infiltrated by bacteria, poor newborns often suffer from diarrhea and infections. Secondly, in order to save costs, they would also mix large quantities of flour into the milk powder, resulting in the baby getting thinner and thinner.
For those who developed teeth, refused to eat, and cried, they would use tooth powder containing mercury, which gradually ulcerated the baby’s mouth and made the cries weak. For those active and mischievous babies, the farmer also had a syrup that could put babies into a regular stouper. It was called baby hearing water, and it contained a large amount of opium as a stabilizing ingredient.
The most disturbing thing was that some people take money from those unmarried mothers, adopt babies, simply kill them within a few days, and then move to another place. October 11th, 1892, at 25 Burn Street, Macdonald Town, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. Two men were working in the backyard. Because this house had a clogged drain, they needed to dig out the pipe and check it for the cause of the clog.
During the excavation, a worker named James found a badly decayed skeleton. As it was similar in size to a small animal, James and his colleague thought it was a cat’s skeleton. No one considered it might be human. The next day, James unearthed another decayed skeleton, which was less decomposed than the first one.
Realizing he had found two infant skeletons, James reported it to the police. The police acted swiftly. Through rental records, they found the previous tenants were 47year-old John, his wife Sarah, and their two daughters, Blanch and Florence, who lived there from June 29th to August 16th. Meanwhile, the corner determined the first skeleton was a male infant buried about 3 months ago, and the second a female infant buried about 6 weeks ago.
The burial times matched Jon’s tenency. On October 12th, senior officer Joyce visited John and Sarah’s new home at Redern Wells Street, one kilometer away. But without evidence, he just asked a few questions and left. 2 days later, a decayed male infant skeleton was found at nearby Zeia Street.
Suspecting a connection, Joyce returned to J’s house. In the backyard, he saw some disturbed soil and dug, but found nothing. A few days later, Jon and Sarah moved again. Their frequent moves aroused the police’s suspicion. who thought the skeleton at Zeia Street was moved by John and Sarah to mislead the investigation after they learned about the discovery of the buried skeletons.
November 2nd, Joyce and a police officer went to 25 Burn Street again. They looked into all of J’s rental records and found that he had lived here longer than any other house. They suspected that there were more skeletons buried in the backyard. Their guess was proved right.
While digging, they found another five skeletons. November 3rd, John and his two daughters were arrested at John’s new home by Joyce. John’s wife, Sarah, had already been arrested. All four family members were in the police station. They were questioned separately. In the end, Jon and Sarah were charged with the death of a female infant.
Blanch and Florence were charged with being involved in the death of the related children. November 12th, police found a total of 15 infant skeletons. They were buried in different houses where the Mackens had lived. During the trial, Jon and Sarah were sentenced to death by hanging. The judge said to Jon,
“You took money from the mother of the child.
You deceived her with your promise. You never intended to keep it, and you never did because you had already decided to kill the child. You lied about your address and tried hard to make any search fruitless. In the end, in order to prevent the child from being found uh after the child’s death, you buried it in your backyard as if it were a dog’s body.
Everyone who has heard this case will believe that you were engaged in the extremely wicked baby farming business. The yards of the three houses you lived in, together with the terrible evidence of these skeletons, show that you were carrying out this kind of evil and hellish business destroying the lives of these babies for profit.”
On August 15th, 1893, John was hanged. His wife’s death sentence was changed to life imprisonment because of a successful appeal through a petition. In reality, as early as March 31st, 1892, the state of New South Wales had enacted a Children’s Protection Act. The legislation provides for the enrollment of children under the age of three for adoption, prohibits the payment of a lump sum for such adoption, and only allows for a maximum of 20 shillings per week.
However, the couple remains completely unaffected, even though their infamous activities were carried out after the legislation was implemented. February 12th, 1892, by the Cooks River in New South Wales, 19-year-old Ward gave birth to a boy. Two months later, as a single mother, she had no choice but to place an ad in the newspaper, hoping a kind and loving woman would adopt her baby.
The next day, a middle-aged couple found Ward. Ward, a young maid working for different employers and often interacting with various people, usually observed people’s expressions during conversations. But this time, given the potential ruin if the baby transaction was exposed, she was too nervous to scrutinize the couple.
The couple introduced themselves as John and Sarah, accompanied by a girl named Daisy. Then Sarah’s expression turned sad as she mentioned their son had died of illness years ago. They wanted to adopt Ward’s baby to fill the void. And at Daisy’s strong request, Jon noticed her hesitation. He said they currently lived in a small house on Kettle Street in Redern, but promised to move to a larger house after adoption and would inform Ward of their new address for visits.
Upon hearing this, Ward, suppressing her grief, handed over 5 and her son to the Mackens couple. April 15th, 1892, in Wulamu, New South Wales, a maid named Clara gave birth to a girl. As looking after the baby would affect her work and her employer didn’t allow her to bring the child, Clara decided to give up the baby.
Hoping for a better life for her daughter, instead of abandoning her carelessly, Clara placed an ad to find loving adoptive parents for her daughter. On May 16th, after receiving a letter from 16 East Street, Redfern, Clara and her married eldest sister visited the middle-aged couple, John and Sarah, who had adopted Ward’s son a month prior.
Inside the house, Clara saw the couple living with several teenagers. Sarah held her 2-year-old son and said they had nearly 10 children and lots of baby carrying experience. She assured Clara she’d treat the baby as her own. Jon also told Clara they were moving and buying a poultry farm. To ease Clara’s worries, he promised to inform her of their new address.
On May 18th, Clara visited her daughter, but by May 24th, J’s house was empty and Clara received no more correspondence from the couple. June 10th, 1892. In Paddington, New South Wales, a maid named Minnie, gave birth to a girl. Unlike other unwed mothers, the child’s father, Bothamly, was willing to support the child.
June 21st, Minnie placed a newspaper ad seeking a kind-hearted person to care for her baby. That night, she received a letter from a man calling himself Bert, living at 109 George Street, Red Fern. He claimed to have a wonderful family and offered to care for Minnie’s child for 10 shillings a week, allowing Minnie and Botmley to visit any time.
By this time, three months had passed since the introduction of the Children’s Protection Act, and people were becoming familiar with it. The offer of 10 shillings a week was attractive. So, the next day, Minnie and Botham visited J’s home. They checked the family’s authenticity and made an agreement with Jon.
They wanted to test whether the couple could properly care for the infant before paying. Minnie then entrusted her child and some clothes to Jon. 2 days later, she bought new baby clothes and visited her daughter again. This time meeting Sarah, Jon’s wife, who seemed very loving. 3 days later, Minnie and Bothamly visited again, only to find Jon had moved to 25 Burn Street, Macdonald Town.
After learning Jon had moved his new address, Minnie didn’t think much of it. Due to being busy, she waited a week before visiting Bur Street, where she saw her well-ared for daughter. Jon and Sarah passed the test, and after Minnie and Botham had discussed the matter for a while, they made an agreement with Jon that every Saturday they would come and visit the children, and as such, they would also pay a weekly honorarium of 10 shillings.
Once during a visit to her daughter, Minnie saw a business card that said,
“Miss Mackkins, nurse and qualified midwife.”
This was Minnie first learned the couple’s real last name. At first, Minnie had suspicious thoughts, but Sarah found out about it. She admitted to the mistake, so many didn’t take it personally.
However, the couple have earned several lucrative paychecks. 10 showings a week wasn’t much for them, and there’s no turning back once a murder is committed, so they have to plan a plausible death for Minnie’s daughter. July 23rd, Minnie and Bothamly were told by Jon that their daughter had accidentally come down with a cold. As we all know, even in modern times, a cold is a serious condition for an infant with a very weak immune system, let alone in Victorian times.
So for the next two weeks, John wrote to tell Minnie about it. The first letter he said that the child was very sick, so he would take her to the doctor and the second letter he said that the child had sadly died. August 4, Minnie and Botham went to John’s residence with a bouquet of flowers. They wanted to have a funeral for their daughter.
When they saw with their own eyes the body of the child covered by a long white cloth, Minnie wept continually, and Bothamly consoled her gently. Then Jon said to them that perhaps it would have been better for her to be dead and that at least the sickness would not have continued to torment her. Bothamly asked Jon if a death certificate had been issued for the baby.
Jon said that she had become so wasted with sickness that he did not care to go to the doctor for a death certificate and besides he had ordered a coffin and he was willing to spend two pounds for the child’s burial. In fact, the baby girl died as a result of Jon and Sarah’s persecution. And the reason they were afraid to approach a doctor to open a death certificate was because it needed to check the child’s cause of death.
They volunteered to bury the child, also in case many got suspicious and went to the doctor to check the cause of death. 1,892. Within just 8 months, this couple adopted and murdered 15 infants. That’s why baby farms are always a disturbing topic. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, no one can imagine how many infant victims there were in this era.
In the 17th century, the English explorer John sailed to the east coast of America. Due to its similar environment and climate to England, he named it New England. As time went on to escape religious fear, more and more English people came here, and they built new communities and systems modeled on the English societal model.
Thus, the name New England became closely associated with the American states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In the 19th century, a terrible monster who often abused his wife and daughter and almost killed his wife’s sister escaped the police, fled to New England, and later, two shocking murders ensued in this beautiful land.
17-year-old Josie Lane Maid lived in Penrook, New Hampshire. She was a beautiful, smart, and popular girl, loved by friends, family, and neighbors. Perhaps in a few years, Josie would meet a man, get married, have several children, and live together happily. However, a tragic fate befell this girl. Around 8:30 p.m.
on October 4th, 1875 in the woods about half a mile from Pemrook School, the search party found Jos’s dismembered body. Her torn clothes were scattered over her naked body, and she had been brutally beheaded. Her family collapsed in shock at the scene, unable to believe their daughter had suffered so much or imagine her terror during the ordeal.
The next morning, her missing head was found 300 yd from the body. The autopsy report stated Josie had head injuries from blunt force trauma, abrasions, cuts, and a boot mark on her right cheek. Her right hand was broken and some body parts along with her earrings and a black enamel gold ring were missing. The doctor also revealed the most brutal fact.
Jos’s head was severed while she was still alive. The whole town of Pemrook was horrified by the crime. People wondered why Josie, a popular girl living peacefully with her family and hardly in conflict with anyone, would be murdered and subjected to such cruelty. A Boston detective, assisted by local police, took charge of the case.
Initially, due to public pressure, police arrested two tramps and the town’s only black resident within a week. One of the homeless men named Bill nearly faced a lynch mob, but all three were released for lack of evidence. During the time, Charles, the father of Jos’s friend, recounted a strange story. Months prior, he hired a Canadian named Joseph to work for him.
What struck him as odd was,
“Not long ago, Joseph had asked Charles’s son about a young girl frequently visiting Charles’s home.” Learning she was Charles’s daughter, Joseph urgently inquired,
“What’s her name? Where’s her school, and which way would she take to get to school?” It is wellknown these strange questions arouse suspicion.
But Charles’s son, unaware of the implications, he even showed Joseph the way his sister took to school. Consequently, Joseph became a suspect, and police published information about the murder in newspapers. Meanwhile, in St. Alban’s, Vermont, a man named Abel read the newspaper story about Jos’s murder. After carefully observing the sketch of the suspect, Abel recognized him.
Abel had been neighbors with Joseph last year, but following a murder in their previous neighborhood, Joseph and his family moved to a small village named Suncook. As a concerned resident, Abel reported this information to the police. In addition, a thought was born in his mind. Joseph was a suspect in Jos’s murder, but he had also been a suspect in another murder.
The victim named Ball was a school teacher. On July 24th, 1874, she was murdered. Abel suspected Joseph was the attacker in this case as well. October 14th, police rushed to Sunook. Learned Joseph’s children worked in a local factory. They asked the owner for Joseph’s address. Upon arrival, Charles identified Joseph as the murderer of his daughter’s friend.
Police then searched Joseph’s house. They found a knife hidden on the shelf. Joseph’s vest, jacket, and boots had blood stains, and the boot shape matched the imprint on Jos’s cheek. When questioned about his whereabouts during Jos’s murder, Joseph stayed silent due to lack of an alibi. His wife testified Joseph was violent, often abused her and the children, and had also assaulted and sexually abused her sister in Canada, and he fled to the US by attacking the police who tried to arrest him.
After Joseph’s arrest, he was convicted and sentenced to death. With two years of fighting, he overturned his first court conviction. However, a second conviction followed and finally Joseph was imprisoned in an isolated cell. While there, he repeated his prayer to his faith, looked out the window with longing, and there was a calendar in the cell with a mark on it, which stated,
“Joseph’s execution date, March 15th, 1878.”
Before the execution, many journalists and religious figures visited Joseph asking questions. Eventually, he confessed to murdering Josie and Ball. He said,
“I killed the girls.” Yeah, I killed two girls. It’s terrible. Terrible. In 1874, Joseph and his family arrived in St. Albins’s. Joseph got a job in a nearby field.
By chance, he saw a beautiful young woman ball, and he observed this woman passed by the field where he works every day. After weeks of deliberation, finally, Joseph decided to follow this woman. July 24th, a Saturday, Joseph made an excuse. said he was going to pick berries in the neighborhood. Then Joseph put on a crude mask.
He walked through the woods and stood on a small hill waiting for the woman to pass by. In fact, he had long noticed Ball passing through this desolate place every Saturday. There were no surprises in the way things unfolded. After Ball walked to where Joseph had ambushed her, she was attacked by him. During the time, Ball pleaded for her life, but in her struggle, she accidentally tore off Joseph’s mask.
It is well known if the victim sees the asalent’s face, they are usually killed. Although Ball was physically fit, she was not as strong as Joseph, who often performed physical work. And eventually, Ball was strangled to death, and then Joseph sexually assaulted her corpse. After the sexual assault was over to ensure Ball’s death, Joseph hit Ball again with a rock.
