Original subtitles

Richard Trenton Chase had a thing for

blood he also had a fear of

disintegrating he would hold oranges on

his head believing vitamin C would be

absorbed by his brain via diffusion

Chase also believed that his cranial

bones had become separated and were

moving around so he shaved his head to

be able to watch this activity born May

23 1950 he liked to set fires as a child

and to torment animals he had a sister

four years younger and his father was a

strict disciplinarian who bickered

constantly with his wife by the time

Richard was 10 he was killing cats as a

teenager he dranked and smoked marijuana

getting into trouble several times but

showing no shame over it he dated

several girls one of whom reported that

Rick was unable to perform sexually

because he could not keep an erection

this problem bothered him and when he

was 18 he went to see a psychiatrist he

learned that a root cause of impotence

was repressed anger the psychiatrist

also thought he might be suffering from

from a major Mental Illness but did not

suggest he be committed after he moved

out of his parents home he went through

a series of Roommates many of whom

reported his bizarre behavior and heavy

drug use even the few friends he had

considered him weird once he nailed shut

his bedroom closet door because people

were invading his space from in there he

was preoccupied with any sign that

something was wrong with him which held

true throughout his adult life and he

once entered an emergency room looking

for the person who had stolen his

pulmonary artery he also complained that

the bones were coming out through the

back of his head that his stomach was

backward and that his heart often

stopped beating another psychiatrist

diagnosed him as paranoid schizophrenic

but thought he might actually be

suffering from drug induced toxic

psychosis he was put under observation

for 72 hours and it was recommended that

he stay but he was allowed to leave

whenever he wanted without obtaining

permission eventually he was released

his life grew increasingly slovenly and

he submersed into hypochondria and drug

abuse he was five foot eleven and

weighed only 145 pounds he lived with

his mother for a while now divorced but

believed he was being poisoned his

father made him move out and got him an

apartment Chase soon began to kill and

disembowel rabbits that he either caught

or bought and to eat their entrails raw

sometimes he would put the intestines

with the animal's blood into a blender

liquefy them and drink this concoction

in an effort to keep his heart from

shrinking to the point of disappearing

from his body he once injected rapid

blood into his veins and got very ill he

believed this rabbit had ingested

battery acid that had seeped into his

stomach but in fact he had a bad case of

blood poisoning finally he was committed

as a schizophrenic suffering from

somatic delusions the doctors tried

antipsychotic medications which failed

to work indicating that his psychosis

may have been precipitated by his drug

abuse in 1976 he escaped and showed up

at his mother's house he was returned to

the hospital ending up up at Beverly

Manor a facility for mental patients

where he earned the nickname Dracula he

often spoke about killing rabbits and

one day he was found with blood around

his mouth two dead birds their necks

broken lay outside his window the

classic Renfield syndrome eventually he

was released and deemed no longer danger

to anyone that's what they believed

anyway his parents were granted A

conservatorship Renewed annually and his

mother paid his rent and shopped for his

groceries Chase moved into another

apartment and began to catch and torture

cats dogs and rabbits he killed them to

drink their blood sometimes he stole

neighborhood pets and once he even

called a family whose dog was missing to

tell them what he had done to the animal

he bought guns and started to practice

with them although he was on psychiatric

medication he remained unsupervised his

mother weaned him from the medications

herself deciding that he did not really

need them in 1977 the court awarded

conservatorship expired and his parents

did nothing to renew it leaving Chase on

his own one day he paid his mother a

visit she heard a loud noise and opened

the door to see her son holding a dead

cat he threw the animal to the ground

and tore it open smearing the blood all

over his face and neck his mother failed

to act and never reported the incident

on August 3rd that same year police

officers found Chase's Ford Ranchero

stuck in sand near Pyramid Lake in

Nevada two rifles lay on the seat along

with a pile of men's clothing blood

smears on the inside and a blood-filled

white plastic bucket containing a liver

made them suspicious when they spotted

Chase through binoculars he was nude and

covered in blood he saw them and ran but

