ADAM CLINE
ADAM GEYER
ADAM SUTTIE
ADAM WHITE
ADAM WILLIAMS
ALEJANDRA A. SANZ
ALEKSANDR POLTAVSKIY
ANDREW O'CONDELL
ANI ASLANIAN
BILLY CRANCE
BRYON BURDICK
CHAD OCONNELL
CHRIS CARPENTER
CHRIS SINK
CHRISTOPHER HUZIAK
CHRYSTAL THOMPSON
CHUCK HODI
CLAIRE AZZOPARDI
CLINT CARNEY
CODY WHITMAN
CRAIG HEWITT
DAN HARTMAN
DAN VERKYS
DARIO GARCIA
DARYL WALKER
DAVID CSICSELY
DAVID HARTMAN
DAVID WILLET
DR. PAYNE
EDDIE MULLINS
ERIC SWARTZ
ERIC WELLMAN
ERIN TINNEY
FABIEN FERNANDEZ
FRANKIE BABYLON
GERALD TORBITT
GREGORY COBURN
HAYLEY MUI
HERVÉ SCOTT FLAMENT
IAN WAGNER
JACK MALEBRANCH
JAMES RICHARDSON
JASON DAQUINO
JEREMY VANDERMARK
JESSICA FAIRFIELD
JESSICA JOHNSON
JO DUGGAN
JOAQUIN MONTALVAN
JOEL BAGLEY
JOHNNY MACHINE
JON FASSNACHT II
JONATHAN HAWK
JOSHUA MASON
JUSTIN MYERS
KAHLA WALKOSKI
KELLY HUTCHISON
KIMBERLY BAILEY
KUNSTATELIER T.GEBHARDT
KURT BELCHER
LEE BILLINGHAM
LEONARDO CASAS
LISA LACERRA
LORI HESTON
LOU RUSCONI
LYDA DAY
MARK STINSON
MARTHANA YUSA
MATT VERGES
MATTHEW AARON
MATTHEW JOEL CASSAR
MICHAEL MAJEWSKI
MICHAEL REYNOLDS
MICHI NEW FRANKENSTEIN
MICKMO
MIKE STOLTZ
NAOMI MCGRAW
NELLIE BROWN
NICHOLAS RAIMO
NICK DUNKELY
NICK LAZARISS
NICOLAS CASTELAUX
OPHELIE BERNAUD
PATRICK OLSEN
PAUL MELLINO
PETE BERG
PHILIP R. MERTZ
R.M. HANSON
RANDY WALL
ROBERTO ARANDA
ROWAN ANDREWS
RYAN SCHEMPP
SAMANTHA SHELDON
SARAH SMITH
SHANE SHEILS
SHANNON HILSON
SHANNON RIDDLE
SHAUN OLSEN
SIONA MORROW
TOM PALIWODA
URIEL A. DURAN
VICTORIA WENDT
VINCE PACKARD
VINCENT CASTIGLIA
WILLIAM JENNINGS
WRITING STAFF
AARON KIRKLAND
ALEXANDER DELIGHT
ANNA M. GRIFFY
ANNA ROCKET
BANDI BROCK
BILL DIXON
BOB GEORGE
BOB WARD
BRAD BARRETT
BRIAN RUSSELL
BRIDGET HEATH
BRIDGETTE ORMOND
BRUCE MOWDAY
CASEY JONES
CHARLOTTE GLEDSON
CHRIS BARTHOLOMEW
CHRIS CASINES
CRISTY MCGOFF
DAVID BOYLE
DAVID C. HAYES
DEANNA MULLINS
DENISE NOE
DION BRASS
DOUG WALLACE
DYLAN BONNAR
EVIL LUCY
EZRA RAINSTEIN
FAITH LEANNE
FREDERICK W. COOK
GARIN T. JONES
GENERAL AK47
HERLAKA ROSE
JASON WOLFE
JEFFREY HAYES
JESSICA FAIRFIELD
JESSICA ROBINSON
JOHN DAVID HERNANDEZ
JORDAN SEMICH
JULIE MCCORMICK
KAIT WELLMAN
KAMYELLE POWELL
KATHY PETERS AKA KATHRYN J
KEIMI YAMAGATA
KELLY HUTCHISON
KENNY HACKNEY
KEVIN SWEENEY
KILMER VARIENT
KIMBERLY BAILEY
LISA WILBERDING
LORENZO GARZA
LUIS CARBAJALES
LUKE DAVIES
MADGEPETTO
MADISON SHERMAN
MARTIN PROBEE
MAT CLOUSER
MATTHEW AARON
MELISSA HOGLE
MICHAEL ALOISI
MICHAEL BORELLA
NADIA FEZZANI
NICK STEVENS
NICOLAS CASTELAUX
REV WILLIAM SMYERS
RHIANNON EDWARDS
ROBERT HARNISH
SEAN DEMERS
SHAUN DUNNE
SHELLS WALTER
SHELLY RAAB
STEPH ARENA
STEPHANIE JOHNSON
STEPHEN W. ROBERTS
TARA RATH
TOD BOHANNON
VANESSA WEST
VICKY ZUBCIC
WILLIAM A. KINGMAN
THE ADS BELOW ARE DISPLAYED ON EVERY PAGE OF VHS WASTELAND AND ALSO EVERY PAGE OF SERIALKILLERCALENDAR. IN ORDER TO PUT YOUR AD ON OUR WEBSITES, YOU WILL NEED TO SIGN UP FOR AN ACCOUNT ON PROJECT WONDERFUL. SIGNING UP FOR PROJECT WONDERFUL IS QUICK, EASY AND FREE. FOR PENNIES A DAY YOU CAN HAVE YOUR AD ON OVER 8000 PAGES. CLICK THE LINKS BELOW THE AD BOXES TO PURCHASE AD SPACE.
Anna Maria Zwanziger By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“Arsenic is my truest friend,” Anna Zwanziger told authorities after she had been apprehended for poisoning eight and killing four, including an infant. The 51-year-old chubby woman was then led to the guillotine. She had no remorse, no feeling as she walked with guards away from her jail cell. With her head held high, she perfectly understood her punishment for her crimes.
Born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1760, Anna Maria Schonleben was destined to a life of hardship and desperation. As a young woman, she was seen by others as ugly, unmistakably repulsive, and oddly missing a sense of dignity and morality. Her body was misshapen, leaving her with a noticeable hump in her back and one leg shorter than the other. Anna also had to live with poverty and destitution. By all means, her life had begun and continued to be difficult and lonely.
When a man named Zwanziger showed interest in her, Anna readily accepted his marriage proposal and changed her name. As a married woman, she believed she would be respected and cared for, but soon found that her chosen mate was a drunken bastard, often leaving her for weeks at a time as he went on long drinking binges. Finding her life undeniably insufficient and completely loveless, Anna Zwanziger dreamed of another life. One in which a true and decent man would not only sweep her off her unbalanced feet, but adore her with all her faults.
When her husband died, leaving not a penny behind, Anna sought work at a local factory making toys. She had decided to earn her own living until she could find a suitable man to support her. Realizing that she could attain a greater chance at wooing a man by becoming a domestic servant, Anna quickly left her job and searched the want ads for a much needed housekeeper. Her plan was to charm a man while cooking and cleaning for him, showing him that she could be the perfect wife if given the opportunity.
At 40-years-old, Anna Zwanziger found a potential mate, a judge by the name of Glaser, who was searching for a domestic servant for his modest estate. Glaser was attractive in his middle age, often smiling and in pleasant spirits. Anna immediately set her sights on her new employer. To the dismay of Anna, she soon discovered that Glaser was married, but separated from his wife. Anna did not let this information deter her resolve to somehow snare Glaser.
Anna devised a plan to rid Glaser’s wife from his life entirely. Considerately, Anna invited Glaser’s wife to tea, telling the other servants in the home that she wished to reunite the separated couple. Glaser’s wife enjoyed her tea greatly, asking for a second cup, which Anna provided with a smile. Later in the night, Glaser’s wife died of unknown causes; her servants reporting to the doctor that she had been in immense pain throughout the night. Anna grinned to herself when she heard the news of Glaser’s wife’s death, hiding the tin of arsenic in the pocket of her maid’s uniform.
Ready to accept Glaser’s marriage proposal, Anna prepared her hair and rubbed a bit of rouge on her lips to entice her new husband. Days went by without a word from Glaser, Anna believing he was just mourning the death of his wife. Weeks passed, but Anna remained vigilant Glaser would soon realize his love for her. She shined his shoes, scrubbed his floor, and washed his windows with the utmost care. Glaser would soon notice all the hard work and reward Anna with a kiss and a ring, she was sure of it. Months later, Anna finally lost all hope in Glaser’s interest in her. Though he was polite to his servants, he treated Anna no different than any of the others. Feeling cheated and angered by his brush off, Anna vowed revenge. Visitors came to see Glaser one evening, sharing a bit of whiskey and conversation. Anna refilled all of their glasses, adding arsenic for each guest to consume. Days later, Anna overheard that the visitors had all been sick, but had recovered easily. Anna left the Glaser home soon after, abandoning the glamour of marriage she had hoped would come from Glaser.
Anna’s next job was domestic work at Judge Grohmann’s home in a countryside estate. As she began her work cooking and cleaning, she found Grohmann to be slightly less dashing than Glaser, but had already decided to make Grohmann her new groom. The servants she worked with were also not to Anna’s liking, but she tried to make Grohmann her one and only passion. When a young woman started visiting with Grohmann in the back quarters of the home, Anna came to understand that not only was she in competition with this woman, but she was losing any affection Grohmann might have given Anna. One month later, Grohmann assembled his friends and family in the living room of his home to announce his engagement to the young woman visiting. Anna, enraged, immediately poisoned her fellow servants food in some attempt to satisfy her vengeful feelings. The servants all survived before Anna left the Grohmann estate for good.
Judges seemed to be some kind of a draw or fascination for Anna, for when she moved on to her next job, it was for another judge named Gebhard. Although he was already married, Anna made up her mind to remedy that. Gebhard’s wife was very sick with an unknown illness, which made it much easier for Anna to poison her slowly but surely. Not two weeks after Anna began putting arsenic in the woman’s food; Gebhard’s wife passed away, a very painful and debilitating death. Anna further went on to poison several other servants and the judge’s infant child with a biscuit covered in arsenic. Anna couldn’t care for a child after she and Gebhard were married, after all. All but one of servants survived, and the infant sadly died.
The servants, recovered from their poisoning, went to Gebhard privately begging him to have the food analyzed in the home. Something was wrong, they said, and Anna was the only one that was healthy in the home. With suspicion thick in the home, Anna decided that she had stayed her welcome and left before it was discovered that all the sugar containers and salt shakers were filled with deadly arsenic.
On October 18, 1809, Anna was arrested for the poisoning and for four murders. She had sent several letters to the Gebhard home, telling her master that she had loved the infant and wanted to resume her work. Anna waited six months in jail before admitting her crimes. She said, "Yes, I killed them all and would have killed more if I had the chance." She told her executers with a smile before being beheaded, "It is perhaps better for the community that I should die, as it would be impossible for me to give up the practice of poisoning people." Anna Zwanziger died husbandless with the blade of the guillotine crashing down on her neck in July 1811.
Archibald Hall “The Monster Butler” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“Death will be my release. Not until I am dead can I escape these walls. To anyone who thinks they have the capacity for murder, I urge you to think again. My life is an impoverished nightmare. Let it be a lesson to you.” – Archibald Hall
There is a certain degree of grace and elegance one looks for when hiring someone to clean and take care of their home. The professional resumé of a suitable butler usually speaks volumes of their work history, how well composed they might be, and why they are the correct candidate for a particular job. It is hard to imagine hiring a certifiably insane person, but without real references to call upon, it is entirely possible to employ someone who is mentally defective. A bit of charisma and cheery personality can get someone very far in life, especially if they are trying hard to impress. For a psychopath, it is nearly human nature to act in such a way. While imagining cutting off your head, they might be telling you about the way in which to wash a dish properly; on their face, a perfect grin.
The psychopath in Archibald Hall revealed its ugly face early at the age of sixteen. Seduced by a much older and wealthy woman, Hall was awestruck when his partner took him to expensive dinners, large public functions providing sweet and tangy wine, and hotel rooms big enough to hold several elephants. Taking in the decadence of fine living and the richness of a soft mattresses and even softer pillows, Archibald Hall realized that this was the life he wanted. If he had to become a waiter, bartender, or butler to attain his dream, he would willingly cross the ocean to do so. Having come from a poor, but decent hardworking family, Hall was not used to the beauty of a sparkling chandelier or glamorously decorated opera houses. What Hall soon understood while sipping pink wine at a gala was that what he wanted, others had. The only way to get what he wanted was to take from others.
The first of many cruel deeds Hall committed was cheating the Red Cross. Wandering the streets of Glasgow with two tins in his hands, he asked the public for money which would graciously be accepted by the Red Cross. Any donation was fine, but larger bills were preferred, Hall said in a perfectly empathetic tone. At the end of the day, the tins were emptied by Hall, who took all the large bills and left pennies for the Red Cross to collect. Hall came to grasp the fact that he could steal without conscience, especially from the truly needy. This realization moved Hall so greatly, he was willing to commit any crime as long as his sweaty palms were filled with the money he felt he had a right to.
Archibald Hall was a master of manipulation and greed, but had not become a fully successful criminal yet. He met his first brush with police at the age of nineteen while breaking into homes and dealing in petty theft. After his arrest, Hall was judged mentally unstable, sent twice to mental hospitals, escaping each time. One year later, he was told by a court of law and psychiatrists that he was certifiably insane, but this did not deter Hall. He continued to dream of gleaming champagne glasses and the undeniably haunting tunes echoing from opera houses. If he was to go back to that wealthy lifestyle, he had to find a way in, legally.
Throughout the 1940’s to the late 1970’s, Hall was in and out of jail for various crimes. Stealing was his favorite game, but he was not very good at it. He had tried his hand at forgery, breaking into little shops, and swiping jewels from the rich. He landed in jail for almost every crime. Turning from the seduced to the seducer, Hall sought wealth from both men and women, bedding them for the night and disappearing with their money before the sun came up. But the money was never enough to satisfy Hall with what he really wanted. He wanted to become a proper gentleman. His undying wish was to attend fantastic parties and become part of affluent society.
By 1977, Hall wanted to go straight and earn his money from an actual employer. Inevitably drawn to wealth, Hall sought work as a butler in Scotland, believing this to be his way into a prosperous life. Dressed in a butler uniform, impeccably creased and well-groomed, Hall changed his name to Roy Fontaine and found domestic work at Lady Peggy Hudson’s home on Scotland’s border. Lady Hudson also employed a gardener for her large estate, a man named David Wright. Unbeknownst to Lady Hudson, her new butler, “Roy Fontaine” and David Wright had been prison cellmates together in previous years.
Hall and Wright were not only having a secret homosexual affair, they were also plotting against their employer. Tensions were thick between the two workers, for Wright was dead set on robbing the estate immediately. Hall was hesitant, telling Wright they should wait for a better time, perhaps when more money was coming into the household. Hall further tried explaining to Wright that they might have a better chance at getting more money by finding out the combination to the safe hidden in Lady Hudson’s room. But Wright was greedy and impatient. Creeping into Hall’s room one night, Wright attempted to shoot Hall, but was too drunk that night and shot the pillow instead of Hall’s head.
The next afternoon, Wright and Hall reconciled and decided to go hunting for rabbits together. Hall, quickly understanding that living with Wright would mean constant worry, felt he had no choice but to kill his lover. Hall could be blackmailed by Wright with his fake name of Roy Fontaine, reveal Hall as the thief he was and always had been, expose the affair the two were having, or worse. Waiting until Wright’s gun was not loaded; Hall turned to his friend and shot him in the face. David Wright was buried under a pile of rocks near a stream and quickly forgotten.
A week passed before Lady Hudson received an unmarked letter in the post. Written anonymously, the letter stated that her butler was not actually Roy Fontaine, but Archibald Hall, a convicted criminal. The letter went on to describe in detail what Hall had been doing for nearly thirty years- stealing. Although never confirmed, Hall believed the letter was from David Wright, his last final goodbye being exactly what Hall feared, exposure. Hall was at once dismissed.
It wasn’t long before Hall got another job as a butler in Chelsea, London. His employers were wealthy and very old. His master, Walter Scott-Elliot, at 82, was so ill that he was constantly taking pills that made him sleepy and sometimes delusional. His wife Dorothy was also sickly, spending much time at nursing homes convalescing from various illnesses. Hall took advantage of Walter at every opportunity. Hall was in charge of paying the bills that came to the home, and Walter was only too happy to write out blank checks for Hall to take care of. Hall was only too happy to receive them as his own personal gift. Acquiring two accomplices, Mary Coggle and Michael Kitto, Hall devised a plan that would ensure wealth in his quality of life. Mary Coggle was a forger of credit cards, while Michael Kitto worked as a petty thief. To Hall, both of his friends would be invaluable to him as he slowly and surely stole the entire Scott-Elliot estate. But Hall was too hasty when it came to money.
On December 8, 1977, while Dorothy was away at a nursing home and Walter was passed out from sleeping pills, Hall snuck Kitto into the home to view the surroundings. Kitto was astounded at his partner’s find. Not only were the employers sick most of the time, they were practically ancient and Kitto estimated they wouldn’t be around much longer. Kitto hinted that Hall might even be mentioned in one of their wills, affording Hall the lifestyle he had been praying for (less the cost it would take for Kitto and Coggle to ultimately bring the estate down). Hall and Kitto prowled around the home for more than an hour before deciding to retire to Dorothy’s room.
Believing Dorothy would be gone for the next few days, Hall was surprised when Dorothy came home the next morning. She was shocked to find her butler and a stranger in her bed and immediately began screaming. Alarmed at the racket she was making, Hall smothered Dorothy with his hand and then suffocated her with a pillow. Walter, wakened from the screaming, wandered out of his room to investigate. He was met by a sweaty and panicked Hall, who assured Walter that Dorothy had had a bit of a nightmare. Walter, still sleep drugged, went back to his bed without the knowledge that his wife had just been murdered.
The next morning, Hall and Kitto hauled Dorothy into a hired car, her face covered with a pillowcase. To fool Walter, Mary Coggle donned a fur wrap belonging to Dorothy and sat in the backseat. Walter watched from the upstairs window as Hall climbed into the car carrying a large suitcase. Squinting, he saw his wife wearing her hat and her favorite fur. She was sitting behind the passenger’s seat. In the suitcase were all of Dorothy’s precious jewels, necklaces, and rings. Walter was given a sleeping pill and joined the party in car, believing his wife was sitting in the backseat behind him. The real Dorothy was laying face down in the trunk. Dorothy was dumped along the way, Hall explaining to Walter he was just getting rid of garbage.
Driving 200 miles to Scotland, they finally stopped near Glen Athol, a snowy and deserted little area. Walter protested as Hall got out of the car and came around to the passenger seat. Walter didn’t understand why they had stopped and why he was being pulled out of the car into the cold. Hall tied a scarf around Walter’s neck, tightening it slowly. Walter at first believed Hall was taking care of him by putting the scarf around him. That is, until Hall continued to tighten and tighten the knitted scarf, choking Walter. Walter then began struggling, and Hall barked out to Kitto to get the spade in the backseat. Hitting Walter over the head with the spade, Hall watched as the old man’s skull split wide open and rapidly began spurting out blood. They buried him in nearby bushes.
Hall, Coggle, and Kitto drove to a cottage in Carlisle, which Hall had rented a month prior. As the trio settled into the cottage, friendliness and camaraderie soon dissolved, turning into a huge shouting match ending in murder. Mary Coggle had grown attached to the mink fur she had been wearing all morning and wanted to keep it. Hall would not allow it, on the grounds that the fur could be identified by other persons. Coggle and Hall argued for a while until Kitto tried to intervene. Coggle tried attacking him, but was caught off guard by the hands of Hall pushing her to the floor. The good-natured and pleasant butler turned into the psychopath he had always been, striking Mary Coggle over the head with a poker over and over until her face was a mess of blood and tissue. He then suffocated her with a throw pillow.
Not far from the cabin, Coggle was dumped in a stream. Hall and Kitto drove back to London planning on raiding the Scott-Elliot home for money and other goods. While they were looting, Donald, Hall’s brother 17 years his junior, came knocking. Donald, upon hearing of his brother’s successful lifestyle, was curious exactly how rich his brother had become. Hall must have misunderstood Donald’s intent, for Donald had only heard that Hall was a butler for the wealthy. Hall thought Donald was after his newly acquired loot at the Chelsea home. Without thoroughly thinking at all, Hall and Kitto chloroformed Donald to death.
Hiring another car, Hall and Kitto put Donald in the car and drove back to Scotland. During this time, Mary Coggle’s body had been found on Christmas. People who had last seen Mary recalled her in the company of Archibald Hall and Michael Kitto, well known burglars and thieves. Hall and Kitto attempted to rent a hotel in North Berwick, but the manager became suspicious of them and the rented car they were driving. As Hall and Kitto were having dinner, police discovered the hired car bared false plates. Kitto was taken from the restaurant and did not resist arrest. However, Hall escaped in a cab, but was apprehended at a road block near the hotel.
In police custody, Hall was asked about the dead body in the hired car. Before they could ascertain where the body had come from and who it was, Hall asked for a glass of water. Finally realizing he had been caught and could not escape from the five murders he committed, Hall intended to kill himself with a pill in his rectum. He was quickly taken to a hospital where the pill was removed. Two days later, Hall tried to commit suicide again, but was unsuccessful.
Under interrogation, Hall and Kitto admitted their crimes and were tried both in England and Scotland, receiving life sentences each. Kitto had to serve a minimum of 15 years, but Hall had no opportunity for parole. While in jail, Hall confessed to more crimes, including 2 more killings. He said he killed an American helicopter pilot and a garage worker, but refused further details. While incarcerated, Hall wrote an autobiography called A Perfect Gentleman, published in 1999. Hall detailed his life, how he had been able to manipulate and use people, and of course, how to become a perfect gentleman. The seemingly well-mannered proper gentleman and murderer died in prison in 2002 at the age of 78.
Belle Gunness (Brynhilde Paulsdatter)AKA: “Female Bluebeard” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
When a seriously mentally defected serial killer is arrested and put in jail for their crimes, the public can breathe a sigh of relief. With a bit of evil taken away from the world and placed behind very thick bars, people can thank God or a judge or whomever they choose that the nastiness and wickedness of another human is no longer part of society. When Dennis Rader was apprehended after thirty-one years in hiding, people rejoiced that he would never be threatening young women again. The Zodiac Killer, however, has terrorized the nation since the late 1960’s. The media has hinted that this man died many years ago. But if he hasn’t, he continues to frighten the public. Whether The Zodiac Killer is a passing thought while someone is on their way to their car, or obsessing the mind of a forensic scientist, The Zodiac Killer has had a never ending effect on everyone who has had the displeasure of hearing of his awful crimes.
In the early 1900’s, another horrendous killer was discovered, but never apprehended. Belle Gunness’ story and the fact that she was never found made every available bachelor shiver merely by hearing her name. Belle Gunness, callous and undoubtedly without conscious, murdered approximately forty-two men in nearly five years, leaving behind much evidence of her crimes and disappearing as soon as she believed her greed had been unearthed by concerned individuals. Greed was Belle’s greatest love in life, and her greatest folly, for eventually, she had to escape from her deadly desires.
Born in Trondheim Norway on November 11, 1859, Brynhilde Paulsdatter decided to seek her fortune in America, immigrating to Chicago at age 24. She moved in with her sister and brother-in-law and changed her name to something more fitting, something dainty and girly. Belle Paulsdatter, sometimes called Bella, emerged from Norway in high spirits, enjoying the freedoms of America and the handsome and generous men that fell at her feet to date her. It didn’t take long for one of these fine-looking men to capture Belle’s heart. By 25, she wed another Norwegian immigrant, Mads Sorenson.
Belle and Mads were a happy couple, beginning a family and opening up a small bakery shop. Unfortunately, the bakery shop burned down shortly after it was erected, as did the two homes Belle and Mads owned. To the delight of Belle, all of them were heavily insured, which meant she and her husband could move to a more affluent home on Alma Street in Chicago. Bringing up her five children, Belle had what most would call a very agreeable lifestyle. She was young, married to a man who loved her completely, and was blessed with beautiful children.
What would bring down Belle and Mads’ happy little household was the death of two of their children within two years. Caroline and Axel, suffering from acute colitis, both had sudden and painful deaths, which might have had a tremendously negative effect on Belle’s psyche afterwards. In 1900, Mads died of something very much like food poisoning, but doctors were unable to find a clear reason for his death. Some believed that arsenic was the culprit, and Belle was the one to have poisoned Mads food, but there was never any evidence of foul play when Mads Sorenson was later exhumed. Belle left the marriage with a hefty amount of insurance money.
Immediately following Mads death, Belle moved to Indiana with her three surviving daughters and married widower Peter Gunness. Settling on a farm near La Porte, Belle and Peter joyfully began moving into their new home, taking great care to assure that this would be the home the family would reside in forever. After guaranteeing that Peter had a good life insurance policy, Belle taught her little daughters how to take care of the farm in the event that something might happen to Peter. Something did happen to Peter, in the form of a heavy sausage grinder that fell from a shelf and split open his skull, killing him. One of Belle’s daughters, her foster daughter in fact, went to the police with a wild story that Belle had been the one to kill Peter. The girl frantically told them that Belle had smashed Peter’s skull with the sausage grinder; that it had not fallen from a shelf, as Belle had claimed. The police did not believe the girl and she was sent home. The girl met her own death with the sausage grinder when she arrived back at the farm. Belle told neighbors and the police that the girl had gone to a finishing school for girls.
Perusing the local advertisements for a new man, Belle felt she needed a husband to take care of her; a man willing to get a life insurance policy. Belle looked in particular for Norwegian immigrants, someone she could not only talk freely with, but weren’t quite as smart with English as she was. Advertising herself as a young and beautiful thin woman with a bit of money, Belle only sought men who were willing to come directly to the farm with cash in hand. When the men did arrive, from all over the country, they met a serious looking and heavyset woman with large wrinkle lines on her face and two children seemingly frightened of her. Belle showed the men the farm and fed them a large dinner, smiling and telling them all about the new life they would be sharing together. As the men went to sleep, Belle crept into their bedroom and chloroformed them. Perhaps that was her only mercy, for being such a large woman, Belle was able to carry them to the basement where she chopped them to pieces with a meat cleaver as they slept.
Belle’s occasional lover and handyman on the farm, Ray Lamphere, helped Belle dispose of the dismembered bodies all over the farm. Some pieces they buried, and some they fed to the hogs. Committing her murders on a farm and not in a big city gave Belle an excellent opportunity to get rid of bodies, putting them in the shed or hiding them in shallow graves. Without close neighbors, Belle was able to do almost anything she wanted. Belle wanted money, and lots of it. Almost every one of her beau’s brought with them enough cash to pay off her mortgage on the farm or enough spending money to buy much needed supplies for the farm.
Reading about a lovely woman in search of a man to take care of her, Andrew Helgelein of South Dakota was immediately taken by the woman he read about in an advertisement. After sending her a short note, Andrew was surprised when he received a long and beautifully written love letter filled with promises and fairytale-like descriptions of happiness. Belle even compared their love to that of a king and a queen, telling him that the farm they would live on together would be the envy of the entire world, for no one would ever live so wonderfully and happily as Andrew and she. Included at the bottom of the letter, without the composure of loveliness as the rest of the letter, was a reminder that Andrew bring $3,000 with him. Promptly, and possibly half in love with Belle already, Andrew travelled to Indiana to meet his beautiful young bride. Andrew arrived, and was never seen again.
Belle ran into a world of trouble when Andrew’s brother Asle Helgelein wrote to her, begging to find out where Andrew was. He had been missing for months, and Asle was sick with worry when Andrew answered not one of his posts. Belle told Asle that Andrew had come to the farm, stayed one night, and had left before she could say goodbye. She further told Asle that if he brought her some money, she would make a state-wide effort to find Andrew. Asle smartly declined and contacted his local authorities.
On April 28, 1908, the farmhouse was burned to the ground, Ray Lamphere seen fleeing from the scene. After being arrested, Ray was charged with arson. Before the crime, Ray had famously announced to locals that Belle and he had had a falling out and that Belle had unjustly fired him. It was clear to everyone, including the police, that Ray was the cause of the fire. Ray was also charged with murder after the remains of three of Belle’s children were found in the basement. Next to the bodies was that of a headless adult woman, her false teeth found near her outstretched arm. The charge of murder was dropped, for police had evidence that the woman next to the children did not belong to Belle Gunness.
Forensic experts found that the body of the woman was thin, short, and had traces of poison in her body. Belle was anything but short and thin, and the head of the burned woman was never recovered. Police believed that Belle had lured an innocent woman to the farm, cut off her head and laid her next to the bodies of her children. Leaving the farm, Belle had left evidence of another woman she believed would be thought of as hers. Now that Asle and the authorities were after her, Belle had to escape, leaving everything and everyone behind. With suspicion from the police, the entire farm was searched for more evidence. In the hog pen, police found fourteen male bodies. Uneasy and worried about what else would be found, the police uncovered an additional forty bodies in and around the farm, including the body of Andrew Helgelein. All of the people found had been killed various ways, mostly by a meat cleaver, some with their head’s smashed in, and others chloroformed to death.
On May 22, 1908, Ray Lamphere was tried for arson and murder. Ray confessed readily to burning down the farm but adamantly claimed he had nothing to do with Belle or her children’s death. Ray received twenty years for the crime of arson, but only served one year before dying of natural causes. His deathbed confession exposed the truth behind Belle Gunness. Ray admitted that he had helped Belle dispose of many bodies, but had committed no crime himself. He claimed Belle had killed more than 42 people in the span of four years, taking more than $100,000 from her victims. Ray also confessed that Belle had told him she was planning to fake her own death just before the fire. She was supposed to meet Ray with her 3 children after he burned down the farm. Instead, she killed her own children and fled the farm without Ray. Ray claimed to have seen her leaving the farm wheeling a cart down a dirt road in the darkness of night, her shadow from the flames bobbing down the lane as she walked.
Burke and Hare “The Body Snatchers” “Burke’s the murderer, Hare’s the thief, and Knox the boy who buys the beef.” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
Trudging quickly through the darkened streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, there was a swift and brutal cold that dominated the air, making the two men struggling with a heavy bag shiver as they walked. With only a few streets to go, the two men could already feel the warmth of deserved money in their pockets. Both of them already knew they could make a living out of this, even if it meant tramping down the road every few weeks in the cold. When they reached their destination, a heavy brown door with no distinction about it, they knocked a slow three times. The man that answered was tall and wearing a dapper suit, his eyes swollen from lack of sleep. Seeing the large bag in the hands of these two strangers, the tall man smiled and invited them in.
Seven pounds and ten shillings was the price of the corpse in the bag, divided between the two men, William Hare and William Burke. It was said to be the best price in the city, according to locals who regarded Dr. Robert Knox as the best anatomist in the city. No. 10 Surgeon’s Square was well known by medical students as the one place they could learn the workings and uses of the human body. And the best way to learn about the body in its true form was to dissect the dead. In 1827, medical science in Europe was not even in its infancy, it was in the fetal position, waiting to be birthed. Medical doctors were more than happy to receive corpses at their offices, paying handsomely for anyone who could provide them. William Hare and William Burke would soon be his main suppliers.
The celebration of Christmas in 1827 was marked by the very first corpse Hare and Burke delivered to Dr. Knox. It was also the beginning of the union and partnership of the two men who decided to earn their living as corpse-sellers. As landlords of a small lodging house, Hare and Burke had discovered a tenant, Ole Donald, dead from a long and painful illness. Hare was deeply saddened by the death, for Ole Donald had owed him several pounds, which he had never paid back. Hare and Burke declared the death to local authorities and waited for the body to be taken away. When the body was put in the casket and left for the next day, Burke and Hare exchanged the body with heavy rocks. They took the corpse, covered it in a bed sheet, and decided to sell it to Dr. Knox.
The meeting of William Hare and William Burke was thought to be around late 1827. Hare owned the lodging house and Burke arrived to stay for a short while until he could find a home of his own. Sharing a bottle of whiskey, the two men found they had quite a bit in common. Both were of Irish descent, had a love of alcohol, and an even greater affection for greed. The lodging home was repulsive, rat infested, and a breeding ground for illness. But Hare, a heavy and jolly man, seemed to disregard the squalor around him. Burke, too, in his often drunken stupor found his new surroundings agreeable to his standards, and soon became a co-owner of the lodging house. The wives of Burke and Hare also seemed to get along well, sharing in the whiskey that was a constant indulgence in the home.
After the decision was settled that they would be selling corpses, Burke and Hare sat by the light of the fireplace plotting where they could find fresh corpses. It was indeed important to find a fresh corpse, for that was what paid the most. Doctors and medical students did not want to dissect the body of a rigid and decaying body. Grave robbing was out of the question. Graveyards were guarded closely because of the increasing number of criminals who wanted jewelry or precious goods belonging to the dead. Some also had the same idea as Burke and Hare, intending to dig up a fresh grave and steal the corpse to sell to Dr. Knox. But no, Burke and Hare needed fine corpses, fresh ones at that, which could be sold for more than the usual price. Killing someone became the ultimate decision.
An innocent victim could be killed quickly and brought to Dr. Knox even before rigor mortis set in. The price of a body only hours old had to be more than that of a corpse dead for days. By murdering their victims by suffocation, Burke and Hare could avoid murder charges instead of knifing or beating their prey to death. It was also an easier way to kill without too much guilt, which neither Burke nor Hare seemed to possess.
The second body that was sent to Dr. Knox was a lodger staying at Burke and Hare’s home. Joe, staying in one of the rooms, had fallen ill one night. In the darkness, Burke and Hare snuck into his room and put a pillow over his face. Without the strength to fight the two men off, Joe was suffocated to death, earning Burke and Hare ten pounds. Following Joe, were four women, mostly destitute prostitutes staying at the lodge for the night. They all met their fate by a thick pillow and a large amount of whiskey provided by Burke and Hare.
The most popular killing that took place in Burke and Hare’s home was that of Mary Paterson, a local prostitute inebriated beyond the point of consciousness. Burke, taken by the young woman, had brought Mary and another prostitute, Janet Brown, to his room. Upon finding Burke with the two women, Burke’s wife became enraged. She had no issue with the murders, but she did not want her husband involving himself sexually with any of the victims. The fight raged on throughout the night, and at the end, Mary and Janet were both dead.
Selling Mary Paterson and Janet Brown for the usual ten pounds each, Dr. Knox and his medical students found themselves morbidly obsessed with the body of Mary. Not only was she voluptuously beautiful, but there was a fondness in her strikingly stunning facial structure, attracting everyone that caught sight of her. Unable to dissect the attractive young woman, Dr. Knox preserved her body in whiskey for three weeks, allowing people to view her serene and peaceful face. Artists travelled to see the woman talked about, sketching the tranquility and grace of her body, believing her to be the classically perfect form of a woman. Mary was even featured in newspapers, drawing the interest of more people who wanted to see the popularity of the beauty of a copse.
Burke and Hare, slightly irked by the attention Mary was getting, sought out more victims that year, finding intoxicated men and women wandering the streets of Edinburgh who wouldn’t mind a bit of whiskey and company at the lodging home. They were able to attain many victims, bringing them to Dr. Knox often before they had even reached the stage of rigor mortis. Possibly the worst and most evil crime they committed was when they discovered a woman leading a deaf and blind boy. Burke and Hare took them directly to the lodge, promising them directions to the boy’s home. Instead, they suffocated the helpful woman and laid her on dusted ground. They could have let the boy go, for the he had no reason to believe anything wrong had occurred, but Burke and Hare’s greed was enormous. Burke grabbed the boy, taking him over the knee, and broke his spine. As an afterthought, he was also suffocated. That night, both bodies were brought to Dr. Knox.