Initially, Joseph’s target was not Josie, but Charles’s daughter. That morning, Charles’s daughter waited in the woods for Josie. But when Josie didn’t arrive on time, she assumed Josie had gone to school earlier. As it happened, a kind neighbor drove his wagon into the woods, and he agreed to take her to school.
So began the twist of fate. 10 minutes later, Josie arrived at the meeting place. She thought her best friend had taken off on foot, so she hurried after her. However, at some point, Josie crossed an isolated path, and Joseph was here waiting for Charles’s daughter. Instead of seeing her, he saw Josie. At this moment, Joseph’s sanity was consumed by his desire to kill, and he attacked and sexually assaulted Josie.
Although Josie fought back and scratched Joseph’s neck with her fingernails, his strength far surpassed hers. Eventually, enraged by the neck injury, Joseph decapitated Josie. He then walked to a creek to wash off the blood and hid Jos’s wallet, ring, and other items. When Joseph returned to his home in Sunook, his wife curiously asked about the scratches on his neck, which he claimed were caused by poison ivy.
At the execution, Joseph was taken to the scaffold by two police officers. The sheriff said in a horse voice,
“Now, Joseph Lage, in accordance with the command, I proceed to execute the sentence of death by hanging you by the neck until you are dead, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
After the execution, Joseph was buried in the cemetery of Sunuk’s Catholic Church at his wife’s request.
Less than a month after Joseph’s execution, a tip from St. Alexander Qubec, claimed Joseph had likely additionally murdered a mother and daughter. According to the victim’s husband, George, his wife, and 16-year-old daughter, Minnie, were murdered on October 12th, 1867 by Joseph. At that time, the couple took their daughter to a village about 2 and 1/2 miles from their home.
Then George’s wife met a female friend, so she took Minnie to dinner at her friend’s house. When the time reached 6:30 p.m., they left her friend’s house. However, until late at night, they didn’t go home either. The next day, fearing for his wife and daughter, George sought help from the police. After a lengthy search, the remains of the two women were found in the bush next to a pasture near the village.
Many, like Josie, had been sexually assaulted and her body mutilated. In fact, Joseph was also in the village on the day of the murder. At about 6:30 p.m., Joseph, standing in front of the post office, saw George’s wife and daughter passed by the post office, and then he began to follow them. Passing a corner, Joseph made some insulting remarks, which aroused the mother and daughter, who said if he didn’t mind his own business, they would have him arrested.
Hearing this, Joseph walked in the direction of the post office, saying angrily,
“If the women did have him hauled up, they would be sorry sometime.” Unbeknownst to them, a passer by had witnessed and overheard the entire incident. This person last saw Joseph heading north towards the village, where a path led directly to where the two women’s remains were found.
Following the murders, Joseph wasn’t considered a suspect. Instead, a man named Martin was arrested during the investigation, but was soon released due to lack of evidence and his absence from the area at the time of the killings. Learning of Joseph’s conviction for the two murders, George became convinced Joseph was also the killer of his wife and daughter.
He believed if Joseph had lived, he would have been convicted of this crime as well. He said since Joseph had already been executed, it was pointless to add more crimes to his list. He only brought it up because he wanted to show the world Joseph’s dangerous character. 60 years ago, Sydney was terrorized by a notorious criminal, William Macdonald.
Dubbed the mutilator by the media for his horrifying and despicable modus operandi. As homeless people’s disappearances usually draw little attention, he mostly prayed on down men abandoned by society. Under the cover of the dead of night, he would lure his victims step by step to places that were dark and desolate.
When his victims were off their guard, he would reveal his true nature. He would launch a fierce assault on them with his fists and feet. Then, wielding a long knife, he would stab the victim’s heads and necks. What’s most chilling is that even when victims were already sustaining severe injuries and on the brink of death, he would subject the victims to the most brutal indignity by severing their genitalia.
His terrifying style of crime caused great fear and shock in society. Homeless people, drunkards, and others on the edge of society lived in constant fear. They worried that they might be the next victim of the murderer. They say a leopard never changes his spots, and there is something in me it’s in built. It’s something I can’t change.
On June 17th, 1924, Macdonald was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Liverpool, UK. As the second child in his family, he was known for his loner personality and distant relationship with his parents. It was said that he was regarded as having antisocial personality. In 1943, at the age of 19, Macdonald was conscripted into the British Army.
In 1944, one night, he was raped by a sergeant in an air raid shelter. After being discharged from the military in 1947, Macdonald was diagnosed with schizophrenia and received several months of electrocombulsive therapy at a mental hospital. Later on, he changed his name and immigrated to Canada. In 1955, he moved to Australia.
Upon arriving in Australia, Macdonald was arrested and charged for touching a detective’s penis in a public toilet. Since samesex sexual behavior was a criminal offense, he was sentenced to 2 years probation. He also became notorious in parks and public toilets, which were secret meeting spots for homosexual men.
In 1961, he moved to Sydney and became a construction worker. In June 1961, outside Roma Street Railway Station in Brisbane, a man was lurking like a beast of prey. He scanned the passers by until his gaze settled on 63-year-old Amos Hurst. The man approached Hurst and struck up a conversation. Then the two went to a nearby pub for a drink.
As the night deepened, they headed to Hurst’s flat. But once inside, a pair of hands stealthily reached for Hurst’s neck, throttling him. Cursed struggled in vain, mumbling indistinct words as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. However, the blood seemed to ignite the darkness within the murderer’s soul. He kept throwing heavy punches at Hurst’s face until Hurst slumped lifelessly on the sofa.
Then he placed Hurst on the bed, stripped him of his trousers and shoes, and pulled the sheet over him as if staging a funeral. The man carefully arranged the sheet, switched off the light, and left the flat. The man was Macdonald. Between 1961 and 1962, he committed five murders in Queensland and New South Wales.
On June 4th, 1961, a heinous murder occurred in Sydney. The victim, 41-year-old Alfred Reginald Greenfield, was found naked with over 30 savage stab wounds and his genitalia completely severed. Macdonald, the killer, was dubbed the mutilator by the media for this brutal act. At the time, Greenfield was sitting on a park bench when Macdonald approached him, offered him a drink, and lured him to nearby baths with the promise of more alcohol.
After Greenfield fell asleep, Macdonald stabbed him approximately 30 times, removed his genitalia, placed them in a plastic bag, and dumped them into Sydney Harbor. On a night in 1961, a horrifying murder occurred at the public toilet in Sydney’s Moore Park. Ernest William Cobbin, 37 years old, met a fate similar to Greenfield.
Macdonald, prowling the streets for prey that night, began his sinister plan upon encountering Cobbin. He cunningly approached Cobbin and lured him to the public toilet in Moore Park. Inside, after drinking beer together, and as alcohol lowered Cobbin’s guard, Macdonald put on a plastic raincoat. While Cobbin sat defenselessly on the toilet seat, Macdonald struck with a swift uppercut to Coven’s neck and stabbed him with a knife, accurately severing Cobbin’s jugular vein.
Blood spurted onto Macdonald’s arms, face, and raincoat. Cobbin tried to block with his arms, but Macdonald continued stabbing. Eventually, Macdonald severed Cobbin’s genitalia, placed them along with the bloody knife in a plastic bag, and left the scene nonchalantly. On his way home, he washed off the blood from his hands and face as if nothing significant had happened.
On March 31st, 1962 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, a quiet night was shattered by violence. At the end of an alley, a man with his wife and young child saw Frank Gladstone McClean, injured and bleeding, huddled in the corner. The culprit was Macdonald. That day, he bought a knife from a Sydney sports shop. At dusk, he followed man from a hotel.
At a corner, he talked to McClean and invited him for drinks. McClean followed him into the alley. Then Macdonald stabbed McClean’s throat. Though McClean resisted, his serious injuries left him flailing helplessly. During the struggle, Macdonald stabbed McClean’s face, punched him, and knocked him down. He cut off McClean’s genitalia, put it in a plastic bag, and took it home.
The next day, he discarded it in a secret place. The police found the genitalia wound very neat. The knife works skilled as if done by a professional. This made them suspect the killer might be an insane surgeon. At this time, a man named Alan Edward Brennan, having purchased a mixed merkantile store intending to sell sandwiches and small goods and residing in the room above the store.
However, after paying the deposit, he was only there briefly for about a week. This man in question is Macdonald, who after being fired from his job at the local post office, resumes his quest to earn a living. On June 6th, 1962, Macdonald went to a Sydney wine salon. There, he met Patrick Joseph Hackett, a 37 years old thief who had just been released from prison.
After leaving the wine salon, the two of them went back to the second floor of McDonald’s shop and continued drinking. As time slowly passed, Hackett lay down on the floor and fell asleep. Macdonald then took a bon knife from the first floor of the shop. In the dim light, he stabbed Hackett’s neck violently. After the first stab, blood soaked the floor.
Hacket woke up in agony and instinctively tried to resist and seize the knife. In the struggle, the knife sliced Macdonald’s hand, leaving a deep wound. But this did not stop Macdonald. He attacked fiercely again with blood all over his face. Hacket was eventually stabbed in the heart by McDonald’s knife.
He then tried to cut off Hackett’s genitalia, but failed because the knife had become blunt. Exhausted, Macdonald collapsed on the floor and fell asleep, leaning against Hackett’s body. The next morning, he awoke to find himself lying beside the corpse, his body covered in dried blood. Panicked, he quickly washed himself, then went to the hospital to have his hand wound stitched, claiming he had accidentally cut himself in the shop.
After cleaning up the blood, he hurriedly left Sydney for Brisbane to evade the police. 3 weeks later, McDonald’s shop neighbors noticed a foul stench and the health department reported it to the police. The police found a decayed body. The autopsy indicated it was a man in his 40s, matching Brennan’s age. They concluded that the victim was the missing shopkeeper Brennan and put a notice in the newspaper obituary column.
One of Macdonald’s former post office colleagues saw the notice, believed it, and even attended a small memorial at a local funeral home. At that time, Macdonald had fled to Brisbane and then moved to New Zealand. Always anxious and thinking the police were after him, he was troubled by his twisted mind and urge to kill, which drove him back to Sydney.
Back in Sydney, he ran into a former colleague who said in surprise,
“I thought you were dead.” Panicked, Macdonald responded in a low voice,
“Leave me alone.” and hurriedly left for Melbourne. The former colleague realized something was wrong. If Macdonald was alive, then whose body was found in the shop? He immediately reported to the police.
Initially, the police didn’t believe him, thinking he was drunk or mad, and told him to go home. Undeterred, he returned to the police station the next day, but was still ignored. He then went to a newspaper and told a crime reporter. The reporter, finding the story credible, published an article titled,
“The case of the walking corpse.”
The article caused a public outcry. Under pressure, the police revisited the case, exhumed the body, and found it was Hackets, not McDonald’s. The forensic examination revealed multiple stab wounds and severe genitalia similar to the mutilator’s modus operandi. The truth began to emerge. In the course of the police’s allout efforts to trace the case, they obtained a clear identification photo of Macdonald, which they quickly distributed to every newspaper across the country in the hope of soliciting valuable clues from the public. At this time, Macdonald was working at the Melbourne Railway Works under the alias David Allen. In order to evade the police, he dyed his hair and grew a beard. However, his disguise was ineffective. His colleagues saw the photo in a newspaper and recognized him, informing the police. The Melbourne police acted swiftly and arrested him when he went to collect his weekly wages.
During the interrogation, Macdonald freely admitted to his crimes and displayed an unsettling composure. He provided a detailed account of each murder he had committed. He claimed that he was driven by an irresistible urge to kill. He mentioned being raped in his teenage years, an experience that left him with incurable psychological trauma.
He stated that he often heard voices in his head telling him that his victims were the person who had sexually assaulted him. On August 15th, 1963, Macdonald was formally charged with four counts of murder. In September of the same year, the trial began, becoming one of Australia’s most sensational cases at the time.
In court, Macdonald pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity and gave a detailed account of the murders. He calmly described how he castrated the victims, put their genitalia in plastic bags, and took them home. His graphic descriptions were so shocking that some jurors fainted in court and had to be removed. Despite evidence suggesting his mental issues, the jury ignored the insanity defense and found him guilty.
The judge called it the most brutal case he had encountered in his years as a judg…
In the late 1960s, Jerome Henry Brudos had a horrific murder spree in the Salem, Oregon area.
He picked on petite, fragile looking women, and the tortures he inflicted on the kidnapped or trapped women were horrifying. They would be strangled and beaten to death with blunt objects. And even after they were already dead, he would not leave them alone. Jerome would cut off their body parts as his trophies and dump those women in the local rivers.
It’s crazy how messed up Jerome is. In some cases, he even goes as far as to abduct and assault his victims while wearing women’s clothing. Even after he was arrested, he didn’t feel remorse for his crimes. Instead, he felt bad about getting caught. In one interview, a detective asked him,
“Do you have any regrets? Do you feel sorry for the girls who died?”
He just picked up a piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it on the floor, saying,
“I cared as much for those girls as I do for this ball of paper.”
Jerome was born in a hospital in Webster, South Dakota on January 31st, 1939 to a family that lived a simple and modest life. His father usually did temporary jobs and his mother was a housewife. He had a rough childhood. His mom was a strict person, and he lacked love and approval. His mom wanted her second child to be a girl, but Jerome was a boy.
She made no secret of her dislike for the youngest son, reserving most of her resentment and criticism for him. Jerome grew up with a close friendship with a female neighbor who was a little older than his mom. She was kind and showed him compassion and acceptance throughout the relationship, which helped him a lot. Jerome often imagined that this neighbor was his real mom.
Unfortunately, this neighbor was diabetic, and as her health got worse, they stopped seeing each other. The real pain for this poor child was when he was saved by someone, but that person disappeared again. Jerome was obsessed with women’s shoes and feet, but no one knew why. One time when Jerome was five, a teenage girl fell asleep in his bed and he couldn’t stop staring at her high heels.