they caught up with them and took him

back to his pickup he claimed that the

blood was his it had seeped out of him

the liver it turned out was from a cow

Chase soon became a fan of the Hillside

Strangler operating not far away and he

avidly read the newspaper articles about

the killings he had guns it fear of

other people and he had no sense of

boundaries a lethal combination even

without his weird blood fantasies soon

he grew Bolder it was December 29 1977

the man's name was Ambrose Griffin he

was 51 an engineer and the father of two

sons he had been yelling at something or

someone his wife reported to homicide

cops in the emergency room and he turned

and just dropped right there in front of

her she'd heard two odd popping noises

but had given them no thought they had

just returned from a shopping trip and

Mrs Griffin had opened the trunk of the

car and taken out the bag of potatoes

her husband had followed with two sacks

of groceries and had been on his way

back to the car when he had dropped

presumably from a heart attack soon she

would learn a more horrifying truth her

husband had been shot in some sort of

random drive-by attack one of the

Griffin boys reported having seen a man

with a rifle walking around in their

East Sacramento neighborhood they tailed

him and they called the police but it

turned out not to be their man his gun

was not the 22 caliber murder weapon the

following day a noose crew found two

spent shell casings on the pavement near

the Griffin residence detectives

followed up on reports of a suspicious

car driving around the neighborhood but

could get no clear description on the

afternoon of the Griffin shooting a

12-year-old boy reported that a man with

brown hair seemingly in his 20s had shot

at him from a brown Pontiac Trans Am as

he rode his bike he was put under

hypnosis and recalled a license plate

number 219 Eep it led nowhere routine

police work turned up a report from a

woman who said that a shot had been

fired into her home on December 27th she

lived only a few blocks from the

Griffins a search of her kitchen

produced a 22 caliber Slug it proved to

have been fired from the same gun that

had killed Ambrose Griffin at that point

All Leads dried up on January the 11th

1978 Don Larson had a strange encounter

with Chase during the six months that

they had been Neighbors in the same East

Sacramento apartment complex on Watt

Avenue she had seen him carry three

animals into his apartment against the

rules but had never seen those animals

again she thought him odd but worried

that he was lonely he asked her for a

cigarette she gave him one but he

stopped her from walking away when she

gave him the rest of the pack he let her

go nearly two weeks later on the 23rd at

2909 Bernice Street Gene Layton spotted

an unkempt young man with longish hair

strolling toward her she watched as he

tried her patio door found it locked and

went to the windows they too were locked

so he came back to the door Mrs Layton

met him there face to face he showed no

emotion whatsoever as he scrutinized her

then he turned paused to light a

cigarette and walked away through her

backyard down the street Robert and

Barbara Edwards were bringing their

groceries into the house when they heard

a noise outside whoever was in there

apparently heard them and started to run

they heard a window Slam at the back of

the house and then oddly a disheveled

young man came around the corner toward

them though Edwards tried to stop him he

sprinted past and got out into the

street Edwards gave Chase but lost him

when he jumped a fence the police

arrived to find the house in shambles

with theft of valuables the obvious

motive however he had also urinated into

a drawer of freshly laundered baby's

clothing and it defecated on a child's

bed the Intruder kept going veering off

his path here and there to walk across

the front porches of random houses then

he came to a tract house at 2360 Tioga

way FBI agent Robert Ressler once asked

Chase how he selected his victims he

said that he went down the streets

testing doors to find one that was

unlocked if the door was locked he said

that means you're not welcome apparently

he found the door at the wall in home

unlocked he encountered Theresa Wallen

22 and three months pregnant before

entering Chase deposited a 22 caliber

bullet in the mailbox he opened the door

and ran into Terry as she was taking out

the garbage she dropped the bag as he

raised his pistol and shot her twice one

bullet entered her Palm held up

defensively and traveled upper arm to

exit out of her elbow and Nick her neck

the other went through the top part of

her skull she fell and chased then knelt

over her prostate body firing another

bullet into her Temple his next move was

to drag her into the bedroom leaving a

trail of blood behind he then retrieved