As with most co-killers, one got greedier and decided to kill on his own. Burke caught Hare committing his own murders and earning money without sharing. Burke was livid with Hare, drunkenly shattering empty bottles in his room and demanding his fair allowance of money. Hare, also drunk, claimed that he deserved more, that he had committed more crimes than Burke. He shouted that not only had he suffocated more of the victims, but always seemed to be carrying the heavier part of the bodies to Dr. Knox. Whiskey, being the mutual friend of both Hare and Burke, eventually brought the two back together, with ferociousness.
To celebrate their reunion, Burke brought his cousin to the lodge, a small woman who could only handle a couple drinks of whiskey. While Hare and Burke talked and mused, the woman slowly and surely began losing consciousness from the whiskey. After suffocating her, Hare and Burke shared a toast to their renewed partnership. Three more women met their death at the company of the two men, now dressed in fine clothing and smoking expensive cigars.
The provider of these new and fashionable things, Dr. Knox, never once asked where the bodies were coming from, even when the fifteenth corpse appeared in less than a year. If he did have the slightest suspicion, he said nothing. Knox had been almost completely without bodies before Hare and Burke had visited, and Knox had medical students to teach. Knox had a career to think about, and no one need know where the fresh cadavers were coming from.
What would bring down the entire scheme Burke and Hare had devised was the presence of a young female lodger, accompanied by her husband in one small room. After smelling something terrible coming from near the bed, the young lady peeled back the straw mattress. Recoiling in horror, the woman begged her husband to look at what she had seen. Her husband, believing a dead rat was scaring his wife, looked under the mattress. What he found was the corpse of an old woman, decomposing and her face stained with blood. Preparing their clothes and personal belongings, the couple then went to Helen Burke, explaining what they had seen. Helen begged the couple to keep quiet, even bribing them with money, but the couple refused. They went straight to the local police.
Burke, Hare, and their wives were taken into custody, all of them denying involvement in the murders. Without the help of medical evidence, only the testimony of one of them could find them guilty. The authorities believed they could break one if not all of them down by interrogating them for as long as possible. When the police offered William Hare immunity by The King’s Evidence, Hare finally confessed that William Burke was the true and only murderer. He also disclosed that Burke had been taking corpses to Dr. Knox at Surgeon’s Square. Hare, admitting that he was aware of the crimes being committed, said he and his wife were totally innocent.
Condemned by his own best friend and accomplice, William Burke found himself about to face a trial with which he would probably be found guilty and hanged. On December 24, 1828, the trial began and ended in the early hours of Christmas day. Burke was found guilty, his wife Helen freed because she had never been seen committing murder. While detained, Burke, in his infinite greed, demanded the five pounds he was owed by Dr. Knox. If Burke was to be sent to the gallows, he would go in style, as it were, for he wanted to purchase a pair of proper and finely tailored pants before being sent out into the public. Dr. Knox had his last cadaver taken away by police, so he wasn’t able to give Burke his money. Burke had to be given a borrowed pair of pants from a dead inmate for his hanging. Burke never showed any remorse for the killings.
In the abysmal pouring rain in Edinburgh, Scotland, William Burke was led to the wooden gallows on January 28, 1828. Gathered to view the event were around 25,000 people, among them poet Sir Walter Scott, sitting near the front. William Burke at 37 was tall, distinguished looking, and handsome even in tattered pants. He was hanged that cold, grey, and rainy afternoon. As his body swung in the brisk wind, the crowd rushed forward to snatch pieces of the rope Burke hung from, demanding a souvenir from the monster who claimed the lives of sixteen innocent people.
As for William Hare, the stocky and cheerful counterpart, he quickly left Edinburgh during the trial to avoid an angry mob. Leaving his wife to find her own hiding spot in Belfast, Hare lived on the streets in London, eventually dying a blind beggar. Helen Burke fought off angry mobs, but was able to change her name and move to the West Country. The Burke case ruined the career of Dr. Knox, leaving him a disgrace to medical science and society’s decency.
William Burke’s body was taken to a medical room where interested parties were allowed to watch it being dissected. It was reported that nearly 30,000 people filed past his corpse to view the man that ironically was now part of medical science. His body was used for medical experiments after being salted and preserved.
David and Catherine Birnie The Bonnie and Clyde of Australia By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
Bonnie and Clyde, murderous and thieving lovers, were well known criminals from 1931 to 1934. Gunned down by Louisiana police, the two killers went out in what some would call “a hail of bullets.” There has been much controversy that Bonnie Parker, although involved in the crimes the pair committed, had never shot the guns that killed many people during bank hold ups and the robbing of small stores. Others believe that Bonnie was a “hell of a loader” and killed up to three police officers. Either way, the story of Bonnie and Clyde has gone down in history as the Great Depression serial killers. What might be considered a small and minute detail of the case was the fact that Bonnie and Clyde were particularly madly and passionately in love with each other. If Clyde thought killing and thieving was a thrilling and indisputable way to earn a living, Bonnie followed suit without a disparaging thought. Bonnie in turn, became fascinated with crime and devoted herself completely to Clyde’s vision of death and thievery.
Fifty-two years after the Bonnie and Clyde crimes, Australian residents David and Catherine Birnie began their own story of crime. In October of 1986, they raped and murdered four young women, burying their bodies in shallow graves with no remorse or regard. Dedicated and fanatically in love with David, Catherine participated in each crime, believing that David would love her and appreciate her more if she helped him in his quest to rape, mutilate, and ultimately kill his victims. There was nothing Catherine wouldn’t do to satisfy David. She viewed her romance with David as monumentally historical and utterly unforgettable.
David Birnie was born in 1951, the eldest of six children in suburb of Wattle Grove, east of Perth in Australia. His parents were notorious alcoholics, their children often taken away by concerned authorities. By 1961, David’s parents divorced when he was only ten, and he was expected to care for his five siblings. David refused to see his parents again, bitterly believing them to be the reason his life had become distorted and unbalanced. At 15, David began work at a horseracing track, trying to earn a decent living but finding his increasing adolescent sexual needs overwhelming. After exposing himself to a young woman, he was sacked from his job.
Catherine Harrison’s mother died when she was an infant, and her father took her to South Africa to begin a new life. Finding the child troublesome to take care of, he sent her back to Australia where she lived with her grandparents. Again, finding her too difficult to raise, Catherine was handed off to her uncle and aunt. After meeting his next door neighbor, a sweet and pretty 15-year-old Catherine, David was immediately taken by her. Catherine was said to be a sad and introverted girl, longing to be loved and understandably fearful that she would be taken away from the third family she knew. When she met David, who seemed to adore her completely, Catherine surrendered to her dream and fell feet first in love. Catherine quickly became pregnant with her first child and the two teenagers rejoiced in the new life they would be bringing into the world. To add a special pact and thrill to their relationship, they began committing crimes including petty theft, and burglary.
Not long after their crime spree, David and Catherine were sent to Perth Police Court for eleven counts of criminal activity including $3,000 worth of stolen goods and breaking and entering. They also admitted to trying to crack a safe at the local drive-in. Young and unable to find reason for their crimes, David and Catherine had no alibi and plead guilty. David was sent to a correctional institution for nine months, while a very pregnant Catherine was placed on probation. When it was revealed that the two teenagers had committed eight further crimes of breaking and entering, David was sent to prison for 3 years, while Catherine was given probation for 4 years. After breaking out of prison a year later, David and Catherine couldn’t seem to stop themselves and began committing more crimes. Catherine’s first child with David was then taken away by welfare workers.
After a short stint in a detention center, Catherine and David departed and married other partners and tried to begin new lives. By 21, Catherine was living with her new husband, Donald McLaughlin, deciding to end her life of crime. Catherine stayed at home to unsuccessfully clean her filthy and revolting home. Without a proper mother or parental figure to teach her how to take care of a household, Catherine had no knowledge of domestic hygiene. Proving to be a terrible wife, Catherine attempted to raise her five children literally in squalor. Catherine’s first child with McLaughlin, just an infant at the time, was hit by a car and died instantly. Catherine witnessed the death and was deeply affected by it. This would later be analyzed by psychiatrists as a possible reason she felt the need to commit crimes with David. To forget the death of her child, Catherine later immersed herself in violence and murder. Catherine had never forgotten her first love, David, and soon abandoned her family and her home to be with David, whom she had still been secretly seeing for two years.
After thirteen years apart, Catherine and David quickly reunited. Though never formally married, Catherine took David’s last name and became his common law wife. The couple moved into 3 Moorhouse Street, Willagee just outside of Perth. David might have been the love of Catherine’s life, but David had an unquenchable and insatiable need for sex, demanding it six times a day. When Catherine refused his advances, David simply turned to his brother, James, with whom he had some kind of incestuous relationship with. On James’ 21st birthday, David’s gift to him was sex with Catherine, who obliged to satisfy David. He sat and watched the affair occur, aroused by the idea of his wife having sex with his brother. James later admitted to police that David used a hypodermic needle filled with cocaine on the tip of his penis to enhance his orgasms.
David needed sexual gratification all the time, and had no fears asserting himself on someone who was willing or unwilling to have him. Catherine and David decided that raping young girls was the answer to their problems. David assured Catherine that she would achieve amazing and unprecedented orgasms by watching David rape a bound and gagged woman. She believed him.
To find their first victim, David advertised cheap tires in the local paper, and soon enough, a young woman answered the advertisement. On October 6, 1986, Mary Neilson, aged 22, knocked on the door of 3 Moorhouse Street. The tiny home was overgrown with weeds and dead flowers and was badly in need of repainting. This home was later seen as famous, much like John Christie’s 10 Rillington Street in London and Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment 213, in Milwaukee. David chained Mary to the bed and raped her while Catherine watched. Unsatisfied with just raping the woman, David found that he needed more to feel fulfilled. He wanted blood on his hands. David and Catherine drove Mary to Glen Eagle State Forest where she was raped again. David strangled her with a nylon stocking while she tried to beg for mercy. David stabbed Mary and mutilated her body, burying her in a shallow grave near Armadale.
Approximately two weeks later, David and Catherine picked up 15-year-old hitchhiker Susannah Candy, an excellent student at Hollywood High School and a smart pleasant young woman. She was kept in their home as a prisoner for several days while being raped by David. Catherine joined in on the sexual relations this time, David enjoying the ménage à trois. Ordering her to write two letters to her parents assuring she was safe and well and would be returning home soon, Susannah realized that David and Catherine would be disposing of her soon. The two killers could not have Susannah identify them. Catherine, in a jealous rage, strangled Susannah because she thought David was giving her too much attention. Her body was later buried next to Mary Neilson.
The next victim of the Birnie’s was a friend, 31-year-old air hostess Noelene Patterson. The Birnie’s had helped her decorate her home, and she felt quite safe when they picked her up after she ran out of gas on the road. Noelene was regarded by friends and family as outgoing and popular, charming and polite. Over a period of 3 days, Noelene was chained to the bed and violently sexually assaulted by David in their home. Catherine was again jealous of the woman David seemed to be affectionate with and demanded that he kill her. Noelene was attractive and entranced David completely. Catherine thought of Noelene as the woman she could never be and was not about to let David have her. Because David could not murder someone he knew, he mercifully gave her a large dose of sleeping pills and waited until she passed out before strangling her. When burying her next to the other slain women, Catherine threw dirt in her face as a final goodbye to the woman she felt had been trying to steal her husband.
The fourth and final victim was 21-year-old Denise Brown, a computer operator. She was abducted by the Birnie’s on November 4, 1986 after being picked up at a bus stop on Stirling Highway. Denise was raped repeatedly in the Birnie home. They made her call a friend to let her know she was well and safe and no one need look for her. After being taken to a pine plantation, Denise was raped yet again. Denise had extreme injury with David’s dull knife, which had not worked as well as he had expected. Catherine gave him a larger knife, and Denise was stabbed while David raped her again and again. Attempting to bury her in a shallow grave, Denise sat up in the grave, her knife wounds non fatal. David struck her in the skull with an axe. When she sat up once more, David took the head of the axe and cracked her skull with it. Denise was buried on the edge of Gnangara pine plantation. This was the last killing to take place in a 27 day period.
On November 10, 1987, a 17-year-old girl was found running naked and sobbing to a supermarket in Fremantle. She told police she had been abducted and forced into a car while walking through the wealthy area of Nedlands, a suburb of Perth. The man and woman that had taken her had brought her to their home where she was chained to a bed and forced sexual relations. The woman watched the whole time. The only reason the young girl had escaped was when David went to work and Catherine freed her from her chains. The girl escaped the home from a window in the bedroom. Although deeply disturbed, the girl was able to identify the home, phone number, and the faces of her assailants. David was said to have an abnormally long hooked nose and Catherine was described as a mid thirties short woman with a permanent frown and high cheekbones.
The women missing had come from good backgrounds, and it became obvious that they had all been abducted, none of them having a reason to leave their homes and never return. Detective Sergeant Paul Ferguson was the prime investigator on the case, and quickly realized that he was dealing with a serial killer. After the description given by the 17-year-old, Ferguson understood that the girl had positively seen the faces of the killers, suggesting there might have been a motive for letting her go. The Birnie’s knew they had been caught after the young girl was found. Catherine and David were taken from their home and interrogated by police. David first claimed that the young girl had willingly gone to the house to smoke marijuana and had also willingly had sex with David. To prove that she had actually been in the home, the girl smartly left her bag and cigarettes in the ceiling of the home. David confessed first and gave specific details of where each body were buried, and was quite chatty and cheerful when leading police to the bodies. Catherine confessed soon after.
After apprehended, Catherine took police to the site of Susannah’s body. Catherine, seeming to have lost all morality and tact, said of Susannah, “She was a female. Females hurt and destroy males.” Furthermore, with Catherine now freely talking, the police had time to question her and find some kind of reason she had involved herself in murder. Catherine’s only admission was that she had been so smitten with David she was unable to say no to him. Catherine showed the police where Noelene was buried, seeming to have a particular disgust with the deceased woman. Spitting on the make-shift grave in front of police, Catherine admitted that she had hated the woman for captivating her husband.
A nineteen-year-old woman student came forward after the murders hit the news. She claimed she was walking home from the university when a couple tried to pick her up. She felt uneasy about getting in the car when she saw what she assumed was a young boy or girl unconscious in the backseat. The body was that of Denise Brown, drugged by sleeping pills and passed out. The student declined a ride and the car soon drove away. Her description of the driver and the woman in the passenger seat matched perfectly with Catherine and David Birnie.
Upon searching the Birnie home, police found an advertisement in a newspaper circled in red ink. It read, “URGENT. Looking for a lonely person. Prefer female 18 to 24 years, share single room flat.” Catherine confessed right away that she had been a willing accomplice in the crimes, even photographing David raping the young women. It was also claimed that although she was jealous of these women, she took great pleasure in helping David have sex with his victims. Psychiatrists and detectives were bothered by Catherine’s absolute obsession with David. Her entire life was devoted to this man, and she would help him find, abduct, rape, and finally kill each woman they found together. Catherine signed a detailed statement admitting her part in the murders. In Catherine’s confession, she claimed that she had freed the last 17-year-old girl because she felt that the murders would go on forever if they didn’t stop now. She admitted that she enjoyed murdering and raping the women, but wanted it to end.
David admitted to the rape and murder of four women and pled guilty for each of the murders. He believed that showing a great deal of remorse would help his case. He tried to show himself as a sorrowful sex addict that had no choice but to murder his victims so they could not identify him. While awaiting his trial, inmates in the jail attacked him and he ended up needing medical attention. Catherine fell to her knees when hearing that David had been hurt in jail.
On November 12, 1986, Catherine and David stood trial at Fremantle Magistrates' Court charged with four counts of murder and rape. Dressed casually, with Catherine barefoot, neither had legal representation. When given the option of 8 or 30 days before going back to court, Catherine looked at David and declared that she would go when David went. The Birnie’s went to court on February 10, 1987. Catherine fought viciously with the guards, demanding that they not touch her. When she saw David in the courtroom, she calmed down immediately.
Sitting directly behind him, Catherine held David’s hand as the sentence was read. Catherine and David were to serve four consecutive life sentences in prison, eligible for parole in 20 years. Mr. Justice Wallace told the court that David Birnie “should not be let out of prison- ever.” Catherine Birnie was sent to Bandyup Prison in northern Perth, while David was to serve his time at Fremantle Prison. Neither Birnie’s appealed their sentence. When the trial was over, Catherine showed a desperation that had previously not been viewed. She was dragged screaming and kicking and spitting when led to the van that would take her to the prison. After leaving the courtroom, the public screamed and threw garbage at David. Hollering for David’s death, he smiled and blew them a kiss.
David continued his violent temperament in prison and was often in the middle of fights, beaten up, and spent much time in the prison infirmary. For four years, the Birnies exchanged a total of 2,600 letters, though they were denied any direct contact or visits. In 1990, David claimed that being apart from Catherine was sending him into a complete physical and mental breakdown that would eventually cause him to commit suicide. The judge refused a reunion between David and Catherine despite his frantic plea.
Although devoted to Catherine, in 1993, David’s personal computer was confiscated by prison officials, where they found evidence of an enormous amount of pornography. Apparently, David Birnie was suffering from a severe sex addiction, even in prison. The eventual possibility that the Birnie’s would ever be released was found unlikely by the Australian Attorney General, which he made very public. At 4:30 a.m. on October 2, 2005, 55-year-old David Birnie was found hanged in his cell at Perth's Casuarina prison. Catherine was not allowed to attend his funeral. She was denied parole in 2007, and again in 2010, her paperwork stating “never to be released.” Only two other women promised parole had ever been given that particular punishment.
Gordon Cummings “The Blackout Ripper” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
In the early 1940’s, London residents were literally living in darkness. The German Luftwaffe, essential to the blitzkrieg, constantly flew over central Europe terrorizing the skies. To avoid nighttime aerial bombings, every light in the city was switched off, light posts darkened, and the windows of buildings and factories painted black. In fact, it was prohibited for residents to show any shard of light in the streets, and people were criminally prosecuted if they deviated from this law. Citizens locked themselves indoors or hid in underground bunkers, waiting for World War two to end. The few who dared to haunt the streets at night were local prostitutes, trying to earn their living among deserted and dark alleyways.
Prostitutes, for as long as they have existed, have lived dangerous and treacherous lives. They have long since been regarded by sadistic customers as perfect victims to murder. Prostitutes often have no family to search for them when they go missing and their street chums are usually afraid of police and thus do not report an absent friend. For one week in 1942, five prostitutes found themselves face to face with England’s newest and deadliest version of Jack the Ripper.
On February 9, 1942, Evelyn Margaret Hamilton, a 42-year-old teacher, was found strangled in an air-raid shelter in Montague Place in the Marylebone area of London. There was no evidence of sexual assault or mutilation to the body. It was unknown whether the death had occurred in the shelter or if she had been placed there after death. The motive of this murder was thought to be robbery, for Evelyn’s purse and money had been snatched.
The next day, the body of prostitute Evelyn Oatley, aka Nita Ward, was found nude and strangled in her Soho flat. The 35-year-old woman’s throat had been cut and a can opener was used to rip open her torso after she was killed. Police noted that she had been brutally raped. Detective Chief Inspector Greeno of Scotland Yard presided over this case and the subsequent murders. The killings were suspected to be completely random and it was believed these murders were done out of hatred for women. Fingerprints were found on the bloody can opener and evidence from the imprints on Evelyn’s neck showed that the killer was left-handed.
The body of 43-year-old prostitute Margaret Frances Lowe, street name Pearl, was found by her 14-year-old daughter in her home in the west end of London. Margaret was nude, her body cut with a razor blade and knife. A silk stocking was tightly bound around her neck. Her panties were pulled down halfway down her thighs showing the ruthless nature of her killer’s sexual urgency. All of Margaret’s wounds were inflicted post mortem, just like the previous murders. On February 14, 1942, Doris Jounannet, also known as Doris Robson, was found strangled and sexually mutilated in her flat in Sussex Gardens, Paddington. The 32-year-old was a prostitute in the Leicester Square, although she was married to a 70-year-old Hotel Manager of the Paddington Hotel. Her husband had noted that the milk had not been taken in, and became worried upon entering the home. Eyewitnesses reported that Doris had been seen the night before her murder with a man in uniform. Doris’ body was still warm when Inspector Greeno arrived.
When the newspapers heard of the recent killings, they dubbed the murderer as the “Blackout Ripper” for two reasons. The suspect was mutilating his victims much like Jack the Ripper and had been doing so in the “blacked out” streets of London. These crimes had been done in the span of one week, and the police were earnestly searching out the killer, interviewing local prostitutes who were hesitant to disclose information, even though the police assured complete discretion. After being told what the “Blackout Ripper” was doing to his victims, the women readily gave out descriptions of men they found strange or particularly violent.
Two prostitutes came forward with the information the police badly needed. Margaret Heywood, aka Greta, admitted that she had encountered a man that deeply disturbed her. In the nights following the first four murders, Greta said she had had dinner and a drink with a man in uniform at The Captain’s Cabin, a local haunt for prostitutes. Greta believed this man to be an unsafe client after he made an oppressive attempt to put his arm around her and drag her into a doorway. The man tried to strangle her, but upon hearing her screams, a delivery man came to her rescue. The aggressive man fled the scene and left behind his RAF gas mask bearing his service number, 525987.
Cathleen Mulcahy, aka Kate King, also came forward to the police. The same night the serviceman had tried to kill Greta, Kate was working the streets in Paddington. After meeting an amiable and seemingly polite man, she escorted him back to her flat in Southwark Street. While Kate was undressing for the assumed sexual encounter, the man grabbed her from behind and tried to strangle her. Kate was used to men with bad tempers and vile demeanors and fought this man furiously, causing the man to flee quickly. He left his uniform belt behind, which had his service number etched into it.
On February 16, 1942, RAF serviceman Gordon Cummings was apprehended by police after tracking him down from the numbers listed on his belt and gas mask. Gordon said that the gas mask wasn’t his, but when he couldn’t prove why his number was on it, he did however have an alibi: His name was listed on the log book at his billet, showing he was at his post during the killings. But Inspector Greeno soon found that at the price of a drink or pack of smokes, other servicemen would sign in for absent colleagues. In his possession Gordon was found to have the cigarette cases that belonged to Margaret Lowe and Evelyn Oatley and a fountain pen owned by Doris Jounannet. Gordon’s fingerprints were also found on the can opener used to cruelly tear out Evelyn Oatley’s torso. Gordon was also left-handed, proving that the handprints imprinted on the victim’s throats had been his.
Gordon Frederick Cummings enlisted in the RAF (Royal Air Force) in 1939. He quickly earned the nickname “The Count” because of his consistent bragging remarks to his contemporaries that he was the illegitimate son of noble heritage. Cummings was a handsome and well built man, standing at attention as pictured in his army photograph at age 27. Not only did his wife find him appealing with his false upper class accent, but so did the prostitutes he often visited in the poor districts of London. Not much is known about Gordon Cummings’ personal life before 1939, except for the fact that he was fired from many jobs for his dishonesty and insolence. Cummings’ main aspiration in life was to become a dignified upper-class gentleman. His feeling was that since he claimed to have come from a wealthy and dignified background, living as a pauper for the rest of his life was not something he was willing to settle for. Cummings was a thief, stealing money and trinkets from his many visits to prostitute’s homes. He apparently had no qualms about stealing from the underprivileged.
Cummings’ motive for killing was thought to be out of hatred for women, but no other motive was clearly outlined. He might have been suffering from a mental illness that suddenly sparked one single week in February 1942, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Cummings appeared to have no history of violence before 1942; he was pleasant and kind to his wife and got along well with the other RAF servicemen. His crimes were almost completely without reason. Mutilating his victims in such a precise and evil manner, Cummings might have been dreaming of committing these murders for years. If he had not been caught so quickly, he might have continued his spree of crimes for months, even years. The fact that he left behind evidence proving he was present at each killing shows he was hasty and had not planned them out as well as he had hoped.
While in jail, awaiting his trial, Cummings’ wrote a letter to his wife, saying, “Although I don’t know, I think I must be guilty – the evidence is overwhelming.” This statement seems to imply that Cummings perhaps was not aware he had committed murder, losing lucid consciousness or blacking out during the killings. Or, he might have made this statement in an attempt to calm his wife’s fear that the man that she married was not the serial murderer involved in the shocking brutal crimes. The image she had of her husband might remain untainted if he claimed he was somehow innocent or not sane. Either way, Cummings did have a large amount of evidence against him, and it was nearly impossible to prove he wasn’t at least a suspect in the “Blackout Ripper” case.
The trial on April 27, 1942 at the Old Bailey Courthouse lasted only two days. He was charged with only the murder of Evelyn Oatley. If acquitted, the police planned to charge him with the three other murders. The verdict from the jury took only 30 minutes to find Gordon guilty. The judge, Justice Asquith, demanded a death sentence. Gordon appealed the sentence, but Lord Chief Justice Humphries dismissed it and ordered that Gordon go to the gallows. Albert Pierrepoint was the official hangman and performed the execution at Wandsworth Prison on June 25, 1942. Ironically, the sound of sirens during an air raid sang out while Gordon was being hanged. Gordon’s killings went down in criminal history as the first to chiefly use fingerprinting as a significant role in finding a killer.
A fifth murder was uncovered after Gordon Cummings’ death. A woman named Mrs. Church was murdered in October 1941, Gordon’s fingerprints all over her body.
Hélène Jégado “Wherever I go, people die.” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
When a nun decides to devote her life to the Lord, it is under the strictest and purest of hearts. Vowing poverty, chastity, and obedience, a nun dedicates her entire being to helping others, working earnestly for the church, and loving her fellow man unconditionally. By following these rules of conduct, a nun is seen as a compassionate and kindhearted individual, a beam of light to which any corrupt or dishonest person can reveal their crooked misdeeds. A nun, understanding her faults and sins as human nature, accepts her own errors publically and privately. She is the true essence of goodness in the world, forgiving and adoring even the vilest fiend as a child of the Lord.
When Hélène Jégado took her vows as a nun, she was lying to everyone, including God. Hélène broke every rule in the good book, as it were, and showed herself to be the most monstrous French woman who donned a habit and rosary beads in the early 1800’s.
Born in Brittany, France in 1803, Hélène Jégado did not have the privilege of growing up with loving and caring parents. Her family consisted of illiterate and unwed peasants living on the streets and peddling for money. As a result, Hélène was brought up as an orphan in early childhood. The desertion of her family at such a young age distressed and lowered her self esteem enormously. Hélène felt she had done something wrong and had to pay a price for whatever she had done to leave her parentless. She eventually clung to every person who would have her company; her only wish was to be loved without question. After being torn from her sister at a very young age, Hélène not only felt despised, but cheated somehow by the world.
Hélène taught herself a great many things as she grew up in an orphanage, mostly learning how to successfully steal from the rich and poor alike. She also learned how to cook, which would help her immensely when searching for jobs as an adolescent. Wealthy homes were always in need of someone like Hélène, who could provide them with excellent cleaning services and cooking abilities.
Beginning her employment as a domestic servant, Hélène got her first taste of what a real family was like. The laughter and the coddling, and the joy of small children scampering through the house warmed her heart. Hélène yearned for the family she felt she deserved and should have had. Hélène spent many afternoons caring for the family, dreaming that they were her own. Finding the happiness and bliss in a little home almost too much to handle, Hélène realized that joining a nunnery would fit her lifestyle better. Who better than God to love her completely? He would never desert her, or leave her alone and frantic for affection.
Giving her life to the Lord sometime in the early 1820’s, Hélène immersed herself in the convent, becoming a model nun and saintly woman. She learned how to cook excellently with her fellow nuns, deciding that this would be her new family. Unfortunately, Hélène was a severe kleptomaniac, stealing from the till every chance she got. She even stole from the blind nuns, the avid churchgoers, and the priest himself. By committing her first deadly sin, greed, Hélène was playing a very dangerous game with her God. When her theft was discovered, she was dismissed from the convent, her head bowed and secretly smiling to herself. If this was what she could get away with, well then, there was so much more!
The second convent Hélène went to was unaware of her previous offense, and she quickly gave her vows again, learning to be more discrete about stealing this time. As a cook at the convent, Hélène concocted beautifully arranged and delicious meals, amazing her peers and the priest as well. While the convent residents were dining on Hélène’s meals, Hélène searched through their belongings for spare money, constantly checking the till for more to take.
But Hélène was not fulfilled with just money. She tried her hand at something much more evil. Sprinkling arsenic in her fantastic cooking, Hélène watched as her fellow nuns became violently ill with stomach cramps and vomiting. Hélène was yet again dismissed from the convent, the head nun believing Hélène had a hand in the sicknesses that was rapidly harming her nuns. Instead of writing up a report of the incident, Hélène was asked to leave the convent immediately. Hélène’s crime was the second deadly sin, wrath.
In 1833, Hélène moved on to work as a domestic cook for François Le Drogo in Guern. In the span of three months, seven members of the family took ill. When the typical symptoms of arsenic set in, it was believed by the visiting doctor that the family was suffering from the recent outbreak of cholera. Luckily for Hélène, cholera had very similar symptoms of arsenic poisoning, allowing Hélène to keep her job for a little longer than usual. Hélène further went to great lengths to assure her job security by attending to the needs of all the sick family members, treating them like her own flesh and blood. Perhaps it was a desperate longing to have a family of her own to attach herself to, but Hélène took great pleasure in helping the people she had purposefully poisoned.
Kleptomania ended her employment with François Le Drogo, her master finding missing jewelry and money often when Hélène was present. Hélène offered no explanation to her master when confronted with the absent belongings. She packed her bags and left Guern to seek other employment. Finding work wherever it was available, Hélène continued her usual and favorite deadly sins; greed and wrath. In the span of one decade, Hélène was responsible for the deaths of at least 23 people with arsenic poisoning, including her own sister. As she left each job, she grieved solemnly and convincingly, stating sadly, “Wherever I go, people die. “
In 1849, Hélène was working as a cook for a family in Rennes, France, successfully caring for them for eight years without using arsenic in any of her food preparations. It is possible Hélène finally found a family in which she could feel completely comfortable with, and became a loved household member, as she had always wished. Though she seemed truly devoted to the family, Hélène’s greed got the better of her, and she was caught stealing money from the master.
With another dismissal, Hélène decided to give the family one last perfect and scrumptious dinner, filled with arsenic. Collecting her belongings and clearing out all of her worldly possessions, Hélène suddenly noticed something very odd. There was talking and laughter coming from downstairs, a jolly little party in progress. Dealing with arsenic for years, Hélène’s experience with arsenic was great. She knew the poisoning took effect in several hours, and it was already the next morning. The family that had come to care a great deal for Hélène in the last eight years showed no signs of sickness whatsoever. Without any formal goodbye, Hélène left the home dumbstruck. Perhaps God had seen her evil doings and had ordered wellness and health for the family.
Attaining a job as a cook and domestic servant soon after her dismissal, Hélène began work for Theodore Biddard, a local university professor in Paris. The professor lived alone, with only two other servants as his companions. Although a slightly introverted and serious man, he was kind and good to his workers, affording them time to idly chat with one another and giving them special treats when they showed exemplary work.
Hélène enjoyed working for the professor, but had issue with the two other servant girls, whom she felt were being favored more than she by the professor. Rose Tessier, a heavyset and jovial woman in her early thirties, charmed the professor unfairly, as thought by Hélène. She set to making a cake specifically for Rose, adding a large amount of arsenic to her concoction. If Rose was to go, she would get the full brunt of Hélène’s jealousy. Rose immediately fell ill after eating a piece of the cake, retiring to her room to privately anguish without disturbing the professor.
Hélène was constantly at Rose’s side as she grew sicker and sicker from the poison quickly consuming her body. Rose died in the night, leaving all of her money and jewelry free for the taking. Hélène cordially accepted everything as her own, stealing almost everything except for a few trinkets on the bureau. The professor was saddened by the loss of one of his servants, suggesting she have a proper burial at his own expense. In most ways, Hélène noticed, the professor was kinder than any of the priests she had known in her lifetime. Hélène vowed secretly to herself that she would not use arsenic in any of his food.
Days after Rose’s death, the other servant girl, Rosalie Sarrazin, became sick as well, complaining of the same symptoms that Rose had. Rosalie died the very night she ate the same cake as Rose. The professor, who had grown quite fond of his servants, became distraught over their sudden and quick deaths. He ordered autopsy’s done on both women, already suspicious of the seemingly deadly cake. When it was revealed that each woman had lethal amounts of arsenic in their systems, the professor sat shocked. How in the world had the arsenic gotten in the cake? Theodore Biddard, an intellectual man, understood right away that Hélène Jégado had made the cake and gave both women the cake without taking any for herself. In addition, Hélène had guarded the cake from the Biddard, telling him it was too sweet for him and quickly throwing out the remains.
Arriving home with police, Biddard sought out Hélène, who was busy doing the wash, her arms soaked to the elbows with soap and bubbles. Hélène looked up at Biddard and the policemen, and quickly rinsed her hands. “What is the meaning of this? I have done nothing wrong,” Hélène barked without hesitation, “Rose made the cake, not I. Rose put something in the cake to hurt you, sir. I have done nothing wrong, sir, nothing at all.”
Hélène’s desperation was all the police needed to apprehend her. Without even a word from police, Hélène had inadvertently implicated herself of the crime of poisoning. News spread quickly about Hélène Jégado, and her previous employers all felt a shiver when they realized their loved ones had died after dinner cooked by Hélène. Working all over northern France, Hélène had had countless employers, all of them suspecting her of murder. The trivial issue of stealing was disregarded and Hélène’s previous poisonings began to add up. It was suggested she had viciously murdered nearly 60 people in her twenty-odd years of employment.
Before the magistrate, Hélène denied any killings and said she was innocent even before details of the murders were exposed. First accused of 17 murders, including her sister’s, Hélène was charged with three murders and three attempted murders.
Found guilty in December 1851 to death by guillotine, Hélène Jégado spent her remaining time in a small cell reading her bible and constantly asking any passing guard or person of authority for clemency. It was no use, for Hélène’s crimes were thought to be so heinous, so treacherous and evil in nature, no person would ever see her fit to wander the streets alone again. What disturbed the public so dramatically was the fact that this horrible woman had been a nun- twice. Not only was she a thief, but also a murderer. By the good book, Hélène had trampled carelessly on two of God’s deadly sins, greed and wrath.
On February 26, 1852, at Champ-de-Mars in Rennes, France, snow filled the streets and came blustering down in thick flakes almost obliterating the sight of 49-year-old Hélène as she was led to the guillotine. The weather did not deter the hoards of people who came to see Hélène’s ultimate demise. They crowded the execution area, pushing for the best spot to see the beheading. The mercy God had offered Hélène early in life did not save her that fateful day as the blade of the guillotine fell from its high tower, severing Hélène Jégado’s head from her body. It is unknown if Hélène was the first and possibly only ex-nun to be beheaded, but it is largely probable that she was.
Hell Hath No Fury Like A Mother By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“A mother is God in the eyes of her child.”
The love of a mother is generally unquestioned. It is the height of glory one can feel; the most precious feeling a person can understand. Unconditional love is defined by many as loving one regardless of one’s actions or beliefs. A mother can feel frustrated or angry at her child for one reason or another, but always has open arms for her child. Love for a child has been described by some mothers as almost painful. Many mothers claim that if a person ever hurt their child, they would not hesitate to kill the offender, and in some cases some have actually gotten away with it legally. As an act of defense, a mother feels she must protect her offspring. The well being and safety of their children is a never ending concern.