He tried to take her shoes off and she got scared. Instead of yelling at him, she just told him to leave the room. Another time, Jerome found a pair of leather high heels with rhinestone inlays while exploring the local dump. He brought the shoes home and showed them to his mom in the heels and women’s clothing, but his mom was disgusted and screamed for him to lose the heels, then beat him severely and burned the clothes.
When he was 7 years old, he tried to steal his teacher’s high heels. And when he was caught, he admitted to the theft, but did not explain why he did it. Because of Jerome’s dad’s job, they moved around a lot. Eventually, they moved to Salem, Oregon, where Jerome was about 12 years old and well into puberty.
but he hadn’t changed at all and he even developed a fetish for women’s underwear. Jerome said a neighborhood boy took him to touch and smell some girls underwear and that’s why he did it. Women’s shoes and lingerie had already turned Jerome on, but his height and severe acne made him very self-conscious and shy around women.
At 14, he started masturbating to porn mags and often had dreams about women. When his mom found semen stains on his bed, he was punished and forced to wash the sheets. At 15, he started stalking young women in the area, taking quiet photos of several of them, and stealing and keeping many of the women’s undergarments and shoes.
Although none of these offenses were violent, it’s clear that he developed violent fantasies of forcibly possessing women at this time. When he was 16, he started acting weird. He dug a tunnel under his house and made a little room in it. He did this because he had some kinky ideas about catching women, even though he didn’t really keep anyone there.
That is until Jerome came up with a pattern of crime. He’d lure a neighbor girl into his bedroom under one pretext and then find an excuse to leave the room. A few minutes later, a masked, knife wielding man forced the girl to strip naked and took he took a bunch of pictures of her before running off.
Then a short time later, Jerome came back wearing a shirt with his hair a mess and a cut on his cheek. He told the girl that an intruder had locked him in the family barn with a knife. In the year after that, Jerome did it again and again, hurting a bunch of girls. But because they weren’t physically or sexually assaulted and went into Jerome’s bedroom on their own, no one told the police about it at the time.
In April 1956, he persuaded a 17-year-old girl to accompany him on a date. And after driving her down a deserted road, he then ordered the girl to take off her clothes. But the girl refused. So infuriated, he dragged the girl out of the car and broke her nose. But luckily, the girl’s screams caught the attention of a young couple driving by who stopped and stopped Jerome’s behavior.
The girl was hysterical that Jerome was trying to sexually assault her. And he lamely explained that the girl had accidentally fallen out of the car and then went on to say that there was a strange weirdo who was trying to sexually assault the girl and that he was just coming over to help, but there was clearly no credibility to the story.
So, the couple took them to a nearby police station. Once in the interrogation room, Jerome became very compliant and admitted to assaulting the girl, but his intent was only to get her to take off her clothes and take pictures of her, denying that he had done this type of behavior before. Jerome was arrested for assault and battery.
Then the police found out during a search of his bedroom that Jerome had a large collection of women’s clothing as well as a large number of real photographs taken of nude girls. The police contacted one of the girls and asked her why she had been photographed in these pictures. The girl revealed everything that had happened last year.
And it was at this point that the police realized that this was not his first time offender and that he had already harmed. More than one woman had been harmed. And because those girls were too young to tell their parents and the police about such things, nothing like this had happened. Then Jerome was sent to the Poke County Juvenile Hall where he was treated as a juvenile delinquent and sent to the Oregon State Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation on April 16th, 1956.
He stayed there for a total of 9 months. He underwent a series of psychiatric evaluations and the test concluded that Jerome was a depressed person suffering from schizotypal personality disorder. Psychologists also concluded that his sexual fantasies stemmed solely from his hatred of his mother. After Jerome got out of the hospital, he went back to living with his parents and graduated from Corvalis High School like a normal student in 1957.
Two years later, he joined the army and trained as a communications technician. His comrades remembered him as a guy who only fantasized because he said he could have casual sex with a Korean girl and that the girl would quietly come to his bed every night. In October 1959, he was expelled from the army because he had been tested and found psychologically unfit for military service.
Jerome went back to his parents’ place and got a job as an electrical engineer at a local radio station. His co-workers saw him as an outstanding, skilled, and dedicated employee with a mild manner of demeanor. But even though he was a licensed technician, he didn’t seem to have any idea of advancing his abilities. At this time, although Jerome had a good job, his mother did not change her mind in the least.
She loathed Jerome and doted on her other son. And during the years he lived with his parents, he was allowed to sleep in his bedroom. But whenever his older brother came home, he was forced to sleep in a makeshift shed he had created at the back of the house. Around 1960, he kept up his stalking behavior. One time, Jerome saw a young woman dressed in revealing clothing and he followed her to an apartment.
In a dark stairwell, he covered the girl’s mouth and after a few minutes of struggling, she fell into a coma. He didn’t sexually assault or beat her, just took the girl’s shoes and ran away. On another occasion, Jerome saw another beautiful girl in high heels, and he tried to take the girl’s shoes as he had done on the previous occasion.
However, the girl fought back, and he panicked and fled after getting only one of the heels. After about a year of working at a radio station in Corvalis, Jerome got to know a 17-year-old girl named Ralphen Schwindler. He met Schwindler through a teenage boy who was into electronics and often went to the radio station to watch and ask about Jerome’s work.
One day, Jerome said he wanted to find a girlfriend, and the boy agreed right away and took him to Schwindler’s house. They got married on September 30th, 1961, when Schwindler was a month pregnant. At first, they lived in Portland, Oregon. And then in the summer of 1968, they moved to a small house in a suburb of Salem.
They had two kids together, and Jerome sometimes helped repair vehicles in the family garage to make some extra money. He actually never mistreated his wife, but for the first few years of their marriage, he insisted that Schwindler walk around the house naked and do her chores in the same way. For several years, Schwindler went along with these strange habits until the mid 1960s when Jerome’s daughter was a toddler, and she rejected his strange habits to make sure her child developed properly.
Jerome gained weight, and she said that even though she never told him, she was starting to be disgusted by how he was looking. She was still faithful to him, but they were interacting less and less. She was spending more time with her daughter and her female friends, and Jerome was spending more time working on the house or in his garage workshop.
In May 1967, while Schwindler was in the hospital with her second child, Jerome followed a young woman in high heels to her home. He waited until nightfall, then went into her apartment and strangled the girl. He later said that when he first went into the house, he didn’t plan to rape the girl, but seeing her lying there all pretty and vulnerable, turned him on so much that he sexually assaulted her.
Then he took her high heels and left. The next year, he was arrested by Corvalis police on the grounds of the women’s dorm at Oregon State University. He was charged with stealing women’s clothing and he was arrested by the police while still wearing high heels and women’s underwear. Between 1968 and 1969, Jerome kidnapped and killed at least four young women and attempted to kidnap at least two others.
After each victim was abducted, he would ask them to wear different underwear and shoes. And then he would take his camera and photograph the women. Linda Katherine Slawson, the first known victim, was from Aloha, Oregon. She was only 19 years old when she was murdered by Jerome. She was a saleswoman selling encyclopedias and had high hopes for the future.
On January 26th, 1968, Linda went to Jerome’s yard. She talked to Jerome, who was working in the yard. She wanted to sell the encyclopedia she had with her. Jerome was acting normal. He invited Linda into the room and said he wanted to look over the encyclopedia with her because there would be extra money for each copy sold.
So, Linda agreed to go into the room with him. As Linda sat on a stool and started her sales pitch, Jerome took out a wooden club and hit her in the head. Then he strangled her with his hands before dragging Linda’s body to the basement of the house. He got his family to go out with his daughter to get burgers, cleaned up the blood, and then went down to the basement to get rid of Linda’s body.
He eagerly removed Linda’s clothes and noticed her red lingerie, which aroused his desire. He repeatedly engaged in necrilia, dressed Linda’s body in different shoes and lingerie, and took numerous photographs. A few hours later, he took a hacksaw and severed Linda’s left foot and stored it in a freezer, keeping Linda’s encyclopedia as a souvenir.
Then he dumped her body somewhere in Marian County. Jan Susan Whitney, 23 years old. On November 26th, 1968, her car broke down, so she had to stand on the side of the highway with her three friends and wait for help. Jerome was on his way home when he met the four young men. He kindly examined Whitney’s car and claimed that he could fix it, but he asked the pretty young girl to come with him home to get the tools to fix the car.
Whitney and her three friends agreed after a short discussion, and because of the long wait, two other friends chose to ride with Jerome because their homes were nearby and they wanted a ride. Jerome dropped the two off at their destination. And then he drove Whitney to his home ostensibly to pick up the repair tools. But in reality, instead of doing that, he quietly went back to the backseat of the car because she was feeling so tired that she didn’t notice exactly what Jerome was doing and put up little resistance before being strangled to death by Jerome with a leather luggage strap. He then carried her body to the garage where he sexually assaulted and humiliated her body. Most horrifically, Whitney was hung by him above the ceiling of the garage. And 2 days later, a car accidentally crashed into his garage.
And then a police officer rushed to the scene and investigated the damage caused by the accident. But due to dust, debris, and the lack of lights, that police officer kept logging in outside of the garage while this victim’s body was hanging from the ceiling inside the garage. Curran Elena Sprinker, an 18-year-old chemistry student at Oregon State University, had planned to go to lunch with her mother on the day of March 27th, 1969 when she was abducted at gunpoint from the parking lot outside of the Mir and Frank department store by Jerome, who was dressed in a miniskirt and high heels and looking for a young woman dressed the same way as he was. Fortunately, he didn’t find one, but unfortunately, Sprinker was abducted. According to Jerome, Sprinker kept begging him not to hurt her and said she’d do anything for him. Jerome then asked if she was a virgin and she cried and said she was.
She was on her period and Jerome got so horny he forced the poor girl to take off her clothes and sexually assaulted her on the garage floor. Then Sprinker was forced to pose in different lingerie and shoes for Jerome to take pictures. Nothing changed for Sprinker. Even after she agreed to these demands, she was still bound by Jerome with her hands tied and a rope around her neck.
After a few minutes, she like Whitney was suspended from the garage ceiling and died of asphixxiation. Over the next several hours, Jerome subjected her body to sexually degrading behavior and cut off her breasts. That night, Sprinker was dumped in the Willamett River. In April 1969, Jerome started acting more crazily and tried to kidnap two young women on backto-back days.
Luckily, both girls escaped and told the police about what happened. The first girl, Sharon Wood, a 24year-old motorist, met Jerome on April 21st in an underground stairwell in a Portland parking garage. She said she felt a knocking motion on her shoulder. And when she turned around, all she saw was a man pointing a pistol at her face and ordering her not to scream.
Wood bravely fought back, biting, kicking, and twisting his wrist to turn the gun away from her and toward him. She even bit his hand. This made Jerome angry, so he slammed her head on the concrete floor and ran away. The next day, 15-year-old school girl Gloria Jang Smith was forced at gunpoint to go with Jerome to a green Volkswagen.
Jerome said,
“I want you to come with me. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to rape you.”
And then he grabbed Smith by the jacket and forced her to walk with him. When Smith saw a woman working on the lawn, she yelled and ran toward the woman, which caused Jerome to panic and flee the scene.
Linda Don Salai, a 22-year-old moving company secretary and part-time student at Portland State University in Beaverton, Oregon, was kidnapped on the afternoon of April 23rd, 1969. In the parking lot of a shopping center, Salai, who had just bought slacks and a watchband from the mall and was going to give them to her fiance as a birthday present, was approached by Jerome, who showed her a fake police badge and told her that she was under arrest for shoplifting.
He said he was a cop. And even though Sally insisted she was innocent, she went with him to his car. There, Jerome threatened her and told her she had been kidnapped. He drove her to his house where he made her follow him across the yard and into the basement. Just then, his wife came out to tell him that dinner was ready.
Jerome told Sally that he’d be back soon and took her back to the garage where he tied her up with a rope. Jerome went inside alone to have dinner with his family. When he got back to the garage after finishing dinner, he saw that Sally had broken free and was trying to escape.
He put a leash around her neck right away. Cai asked him why he was treating her this way, then started to claw and kick him. But women are not as strong as men, so she was strangled to death while he was sexually assaulting her. Eventually, her body was tortured and studied. And a day later, Sali’s body was dumped in the WillT River.
On May 10th, 1969, two fishermen found the body of a bound bloated young woman wearing a jacket and pinned down by a big gearbox in the shallow waters of the Long Tom River. Because the woman’s body was so badly decomposed, the autopsy couldn’t confirm whether or not she had been sexually assaulted, but it did confirm that the cause of death was strangulation.
The autopsy also found traces of burns on her body, which was later that women as Sally. 2 days later, an underwater search and rescue team found Sprinker’s body about 20 yards from where Si’s body had been found. The autopsy showed that she had died from suffocation and her breasts were missing. The main thing linking the deaths of Sai and Sprinker to the same killer was that both young women were bound by the same brand of hot plate and both were tied up with car parts.
This suggests that the killer may have had a background as an electrician or mechanic. To figure out where the car parts came from, the police talked to employees and owners of all the garages and junkyards in western Oregon. After officially identifying the two women, the investigators also talked to their family members and friends.
The police investigation into Sprinker’s relationships revealed that in recent months, several of the female students had received calls from a man claiming to be a military veteran who asked to take them on dates. But almost all of them refused, except for one, who in a state of some kind of sympathy, she let the man take her on a date.
And after being interviewed by the police, she described him as a white man in his late 20s or early 30s with thinning blonde hair and freckles. And his car was a dirty station wagon. That date was pretty rough, and the girl was pretty cautious because she remembered the two victims found in the river. When she got home, the man asked why she’d changed her mind and agreed to go with him.