a knife from the kitchen and an empty

yogurt container from the trash bag that

Terry had been carrying when David

Wallen came home that night at six he

found the house dark he entered and saw

their dog a German Shepherd waiting

outside but his wife was nowhere to be

found oddly the stereo was on a bag of

trash and what appeared to be oil stains

on the carpet troubled him he followed

the stains to the bedroom then he began

to scream his wife laid just inside the

door on her back her sweater was pulled

up over her breasts and her pants and

underwear down around her ankles her

left Apple was carved off her torso cut

open below the sternum and her spleen

and intestines pulled out Chase had

stabbed her repeatedly in the lung liver

diaphragm and left breast he also had

cut out her kidneys and severed her

pancreas in two he placed the kidneys

together back inside her there was blood

in the bathroom and it was later learned

that chase had smeared Terry's blood all

over his face and hands licking it off

his fingers the discarded yogurt

container near her body was also

blood-stained as if he had used it to

drink her blood the most heinous act

however was to stuff animal feces into

her mouth there were odd rings of blood

around the body as if someone had placed

a bucket there two days later a puppy

was found killed and mutilated not far

from the Wallen home a strange man with

stringy hair and driving a Ranchero had

bought two puppies from the family with

seemingly no concern whether he got

males or females and then they found one

of the puppies from the litter dead on

January 27th Evelyn muroth 38 was

babysitting her 20 month old nephew in

her home one mile from the wall in

Residence her 51 year old friend Dan

Meredith came over Evelyn was about to

send her son Jason 6 to a friend's house

and when Jason failed to arrive the

friend sent her daughter over to check a

little girl saw movement inside from the

front window and then turned around to

report that no one had answered the door

neighbors grew worried and one finally

entered the house and saw what had

happened that morning Danny Meredith lay

in the hallway in a pool of blood the

deputy who checked him saw gunshot wound

on his head and then saw blood in the

bathroom and what looked like bloody

water in the tub then he found Evelyn

lying naked on the bed in her bedroom

her legs splayed open she had a gunshot

wound to her head and her abdomen had

been cut open and her intestines pulled

out two carving knives stained red lay

nearby it appeared that she had been

taking a bath when surprised by her

killer and then dragged to the bed he

sodomized her stabbed her through the

anus into her uterus at least six times

made several slices across her neck and

tried to cut out an eye bloody ringlets

on the carpet indicated he had once

again used some kind of container to

collect blood he stabbed several

internal organs as well which the

coroner later noted would facilitate

getting at blood in the abdomen on the

other side of the bed police officers

discovered the body of a boy who turned

out to be Jason he had been shot twice

in the head at close range the Intruder

had left bloody Footprints behind which

resembled the shoe marks found at the

Wallen murder scene then they located an

11 year old girl in the neighborhood Who

described the man near the victim's

residence around 11 o'clock she

described him in his early twenties he

fit the description of a man seen

repeatedly in that area walking around

asking people for magazines Dan

Meredith's red station wagon was missing

from the front of the house where

neighbors had seen it parked that

morning then Karen Ferreira arrived

seeking the whereabouts of her son David

left with her sister-in-law Evelyn that

morning no one had seen him but a bullet

hole was discovered in the pillow that

had been in a crib there was a lot of

blood it later turned out that chase had

drunk Evelyn's blood and had mutilated

the baby's body in the bathroom a knock

on the door must have interrupted him

and he had fled with the body as the

police looked for him he took the baby

to his home and severed the head he

removed several organs and consumed them

it seemed to chase that he would get

away with this brutal series of murders

but he did not realize how quickly the

police were closing in Meredith's

station wagon was found abandoned not

far from the murder scene the keys still

in it there was little hope that the

baby was still alive the police did not

know it but the parking lot where they

located the missing car was only about

100 yards from apartment 15 of the Watt

Avenue complex where Richard Trenton

Chase lived the FBI was already on the

case Robert Ressler and Russ vorpagel

developed a profile of who they were

probably looking for they figured him

for a disorganized killer as opposed to

an organized one with some Clues