Indescribable were the words given to me by my interviewees, who looked off into the distance searching for the correct words. Many of them said the same things when asked how they felt holding their children for the first time. Unbelievable, beautiful, frightening, amazing were just a few of the words these tearful and happy mothers conveyed to me.
Stella Marris, one of my interviewees, barely 16 and single at the time, was terrified and suffered from depression when her first daughter Rain was born. She believed that she was not emotionally developed enough to understand that kind of love one feels for her infant child. She often slept through the cries of her infant, and felt overwhelmed by her new child. Finishing high school and working a full time job after school, Stella was understandably strained and scared at being a new mother, especially at her young age. Uninterested in her child and greatly remorseful, Stella was undergoing Post Partum depression for the first time. Three months into Rain’s birth, Stella was given the drugs Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft for her ailment. Under a psychotic episode, Stella believed that she would be relieved if Rain was killed, but not under her watch. She dreamed that something might happen to her child. Her interpretation was that it may be the best thing that could happen to her baby. In manic depressive states, Stella still sometimes believes that her child would be better off without her. Stella stresses that she, herself, would never hurt her child, never in her wildest dreams.
Another interviewee described the bloody and gory mess that was handed to her after her first child was born. The pain of childbirth had vanished and she reported the rush of emotions that took over her very being. She then said,” This is how my mom feels for me. And that was a startling revelation.” Never once did she feel regret or sadness holding her newborn girl. Depression did seem to set in afterwards, and she felt very much unsupported and alone, but things changed when she had her second child. “I loved them before they were born, but it was a flood of true unconditional eternal love when I held them in my arms.” When asked what she would do if her children were harmed by another person, the interviewee said “I don't believe that revenge is acceptable. But, I also know that when you throw in intense emotion, the rules can become of no importance.”
The only questions asked by a psychiatrist after Stella Marris’ second child was born were “Do you ever have feelings of inadequacy? Do you ever have feelings of wanting to hurt your child?” In Britain, the mental health system oversees mothers for months and months for any kind of expressions of delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, and unreasonable thoughts. America does not generally have an active mental health program to support new mothers. After giving birth, women have suffered from many dangerous mental maladies. Michael Welner, a renowned forensic psychiatrist states that “Some women are at risk of committing suicide or harming their child—particularly ‘for the child's own good.’ The woman herself will not recognize it as an illness, so those countries that have programs for it generally advise immediate hospitalization….. Post Partum depression affects up to 75% of women with children, but psychosis is much rarer. Only one in five hundred births result in the mother's postpartum psychosis.”
One hundred and eighty children are killed each year at the hands of their mothers.
Andrea Pia Yates of Houston, Texas, drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001. She called police the morning of, and simply stated at the door, “I killed my children.” Leaving her 7 year old, Noah Yates dead in the bathtub, the others were between the ages of six months to 5 years of age. Mary, Luke, Paul, and John and were all found dead from drowning neatly covered by a sheets on her bed while Andrea’s husband was at work. Andrea called her husband after the murders and told him glibly, “It’s time. I did it.” Russell Yates, a worker for NASA was not allowed in the home at the time of the discovery.
Yates and all of her remarkably beautiful children were still wet from the bath water when police arrived at the Houston home. The family was like any other in the middle-class neighborhood. Andrea was focused and calm as she was questioned and seemed unaffected when led to a police car. When asked why she killed all of her children, Yates replied, “Because I am a bad mother.”
The morning of the incident was no different from any other. Andrea fed her children and husband and then filled the bathtub within 3 inches from the top. Luke, 2, Paul, 3, and John, 5 were the first to be drowned. Six month old Mary was then drowned with Noah to follow while his six month old sister was still in the bath. Noah first saw Mary in the bathtub and realized his fate and ran from his mother who chased after him and caught him. He put up the fight of his life as she submerged his small body under water and was able to get several gulps of air and actually told his mother, “I’m sorry” before his death. Noah was left in the bathtub with vomit, feces, and urine floating in the warm water. Andrea told police investigators that she must kill her children because they were not developing correctly and she needed to be punished for that crime.
Andrea was charged with capital murder by the end of the day for the deaths of three of her children (Noah, John, and Mary).Russell Yates stated to the media that he intended to support his wife under the circumstances saying that, “She wasn’t in the right frame of mind.” Andrea did not want to plead not guilty and said rather that she would prefer the death penalty. When examined by several psychologists, Andrea told them that she expected that God would take her children, and if she had not drowned them, they would have continued to stumble on this earth, suggesting they would have gone to hell. Andrea said that the children were impolite to their grandmother and that “they didn’t do things God likes.”
Andrea was a registered nurse before marrying Russell Yates in 1993. By the time her first child, Noah was born, Andrea began having violent “fantasies” and believed Satan was speaking to her. She sought no medical or psychological attention. It appears that the Yates family was Christian oriented, and may have been involved in a cult led by Michael Woroniecki who taught that most people who sinned would go to hell. "I feel like I need a sledge hammer to get you to listen," was a notable quote from Woroniecki. The basic principal of women in Woroneicki’s religion was that if a woman went to hell, so would her children. This would influence Andrea for her subsequent four pregnancies. Her association with the alleged cult may have been a key reason she felt that her children were failing as human beings.
By 1999, Andrea had attempted suicide twice with a drug overdose and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. CPS (Child Protective Services) was notified of her suicide attempt, but never followed up on the case. Prescribed Zoloft and then Zyprexa, Andrea was opposed to both drugs because she needed to breastfeed her youngest child, then Luke. When Andrea refused all the drugs that were given to her, and stopped feeding her children, Russell admitted her to a psychiatric hospital where she proceeded to fall back into a deep depression. Her charts were partly lost, scribbled upon, and illegible to her new doctor, Mohammed Saeed, who discharged her from the hospital after she began to show signs of recovery.
Andrea often filled the bathtub several times with water under the vague reply “in case I need it.” Andrea’s drugs included Risperdal, Effexor, Zolft, Zyprexa, and Wellbutrin, all of which are anti-depressants/anti-psychotics. She was given these medications for months at a time and then quickly taken off under the supervision of several doctors who saw the dementia and delusions Andrea faced. They felt she was in no trouble of hurting her children or herself. An adoring and devoted husband, Russell saw only love in the eyes of Andrea Yates and never once believed her capable of the crime she would commit five times the morning in late June 2001. The one drug that seemed to help Andrea was the sedative, Haldol, but again, Andrea refused to continue taking the drug when she became pregnant with her fifth child. Under the advice of her doctor, Andrea was told that she would have a one out of two chance of psychotic depression. Andrea and Russell decided to ignore this warning.
In jail, Andrea was given Haldol for her condition which reduces the frequency of delusions and psychotic episodes. It is often used for patients with schizophrenia and acute delirium. Dr. Gerald Harris, who examined Andrea, said that she suffered from hallucinations in which Satan was talking to her in her cell. She insisted that her hair be cut in the shape of a crown so the number 666 could be seen imprinted on her scalp (no such number, obviously, would be found). She wanted to be executed under the grounds that since Satan had possessed her, he should also be destroyed.
Eleven women and one man were selected for the jury hearing. Four months into the trial, Andrea was much improved from her medication doses and insisted that she was not mentally ill. Yates continued to hold the delusion that Satan was living inside of her. In September, Andrea was found to be competent to stand trial. In 2004, Andrea was sentenced to life in a psychiatric prison in Texas. Her husband, Russell began divorce proceedings and now runs a website warning others about mental illness.
Similarly, Christina Riggs also suffered from depression, but did not claim to have Post Partum depression. On the night of November 4th, 1997, she smothered both her two children with a pillow. Christina was also a registered nurse and had obtained a prescription for Elavil, a substance used for anti-depression, and the toxic drug Potassium Chloride, used for death row inmates.
Christina injected her son, Justin, 5, nicknamed Bubbie by his little sister, with an unidentified dosage of undiluted substance Potassium Chloride which causes a terrible burning sensation and pain. Justin woke up immediately in horrible pain, so Riggs quickly tried injecting him with morphine. When that did not work, Christina grabbed a pillow and smothered him. Selby, 2, was also smothered. This time, Christina did not use the Potassium Chloride injection because of the reaction her son had had. Christina then took a lethal dose of undiluted Potassium Chloride which was enough to kill 5 people, and twenty-eight Elavil tablets. She was found the next day by her worried mother after Christina was found missing from work. She wrote a suicide note that stated that she would rather her children die than grow up separated or orphaned. Her reason to kill herself was for the purpose of not upsetting her children later in life.
She had Justin in 1992 and was given the drug Prozac for depression, which she took until she began to feel better. In 1994, Christina gave birth to Selby, nicknamed Sissy by the family. She and her husband moved to Sherwood, Oklahoma. It was at that time that medical problems began to arise in the children: Selby had numerous ear infections, while Justin struggled with ADHD. Justin’s stepfather was abusive towards him and actually punched him so hard in the stomach, he needed medical attention. Jon Riggs and Christina divorced after the incident. Without Jon, Christina had to work twice as hard to raise her two small children. Suicide seemed to be the only answer for Christina, she claimed.
When brought to trial after the murders, Christina was seen by the jury as a woman without remorse. They publically stated that she seemed to be extremely self-centered and manipulative. She appeared to be a mother who felt her children were bothersome inconveniences, although Christina stated that she felt terrible loss and regret at what she had done to her two children. Riggs first claimed insanity as reason for her terrible acts, but later refused a defense team claiming that she wanted the death penalty.
Riggs appeared to have ironically the time of her life on death row by educating herself, obtaining many pen pals, exercising and learning ways to “pretty” herself while incarcerated. Christina said that she wanted to be in heaven with her babies but seems to have wanted the death penalty to avoid a life sentence. The deaths of her children were said to be planned out as long as 2-3 weeks in advance. Though it is unknown when Christina filled the prescriptions for the Elavil and the Potassium Chloride, that very fact could have shown just how long she planned to murder her children. Christina abandoned her children to try out for karaoke contests, and was known to go out many times a week to look for men. Riggs claimed the killing was an act of love towards her small children, but love never warrants murder. Riggs was said to be chemically imbalanced from hereditary reasons: family members had a long history of suicide and depression.
Two counts of first degree murder for the murder of her children were imposed on Christina on June 28th, 1998. Seven women and five men decided the fate of Christina’s life. She was to be executed. It was suggested that Christina did know what she was doing. She was thought to have planned the murders of her children and did not attempt suicide. Christina was at least 140 pounds overweight and as a registered nurse, knew that the dosages of Elavil she used would not kill a woman of her size. The potassium chloride was not diluted, which may not kill her either. Christina also had a supportive mother who would have surely come to her rescue if she was aware her daughter had missed work the following day. Christina’s attempt to plead not guilty but insane would send her to a mental hospital, and not death row. Christina may have been trying to manipulate the jury into giving her life by insisting that she wanted to die. Christina Riggs was executed on May 5th, 2000 by lethal injection. She was the first woman in 150 years to be executed in the state of Arkansas in 2000.
Susan Smith was not a victim of Post Partum Depression, nor was she a sufferer of major depressive disorder. Her simple plan was homicide and nothing more. On October 24, 1994, Susan Smith put her two young boys in her car and let it glide into a lake in South Carolina. Her two young sons, Michael Daniel Smith, 3, and Alexander Tyler Smith, 14 months old, lay sleeping and strapped into the backseat of the car. Susan briefly considered suicide at the time, but did not want her sons to suffer at the death of her mother. In the proceedings of divorce and currently seeing an unbelievably cruel man named Tom Findlay, Susan Smith was sure that if she killed her children first and then herself, it would make things much easier on her children. Susan later decided not to commit suicide, rather deal with the constant hardships her sons seemed to be causing her by killing them.
Susan ran to a neighbor’s home to report that a black man had stolen her Burgundy Mazda Protégé with her two boys inside the backseat. Later, she confessed that she suffered from mental illness and had purposefully driven her car into the lake for one reason. A man she had been having an affair with did not like the fact that she had two children by another man and felt they were inconveniences to their lifestyles. He wrote her several tender, yet manipulative letters that explained that she could never be a part of his life as long as her children were a part of hers. Susan Smith took his advice and watched her sons drown as her car slowly was submerged in John D. Long Lake.
Susan failed a polygraph test that stated whether or not she knew where her sons were located. The lake was searched and was soon recovered to have contained not only the Mazda Protégé, but the bodies of her two sons several days later. The big break in the case was when police found that Susan’s car had not been carjacked simply by checking the stop light timers. Her stopping at a particular stoplight left her no alibi when it came to the African-American pulling her over with a gun.
Susan declined to give a closing statement during her trial. The jury did not send her to death row and instead gave Susan life in prison with eligibility for parole in 2024. Thirty years for the death of her two children, drowned viciously while they slept in the backseat of her car.
Tiffany Toribio, another mother with homicide on her mind, was a young mother living in Albuquerque, NM in 2009. She was not only neglectful to her young son, Tyros, but seemed to be completely uninterested in motherhood. She was reported to have provided no emotional support for young Ty and denied him food while she was living at her mother’s home. She was soon sent away to live on the streets with her son. Tiffany Toribio and her three year old son were now homeless and living in a local park. Tiffany took him to Alvarado Park where she cupped a hand over his nose and mouth and proceeded to suffocate him. Tyrus struggled for several minutes before his little body went limp. Realizing what she had done, Tiffany quickly gave him CPR and revived her son. Her second thought was not to take him away from the park and treat him to a nice hot meal downtown, but to suffocate and kill him this time. Her second attempt to murder her son accomplished, Tiffany buried him under a jungle gym and left the park to find a warm place to sleep for the night.
The body was not found until two days after his death when a witness discovered a small shoe sticking out of the sand at Alvarado Park. The unidentified child was called “Baby Angel” by authorities and citizens until he was soon given a digitally enhanced face by forensic scientists. The picture was startling accurate and was soon recognized by relatives. Tiffany was found wandering Central Ave and initially stated to police authorities that she had given up custody of her son and did not know where he was. Tiffany later confessed and admitted what she had done to young Ty. Tiffany’s only reason to kill her infant son was that she did not want her son to live with the neglect and torture she endured as a child. After being questioned and later booked for her crimes, Toribio attempted suicide in her jail cell. The death occurring in May of 2009, Toribio still awaits a trial in an Albuquerque jail.
Another example of infanticide was the case of Theresa Knorr, born in 1946. She favored her three sons over her three daughters, so much that she murdered her own two daughters, Suesan and Sheila horrifically.
Suesan was shot in the back by her mother at 16, under Theresa’s impression that Suesan was a witch and was casting spells on Theresa. Instead of seeking professional help with the wound that narrowly missed Suesan’s vital organs, Theresa nursed her daughter back to health in the family bathtub. Suesan was chained to a soap dish and was unable to get help for herself from four of her siblings who were too frightened to try and help her.
Two years later, after a long and painful recovery, Suesan begged her mother to let her move out of the house. This request was granted under the condition that Theresa remove the bullet that was still lodged in Suesan’s back. Suesan agreed and was soon left stretched on the kitchen floor while her mother performed her own brutal surgery that would soon leave the wound infected and horribly mistreated. Suesan was left on the kitchen floor without food and limited water for several weeks before Theresa recruited her two sons to help move the thin and frail dying girl from the floor to the backseat of her son’s car. They drove out to a secluded area and set Suesan on fire while she was still alive. The body was not recovered and correctly identified until nearly a decade later.
Sheila, Suesan’s older sister, was a prostitute still living at home and constantly lived with the terrible beatings imposed by her mother. When her mother decided that Sheila had become infected with and STD and was trying to give it to her mother, which was another delusion, Theresa locked her in a closet in the home and starved her to death for several days until she passed away. Deep scratch marks, feces, and urine were said to be found in the closet. By the end, the youngest daughter, Terry, reported to have heard the last words from her dying sister: “There’s a light above me. I think it’s a hole. I’m gunna climb toward it.” The shelves in the closet were dismantled by Sheila’s desperate climbing towards the false light.
Terry was the last surviving daughter who ran away from home to escape her mother’s wrath. She came forward eight years later with the information about her dead sisters and her conspiring brothers. Terry was never implicated in the crimes, claiming she never helped kill or dispose of her sisters bodies. Theresa pled not guilty until one of her sons testified against her and then changed her plea to guilty to avoid capital punishment. She is currently serving two consecutive life sentences and will be eligible for parole in 2027.
Mother’s are told during air plane crashes that they must first put on their own oxygen mask before assisting their child. Most mothers do not heed this advice, their first instinct being that they must help their child before saving their own lives.
Society struggles to deal with violent crimes every day, but there are some crimes that are so heinous, they haunt us indefinitely. Certainly the case of a mother killing her own child is one of those unbelievable actions one cannot understand. But, like a car accident, the media and the public are drawn to these horrible acts. We watch television and read internet stories to find out what would make a mother hurt her own child. It seems we are almost feeding the fire by even acknowledging the women who may be starved for news attention.
Of all the killings we hear about in the papers and on the internet, infanticide is perhaps the most atrocious and sickening topics ever heard of. A mother’s nature is to cherish and adore her babies, not destroy their precious and fledgling lives.
Henri Désiré Landru “Bluebeard” – Lady Killer of France By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
The frightening fairytale of Bluebeard dates back to the seventeenth century. Penned by French writer Charles Perrault, the story begins with the inevitable “once upon a time” and details a man named Bluebeard who has married many women but all have disappeared. After meeting with his neighbor, a beautiful young woman, Bluebeard asks for her hand in marriage. She is hesitant, but is swept off her feet by his unmistakable charms. Soon after their marriage, Bluebeard is called away for business. He gives his new bride the keys to his castle, explaining that she may enter every room except for the basement. Alone in the castle, the woman turns the keys over and over in her hands, wondering if she should obey her husband. But curiosity consumes her and she eagerly rushes down the stairs to visit the forbidden and dark basement. Putting the key into the lock, she gingerly opens the heavy door. As her eyes adjust to the darkness, she slowly begins to see what her husband was hiding from her.
Hung from hooks on the wall are the rotting corpses of Bluebeard’s previous wives. The entire room is thick with the stench of death, and the ground is flooded with blood. In her haste to escape from the monstrosity, the young woman drops her keys. Retrieving them, she quickly shuts the door and flees from the basement. On the top of the stairs, she tries to catch her breath and steady her rapidly beating heart. When she looks at the keys in her shaking hands, she finds the keys covered in sticky and what seems to be fresh blood. The young woman washes them for an hour and soon discovers that the one key that will not wash clean is the basement key. It is stained dark red, and her attempt to rid the discolored key fail again and again.
Bluebeard arrives back at the castle early and greets his wife with a kiss and an embrace. When he finds the damning evidence that the forbidden key has been used, he becomes enraged and vows that his wife will soon join the others on a hook in the basement room. Bluebeard roughly drags his wife through the castle, intending to kill her upon reaching the basement. But the woman begs for mercy, asking her murderous husband to grant her fifteen minutes to pray to God. Bluebeard agrees and locks her in the highest tower of the castle, allowing him time to finely sharpen his knife.
In the deserted room, the young woman runs to the window where she immediately sees her two brothers riding their horses back to their home next to the castle. She is able to flag them down by waving her arms violently, and the two men hasten their arrival. When the fifteen minutes pass, Bluebeard opens the door and forces his wife down the stairs to the basement. Raising his knife in the air, he is interrupted by her two brothers who have quietly snuck in through the front door. They are able to disarm Bluebeard and after a short struggle, Bluebeard is killed by the two brothers. The young woman is freed from the castle and goes on to inherit the wealth of her late husband.
This children’s tale is known throughout history, the lesson presumably being that one should not heed the human instinct of curiosity, rather be cautious, for inside the door of truth may be a grim and horrifying sight. In the early twentieth century, France met the new Bluebeard, a man that was not depicted in worn and tattered children’s books. Henri Désiré Landru was Bluebeard in the flesh, a man without remorse, a villainous and greedy creature who murdered his wives and stalked the streets of Paris with an air of undeserved dignity. Short and bald with a distinctive scraggly red beard, Landru predominantly relied on his fantastic intelligence and charm to infatuate the women he wanted. He relentlessly hunted middle-aged wealthy and trusting women, finding that they were the perfect target to satisfy his infinite greed. With men away fighting World War One, Henri found the task of snaring women in his lethal trap an easy one.
Henri Désiré Landru was born on April 12, 1869 to poor but happy and hardworking parents. After bearing a daughter, they longed for a son, and Henri was a welcome and tremendously joyful edition to the family. Henri’s middle name Désiré is French for the term “much desired”. From an early age, Henri was taught to be a good natured and honest young man. His father worked as a book salesman and his mother was a dressmaker. Schooled by monks, Henri was an intelligent and well spoken boy who sang in the church choir and took great pleasure in being an altar boy. The Landru family was very close, and Henri’s parents worked hard to bring him up proper and well-behaved.
Henri served in the French military from 1887 to 1891, earning himself the proud title of sergeant. It seems that he could have led a very prosperous and decent life, but Henri soon learned how to lie, cheat, and steal. Growing up underprivileged, he realized that he would not like to remain that way throughout his life. Instead of earning his money, he found that stealing was much easier and decided to pursue a life of crime to support himself.
After leaving the military, Henri became entangled in misdeeds, befriending local hoods, pimps and thieves. He married his cousin, Remy, at 24 and had four children with her. Though he did try to work honest jobs, his preferred occupation was petty theft which landed him in jail numerous times. Police found Henri to have little to no sense of responsibility when it came to admission of his crimes. Henri’s father was so distraught over his son’s repeated felonious behavior, he became incredibly depressed. He thought he had brought up Henri as a good and respectable man, but it appeared that Henri’s defiance was unstoppable. Henri’s father then hung himself, believing he had failed Henri completely.
In 1914, Henri Landru, now 43, had devised a plan to assure his wealth in society. He began advertising himself as a widower, even though he was still legally married to Remy, seeking rich middle-aged women he believed would support him financially. Going by the name Monsieur Diard, Henri met Madame Jeanne Cuchet, 39, in December 1914. Jeanne found Henri, this small and harmless looking man, undeniably charming and courteous. He was also interested in her 18-year-old son André, something that delighted Jeanne immeasurably. Jeanne had been searching for a man to marry, but was also hoping to find a father for her son. Henri seemed like her dream come true. Without a doubt in her mind, she moved in with Henri in a house called The Lodge in Vernouillet, just outside of Paris. Jeanne Cuchet and her son disappeared soon after they began living at the home. Henri informally inherited 15,000 francs worth of Jeanne’s securities.
Moving to Villa Ermitage at Gambais, Henri was able to charm many women with his remarkably witty and enchanting appeal. Using the alias’ Monsieur Cuchet, Fremyet, Dupont, and Lucien Guillet, Henri was able to entice eight more women between 1915 and 1921. Some he lived with, some he falsely married and some he simply dated. He met these women while searching through the local singles advertisements or at fine restaurants in Paris. Henri now had wealth, and he had become accustomed to it. He was only willing to settle for an affluent lifestyle, strolling through the wealthy areas of Paris for his unlucky amour.
Among his girlfriends were Madame Louise Jaume, a 38-year-old devout Catholic separated from her husband, Andrée Babelay, a 19-year-old servant girl, divorced Madame Anne-Marie Pascal, 37-year-old Madame Marie-Therese Marchadier, Madame Anna Colomb, Madame Celeste Buisson, Madame Therése Laborde-Line from Argentina and 51-year-old Madame Désirée Guillin, a former governess with an inheritance of 22,000 francs.
Madame Pelat, Anna Colomb’s sister, became worried when she received no replies from the letters she sent to her sister at Henri’s home at Gambais. Madmoiselle Lacoste, sister of Celeste Buisson, also became suspicious when Celeste appeared to be missing. Both women contacted the Mayor of Gambais and he contacted authorities. After an arrest warrant was issued for Henri on April 11th, 1919, Madmoiselle Lacoste spotted Henri in Paris by pure chance. He was with yet another woman leisurely walking around Rue de Rivoli. Henri had moved to 76 Rue de Rochechouart where police soon traced him. Henri, in a moment of panic, attempted to throw a book out the window, which police were able to easily retrieve. In the book were handwritten recordings of all the women he had been dating, how rich they were, and what he wanted from them.
Upon inspecting the home at the Villa in Gambais, police found approximately 290 bits of bone fragments and teeth in the fireplace. For years, suspicious dark smoke had been coming out of the chimney, and now police realized that the bodies of Henri’s victims were being burned in the kitchen stove. The method of killing was unknown, but poisoning was suspected because of Henri’s small stature, rendering him unable to overpower the women he seduced. Enormous amounts of women’s clothing and personal possessions were found in the home as well. When questioned, Henri had no answers and never admitted guilt.
At the Seine-et-Oise Assize Court in November 1921, Henri maintained his innocence and arrogantly refused to discuss the topic of the missing women on the grounds that to speak of such blasphemies would be rude and cruel to Remy, the wife he was legally still married to. He was charged with 11 murders; though it was disputed he had committed more killings in the span of 7 years. Henri attained one of France’s top lawyers, Moro Giafferi, who tried to claim that Henri was a slave trader and had sent all the women to a brothel in Brazil. This was a weak argument, for no one believed that Brazil had a terrible need for middle-aged French women.
Henri was found guilty of the 11 murders, but the jurors asked for clemency in his case. Henri was sentenced to death by the presiding judge. Attempting to comfort his attorney, Henri gave Giafferi a drawing he had scribbled while in his jail cell. On the back of the note was a confession stating, “I did it. I burned their bodies in my kitchen stove.”Before the death sentence, Henri was able to talk the warders out of shaving off his ginger beard. He also snubbed the priest on his way to the execution. His last words were “I shall be brave.” He was then guillotined on February 25, 1922.
Though Henri was not an exact depiction of the Bluebeard mentioned in fairytales, there were direct similarities. Henri Landru murdered his many “wives”, wore a striking and unforgettably long beard, and was considered by many to be a distrustful and fearful scoundrel. The lesson learned in the Landru case, if any, was to remain guarded and wary of what seemed too good to be true. For Henri, the lesson he learned while waiting for the blade of the guillotine to drop was that colossal greed brings an unfortunate end.
Herbert Mullin By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“Satan gets into people and makes them do things they don’t want to.”- Herbert Mullin
The mind of the paranoid schizophrenic is an interesting place. Not only is this a place for disturbing images to inhabit, but imaginary voices become the main and center motivator the sufferer of schizophrenia can understand. Whether the voices are merely commentary for what a person should eat or drink, sometimes they are overwhelming and demanding voices that control a person’s actions and functions in life. A common theme for paranoid schizophrenics is the psychotic episode, sometimes brought on by great stress or terrifically difficult emotions. When the psychotic episodes occur, the person becomes suddenly unhinged, lost in a world that does not exist.
Schizophrenia, typically revealing itself in the late teens to early twenties of young men, usually frightens the friends and family of the sufferer, leaving them questioning the true sanity of their loved one. An incredibly difficult disorder to understand and treat properly, schizophrenics sometimes become street loiterers, bums, or paranoid agoraphobics. Those afflicted are afraid of an invented person or event that might crumble their very existence. For Herbert Mullin, his psychotic episode was triggered at age 17, when his best friend and possible lover, Dean Richardson passed away.
Born into a strict Roman Catholic family, Herbert Mullin began life on April 18, 1947 in Fenton, California. Herbert was a good child, excelling in school quickly and was voted “most likely to succeed” by his high school chums. He was athletic, fit, and very handsome, always helpful and polite to others. His only strange distinction was his oddly close relationship with his best friend Dean Richardson. Just out of high school, at 17, Herbert became engaged to his longtime girlfriend, intending to begin a life with children and a little household.
At 18, Herbert’s life suddenly deteriorated when Dean was killed in a car accident. Devoted deeply to Dean, Herbert mourned the loss of his friend in bizarre ways. Lovingly setting up a shrine for Dean in his bedroom complete with photographs and trinkets and old toys, Herbert could not seem to get past his grieving for Dean. He broke up with his girlfriend, announcing that he was a homosexual. Dean’s memorabilia was never removed from Herbert’s bedroom from then on.
Around this time, Herbert’s family began to discover strange behavior in Herbert. Though it is unknown if there was a history of mental illness in the family, Herbert began having fits of echopraxia, a well known symptom of schizophrenia. His manner became erratic as well. Herbert preferred to be alone as often as possible, talked to himself, believed others were plotting against him and continuously thought he was being followed by someone that wanted to harm him. To calm himself, Herbert turned to hallucinogenic drugs, thinking they might oppose the gradual confusion that was blocking his thought processes. The drugs only worsened his thought patterns, the limb he was desperately clinging to beginning to slip quickly from his grasp.
After seeking out a doctor, Herbert disclosed his symptoms, believing he might be going mad. The doctor diagnosed Herbert with severe paranoid schizophrenia, and he was placed in a mental hospital for a year. When treatment proved to be working, Herbert started to feel better and well enough to leave the hospital. Like many sufferers of diseases, especially ones that affect the mind, Herbert must have stopped treatment soon after he left the hospital, for the voices in his head began to haunt his psyche again. This time, it wasn’t just the usual voices telling him to do unpleasant things, it was Satan himself, urging Herbert to kill.
On October 13, 1972, Satan sent Herbert out onto the streets to find a suitable person that must be annihilated. The prey was chosen apparently at random, as were all of Herbert’s victims. Herbert found a lowly tramp named Lawrence White, searching thorough a garbage can. Clubbing White to death, Herbert found that Satan was not satisfied with only one kill. Herbert would have to again find another person undeserving of life, and he did, two weeks later.
A Santa Cruz University a student named Mary Guilfoyle, enjoying a long walk in a park, found herself face to face with Herbert. Seeming wrong and disagreeable in some way, Guilfoyle attempted escape from the man following her. Herbert produced a long knife and stabbed the girl repeatedly until she was well beyond death. With the comforting words of Satan whispering in his ear, Herbert continued his slaughter by pulling out her insides and leaving them scattered all around her body.
Not long after Guilfoyle’s death, Herbert found himself conflicted with what he had done. He understood that something was wrong with killing, but not his intent. Satan had orchestrated all of the horrid acts, and Herbert decided that he must be stopped. To rid his guilty conscious, Herbert sought out a priest to talk with. He confessed everything he had done, omitting no details. After speaking about what he had done, Herbert was not only horrified with his crimes, but slightly and clearly began to hear Satan’s slow whispering in his ear again. Satan commanded the blood of the priest, and Herbert realized that the priest might go to the police about the recent killings. Herbert, in his diseased mind, had only one choice then. He stabbed the priest to death in the confessional, left the body to be found later, and went on his way.
In December of 1972, Herbert began a rampage that shocked all of Santa Cruz. Buying his first gun, Herbert had been told by Satan that this would be a cleaner way of killing, and Herbert could get away with it easily. In one day, Herbert shot five people to death, two of them small children. He was never identified because his victims were his only witnesses. Satan continued to converse with Herbert, telling him that his crimes were for the good of mankind. There was going to be a great earthquake, Satan warned, and Herbert’s victims were grateful to be taken before the disaster could occur. Herbert maintained that what he was doing was good, helpful, and actually a good idea.
The next five murders occurred within two weeks of each other, showing the severity of Herbert’s psychotic episodes related to his schizophrenia. After finding four teenagers camping out at Cowell State Park in Santa Cruz, Satan allowed Herbert to shoot them all, assuring Herbert that he was doing a fine job. The final murder that took place was on February 13, 1973. An old man, tending to his garden was shot by Herbert as he passed in his car. Luckily, a neighbor was present at the time and was able to write down the registration number on Herbert’s car.
Not long after the police were phoned, Herbert was hauled into questioning by police. Mullin confessed to all 13 murders, telling police that Satan was the mastermind behind it all. The lawyer plead with the judge that Herbert could not be guilty because he was insane. Herbert told the police that he was trying to save innocent people in California from an earthquake. The psychiatrists somehow saw Herbert fit to stand trial and he was charged with 10 murders. The jury found Herbert guilty on two counts of first degree murder and eight counts of second degree murder. In July 1973, Herbert Mullen was sentenced to life imprisonment, eligible for parole in 2025.
Classified by professional doctors as a common example of a severely violent paranoid schizophrenic, Herbert Mullin was not given the right or the opportunity to serve out his sentence at a mental hospital, where he could be medicated properly and guarded for any signs of deviance. Without treatment, Herbert’s condition may not only worsen, but ruin him completely. His pal and constant companion, Satan, might continue to hurt and ultimately advise Herbert to kill others or himself.
Ilshat Kuzikov By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“You know, I always wanted to be a surgeon, but it’s better to be a cannibal. If you’re a surgeon you have to put the body back together and you stop having any control over it. But a cannibal kills and then he can do what he wants with the body. After he kills, he owns it forever.” –Ilshat Kuzikov
Though there have been a countless theories about why a person commits cannibalism, one theory in particular seems to shed an interesting light on the topic. According to Dr. Clancy McKenzie, the urge to cannibalize begins with infancy. A baby, being weaned from his mother’s breast, experiences a very real and carnal need to consume its own mother. This ravenous feeling remains dormant in the psyche for years, often until adulthood. When a traumatizing or monumentally stressful thing occurs in one’s life, the childhood memory returns, and the adult finds themselves attracted to actually eating another person.
When faced with an extremely unpleasant or hostile incident, a person may experience what is called an oral aggression. This essentially means that a person can become so unbalanced with outrage and anger, they literally turn to their mouths as an act of protection. Instead of screaming and shouting, biting and ripping at the flesh of another gradually begins to sate the agitated party. Such was the case with Ilshat Kuzikov, who was a mentally ill Russian man in St. Petersburg.
Earning his living as a street sweeper, Ilshat was a man who had to rid himself of day to day stress by working a very easy and uncomplicated job. Virtually nothing is known about the background of Ilshat, merely that he was a cheery and helpful individual, regarded by neighbors as pleasant and non-threatening. He was also known as a loner, preferring the company of his cat, Dasha, to actual people. Ilshat lived on Ordzhonikidze Street, seen in photographs as a busy little place with a tram intersecting in the middle of it.
Near his home, Ilshat was an outpatient at a local psychiatric clinic. It is not known what he was being seen for, but it can be suggested he might have been suffering from some severe anxiety disorder. Living alone with his beloved cat and working a menial job, Ilshat might have been receiving some kind of disability as income. Ilshat could have been ailing from any number of illnesses, any of which would compel him to later eat other people.
In November of 1992, a piece of human torso was found intact in a deserted basement near Kuzikov’s home. Two years later, the severed head of a vagrant was found in a trash can on Ordzhonikidze Street. Kuzikov did not become a suspect until another severed head was found, belonging to a fellow psychiatric patient and friend of Kuzikov, Edik Vassilevski. Breaking into Kuzikov’s small flat, police discovered a horrific site.
A bottle bearing the name of a popular fizzy drink was found filled with semi-dried blood. A jar on the coffee table containing dried ears and skin was found along with a cooking pot filled with the remains of Vassilevski. His remains were cut into portions for a Russian style kebab.
Not much is known about Kuzikov’s trial, but he was declared criminally insane and sent to a mental institution. The Russian’s seemed to have gotten the right idea this time by sending Kuzikov to an institution instead of giving him the death penalty. By detaining him in a hospital and dosing out the right medications, doctors might now have the perfect person to interrogate about cannibalism. What drew him to killing in the first place? Where did his hunger for human flesh come from? Only Kuzikov knows the answers to these questions, and hopefully someday, the ultimate reason for committing cannibalism can be found and later prevented.