She said she was just curious and he said,
“How do you know I won’t take you to the river and strangle you?”
The girl really didn’t want to go on any more dates with him, but the police asked her to let them know if he ever asked her out again. She agreed, and a week later, he did ask her out. Then the police arrested him at the agreed upon meeting spot.
Jerome gave the police his real name, age, and job, but a false address. There wasn’t a good reason to detain him, so he was quickly released. Even though a background check showed a history of physical and sexual violence against women and a search of the vehicle database revealed that he lived in the Portland area where Linda was last seen alive.
And after finding Brutus’s real address, investigators found that a few blocks away from where he lived was the location of the department store where was abducted. Also, while Jerome didn’t own a Volkswagen, investigators found out that his mom did and that he drove it on April 22nd, the day of Smith’s attempted abduction.
Smith said that Jerome was definitely the guy who tried to kidnap her. On May 26th, the cops searched Jerome’s place and found a ton of women’s underwear and shoes in his garage, lists of phone numbers for sorority and sorority women’s living spaces, and a bunch of Polaroid pics of young women, some alive and some dead. Almost all of the photos were taken inside his garage, and several of them showed a dead woman hanging from a garage pulley.
There was a mirror on the floor next to her and in one photo you could see him holding his Polaroid camera. One of them was identified as Sprinker and she was depicted standing nude with her face showing a severe expression of fear, contemplation or apparent submissiveness. She was also wearing high heeled flip-flops. A female breast was found on the mantelpiece in the living room.
Police also found a coil of copper wire, the same type used to tie s and sprinkers bodies to engine parts before dumping them in the long river. In addition to a bunch of engine parts scattered around the garage on May 29th, as the murder investigation went on, investigators had enough evidence to link Jerome to the attempted abduction of Smith to arrest him.
And the next night, he called his wife and asked her to destroy any more incriminating evidence, but his wife refused. After his second arrest, he was questioned about the evidence found in his garage and his relationship with the missing and murdered young women. Investigators had identified three of these women as Whitney, Sprinker, and Salai.
Jerome initially denied any involvement in any of the cases, arguing that the evidence was circumstantial, but after a few days, he began to gradually reveal his sexual fetishes and described how they were deeply ingrained in his psyche and daily life. By early June, Jerome had confessed to all four murders to the investigators and then described them to the police and psychologists.
He started with Linda’s murder, admitting that it was because of a pair of attractive high heeled shoes the young woman was wearing when she accidentally came into his house to sell encyclopedias. Then he described each of his subsequent murders and attempted kidnappings in detail. Even though he admitted to being responsible for the murders, he didn’t really give a full explanation of why he did it.
He just said there must be something wrong with him. He said he didn’t hate women, but he did kill them to deal with his emotions. On June 4th, Jerome was officially charged with the murders of Whitney, Sprinker, and Salai. At his first court appearance, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. After a bunch of doctors examined him, they all decided he was sane and could stand trial.
Then on June 27th, just 3 days before the trial was set to begin, he entered a formal plea of guilty to three counts of first-degree murder. This was done in front of a Maran County Circuit Court judge, and he was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole to be served at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
On August 7th, Schwindler was formally indicted for the first degree murder of Sprinkler. But these charges were based on the statement of an eyewitness who claimed to have seen Schwindler assisting Jerome in forcing a young woman under a blanket into their house on the day of Sprinker’s disappearance. At the September trial, other witnesses refuted the eyewitness statement.
The following month, Schwindler was found not guilty. After he was locked up, Jerome turned into a model inmate. In the 1970s, he was assigned clerical duties using his electronic skills to maintain the prison’s computerized recordkeeping system and to install the cable television network. He was also trusted with the storage, repair, and maintenance of the prison’s vending machines.
As a convicted sex offender, he was physically assaulted a bunch of times by other inmates, all of whom he refused to name as his asalants. While he was in prison, Jerome went to a lot of parole hearings. His victim’s families went to these hearings, too, and they wanted him to stay in prison forever. On June 21st, 1995, he found out that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jerome died of liver cancer in the Oregon State Penitentiary on March 28th, 2006 at 5:10 a.m. He was 67 years old. He was the longest incarcerated inmate in the Oregon Department of Corrections, having served a total of nearly 37 years. When someone heard about Jerome’s death, a family member of one of the victims spoke about how she felt.
She said,
“As soon as I heard he died, I started crying. It wasn’t for him. It was for our family. He put our family through hell. In the late 1960s, a monster emerged in Scotland that was never caught. And one of Scotland’s most important cities, Glasgow, where a music venue called Baroland epitomized some of the most mysterious and dangerous aspects of the era.
This temple of music with its glamorous glow of neon signs and acoustic design to perfection hosts a kind of adult event every Thursday and Saturday night, and it’s called Pale Night. It was a haven for the anonymous, where the air was thick with the mixture of cigarettes and whiskey, and where married men and women, anesthetized by the combination of alcohol and jazz, unleashed their normally repressed desires as they slipped off their wedding rings and flirted with strangers.
However, behind this revalry lurks danger, and there are always shadows peering at the backs of everyone who leaves alone under the dim street lights. Over a 20-month period from February 1968 to October 1969, three brunettes between the ages of 25 and 32 were murdered near the Barrowland. It is well known that there was great prejudice and discrimination against women going to dance halls and bars at that time.
And even the original police transcripts even described the victims as highly promiscuous, enjoying male company and flirting with men. The killer was rumored to be called Bible John by the media because the sister of one of the victims said that a suspect who called himself John quoted Bible verses several times while talking to her and her sister.
Back in the early morning hours of February 23rd, 1968, 67-year-old Carpenter was walking down an alley as he headed to work when he saw a man lying on the ground. At first, he thought it was some drunkard who had overindulged last night to the point of falling down drunk in the alley. However, by the time he gently touched his hand to the person lying on the ground, he realized this was not the case, and his sense of touch told him that it was definitely a body that was left behind, as it was like touching a block of ice. For some reason, he thought the remains belonged to a man. So, he rushed home and called the police, reporting that he had found the remains of a male. When the police received the report, they were not concerned, considering that it could have been some homeless person who froze to death due to the cold. Even the first person to arrive at the scene was only a traffic policeman who happened to be passing through the area.
It wasn’t until 8:00 a.m. that investigators slowly arrived at the scene. But as they turned over the remains that had fallen to the ground, they realized that this wasn’t some frozen homeless person at all. For it was the remains of a woman naked with only one shoe being worn on her foot, and her body bore the obvious marks of a beating with severe bruises and strangulation marks on her neck.
The initial judgment of investigators was that she had been strangled with a belt and understanding the gravity of the situation, they immediately cordined off the area. No female clothing was found at the crime scene, but a sanitary napkin was found near the remains. Then the medical examiner confirmed that the victim was strangled to death with no obvious signs of sexual assault and furthermore that the probability is that she died just a few hours before the discovery of her remains.
Police then conducted an extensive door-to-door investigation of the area, and one of the witnesses recalled that she appeared to have heard a woman briefly yell,
“Let go of me,”
twice the night before, but she was unable to detect whether or not the woman was in distress because she did not hear any screams or commotion.
Another reporter was hosting a party nearby at the time, and despite the large number of guests, no one saw or heard anything out of the ordinary. Discussion of this horrific crime quickly spread throughout the region and eventually reached Victoria Hospital. Some of the nurses wondered if this could possibly be a patient who had walked out of the hospital and died from the cold.
So, a matron and her assistant went to view the body, but due to severe facial trauma, they were unable to identify it until an ambulance driver saw the body and recognized her as a nurse working at Victoria Hospital. Information about the victim was obtained and police reported the situation on the news claiming that the victim was an auxiliary nurse at Victoria Hospital.
Later that evening, an old man read the news in the evening paper. And at this time, he and his wife were worried that their daughter had not yet returned home. So, he went to the police station with her photograph and eventually identified the deceased as his daughter. The deceased was 25-year-old Patricia Docker, a married mother of a 4-year-old son who was left to live with her child and her parents because her husband, who serves in the Royal Air Force, was on duty in the South of England. Patricia has a hobby.
To release stress, she takes one day a week to get all dalled up and go dancing. On the night of February 22nd, she told her parents that she was going to a dance hall. For the elderly couple, they assumed their daughter had gone to a dance hall she used to frequent. So the police focused most of their efforts on the investigation there.
However, 3 days after the investigation began, an eyewitness said that he had seen Patricia dancing with several men, one of whom had red hair, at the Barilland Ballroom. And since it was pale night, and those involved in the dance were somewhat anonymous, the police were unable to locate any credible or detailed eyewitnesses at all and were only able to obtain a vague and unconfirmed tip.
Someone claimed to have seen a white Ford loitering in the neighborhood at midnight, but when the passenger reported it to police, they ruled out the lead. Weeks after the murder, a person from the north of England released an anonymous letter claiming that she was in Glasgow city center that night and may have known the identity of the killer, and police appealed to the woman to come forward, claiming that the information in the letter was vital, but she never did.
18 months after Patricia’s murder on Saturday, August 16th, 1969, Pale Knight, the mother of three, Jamima Macdonald, 31 years old, was already a regular at the Baroland Ballroom. And according to family custom, her sister would take care of the three children in her absence. So on this day, she went as usual to attend pale night, but she did not return home even Sunday.
Her sister was very concerned about McDonald’s safety because she had heard gossip from her neighbors who said that someone had heard that a child had found the remains of a body in an abandoned building. When Monday came, McDonald’s sister was so worried that she was also afraid that the remains were her sisters.
So, she went into the old building where she found her sister’s remains. Macdonald was lying face down with her shoes and stockings discarded nearby. And the autopsy report indicated that the cause of her death was strangulation by her stockings, that she had been severely beaten, especially in the face before her death, and that her exact time of death was roughly 30 hours before the discovery of her remains in the early morning hours of August 17th.
Investigators immediately surveyed the neighborhood and found several witnesses who claimed that Macdonald was accompanied by a young, well-dressed, articulate, short-haired man who appeared to be slim, would have been between the ages of 25 and 35, and was roughly 6 ft tall before she and the man left Baroland in the general direction of her home walking.
Later, police learned that after they left the ballroom at about 12:40 a.m., Macdonald and the man were standing in the doorway of the abandoned building where her remains were later found. And that witness noted that when she warned Macdonald to be safe, she just waved her hand unconcernedly. And that door-to-door questioning by the police also uncovered a woman who had additional information that she remembered.
On the night Macdonald was murdered, she heard female screams, but she could not remember the exact time. So, police did not find this information useful to their investigation. Initially, despite widespread public outcry, the police investigation into Patricia’s murder quickly became an open case because they lacked witnesses and corroborating evidence.
And investigators didn’t even figure out that Patricia had gone to the Barland Ballroom the night of the murder until 3 days after the remains were found. Just days after the discovery of McDonald’s remains, the police linked Patricia’s and McDonald’s cases. They found several similarities between the two cases.
Both women went to the Baroland Ballroom on the night of the murders. They were both violently beaten before they suffocated to death and the handbags were taken by the murderer. While these similarities existed, they did not conclusively link the two murders to the same murderer. But neither did they completely reject the theory.
In addition, as a result of the two murders, the police sent undercover officers to secretly monitor Baroland on a daily basis. However, two months passed and not only did investigators fail to find a suspect, but Barland’s principles blamed the police for causing their business to suffer. So, in late October 1969, the police terminated the covert surveillance.
Just days after the police terminated their covert surveillance on October 31st, 1969, a man walking his dog found the remains of 29-year-old Helen Puddock, stripped naked, beaten about the face, dead from strangulation with her belongings, which had been in her handbag, strewn about the vicinity of a drain pipe at the back of a block of apartments in Glasgow.
and deep bite marks on her wrists as well as stains on the soles of her feet and shoes confirmed that she had fought fiercely against her murderer and there were cuffs from a man near her remains. Upon investigation on the very night of the murder, Helen and her sister Langford went together to the Baroland dance hall where they met two men who both identified themselves as Jon.
Helen’s dancing partner being a stonemason living in Castlem. But the focus of the case was Langford’s dance partner, John, who was an articulate man and who did not disclose where he lived. And after the four left the ballroom, Helen’s dance partner said goodbye early. He boarded a bus and left. And then Helen and Langford and Jon hailed a cab.
Langford describes Jon as a tall, slim, well-dressed young man with strangely shaped teeth, two incizers overlapping. He has a glassian accent. He wears well-tailored suits. His hair is reddish in color and neatly combed round at the back. His watch has a wide militarystyle leather strap and he wears out ofplace leather boots.
And he’s between 25 and 30 years old. He was about 6 ft tall. He had blue gray eyes. Most of the men who frequented Barland were rather rude, but Jon was polite and well spoken. So Langford was impressed with him. and she remembers Jon saying his last name, which was probably Templeton Simplesen Emerson.
However, the reason she thought Jon was a suspect, was because of an incident they had encountered. Langford remembers that when she tried to use the cigarette machine, it jammed and was unable to dispense her purchases. An incident which led to a sudden change in J’s otherwise polite demeanor. He demanded to see the manager and got into a heated argument with the staff member and also shouted out a question as to who the local counselor was before he turned around arrogantly saying that my father had told me that the Barland ballroom was a den of sin and that they used to set the place on fire to get the insurance money and then paid for it with the money they got. Langford then sees Jon show Helen an ID card, which seems to impress her. However, when Langford asks to see the ID card as well, Jon turns her down and says,
“Do you know what happens to nosy people?”
When Helen gets in a cab with Langford and Jon, he adds that he doesn’t approve of married women going to Baroland.
And when the two women tell him that they’re married, he responds by quoting the Bible and saying,
“Do you know what happens to an adulterous wife? She is stoned to death.”
John also revealed part of his family situation, saying that he was an only child, but then later retorted that he had an older sister, adding that alcohol was not allowed in his home.