pointing toward the possibility of

psychosis he clearly had not planned

these crimes and did little to hide or

destroy evidence he left Footprints and

fingerprints and had probably walked

around in daylight with blood on his

clothing in other words words he gave

little thought to the consequences at

the very least his domicile would be as

sloppy as the places he ransacked after

he was finished with them and the fact

that the murder scenes were fairly close

together meant he might not have a car

in fact he'd taken a car from one house

so he must have walked to that one at

least that meant it was likely that he

lived in the vicinity of the crimes it

was also likely that he would kill again

and keep on killing until he was caught

they had to work fast they figured him

to be a white male in his mid-20s thin

and undernourished evidence of the

crimes they were sure would be found in

his residence and if he had a vehicle in

there as well he either would have a

history of medical illness or drug use

or both and he would be something of a

loner they thought he was probably

employed at some menial labor or

unemployed given his apparent state of

mind and could be receiving some

disability money he probably lived alone

he might be paranoid many people were

questioned around the area and summons

seen a white male driving a red station

wagon although the police artist tried

to make a sketch few of the descriptions

were helpful except for that of a young

woman on the same day that Robert

Edwards had chased the Intruder away

from his home on Bernice Street Nancy

Holden had had an odd encounter she was

shopping in the Town and Country Village

shopping center not far from Watt Avenue

and close to the wall in Residence when

she saw a strange man approaching her

who appeared to be confused she tried to

avoid him but he directed a question at

her were you on the motorcycle when Kurt

was killed he asked Nancy was startled

ten years earlier she had dated a boy

named Kurt who had been killed on a

motorcycle it was then that she noticed

something Vaguely Familiar about this

interrogator she asked him who he was

and he replied Rick Chase she was

astonished this man before her was

nothing like the studious clean-cut Rick

chase that she had known in high school

she had heard he'd gotten into drugs and

looking at him now she realized those

rumors were true

he was grimy and stained and his

agitated manner made her nervous she

talked with him for a few minutes

seeking a way out and finally got out of

the store while he was still paying for

something however he followed her into

the parking lot intent on getting a ride

she managed to get into her car roll up

the windows lock the doors and pull out

before he could stop her she knew she'd

been rude but she just wanted to get

away after viewing the police sketch of

a disheveled man seen in the

neighborhood wearing an orange ski parka

and recalling the chase War one that day

the same color she was sure this was the

man the police were seeking they also

got another clue from the gun

registration of a 22 caliber

semi-automatic handgun sold in December

1977 to a Richard Chase on Watt Avenue

on January 10th he had purchased

ammunition then Don Larson watching the

news recalled her strange neighbor she'd

seen a large map of Sacramento on his

wall marked with black ink however she

was afraid to make an enemy by

supporting him after hearing from Holden

five days after the wall and murder the

detectives ran a background check on

Chase and found a history of mental

illness including his escape from a

hospital a concealed weapons charge a

series of minor drug busts and his

arrest in Nevada they found his address

on Watt Avenue and went out that

Saturday afternoon one day after the

triple murder to check it out they

learned from the apartment manager that

Chase's mother paid his rent and that

she felt her son was the victim of LSD

abuse Chase refused to let his mother

into his apartment the detectives

knocked repeatedly but Chase would not

open the door they pretended they were

going to leave and then waited Chase

emerged with a box in his arms and made

his way towards his car the detectives

apprehended him but not without a mighty

struggle on his part they noticed he was

wearing an orange parka that had dark

stains on it and his shoes appeared to

be covered in blood a 22 semi-automatic

handgun was taken from him which also

had blood stains on it then they found

Dan Meredith's wallet in Chase's back

pocket along with a pair of latex gloves

the contents of the box he was carrying

also proved interesting pieces of

blood-stained paper and Rags they took

him to the police station and tried to

get him to confess he admitted to

killing several dogs but stubbornly

resisted talking about the murders while

he was in custody detectives searched