Joachim Kroll “The Ruhr Hunter” or “Duisburg Man-Eater” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
A small class of serial killers are the mentally retarded who usually are caught quickly by authorities because they are unable to conceal their crimes sufficiently. But Joachim Kroll of northwestern Germany was an extreme example of a man suffering from mental retardation who was able to evade police discovery for nearly twenty one years. The classification of the mentally retarded offender is described as one who has limited vocabulary, difficulty answering questions, prefers young children as friends, acts impulsively, is incapable of understanding consequences, and has limited ability of recalling events that might have taken place.
Notoriously incompetent, mentally retarded serial killers cannot usually commit their crimes without an accomplice who can help them rape victims, hide bodies and construct a viable alibi. Most killers with low IQ’s, such as Otis Toole, are able to commit their crimes primarily with another smarter and more capable person, such as Henry Lee Lucas. Joachim Kroll, one of the few exceptions, was able to do all of these things by himself, perhaps out of sheer luck. Police investigations were looking for a multitude of killers who were intelligent enough to kill for twenty years without being caught. This is a classic example of police searching for someone they believed was very smart, but in fact, they were seeking a seriously below average individual who was of a third grade intelligence.
Joachim Kroll, born on April 17, 1933, was the eighth son of a mining family in Hindenburg, now part of Poland, in the Upper Silesia area of Germany. With an IQ of 76, labeled as borderline retarded, Kroll was considered by many as the town idiot. Joachim was a constant bed wetter, which surely had something to do with his self esteem and impotence. When Kroll’s father died in World War Two, his family moved to a small two room home which Joachim shared with his six sisters and one brother. Joachim attended school for a mere five years before he went to work on the family farm. With the social skills of a third grader, he lived as an adult with a very low intelligence. Kroll stayed on the farm with his mother until he was 22, possibly because he found it too difficult to live on his own.
Kroll moved to Duisberg, suburb of Laar, the northwestern part of Germany. He began work as a lavatory assistant after the death of his mother in 1955. Living on the street of Friesenstrasse, Kroll was known by local children as “Uncle Joachim” because of the fantastic toys and candy and dolls he kept in his tiny flat. Despite the rules of the building, Kroll invited all of these children into his home, feeling that they were his true friends. Kroll loved attention from the young girls that played in the area, treating them as his own nieces. What the young girls never saw was Kroll’s number of inflatable dolls in his home. To satisfy his sexual urges, Kroll used them as practice for strangling.
For years, Joachim lived on Friesenstrasse, indulging his young children with treats and little gifts. Parents of the local families remember Joachim as a pleasant and thoughtful man who seemed to want a family of his own. When Joachim Kroll was arrested for the murders of 14 victims in a twenty-four year span, his neighbors were horrified that they had been living next to a confirmed serial killer. Joachim was found not because of excellent detective work, but because he had stuffed up the toilet drains with body parts.
When Kroll told a neighbor, Oscar Muller, not to use the top floor toilet, he nonchalantly explained that “it is blocked up with guts.” This was a shared toilet in the building. When Muller looked in the toilet, he saw what he thought was butcher remains, red blood and tissue floating in the water. A plumber came to inspect the toilet and found that Kroll was not kidding. The internal organs of a child were found in the toilet, and the police and plumber took out each organ and placed it in a bucket. A young girl, Marion Ketter had been missing for several days and the police soon realized what was disregarded in the toilet was the remains of the little girl.
According to her grieving and appalled parents, Marion was regarded as a sweet and trusting blonde little girl with a sweet tooth for Kroll’s abundance of candy. At first, Kroll said that the “guts” in the toilet were the remains of a rabbit he had skinned and tried to flush. Police were perturbed and decided to search the Kroll residence. When Kroll showed them the stew he was in the process of cooking, he casually admitted that it contained pieces of the missing girl, including a little hand among the carrots and peas. He did not resist arrest.
Police further found pieces of human flesh in his refrigerator. Kroll, at 43, was small, balding, bespeckled, and with large protruding ears, confessed to killing at least fourteen women from 1955 to 1976. All victims were between the ages of four and sixty-one. His victims had been raped post mortem and flesh had been taken from their bodies. He told police that as a young man, he had been unable to achieve sexual relations with conscious women. Kroll did not follow the news, proving that his killings were not a desperate cry for attention. He also had no idea that his killings were being broadcast and that police were desperately searching for him.
Like most serial killers, Kroll stalked his victims before deciding to attack. He admitted during his confession that he had intended to kill at least 14 young women, but his memory was not very good. He said he could have killed more, or possibly less. Kroll blamed his deviancy on seeing pigs slaughtered in front of him at the farm he grew up in, the recollection of this violent act burned in his brain for the rest of his life. His second reason for the killings, he said, had to do with the fact that food was too expensive to buy where he lived. The simple explanation he gave was that he was hungry and the tender and fleshy meat of young children was the only satisfactory meal he would dine on. He made a very detailed confession with the police that the bodies of very young children were the best meat he was able to find.
The first murder that took place was three weeks after the death of his mother in January 1955. Kroll suffered some kind of psychotic episode that attracted him to commit murder. 19-year-old attractive and outgoing runaway Irmgard Strehl was lured by Kroll to a barn near the village of Walstedde after Kroll had promised her some kind of precious gift. She was stabbed in the neck and then strangled. Kroll wanted Irmgard sexually, but knew that he could not have sex with her while she was alive and fighting. The only arousal he was able to attain was after her death. He viciously raped her corpse and used a long butchering knife to disembowel her. She was found 5 days after being killed.
The reason the murderer was so hard to find was because Kroll committed his crimes in an erratic nature years apart and in different parts of northern Germany. Strangling, knifing, and smothering his victims also gave the police a profile of several different men, none of which fit the description of Joachim Kroll. The bodies of the victims Kroll killed were skinned expertly, leaving the bodies intact. It was as if he was plainly making a meal out of a small animal. By 1966, seven more victims were found after the first killing of Irmgard Strehl. All of them had been strangled, raped post mortem, and pieces of flesh missing from their bodies. Police at the time did not realize that Kroll was not only mutilating his victims, but also eating potions of them.
In December 1966, Kroll strangled 5-year-old Ilona Harke in a ditch at Wuppertal. He raped her and cut her flesh before satisfying his curiosity of drowning someone. Her cause of death, drowning, was another curve that sent police in the opposite direction. Kroll can be identified as an impulsive killer, one who is disorganized and has a wild pattern. But compulsive killers often use the same methods over and over, just like Kroll depending on the year. When Kroll was finally apprehended, police were unable to find him neither an impulsive nor a compulsive killer. He just didn’t fit the profile of a usual serial killer. Years had gone by between the killings, showing Kroll to have the ability to curb his actions, while certain years he had maniacally and sadistically murdered and ate his victims. Kroll killed and raped 16-year-old Manuela Knodt in Essen and used the flesh from her buttocks as meat. He masturbated over her body, leaving semen on her face and pubic area. Police believed her death to be an attack from a gang of boys. A man did confess to this murder, but later recanted his story. He was convicted and served 5 years of an 8 year sentence.
Other innocent men were found guilty of Kroll’s murders. On June 16, 1959, Klara Frieda Tesmer, a 24-year-old young woman was murdered in the meadows near Rheinhausen. Heinrich Ott, a local mechanic was arrested for the murder. Wrongly accused and unable to clear his name, he hanged himself in jail. On April 23, 1962, Petra Giese, a 13-year-old, was raped and strangled in Dinslaken-Bruckhausen. The accused, Vinzenz Kuehn was arrested and convicted for her murder. Ursula Rohling, a twenty-year-old was found strangled in some bushes. She had been dead for nearly two days when found, stripped from the waist down and provocatively posed. She had been visiting with her boyfriend that night, and he was a suspect for her murder. So distressed and distraught was her boyfriend, he threw himself in the Maine River. Abducted from Walsum on her way to school on June 4, 1962, Monika Tafel was killed by Kroll for his next meal. He used the meat from her buttocks, thighs and forearms to make a sort of steak. After serving a short sentence, Walter Quicker, the man accused of killing Monika Tafel, hung himself in the woods of Walsum after being taunted and relentlessly insulted by the citizens of Walsum.
Kroll avoided capture by travelling to nearby towns to find his victims. Kroll was not immediately connected to the crimes of the first victims from 1955 to 1966, for there had been a 10 year gap between Ilona Harke and Marion Ketter. Kroll was able to cover his crimes by slaying them in different ways and doing it in different areas of Germany. He also did not always use cannibalism, so his crimes were thought to belong to other men. The only consistency in each crime was the aggressive sexual nature inflicted after death and the fleshy parts of the bodies crudely removed. Police believed that the killer was possibly taking a cruel souvenir from each woman.
Joachim Kroll at first only admitted to killing Marion Ketter but while comfortable in his cell, he later confessed to other murders, many of which other men had been accused and convicted of executing. Kroll took his victims to various quiet and isolated spots, such as wooded and deserted areas. “Uncle Joachim” was seen by many as a kindly and very decent person, his only distinction being that he was a clearly an identifiable mentally retarded man. Kroll admitted to what he called a severe illness of needing to commit cannibalism and asked for a cure, thinking that would be the end of it. Without remorse or regretful feeling, and the fact that he was not insane, Kroll was known as a sufferer of psychopathic thinking and found by psychiatrists as sexually sadistic. Psychopaths are aware of the consequences of their actions but are unable to learn from them.
Other German serial killers were compared to Kroll, such as Fritz Haarman, who murdered between twenty-seven and forty young men by biting through their necks. He raped and murdered them in his flat and disposed of their bodies in plain sight because he was the town butcher. Karl Denke, another German killer slaughtered and ate more than thirty people. Georg Grossman, of Berlin, dismembered, consumed and sold the flesh of possibly fifty women. Peter Kurten was charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders in Prussia Rhine Province.
Long ago, people who cannibalized were called werewolves, when in fact, they were suffering from some kind of an erotic disorder that made them believe sex and eating the flesh of corpse was allowable. During the trial, Kroll naively hoped to have a surgical procedure that would help him stop committing his crimes. The charges against him were eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He would have been charged with all 13, but his crimes were often decades old and too difficult to uncover. The trial lasted 151 days, beginning October 4, 1979 in Saal 201, in Duisburg, ending in April 1982. Capital punishment had been abolished after the war, so Kroll was sentenced to 9 consecutive life sentences in Rheinbach prison. On July 1, 1991, at the age of fifty-eight, the notorious Ruhr Hunter died from a heart attack.
John Christie By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
When a serial killer begins his or her crime spree, they are eventually forced to find a place to hide the bodies of their victims. Some leave them in dark and foreboding alleyways, while some dismember the body parts and scatter them in wooded areas. Some even leave the bodies discarded on local highways. H.H. Holmes of Chicago cremated his victims or placed them in vats of acid to strip them of any identity, leaving only a skeleton which he would then use to sell to medical schools. Ed Gein of Wisconsin used the flesh of his victims to furnish his cluttered and maniacally decorated home. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley of England buried slain children in the Saddleworth Moors. Carl Panzram fed his unlucky victims to alligators. John Christie chose a particular way to dispose of the women he killed. Instead of distancing himself from the crimes, he hid the decomposing bodies in the walls of his apartment or placed them under the floorboards. He also put them in the outdoor washroom shared by other tenants, and buried them in the garden just outside his window.
John Christie felt an odd bond to his victims, especially after they were deceased. He preferred to keep them as close as he possibly could, often leaving the bodies sitting in chairs, or in his bed days after they had died. Though he adamantly denied sexual contact with his victims, Christie might have been described by any doctor as a necropheliac. Furthermore, a disorder known as romantic necrophilia might have been a better term for him, for he did engage in sexual contact with his victims after death. He kept them with him until the odor of decaying flesh became too much to handle. A romantic necropheliac cannot let their victims go, even when the perpetrator has no desire to continue the relationship. Instead, the bodies are kept nearby, so the killer might visit them again in an attempt to refresh their memory of the crime. Or, in extreme cases, the killer might decide to unearth the body to commit sex acts over and over.
The passivity of his victims thrilled John Christie immensely, giving him unauthorized permission to do as he wished with the bodies of the women he felt were usually unattainable to him. The bodies of these women could not comment on his impotency, or laugh at him in any way. He believed that these women should belong to him without question, and he took full advantage of the limp bodies that littered his tiny home in Notting Hill. To successfully understand the mind and inner workings of John Christie, one must first dissect Christie as a human being.
John Reginald Halliday Christie was born on April 8, 1898 to a carpet designer and amateur actress. John Christie was one of seven children, living in Halifax, Yorkshire. The Christie father was said to be a very violent and abusive man, often beating his children for no reason. Though John was a good student in school, he had no lasting friendships and did not develop any social awareness. In an effort to become a normal and likeable fellow, John became a choirboy at the local church. At the age of 8, John witnessed the body of his dead grandfather in his casket. John became increasingly captivated with death, and found himself irrefutably fascinated with the deceased. He spent his after school hours in graveyards, wandering through the grass and smelling the roses on each grave. His favorite spot in the cemetery was the crypt which held young children. He often tried to open the caskets, enjoying the fear and apprehension that came with the taboo of viewing a dead child’s body. At home, John was his mother’s favorite child and she dominated him with femininity, his four sisters reinforcing this. With reddish ginger hair and pale blue eyes, he was considered by his sisters as “pretty” and began using him as their personal doll to dress up in girl’s clothing and play house with. John’s memory was deeply affected by the girl’s clothes he was forced to wear, and this was the beginning of his hatred for all women.
When John reached his teenage years, he was still being treated by his sisters as a girl they could play with. To assert his masculinity, he began dating women and eventually found himself in a sexual encounter with a girlfriend. Unable to perform sexually, his self esteem dropped and he quickly gave up on women, believing them to be frustrating and mean. He was later nicknamed “Can’t-Do-It-Christie” by his peers who heard of his impotency. When in the company of his sisters, John became sexually attracted to them, but also resented them for emasculating him. This in turn made John even more sexually repressed, which enraged him endlessly.
John, at 19, decided to seek out local prostitutes, possibly to rid him of the taunting nickname and rumors of his ineffective sexual organ. But John’s affliction of impotence continued and the prostitutes readily pointed this out to him. John never forgot the sound of laughter from these prostitutes and later would punish them for their audacity. To add to his problems, John appeared to have symptoms of hypochondria, believing himself ailing from diseases and illnesses he did not actually suffer from. John also developed an abnormal fear of dirt.
After completing school, John Christie enlisted in the British Army, an effort to prove that he was now a man and not his sister’s plaything anymore. His time in the Army was short lived, for he was present during a mustard gas explosion which temporarily blinded him and damaged his larynx. In 1919, at age 21, Christie was given a small disability pension. Though his condition was said to be mild and uncomplicated, Christie was mute for three years. When he was able to speak, it was in a whispered tone. Doctors believed Christie’s state was due to a hysterical reaction to trauma rather than a real physical ailment.
In 1920, Christie married a local girl, Ethel Waddington, a plump and very passive young woman. They settled in Halifax and Christie began work at a postal office. To calm and relax him from his tense and stressful life, Christie started gardening in front of his home. Although Christie was admittedly afraid of dirt, gardening was something he was dedicated to and enthusiastic with. Christie and his wife Ethel were regarded by neighbors and friends as very quiet and private. Others saw the couple as odd and unpleasant. Ethel was reported to have been terrified of her husband, often visiting her family and friends whenever Christie showed signs of abnormalities or “craziness.”
Christie apparently loved his wife Ethel, but continued to visit prostitutes throughout the marriage. Broadening his horizons, he also became a thief, which landed him in jail numerous times. Ethel, concerned and at her wits end, decided not to tolerate Christie’s lies and deceit any longer. Ethel and Christie separated after four years of marriage, and Christie moved to London by himself. Not long after arriving in London, Christie began dating scores of women, most of them prostitutes, attempting to prove that he could attain an erection and achieve orgasms. In due course, Christie and a local prostitute moved into a small flat together. Christie’s temper was brutal at that time, for during an argument, he hit his new girlfriend over the head with a cricket bat. She was not seriously injured, but charged him with assault. Christie spent six months in prison, where he discovered his undying and precious love for Ethel. He sent her a letter, begging for her to join him in London when he was released from prison.
After a ten year separation, Ethel and Christie reconciled in 1933. They moved to the west area of London in Notting Hill, North Kensington, considered to be a sleazy and seedy place at the time. 10 Rillington Place was the home they ultimately chose to inhabit. The home was a three floor apartment building, and the Christie’s resided on the bottom floor. They shared an outdoor washroom with the other tenants, but Christie and Ethel seemed happy, regardless. Finally reunited, they cared little about the shabby house they lived in.
When World War Two broke in 1939, Christie was accepted as a constable in the War Reserve Police. Apparently, no one had researched Christie’s past, showing he was a multiple felon and had spent much of his early adult life in jail. Nevertheless, Christie proved himself to be a tireless and what some would say “fanatical” officer intent on upholding the law. He also used this unique opportunity to seek out available women he could have sex with, mainly prostitutes. He may have been happily married to Ethel, but he could not stop himself from serial affairs with dangerous women. Christie served four years in the War Reserve Police before being fired for unknown reasons.
The hypochondria Christie suffered from was quickly magnified when he was hit by a car in the early 1940’s. It was reported that he visited his doctor 173 times in the span of fifteen years. Christie claimed to have suffered from anything such as backaches to flu-like symptoms. His never ending conquest to have a medical condition took up a large portion of his time, but never got in the way of his hunt for prostitutes. With Ethel off visiting relatives in Sheffield, Christie was able to bring his “women of the night” home with him any time he pleased.
John Christie found a beautiful young woman in a bar in 1943. With short brown hair and alluring brown eyes, Ruth Fuerst immediately caught his eye. The 21-year-old Australian was tall and wildly in love with life, shown in her character and behavior. To earn a bit of extra cash, Ruth might have been a possible prostitute, something Christie was passionately attracted to. While his wife was away visiting Sheffield, Christie brought Ruth willingly to 10 Rillington Place. After polite pleasantries, Christie and Ruth retired to the bed to begin sexual relations. While they were having sex, Christie strangled Ruth with a rope. Intending to keep his sweet love close, he hid Ruth under the floorboards until Ethel came home. When Ethel left for work the next morning, Christie removed Ruth’s body from the floorboards and placed her naked in the garden in the backyard. Years later, Christie admitted to police, “I gazed down at her body and felt a quiet peaceful thrill. I had no regrets.” Ruth would remain there for a decade; with only Christie aware of her whereabouts.
One year later, in 1944, Christie met Muriel Eady, a woman he worked with at a radio firm. At 32, Muriel was short and heavy, and already had a boyfriend. Christie and his wife often entertained Muriel and her friends with tea and movies, finding themselves happy to spend time with not only a co-worker, but an agreeable and nice woman. One night, while his wife was away, Christie lured her to his home for tea and a bit of company. Muriel suffered from catarrh, essentially a very bad chest cold associated with chronic coughing up of mucus and phylum. Christie claimed to have a positive remedy for her catarrh, involving breathing in fumes that would now be similar to an inhaler or nebulizer. Instead of a real dose of medicinal therapy, Muriel was tricked into inhaling carbon monoxide, making her dizzy and unable to move. Christie then raped her while strangling her with a stocking. Muriel, fully dressed, was buried next to Ruth in the garden.
Four years passed before John Christie committed what would be his next accused crime. Christie’s taste in prostitutes and other women were undeniably prominent, and it seems impossible that he ended his rape and murder spree for four years. Christie had a habit of hiding his bodies either in his home or nearby his home, so the murder of a woman buried in another area seems unlikely.
After living in their home for 10 years, the Christie’s had new neighbors who moved into the top floor of the Rillington apartments in 1948. Timothy, Beryl, and her 14-month-old daughter Geraldine Evans moved in and became quick friends of the Christie’s. Timothy, 24, drove a van for a living and was illiterate. With a low IQ rendering him borderline retarded and harboring the intellect of a ten-year-old, Timothy was in much need of help when it came to very simple things. A terribly confusing and difficult situation arose in the Evans family soon after they moved in. Beryl Evans had become pregnant for the second time, and the child was very much unwanted by Beryl. John Christie, as usual, intervened and claimed that he had a concoction that would rid Beryl of her pregnancy. She had been taking a massive amount of pills in an attempt to abort her child, but Christie was able to convince her that his mixture would be much safer and better on her body. Early in November 1948, Beryl was dead.
Timothy Evans, not John Christie, initially confessed to disposing of her body. Timothy went to the police telling them that his wife had been taking pills to abort her baby, and that she had died in the process. He said that he had stuffed Beryl’s body down the drains outside the front door, but told the police he was not the killer. Intending to find Beryl’s body, the police quickly found that Timothy could not have disposed of his wife’s body as he had claimed. It took three men to remove the manhole where Beryl was said to be, proving Timothy could not have been the only person involved. When police exposed the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine Evans in a hidden alcove of the shared washroom, Timothy hurriedly changed his story.
It had been Christie that killed his wife, according to Timothy. Beryl had been given some kind of pill by Christie that would allow her to comfortably and painlessly lose her baby. Something had gone wrong though, and Timothy found Beryl bleeding from every orifice, her body already cold when he found her. The death of Geraldine Evans had never been planned, and Timothy would not admit involvement in her death. His daughter had been the love of his life, and killing her had never been part of the agreement he and Christie devised. Timothy claimed he had simply followed the instructions of Christie, who had promised Timothy that Beryl would be fine after she passed the unborn child.
On January 11, 1950, Evans stood trial at the Old Bailey Court in London for the death of his wife and baby. Using John Christie as his prime witness, the prosecutor put Christie up on the stand. Although he appeared strange and perhaps unhinged, Christie surprised the court with his admission. He claimed that Beryl was trying to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. When she did not succeed, she offered Christie sex in exchange for helping her end her life. Christie told the court he did not have sex with her, but did provide her with pills to carry out the abortion. Christie further explained that he was just a bystander.
Evans was unable to convince a jury that he was innocent, but with his low intelligence, it seems he might have been confused or unable to recall the true events leading to his wife and daughter’s death. For one thing, Evans had given the police the wrong location of Beryl’s body, and he had also known nothing of Geraldine’s death. Most damning was the fact that Beryl had been strangled, Christie’s favorite method of killing. All of the evidence that could have cleared Evans, such as testimony from the carpenters working on the Rillington apartments and neighbor’s factual account of the days leading up to Beryl’s death. Ethel Christie’s statement was also buried in the prosecutor’s paperwork. Evans was found guilty and went to the gallows on March 9, 1950.
In mid December of 1952, Ethel Christie disappeared from her home on Rillington Place. Christie claimed that Ethel had been visiting her relatives as usual, but this time she didn’t come back. Christie confessed that he believed Ethel had taken his sleeping pills and had attempted suicide. Christie said that Ethel had some sort of suffocation episode, in which Christie decided to put her out of her misery by strangling her in bed. He kept Ethel in the bed for three days before disposing of her body “to keep him close to her. “ Her body, unlike the others was not sexually violated. Christie put a pillowcase over her face and bundled her body in a blanket along with several of her dresses. Christie pried up the floorboards in the tiny living room and placed her body in the hole.
Now, with his wife gone, Christie had ample time to seek out more prostitutes and bring them home. On January 2, 1953, less than a month after his wife’s death, Christie ran into a heavily drunk 25-year-old prostitute, Rita Nelson. To soothe herself from the fact that she was 6 months pregnant, Rita was just drunk enough to believe the story that Christie was able to help her abort it. After some kind of heated argument and a frying pan bashed over Christie’s head, Rita was strangled and left in his living room chair. Christie maintained that he had blacked out and had suddenly awaked to find the corpse of Rita sitting motionless in his chair. Christie claimed Rita was the aggressor and had died while he was trying to defend himself. Rita was put in the wall after one day of decomposing in Christie’s chair.
Early in February, 1953, Christie picked up another prostitute who was inebriated beyond her logical thinking. Kathleen Maloney, aged 26, met Christie in a local café. He enticed her back to his bottom floor apartment for sexual relations. Christie gassed Kathleen first to make her faint and unaware of her surroundings. Christie and Kathleen must have some kind of fight and it was claimed that Christie used self defense to hinder Kathleen from fighting with him. It is unknown specifically if Kathleen might have had intercourse either before or after she was killed, though it seems likely that Christie strangled her during sex, as he usually did. He again claimed that he was blacked out while the murder took place. The next morning, Christie had a cup of tea with Kathleen’s corpse opposite him at the table. Then, he diapered her and placed her body in the wall with the others.
Depending on the story Christie put together, his next victim had a similar story to those who had been killed before. Hectorina MacLennan, a 26-year-old prostitute, met her death on March 6, 1953. According to Christie’s story, the two had had a fight which ended with Hectorina strangled by the collar of her own shirt. Christie, to make sure she was really dead, gassed her and strangled her before making love to her. He told authorities he had blacked out during the murder. As with all the other victims, Christie claimed self defense yet again. He clipped her brassiere to the blanket around her legs to keep her sitting up in the chair. He later put her body in the wall after sharing a cup of tea and a meal with her dead body.
When the other tenants began to notice the stench of something horrible, Christie decided to move, spraying disinfectant on the wall and on the floor. Christie fraudulently sublet his apartment to a young and pleasant couple. The new tenants moved in, expecting to live a quiet and agreeable life on Rillington Place. But, the landlord soon found the new tenants living in what was supposed to be Christie’s home. The couple left the home and the landlord granted the upper floor residents to use Christie’s kitchen. Beresford Brown and his wife, looking for a place to put up shelves, knocked on the cheap partition walls to find a decent place to add slight renovations. Finding a hollow spot, they removed the alcove and discovered a dead body hidden in the wall. The police were immediately notified and they searched the entire apartment for other bodies. Three bodies were in the wall, one in the floorboards, and two in the garden.
In the wall, Rita Nelson and Kathleen Maloney were assumed to be dead for 8-12 weeks, each of them strangled by a rope or stocking and sexually assaulted. Hectorina had been dead for 4 weeks, strangled and also sexually assaulted. Ethel was buried under the floorboards, brought to the mortuary the next day. Compared to the young prostitutes, Ethel’s body was that of a much older and larger woman, missing several teeth. Ethel had been a victim of strangling with a rope and it was estimated she was in her fifties. Under the floorboards, she had been dead 12-15 weeks. Searching in the garden, police found two more bodies; each had been dead for at least a decade. While attempting to find more bodies, the police uncovered a tobacco can which held four different sets of pubic hair.
In the streets, Christie had run out of money and was homeless and jobless for at least ten days. His picture and information of his crimes were on the cover of every newspaper, so Christie tried to retain in low profile. But Christie was soon found after a police officer found him under Putney Bridge in London on March 30, 1953.
Christie, under interrogation, apparently had a complete physical and mental breakdown. He had no guilt for his crimes but claimed he did suffer from headaches and amnesia. He claimed that all the killings had been accidental and denied any sexual activities took place with the bodies despite the overwhelming evidence that he had engaged in sex acts with the corpses. He spoke of his crimes in the third person, suggesting that he was suffering some kind of personality disorder. He also claimed that his ultimate goal had been to murder 12 victims. Christie went into trial for only the death of his wife, Ethel Christie. At the Old Bailey in London on June 22, 1953, the same court Timothy Evans had been under trial, Christie pled not guilty by reason of insanity.
Derek Curtis-Bennett defended Christie, believing he could prove that Christie was insane. A psychiatrist for the defense, Dr. Jack Abbott Hobson, added his medical opinion to the trial. Stating that Christie was well aware of each crime he committed, he was also an extreme hysteric who had trouble deciphering what he had done was wrong. Dr. Jack Abbott Hobson further added that Christie bared a deficiency that lacked reason and accountability, thus allowing him to participate in the immorality of murder and other criminal acts. Christie was found by psychiatrists in the prosecution as a liar and a murderer, finding that Christie was not a hysteric or defected in any way.
Christie confessed to the prosecutor Sir Lionel Heald and the rest of the court that he committed all of the murders, including that of Beryl Evans. Though Timothy Evans had been hanged for Beryl and Geraldine’s murder, Christie made a frantic attempt at seeming insane. He admitted that he was the one who had in fact murdered Beryl by carbon monoxide inhalation and strangulation. Three days into the case on June 25, 1953, he was found guilty of murder, by Judge Justice Finnemore. Christie was sentenced to death and he was hanged at Pentonville Prison by executioner Albert Pierrepoint, the same man to have executed Timothy Evans.
The tobacco can holding four sets of pubic hair was analyzed, and none of the hair matched the seven victims. In the case of Timothy Evans, several inquiries were made on his behalf. It was later found that Evan’s death was a miscarriage of justice, proving that John Christie had killed Beryl Evans. The murder of Geraldine was never confirmed, and to this day, no one knows why she was murdered. Christie has always been a suspect, but police were never able to charge him with the crime. Though his hanging was irreversible, Timothy Evans was cleared of the murders.
“M”: Ich Kann Nicht! By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“Just you wait, it won’t be long. The man in black will soon be here. With cleaver’s blade so true. He’ll make mincemeat out of you! YOU’RE OUT!” A small girl points to one of her friends standing in a circle around her. This is the initial scene captured in the German Fritz Lang film, “M”. The girl will later find herself as prey for a local sadist. Peter Lorre, in his first leading role, plays a man named Hans Beckert. He is a child murderer who claims to be afflicted with terrible blackouts that hinder him from remembering his crimes.
We don’t know much about Hans Beckert in the film. We assume that he is wealthy and that he may be well educated. He seems to be lonely and disassociated with the rest of society due to mental illness. We are not told if he is originally from Berlin, if he had any childhood trauma, if he mutilated small animals (like many serial killers), or if he had any possible early head injuries suggesting mental abnormalities. What we do know is that Beckert is a murderer and pedophile of small children.
Beckert appears to be a man in his late twenties to early thirties with juvenile messy dark hair and enormous sorrowful eyes set far apart near his frowning brows. His considerably round face and thick bags under his eyes contribute to his oddly fascinating face. With a pudgy frame and dapper clothing, he is presented as a normal and innocent Berlin citizen, with no hint of delusion or dementia. Beckert is never seen with another person in the film, always alone and roaming the streets aimlessly. Children seem to be his only friends, and those, he annihilates after treating them to candy and a walk in the park.
Today, psychologists would have much to say about Beckert’s frightening behavior, but psychological profiling did not exist until the 1940’s. Hans Beckert easily slips through the cracks being that he does not fit the current profile of a serial killer or pedophile. He is small at 5’5”, looking harmless and having a childlike chubby face. He appears to be well off, able to explore the streets in the daytime, living in a small but nice apartment, having a maid service, living in a posh neighborhood, and wearing lavish clothing. Seeming to escape from the normal profiling, Beckert could have continued his spree of murders, except for one detail: Beckert was a former mental patient. Though mentally unstable in some way, he is aware of right and wrong, suggesting he is not a psychopath.
Hans Beckert suffers from maniacal blackouts, otherwise known as acute lethargy, while he is hurting his victims. We know that he claims he is present just before the crime takes place, but afterwards, he is unaware of what he has done until he reads a poster or newspaper. He is shocked and appalled at himself, regretful and frightened. Medical journals explain that these sorts of blackouts can be attributed to psychotic or emotional episodes, which could be the reason Beckert was a mental patient at one time. Possible electric shock treatment could have caused his blackouts, or a childhood head injury or trauma. Sufferers of brain tumors and psychological stress often experience strange personality changes which could contribute to Beckert’s loss of memory during his crimes.
Beckert could have also been molested as a child. Often, the sufferers of sexual assault go on to commit the same crime they were once victim to. People with multiple personality disorder have at least three alternate identities; it is possible that Beckert may have been struggling with such a derangement. Beckert hears voices, which could be a sign he is afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia. He is hunted by his own out of control psyche which conveys that he feels another part of himself is responsible for the murders. Serial killer David Berkowitz not only felt he was Beelzebub, he also believed a black Labrador was demanding him to kill. Psychologists diagnosed Berkowitz with extreme schizophrenia.
Since mental illness was still somewhat of a mystery in the 1930’s, the film itself may be inaccurate in describing an unbalanced and disturbed personality. Inconsistent research done for the film may have also contributed to this fact. It is always possible Beckert is just a pathological liar. Known criminals with serious psychological problems are often fantastic actors, such as Kenneth Bianchi who fooled many psychologists with his alternate personality “Steve Walker”. This fictional character, he claimed, committed the Hillside Strangler crimes in the late 1970’s.
On the other hand, Jeffrey Dahmer, though thought to be one of the worst serial killers of all time, readily admitted to his crime. Dahmer was remorseful and sickened by his crimes, much like Beckert. Often going into a trancelike state, Dahmer’s conscious mind was absent during the time of his killings. He also suffered from severe alcoholism, which also causes blackouts. Beckert, though, seems to use alcohol to calm his sexual and violent urges.
The term “serial killer” historically did not exist during the 1930’s. The technical definition of a serial killer is one who commits at least three murders spread apart by various lengths of time. Albert De Salvo, also known as the Boston Strangler, was the very first person to be named a “serial killer” by police in around 1963.
Fritz Haarmann and Peter Kurten were prolific killers in Germany in the early 1900’s. The two separate murderers were indiscriminate about who they chose to abduct, molest, and later kill. Not only did Fritz Haarmann, of Hanover, torture his prey, he also reportedly let them bleed to death after a large bite to the neck. Haarmann pleaded for his own death and was beheaded the day after his court trial. Peter Kurten, of Dusseldorf, was an arsonist and sexual deviant who used various methods of killing, but preferred stabbing his victims remorselessly. His murderous reign of terror lasted from around 1913 to 1931. Kurten was guillotined in 1932, much to the relief of the residents of Dusseldorf. Both killers were the inspiration for the film “M” released in 1931. The outrage felt during this time period fueled this film to later be used as Nazi propaganda; the soldier’s being told that the main character, Peter Lorre, was the face of a “typical Jew”.
“M” was Lang’s first “talkie” film although he directed a dozen silent films before. This was also the first film to identify a character by the sound of a song or coincidently, a whistle. Before the killer is seen in the film, he is already synonymous with “Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg. Peter Lorre, the actor, did not know how to whistle, so all of the scenes in which he is seen whistling are done by the director, Fritz Lang.
In the film, Elsie Beckman, played by Inge Landgut, is nearly killed by a bus after leaving school, before a policeman takes her small hand and leads her across the street. The near fatal bus accident foreshadows Elsie’s forthcoming death by the hands of a child murderer. Later without the policeman by her side, Elsie is seen bouncing a ball down the street and stops in front of a light post.
The light post reads, “Murderer! $10,000, marks reward.” The poster is soon obscured by the shadow of Hans Beckert who politely remarks on what a pretty ball Elsie has. Elsie follows the man, who we see only from behind, whistling “Hall Of The Mountain King”. Beckert buys little Elsie a balloon from a blind vagrant, played by Georg John, and continues down the street. This is the last time Elsie Beckmann is seen alive.
Havoc is an understated term to portray the frenzy that has gone on for eight months in Berlin. Four and a half residents are horrified and fifteen hundred leads are tracked in the search for the child killer. Elsie Beckmann is the eighth and final victim to be abducted and sexually violated before being murdered and hidden in underbrush. Gangs of police swarm the streets in an effort to find any person talking to small children or leading them to a secluded area. Citizens accuse each other of the heinous crimes by mobbing innocent people they think look suspicious.
The only clues left by the murderer are crushed Ariston brand cigarette butts and candy wrappers which cannot be traced to any pastry shop in the city. Fingerprints are analyzed. Homeless shelters and criminal districts are searched. Railway stations and bars are all investigated for any sign of the killer. Every criminal, vagrant, and strange looking individual is demanded to possess identification at all times, which will be examined closely by police investigators. Even police search dogs are sent out to the crime sites for any odor which might implicate the killer to a known criminal.