And when his sister came home, she was denied entry to the house because she was drunk. And then Langford argued that Jon appeared to regret mentioning his family because he again tried to change the subject to foster homes and foster children on. As the cab travels down the road, Langford realizes that Jon’s advances are aimed at Helen because Jon considers her an inconvenience in the car.
And he even asks the driver to take Langford home first and then Helen, even though Helen’s home is located much further away. And when Langford is dropped off at her home, it is the last time she will ever time she saw Helen alive. Later, police located the cab driver from that night who provided them with details of the last part of the trip, saying that upon arriving at his destination, the articulate man was unable to pay the fair.
Even though he said he would pay in advance and that it was Helen who ended up pulling money out of a red wallet and giving it to him. As the driver of the car was unfamiliar with the road, he went the wrong way while reversing. When he rejoins the road, he sees Jon clinging to Helen and then the two get into an argument.
But the driver assumes that the two are just lovers arguing. So he takes off, not noticing in the slightest that anything is a miss. With the news carrying the suspect description provided by Langford, a driver conductor and passenger of a night service bus reported the situation to police as they realized that they had most likely come into close contact with the suspect.
That time was about 2:00 a.m. on October 31st, and a man boarded the bus who appeared to be in a particularly disheveled state with mud stains on his jacket, bright red marks or scratches on his cheeks, and who repeatedly tucked one shirt sleeve into the sleeve of his jacket, and who paid his fair by pulling the money out of a red wallet, which Helen’s red wallet had disappeared from the scene of the crime.
And in the end, the man got out of the car at the intersection of two streets. At this point, the suspect was characterized by his two overlapping incizers, reddish hair, roughly 6 feet tall, a local accent, and what appeared to be a military background, as his watch had a wide military-style belt. So, within hours of finding Helen’s remains, police created composite footage of the suspect using a detailed description provided by Langford, who noted that it was an excellent likeness.
Because Jon’s hair was considered short and not quite normal for that era, the investigator’s idea of solving the case was to start by questioning all the hairdressers in the area and all the dentists in the area. But despite the fact that they questioned more than 400 of them, the answer the police got was that they had no leads.
The police sent more than 100 investigators to conduct door-to-door interviews. However, even after collecting 50,000 statements, interviewing more than 5,000 potential suspects, and having Langford participate in more than 300 identity parades with all suspects ruled out, there was still no progress in the case. Then the police had to continue to wait and see.
They sent 16 investigators disguised as ordinary people into Barland, but it was as if Jon had been given a special message. And from then on, no one else became a new victim. he disappeared completely. That the police investigation into the three murders grew progressively colder as time passed with many of the officers assigned to the case believing that Jon was either dead, incarcerated for unrelated offenses, confined to a mental institution, or that a senior police officer knew his true identity, but could not prove that he had committed the murders. Others have speculated that Jon may have simply moved away from Glasgow, a possibility that prompted police to circulate multiple copies of the composite sketch at all British Army. Navy and Air Force bases in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, but did not turn up any significant leads.
In 2005, investigator Les Brown claimed to have identified a potential suspect who bore a striking resemblance to the composite sketch of Jon. During questioning, the man provided a false name and address before revealing his real name, John Edgar. Years later, Brown had an extensive conversation with an investigator who had arrested Edgar in connection with a separate incident involving a head injury after an argument, and Edgar fled the hospital shortly after receiving medical attention.
Upon seeing Brown’s autobiography, Edgar immediately offered a DNA sample to clear his name, which ruled him out as a suspect. Several years after the triple murder, several women claimed that they had been sexually assaulted after spending an evening at the Barland ballroom. And one of them, Hannah Martin, claimed that in April 1969, she had left the ballroom in the company of a tall man with whom she had then had sex and accepted his offer of a ride home.
However, while driving, the man’s sexual demeanor became more aggressive. Martin was drunk and out of fear of a possible attack, she vomited in the car. The man then simply threw her out of the car and drove off alone, leaving her standing on the side of the road. And eventually, Martin gave birth to a girl who one writer claimed was Bible John’s daughter.
In 1996, police dug up and took DNA samples from the remains of John Irvine McInness, who committed suicide in 1980 while serving in the Glen Guard at the cemetery. He was one of Bible John’s original suspects. John Templeton’s cousin related to a senior police officer. Templeton’s looks and height were very similar to Bible John’s and his last name was related to a tip Langford had given earlier.
However, Langford, the only person who had any contact with John, did not pick Templeton out of countless identity parades. And even as late as 1996, Langford still insisted that Templeton was not the murderer. And furthermore, the lead attorney at the time said there was not enough evidence to link Templeton to the murderer.
Peter Britain Togan was a serial killer who some speculate was Bible John as he lived in Glasgow in the late 1960s. And in August 1969 after marrying his first wife, he moved to England. Because Peter’s murder methods and modus operandi were so sophisticated, many believe he killed others before he murdered his first known victims.
However, his suspicions were ruled out by the police because although it was often reported in the press that Peter had moved from Glasgow after the 1969 murders, he had in fact left Glasgow with his wife at the time of Macdonald’s murder and Peter’s height did not at all match that of the murderer who was only 5’6 in tall.
And Lenford also insisted that he was not the murderer. To this day, the case remains a mystery. And although it is believed to be a serial murder, the fact is that there is no strong evidence that the three murders were committed by the same person and that there was a gap of 18 months between the first and second murders and that in addition, no other victims were found, which is highly unusual and inconsistent with the behavior of a serial killer.
Many believe it’s highly likely that Bible John was being shielded by government officials or high-ranking police officers. And it’s a possibility that perhaps the second murder and the third were copycat killings by the mystery man. 13 years ago in the quiet town of New Albany, Indiana, a 75-year-old woman was murdered.
It was not unusual for a murder to occur, but the brutality and bizarre nature of this case caused a great shock. The victim was named Christine Whitis, and she was born in Osley County, Kentucky. Throughout her long life, she met a close friend with whom she shared a deep bond and experienced many things together. On October 10th, 1957, this friend gave birth to a child named William Clyde Gibson.
Wides treated this child as her own, providing him with meticulous care and support and often giving him some pocket money. However, fate always takes unexpected turns. In 2012, William’s mother passed away due to illness which saddened Whitus deeply. As a friend of many years, she decided to go to William s house to offer him comfort and support.
Upon her arrival, William made a shocking request to her, saying that he desired to have sexual relations with her. Whitus was surprised and angry at this request. She had always regarded William as her own son. How could she possibly accept such a demand, so she rejected him without hesitation? William, upon being rejected, strangled Whitus to death and sexually assaulted her with his fingers.
He then dismembered Whitus’ body, cutting off one of her breasts. In the end, he dragged Whitus’ body to the garage of the house and casually discarded it in a corner, covering it with garbage bags that emitted a foul odor. Some people believe that criminals turn to a life of crime because they have experienced a tragic childhood.
But this is not the case. When a child is unconditionally spoiled by their family, their inner self can become extremely sensitive. William was just like this. He never experienced any abuse or neglect from either of his parents. In fact, he was spoiled rotten. From a very young age, he began to exhibit strange behaviors. He struggled to interact with others, even at school.
Because there were too many rules at school, he was very conflicted inside. Compared to communicating with his classmates, he preferred to stay at home with his mother. But because of this, every time he came to school, he was bullied and verbally abused by his peers. It wasn’t until the sixth grade that William was able to defend himself.
From this point on, he chose violence. He began to bully other children and was often punished by teachers for fighting and disciplinary issues in class. To intimidate his peers, he even fired a shotgun near their feet, resulting in one boy’s eye being injured by flying debris. At the age of 13, William, like his father, started drinking alcohol.
Later, he was arrested for stealing a motorcycle. Eventually, William dropped out of school and continued with his minor crimes, such as driving under the influence and reckless driving. After turning 18, William chose to enlist in the military, serving as a mechanic stationed in West Germany. During this time, he was good at marksmanship and grenade throwing and was even awarded a badge for it.
At this point, William became addicted to drugs and LSD, often mixing these substances with alcohol. In 1979, he was discharged for car theft and sentenced to serve one year at Fort Levvenworth. There, due to the lack of alcohol, he attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. On January 26th, 1991, William had already been released from prison and had married a girl.
That day, William was driving his pickup truck when he accidentally backed into another vehicle. He initially intended to get out of the car, but when he saw nearby police officers approaching to check the situation, he immediately sped away. The police, having seen this kind of thing before, got in their cars and gave chase, turning the highway into a scene of a pursuit.
In the end, due to excessive speed, William lost control and crashed into a car, breaking the driver’s ribs and suffering severe head injuries himself. Eight months later, William was charged with robbery and sexual assault because he had sexually violated a 21-year-old woman in a phone booth near Louisville Plaza in Kentucky.
During the trial, the Loyer claimed that William suffered from a mental illness. As a result, the court approved an assessment of William’s mental state by a psychologist. They concluded that William had an IQ of 79 and his subconscious refused to take responsibility for his own crimes, attributing the reasons for his offenses to alcohol.
Since William did not suffer from any mental illness that could affect his judgment, he was deemed competent to stand trial and accepted a plea deal. Consequently, he was sentenced to 7 years in the Luther Luckett Correctional Facility in Lraange. Learning of Williams conviction, his wife chose to divorce him.
In prison, William was informed that he needed to participate in a rehabilitation program for sex offenders, but he refused to take responsibility for his crimes. Seeing that William showed no signs of remorse even though he was considered an obedient prisoner who rarely caused trouble and even obtained an associate of arts degree from Lindseay Wilson College.
The prison authorities believed he was not eligible for a reduced sentence. On April 5th, 1999, William was released from prison. Due to his sex crime, William was also added to the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry. Later, William started dating a girl named Kelly Bailey, and the two moved into an apartment in Bordon, Indiana.
However, as Williams drug habit worsened. Bailey left him in early 2000. A few months later, Bayiley reported to the police that her ex-boyfriend William had used his car to stop hers while she was delivering newspapers, and he had brutally beaten her before fleeing the scene. Although the injuries on Bayileleyy’s face could prove the truth of her statement, due to lack of evidence, the case was dropped.
In 2001, William was arrested for stealing a motorcycle and was sentenced to three years in prison. However, he was allowed to first receive treatment for his drug and alcohol addiction at Madison State Hospital. At the time, hospital staff claimed that William was not interested in treatment at all. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but no signs of mental illness were found in him.
Then, he was sent to Floyd County Jail to serve the remaining sentence until his release on March 12th, 2002. On October 31st, 2002, William was arrested for driving a truck under the influence of alcohol. At this time, William’s arm was tattooed with a series of dates and an image of a knife. No one knew what it meant. After 4 days of alcohol withdrawal, William was examined by a psychiatrist from the prison.
Although he complained of frequent headaches, stomach aches, insomnia, and hypochondria during the examination. The psychiatrist concluded that William was normal in all aspects except for mild anxiety and signs of antisocial behavior. On January 7th, 2003, a severely decomposed body was discovered in Clarksville.
The victim showed obvious signs of abuse with several stab wounds on the throat. Through dental records, the victim was identified as 44year-old butician Karen Sue Hodella from Port Orange, Florida. Investigators first considered her boyfriend as the suspect. However, during the interrogation, Hodella’s boyfriend claimed that she had come to visit him in Jeffersonville in October 2002.
The two had spent a few days in local bars, but around October 10th, Hodella left without saying goodbye and disappeared. In May 2003, Williams sued the prison, claiming that the prison staff improperly denied him access to medication for mental illness and kept him in a dirty environment. However, the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge who considered it to be baseless.
William liked to hang out in bars and met many people there. On February 21st, 2006, he stole a wallet and $300 from a female acquaintance’s bag. Then, her husband found William’s car and arrested him on charges of theft. William was sentenced to 3 years in prison and was not released until 2009. After his release, William found a job where he was described as a diligent worker.
He also received positive reviews from friends and neighbors for frequently attending local church activities and helping his sick mother. In late August 2011, he stopped participating in church activities because his mother fell ill and was sent to a nursing home. On January 18th, 2012, his mother passed away at Floyd Memorial Hospital.
Many neighbors believed that his mother’s death had a significant psychological impact on William as he became melancholic and stayed at home all day. On March 24th, William met 35-year-old Stephanie Marie Kirk at a bar in New Albany. They rode a motorcycle together and went to a motel where they spent the day using drugs and having sex.
William then took Kirk back to his home where they argued over some drugs. In a fit of anger, William strangled Kirk to death and sexually assaulted her corpse before burying her in the backyard. On April 19th, 2012, the day after William killed Whitus, his sister came to his house. She wanted to get the car left by their mother who had died a few months earlier.
As soon as she entered the house, she went straight to the garage. The light in the garage was dim, and while checking the car, she noticed a pile of garbage in the corner with a mannequin inside. At first, she didn’t think much of it, but when she got closer, she saw a pool of blood on the ground. The mannequin looked too realistic, like a human corpse.
She immediately called the police and reported everything. Later that day, William was arrested for driving under the influence. The car he was driving belonged to Whitis. 5 days later, the victim was identified as Whitus and the clues connected. William was charged with murder. A few days later, the tattoos on his arm were identified as a series of dates.
After collecting information, the investigators found that the dates corresponded to the day was murdered. William then confessed to the murder and led the police to the place where he buried Kirk. On May 23rd, he was charged with three counts of murder. During the trial, the prosecutor presented an interview with investigators after Williams arrest in which he claimed that evil had overcome him and forced him to commit the murders.
On October 25th, 2013, William was found guilty of murdering Whitus in a jury trial. The jurors took less than 20 minutes to find William guilty of all charges. In the subsequent sentencing, he was sentenced to death. He told the judge that it was no big deal and that he deserved it. For the trials of the remaining two murder cases, William changed his plea.