his apartment in hopes of finding a clue

about the missing baby what they found

in the putrid smelling place was

disgusting nearly everything was Blood

Stained including food and drinking

glasses in the kitchen they found

several pieces of bone and some dishes

in the refrigerator with body parts one

container held human brain tissue an

electric blender was badly stained and

smelled of rot there were three pet

collars but no animals to be found

photographic overlays on human organs

from a science book lay on a table along

with newspapers on which ads selling

dogs were circled a calendar showed the

inscription today on the dates of the

Wallen and miroth murders and chillingly

the same word was written on 44 more

dates yet to come during that year the

entire Place had an ominous feeling but

at least Chase was now in custody

evidence was gathered from Chase to

compare to samples already being

analyzed in the crime lab from the

murder victims there was plenty of blood

on Chase's clothing and they also took

hair samples however when they tried to

take a blood sample he had to be

restrained they had no idea then of his

intense Primal Fear of losing his blood

Paris salami was appointed Chase's

attorney and he was immediately

separated from the detectives who had

spent so much time trying to extract a

confession police officers continued to

search for the baby using a bloodhound

they even went to chase his mother's

home and she was uncooperative insisting

that despite what they had found it did

not prove that her son had done anything

at one point Chase admitted to another

inmate that he had drunk the blood of

his victims because he had blood

poisoning he needed blood and he had

grown tired of hunting and killing

animals finally the baby was found on

March 24th a church janitor Came Upon a

box containing the remains of a male

baby he called the police when they

arrived they recognized the clothing it

was the missing boy from the miroth home

the baby had been decapitated and the

head lay underneath the Torso which was

partially mummified a hole in the center

of the head indicated the child had been

shot there were several other stab

wounds to the body and several ribs were

broken

beneath the body 2 was a ring of keys

that fit Dan Meredith's now impounded

Carr the lead prosecutor for the case of

California vs Richard Trenton Chase was

Ronald W Tuckerman he intended to seek

the death penalty the defense entered a

plea of Not Guilty by reason of insanity

but talkederman was determined to show

that he knew the difference between

right and wrong and that he was not

compelled to murder part of his strategy

included boning up on the legends of

Dracula he also read about blood-related

crimes and blood rituals in various

cultures noting that some people

believed that ingesting another person's

blood would strengthen or heal them he

wanted to show that while this might be

a belief it was not a viable reason for

murder a change of venue was requested

given the local notoriety of the case

and the trial was moved 120 miles south

to Santa Clara County by the time it was

all over a dozen psychiatrists had

examined Chase he admitted to one that

he was disturbed about killing his

victims and he was afraid they might

come from from the dead there was no

evidence in his admissions that he had

ever felt compelled he simply thought

the blood was therapeutic one

psychiatrist found him to be an

anti-social personality not

schizophrenic his thought proceeds were

not disrupted and he was aware of what

he had done and that it was wrong on

January 2nd 1979 the trial began Chase

was charged with six counts of murder

the prosecutor emphasized throughout the

trial the Chase had had a choice and

mentioned several times that he had

brought rubber gloves with him to the

victims homes with the intent of murder

altogether there were 250 prosecution

exhibits the strongest of which were

Chase's gun and Dan Meredith's wallet

found in Chase's pocket the first

witness in a trial that stretched across

four months was David Wallen who

described the scene of horror he had

encountered upon coming home that day

nearly 100 Witnesses followed him Chase

then took the stand in his own defense

he looked awful having dropped in weight

to 107 pounds his eyes were sunken and

lusterless he claimed to have been

semi-conscious during the wall and

murder and he described in detail the

way he had been mistreated much of his

life he admitted to drinking wallen's

blood he did not recall much about the

second series of murders but knew that

he had shot the baby in the head and

decapitated it leaving it in a bucket in

the hope of getting more of its blood he

thought the baby was something else but

did not elaborate he thought that his

problems stemmed from his inability to

have sex with girls as a teenager and he