“Because the police did not publish my first letter, I am now writing directly to the press. Proceed with your investigations. All will soon be confirmed. BUT I AM NOT DONE YET!!!” Hans Beckert is soon found scribbling a letter to a newspaper. On an old wooden window ledge, Beckert is able to see a sunny and beautiful afternoon as he writes his macabre threat. Whistling the same haunting tune, he writes in a childlike cursive scrawl in distinctive red pencil. The grainy surface of the table leaves large indents on the paper as Beckert writes. Killers such as Albert Fish, Dennis Rader, and The Zodiac Killer all craved publicity, writing long and ranting letters to the press in an effort to be noticed. This is a tactic used for the purpose of possibly wanting to be caught, or to frighten the public and exasperate the police.
Beckert’s cryptic letter is released to the newspapers and soon analyzed by a forensic scientist who remarks that some of the words in the note attribute directly to the sexuality of the sex offender. It is the one and only time in the film that the killer is openly suspected to be a pedophile. This was presumably because of the time period, in which Lang was careful not to enrage the public more than it already was. After hearing the terrible tales of Peter Kurten and Fritz Haarmann, within five hours east of Berlin, the citizens were already appalled by the recent violence and chaos. The forensic scientist goes on to say that the uneven style of the note suggests “indolence or madness.”
As the letter is dissected, the scene disintegrates to a rather unusual view, where we see Hans Beckert’s face for the first time. Preening at his reflection in a mirror, he mischievously pulls down the corners of his mouth in a mock frown to show what he believes to be a typical villain. He seems to be laughing at his crimes in this peculiarly strange short scene. Temporarily forgetting his mental maladies, it is easy to see the truly evil capacity within him. He smiles proudly at himself and an eerie silence fills the room before the scene is cut abruptly.
Not only were police searching for Beckert, but criminals were avidly searching for him as well. Because of nightly raids in their districts, the gangsters are unable to commit their own crimes, leaving them destitute. They are also so sickened and angry that such a killer could be roaming their streets and scouring for innocent children. The heart of a criminal is not so malevolent that they are unable to understand the revolting pedophilia and death enacted by Beckert. Having the same goal in mind to catch the murderer, the police and the gangsters have a meeting at the same time of the night in different locations. These scenes are spliced together excellently by director Fritz Lang, who separated the conversations only minutes within each other.
To expedite Beckert’s capture, the gangsters employ street beggars as “look-outs” for the purpose of finding any person luring young children away from schools and toy stores. The reward to these beggars is $15,000 marks and each readily agrees to the job. Each beggar is given a radius in which to keep watch, and all comply with the utmost vigilance. The only soul that knows who the killer is, is the blind beggar who sold the balloon to Beckert the day of Elsie Beckmann’s murder. He can only identify Beckert by his unique whistling, and he is deeply affected by the plaguing tune, covering his ears any time a similar sound is made. The blind man does not hesitate to join in with his comrades to catch the killer.
The police compile a list of mental patients released from asylums in the past five years. These patients have been deemed harmless to society and now live in assisted living homes or their own apartments. Police are told to go door to door to find each one to interrogate. An investigator is sent out to find a Mr. Hans Beckert at a seemingly nice apartment. As he walks into the door of the building, he almost bumps into Beckert who is leaving his home on the prowl for a new victim. The two pass each other unknowingly.
Beckert is seen buying peaches from a street merchant, as if no murders had taken place. He appears indifferent and bored, alone and carelessly throwing peach pits on the ground on the streets. Later, he stops to look at an item in a shop window. There, he sees a small girl behind him in the reflection of the glass. She is eyeing a small toy near him, and he begins to sweat and wipe his salivating mouth. His eyes grow large and he begins scratching the top of his left hand, a nervous tic he appears to have developed as a reaction to anxiety. As the girl leaves to meet her mother at a street corner, Beckert quickly retreats to a nearby café where he orders cognac, one after the other. The visible wash of relief clears the angst from his troubled face and he begins to calm himself by whistling “Hall Of The Mountain King.” His compulsion, however, overcomes him and he quickly begins wandering the streets searching for another child to abduct.
Beckert soon finds his next victim; it is the girl singing the children’s song at the beginning of the film. Passing the blind vagrant selling balloons, Beckert leads the child to a candy store. The vagrant immediately begins to recall the tune whistled by the man who bought Elsie Beckmann’s balloon. Suddenly flustered and frightened, he calls over another drifter to follow the whistler at once.
The drifter trails Beckert and the girl to a candy shop called Obst u.Sudfruchte where he hides behind a trashcan. Perhaps Beckert cared so little for his small victims, that he bought them cheap candy before their deaths. Emerging from the shop, Beckert looks right and left before taking out a switchblade and begins to slice an orange for the little girl. Realizing he must catch the man as quickly as possible, the drifter draws a large “M”, for murderer, on his palm with white chalk. As the drifter passes, he slaps Beckert on the back, leaving a large “M” imprint on the left side of his overcoat. Beckert is unaware of the mark the vagrant has left. Staring as the drifter disappears into the night, the little girl retrieves the switchblade from the ground and hands it to Beckert. This could have been the very tool to fight him off, ironically, as she smiles with the knife gleaming in the light post. Although somewhat bewildered, Beckert decides to continue on his conquest with the girl, his arm protectively around her the whole time.
The gangsters are notified that the killer had been found by the beggars. They are told to follow him in turns to avoid being noticed. When Beckert takes the child to a local store toy store, it is there that the girl first sees the “M” written on his left shoulder. Pointing it out to him, Beckert realizes the terrible fact that he has been found when he looks at himself in the store window reflection. The girl tries to wipe off the chalk, but is unable to erase it. Beckert, alarmed and frenzied, sees that he is being followed and abandons the young girl, running down empty streets and finding himself trapped by beggars stepping out of the shadows. The beggars whistle to each other to advise where he is headed, but Beckert is able to hide in an office building attic, where he is safe. That is, until the door is locked from the outside by a watch guard who is unaware of his presence.
Back in Beckert’s deserted apartment, the investigator falsely tells the maid that he is there to visit with Beckert on behalf of the Tax Department. The maid quickly lets him into Beckert’s room, where the investigator sits down and pretends to read a newspaper. When the maid leaves, the investigator begins his search of the room, looking for an old wooden table or some kind of evidence left in the trash can. The room is empty of clues, except for an empty pack of Ariston brand cigarettes and a bag of candy. Believing something is amiss, the investigator returns to the police commissioner, Karl Lohmann, played by Otto Wernike, who remembers the distinctive cigarettes left at the scenes of the crimes. The investigator thinks about the cigarettes for a moment before noticing the windowsill in the sergeant’s office. “Good God! The window ledge!” The police return to Beckert’s home to find red pencil shavings on the windowsill and the word “press” imprinted on the wooden ledge. Police immediately surround the building and wait for Beckert to arrive home.
As the gangsters determine their plan, Safecracker, the boss, decides to wait three hours for the street to clear of people and cars. The building is soon locked by the guards and each room is routinely checked, while the attic is ignored. When the gangsters arrive, Safecracker is dressed as a policeman and is able to trick a guard into opening it. It is then that dozens upon dozens of the gangsters sneak in, all with various implements to open doors and drill through floors. The on duty watchmen are all knocked out and put in closets to hinder them from identifying the criminals or calling the police. Each locked door is wired, so the alarm will go off if anything other than a key is used to open the door. The gangsters tear the knobs clear off the door to reach each room. This shows the fierce determination they feel about finding the child murderer. The capture of Beckert is now a matter of principle, the reward long forgotten.
In the utility closet, where Beckert is hiding, he is struggling to open the door with the blade of his knife, which breaks and falls to the floor. Sweating and panting, he tries in vain to get the door open, now with the head of a nail, which he tries to use as a key for the locked door. While hitting the nail with the tail end of his knife, making a terrible racket, one of the gangsters hears him through the door and alerts the rest of the gang to check the attic.
At this point, a watchman wakes up and is able to send an alarm to the police with an electronic code that lets the police know where the trouble in the building is taking place.
Still struggling with the make-shift key, Beckert sees the door handle turn and he slowly backs up against the wall, realizing that he has indeed been followed by someone. Turning out the light and hiding under left over office furniture, Beckert is able to escape from the gangsters…. For five minutes. He is soon caught by a blinding light used by the angry gangsters. Trapped in a large burlap bag, Beckert is taken kicking and screaming to an abandoned factory.
The police, still unaware that the murderer has been found, question the injured watch guard who swears that he overheard the gangsters say that “We found the guy! We found him!” This leads the police to believe that the building was not purposefully vandalized, but merely searched for the infamous killer.
Franz, a gangster who was stuck in the boiler room when everyone else fled, is apprehended by police and will not talk. Until wrongly threatened by police that the watchman was murdered, Franz is told he could beat the rap if he told the police where the gangsters took the murderer. Franz admits everything, including the location in which Beckert was taken; the Kunz & Levy distillery. The police arm themselves and prepare to arrest Beckert at the dilapidated factory Franz disclosed. The watchman, alive and well, is seen enjoying a large dinner at a restaurant.
At the Kuntz & Levy distillery, Beckert is pushed down a flight of stairs to face his peers, one hundred odd criminals, men and women. All standing before him, some of whom are the parents of the victims, Beckert stands frozen. Suddenly understanding his fate, he begins screaming to be let go over and over, to no avail. Pleading with Safecracker, Beckert vehemently denies any involvement in the murders. He realizes he is caught when a hand grabs his “M” marked shoulder. Turning around, he sees the blind vagrant who ironically is the one to catch Beckert only because of his whistling. The blind man tells him, “This is no mistake. No. No mistake. You recognize this? You bought a balloon just like this for little Elsie Beckmann.” The vagrant holds up a brightly colored balloon and then dramatically lets it go. Beckert begins chanting her name, dreamlike, and stumbles backwards. We find it is clear that he is the murderer when Safecracker holds up photos of the little girls Beckert has violated and killed. Beginning to shake and cry, Beckert recoils as each photo is shown.
Beckert is then treated to an informal trial led by Safecracker. Because of their experience and prison sentences, the criminals believe they have every right to exterminate Beckert under their own court of law. The mobs of people begin to shout that Beckert deserves the worst kind of death, that he should be slaughtered for his crimes. The obscenities continue as Beckert throws himself against a pile of wood while trying to escape. At this time, Peter Lorre begins speaking; his character only given less than a dozen lines in the first one hour and thirty-six minutes of the film. He is told that he is given a defense attorney to which he replies, “Defense counsel? Defense counsel? I need no defense counsel! Who’s gonna prosecute me? You perhaps?”
It is presumed that the defense counsel, played by Rudolf Blumner, is in fact a criminal or vagrant himself, wearing informal attire and having unkempt hair and using lackadaisical dialect. When approached by Beckert, the defense merely says, “Hey you. If I were you, I wouldn’t make big speeches. Your heads at stake here, in case you hadn’t noticed….. I have the dubious pleasure of serving as your defense. Though I’m afraid it won’t do you much good.” This shows us that even the defense is not on Beckert’s side, a fact that terrifies him. Death by the mob, considered by any person, is a frightening and horrible experience. Beckert cries out over and over that he demands to be handed over to the police. Beckert would rather be punished by the real court of law in a more seemingly humane and altruistic way.
In Peter Lorre’s hysterical and sobbing speech he conveys his feelings about his crimes with such heart and bizarre craze; one cannot help but sympathize and yet be so sickened with such a character. With enormous bulging eyes, disheveled hair and begging on his knees, Lorre gives a frantic and incredible speech in which to explain his crimes. A spectacular range of emotions burst forth from Lorre showing his tremendous acting ability. From guilt, terror, excitement, frustration, sorrow, disappointment, madness, and delight, Lorre fantastically switches tones within seconds.
"But I can't help it. I can’t… I really can’t…. help it! What would you know? What are you talking about? Who are you anyway? Who are you? All of you. Criminals. Probably proud of it, too- proud you can crack a safe or sneak into houses or cheat at cards. All of which it seems to me you could just as easily give up if you learned something useful, or if you had jobs or if you weren’t such lazy pigs. But me? Can I do anything about it? Don’t I have this cursed thing inside me? This fire, this voice, this agony? I have to roam the streets endlessly, always sensing that someone’s following me. It’s me! I’m shadowing myself! Silently…. But I still hear it! Yes, sometimes I feel like I’m tracking myself down. I want to run- run away from myself! But I can’t! I can’t escape from myself! I must take the path that it’s driving me down and run and run down endless streets! I want off! I want off! And with me run the ghosts of the mothers and children. They never go away. They’re always there! Always! Always! Always! Except… when I’m doing it… when I….,” Beckert closes his eyes in ecstasy. A terrifying smile begins to curl his lips. A moment passes before his shoulders slump and he realizes the horrific deeds he has done. Disappointment engulfs his entire being before going on, “Then I don’t remember a thing. Then I’m standing before a poster, reading what I’ve done. I read and read… I did that? I don’t remember a thing! But who will believe me? Who knows what it’s like inside me? How it screams and cries out inside me when I have to do it! Don’t want to! Must! Don’t want to! Must! And then the voice cries out, and I can’t listen anymore! Help! I can’t! I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!”
Such a speech implores the audience to try and understand what mental illness may do to a person. Beckert, although flustered and stuttering, appears to be well spoken, implying that he is in fact a somewhat intelligent man. Psychosis in individuals with high IQ’s has been observed under the assumption that they believe they can indeed commit crimes without being apprehended. Documented child killers Leopold and Loeb were a standard example of this affliction with IQ’s as high as 210. Ted Bundy, with the IQ of 124, was able to escape from courthouses twice for brief amounts of time.
When Safecracker decides the fate of Beckert, that he must be extinguished because of his horrible acts, the defense counsel suddenly switches sides. After hearing the tearful words of Beckert, the defense rises gallantly from his chair and delivers his own speech that was so much against the death penalty; the mob begins laughing in the middle of his closing statement.
Covering his face and ears with his hands, Beckert kneels on the cement floor praying for clemency. His lawyer, seeing his client cowering against a wooden pole, addresses the court with fervent tenacity, “…… He (Safecracker) is mistaken because the very nature of the compulsion warrants acquittal! It is precisely the nature of compulsion that relieves him of responsibility for his actions! And a man cannot be punished for that for which he is not responsible! I’m saying that this man is sick, and you turn a sick man over to a doctor, not an executioner….. What does the state build asylums for? No one has the right to kill a man who cannot be held responsible for his crimes! Not even the state and least of all you! The state must ensure that this man is rendered harmless so that he ceases to be a danger to society! …. I will not let you shout me down! I will not allow a murder to be committed in my presence. I demand that this human being…. That this human being be afforded the same protection under the law rendered the common criminal! I demand that he be handed over to the police!”
When the lawyer’s speech still does not sate the mob, they begin to rush towards Beckert, ready to impose their own form of the death penalty on him. Suddenly, all of their hands rise up in the air. Beckert looks up from his hands in confusion to find a police officer holding his shoulder and reading him his rights.
The last scene of the film features the mother of Elsie Beckmann in black, tearfully saying, “One has to keep closer watch over the children! All of you!”
We don’t know what happened to Hans Beckert, whether he received the death penalty, was sentenced to prison, or if he was sent to another mental hospital.
The abduction and death of a child is arguably the worst way in which a parent can experience loss. A typical life cycle is that in which a parent will parish first, which is terrible in itself for a child. But when a child is taken early in life, it is the loss of a defenseless and innocent person who never knew a full existence rich with joys and sorrows. The grieving process for a parent is never ending. A parent mourns the loss of a child for the rest of their life no matter the circumstance. The memory of the child often haunts the parent, leaving them in a state of possibly forever blaming themselves for what they could have done to prevent the death from occurring.
What truly matters is the fact that children are abducted everyday and as Mrs. Beckmann said, we must watch them. We cannot trust others to walk them home from school, take them to a candy store, or ask them to keep terrible secrets. Children are innocent and know no better. Any adult could be just as kind and loving as their parents. But underneath could be a pathological liar, a deranged mental patient, or a maniacal killer.
“M” was written by Fritz Lang and his wife Thea Von Harbou. The film premiered May 11th, 1931 in Sweden.
Mary Ann Cotton “Monster in Human Shape” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
Long before Lizzie Borden’s parents were hacked to death, prior to Nannie Doss’ spree of family murders, there was another woman, cloaked in a black veil and black dress. She dominated the newspapers in North London for a brief period during the Victorian era. This woman, parent of fifteen children, stepmother of two, received no sympathy from an outraged and flabbergasted jury. Not only had this woman murdered fourteen of her children, but she also killed three husbands, her mother, two stepchildren, and a lover with arsenic poisoning. For decades, children were taught and sang the sadistic and evil words that immortalized the death of Mary Ann Cotton, also known as the “Monster in Human Shape.”
Homely and plain looking in baggy dresses and an ill-fitting bonnet, Mary Ann Cotton did not rely on her forgettable appearance to ensnare men, rather used wit and the magic of simple grace to appeal to her many lovers. Mary Ann was certainly the one woman in Northern England who emitted some sort of great attractiveness without fancy jewelry, makeup, or beautifully tailored dresses. Nobody knows how Mary Ann was able to operate so easily with men, but it is clear that men fell deeply, madly, and wildly in love with her. So passionate were these men, three proposed to her and she accepted, bearing her hand for the wedding ring she desired.
Mary Ann’s first marriage was to William Mowbray in 1852 in Plymouth, Devon. At the age of twenty, Mary Ann began her quest of motherhood, giving birth to eight children. She had a wonderful fondness for her children, becoming the center of the world for each child. Her husband worked hard as a fireman, the wages not quite as competitive as he had hoped, but he nevertheless provided for his large and happy family. Although the timeline is unclear, Mary Ann suffered some kind of fit or psychotic episode during her marriage to William. She purchased arsenic at a local shop and sprinkled it on seven of her children’s dinners, saving one daughter, Isabella. She also poisoned her husband’s dinner, and in the morning, everyone was dead except for Mary Ann and Isabella. Before leaving Plymouth, Mary Ann collected William’s life insurance policy.
Moving to Sunderland, Mary Ann began work as a nurse at a neighboring hospital. Caring for the ill and recovering patients, Mary Ann brought great joy to the sick and debilitated. Using her talents of cheerfulness and quiet elegance to raise her patient’s spirits, she was well liked by all the men she helped convalesce. One man in particular was smitten by Mary Ann, an engineer named George Ward. He had many health problems, but the affection and attention Mary Ann gave him literally had him on his knees proposing marriage. While Isabella was living with her grandmother, Mary Ann decided to agree to the marriage, as long as she was the beneficiary on his life insurance policy.
The blissful matrimony only lasted thirteen months, for George’s failing health had finally come to a head, and he passed away, leaving Mary Ann the recipient of his life insurance money. Doctors had been caring for George for years, and it was quickly assumed that he had died of his former ailments, intestinal problems and partial paralysis. It did dumbfound some of the doctors, who had seen George feeling well despite his sicknesses. His sudden death brought up a few questions, but his wife was certainly not a suspect. She was a grieving widow, after all, and her short lived marriage ended so quickly. Her normally jolly character seemed to crumble genuinely.
Mary Ann, moving on from her second marriage in an incredibly hasty manner, sought work as a housekeeper at a Mr. James Robinson’s home. He, too, was a recent widower and was terribly distraught over the death of his wife. He found comfort and love in his new housekeeper, finding her not only understanding about the death of a life partner, but glamorously generous with her thoughtful deeds and reassurance that he would love again. He did find love again, falling for Mary Ann swiftly and easily. Before he could propose marriage to her, Mary Ann received news that her mother was deathly ill. Mary Ann left the Robinson home to take care of her mother in Seaham Harbour, Durham.
The death of Mary Ann’s mother occurred just nine days after Mary Ann arrived. Gastric fever was the cause of death, Mary Ann’s mother suffering from fantastically horrific stomach pains the night before she passed. When Mary Ann returned to the Robinson home with her daughter Isabella, James immediately proposed, believing that he could help with her mourning by giving her good news. Mary Ann and James were married and decided to begin having children together. Shortly thereafter, five children were born. James rejoiced the birth of each child, playing the doting father while Mary Ann enjoyed domestic household pleasures. This did not last long, for Mary Ann’s small children one by one, including Isabella, all died without reason in a very short span of time. The cause of death again, was gastric fever. James became suspicious of the deaths and took his one surviving child away, moving to a place Mary Ann could never find them.
Without James, Mary Ann was destitute and living on the streets. She met Frederick Cotton through an acquaintance, and the two found that they had much in common. Frederick was also a new widower and had lost two children. He found that life alone was depressing and meant nothing without a bride he could shower with love and respect. The woman he chose to marry was Mary Ann, attracted by her warmth and endearing nature. Though Mary Ann was legally still married to James Robinson, she secretly kept that detail to herself and wed Frederick Cotton. After several months, she became pregnant with her fourteenth child and gave birth 9 months later to a boy, named Robert. Taking care of Frederick’s two children, Frederick Jr. and Charlie, it seemed Mary Ann would finally settle down with a real family.
One afternoon, Mary Ann ran into an old lover, Joseph Nattress. This man had consumed Mary Ann completely in her earlier years. The love she felt for Joseph didn’t compare to any other man she had known and the two quickly rekindled a long dormant romance. Finding her arrangement with Frederick Cotton unfitting now that she was with Joseph, Mary Ann sprinkled a bit of arsenic into Frederick’s dinner one night. His death the next morning was found by doctors as a severe case of gastric fever. Her last gift from Frederick was a substantial amount of life insurance money.
When Mary Ann met a wealthy custom’s officer simply called Mr. Quick-Manning, the dreams and aspirations she once had of Joseph Nattress evaporated. Mary Ann was no longer fixed on continuing their affair, and decided to clear her slate, as it were. Poisoning Joseph, her stepson Frederick Jr., and her infant son Robert, she set her sights on Mr. Quick-Manning as her next husband. Before she could attain his affections, she had one last element to take care of; her seven-year-old stepson Charlie Cotton. Telling her neighbors that Charlie was too difficult to take care of because he was “not her own”, Mary Ann waited a respectable amount of time before ending Charlie’s life. Mary Ann, cruel to her very soul, actually sent her own stepson out to the store to buy the arsenic that she would later use to kill him.
A doctor, who had seen Charlie the day before he died, was apprehensive about Charlie’s sudden bout of gastric fever. He had been fine the day before, a skipping and smiling seven-year-old boy with no cares or problems in the world. The doctor ordered an autopsy, at first finding nothing out of the ordinary. Mary Ann quickly cashed the small insurance policy on Charlie, and was ready to begin a new romance with Mr. Quick-Manning. But Charlie’s doctor was unsatisfied with his findings, sending some of Charlie’s stomach contents to a laboratory. After a thorough chemical analysis, it was discovered that Charlie had indeed traces of arsenic in his stomach. The doctor informed police of the poisoning and Mary Ann Cotton was arrested, while police began exhuming the bodies of those who had died from “gastric fever.”
Taking place at Durham Assizes, Mary Ann Cotton’s trial was one of the largest and most famous cases in Victorian history. Mary Ann was taken to the court for the murder of Charlie Edward Cotton. This was a tremendously legendary case, and rightfully so, mainly because it involved a woman who had been accused of killing so many. Doubly worse was that she had possibly murdered almost her entire family including her children.
When rumors spread about the terrible woman who had murdered her family, people were anticipating some kind of evil-looking witch with boils and frazzled hair. They waited for a wild creature with jagged nails and sharp teeth. They imagined a nightmare of a woman, a monster really, in human form. Dressed nearly all in black, people were undoubtedly surprised that this hardly striking woman had found four husbands and was searching for more. Drab and uninteresting, Mary Ann was not at all what people were expecting when she entered the courtroom. Slouching and head bowed, Mary Ann was nothing more than a forty-year-old woman with no distinction about her.
The trial began on Wednesday, March 5, 1873. Thomas Foster was appointed as Mary Ann’s lawyer only two days before, Mary Ann unable to raise funds for a private attorney. The defense argued that Charlie Cotton had been killed from arsenic in the coloring of some of the green wallpaper in his bedroom. The prosecution doubted this strange information, believing that the only way Charlie Cotton could have died so suddenly would be if Charlie was inhaling enormous amounts of the poison daily. He also would have been licking the walls to ingest such a large quantity. Furthermore, the prosecution found that Mary Ann must have had two motives for killing Charlie. She needed him out of the picture so she could marry the man she really wanted, Mr. Quick-Manning. She also benefited by inheriting eight pounds from Charlie’s life insurance policy.
Mary Ann’s story had been extraordinarily documented in the newspapers. Reading only that she had murdered her entire family, people neglected the fact that Mary Ann was only on trial for the murder of Charlie Cotton. Foster, his case rapidly collapsing before him demanded to the Judge Sir Thomas Archibald that the other murders in the family be stricken from the record, for Mary Ann was only being charged for the death of her stepson. The judge overruled the plea, and the jury had full knowledge of every murder that occurred.
Three days after the trial began, the jury had enough evidence to come to a decision about Mary Ann Cotton. After deliberating for one hour, they found Mary Ann guilty of murder. In the amazing and unforgettable speech given by the judge, he said in part, “Poisoning, in the very act of crime, writes an indelible record of guilt. In these last words I shall address to you, I would earnestly urge you to seek for your soul that only refuge which is left for you- in the mercy of God through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. It only remains for me to pass upon you the sentence of the law…”
After hearing the judge’s announcement, Mary Ann fell faint in the court and had to be carried out by guards. She appealed her sentence, and soon found out she was pregnant with the child of her latest lover, Mr. Quick-Manning. Apparently, the two had a hot and brief encounter sometime during her marriage to Frederick Cotton. This was Mary Ann’s fifteenth pregnancy, and the judge, jury, and public were determined that this one would absolutely survive. She was allowed to pick the adoptive parents, but five days before her execution, she clung fast to the infant, refusing to let it go. The baby had to be forcibly removed.
On March 24, 1873, Mary Ann Cotton went to the gallows at Durham Prison. It has been reported that her body convulsed for three full minutes after the trapdoor swung open.
A little song was written to leave an everlasting imprint on Mary Ann Cotton’s life. Whether composed by wary and agitated adults attempting to warn their offspring, or just a bit of rhyme put together by local rope-skipping children, it is unknown:
“Mary Ann Cotton, she’s dead and she’s rotten
She lies in her bed,
With her eyes wide open
Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing
Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string
Where? Where? Up in the air
Sellin’ black puddens a penny a pair…”
Michael Lupo “The Wolf Man of London” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
The definition of sadomasochism is a particular kind of violence using pain or humiliation inflicted on another person sexually. This is usually enjoyed by both parties, generally applied as a sexual way to enhance one’s arousal. Although considered taboo by many people, sadomasochism can be described as a form of love; a way to prove affection to someone by playing a role they normally would not attempt. The dominant party, sometimes masked or handling a leather whip, orders the obedient person to submit to them fully. The mere act of submission fulfills the dominant person’s wildest desires as they begin the sex acts they desperately have dreamed of for as long as the passion has been seeded.
Coprophilia is, to put it plainly, the sexual urge to involve oneself in feces. Sexually using the fecal matter in any form titillates and stimulates the interested person. Although the urge to play in and have sex with excrement is not fully understood, one can argue that sex with a beautiful woman is wrong too. It is unknown where coprophilia addiction comes from, whether it is an inherited desire from childhood or an extreme way to provoke new and unforgettable orgasms. What is known about coprophilia is that a vast amount of people privately enjoy it. Much like sadomasochism, it is still a forbidden subject in many circles.
Michael Lupo, a handsome and dashing man, was attracted to both sadomasochism and coprophilia, involving both interests in his personal sex life. When murdering his victims, he had a very distinct and unusual calling card which was beyond astonishment and bewilderment. Many victims of murder have had horrible things done to their bodies, including dismemberments, obscene poses, and substantial violent sexual assaults either before or after their deaths. Michael Lupo appeared to bid his final goodbye to his victims by terrifically violating the bodies he had recently respected enough to have intercourse with.
Michael Lupo joined the famous and well known Italian commando unit as a young man. During this time, he found himself attracted to other men and indulged in his homosexuality in every place his unit served. With an attractive fit body and good-looking facial features, Lupo was able to seduce many, if not all of the gay men he met. Lupo’s sex life was filled with all the men he wanted, and he wanted them all. Going to many local bars in the towns Lupo visited, he found that his favorite haunts were sadomasochistic establishments. Playing the dominant man, he was able to force his evil thoughts and emotions on a submissive party.
Leaving the Italian commando unit, Lupo moved to Britain in 1975. He found work as a hairdresser, and when he acquired enough money, he opened his own boutique. The store catered to a special range of clients, mostly to the wealthy and high society gay men who were anxious to hide their homosexuality. These closeted men paid handsomely for Lupo’s products and treatments, affording Lupo to live extravagantly and comfortably. The “styling boutique”, as Lupo called it, attracted scores of available, vain, and gorgeous men. This thrilled Lupo, who found his little shop paradise for meeting and having sex with every man he could get his manicured fingers on.
Michael Lupo moved to Roland Gardens, in South Kensington, where he designed and built himself a torture chamber to execute his sexual plans. He frequented sadomasochistic bars looking for his ideal partner, which was usually anyone with a pretty face, and brought them back to his underground torture chamber. Boasting that he had had sex with over 4,000 men, Lupo carelessly bed any person willing to enter his home. Abandoning his luxurious home, his “dates” often left with bruises, incisions, bloody noses, and strangle marks around their necks. Whether they enjoyed this kind of suffering is unknown, but Lupo was never found alone on a week night.
In March of 1986, Michael Lupo was diagnosed with HIV, which would have ended the wild sexual endeavors of many, but not Lupo. His diagnosis not only infuriated him, it brought out a monster that was perhaps living inside him all of his 34 years. In the many years since the virus has been discovered, several cases of bitter and angry HIV infected men and women have tried to win some kind of vengeance by transmitting their virus to unsuspecting victims. Though Lupo’s true motive was never revealed, he might have felt some of his “dates” deserved punishment for not having HIV. Lupo might not have wanted to suffer alone, but his actions don’t prove this theory.
In two months, Michael Lupo killed four gay men by strangulation. Not only did he murder them, he had a very unprecedented game he played which happened either before or after his victims were dead. He split open the scrotum of his victims and massaged their testicles. Feeling that his shocking deed was not enough to capture his real hatred and abominations, he slashed open their chest cavities and smeared their bodies with excrement. This was Lupo’s infamous calling card.
Police found bodies littered around London, but were unable to connect anyone to the murders. After two frightened men came to police about a sadistic and strange man who had attempted to strangle them, police linked the murders to a very popular and interesting Italian man named Michael Lupo. Viewing the torture chamber in Lupo’s home, the police made a very swift judgment to arrest him. Lupo was not arrested because of the room, but simply because he was arrogantly strolling around, hands in his pockets, and idly chatting about the victims in a humorous manner. After all, Lupo’s death sentence had been announced by a doctor two months prior and he felt he had nothing to lose.
In 1987, Lupo was charged with four murders and two attempted murders. He pled guilty to all of them, earning him four life sentences and fourteen years for attempted murder. Lupo served eight years in prison before dying of an AIDS related illness. While still living in style, Michael Lupo had visited many hot spots to pick up men. Among his favorites were Berlin, Hamburg, Los Angeles, and New York. They were all places where young gay men were found mutilated and decomposing. The corpses were never directly related to Michael Lupo, but he has been a suspect for years.
Nannie Doss “Giggling Grandma" The Search For Prince Charming By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
What does a woman look for in a man? The deciding factors in choosing a companion for life might be good looks, charisma, humor, and a certain degree of allure. However, there is a distinct and popular belief that many woman follow while dating: Accepting the shortcomings. Certainly, no man is perfect. Each man has an inevitable trait or characteristic that women have to come to live with or love in their man. Without this acknowledgment, a woman is sure to spend her life endlessly searching for a man that doesn’t exist. Every man carries a bit of disagreement, a character flaw that cannot be ignored, or some kind of personal baggage. This is not the fault of the man, for it is human nature for all people- men or women- to err in their ways.
In the case of Nannie Doss, the perfect man was illustrated in books and magazines featuring apparitions of men that fulfilled all of her desires and needs. These men had no defects, and Nannie was unwilling and unable to recognize any other man who did not measure up to her fantasies. The lengths Nannie went through to find this man were dizzyingly frantic and desperate. In her adult life, she met five men she considered to be lifelong partners, but each one proved to be a nuisance she would not tolerate. Four of these men, all in love with her unmistakable laughter and charm, found themselves victims of torturous poisonings that left them convulsing and crying out in anguish. Nannie watched all of them parish, removed each wedding ring, which she set on the bedside table until a more suitable husband asked for her murderous hand in marriage.
Loulisa Hazle gave birth to her first child, Nancy (nicknamed Nannie) in the crisp and chilly month of November 1905. Loulisa and James Hazle were poor but honest and hardworking citizens of Blue Mountain, Alabama. To follow Nannie were three sisters and one brother, all of whom were made to work on the family’s farm as soon as they could walk. Loulisa, fearful of her domineering and abusive husband, brought up her children exactly as James Hazle ordered. The five children were expected to chop wood, plough fields and complete farm chores by the age of five. Nannie sensed her mother’s apprehension towards her father at a young age and abided by the strict rules and regulations of the Hazle home. The children walked two miles to reach the local school, but were often absent due to their father’s wish that they work on the farm. Nannie’s education ended at the 6th grade, her father deciding that work was to be her main focus. This was also an early attempt to keep Nannie away from unwanted attention from boys.
As Nannie and her sisters reached adolescence, their father became increasingly stern that they stay home while their friends went to parties or get-togethers. James Hazle firmly believed that his daughters were not to engage in any sexual activity unless he had first picked their mate for marriage. Nannie, around 14 or 15, had begun reading her mother’s romance novels and magazines which became her first glimpse into her relentless hunt for the perfect man. She found the men in these books and articles not only incredibly handsome, but compelling and utterly spellbinding. The effect these books had on Nannie was boldly profound. Nannie longed for the Prince Charming she felt she richly deserved. Thus, she began sneaking out of the house to pursue the man that would take her away from the farm and her abhorrent father.
When Nannie reached 16, James Hazle had found a compatible and decent fellow for his eldest daughter. Charley Braggs, an earnest employee of the Linen Thread Company, was a handsome and pleasant man who pledged his love to Nannie and proposed after four months of courtship. At the insistence of her father, Nannie agreed to marry Charley. In 1921, they were married and settled into a home in Blue Mountain with Charley’s mother. Charley was deeply devoted to his mother and this became a problem for Nannie. Finding Charley’s mother a bossy hypochondriac with constant ailments, Nannie was made to stay at home every night and lost complete control of her social life. She realized that she was again being dominated by an adult figure, much like with her father and his many rules and punishments. Nannie decided not to be the obedient party anymore and began going out as often as she could, seeing other men and disappearing for days or weeks at a time. Between 1923 and 1927, Nannie had four daughters with Charley. About this time she took up smoking and drinking, presumably to cope with motherhood and her failing marriage. Both she and Charley were having adulterous affairs, and neither seemed to care.
In 1927, on a morning like any other, Nannie prepared breakfast for her two middle daughters, and by the time lunch was ready, both girls had died of suspected food poisoning. Though he couldn’t prove it, Charley believed something was wrong and immediately took his eldest daughter, Melvina, and fled Blue Mountain. Nannie was left alone with Florine, her infant daughter. Charley’s mother died of natural causes shortly after Charley left. One year later, Charley arrived back at the home with a new girlfriend and asked Nannie for a divorce. She granted the divorce and left the home with Melvina and Florine in 1928.