He waved his right to a speedy trial and chose to plead guilty to the murder of Odella. As part of the plea deal, the evidence presented in this trial would not be used in subsequent trials as evidence or as a factor to aggravate his sentence. In the trial of the last murder case, William once again chose to plead guilty. He waved his right to a jury trial.
But despite this, the prosecutor remained determined to seek the death penalty for William. On August 15, 2014, William was again sentenced to death. The judge stated publicly that this was the only appropriate sentence for such a brutal killing. After being imprisoned, William filed multiple appeals against his death sentence, but all were rejected by the Indiana Supreme Court.
Later, William confessed to being responsible for an additional 30 murders, but there was no evidence to support these claims. In the 1980s, American society was rife with violence and crime, with murders, sexual assaults, robberies, and shootings occurring everywhere. On the afternoon of August 22nd, 1982, the sun was no longer scorching and the air carried a hint of coolness.
A boy was jogging on the Bat Cove Trail in Portland, Maine. This was not his first time doing so. He often came to this path for exercise and his parents were aware of this. However, this day was different from usual as 11-year-old Richard Stson did not return home on time. Even after nightfall, his parents standing at the door did not see their son.
Sensing something was wrong, his parents immediately called the police. The next day, a driver on Interstate 295 noticed a boy lying in the bushes at a bend, barely clothed. He reported this to the police, and officers on patrol nearby rushed to the scene. They found that the boy had clear marks of strangulation on his neck. His clothes were almost completely removed and there were bite marks on his arm.
After forensic examination, the boy was identified as the missing Richard and the cause of death was determined to be stabbing. Investigators took over the case. Since no weapon was found at the crime scene, they had to rely on the bite marks on Richard’s body and investigate those who were on the Bat Cove trail at the time to find clues.
As time went on, the investigation progressed slowly. Under immense public pressure, investigators focused on some pedophiles. Coincidentally, a suspect was present there that day, so they arrested him on charges of murder. Even though his teeth did not match the bite marks on the victim, he was still forcibly identified as the culprit.
On September 18th, 1983, a Sunday in Belleview, Nebraska, a 13-year-old boy named Danny Joe Eil, who worked for a newspaper to earn extra pocket money, disappeared after delivering only three of his 70 newspapers. Hours later, his father found his abandoned bicycle and the remaining 67 newspapers on the lawn in front of Dany y’s fourth customer’s house with no signs of struggle.
Then, Dany y’s brother reported a strange incident to the police. In recent days, Dany and he had been followed by a white man driving a brown car, which was an important clue. After 3 days of searching, Dany y’s body was found in a grassy area about 4 mi from where his bicycle was left. The crime scene was in disarray, and the look of terror on his face indicated that he had suffered unspeakable torture before his death.
His underwear was pulled down, his hands and feet were tightly bound, his mouth was sealed with surgical tape, and he had nine stab wounds. Investigators initially targeted pedophiles, even bringing in a hypnotist to help witnesses recall possibly forgotten memories. However, after questioning known pedophiles in the area, no evidence was found, and the investigation hit a dead end.
A local bank announced a reward of $40,000 for information leading to the arrest of the killer. FBI profilers believed the perpetrator was likely a white young man with sexual tendencies. A week after the crime, a young man was caught molesting two little boys, and the police considered him a major suspect. After his arrest, the young man pleaded not guilty, failed a polygraph test, and provided a false alibi.
However, since he did not match the profile created by the FBI for the killer, he was released. On December 2nd, in a town 3 m away from where Dy’s body was found, 12-year-old Christopher Walden disappeared while walking to school. 2 days later, his body was discovered by a hunter 5 mi away from Pilion.
The crime scene was gruesome. The little boy’s throat was deeply slashed, almost decapitated, and there were stab wounds of varying depths on his body. Initially, investigators believed that the two cases were not committed by the same perpetrator because this time there were no signs of the victim being tied up and the body was hidden more concealed.
It was not until investigators interviewed local residents that several witnesses at the scene of Walden’s disappearance reported seeing a white man get out of a brown car, apparently holding something in his hand, then approached a little boy, and shortly after they got into the car and left.
With no leads, the two cases remained unsolved until January 11th, 1984, when a kindergarten teacher in the area where the murders occurred provided the police and the FBI with the clues they needed. She reported that she had seen a young man driving around the area in a car, seemingly loitering or doing something unspecified.
Given the recent murders, she wanted to record the vehicle’s license plate. However, when she attempted to do so, the driver stopped in front of her and threatened her. They traced the license plate number and found that the car was not brown, but was rented by an enlisted radar technician from Afett Air Force Base.
But after further investigation, they found that this man fit the FBI’s initial profile of a white single male, similar to the composite sketch drawn from witness statements, and he also had a brown Chevrolet Nova sedan under repair. This man’s name is John Joseph Yalbert. His story began on July 2nd, 1963 when he was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Unfortunately, his mother was an extremely controlling person who was very harsh towards her family. So 6 years later, his father, unable to bear his wife’s verbal control and abuse, chose to divorce. In 1974, 11-year-old John and his sister moved with their mother to a dilapidated apartment in Portland, Maine.
His childhood was very tragic. He was tightly controlled by his mother and lacked fatherly love. Even though he missed his father, his mother supervised him constantly, not allowing him to visit his father. As a result, Jon gradually came to hate this woman who controlled his behavior. Due to his mother’s excessive control, his personality became timid, sensitive, and shy, traits that made him extremely easy to be bullied by others.
And indeed, this was the case. Although he had always been an excellent student who loved learning at school, he believed in his heart that he was born to be bullied and abused. Therefore, he was often victimized by his classmates. One teacher once said that Jon appeared to be like a little boy throughout his entire high school period because he did not know how to protect himself at all.
In order to compensate for the feeling of being isolated, Jon tried to integrate into the collective by participating in group activities, playing the clarinet, and joining the track and field team. However, as time went on, his inner self gradually became twisted. At the age of 13, Jon accidentally stabbed a girl with a pencil.
But when the girl cried out in pain, he experienced sexual arousal, a feeling he had never felt before. So the next day, as he rode his bicycle past another girl, he deliberately slashed her with a razor blade. In another incident, he beat a boy and almost strangled him into unconsciousness. It was at this point that Jon’s sadistic and homicidal fantasies developed to the point where he imagined murdering strangers on the street or binding and gagging those who resisted him.
Because he had been bullied during his adolescence, he took immense pleasure in this dominant physical and mental power and began to consider randomly stabbing or slashing others. In a later psychiatric report, Jon was described as saying that he derived joy from the despair of his victims, stating,
“If you’re going to do it, get it over with.”
In 1981, Jon graduated from high school at a school in Portland. The police then issued a search warrant. When they searched Jon’s barracks, the investigators found a hunting knife and a rope that matched the one used to bind Dany. After collecting this as evidence, the FBI determined that this unusual rope was made for the US military in South Korea.
During the interrogation, Jon stated that he obtained it from the reconnaissance sergeant of the unit where he served as an assistant and then he admitted to the murders of Dany and Walden. On January 12th, 1984, Jon was charged with the murder of the two Nebraska boys. During the trial, a panel of three judges sentenced him to death on two counts.
At the time, when an FBI profiler introduced the cases of the two boys during a training course at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, a police officer from Portland, Maine, noticed similarities to a case in his jurisdiction that occurred before Jon joined the Air Force. After his teeth were found to match the bite marks on Richard, it was confirmed that in addition to these two murders, Jon was also responsible for Richard’s murder.
Therefore, in 1990, he was also sentenced to life imprisonment in Maine for the murder of Richard after his teeth were found to match the bite marks. In 1995, Jon filed a habius corpus petition challenging his death sentence. His lawyer argued that several psychiatric evaluations of Jon proved that he suffered from obsessivecompulsive disorder and schizoid personality disorder, claiming that Jon’s murders were caused by mental derangement.
However, the investigators pointed out that Jon was in a clear state of mind when he committed the crimes, stating that he clearly exhibited sadistic behavior by torturing Dany and Walden. Then Jon was scheduled to be executed by electric chair on July 17th, 1996. Before his execution, he made his final statement saying,
“I just want to say that again.
I am sorry for what I have done. I do not know if my death will change anything or if it will bring anyone peace. And I just ask the families of Danny Abil and Christopher Walden and Richard Stson to please try to find some peace and ask the people of Nebraska to forgive me. That’s all.”
At 12:29 a.m. on July 17th, 1996, he was executed by electric chair. On the night of February 17th, 1970 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the tranquil air was tinged with an ominous foroding. That evening, a bloody tragedy tore through the community, shattering its peace. A young doctor, Jeffrey Robert Macdonald, experienced a nightmarish assault in his own home.
He suffered stab wounds to his chest, bruises on his forehead, and minor injuries to his limbs. However, compared to him, the fate of his pregnant wife and two young daughters was far more tragic. They were killed on the spot during the attack. The surviving husband claimed that a group of intruders had broken into his home, chanting,
“As acid is groovy! Kill the pigs!”
before launching a frenzied assault on his family.
Yet, as the investigation deepened, the truth became increasingly murky. Jeffrey’s account was riddled with inconsistencies. He, the only male in the house, had sustained the least severe injuries, while his defenseless wife and daughters suffered the most fatal blows. These inongruous details cast doubt on his story, and the mystery gradually pointed to a chilling possibility that the massacre was a cold-blooded murder orchestrated by Jeffrey himself.
His image shifted from that of an innocent victim to a suspect who had meticulously planned the crime. His story shocked the entire United States and sparked decades of legal controversy and public debate. People have long questioned, was he the mastermind behind a calculated, cold-blooded murder, or was he truly an innocent victim? The story begins in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York, where on October 12th, 1943, a couple welcomed their second child, Jeffrey.
Despite their impoverished circumstances, the young boy did not succumb to despair. His father, though strict in his discipline, never resorted to physical abuse against his wife or children. It was precisely this environment that shaped Jeffrey’s precocious character. During high school, he served as student council president and was voted by his peers as the most popular and most likely to succeed.
However, his adolescence was not all glamour and accolades. At the end of 8th grade, a girl entered his life. It happened in the high school hallway where two girls walked side by side passing by Jeffrey. For some reason, her image lingered in his mind for days. Two weeks later, Jeffree sought her out, Colette Catherine Stevenson.
They began talking and quickly formed a friendship. Their relationship progressed rapidly and they started dating. One memorable moment was when Jeffree and Colette sat on a balcony holding hands while watching the movie Summerplace. That scene left a deep impression on them. Whenever the movie’s theme song played on the radio, they would instinctively turn up the volume as if the melody was a testament to their love.
However, this youthful romance did not last long. Colette abruptly announced the end of their relationship. Jeffree was heartbroken, but he soon moved on and began a new relationship with another girl. Jeffrey excelled in high school and earned a three-year scholarship to Princeton University. In 1962, he enrolled at Princeton to pursue premed studies, where he demonstrated remarkable academic talent and potential.
However, his personal life was far from stable. During his second year of studies after breaking up with his new girlfriend, Jeffree reconnected with his former flame, Colette. She was a shy girl, harboring a slight fear of the world, and Jeffree with his confident demeanor, became her protector, much like a knight.
Yet, he was a romantic at heart and often dated other girls. When he learned that Colette was pregnant with his child, he decided to marry her. On September 14th, 1963, they tied the knot in New York City with 100 guests in attendance. The reception was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and the couple later honeymooned in Cape Cod.
On April 18th, 1964, their first daughter, Kimberly Catherine, was born. After completing his undergraduate studies at Princeton, Jeffree moved with his family to Chicago in the summer of 1965 to attend Northwestern University Medical School. Colette, meanwhile, gave up her studies to focus entirely on their family.
On May 8th, 1967, their second child, Kristen Jiang, was born. In 1968, after graduating from medical school, they relocated to Bergenfield, New Jersey. Jeffrey completed a one-year residency in thoracic surgery at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. This period was grueling for both Jeffrey and Colette, as Jeffrey often worked 36-hour shifts, leaving him only 12 hours to rest at home, which severely limited his time with his family.
After finishing his residency, Jeffree and Colette vacationed in Aruba, and he subsequently decided to enlist in the military. On June 28th, 1969, Jeffrey officially joined the US Army and was sent to Fort Sam Houston in Texas for a 6-week basic medical training course for doctors. During this time, he volunteered to join the Army Special Forces, becoming a Green Beret physician.
He was then assigned to Fort Moore in Georgia, where he completed airborne training. Although he initially feared deployment to Vietnam, he learned that as a special forces doctor, the likelihood of being sent overseas was low. In August, Jeffrey was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving as a surgeon for the third special forces group.
His wife and two daughters moved with him to the base, living at 544 Castle Drive, a housing area reserved for married officers with security provided by military police. Here, Colette continued to pursue her academic dreams, aspiring to earn a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Meanwhile, their two daughters began to develop distinct personalities.
Kimberly was intelligent, shy, and feminine, while Kristen was a spirited tomboy who would even stand up for her sister if she was bullied. On December 10th, Jeffree took on the role of preventive medical officer. By this time, Colette was pregnant with their third child, a boy due in July 1970. Jeffree was filled with anticipation for the future.
He even bought a Shetland pony as a Christmas surprise for his daughters and planned to move the family to a farm in Connecticut. Colette, feeling deeply content, wrote to a university acquaintance that her life had never been so normal or happy. She expressed excitement about the upcoming arrival of their son, believing it would make their family complete.
In 1970, Jeffree was promoted to captain and planned to pursue advanced medical training at Yale University after completing his term as a Green Beret physician. At this point, his career seemed to be on a smooth trajectory and his family life was brimming with hope and promise. However, all of this came to an abrupt end on the night of February 17th, 1970.
A bloody tragedy shattered his fate and obliterated the future of his family. On the afternoon of February 16th, 1970, Jeffree took his two daughters to feed their pony. Around 5:45 p.m., they returned home. Jeffrey took a shower and changed into an old blue pajama set. After dinner, Colette the house to attend a night class at the University of North Carolina in Fort Bragg.
According to Jeffrey’s account, he played a game with his daughters, letting them ride on his back. Around 700 p.m., he put Chris into bed and then rested himself. After waking up, he watched Kimberly’s favorite TV show, laughing with her. At 9:40 p.m., Colette returned home and the couple sat together on the couch watching TV.
Midway through a program, Colette decided to go to bed while Jeffree fell asleep on the living room couch. At 3:42 a.m., the Fort Bragg dispatcher received an emergency call. On the line, Jeffrey Weekly cried out,
“Help! 544 Castle Drive! Stabbing! Hurry!”
The operator then heard the sound of the phone dropping.
About 10 minutes later, military police arrived at the scene. They found the front door locked and the house dark. When they went around to the back, they noticed the screen door was unlocked and the rear door was open. Upon entering, they were met with a horrifying scene. In the master bedroom, Colette lay on her back, one eye open and one breast exposed.
Her body bore the marks of repeated blows from a blunt object with both arms broken. She had been stabbed 21 times in the chest with an ice pick and 16 times in the neck with a knife. Her trachea was severed in two places. Her bloodstained pajamas clung to her and a pairing knife lay beside her.
Jeffree was found lying face down next to her, his head resting on her chest and his arm draped around her neck. He says,
“Check my kids.”
I heard my kids crying. 5-year-old Kimberly was found in her bed. Her head and body had been repeatedly struck with a blunt object, and she had been stabbed 8 to 10 times in the neck. Her skull was fractured, her cheekbone protruding through her skin, and her brain severely bruised, leading to her death shortly after the injuries were inflicted.
2-year-old Kristen lay in her bed with a bottle in her mouth. She had been stabbed 33 times in the chest, neck, hands, and back, and 15 times with an ice pick. Her heart bore two knife wounds. On the headboard of the marital bed, the word pig was written in Colette’s blood, standing 8 in tall. After receiving CPR, Jeffree sat up and shouted,
“Oh my god, look at my wife.
I’m going to kill those damn acid heads.”
As he was carried out on a stretcher, he yelled,
“Let me see my kids.”
After receiving treatment at Wulmarmac Army Medical Center, the findings of the medical staff deepened the mystery of the case. Although Jeffrey claimed to have engaged in a fierce struggle with three male intruders and one female intruder, his injuries were far less severe than those of his wife and children.
He had some cuts, bruises, and nail scratches on his face and chest, but none of these wounds were lifethreatening or required stitches. Additionally, he was diagnosed with a mild concussion and had a stab wound on his right torso 5/8 of an inch deep, which caused a partial collapse of his lung.
Despite this, Jeffree was discharged from the hospital just 9 days later. During questioning by the Criminal Investigation Division, Jeffree provided a detailed account of the events as he claimed they had unfolded. He stated that around 2:00 a.m. on February 17th, after washing the dinner dishes, he decided to go to bed. Since Kristen had wet his bedside, he took her to his bed and fetched a blanket from her room.
He then fell asleep on the living room couch. Later, he was awakened by the screams of Colette and Kimberly. Colette shouted,
“Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Help me! Why are they doing this to me?”
When he tried to help them, he was attacked by three male intruders, one black and two white men, one of whom wore lightweight gloves, possibly surgical gloves.
A fourth intruder, a white woman with long blonde hair, wore kneeh high boots with heels, a white floppy hat, and carried a lit candle. She chanted,
“Asid is groovy, kill the pigs.”
The three men attacked him with a club and an ice pick, while the female intruder shouted,
“Hit them again.”
During the struggle, his pajama top was pulled over his head and wrists, and he used the entangled garment to fend off the ice pick thrusts.
However, he was eventually overpowered and knocked unconscious at the far end of the living room. When he regained consciousness, the intruders had left the house. He then attempted mouthto-mouth resuscitation on each of his daughters, but to no avail. Finally, he found Colette, pulled a small pairing knife from her chest, threw it to the floor, and tried to find her pulse, but it was feudal.
He then draped his pajama top over her, and called for help. At the time, after receiving Jeffrey’s emergency call, the military police immediately launched a search for the four intruders. However, they found no suspects matching Jeffrey’s description. Investigators also discovered weapons outside the back door. An old hickory kitchen knife, an ice pick, and a 31-in long piece of wood stained with blood.
These items, all from Jeffrey’s home, had been wiped clean of fingerprints. Yet, Jeffree claimed he had never seen these items before. Army investigators quickly grew skeptical of Jeffrey’s account, as there was little evidence to support his story. Despite his hand-to-hand combat training, there were almost no signs of a struggle in the living room, aside from an overturned coffee table and a fallen plant.
Neighbors also reported hearing no sounds of a struggle or commotion, only Colette’s screams. Furthermore, fibers from Jeffrey’s torn pajama top were not found in the living room, but were discovered beneath Colette’s body and in the bedrooms of his two daughters. Fibers from the pajamas were also found under Kristine’s fingernails, and a fragment of skin was found under Colette’s fingernails, though this evidence was later lost.
Beneath the headboard, where the word pig was written, investigators found the tip of a bloodstained surgical glove made of materials identical to the medical supplies stored in Jeffrey’s home. Jeffree claimed he had checked on each family member and attempted to rescue them, but no blood or fingerprints were found on either of the two phones.
He also mentioned that the female intruder’s boots were wet with rainwater dripping from the intruders, but the only footprints at the scene were bare, bloodied footprints in Kristine’s bedroom leading from her bed to the door. By mid-March 1970, the Criminal Investigation Division received forensic test results on blood, hair, and fiber samples from 544 Castle Drive.
These results further contradicted Jeffrey’s account of his actions, deepening investigators suspicions. Jeffrey’s pajamas. Kimberly’s blood was found on his pajamas despite his claim that he was not wearing them while attempting to rescue her. This suggested he might have been wearing the pajamas during the attack and participated in the violence.
Jeffrey’s blood. His blood was found in significant amounts in only two places. In front of a kitchen cabinet containing rubber gloves and on the right side of the hallway bathroom sink. This indicated he might have engaged in some form of cleanup or concealment after the attack. Colette’s blood.
Investigators found her blood in Kristine’s room, even though all three victims were discovered in separate rooms. This suggested Colette might have moved during the attack or that Jeffree had staged the scene to cover his tracks. Kimberly’s blood, her blood and brain serum were found at the entrance to the master bedroom, indicating she might have entered the room upon hearing the commotion and was then attacked.
However, investigators questioned why intruders would bother to take her back to her bedroom to continue the assault. Given that all four family members had different blood types, investigators were able to reconstruct the likely sequence of events under the assumption that there were no intruders and that Jeffrey was the perpetrator.
The scenario they pieced together is as follows. Jeffree and Colette likely had an argument in the master bedroom, possibly over Kristen’s bed wedding or Jeffrey’s infidelity. The argument escalated into a physical altercation during which Colette may have struck Jeffree on the forehead with a hairbrush.
As the conflict intensified, their eldest daughter, Kimberly, likely heard the commotion and entered the master bedroom. She was then struck on the head, severely injuring her. Jeffree carried the critically injured Kimberly back to her bedroom and stabbed her. Next, Jeffree went to Kristen’s room, intending to eliminate the last potential witness.
However, Colette, regaining consciousness, stumbled into Kristen’s bedroom in an attempt to protect her youngest daughter. In the end, Jeffree killed both of them and carried Colette’s body back to the master bedroom. He then put on surgical gloves from the kitchen cabinet, used Colette’s blood to write the word pig on the headboard, and draped his torn pajama top over her body.
He repeatedly stabbed her chest with an ice pick and discarded the weapon near the back door. Finally, Jeffree retrieved a scalpel from the storage room, went into the bathroom, stood by the sink, and stabbed himself in the chest to create the illusion that he was also a victim. He then used the house phone to call for an ambulance and lay down next to Colette’s body to wait for the military police to arrive.
Investigators speculated that Jeffrey attempted to frame the crime by drawing inspiration from recent articles he had read about the Manson family murders. The Manson family was a cult led by Charles Manson, whose followers committed a series of violent crimes under his direction. On April 6th, 1970, Army investigators formally interrogated Jeffrey, increasingly challenging his account and attempting to uncover the truth through forensic evidence and logical reasoning.
At the start of the interrogation, Jeffree once again detailed his version of events, insisting that he had been attacked by four intruders and had engaged in a fierce struggle with them. He described seeing the tops of some boots before losing consciousness and collapsing in the hallway due to a neumthorax after the intruders left.
He also mentioned that he had to convince doctors at the hospital to insert a chest tube because he was certain his lung had been punctured. However, the investigators were unconvinced. They directly confronted Jeffrey.
“You didn’t do this yourself, did you?”
This question clearly struck a nerve, and Jeffree immediately denied the accusation, attempting to prove his innocence by emphasizing his injuries.
The investigators then shifted their focus to the crime scene and the forensic evidence. Jeffrey denied that any of the weapons came from his home, even though the wood found at the scene matched wood from Kimberly’s closet. He also claimed he couldn’t explain the discrepancies between the fiber and blood evidence and his account. One investigator then posed a critical question.
Why were Jeffrey’s injuries so much less severe than those of his wife and daughters? He pointed out that if four intruders had indeed carried out such a brutal attack, why would they leave Jeffree, a potential witness, alive? He pressed,
“When you were lying in the hallway, why didn’t they take that club and hit you once or twice hard on the back of your head and finish you off? Why is she off? You were face tof face with them.
They didn’t know if you could identify them later. Why leave you alive?”
Another investigator noted the lack of chaos and destruction inside the home. If four intruders had gone on a killing spree, they would have expected to see evidence such as broken furniture, shattered mirrors, and smashed walls. However, the only signs of a struggle were a topheavy coffee table, and a fallen plant.
Jeffrey couldn’t provide a reasonable explanation for this observation or for how Kimberly’s blood and brain serum had been recovered from the master bedroom. As the interrogation progressed, Jeffree gradually lost his composure. When the investigators listed more contradictions between his statements and the forensic evidence, he suddenly accused them of having no ideas and trying to frame him to maintain a 100% solve rate.
The investigators calmly responded,
“We have all these things here that indicate you were involved in this, not some people who came in from the outside, chose 544 Castle Drive, went up there, and luckily found your door open.”
When asked to take a polygraph test to verify his statements, Jeffrey initially agreed without hesitation.
However, within 10 minutes of the interrogation ending, he called the investigators to inform them that he had changed his mind and would not undergo any polygraph testing. This move further deepened the investigator’s suspicions of him. On the night of the same day, Jeffree was relieved of his duties and placed under restrictions pending further investigation.
The following day, he was assigned a military lawyer. However, at his mother’s suggestion, he hired renowned civilian defense attorney Bernard Seagull on April 10th to represent him. Less than a month later, on May 1st, the army formally charged Jeffrey with three counts of murder. That same day, Jeffrey wrote a letter to Colette’s mother and stepfather, insisting on his innocence.
In the letter, he emphasized that the army would never admit their mistakes and speculated that Colette’s soul might possess infinite patience and understanding regarding his current legal predicament. On July 6th, under the supervision of Colonel Warren Rock, a preliminary hearing under Article 32 was convened to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to proceed with charges against Jeffrey.
The hearing lasted until September, during which Jeffrey’s legal team adopted an aggressive strategy, attempting to expose the mistakes and unprofessional conduct of the Army’s criminal investigation division. During the investigation, Seagull highlighted numerous instances of incompetence by the criminal investigation division, accusing them of clumsily and unprofessionally trampling over the crime scene while examining the house, thereby erasing any potential evidence.
He also pointed out that the criminal investigation division had lost critical evidence, including a thread found under Kimberly’s fingernails, Jeffrey’s pajama pants, four torn tips of rubber surgical gloves, and a piece of skin found under one of Colette’s fingernails. He further cited several examples of incompetence by the military police and first responders, including an ambulance driver who stole Jeffrey’s wallet from the living room and a pathologist who failed to obtain the children’s fingerprints from the crime scene for comparison. The first witness to testify in Jeffrey’s defense was military police officer Kenneth Mika. He testified that while responding to the emergency call on the night of the murders, he observed a blonde woman wearing a widebrimmed hat standing at a corner about half a mile from Jeffrey’s house.
He noted that such a sighting was unusual given the late hour in the weather. He also testified that an ambulance driver at the crime scene had defied instructions by standing up a tilted flower pot. A colonel also testified that he personally visited the crime scene and overturned the coffee table which hit the side of a rocking chair and came to rest on the edge of the chair.
He further noted that if no wet footprints or mud belonging to the alleged intruders were found at the crime scene, it meant that the crime scene investigators had also failed to find any evidence despite the fact that numerous military police and civilians had been walking around the house. In August, a key witness, William Posie, emerged.
He claimed that the blonde woman described by Jeffrey might have been a local 17-year-old drug user and police informant named Helena Warl Stokeley. According to him, around 4:00 a.m. on the day of the murders, Helena was sitting in a car outside her apartment with two or three young men. He also claimed that Helena stopped wearing boots and floppy hats after February 17th and wore black clothing on the day of the funeral.
She even told Posie that she couldn’t remember what she had done on the day of the murders. Months later, Helena allegedly told Posie that she and her boyfriend couldn’t get married until they went out and killed more people. Although Helena was located and questioned by the police, her responses were vague and contradictory.
She recalled that on the night of February 16th, she had gone out for a drive with her boyfriend, Gregory Mitchell, in the early hours of the next morning, driving aimlessly. However, she claimed to have been under the influence of a hallucinagen to the extent that she couldn’t be sure whether she had been at Jeffrey’s house.
Despite witnesses claiming that she had admitted to being involved in the murders and that her clothing on that day matched Jeffrey’s description, she was not called to testify. During the hearing, Jeffree testified for 3 days, and parts of his testimony contradicted what he had told investigators on April 6th. For example, he now claimed that he had actually moved Colette’s body, finding her somewhat leaning against a chair, and then simply laid her flat on the floor.