Nannie began work at a cotton mill in Anniston, just outside of Blue Mountain. She moved back in with her parents, Melvina and Florine in tow. Loulisa enjoyed this time with her grandchildren, often taking care of them while Nannie was working or out on the town. Nannie spent her free time paging through her romance novels or exploring the newspapers for a man. Upon reading the Lonely Hearts columns in the newspapers, Nannie searched for her new mate, which turned out to be Frank Harrelson, a 23-year-old factory worker. Frank sent a dazzling picture of himself and a love poem to her, while Nannie baked a cake and sent a photo of herself to him. By 1929, they were married and Nannie believed she had finally found her soulmate. The honeymoon didn’t last long, for Nannie discovered that her new husband was not only an alcoholic, but had been arrested for assault on several occasions. Nannie continued reading her dime shop romance novels, often nursing a black eye or bruised cheeks courtesy of Frank’s wild mood swings.
To remove themselves from Frank’s debts, enemies, and overall bad name, the family moved to Jacksonville, where they hoped to start a new life. Frank, however, continued drinking and brawling at local bars. Nannie brought up her daughters as best she could and stayed married to Frank for 16 years. She endured his violent temper and his vicious beatings all the while dreaming of her Prince. Nannie was a devoted believer that the infatuations she read about in tacky romance novels would become a reality for her someday. Book by book, each description of the perfect man pulled her closer to obsession. Nannie was in love with words on a page, lost deep in the daydream of a man that was never real. She still communicated with men in the singles ads in the newspapers, filtering out the ones that did not fit her ideal image of a gallant man riding on a white horse.
Melvina, now married, gave birth to her son, Robert Lee Haynes in 1943. Nannie was a doting and loving grandmother to Robert, taking care of him while Melvina was out, holding him tight in her arms and kissing his chubby baby cheeks. At 38, Nannie was enjoying her second shot at motherhood. Pictures of Nannie all depict her as a happy woman; gray hair curled just so, laugh lines around her mouth creased from years smiling. She was the perfect image of a blissful and jubilant grandmother.
In 1945, Melvina went into labor for the second time. This was a difficult pregnancy, and Melvina had complications while giving birth. Nannie was at her side the whole time, fetching water or juice, comforting her daughter with a cold cloth, and attending to her every need. When Melvina finally gave birth, it was to a baby girl. One hour later, Melvina, groggy from the ether, glanced over at her mother holding the newborn. What she saw would later be described as a nightmare or a drug induced dream, for what Melvina witnessed was her mother sticking a hatpin into her baby’s head. Melvina later was told by doctors that her baby had not survived and the cause of death was unknown.
When Melvina came home several days later, she recounted to her husband and mother-in-law the story of what she believed to be a nightmare. For a moment, silence filled the room. Then, Melvina’s husband and mother-in-law admitted that they had both seen Nannie holding a hatpin in her hand earlier on the day of the birth. She was casually twirling it with her fingers, they said. Melvina, unbelieving, dismissed the occurrence as a drug induced dream. Her own mother killing her newborn granddaughter? It just couldn’t be possible! Six months later, while Melvina was away and Nannie was babysitting, little Robert was found dead from asphyxiation. Nannie played the part of the mourning grandmother and took great care in seeming genuinely distressed. She later collected $500 from a life insurance policy she had taken out on 2 year old Robert.
After a drunken night at a local bar in late 1945, Frank returned home demanding sex from his wife who declined. Frank became violent, and Nannie finally submitted. Nannie insisted that Frank raped her that night, which was the last straw for her. The next morning, she found Frank’s corn liquor jar lying in her rose bush. Nannie was very particular about her gardening. Finding evidence of Frank’s drinking infuriated her. Emptying most of its contents, she then poured rat poison into the jar. That evening, Frank died in excruciating and unbearable pain. The symptoms of rat poisoning are extremely unpleasant and include bleeding gums, bloody diarrhea, nosebleeds, fatigue, and shortness of breath. To die in such a way is impossibly tragic. This was the fifth murder Nannie had committed, and it seemed to be getting easier each time. With soldiers coming home from the war, no one was paying any attention to the amount of people who died after coming into contact with Nannie. It suited her fine, for it gave her more time to find another Prince Charming.
The time between 1945 and 1947 is unknown, for Nannie was unaccounted for and may have been travelling or searching for a new husband. In 1947, she ended up in Lexington, North Carolina. She met Arlie Lanning after perusing the local Lonely Hearts column once again. They married within two days of meeting each other. Nannie referred back to her romance novels, and soon found that Arlie was not her perfect match. He was a philanderer of many women and drank excessively. Unsatisfied, Nannie decided not to put up with Arlie’s wickedness. She continued her search for Mr. Right.
While Arlie drank and chased after women, Nannie disappeared from their home for undisclosed periods of time, often without a word. When Nannie was at home, she played an adoring wife, taking charge of household duties, cleaning and baking pies. She also attended church, sometimes with Arlie, who was seen as the town drunk and local scoundrel. Nannie, married for the third time, realized she had picked another dud, but never understood that there is no definition of the “perfect man”. Loving someone for all their faults had never occurred to her, and she believed that there still was a man that would fulfill her wildest dreams. What Nannie did not account for was the fact that she was not perfect either. She had murdered five people already, and was an exceedingly disturbed and thoroughly flawed person herself.
In 1950, Arlie Lanning died of heart failure. The days before his death were spent in great pain. He was sweating, vomiting, and was very dizzy, all symptoms that he may have been suffering from the flu. They are also symptoms of arsenic poisoning. No autopsy was done, for doctors believed Arlie’s drinking had somehow affected his heart to fail. Before his death, Arlie remarked that his ailment was due to the coffee he drank the morning before he got sick. Nannie had prepared the coffee and a bowl of prunes for him that morning. After Arlie’s death, his house was burned to the ground while Nannie was out having her television repaired. The house was to go to Arlie’s sister stated in his will, but with the house gone, Nannie was able to collect the insurance money. Before Nannie left town she visited Arlie’s mother who turned out to be Nannie’s seventh victim. Arlie’s mother died suddenly in her sleep that night. Nannie then returned to Alabama to take care of her bedridden sister, Dovie. Not much is known about the relationship Nannie and Dovie had, but shortly after Nannie arrived, Dovie, too, passed away in her sleep.
In 1952, Nannie met Richard L. Morton through The Diamond Circle Club, another sort of dating agency. At age 47, Nannie had lost a great deal of her good looks and was now searching for older men who could be her Prince Charming. Nannie married Richard, moving into his home in Emporia, Kansas. Richard considered Nannie to be “the sweetest and most wonderful woman I have ever met." Richard appeared to have cherished Nannie after marrying her, buying her expensive gifts and charming her with his handsome and clean cut appeal. But Richard was in debt to everyone, and had other girlfriends hidden in town. Finding her new husband a cheating louse, Nannie began looking in the newspapers again for a new husband. Her plans to kill Richard were paused when her mother came to live with her in early 1953 after the death of her father. Perhaps Nannie carried a grudge against her mother for the years of strict rules and abuse her father inflicted on Nannie as a child, for there is no rhyme or reason she wanted to kill her mother. Maybe Nannie knew she couldn’t kill Richard with her mother in the house, or maybe it was just instinct to kill for Nannie at that point. Soon after Loulisa moved into the Morton household, she died after a bout of chronic stomach pains, another symptom of arsenic poisoning. Three months later, Richard died of similar causes.
Nannie’s fifth and final marriage was to Sam Doss, a state highway inspector. She had met him through the newspaper ads, and visited him in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sam proposed to Nannie in June of 1953. Sam never drank, smoked, or cursed and was an avid churchgoer and lover of nature. Nannie found Sam to be insufferably boring, though he was probably the closest Nannie would find to be her Prince Charming. Sam was never threatening or violent towards Nannie, nor did he have affairs. He did not approve of the cheap romance novels Nannie constantly read, or the television she watched. Sam was very frugal, making sure all the lights were off in an unoccupied room, and he was adamant that doilies were used for every drink or plate laid on a table. Sam also had a habit of setting a time and date for sex, which irritated Nannie. In her romance novels, sex was always spontaneous, passionate, and tender. When Nannie left the house to visit Alabama, Sam was readily sorry for his ways. He arranged all his bank accounts available for Nannie’s spending, even taking out two life insurance policies on himself and Nannie. This brought Nannie home very quickly.
Sam Doss, upon eating dinner with Nannie and having her prune cake, became immediately sick with a severe infection of the digestive tract. He was taken to the hospital for 23 days. When arriving home, Nannie gave him one day to recover before making him dinner and coffee. Sam Doss died that night, convulsing and vomiting while Nannie watched. The doctor Sam had seen in the hospital was suspicious of his death. Sam had been well enough to leave the hospital only the day before and now he was dead. Something didn’t add up. The doctor promptly ordered an autopsy which showed Sam’s stomach full of arsenic. According to the coroner’s report, he was given “enough arsenic to kill a team of horses.”
Arsenic poisoning might be regarded as one of the most agonizing ways to die. It may take hours, days or even weeks, depending on the dosages given for the victim to succumb to death. The lungs, skin, kidneys, and liver are chiefly affected by arsenic poisoning. One first feels a sudden onset of a tremendous headache, much like a migraine. This is followed rapidly by changes of color in the fingernails. In acute cases, stomach pain or cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody urine, and severe convulsions occur. To die of arsenic poisoning is fantastically horrible, but to watch and do nothing is pure evil. Nannie Doss, appearing to be completely devoid of emotions was ruthless in her killings. Instead of simply divorcing her husbands, she apparently felt that they needed to be exterminated, much like an annoying bug.
After Sam Doss’ death, Nannie was arrested and questioned by police about the arsenic found in Sam’s body. Nannie was reported to have giggling fits while being interrogated. Nannie first confessed to killing Sam because he was, by her accounts, too frugal. Nannie then confessed to killing Frank, Arlie, and Richard, claiming they were all dullards who, she said, “If their ghosts are in this room they're either drunk or sleeping." She claimed that all she had wanted was to be loved, to find true romance like in the books she pored over. It was reported that while confessing, Nannie was reading a romance magazine that had to be taken away from her to get her to pay attention to the seriousness of her crimes.
The bodies of all the victims poisoned were exhumed and all were found to have lethal doses of arsenic. The bodies of those who had not been poisoned and had died of asphyxiation were suspected to have been smothered in their sleep. The death of her children and grandchildren was never fully understood. Nannie had killed her husbands because they were boring, but what of the children? One can only speculate the motive for killing 2-year-old Robert Haynes was for the insurance money, but it does not explain the other murders. Perhaps Nannie was suffering from some kind of postpartum depression when she killed her two children in 1927. Overwhelmed with four children, living with her overbearing mother-in-law, and upholding a marriage she was clearly unhappy with could have all been factors that led to the death of her daughters. But killing her newborn granddaughter is still shrouded in mystery.
The insurance money was never what Nannie was after, she told police. Her killings were simply done as an act of ridding herself of something she no longer wanted. Sherby Green, a direct relative of Nannie stated, “And if killing people brought in a little extra income, an insurance policy here or there, well, she considered that a bonus. Payment for her cleverness, if you will.” Another motive for killing her husbands could have been Nannie’s fierce hatred for her father. The treatment her father imposed on her as a child might have had a lasting effect on Nannie’s outlook on men. The dominance he once possessed over her she would then reflect back at her husbands. She was now the dominant person and wanted to punish these men as her father had punished her. Her father used a switch as his form of poison, while Nannie used arsenic.
After hearing about the arrest of Nannie Doss, John Keel of North Carolina contacted police stating that Nannie had been corresponding with him and had sent him a cake. She had been searching for another husband while still married to Sam Doss. In her last letter to John Keel, she said was ready to visit him. Charley Braggs was sought after by reporters, for he was the one husband that got away. He had long since suspected Nannie’s poisoning as the cause of death of his two daughters. He also claimed that he was fearful of Nannie during their marriage, declining to eat the food she served whenever she was in a bad mood.
Nannie was put to trial for the death of Sam Doss in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was never tried for the ten other murders in Alabama, North Carolina, or Kansas. When questioned by psychiatrists, Nannie had an explanation for her crimes. She recalled a day when she was seven years old, riding on a train in Alabama. The emergency brakes were used, and Nannie fell forward, hitting her head on the metal bar of the seat in front of her. She suffered blackouts for months after the incident, and splitting headaches that plagued her for the duration of her life. Frontal lobe damage of the brain can indeed cause changes in personalities. Judgment, impulse, and sexual behavior might negatively affect a person after a particular accident. Many serial killers are known to have suffered early head trauma that later affected the thinking and processing of what is right or wrong.
However, psychiatrists found Nannie sane and responsible for the murder of Sam Doss. She decided to plead guilty on May 17, 1955 of her own accord. She was sentenced to life in prison by Judge Elmer Adams, her gender saving her from the death penalty. Nannie Doss served 10 years in The Oklahoma State Penitentiary before dying of leukemia in 1965. In her prison cell were hundreds of paperback romance novels.
Nicolas Cocaign The Cannibal of Rouen or The Hannibal Lecter of France By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
The eating of a human being by another human has been regarded by many in new-age societies as absolutely disgusting and wrong. In other cultures, the act of cannibalism has been seen as a rite of passage, a religious theme, or simply as a means to survive. In the mentally ill, those who commit cannibalism have no bearings, for the “killers” have no understanding of right or wrong. With chemical imbalances or inherited lunacy, the mentally ill have no ability to stop. A corpse to the sane population could be a delicious meal to the insane person. Formally called anthropophagi, cannibalism literally means the eating of one animal by another animal. But what are humans, without our distinctive opinions and intelligent thought processes? We are animals, killing other animals to satisfy our taste for meat.
The motive for cannibalism interests many people, the vast majority of the public longing for a believable reason. The most compelling and perhaps acceptable purpose for killing and eating another human is starvation. For the criminally insane, cannibalism is a means in which to taste the forbidden flesh of a human being, or to satisfy the unusual need to take the soul of their victim. In the old legends of the American Indian culture, it has been said that eating another human can make the body much stronger, virile, and capable of fighting with immense viciousness.
Hannibal Lecter, a well known fictional character depicted in the motion picture Silence of the Lambs, was a prominent and sophisticated psychiatrist who killed and ate many of his victims with interesting and classy recipes. This motivation was spawned by witnessing the cannibalization of his young sister Mischa in Lithuania during the Second World War. In the case of the infamous Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, a very real and terrifying individual, murdered and ate the children he met loitering near trains. Andrei grew up in war torn Ukraine SSR also during the Second World War. His mother, in an attempt to keep Andrei in the home, told him a frightening tale of his older brother being cannibalized in the streets by the starving residents of his small city. Jeffrey Dahmer, resident of Milwaukee, murdered and ate several of his victims in his apartment, but his true motive was to make a living zombie, a man that could never leave him. Nicolas Cocaign, one of France’s newest and strangest cannibals, appeared to have no reason to kill, other than the fact that he wanted to take the soul of his victim and, as an afterthought, to see what he tasted like.
When Nicolas was abandoned by his homeless and penniless mother, he was adopted at age three by a loving and dedicated family named the Cocaign’s in 1974. Though placed with an honest and caring new family, Nicolas was plagued by the abandonment of his mother, the few memories he had remained subconsciously and negatively etched in his mind. Nicolas, certainly not a product of his upbringing with the Cocaign family, was an abysmal and problematic child, often in trouble at school and quickly became a nuisance to the local police for his petty crimes. He even stole money from his parents along with any other precious belongs he could pawn or sell on the streets. After Nicolas was a victim of rape at the age of 13, Genevieve Cocaign, Nicolas’ mother, arranged appointments for Nicolas with a psychiatrist. Genevieve was already aware of her son’s mental instability and tried her best to help somehow rehabilitate Nicolas. In Genevieve’s mind, a mother’s love was never ending, and she was completely devoted to helping Nicolas cope with his struggles.
Genevieve and her husband were residing at a retirement home in Gaillefontaine, France, when Nicolas acquired a new girlfriend, Natacha, and moved into the home with them. He prided himself in raising various arachnids and snakes, finding himself more and more drawn to the macabre. Raising two children with Natacha, Nicolas appeared normal to his girlfriend, but eventually became, for lack of a better word, unbalanced. Three years into the relationship, Nicolas suddenly became tangled in a world of several personalities, none of which Natacha could recognize in the man she had come to deeply love. Hiding in the backwoods of their home at the time, Natacha soon learned that Nicolas was participating in some form of abnormal masochism. When she confronted him about it, a new personality in Nicolas emerged, a man who was intensely attracted to and fascinated with the act of cannibalism. Natacha was unable to understand Nicolas’ sudden absorption with this topic and believed him to have a simple interest that he would never indulge.
Following this bizarre conversation with Natacha, Nicolas began tracking the streets for victims he could most likely abuse in some form. Although his true intensions are unclear at this time, Nicolas might have been searching for someone to intentionally hurt or possibly cannibalize. What eventually occurred was a situation involving the armed and attempted rape of a woman. Nicolas was then charged and convicted for his crime and was sent to Rouen Prison. This was not Nicolas’ first visit to prison. He had spent time as an adolescent and as a young man in prisons for a variety of different crimes. But now that Nicolas’ mental state had begun to crumble, he was no longer what one would call an ideal prisoner.
Nicolas knew that something immediately was wrong with his thinking and begged the guards to send him to a psychiatric unit. His requests were ignored and Nicolas’ image of reality was rapidly becoming violent and illogical. Sharing an 11 square meter cell with two other men, Thierry Baudry and David Lagrue, Nicolas might have started suffering an illness known by many inmates as “stir crazy”. Being locked up for many years with little space and no privacy can cause this affliction to literally break down the mind, often revealing a deep seeded obsession of mistrust and irrational rage among convicts. The slightest bit of deviation from another prisoner can provoke a great argument or even murder.
Thierry Baudry, 41, serving time for sexual assault, made the terrible mistake of riling Nicolas one night on January 2, 2007. When confronted by Nicolas over the trivial matter of bathroom hygiene, Baudry tried to back off, sensing that Nicolas was in a nasty mood. In Nicolas’ paranoia, he thought he saw what looked like “a dirty and aggressive look” and decided to make Baudry pay for his disrespect. Nicolas wouldn’t let the issue go, and began punching and kicking Baudry violently. When Baudry was satisfactorily beaten and unable to defend himself on the ground, Nicolas forced a plastic bag over his head in an attempt to murder him by suffocation.
When he was under the assumption he had killed Baudry, Nicolas cut open the abdomen of Baudry, breaking his rib, and searched for Baudry’s heart. When he thought he found it, he began eating the organ raw. With a better idea in mind, he decided to cook the organ on a portable camping stove that was allowed by guards in the cells. Nicolas fried it with olive oil, sautéed onions, and salt and pepper. Though Rouen Prison was far from perfect, it is nearly impossible that Nicolas was starving. Eating Baudry was a choice, a maniacal one at that, but certainly done out of pleasure. Nicolas took great delight in finally indulging himself in cannibalism, something he had been dreaming of for years it seemed. David Lagrue, 36, the third cellmate, had been so fearful that Nicolas would choose him next; he pretended to be asleep while the killing took place.
The next day, a Rouen prison guard found Baudry’s torn and dissected body on the floor of the prison cell. Left in the cell was Nicolas Cocaign, covered in blood, and David Lagrue, just waking from sleep. The infirmary doctor noted that in Baudry was missing two chest muscles and part of his left lung. Nicolas Cocaign was brought in for questioning, and he instantly admitted to have dined on Baudry’s body the night before. Nicolas, with an eerie smile, told officials that he liked what he had done.
Merely a week before the tragedy, Perth Now, an Australian newspaper claimed that conditions in French Prisons were demeaning and shameful. Basic human rights were disregarded and Rouen Prison and other French prisons were labeled as having one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. This does not explain nor excuse Nicolas Cocaign’s actions, but it does give insight into the living conditions he was under which might have sparked his mad and ravenous craving for human flesh. At the very least, Nicolas’ violent temper might have been exacerbated by the confined and restricted prison cell.
The trial in Normandy lasted a mere four days beginning in the last week of June 2009. Nicolas, face tattooed with bloody tears and a skull, appeared in court looking well-groomed and dressed professionally. After being given psychiatric treatment, he went before the court stating that he felt stable and well enough to proceed with the trial. Though at this time, no diagnosis has been made for Nicolas, his attorney Fabien Picchiottio believed that his client was without a doubt completely insane. Demanding Nicolas serve his time in a psychiatric hospital, Picchiottio felt that his client was unquestionably in need of medical help. He further went on to add that though it is very strange for a patient to recognize their own ailment, Nicolas all the same would benefit from psychiatric treatment. Sufferers of mental illnesses are often unable to distinguish the psychosis they experience. For example, paranoid schizophrenics are almost always in the dark about their sickness, believing that an unreasonable person or situation is haunting them or out to sabotage them.
Fabien Picchiottio, devoted to finding his client legally insane, searched out a possible reason Nicolas had committed cannibalism. He held responsible the Rouen Prison in northwestern France for not allowing Cocaign to seek professional help for his unstable mental state. Nicolas’ mother, Genevieve Cocaign, testified at the trial, stating that her son was unsafe, dangerous, and badly needed help. In 2005, she even sent a letter to the then minister of the interior, French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Her letter went ignored, as did the many she sent after that. Genevieve tried to explain her son’s mental problems had begun at the age of 3, when he was abandoned by his biological mother and was adopted by the Cocaign family. Natacha also testified, expressing her belief that Nicolas had been undergoing severe personality changes before he was incarcerated. This was a desperate plea to prove to the judge and the public that Nicolas was incredibly mentally disturbed.
Nicolas admitted his fault in court, confessing that he was fully accountable for the death of Thierry Baudry, but insisting that he had pled for help at the Rouen Prison. His explanation for the killing was that he initially thought he was eating Baudry’s heart and "wanted to take his soul." But, he added, "I was curious to see what he tasted like." To Baudry’s mother and four siblings, Nicolas said, “I want to excuse myself before the Baudry family, if they accept my apology.” Baudry’s mother, Jacqueline, said “I want to know why he did this to my son. I want him to pay.”
Nicolas claimed that the death of Baudry was a “cry for help” for the Rouen Prison system. "No one was listening to me…. I made several appeals for help, saying I was a man capable of being dangerous. I took action, and then they took me seriously," Nicolas told the court. To eat another inmate is extraordinarily excessive, but to Nicolas, it seemed the only way to bid for attention. That, in itself, was regarded as a definite cry for help.
Nicolas’ lawyer argued that Cocaign was not responsible for the crime because of his mental disorder. To show to the grieving family that he did not agree or approve with the killing, he said “What he did horrifies me, [But] one doesn't judge the insane.” The prosecutor countered this statement with “Horror is not synonymous with folly.” To judge the insane is to judge a small child who has snuck into the cookie jar. They know no right or wrong, only that the cookie tastes good while eating it. The mentally sick are certainly to be punished for their crimes. But living in an assisted facility that can manage their medication is monumentally better than living in a prison system that cannot offer treatment and rehabilitation for their recklessness or madness.
Baudry’s family left the courtroom promptly when the gory details were announced by the medical examiner. Making the Cocaign case more disturbing was the disclosure by Dr. Patrick Laburthe-Tolra claiming that Baudry was still alive when Nicolas began his dissection of the body. He further went on to say that Baudry’s heart was still beating and he was still breathing when his chest was being cut open and his lung removed. This was proved by the fact that blood was present in the left lung when it was taken out and eaten. Nicolas testified that he had intended on eating Baudry’s heart, but had erred when selecting the organ.
After four days in court, Nicolas Cocaign was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder and acts of “barbarism.” With good behavior and proper psychiatric treatment, he may only serve 20 years. Though claiming she had never had a calm moment with him, Genevieve visits her son regularly and still loves him unconditionally. David Lagrue, the third prisoner on that fateful night in 2007, later transferred to another prison and committed suicide in November 20, 2009. Langrue’s death was thought to have been caused because of the lasting and traumatizing effect of Baudry’s death.
Pee Wee Gaskins AKA Donald Henry Gaskins By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“I have walked the same path as God, by taking lives and making others afraid, I became God's equal. Through killing others, I became my own master. Through my own power I come to my own redemption.” – Pee Wee Gaskins
Being brutally beaten as a child for no reason has a lasting effect on any child. Whether they decide to inflict that same kind of damage as they grow older, it is unknown. It has been found that 21 out of 30 death row inmates are mentally ill, some suffering from severe frontal lobe damage. The frontal lobe is essentially in charge of social interactions, judgment, impulse, and sexual behavior. A normal smack in the head is seen often enough on television by the doting father to the foolish son. But taking a bat or a thick branch to the forehead of a cowering child is much different. By imposing “domestic rules”, the abuser is dictating to the victim how he should act as an adult. By cracking the skull of a child who deviates from the rules in any way, the violent counterpart is taking a dedicated risk that his child will grow up and take revenge…. Or become a serial killer.
Illegitimately born on March 21, 1933 in Florence County, South Carolina, Donald Gaskins was introduced to many men in his early life. His mother had a lot of boyfriends, all of whom used Donald and his four half siblings as their personal punching bag. Donald, a small boy, with a puny build and short stature, was called “Pee Wee” from a young age. When his mother married a man, Pee Wee expected a real father figure who would teach him the ways of the world. Instead, his stepfather was a cruel tyrant who regularly beat him until he was half conscious.
Pee Wee Gaskins used the violence he saw at home to hurt the children who crossed him at school. Whether it was a boy or a girl, Gaskins made no distinction. He may have been little at 5’3”, but he had a ferocious temper and an even meaner agitation towards those who thought he was weak and fragile. Quitting school at 11, he began work at a local garage and helped out with the family farm chores. Around this time, near the beginning of his sexual urges, Gaskins began to have terrible and aggressive thoughts directed towards his peers. These were called “bothersome” and “peculiar” thoughts by Gaskins, who couldn’t understand his feelings, but nevertheless let them lead his actions for the rest of his life.
At the garage, Gaskins was able to make friends with two delinquent boys, Danny and Marsh, both of whom were also out of school and around his age. Calling themselves the Trouble Trio, the three boys committed burglaries and sought sex with prostitutes in the bigger cities. Again, Gaskins made no distinction between men and women, raping young boys and then threatening them so they wouldn’t go to police. When the Trouble Trio was caught gang-raping Marsh’s young sister, Marsh’s father bound the boys and beat them until they bled through their clothing.
At 13, Gaskins was burglarizing a home by himself. He was caught by a girl he knew who tried to attack him with an axe. Forcing the axe away from the girl, Gaskins decided to go with his first instinct, which was to strike her in the head and arm before fleeing the scene. Gaskins was later arrested and found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. Sentenced until his 18th birthday, Gaskins was sent to South Carolina Industrial School for Boys. The nickname of “Pee Wee” stuck, and the reform school boys delighted in pushing the new and little guy around. Gaskins was victim to a twenty man gang-rape, and later was the sexual plaything for the older and bigger boys.
Gaskins attempted escape over and over, each time getting caught and each time receiving a beating from the guards. Because of his fierce determination to leave the reform school, it was recommended that he visit a mental hospital to treat the demons that were consuming Gaskins’ brain. He was found sane enough to leave the mental facility and sent back to the reformatory. If psychiatrists had probed Gaskins further, they might have been able to stop the fledgling killer, imprisoning him and analyzing his thinking patterns. Gaskins might have been prevented him from murdering the 80 he later claimed to have committed. Escaping from the reform school for the final time, Gaskins caught a ride with a passing carnival and married a 13-year-old girl. Inspired by his new marriage and all the things he might be able to accomplish if given the right education, Gaskins returned to the reform school to finish his sentence. He was finally legally released on his 18th birthday.
Immediately after leaving the reform school, Gaskins began work at a tobacco plantation. His plan to turn things around in his life rapidly faded, and he was soon committing crimes again. Involving himself in insurance fraud, Gaskins and a partner began burning down barns and sheds for local farmers. When his employer’s daughter and a friend confronted Gaskins about the fraud, he grabbed a hammer and split her skull with it. The woman survived but for that incidence, Gaskins got a five year sentence for assault and attempted murder. Prison was much like reform school for Gaskins. He was sexually abused and found that he had to become a “Power Man” to avoid the customary beatings and rapings. Because Gaskins was small, he was unable to become a “Power Man” by simply standing tall and puffing out his chest. He sought out the meanest inmate he could find, Hazel Brazell. After winning his confidence, Gaskins cut Brazell’s throat, earning him not only his first murder but the much needed name of “Power Man.” Gaskins was found guilty of manslaughter for the death of Brazell, and spent six months in solitary confinement.
In 1955, Gaskins had escaped from prison and now had his first divorce under his belt. He found another carnival to travel with where he met his second wife, and divorced her two weeks later. Gaskins met another attractive woman he felt he could trust named Bettie Gates. They drove together to Cookeville, Tennessee to bail out Gate’s brother from jail. When they arrived in the city, Gates disappeared without a trace. The man in jail was not her brother, but her husband. Bettie Gates, like most women in his life had let Gaskins down with lies and cheating. The police in Tennessee quickly realized that Gaskins was an escaped convict and he was returned to prison. He was convicted with several more crimes, landing him back in prison.
Paroled in 1962, Gaskins married for the third and fourth time, finding that monogamy was not something he was interested in. With his last wife only 17, she turned him into the authorities for statutory rape. He ended up at Columbia penitentiary and was paroled from prison in 1968. One year later, he picked up a female hitchhiker on the highway. When he tried to have sex with the girl, she laughed at him, something Pee Wee Gaskins was not going to stand for. He beat her unconscious, raped, sodomized, and weighted her body down into a swamp where she ultimately drowned.
Gaskins spree of crime continued in the early 1970’s. His preferred method of finding victims was picking up willing and friendly hitchhikers on the highways of South Carolina. He tortured his victims for days, often cannibalizing their limbs while they watched and making them participate in it. His highway killings he regarded as “weekend recreation”, while personal acquaintances were considered “serious murders.” It has been said by Gaskins himself, that eighty to ninety men and women were killed on the Southern coast, although it has never been confirmed and the astonishing amount of bodies were never uncovered. Among his “serious murders” were his 15-year-old niece, Janice Kirby and her friend Patricia Alsobrook. The girls believed they were being driven home, while Gaskins instead drove them to an abandoned house. He beat, raped, and drowned them and buried them in separate locations. Another woman, 20-year-old Martha Dicks, who found herself mistakenly in love with Gaskins, was taken to his home where he fed her an overdose of pills and liquor. He disposed of her body in a roadside ditch.
By 1973, Gaskins was living in Prospect, South Carolina with his wife and child. He bought an old hearse and jokingly told his friends that he needed it to haul all the dead bodies he killed. No one knew he was not kidding. Although some stayed away from Gaskins because he was frightening and distrustful, some liked and considered him a close friend. Gaskins befriended 23-year-old unwed Doreen Dempsey, mother of a two-year-old infant girl. On her way out of town, Doreen accepted a ride to the bus station from Gaskins. Driving his hearse, Gaskins did not take Doreen to the bus station, rather took her to a deserted and wooded area. Gaskins raped and killed Doreen, then sodomized and killed her baby. He buried them next to each other in a shallow grave.
Gaskins did not only kill for his own fulfillment. In 1975, he was paid $1,500 to murder Silias Yates, a wealthy farmer from Florence County. Gaskins completed the task and buried the body in the local woods. Diane Neely, involved in the crime, knew Gaskins had killed Yates and three other hitchhikers on the road. Later blackmailed by Diane Neely and her boyfriend Avery Howard, Gaskins agreed to meet the two outside of town to exchange the $5,000 “hush-hush” money. Instead of finding a man holding a sweaty palm of cash, Neely and Howard were met with a pistol and two freshly dug graves. Gaskins killed the two and considered the matter over.
Unaware of the terrible temper of Gaskins, two local boys, Johnny Knight and Dennis Bellamy robbed Gaskins repair store. They disappeared soon after the burglary, courtesy of the deadly hand of Gaskins. With the help of ex-convict and friend Walter Neely, also Diane Neely’s ex-husband, the boys were buried next to the many locals that were vanishing quickly all around Gaskins. 13-year-old Kim Ghelkins was the next victim. After being sexually rejected by Ghelkins, Gaskins found himself feeling “bothersome” and “peculiar” again. Ghelkins was driven out to the woods where she was raped and strangled. She was buried in Gaskins fast growing graveyard.
With the disappearance of Kim, the Ghelkins family centered their attention on Pee Wee Gaskins, who had been seen with Kim on numerous occasions. Police found Kim’s clothing in Gaskins home, but the evidence was not damning. They decided to detain him for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. At the insistence of a neighborhood minister, Walter Neely came forward claiming that he had specific information on Gaskins. Brought in for questioning, he admitted that he had helped dispose of several of Gaskins victims, even taking them to the graveyard in the woods. Eight graves were uncovered in total, but Ghelkin’s body was not among them.
On April 27, 1976, Gaskins and Neely were charged with eight counts of murder. The one murder Gaskins went to trial for was that of Dennis Bellamy. Gaskins was desperate to appear innocent in the case, claiming Walter Neely had been the killer in all of the crimes. The jury did not believe this and on May 28, 1976, they gave Gaskins the death sentence. To avoid additional death sentences, Gaskins confessed to the other seven murders under the influence of truth serum. For Walter Neely, the jury found him mentally retarded and convicted him of all eight murders, but gave him a life sentence instead of death.
In 1978, Gaskins was sent to Death Row for the murder of inmate Rudolph Tyner. Gaskins was apparently unable to say no to a bit of cash and agreed to kill Tyner for another convict. Tyner’s clock radio exploded near his face, and he was killed from the blast. Before Gaskins execution, he worked with Wilton Earl on his book, Final Truth, published in 1993. In the book, Gaskins said of his ability to kill, “I am one of the few that truly understands what death and pain are all about. I have a special kind of mind that allows me to give myself permission to kill.” He spoke mainly of his crimes and the psychological manner in which his brain worked. To try to postpone his execution, Gaskins slashed his wrists on the day he was to be taken to the chair. With gauzed arms, Gaskins went to the electric chair and died 1:05 a.m. on Sept. 6, 1991. Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins was considered the most prolific killer of South Carolina history.
Serial Killer: The Human Being By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
For centuries, maniacal and clinically disturbed people have been committing murders. Finding peace and solace in drowning a young child, enjoying dining on the tender meat of a human thigh, or simply falling asleep next to a rotting corpse; these are all things that satisfy and complete a murderer, if only for several moments. These delightful feelings produced through the death of another human being calm and deeply enrich a killer’s psychosis. A killer will go to great lengths to find this cherished sensation, travelling great distances, stalking a victim for weeks, or indulging in sadomasochistic pleasures. Murdering becomes a romanticized thought, arousing the killer’s insatiable appetite as he or she imagines their fantasies coming to reality. The longer the wait for the next victim, the greater the appeal for killing slowly rises. The killer reaches his or her fanatical climax much like an orgasm when finally they end the life of their selected prey.
What the killer feels next is not ecstasy, but rather immediate disappointment. The killing could have been executed better, could have lasted longer, and could have solved the loneliness the killer might be suffering from. Trivial and small insignificant details rack the brain of the killer, leaving them with the belief that the next killing might be perfect. With each murder, the intricate standards are set higher and higher, the killer becoming madly obsessed by obtaining that indescribable ideal emotion of agile strength, fantastic glory, and terrific splendor attained from the very first murder they committed. People who must kill in multitudes are called serial killers. They often kill more than three people in a short span of time, have what is called a “cooling off” period, and then continue their search for more victims. A sexual element, though not always the case, is usually included in the killings.
America has had a remarkable number of serial killers, eighty-five percent of them currently dominating the nation according to the FBI. What seems to interest the innocent public is primarily why these killers do what they do. This is not an easy question to tackle, by far. Early childhood abuse usually plays a large part in the killer’s actions and deeds. Edmund Kemper was locked in a basement by his mother when he reached puberty, while Charles Manson was sent to school in girl’s clothing courtesy of his mother’s constant belittling. John Wayne Gacy was violently attacked regularly by his father, attempting to show his young son what a real man should be.
When a serial killer emerges from his shell, it is sometimes seen as a rebellion against what they have lived through. Not only are they scarred and badly traumatized by the events of their childhood, but they have the need to inflict the same or more pain that they once endured. This is where the argument begins: does childhood abuse always turn a person into a serial killer? No, for we see victims of this kind of cruelty every day, leading “normal” and civilized lives. A product of environment does not always affect a serial killer. What distinguishes a serial killer from the average person is simply the compulsion to murder. But the whys of this are infinitely impossible to pin down depending on each killer.
Serial killers begin their killings at a very young age, their victim’s notoriously small animals such as domestic cats, dogs, or birds. Reasons vary from killer to killer, but some want to torture these defenseless creatures as an act of dominance. After a brutal beating from a parent or relative, the killer might want to inflict the pain they feel on another living thing. Some killers dissect the animals because they are simply curious of what the vital organs and intestines look like. Finding a rat or a squirrel, other killers merely take pleasure in suffering and death, finding that blood on their hands interests them more than any childhood game on the playgrounds. Cannibals, in their early years might find satisfaction in eating the raw flesh of a mouse or cat. Furthermore, fledgling child serial killers often keep souvenirs of the animals, keeping parts of the carcasses in shallow graves they might later dig up later to relive their crimes. Skeletons of these animals are sometimes hidden in backyards or private sheds. Although hard to attain, some killers are even able to keep their animals in jars filled with formaldehyde.
The next stage for an adolescent serial killer is sometimes petty crime, including theft, arson, and rape. Before they are able to ultimately commit murder, they must test the waters, so to speak, to see what they can get away with. Many of these killers are not able to conceal their crimes as easily as they had hoped, and end up in juvenile detention centers or reform schools. Edmund Kemper, an exception in the “law” of serial killing, murdered his grandparents at age 15, earning him five years in a state hospital. Albert DeSalvo was taught by his own father at an early age how to burglarize homes and shops, which came in handy when he finally did begin his full crime spree at age 31. For teenage future serial killers, this is a time for them to learn skills for social manipulation and to successfully gain the trust of people they might later take advantage of.
By the time the killer reaches college age, he is beginning to understand that his fantasies of murder can become a reality if given the proper opportunity. The organized killer begins to plan elaborate schemes, dreaming in precise detail what he will do to his victim. The killer will attain all of his implements in advance; guns, knives, rope, or poison. He treasures his weapons lovingly, delighted that these will be his trophies once he is able to search out the perfect victim.
The “perfect victim” is sought by the killer in an exact manner, for the victim must fit the superlative image of whomever the killer has desired since first deciding to kill. Once the victim has been chosen, the killer usually stalks the home looking for dates and times that the victim will be alone for long spans of time. Dennis Rader was an avid stalker and spent weeks surveying the homes of young single women he would eventually “bind, torture, and kill.”The longer the killer stalks, the more ravenous he becomes for blood, suffering, and agony. Much like a rollercoaster, the killer slowly and gradually climbs to the top, believing the excitement he will feel as he descends will be the thrill of his life.
The unorganized killer, sometimes known as a mentally insane person, does not search out a “perfect victim,” nor does the killer plan out exactly how he will devise the murder. An example might be that of Jack the Ripper, who found prostitutes on the streets of London and tore them to shreds in plain sight. At the same time, though, Jack was reportedly incredibly accurate when slitting open his victim’s chest cavities. Another spontaneous serial killer was Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian citizen with a keen interest in young children. After meeting them at a train station, he lured them to a secluded area in the woods where he tortured, killed, and ate them. David Berkowitz, suffering from severe schizophrenia, mercilessly murdered six young people in the mid 1970’s simply by walking by their parked cars in Brooklyn, NY.
The sexual deviant is well known among America’s roster of serial killers. Many killers demand sex to prove their dominance, raping and sodomizing the victim in a tremendously violent fashion. Some killers who are normally impotent in their marriages find that they can maintain an erection when they are face to face with their chosen victim. The forbidden act of raping someone gives the killer enormous gratification, fulfilling their sexual urgency in colossal measures.
Ed Gein, reportedly impotent, realized that he could have sex with corpses without a laughable comment from his dead lovers. Other killers are over-enthusiastic about sex, commanding their spouse to perform intercourse six or seven times a day. When their spouses refuse, the killers simply turn to their victims, who are unable to reject the killers while bound and gagged. Albert DeSalvo, so tortured by his sex addiction, sought out the elderly, the least likely to fight back. Raping and then strangling them with their own stockings, he left the police to find a cheerfully loopy bow around the necks of his thirteen victims.
Simple violence without sex is another form of serial killing. Bashing in the heads of their victims, beating them to death, and torturing them to the point of unrecognizable human features, serial killers are enamored with certain sadism and bloodshed. At first, this general operation is a vision of beauty to the common serial killer, but some later find it revolting, becoming sick and terrified of what they have done. This is the remorseful serial killer; one who can distinguish right from wrong and understands what he has done is not normal and absolutely horrendous. However, once the serial killers have begun killing, the addiction of slaying innocent people devours their conscious and they are unable and unwilling to end their vicious cycle. Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to his family and the court how enthusiastically sorry he was about the deaths of 17 young boys. Dahmer was genuinely sickened and vociferously disgusted about his crimes, volunteering for the death penalty. He sincerely believed that he should die for what he had done to so many innocent adolescent boys.
The remorseless serial killer does not see his crimes as erroneous, somehow believing that taking lives is his calling in life. Often, the remorseless killer has some kind of mental defect, perhaps brought on by a severe head trauma or hereditary traits that warrant him able to commit violence without guilt. Henry Lee Lucas, among many others, was brilliantly pleased with his murders, boasting nearly five hundred victims had died at his hands. Nannie Doss immediately admitted every detail of her murders, claiming she had killed simply because she was bored with her many husbands. Another female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, originally maintained that she was assaulted by her victims and had no choice but to kill them. She later confessed that in cold blood, she had murdered willfully and happily seven innocent men. America’s Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez reportedly had his skull crushed as a child by a dresser and later had a history of brain damage. His methods of killing varied, but were all impossibly and indisputably atrocious. By slitting their throats, beating them to death with a hammer, or shooting them in the face, all can be seen as the work of an extremely mentally ill person.
Some serial killers find that they possess enough charm and appeal to lure anyone they chose to their victim’s ultimate demise. Theodore Bundy was a perfect example of this kind of trickery, using only one line to attract his victims, “Hi. I’m Ted.” The monstrosities he committed are almost nauseating, but spoke volumes about the way he was able to operate so easily with women. Bundy had never been a victim of childhood abuse, nor had he been molested as a youngster, but he had a sexual addiction that was unprecedented.
A sex addict feels the same way as someone who finds that food tastes good. Once the euphoria of sex is discovered, the addict cannot stop. Although Bundy suffered from a severe case of sex addiction, he was indelibly violent about it. Perhaps the most astonishing case was that of the Chi Omega murders. In one night, Bundy broke into the sorority house of several co-eds, raped and beat two young women and bludgeoned three others to death. Bundy has been famously known as a psychopath, portraying himself as a well-meaning and charismatic man, while still holding the opinion that women were merely people to be raped and murdered.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing was the name given to the practically ancient man named Albert Fish. Seen as a kind and grandfatherly type, nobody could guess that Fish was actually a child molester and cannibal. Bringing ten-year-old Grace Budd to an abandoned house, Fish stripped the young girl nude and strangled her. He dined on her body for the next several days until she began to decompose. Fish sent a letter to the Budd home shortly thereafter explaining in great detail what he had done to Grace. The one assurance he gave the appalled Budd family was that Grace had died a virgin. When Fish was apprehended, it was found that he was afflicted with an acute addiction to sadism. Whether beating himself with a nail-embedded paddle or exacting “punishment” on another, Fish could not control his overwhelming desire for pain. It is said that he even looked forward to his own execution, believing it to be the definitive aching pain he had been longing for his entire life.
Without sophistication and wit, other killers spend their time in the shadows, realizing that they are not part of normal society. By creeping shyly through the streets, they are all virtually unknown killers, keeping their lives private and waiting for the correct victim to find them. After all, some killers are just indiscriminate about who to abduct, torture, and murder. Cousins Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi victimized prostitutes in the late 1970’s, leaving dead bodies in open areas, earning them the title of The Hillside Stranglers. Not only did they strangle their victims, but they bizarrely found pleasure in injecting the women with various window cleaners, and even used electric shock as a torture method.
Other socially awkward serial killers haunt the streets. Jeffrey Dahmer was one of those killers, a lonely and disillusioned young man with a mean penchant for hard alcohol. Dahmer had a decent upbringing, never abused and never molested. He had also never had any history of early head trauma, suggesting he was a sane person who was aware of right and wrong. Alcohol seemed to have not only dominated his life, but had an unusual effect on him when it came to committing crimes. Frequenting local gay bars, Dahmer understood that the only way to get someone to come home with him was to drug their drinks. In the privacy of his home, he mercifully drugged them to the point of passing out. He then strangled them while they slept, finding his ultimate fulfillment at his disposal.
Believing that he was repulsive to any living person, Dahmer strangely attached himself to his corpses, sleeping next to them and lovingly stroking their cold bodies. When the stench of death permeated his home, he decided to keep some of his corpses with him forever- by eating them. Though Dahmer is one of America’s top known cannibals, it is a little known fact that Dahmer did not only and primarily eat every one of his victims. Eating some of them served two functions; one, he could dispose of them by eating them, and two, Dahmer wanted to keep his visitors with him as long as possible, in his own stomach.
The truth about Jeffrey Dahmer is not that he murdered innocent victims without a thought in his mind. Dahmer was truly repentant about his crimes, and admitted that he knew what he had done was wrong. His belief, during his trial, was that he should die for his crimes, for there was no use for his damnable actions in life. His wish came true, in the form of a mop handle and a jealous fist in prison. Dahmer was beaten to death by another inmate after serving two years in prison.
It is indeed repulsive what these serial killers have done. By raping, strangling, bludgeoning to death, or eating the contents of one’s vital organs, we see the distinction between each killer. We find that they are sinful and wicked killers devoid of “normal” emotions or thought processes. It is not fair what they have done, the pain they have inflicted on others, the undeserved violence imposed on innocent citizens. By showing us the awful nature and rule of true evil, we learn that everyone can be a victim if not guarded by reason and a degree of caution. This is not to say that any person is at fault for their own peril. Serial killers are discrete and usually trustful individuals, and that is why they are so often able to capture people quite literally.
Serial killers are startlingly frightening in any capacity, leaving society haunted by the killer’s absolute lack of concern and accountability. But the fact that killers lack this kind of sincere apologetic responsibility has to show America- the entire world- that something is deeply wrong with these killers. A sick person is sent to a doctor, not an executioner. To stop these terrible things from happening, we have to realize that these killers are not another species. They are human beings with damaged mental disorders.
Humanizing a serial killer is difficult, but it must be done to prevent another future Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, or Jeffrey Dahmer. With profound and relentless psychological testing, a myriad of reasoning and understanding can come from these human beings we tend to call “monsters.” If every man in America is to be judged fairly, then the same should be done for serial killers. If compassion and truth must be shown to every man in court, the same respect should be shown to serial killers. Instead of the typical response to serial killing being that of great horror and repulsion, a shred of general empathy could be regarded, for isn’t a serial killer also a victim of their own tragically diseased mind?
Shedding Tears for a Killer By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
“The simple truth is that we cherish even when we don’t emulate.”- Nathan Leopold
It’s the middle of July 2010 in Britain, and the sun is shining down on beautiful bouquets of flowers, trinkets, little notes, and gifts for a recent killer who committed suicide at a riverbank in Rothbury. Raoul Moat shot his ex-girlfriend, her new lover, and an unarmed policeman in one day and evaded police for over a week. After a six hour standoff with police, Moat, 37, shot himself in the head. Where his body was finally captured, now is littered with mourners holding candles and flowers for the man who murdered two men seemingly without remorse.
Raoul Moat, a severe abuser of steroids, found his ex-girlfriend with a new boyfriend and shot them both, injuring his ex-girlfriend and killing her lover. Raoul then shot a policeman who had come to see what the trouble was. The policeman was shot directly in the face, killing him instantly. Moat’s actions are now immortalized by grieving people in the streets of Rothbury, a north English town. Over 50 bouquets of flowers and notes have been left for Moat, and more seem to be coming. What possesses the people of this town and neighboring cities to devote themselves so deeply to a murderer?
Mourning the passing of a killer, or serial killer, is nothing new. Criminals on their way to the gallows or the electric chair have had devoted “fans” wishing them well and sobbing at their deaths. And why shouldn’t they? Death by the electric chair, hangings, and lethal injections are often painful and sorrowful occasions, not just by the criminal and his family, but by people who believe that purposeful death is wrong. Of course, a person that has murdered someone purposefully has committed a crime himself and should therefore be punished, but death is not the answer.
First, there must be understanding by humanizing the criminal, making him a person just like everyone else. Then there must be extensive psychiatric testing, assuring that the criminal is mentally fit to stand trial. At the end, there must be punishment, not necessarily fitting the crime. Death by death is not always the only way to discipline a criminal. Life without parole might be more fitting, allowing psychiatrists the opportunity to study the mind of a killer, preventing future killers to spawn after them.
By humanizing a criminal, some find it easy to shed a tear, even protesting their death sentence and standing outside a prison gate proudly proclaiming their opinion of what should happen to said criminal. In the case of Aileen Wuornos, thousands gathered at Florida State Prison to see her off. Hundreds bared signs begging for the governor’s mercy, believing Aileen to be framed ultimately by police and later the media. Although most wanted Ted Bundy to meet “Ole Sparky”, some stood their ground and believed he should have been imprisoned for life instead of going to the electric chair.
The truth of why some cry and mourn the death of a killer is very simple. When any person dies, especially when it is a terrifically awful death, there is bound to be an outpour of sadness from people, whether it is from the family of the killer or just innocent bystanders. As humans, we cannot deny the fact that there is some connection between us and the criminal. Perhaps we shared the same interests, followed the same principals, or merely took pleasure in the little things in life. Every person, despite their faults, has a right to die with some kind of dignity. If they are not given that opportunity, society has surely failed itself immeasurably.
Shunning the people who grieve the death of a killer is unnecessary. We are all given the right to cry about anything we wish, whether it be the end of the motion picture Titanic, or the loss of a beloved pet. Our emotions are not set in any specific way. We do not apply formally for our feelings at the DMV or Social Security office. To place a bouquet of flowers for a killer is not wrong, nor is it wrong to clap at the end of a Vin Diesel movie. As humans, we are allowed to freely hate and love as we please. If we happen to understand the actions of a killer, it does not necessarily make us sympathizers.
As quoted eloquently by accused child killer, Nathan Leopold, “The simple truth is that we cherish even when we don’t emulate.” He mourned the loss of his fellow accomplice Richard Loeb, seeing the human in Richard when the rest of the world delighted at his murder in prison in 1936. Also celebrated was the murder of Albert DeSalvo, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the execution of Andrei Chikatilo. Human lives were taken away, brutally, and people raised their glasses in a grand toast.
We cherish even when we don’t emulate. That is all that needs to be said to the disgusted people that pass by the dozens of flowers laid down for Raoul Moat. It doesn’t matter who he was or what he did. He was a human being who died tragically.
The Bender Family “The Bloody Benders” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
In 1871, a small cabin was erected near the Osage Trail in southern Kansas. Built mainly from used scraps and boards, the cabin was constructed crudely and plainly, affording only one room and a small cellar below the house. To the right of the cabin was a little garden and a miniature fruit tree, making the home seem less like a rundown shack and more like a place someone might like to retire for a night or two. Residing in the ramshackle tiny cabin was an odd family of four named the Benders. To earn their living, the Benders rented out their home to passing travelers in need of shelter and a meal. By using the cover of their wagon, the Bender’s sectioned off the front part of the cabin as a sleeping area for visitors. The Benders stayed in the back area, sharing two small cots. Calling the cabin The Wayside Inn, it was a welcome spot for exhausted and weary travelers.
Eccentric and buxom, daughter Kate Bender was a said to be a psychic and mystic healer, showing off her talents at travelling carnivals and conducting séances at will. She advertised her strange gift in local newspapers, calling herself Professor Miss Kate Bender, drawing only few interested parties living in neighboring towns and the visitors that stayed at the Bender Inn. Her brother, a slow-witted mid-twenties young man named John Jr., took care of the farm animals living in the shed. Ma and Pa Bender were the heads of the household, dictating the cooking in the cabin, the farm chores that needed to be done, and the cleanliness needed to make the cabin presentable.
People who knew the Bender family recall them as peculiar and poor, speaking in throaty and inferior accents and seeming to come from another time. With no other known family, the Benders kept exclusively to themselves, privately living on their half acre, living off the land and the small amounts of money they received from travelling visitors. Rumors about the unusual family spread from locals, labeling the Benders to be responsible for the disappearances of their own tenants. Specifically, the body found under the ice of a frozen creek was connected to the Bender family. In 1871, all of these lore’s were exaggerated and probably concocted by locals as a way to explain those they did not understand.
On March 9, 1873, well known Dr. William York left his brother’s home at Fort Scott, Kansas, on his way home to Independence. Nearly a week went by before York’s brother became concerned when William did not respond to any of his posts in Independence. Colonel York, William’s brother, decided to track the same voyage William took to try and find his missing brother. Stopping shortly at the Wayside Inn, Colonel York made a desperate plea to the Bender’s asking if they had seen William on his way home. The Bender’s had no recollection of the man described by Colonel York, claiming they had not had a visitor in weeks. As the hunt for William become more distressed, a search party was formed. The search party found themselves at the Bender cabin, where they again ask the family about William. The Bender’s claim no knowledge of his whereabouts.
After the two inquisitions for William York, the Benders took a small number of belongings, loaded it up on a small cart and hauled it off with them while they fled the Wayside Inn. Meanwhile, another suspicious search party arrives at the Inn to find it abandoned, and hurriedly so, it seemed. After hearing muffled screaming noises coming from the barn, the search party found all the animals on the farm either dead or dying from starvation. Furthermore, inside the inn, a strange and nauseating smell filled the air, literally making ill members of the search party. Bravely wandering through the tiny cabin, only 16ft by 20ft, the leaders of the party realized that the sickening smell was coming from below the floor boards. After prying up the nails, the leaders find what could be considered as a “cellar.” What it was, exactly, was a roughly dug pit just large enough for a squatting man. The walls of the pit were coated not with dirt, but layered thick with what most assumed was human blood.
Upon searching the rest of the Wayside Inn, Colonel York saw a protruding bit of earth next to the garden. Examining it more closely, the colonel realized that it looked remarkably like a freshly covered grave. Ordering the searchers to begin digging, they soon found the corpse of Dr. William York. His head had been bashed in, his throat slit, and all his personal affects were taken from his pockets. After a brief day or two of rainfall, the searchers and now police began going through the rest of the yard. What they found were ten graves in all. Almost all of them had exactly similar injuries as William York, save for one grave. Inside was the body of a man and a little girl. The man been killed the same as William, but the girl was crouched in a particular position that suggested she had been alive when buried. She had no injuries, and appeared to have been trying to claw her way through the dirt.
Calling the Wayside Inn “Hell’s Half Acre”, the search party returned to the neighboring town to form posses to investigate the whereabouts of the murderous Bender family. On March 17, 1873, Governor Thomas Osborn put up a $2,000 reward to the person or persons who could apprehend and bring back all four of the Benders. The public, so sickened with the revelation of what had gone on at the cabin of horrors, all pitched in by putting up posters featuring the likeness of each family member, and sent off their eldest to join the rapidly growing posses of men willing to go to the ends of the earth to find the heinous killers.
While the posses were travelling as far as possible for any sign of the family, the cabin was more closely examined. It appeared that people who visited the Inn were treated to a meal by the Benders, the travelers seated purposefully with their backs to the cloth patrician. A member of the Bender family would be behind the patrician, wielding the head of a heavy hammer. When ready, the unknowing visitor would be beaten in the head with the hammer, and then their throats slit to assure their death. The Benders would then search the pockets and bags of the victim, taking anything they could trade or sell. Since the visitors were often carrying all of their belongings with them, the Benders most surely would have taken incredible sums of money and jewelry and other precious goods. After stealing from the corpses, the Benders, with an uncaring foot, kicked the body into the trapdoor under the table that led to the small “cellar.” In the cover of night, the Benders would bury the bodies in shallow graves in their front yard.
The Benders, thought to be distinctive in appearance and hauling a cart which had a wheel that trailed in zig-zag fashion, seemed easy to find according to the posses that tracked them. Though after the reward posted by the Governor, the posses also believed they could retrieve the $10,000 that the Benders were said to have been carrying. Others, disgusted by the horrible family, were attracted only by the goodness of finding the Benders. Stopping their spree of murders was enough for them. Of course, some of the posse felt the reward of finding the Benders would be that of bloodshed. After all the Benders had done, some thought death by a mob was most fitting.
During the investigation for the Benders, a colleague and business partner of the family named Brockman was captured. People believed him to be partly responsible for some of the murders and demanded he admit exactly what he had done and to whom he had done it to. Hanging him by his neck to a tree branch, Brockman was choked nearly to death by angry locals. Brockman admitted nothing, and never confessed to involvement in any of the murders.
Police investigators reportedly did find a lumber wagon thought to have belonged to the Bender family outside of Thayer in Kansas. Also verified by a train conductor were four people fitting the description of the Benders who had boarded the train on their way to Humboldt, Kansas. Leaving the train shortly after, John Jr. and his sister Kate were said to have continued on to Red River in Texas, a place where outlaws were known to inhabit. Ma and Pa Bender travelled on to Kansas City, boarded another train and headed to St. Louis.
Lore tells a different story however. Stated by one of the posses, they said they did indeed find the Benders and lynched them. Others claim the Benders had been burned alive, disemboweled, or shot to death. Either way, the Benders, if they were caught, were punished dooly for their crimes by a ferociously angry mob. Some believe that the number of killings was not only 10, found in the front yard, but actually 21, disposed of throughout the prairies around the Wayside Inn.
The Papin Sisters Murder and Incest in the 1930’s By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
Standing timidly at the top of the stairs, Léa Papin watched her older sister attack their employers, Madame Lancelin and her daughter Genevieve with a carving knife. Christine Papin tore at their faces viciously, blood splattering her crisp white apron. Christine, panting wildly, suddenly looked up at her sister for a moment. Wordlessly, Léa came down the stairs, her maid uniform brushing the wooden steps as she descended. In the hands of Christine Papin, Genevieve was being stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck, her screams nearly obliterated by the blood gurgling out of her mouth. Christine had beaten Genevieve in the face severely with a hammer and was reaching for a pewter pitcher on the bottom step of the stairs.
“Tear her eyes out!” Christine Papin screamed hoarsely to her younger sister Léa, who was standing above the Madame. Léa grabbed the hammer on the floor and swung it at Madame Lancelin, who was trying to crawl away on her hands and knees. Christine had already attacked the Madame, but the blunt force of the hammer had not rendered her unconscious yet. Léa mercilessly beat the Madame until she could no longer hold the heavy hammer in her hands. Leaning down, Léa used her fingers to gouge out the eyes of the Madame, who was convulsing and still trying to get away using her fingernails on the thick blood soaked carpet. Christine, a moment later, also gouged out the eyes of Genevieve in her last moments alive.
Christine and Léa Papin then surveyed the massacre, their breaths coming in quick gasps and heavy chokes. Their accomplishment lay before them, a gory mess of blood and tissue spread throughout the front room and the staircase. Christine closed her eyes for a moment and calmed her rapid breathing. Léa stood above the bodies in horror, her head shaking in disbelief, tears streaming down her cheeks, and felt her insides twist and harden with each gulp of air she took. Christine looked at her sister sentimentally, and touched her cheek with a bloody hand. The red sticky stain marred Léa’s pale white skin, but then, Léa was beautiful even with ashes or dirt on her face, Christine thought. Taking Léa’s trembling hand in hers, Christine stepped over the blood and led her sister to the kitchen. Christine washed her face and hands first with the hottest water she could stand, and then helped Léa wash. Avoiding the disarray at the bottom of the stairs, the two sisters climbed the stairs to the attic where Christine lit a single candle and set it in front of the small window. The two sisters took off their bloodied maid’s uniforms, and got into their small twin bed, pulling the covers up as far as they could.
Monsieur Rene Lancelin, a retired solicitor from Le Mans, anxiously awaited the arrival of his wife and daughter at his brother-in-law’s home. Madame Lancelin and Genevieve were never late, and Monsieur Lancelin was getting worried. Perhaps Madame had forgotten her earrings, or Genevieve had misplaced her hat. But the longer he waited, the less likely it was that either scenario had occurred. Monsieur Lancelin rushed to his three story home at 6 Rue Bruyere, finding all the lights out, except for a flickering candle in the attic. Upon trying the door, he found it locked from the inside. The Monsieur couldn’t find his keys, so he knocked several times. When no one answered the door, the Monsieur decided to call the police. Something was wrong. At the very least, even if his wife and daughter had already left for the dinner, the maids would have answered the door.
When the police arrived, they found that the only way into the house was to climb the back wall of the house and go through the back door. With the fuses blown in the home, the police had to maneuver their way through the house in the darkness. When they reached the staircase, the bodies of Madame Lancelin and Genevieve were found. Resetting the fuses, with the electric lights switched on, the police were able to see what exactly had happened to the two women. Madame and Genevieve’s faces were literally unrecognizable due to the astonishing blunt trauma forced upon them. Not only were their faces smashed in, the eyes of each woman had been crudely removed. The thighs and legs of the women had been mutilated, but most of the assault was directed towards the faces of the victims. The police immediately believed a deranged man had attacked the women, for who else could have delivered the vicious blows that annihilated the women’s faces so badly? Noticing the blood that trailed up the stairs, the police began to follow the drops, step by step, all the way to the attic.
Prying the locked door open, the police found the two family maids nude and clutching each other. On the floor was a pile of maid uniforms, stained dark red, and the hammer that was used in the killings. The two women were motionless, but had a peculiar air about them. Their hair was disheveled, and the younger woman appeared to have been crying and looked genuinely frightened. The older woman had a darkness in her eyes, seeming to hold the younger woman protectively in her arms.
Christine and Léa Papin were brought to the police station for questioning. The two women, now wearing their nightgowns, confessed readily to the murders of Madame and Genevieve Lancelin, but claimed the killings were done in self defense. They each gave specific details on the killings and neither had a reason for why they had committed the crime. Christine, 27, appeared to be the dominant person in the relationship, often speaking for Léa or interrupting her during the interrogation. Léa, 21, was quiet and nervous while admitting her part in the murder, twirling her dark hair in her fingers and absently staring at the floor as she spoke.
The Lancelin murders were a fantastic horror to the French public. The murder of the Lancelin women was not only terribly brutal, but frightened the people who heard the story of the two maids that had bludgeoned their employers. The analysis of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Lacan, prominent French analysts and philosophers, believed that the murder was a direct result of the working class struggle. Earning wages were very low, and employees were expected to work long hours, often without any time off. People became fearful of their hired help, for nobody knew if they would be the next slain by a deranged and angered maid or gardener.
Christine, Léa, and Emilia Papin were brought up south of Le Mans, France in the early 1900’s. After the marriage between Gustav and Clemence Papin disintegrated, Clemence was unable to care for her daughters and placed Christine and Emilia in orphanages. Though she visited them regularly, Christine was deeply affected by the abandonment of her mother. Léa was cared for by an uncle until she was 15. Emilia went on to become a nun, while Christine and Léa sought work as maids in Le Mans.
Though six years apart in age, Christine and Léa were close sisters, preferring to work together as often as possible. In 1926, they were employed by Monsieur Rene Lancelin at 6 Rue Bruyere in Le Mans. Christine was the cook, while Léa worked as the chambermaid. They lived in the attic of the house, sharing a small bed. The two women were regarded as honest, hardworking, and proper maids who kept to themselves and rarely spoke a word to their employers. Working 12-14 hours a day, six and a half days a week, Christine and Léa never complained and seemed to enjoy the fact that they could work together. The one half day they had off from work they spent visiting their mother. When alone in the attic, they made exquisite dresses with sewing techniques Christine presumably learned at the orphanage.
Madame Lancelin and her youngest unmarried daughter Genevieve were known to be viciously meticulous about the maid’s work, often wearing white gloves to check the dusting and sent typed letters about cooking methods to Christine. Though not much is known about the relationship between the Lancelin family and the Papin sisters, Christine was reported to be fiercely jealous of Genevieve, who on occasion, would attempt conversation with Léa. Christine considered Léa to be her one and only confidant, her beloved soul mate, and most of all, her property. Sexual relations between Christine and Léa were suspected by the Lancelin family, mainly because the two women spent so much time together in the attic and had an abnormal fondness for each other. Christine believed she had once been Léa’s husband in another life and treated Léa as her wife. Such was the dominance in the strange relationship that Léa found herself slipping deep into Christine’s personality.
After seven years at the Lancelin home, Léa had virtually no thoughts or ideas to distinct herself from Christine. The two sisters were remarkably alike, in that they shared the same facial structure, hairstyle, and body type. Christine and Léa were seldom seen as two people, for Christine took away any differing qualities Léa once had. In 1929, a disagreement over money between Christine and her mother occurred. Christine no longer visited her mother and refused Léa to go either. Clemence Papin still wrote to her daughters, but her letters were ignored. The two sisters now only went to mass or local parks on their half day off. Christine and Léa were now absolutely isolated except for the Lancelin family.
In late 1932, Christine’s ruthless obsession and odd affection towards Léa was coming to a head. Her rationality had all but gone, and she began having fits of rage directed at Léa for no apparent reason. Her kind character traits were dissolving and what was left was a woman senselessly abiding by the words and laws of a family she slowly began to abhor. Léa could do nothing but watch her sister deteriorate as they cooked and cleaned in the Lancelin household day by day. Christine had lost contact with reality and had begun having auditory and visual hallucinations, now known as symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Léa was prone to severe panic attacks when confronted with bouts of anxiety, which began to get worse while working with Christine, who controlled everything Léa did.
February 2, 1933 was a particularly cold day, with the wind blowing violently and temperatures freezing outside. Léa was cleaning upstairs, while Christine was ironing a blouse for the Madame on the bottom floor. The shadows in the house began to lengthen as the late afternoon sun went down, and soon it was completely dark outside. While the Madame and Genevieve were getting ready for dinner with the Monsieur, the iron blew the fuses in the house and all the electric lights went out. Stomping down the stairs, the Madame was livid with Christine, for this was the second time in the week the fuses had blown. The Madame confronted Christine, telling her that she would be punished severely and began criticizing her for her recent insolence. Christine listened to all of this while clutching the iron handle tight in her hand. The Madame continued belittling her until Christine opened her mouth and began screaming. She let go of the iron and lunged at the Madame, knocking her to the floor and beating her with her fists. Running to the kitchen, Christine grabbed the first thing she saw, which was a hammer and a carving knife. She came back to the staircase and struck the Madame in the head as hard as she could and watched her fall to the floor.
Genevieve heard the screaming and rushed down the stairs in the dark. She was greeted on the bottom step by a carving knife wielded by Christine, who slashed and stabbed as quickly as she could. Genevieve dropped to her knees, her outstretched hands reaching for her mother. At some point, Léa joined Christine and began bludgeoning the Madame. Using a hammer, a pewter pitcher, and a carving knife, the sisters beat the Madame and Genevieve for an agonizing thirty minutes. When finished, Christine and Léa cleaned themselves up and retired to the bedroom in the attic to await the arrival of the police.
After the arrest, Christine and Léa were placed in separate jails for eight months while the trial was being prepared. The police investigators worked tirelessly to find a purpose for the sadistic killings, but could find no evidence that the crime had been premeditated. It was as if both sisters had simply murdered their employers without incident. In July 1933, Christine’s sanity was rapidly fading. She paced in her cell endlessly and began crying out for Léa. Her behavior was unprecedented, for her words and body language expressed a sexual need for her sister. She crawled and ground her body on the floor, screaming and hollering as loud as she could for Léa.
Eventually, Christine tried to gouge out her own eyes and was put in a straightjacket. The next day, she asked to see the police and amended her former statement that Léa had been involved in the killings. She claimed that she had acted alone, and that her episode the previous day had been almost exactly the same the day of the murder. Her statement suggested her violent manner in jail the night before was a direct correlation to that night in February. But Léa, intent on standing by Christine in court, insisted that she had committed murder at the Lancelin home. The police and the judge presiding over the case dismissed Christine’s admission on the grounds that Christine was just trying to set Léa free.
By September 1933, the Papin sisters were on trial for two counts of murder. Christine confessed to the murder of Genevieve, while Léa confessed to the murder of the Madame Lancelin. Psychiatrists found Christine and Léa responsible for the killings, although it seems probable that Christine was a paranoid schizophrenic and lacked personal accountability for her part in the murders. The defense suggested that the Papin sisters suffered from the disorder folie à deux, in which the paranoia of the dominant party is shared by the passive and obedient party. The homosexual and incestuous relationship between Christine and Léa was denied by the two, despite Monsieur Lancelin’s allegations and Christine’s wild and unmistakable fixation on Léa. Psychiatrist’s testimony in the case showed that the Papin family had an extensive history of mental illness. Many of their relatives had been committed to institutions and an uncle had suffered from epileptic seizures and other mental maladies. Gustav Papin, Christine and Léa’s father, was not only an alcoholic, but had raped his eldest daughter, Emilia, at the age of 9.
On the night of the murder, the two sisters were both experiencing their menstrual cycles; something that might have contributed to Christine’s manic and vicious temper when confronted by the Madame. The Papin sisters never had another period, a psychosomatic disorder associated thereafter with the crime. The motive for the crime might have been that Christine, convinced the Lancelin family would dismiss her and Léa, felt that she had no choice but to murder the Madame and Genevieve. Christine’s extreme fear that she would be separated from Léa might have somehow allowed her to attack the Madame without first thinking of the consequences, for Christine and Léa had no money to flee from the Lancelin home. Holed up in the attic, just waiting for police, Christine might have felt like she was at a dead end. With average intelligence, Christine would have been the principal reason Léa, found to be of low intelligence, decided not to escape after the murders. Léa might have also been frightened of Christine’s overwhelming anger and submitted to her completely.
The jury’s deliberation for Christine and Léa Papin lasted only four minutes. The verdict for Christine was death by guillotine, while Léa was to serve ten years hard labor in prison. The dominance from Christine was seen as the one and only reason Léa committed the crime and thus, she was given a shorter and more lenient sentence. Christine fell to her knees in the courtroom upon hearing the verdict. Léa appealed against her sentence but was denied several months later. Since women were rarely given the death penalty in France in the 1930’s, Christine’s sentence was reduced to hard labor for life.
In Rennes prison, Christine’s health quickly began to decline. She refused to eat, and was unable to take care of herself. She continued to cry out for Léa incessantly, using explicit words and behavior to describe the suffering and anguish of being apart from her sister. Léa was briefly reunited with Christine, but did not recognize her, saying, “She is very nice, but she is not my sister.” In a public asylum in Rennes, Christine died in 1937 of Cachexia, known as a wasting disease from self-inflicted malnutrition. Her death was thought to be a direct result of being separated from Léa. In 1943, Léa was released from prison for good behavior after serving eight years. She went on to live with her estranged mother and worked as a maid in Nantes, fifty miles away under the false name Marie.