He also stated that possibly due to his surgical background, he had rinsed his hands a bit in the bathroom while checking his injuries before seeking help. He further mentioned the type B blood found in the kitchen, testifying that he might have also washed his hands in the kitchen sink for some reason before calling emergency services.
Additionally, Jeffree said that on February 17th or 18th, he discovered two lumps on the back of his head, two or three puncture wounds on his upper left chest, other wounds on his right bicep, and about 10 ice pick wounds on his abdomen. However, none of these wounds were treated, and none required surgery.
This account contradicted medical reports in his previous descriptions. When questioned about his infidelity, Jeffree admitted to two affairs, but insisted that Colette had been unaware of both. He also claimed that their time at Fort Bragg had been the most fulfilling period of their marriage. Following Jeffrey’s testimony, a clinical psychologist testified about the conclusions he had drawn from a series of tests he had conducted on Jeffrey.
The expert noted that the test revealed an abnormal lack of anxiety, depression, and anger in Jeffrey regarding the loss of his family. His report concluded that Jeffrey was capable of amassing a significant amount of denial or repression to the point that the impact of recent events on his life had diminished. Furthermore, such an extreme psychological response could lead a person to portray themselves as both a victim and a martyr.
On October 13th, the colonel issued a report recommending that the charges against Jeffrey be dismissed due to insufficient evidence to prove his guilt. He also noted that the nature of the murders led him to believe that the perpetrator was either mentally disturbed or under the influence of drugs.
He recommended that civilian authorities further investigate Helena. Later that month, all charges were formally dismissed, although a new criminal investigation division investigative team formed in February 1971 continued to search for the killer with Jeffrey still considered a suspect. In December, Jeffrey was honorably discharged from the army and returned to New York City.
In July 1971, he moved to Long Beach, California, attempting to leave the past behind and distance himself from the memories of his deceased wife and daughters. He secured a job as an emergency room physician at St. Mary Medical Center and became a lecturer at the UCLA School of Medicine, the medical director of the Long Beach Grand Prix, and a speaker on topics related to identifying and treating child abuse.
He also contributed to the development of the National Cardoppulmonary Resuscitation Training Program. Living in a $350,000 apartment in Huntington Beach, he led a promiscuous lifestyle until the late 1970s when he entered a long-term relationship with a 22-year-old flight attendant named Candy Kramer. In the years following the dismissal of the murder charges, Jeffrey garnered significant emotional and public support.
He also wrote to several magazines and newspapers detailing his willingness to further publicize the background and legitimacy of his case. On December 15th, 1970, he appeared on the Dick Cavitt show complaining about the Army’s investigation and their focus on him as a suspect, which he portrayed as reckless.
During this appearance, he claimed to have sustained 23 injuries, some of which he described as potentially fatal. Jeffrey’s stepfather, Alfred Cassb, initially believed in his son-in-law’s innocence and testified in support of Jeffrey during the Army’s Article 32 hearing alongside Colette’s mother. However, by November 1970, Kazub grew suspicious due to Jeffrey’s repeated unwillingness to provide him with a copy of the 2,000page transcript from the hearing.
Jeffrey deceived him by claiming that he and some army colleagues had actually tracked down, tortured, and ultimately murdered one of the four alleged killers. Cassid’s doubts intensified after Jeffrey’s casual and dismissive demeanor on the Dick Cavitt show. He and his wife publicly turned against Jeffrey and began dedicating themselves to bringing him to justice.
In February 1971, Kazab successfully obtained a copy of the article 32 hearing records from the army. After meticulously studying the documents, he realized that Jeffrey’s account was inconsistent with the physical evidence and concluded that his narrative was nothing more than a web of lies, repeatedly contradicting the known facts of the case.
Cassb also discovered that Jeffrey had begun dating a young woman employed at Fort Bragg just weeks after his family’s murder and had rekindled a relationship with another woman. Collaborating with Colonel Craven and other Army investigators, Tacup visited the crime scene to compare the physical evidence with Jeffrey’s testimony.
This assessment ultimately convinced him of Jeffrey’s guilt, and he resolved to dedicate his life to pursuing all legal avenues to bring Jeffrey to justice. In early 1972, Cassid filed a citizens complaint with the US Department of Justice requesting the convening of a grand jury to indict Jeffrey for murder. However, since the murders occurred while Jeffrey was serving in the military and he had already been discharged, the complaint was declared moot.
The FBI declined to take up the case. On April 30th, 1974, Casab along with their attorney Richard K and criminal investigation division agent Peter Karns submitted a citizens complaint to the chief judge of the US District Court, requesting the convening of a grand jury to indict Jeffrey for murder. A month later, Justice Department prosecutors ruled that the case warranted prosecution.
On August 12th, a grand jury convened before a US district judge in Raleigh, North Carolina to hear the legal proceedings. 75 witnesses were called to testify with Jeffrey being the first to take the stand. His testimony lasted 5 days during which he admitted that despite his public declaration after the 1970 dismissal of the murder charges to pursue all legal avenues and hire investigators, he had not actually done so.
Nevertheless, he insisted that he had made efforts to identify the perpetrators and locate Helena. He also claimed that the fabricated information he provided to Cassab and certain media outlets was intended to plate his in-laws and that he had sustained more stab and puncture wounds than were recorded in contemporary medical records.
When prosecutors asked if he would submit to a polygraph or sodium aml test to verify his account of events, Jeffree read a statement prepared by his attorney, refusing the request. A surgeon testified that aside from the lung injury, Jeffrey’s other wounds were minor and would not have impaired his physical abilities. A psychiatrist testified that he found Jeffrey to be an extremely controlling individual, deeply reliant on others perceptions of him.
A chief of the chemistry division testified that Colette’s pajamas had been heavily bloodstained before being torn, and that the tearing had occurred while the fabric was stationary, contradicting Jeffrey’s claim that the pajamas were torn during a struggle against the attackers. On January 21st, 1975, Jeffrey was recalled to testify before the grand jury.
This time, when questioned about his infidelity or the forensic contradictions between his account and the physical evidence presented by the prosecution, he displayed noticeable arrogance and sarcasm. At one point, he shouted,
“I don’t know. I don’t even know what nonsense you’re trying to feed me.”
He also refused to discuss the results of a private polygraph test he had agreed to in 1970. The results of which had been handed over to his attorney, indicating that he needed to consult his lawyer before agreeing to this line of inquiry. After a brief recess, Jeffrey read a statement prepared by his attorney, denying the prosecution’s request to discuss the results of his 1970 polygraph examination, arguing that it violated attorney client privilege.
He then addressed the jury directly, stating that five long years had passed since his family’s murder and his efforts to rebuild his life, and that the questions posed by the prosecution were ones he had endured for those 5 years. On January 24th, the grand jury formally indicted Jeffrey on three counts of murder.
Less than an hour later, he was arrested in California. On January 31st, his friends and colleagues raised $100,000 in bail to secure his release while awaiting the resolution of the charges. Although he was arraigned on May 23rd and pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, the legal proceedings were fraught with complications.
On July 29th, the judge dismissed the defense’s arguments regarding double jeopardy and the right to a speedy trial, allowing the trial date originally set for August 18th, 1975 to proceed. However, the fourth circuit court of appeals ruled on August 15th to stay the proceedings, holding that the defendant was entitled to a speedy trial by January 23rd, 1976, and therefore ordered the indictment dismissed.
Upon hearing this news, Jeffree shed tears of relief, believing his ordeal was over. However, the government appealed to the US Supreme Court, which on May 1st, 1978 ruled that the Fourth Circuit had aired in dismissing the indictment on speedy trial grounds before the case had been tried. This decision allowed the case to proceed.
Cassab welcomed this development, stating,
“It’s been a tremendous personal pressure knowing someone is running around who you are convinced killed your daughter and grandchildren.”
On July 16th, 1979, Jeffree stood trial in Raleigh, North Carolina, charged with three counts of murder. Judge Dupri presided over the trial and Jeffree pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Although his attorneys were confident of an acquitt, a series of rulings during the trial worked against the defense. First, the judge refused to admit a 1979 psychiatric evaluation of Jeffrey as evidence, which suggested that someone with his personality and mindset was highly unlikely to have killed his family. The judge ruled that since his attorneys had not entered an insanity plea, he did not want the trial bogged down by conflicting psychiatric testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses.
Second, the judge denied the defense’s motion to exclude Jeffrey’s pajamas as evidence. A significant blow to the defense as the blood stains and fibers on the pajamas were among the prosecution’s key pieces of evidence. On the first day of the trial, the judge allowed the prosecution to introduce as evidence the March 1970 issue of Esquire magazine found in Jeffrey’s home, which contained a lengthy article about the Manson family murders.
This evidence was intended to suggest that Jeffrey might have mimicked the Manson family’s methods. However, the judge also denied the prosecution’s request to introduce any part of the Article 32 transcript from Jeffrey’s 1970 military hearing, ruling that since the current trial was a civilian one. And the article 32 hearing included reports from military investigators suggesting Jeffrey had murdered his family in a druginduced rage, such evidence was also prejuditial.
On July 19th, Jeffrey’s trial entered a critical phase as both the prosecution and defense delivered their opening statements to the jury. The prosecution outlined its burden of proof in establishing Jeffrey’s guilt, emphasizing that the murders were committed with malice. The prosecutor pointed out that the prosecution would prove Jeffrey’s guilt through physical evidence and circumstantial evidence, urging jurors to listen to the testimony, examine the evidence presented, and draw their own conclusions.
He concluded by stating,
“We believe the physical evidence points to the fact that one person, not two, three, four, or more, killed Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen. That person is the defendant.”
Throughout the trial, the prosecution’s evidence and witness testimonies were more compelling, while the defense faced several unfavorable rulings.
Despite this, the defense argued that the crime scene had been hopelessly compromised during the investigation with potential evidence either destroyed, lost, or never collected. The defense also called a key witness, Helena, attempting to use her testimony to prove she was one of the intruders Jeffree had described. However, Helena denied any involvement in the murders or knowledge of who might have committed them, stating she did not want to be a scapegoat.
On August 23rd and 24th, Jeffree took the stand as the final defense witness. His testimony was a pivotal moment in the trial with both sides attempting to sway the jury through his statements. He first underwent questioning by his defense attorney who sought to humanize Jeffrey in the eyes of the jury by having him describe his family background and lifestyle.
Jeffrey then detailed the personalities of each family member, describing the family as close-knit. We shared almost everything. We were all friends. Colette and I shared the process of raising our children. We shared our life experiences. He also claimed that the reason he had never remarried was that he could not forget his wife and children, thinking of them every day.
He recounted his life in the years following their deaths, explaining that his decision to move to California was to distance himself from well-meaning people. He insisted that working up to 80 hours a week was easier than sitting and thinking about his family. He also presented several family photos and artifacts, attempting to evoke sympathy from the jury for his family life.
The following day, the prosecution crossexamined Jeffrey. The prosecutor systematically listed the physical and circumstantial evidence from the crime scene, which contradicted Jeffrey’s account of intruders attacking him and murdering his family, instead pointing to his own guilt. He often began each question with a phrase along the lines of,
“Dr.
Macdonald if the jury finds from the evidence that on August 28th, both sides delivered their closing arguments to the jury. The prosecution went first, contrasting the injuries suffered by Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen with those sustained by Jeffrey, noting that Jeffrey’s only serious injury was the pneumthorax wound to his chest.
The prosecutor referenced Jeffrey’s claim of a life and death struggle with the alleged intruders, but the evidence suggested the struggle occurred between a white male and a white female. the female being Colette and the male being Jeffrey. He then dismissed the character witnesses who had earlier testified that Jeffree was a good husband and father.
Returning to the evidence,
“If we convince you with the evidence that he did it, we don’t have to prove he’s the kind of person who could do this.”
He concluded his argument by stating,
“I can only tell you from the physical evidence that things don’t lie, but people can and do lie.”
The defense also delivered its closing argument, portraying Jeffrey as a loving husband and father and emphasizing that Jeffrey had consistently maintained that four intruders were responsible for the murders.
They criticized the prosecution’s case as a house built on sand and urged the jury to grant Jeffrey the peace he had sought for nearly a decade. In his final instructions to the jury, the judge informed them they had three options. to find Jeffrey not guilty, to find him guilty of firstdegree murder, or to find him guilty of seconddegree murder in each case. Shortly after 4 p.m.
on August 29th, 1979, the jury returned its verdict after 6 and 1/2 hours of deliberation. Jeffrey was convicted of one count of firstdegree murder in the death of Kristen and two counts of secondderee murder in the deaths of Colette and Kimberly. Following the verdict, Kasab immediately called the family’s attorney, thanking him for his years of relentless effort.
He said,
“Hi, Dick. I just got what I wanted, three life sentences. Thank you for everything you’ve done. We couldn’t have done it without your help.”
Cassb and his wife also told the media,
“This had to be done. Now we can rest.”
After 1980, there were several legal dramas, including instances where Jeffrey’s convictions were overturned, only to be reinstated later.
On February 23rd, 1970, Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen were laid to rest side by side at Washington Memorial Park in Suffuk County, Long Island. Each grave initially bore the Macdonald surname, which was later changed to Colette’s maiden name, Stevenson. Jeffrey is currently serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland.
Despite having spent decades behind bars, he continues to maintain his innocence. Some of his supporters believe in his claims of innocence, viewing him as a potential victim of a miscarriage of justice. Jeffrey himself has never ceased his efforts to defend himself, continuing to seek exoneration through legal avenues.
He has stated,
“I won’t come out and lie to the parole board just to make them let me rest. If I have to tell the parole board I killed my family to get out of here and go home, then I’ll never go home.”