In 1966, Léa was interviewed by a French journalist from France-Soir. She was described as a “ghost of the past that has burnt her until she is the color of ash.” Léa admitted that she saw vivid apparitions of Christine visiting her in her room. Léa was convinced that the spirit of Christine was living in paradise, or some kind of heaven in which she would be joined by Léa after death. Léa also kept a number of photos of Christine and a trunk containing all the dresses and memorabilia Christine and she had collected over the years they spent together in the Lancelin home.
Léa Papin was widely thought to have died in 1982, but documentarian, Claude Ventura, (En Quete des Soeurs Papin), claimed in 2000 that he had found the real Léa Papin living in a hospice in France. She had suffered a stroke that rendered her speechless and partly paralyzed. This woman died on July 24, 2001 and was buried next to Clemence Papin in Ciemetiere de la Bouteillerie, in Nantes. The identity of the woman in the hospice was never proved, and the likeness of her was compared to photographs of the real Léa Papin showing little resemblance.
Typhoid Mary Killer or Beloved Caretaker? By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
When a plane loses all its engines, a pilot is forced to land wherever he can. If he cannot find a suitable landing site, he might have to crash in the ocean perhaps, or any other place he can find. The public does not find the pilot guilty of the death of his passengers. If the plane is not experiencing any difficulties, and the pilot still intends on crashing the plane, he is referred to as a suicide bomber. If a cook infected with a disease knowingly contaminates the food of a healthy person, are they murderers or simply innocent victims trying to earn a living?
In the early 1900’s, America was suffering from a fatal disease called Salmonella Typhi, also known as typhoid fever. 3,000 to 4,500 New Yorkers alone were infected with typhoid fever, a painful and sometimes deadly virus. Living in fecal matter, urine, and blood, typhoid attacks the bloodstream rapidly, centering its attention on the entire body. Typhoid causes a continuous fever as high as 104 degrees, inflicting splitting headaches, weakness, loss of appetite, and spotty red rashes. In addition, patients also may be afflicted with severe stomach cramping. With rest and good care, a person can survive typhoid fever within several weeks. In patients with weak immune systems, such as the elderly and small children, typhoid fever can quickly eliminate lives.
In the streets of New York in 1900, plumbing was not regarded as sufficiently sanitary as it is today. Hygiene was also still somewhat in its infancy. People knew to wash their hands before preparing a meal, but there was no “100% bacteria killing” soaps and hand sanitizers. Even if these soaps had been available, typhoid still might have found a way into rural as well as affluent homes. The reason for this is that there are carriers of the virus, people who can function well in society without becoming sick. Carriers often are people who have suffered from typhoid fever at an earlier time and “carry” the virus in their body. When confronted with a sick person, the carrier is incapable of catching the virus, but is able to spread it anywhere else.
The very first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in America was a young heavily accented cook named Mary Mallon. Immigrating to New York from Cookstown, Ireland at age 15, Mary was forced into working as a domestic servant to support herself. She was regarded her many employers as friendly and well-mannered. As her talents were recognized, she quickly moved from maid to cook, which meant a much needed increase in wages for Mary. Because domestic help was not always a long lasting trade, Mary frequently changed jobs from 1900 to 1907. Before departing from seven of her jobs, she left behind fevered and ill employers distressed and crying out for help.
The first researched outbreak was in 1906 involving the Warren family of New York. Charles Warren decided to vacation with his family in Oyster Bay, Long Island, bringing with him his servants and his trustworthy and fine cook, Mary Mallon. The Warren family had an excellent time in Oyster Bay, but within days, six of the eleven people in the Warren household came down with typhoid fever. Mary left the Warren household 3 weeks after the outbreak. George Soper, a civil engineer with experience in typhoid fever, first suspected the cook as the infected person. One of the common ways to spread typhoid is through water and food. Mary Mallon alone had worked with both.
Soper, in his search for Mary, finally tracked her down to the family of Walter Bowen, where she was again working as a cook. When he asked for blood, stool, and urine samples, Mary grabbed a carving fork and attempted to attack him. She did not understand why she was being bothered by a man demanding her most personal bodily “details.” She had not been told that research done on her would help benefit the findings and possible cure of typhoid fever. They also failed to tell her that she was in any way connected to the virus infecting all that she came into contact with. Deciding to try approaching her at home, Soper and his assistant Dr. Bert Raymond Hoobler, tried again to get evidence from Mary. She became very violent and refused testing. Shouting and screaming at them, Mary chased Soper and his assistant away from her home.
After going through Mary’s work records, Soper found that she was in fact a possible carrier of the typhoid fever virus. She had no signs of sickness while working with and caring for the ill, and it was suspected that she had never actually had the virus to begin with. Showing his research to Hermann Biggs at the New York City Health Department, Soper was able to have police presence and an ambulance go to Mary’s home. She stared out the window at the men she had come to deeply distrust, and vanished from the home. Found several hours later at a neighbor’s house, Mary was forcibly taken in an ambulance to a local hospital. Soper reportedly had to sit on her the whole time she was being transferred.
After being apprehended by health officials, Mary was taken to the Willard Parker Hospital in New York. Mary was tested for the typhoid virus and doctors found in her stool trace evidence of typhoid bacilli. Because she had committed no willful act of crime, police used sections 1169 and 1170 of the Greater New York Charter to hold her. These sections essentially mean that a person infected with a disease can be detained to offer protection to the public. Mary was then taken to North Brother Island, near New York, to live in isolation. She had one companion, a dog that could not be inflicted with the deadly virus.
After two years in seclusion, Mary sued the New York Health Department, and lost. In early February 1910, a new health commissioner heard Mary’s case and decided that she should go free under several conditions. She was not to work as a cook again and was told to go to extreme measures to wash her hands and be as hygienic as possible. Mary agreed, happy to be freed from the little cottage she shared with a dog and no one else. It was proposed that Mary have her gall bladder removed, the place where typhoid centrally resides. Mary refused the surgery, determined to continue working. Although it is said that she was educated and literate, Mary did not understand how she could be infecting others with typhoid when she herself had never been sick. The carrier theory had absolutely no bearing on her whatsoever.
Mary went back to work as a laundress sometime in 1915. Finding the wages not as competitive as she wished, she went back to her old job as a cook. Nobody knew that she was the Typhoid Mary written about in local newspapers, for she went by the alias Mrs. Brown, allowing her free reign to cook wherever she pleased. In January of 1925, the Sloane Maternity Hospital in Manhattan was crowded with another typhoid outbreak in which 25 people were sick and 2 died. Evidence pointed directly to a recently hired cook, Mrs. Brown, who was really Mary Mallon. The fact that Mary went back to work as a cook and used a false name made the public believe she was willingly causing harm to her employers.
Finding that nearly fifty people had become infected in Mary’s care and three had died, officials took Mary back to the same cottage on North Brother for 23 years. Though not much is known about Mary’s life in the cottage, she did help at the local hospital and spent her time visiting sick children. In 1932, Mary suffered a major stoke rendering her paralyzed. She was taken to the children’s ward and stayed there until her death in November 11, 1938.
It has been suggested, though not confirmed, that Mary’s mother was a sufferer of typhoid fever while pregnant with Mary. When Mary was born, she might have suffered from typhoid, leaving her immune system able to cope with the virus later in life. Others claim that Mary was briefly infected with typhoid as an adult and had recovered, allowing her to cater to the sick without becoming ill herself. The CDC even claims that sufferers of typhoid can lead normal lives, having virtually no symptoms and appearing seemingly well. Mary’s constant changes in her job might have been related to the virus. If she was indeed aware of the illness she was causing, she was freely committing murder. But work was hard to come by and hard to keep, so it is entirely possible that Mary was simply and smartly maintaining employment security by hoping from job to job.
Three percent of those with typhoid fever become carriers, making it somewhat likely Mary was a carrier. The fact that she never was ill while caring for her employers and never had any symptoms builds a strong case that Mary was a carrier. But knowing she was a carrier and continued work as a cook after being warned by health officials shows that Mary might have had some urge to kill. Her actions when George Soper attempted to speak with her showed a very violent and aggressive side to her personality. Lunging at him with a serving fork proves this point. At the same time, in order to keep a decent salary, Mary might have felt she did not have any choice but to remain as a cook even after she was told to stop. Another weaker and less substantial reasoning, Mary might have had a particular flare for cooking and enjoyed it so much, she would not take any other work.
The last explanation for Mary’s case was the fact that she was a devoted and dedicated caretaker for the ill. Even when isolated at the cottage in North Brother Island, she excellently watched over and visited the sick patients voluntarily at the local hospital. If it was an effort to show the public that she was a compassionate and helpful person, she surprised them with flying colors. If it was an effort to continue murdering, she failed, for no one on her ward became sick with typhoid fever.
Judith Leavitt, author of Typhoid Mary, believes that the controversy involving Mary Mallon was unjust and had to do with prejudice against her. Not only was she Irish and a woman, but Mary was also without a family, had a vicious temper, and was a lowly domestic servant. People wanted to point a finger at someone for the death of their families and friends. That someone was Mary Mallon, who went to her grave believing she was not a carrier of typhoid fever.
Wayne Boden “Vampire Rapist” By Kait Wellman Published In Serial Killer Magazine
Sadomasochism, the act of inflicting pain on another willing partner, has been well documented since the late 1800’s. Sigmund Freud himself studied the psychology of both sadism and masochism in 1905, stating that these acts were rooted in the psyche from early childhood. A popular belief regarding sadism in particular might possibly begin with an infant biting and gnawing on the nipples of his mother. Though the child does not consciously remember this particular act in adulthood, he may have a subconscious memory of the enjoyment he felt when innocently biting at the nipples and areolas of his mother.
The act of breastfeeding has a lasting effect on some infants, especially when being weaned from his mother’s natural milk. The child might find himself angry with his mother, believing that the act of withholding the breast from her child is a direct punishment or reprimand for doing something wrong. Some children are not weaned so easily from their mother’s breast, becoming literally attached to their mother’s chest. Mothers who are particularly close to their child find it difficult to give a bottle of formula, instead breastfeeding well after the usual six to nine months. Some mother’s continue breastfeeding until the child is four to six years old.
Although it is unknown why serial killer Wayne Boden had such a bizarre fascination with the female breast, he might have had a possible traumatizing weaning incident as an infant. Not only was Boden intensely attracted to the breast, he was very much interested in sadism. By biting the breasts of his victims, he was fulfilling his need to wreak damage on the breasts he so richly wanted. Nipping at the breasts of his victims was not enough for Boden. Finding that he could reach powerful sexual gratification by ripping at the flesh, he also became massively interested in drawing blood. Essentially indulging himself in vampirism, Boden liked the taste of blood, especially when it came directly from the breast.
Wayne Boden, an attractive young man in his early 20’s with thick sideburns and an easy smile targeted his victims at random chiefly in Montreal, Canada in the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s. It is unconfirmed whether Boden sought out his victims who also found pleasure in sadomasochism, but surely he found his prey without difficulty by conning his way into their homes presumably for consensual sex. The sounds that came from the women’s apartments sounded very much like sexual enjoyment, but they were actually screams of pain. This is possibly why Boden was able to avoid police capture for three years.
The first victim, Norma Vaillancourt, a smart and attractive 21-year-old teacher from Montreal met her death one warm night in late July of 1968. When she didn’t come to work one morning, police were called and they eventually forced their way into her apartment. Her body had been sexually assaulted, her neck almost broken by strangulation and teeth marks covered her breasts. Traces of blood were found from the blunt and vicious ripping at her dark and fleshy areolas. In the apartment, police found that there were no signs of struggle, suggesting she had known her assailant and had willingly allowed him to visit with her the night she died. What police and the medical pathologist found odd was that Norma had died with a submissive and soft smile on her face. Perhaps a sign of rigor mortis had fixed a smile upon her face, but it wasn’t likely. When people engage in sadomasochistic sex, they sometimes specifically want to be superficially strangled to reach a “perfect orgasm.” It might have been likely Norma could have been so enthralled with the violent sexual encounter, she might have attained that “perfect orgasm,” and her last emotion was that of joy before she died.
A year passed before another body was found. Shirley Audette, a young pretty woman who was wandering around downtown Montreal perhaps looking for a man or bar, was found dead behind an apartment complex. Her cause of death and wounds were almost exactly fitting that of Norma Vaillancourt a year previous. Shirley’s boyfriend told police that he believed Shirley had wanted to indulge in the darker side of sexuality- rough sex. Again, to the surprise of police, Shirley had showed no signs of resisting. She was wearing all of her clothes, intact, without a tear or button missing from her blouse. Police thought it was possible that Shirley had been forced at gunpoint to have sexual intercourse, but, the pathologist suggested Shirley had consented to “rough sex” with her killer before he became violent and killed her.
Because of the violent nature and odd manner in which the killings were done, police realized they were officially dealing with a serial killer. Canada now called this mystery breast mutilator “The Vampire Rapist.”
Only months later, Marielle Archambault, a jewelry store worker, was found dead in her apartment with the usual bite marks littering her breasts in a seemingly frenzied attempt to draw a large amount of blood. Marielle was fully clothed, her apartment neat and showing no signs of forced entry. She had been raped and strangled to death, but it appeared that she had not fought back. Police again believed that either Marielle had been specifically raped or had obliged to sadomasochistic sex. After all, there was a whole underground world of people who enjoyed the pain and satisfaction of hardcore sex.
What police did not understand was that Marielle had been wearing all of her clothes on her body, signifying her killer had respected her just enough not to leave her body lying nude for all to see when she was finally discovered. Many killer rapists often leave their victims naked and posed obscenely, their stockings ripped or panties still clinging to one leg. With this killer, there was a probable idea that he had some sort of compassion towards his victims, even though he ultimately killed them.
In 1969, Jean Wray, 24, was killed in her apartment. She had been strangled and had been raped. This crime was different however. Unlike the other killings, Jean was nude and had not had any bite marks on her breasts. According to police, Jean’s boyfriend had come to pick her up for a date, but she hadn’t answered the door. He waited around for a while before deciding to come back an hour later. When he arrived back at her apartment, he found her door unlocked and her naked body laying half on the floor and half on the couch.
Although the motus operandi was different from the other killings, the police were certain they were dealing with the Vampire Rapist again. A pathologist examined Jean’s body finding flecks of skin under her fingernails, revealing that Jean had fought back with her attacker. Jean was devoted to her boyfriend, as it turned out, and her assailant had not been welcome in her home. Police believed that the killer had been in Jean’s apartment when her boyfriend had knocked on the door the first time. Needing to flee the scene, the killer abandoned the strangled nude body on the couch and left before he could damage her breasts.
By 1971, in Calgary, Canada, 2,500 miles away from Montreal, The Vampire Rapist struck again. This attack was also unwanted, it appeared. 33-year-old schoolteacher Elizabeth Porteous was found dead in her apartment by her employer. She had put up a severe fight before being strangled, raped, and her breasts sexually mutilated. In her terror and attempt to fight her attacker off, she tore off his cufflink, which was found underneath her nude body. Questioning Elizabeth’s friends for any kind of information, police discovered that Elizabeth had been seen in a blue Mercedes with a showy attractive young male, calling himself “Bill.”
One day later, a police officer saw the Mercedes parked near the murder scene. The man who owned the car was indeed a handsome and ostentatious male with a flashy smile and a charming demeanor. The police officer brought the man, still calling himself “Bill”, to the police station. The police brought out the broken cufflink and presented it to the man, who looked at it for a long time before slowly nodding. He admitted that it had belonged to him, but claimed he had nothing to do with Elizabeth’s murder.
Under interrogation for several hours, “Bill” revealed his real identity, Wayne Boden. He then went on to confess to four of the murders, but claimed the first murder, that of Norma Vaillancourt, had not belonged to him. To assure they had the right man, Boden’s teeth were examined by local orthodontist Gordon Swann. He found 29 points in Boden’s teeth that matched exactly to Elizabeth Porteous’ injuries. Brought to court in Calgary, Boden was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Elizabeth Porteous. Boden was then taken to Montreal to be found guilty of the three other murders of Shirley Audette, Marielle Archambault, and Jean Wray. Wayne Boden then received a further three life sentences. Boden never admitted and protested that he had not been the killer of Norma Vaillancourt.
Boden began his sentences at Kingston Penitentiary on February 16, 1972. Five years later, Boden was somehow given an American Express card which he used while on a day pass from prison. He was apprehended in a restaurant 36 hours after he was supposed to return to the prison. Nobody knows how or why he was granted a credit card while incarcerated. After serving 25 years in prison, Wayne Boden died of skin cancer in 2006 at the age of 58.
In 1994, a man named Raymond Sauve was convicted of Norma Vaillancourt’s murder and sentenced to ten years in prison.
ARTISTS AND WRITERS NEEDED : We are now looking for artists and writers to take part in our new Serial Killer Magazine. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us at MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM.
WRITERS NEEDED FOR VHS WASTELAND MAGAZINE : Hello ghouls, we are planning to launch a magazine devoted to the strange world of VHS. We are looking for talented writers to join our team and contribute to our new website VHS WASTELAND! If anyone is interested in being part of this new venture in to the world of fictional horror, please contact James Gilks at MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM. Hope to have you on the team!
ATTENTION ALL MURDERABELLIA COLLECTORS! : We are now looking for high resolution scans of Serial Killer letters, death certificates, birth certificates and other interesting serial killer Murderabellia to be printed in future issues of Serial Killer Magazine. Anyone who submits high res scans of such items, will get full credit for their contribution. If you are interested, contact us at MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM.
OUR WORLD FAMOUS SERIAL KILLER MERCHANDISE: Scroll down to see the many true crime and serial killer products that we sell. Click on any item that is currently available to view more details or purchase an item. If you are interested in buying items in bulk, please contact us for information and wholesale prices. Our products have been featured in the Boston Globe, Penthouse Magazine, Fox News and newspapers/magazines around the world. Many of our items are also in the private collection of many celebrities (Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, Jonathan Davis, Michael Anderson, Ken Foree, Carry Fisher, Doug Bradley, Joe Coleman and Lloyd Kaufman just to name a few). We are always adding new items so check back often for more morbid merchandise.
ISSUE 10 OF SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE! 200 PAGES!
THE NEW 200 PAGE SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE ISSUE 9!
VOLUME TWO OF THE SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE COLLECTORS EDITION! OVER 300 PAGES!
ISSUE 8 OF SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE!
Sorry But We Are Sold Out of The Manson Family Cult A Cola Energy Drink!
Complete Serial Killer Trading Card Collectors Set! On sale for a limited time!
COMPLETE SET OF ALL 75 SERIAL KILLER TRADING CARDS
This set includes all 75 high quality trading cards featuring the artwork of Nico Claux, Jack Malebranche, Chuck Hodi, Johnny Machine, Mark Stinson, Gerard Torbitt, Mike Henderson, and more! These cards are sure to be instant collectors items so be sure to buy yours before they are gone forever. Below you will find images from the set.
PRICE : $75
VOLUME ONE OF THE SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE COLLECTORS EDITION! OVER 300 PAGES!
Serial Killer Magazine!
SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE is an official release of the talented artists and writers at SerialKillerCalendar.com. It is chock full of artwork, rare documents, FBI files and in depth articles regarding serial murder. It is also packed with unusual trivia, exclusive interviews with the both killers and experts in the field and more information that any other resource available to date. Although the magazine takes this subject very seriously and in no way attempts to glorify the crimes describe in it, it also provides a unique collection of rare treats (including mini biographical comics, crossword puzzles and trivia quizzes). This is truly a one of a kind collectors item for anyone interested in the macabre world of true crime, prison art or the strange world of murderabelia.
{ THE NEW 2010 SERIAL KILLER CALENDAR }
A quick note to our fans.... Its Back!!!! The 2010 follow up to the "One and Only Serial Killer Calendar" is now ready for preorder. This is a limited edition and will likely sell out by Christmas.. And remember that Serial Killer Magazine will hit Barnes and Noble and Borders on October 13th....and to get em while they last.
{ BACK ISSUES OF SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE }
SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE is an official release of the talented artists and writers at SerialKillerCalendar.com. It is chock full of artwork, rare documents, FBI files and in depth articles regarding serial murder. It is also packed with unusual trivia, exclusive interviews with the both killers and experts in the field and more information that any other resource available to date. Although the magazine takes this subject very seriously and in no way attempts to glorify the crimes describe in it, it also provides a unique collection of rare treats (including mini biographical comics, crossword puzzles and trivia quizzes). This is truly a one of a kind collectors item for anyone interested in the macabre world of true crime, prison art or the strange world of murderabelia.
{ ULTRA RARE SERIAL KILLER DVDS }
SERIAL KILLER DVDS: We are proud to offer the largest selection of Serial Killer DVDs on the planet. These DVDs contain a wide variety of hard to find footage (such as unaired news footage of trials, interviews and parole hearings and the uncut footage taken by Chicago police as they dig bodies from John Wayne Gacys crawl space). It has taken years to find these videos and rather then charge an outrageous price, we are offering these DVDs to our loyal customers for only $10 each.
{ RARE DVD FOOTAGE OF SERIAL KILLERS AND MASS MURDERERS }
THE VERY RARE LAST INTERVIEW OF TED BUNDY BEFORE HIS EXECUTION (PLUS OTHER RARE FOOTAGE)
The all American boy next next door, Ted Bundy, was one of the world's most vile and sadistic killers. He claimed never to commit these crimes however until weeks before he was executed. This DVD includes the two very rare last interviews where Bundy spills the beans and tells all. This is a must have for any serious collector and comes with amazing cover art by Johnny machine!
PRICE : $10
THE SON OF SAM - RARE FOOTAGE OF DAVID BERKOWITZ
This DVD includes hours of rare and lost footage of the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz (including the rare interview where David Berkowitz admits that he was not alone in the killings and his connection to a satanic cult)!
PRICE : $10
VERY RARE UNEDITED POLICE FOOTAGE OF JOHN WAYNE GACY (AT GACY’S HOUSE IN 1978) ON DVD
This is an ultra rare DVD containing footage of serial killer John Wayne Gacy (AKA Pogo The Killer Clown). Contained on this amazing DVD is over an hour of unedited, uncut raw video taken by the Chicago Police in 1978 while they dug for bodies in Gacy’s house. Also on this DVD is rare interviews and footage of Gacy before and after his arrest! This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
THE CAPTURE OF RICHARD RAMIREZ - THE NIGHTSTALKER
This is a rare collection of local news report when Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez was captured by an angry mob wanting justice, Richard was one of the most violent serial killers that ever lived and left many people dead or severely impared from his violent killing spree.
PRICE : $10
RARE FOOTAGE OF RICHARD RAMIREZ (NIGHTSTALKER) ON DVD
This is a rare collection of local news footage and interviews with Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez.
PRICE : $10
JEFFREY DAHMER : CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL KILLER
This is the full 90 minute interview between Stone Philips and Jeffery Dahmer. Pretty wild stuff.
PRICE : $10
RARE JEFFREY DAHMER TELEVISION APPEARANCES
This is a rare collection of local news reports and interviews of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer during the 1990s.
PRICE : $10
HORROR IN MILWAUKEE - HOURS OF RARE JEFFREY DAHMER FOOTAGE AND ORIGINAL NEWS CLIPS
THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE OF JEFFREY DAHMER.
PRICE : $10
RARE FOOTAGE OF THE JEFFREY DAHMER TRIAL ON DVD
This DVD includes over an hour of hard to find footage taken during the Jeffrey Dahmer trial. You will see evidence, witnesses, angry family members and Jeffrey Dahmer himself take the stand. This is a must have for any true collector of the strange and macabre.
PRICE : $10
BIZARRE RARE HOME MADE INTERVIEW WITH OJ SIMPSON
Produced in 1996, this rare home video marks one of the most bizarre points of athlete, actor and suspected murderer OJ Simpson’s life. Apparently OJ was frustrated that everybody thought he was guilty, so he produced this video in order to clear his name, reputation…and to find the real killer of Ron and Nicole. That being said, here’s the setup--the majority of the video consists of a one-on-one, no holds barred interview between OJ Simpson and a journalist named Ross Becker. He was allowed to ask any question he wanted (excluding questions about his kids, personal finances, or post trial legal matters) directly to OJ and demand a full response. This interview was billed was “the questions and answers you would have heard if OJ had taken the stand”…After that grilling, OJ personally takes you on the tour of his estate…the scene of the murders…inside his home, and around his yard. He tries to work through bits of incriminating evidence during this tour, hoping that he can be vindicated in the public arena….but he only seems to dig himself deeper. Watch in amazement as this weird spectacle unfolds before your eyes….He definitely should not have made this video.
PRICE : $10
RARE CONFESSION FOOTAGE OF GERALD PARKER PART 1
Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County.
PRICE : $10
RARE CONFESSION FOOTAGE OF GERALD PARKER PART 2
Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County.
PRICE : $10
ARMAGEDON IN WACO : RARE DAVID KORESH FOOTAGE ON DVD
This is an ultra rare DVD containing footage of the standoff at Waco Texas. The Branch Davidians are a sect that originated from a schism in 1955 from the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, themselves former members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who were disfellowshipped during the 1930s. They are best known for the 1993 siege of their Center near Waco, Texas, by the ATF and the FBI, which resulted in the deaths of 76 of the church's members, including head figure David Koresh.
PRICE : $10
ULTRA RARE HEAVEN'S GATE CULT INITIATION TAPE ON DVD
In 1997 Marshall Applewhite
convinced thirty-eight followers to commit suicide
so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship
that they believed was hiding behind the comet
carrying Jesus. Ummm... yeah... I guess that kind
of makes sen... WHAT?! This DVD is the very rare Heavens Gate initiation tape that Marshall Applewhite used to collect
new members to the UFO cult and convince them
to ultimately castrate themselves and drink a
Jim Jones cocktail. This DVD is hours of creepy cult craziness
and believe me, you will see Applewhites strange stare
long after the TV is turned off. You wont find this DVD anywhere else on the planet! Trust me folks. You have no idea how hard it was to find this thing.
PRICE : $10
OVER 100 RARE AND COMPLETE FBI FILES ON ONE DVD
This is the very rare FBI Files DVD. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act,
we are proud to present you with this amazing Data DVD which includes over 100 rare and newly declassified FBI Files on some of the most interesting people, groups and events in world history. The files on this DVD are in PDF format and can be viewed on any computer.For your convience, this DVD is seperated in to folders (based on theme and person). Each of these folders contains the complete FBI file for that individual (most of which are well over 200 pages long)! These files can be viewed on any computer and are perfect for printing.
PRICE : $10
{ RARE DVD FOOTAGE OF MANSON AND THE MANSON FAMILY }
CHARLES MANSON VS BILL STOUT : RARE INTERVIEW
Rare Charles Manson Interview
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON VS ED SANDERS: RARE INTERVIEW
Rare Charles Manson Interview
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON VS BILL MURPHY: RARE PRISON INTERVIEW
This is the very in depth BBC interview with Charles Manson.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON VS PENNY DANIELS : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW
CHARLES MANSON VS RON REAGAN JR : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW
Ron Reagan interviews Charles Manson
PRICE : $10
RARE LESLIE VAN HOUTEN 1977 INTERVIEW
Unedited footage of the entire interview Leslie Van Houten gave in 1977 after she was granted a re-trial (she eventually was convicted after a third trial in 1978: 7 years to life.) conducted inside the prison. Unique material.
PRICE : $10
RARE 1993 INTERVIEW WITH MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL
PRICE : $10
RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME ONE
This DVD contains the first 2 hours of 4 hours of raw footage of KTLA from the UCLA archives. Contents (both discs): News footage shot during the Tate-Labianca trial. News footage shot during the Hinman & Shea trials News footage shot during the trial following the Hawthorne gun store robbery. News footage shot during the Leslie Van Houten re-trials in 1977 & 1978. Footage of an interview with Bernard Crow (a.k.a. Lotsapoppa). Footage of interviews with prosecutors Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay. Footage of interviews with Manson Family members Bruce Davis, Sandra Good. Nancy Pitman, and Leslie Van Houten. Footage of the arraignment of Kenneth Como, Catherine Share, Mary Brunner. Footage of Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan and others.
PRICE : $10
RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME TWO
This DVD contains the second 2 hours of 4 hours of raw footage of KTLA from the UCLA archives. Contents (both discs): News footage shot during the Tate-Labianca trial. News footage shot during the Hinman & Shea trials News footage shot during the trial following the Hawthorne gun store robbery. News footage shot during the Leslie Van Houten re-trials in 1977 & 1978. Footage of an interview with Bernard Crow (a.k.a. Lotsapoppa). Footage of interviews with prosecutors Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay. Footage of interviews with Manson Family members Bruce Davis, Sandra Good. Nancy Pitman, and Leslie Van Houten. Footage of the arraignment of Kenneth Como, Catherine Share, Mary Brunner. Footage of Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan and others.
PRICE : $10
RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME THREE
This DVD contains the first 2 hours of 4 hours of footage from the NBC 2 archives. This volume contains raw footage of newscasts throughout the 1970s up to 1994.
PRICE : $10
RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME FOUR
This DVD contains the second 2 hours of 4 hours of footage from the NBC 2 archives. This volume contains raw footage of newscasts throughout the 1970s up to 1994.
PRICE : $10
RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME FIVE
This DVD contains raw footage from the CNN archives. Contents: Coverage of the press conference at the California Institution for Women following the parole hearing of Leslie Van Houten in 2002. Raw footage shot outside of the San Bernardino County courthouse of Van Houten's appearance before Judge Bob Krug with reactions of two lawyers for the Board of Parole Hearings, Van Houten's father Paul and Van Houten's attorney Christie Webb. Segments of several parole hearings over the years, among others Krenwinkel's 1985 hearing, Van Houten's 1987 hearing, Manson's 1989 hearing, Bruce Davis' 2000 hearing.
PRICE : $10
THE BEST OF CHARLES MANSONS 1980 INTERVIEWS ON DVD
Charles Manson 1980's Interviews With Tom Snyder, Penny Daniels, Charlie Rose, Nuel Emmons, Geraldo Rivera. This DVD is approx. 4 hr 20 mins Interesting, Great Research Material.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON VS CHARLIE ROSE : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW ON DVD
This is the full interview between Charlie Manson and Charlie Rose.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON VS GERALDO RIVERA (RARE UNCUT PRISON INTERVIEW TAKEN BY GUARDS)
Anyone who has seen the episode of Geraldo with Charles Manson knows that something didn't seem right. Well what Geraldo didn't count on is the fact that the prison staff had their own camera filming the entire interview! This is the uncut tape from the prison camera, see what really happened!
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON VS TOM SNYDER : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW
This is the full interview between Charlie Manson and Tom Snyder. It has been said that this interview was the inspiration for much of the prison interview at the end of Natural Born Killers. This is trulyu one of Manson's best interviews and a must have for any crime history collector.
PRICE : $10
UNCUT CHARLES MANSON SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW
This is the complete uncut interview shown in Charles Manson Superstar.
PRICE : $10
RARE CHARLES MANSON PAROLE HEARING FOOTAGE FROM 1992-1997
This DVD includes very rare parole hearing footage from almost a decade of Charles Mansons Parole Hearings. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
NO SENSE MAKES SENSE : CHARLES MANSON
This DVD is a crazy cut up film put together in the 80s featuring a bunch of Charles Manson's rants. Also features rare Manson TV footage of the 70s trail.
PRICE : $10
CHARLIE'S ANGELS - RARE FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY WOMEN ON DVD
THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY WOMEN. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF PAROLE HEARINGS, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, NEWS CLIPS AND HARD TO FIND RAW FOOTAGE NOT FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE!
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON 1992 PAROLE HEARING
This is the 1992 Parole Hearing of Charles Manson.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES MANSON 1997 PAROLE HEARING
This is the 1997 Parole Hearing of Charles Manson.
PRICE : $10
2007 PAROLE HEARING OF CHARLES MANSON
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California denied parole on Wednesday to Charles Manson, one of America's most notorious mass murderers, in his 11th bid for release. California's Board of Parole Hearings said in a statement that Manson, 72, "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with."
PRICE : $10
ALL IN THE (MANSON) FAMILY - RARE FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY ON DVD
THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF PAROLE HEARINGS, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, NEWS CLIPS AND HARD TO FIND RAW FOOTAGE NOT FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE!
PRICE : $10
1990 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL
This DVD includes the very rare 1990 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, PATRICIA KRENWINKEL. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true
PRICE : $10
1997 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL
This DVD includes the very rare 1997 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, PATRICIA KRENWINKEL. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
RARE 1991 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN
You are bidding on the very rare 1991 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, Leslie Van Houten. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. .
PRICE : $10
1999 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON KILLER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN
You are bidding on the very rare 1999 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, Leslie Van Houten. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
2000 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN
This DVD includes the very rare 2000 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, LESLIE VAN HOUTEN. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
1990 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER CHARLES "TEX" WATSON
This DVD includes the very rare 1990 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, CHARLES TEX WATSON. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
1993 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER SUSAN ATKINS
This DVD includes the very rare 1993 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, SUSAN ATKINS. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
2000 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER SUSAN ATKINS
This DVD includes the very rare year 2000 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, SUSAN ATKINS. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME ONE
THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING MIX OF RAW FOOTAGE, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, PAROLE HEARINGS AND MUCH MUCH MORE!
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME TWO
THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE BIG BAD WOLF OF AMERICAN CRIME, CHARLES MANSON.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME THREE
THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE BIG BAD WOLF OF AMERICAN CRIME, CHARLES MANSON.
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME FOUR
Starts off with a Hardcore copy exclusive with a pirated video from his jail cell and a segment on women who write him love letters, Some Christian Show with Tex Waston's born again wife and a long discussion about their marriage in prison, Another Christian show called "Pardoned From Above" also about Tex Watson's marriage and possible parole, Another Hardcopy Clip. Runs about 2 hours
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME FIVE
The first hour is Manson on Geraldo (The broadcast version, not the uncut version sold on this site), Then it has Maury Povich on a current affair talking about Manson, A clip of one of the Manson family talking collage classes in jail, Squeaky escaping prison, then a bunch of misc clips, runs about 2 hours
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME SIX
More random Charles Manson clips mostly from 1992. Runs about 2 hours
PRICE : $10
CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME SEVEN
More Charles Manson clips from our massive collection.
PRICE : $10
WHITE RABBIT (RARE INTERROGATION OF MANSON FAMILY CONFIDANT) ON DVD
PRICE : $10
=========== PUT OUR KILLER WEB BANNERS ON YOUR SITE ===========
Feel free to use any banner you like. Simply copy and paste the code below on to your website or myspace page. On the left hand side of this page you will find links to the many sections of our highly viewed links page. If you want your site included on serialkillercalendar.com, simply put one of our banners on your site and send us an email so that we can do the same for you.
{ OUR WEBSITES }
PASTE CODE TO PUT THIS BANNER ON YOUR SITE.
PASTE CODE TO PUT THIS BANNER ON YOUR SITE.
PASTE CODE TO PUT THIS BANNER ON YOUR SITE.
In order to provide the most accurate information on our site, many of the articles on this site are based on copyrighted Wikipedia
articles. This information is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL. All images on this site, however, are copyrighted and can not be used without permission from SerialKillerCalendar.com.
Copy and paste the code below in to your website to add our killer web banner. If you have any trouble with this flash banner, you will find many more banners to use in our downloads section. Be sure to let us know that you used one of our banners so we can add a link to your site in our massive links page.