said he was sorry for the killings the

defense asked for a verdict of

second-degree murder to spare chase the

death penalty since he was clearly

insane and had never been given proper

help talkterman argued that he was a

sexual sadist a Monster who knew what he

was doing and who could not be salvaged

on May 8 1978 after five hours of

deliberation the jury returned a verdict

of six counts of first-degree murder

during the sanity phase the jury found

Chase legally saying after deliberating

an hour it took them four hours to

decide that chase should die in the gas

chamber at San Quentin penitentiary

while interviewing Killers all over the

country to add information about

criminal psychology to their database

FBI profilers visited Richard Chase and

learned about some of his Oddities

Robert wrestler recounts his encounter

in a book whoever fights monsters he

describes how Chase had believed in 1976

that his blood was turning to powder and

that he thus needed blood from other

creatures to replenish it nevertheless

the psychiatrists had released him

despite protests from some of the staff

that he was dangerous from the time he

was arrested in Nevada in August 1977

until the murders began in December

paints a clear picture of a

deteriorating mind it was after that

that he had killed his mother's cat and

bought two dogs to kill he also

tormented a neighborhood Family about

their missing dog he then collected

articles on the Hillside Strangler then

in December he acquired gun after the

Griffin killing he bought a newspaper

and kept an editorial page about the

senseless nature of that shooting then

he bought more ammunition he also set a

fire in his neighbor's garage to drive

them from the neighborhood because their

music annoyed him he told a psychiatrist

that the first killing had happened

after his mother would not allow him to

visit for Christmas he was just shooting

his gun out the window of his car that

he had fired shots at other houses

indicated it was not altogether an

accident Chase told the FBI profilers

that he had killed to preserve his own

life and he was developing an appeal

based on that he mentioned soap dish

poisoning wrestler asked him what that

was and he explained that everyone has a

soap dish if you lift the soap and find

that underneath it's dry you're all

right if it's gooey you have the

poisoning which turns your blood to

powder the powder then depletes your

energy and eats away at your body Chase

also said that he was Jewish which he

was not and that he'd been persecuted by

Nazis because he had a star of David on

his forehead which he didn't he

explained that the Nazis were connected

to UFOs which had telepathically

commanded him to kill to replenish his

blood the UFOs followed him around and

the FBI should be able to pinpoint them

by putting a radar on him he then shoved

a cup at wrestler filled with part of a

macaroni and cheese dinner he wanted it

analyzed for poison wrestler learned

that the other inmates taunted Chase and

urged him to kill himself they did not

want him near them wrestler along with

the prison mental health professionals

feldy ought to be transferred to a

psychiatric hospital although he was

sent to one for a short time he soon

returned to San Quentin on the day after

Christmas in 1980 one day short of the

third anniversary of The Killing Spree

the guard looked in on Richard Chase The

Condemned man was lying on his back in

his bunk breathing normally he did not

return the guard's greeting which was

not unusual at 1105 the same guard

looked into the cell again Chase was on

his stomach both legs extended off his

bunk and his feet were on the floor his

head was against the mattress and his

arms extended toward the pillow the

guard called out to chase who failed to

move he went in and pull Chase off the

bed it was clear to him that the vampire

of Sacramento AKA Dracula was dead K.P

Holmes The Coroner was called he

searched the cell and located a strange

suicide note after taking some pills

Chase had been taking a daily dose of

sinequin for hallucinations and

depression which came to a cell in a

package of three pills apparently he had

hoarded the pills and then overdosed the

cause of his death was toxic ingestion

his heart was found to be normal and in

good shape despite his lifelong concerns

the prison psychiatrist noted that chase

had been psychotic since the time he had

entered the prison but no one much

bothered about the nature of his bizarre

obsession with blood in 1992 a movie

called unspeakable was made based on

Chase's a model for the killer his case

is still used by the FBI as the

archetypal model for understanding the

disorganized killer

a number of people both Witnesses and

historians have tried to accurately

document the facts of what happened on

February 28 1993 in Waco Texas in the

clash between law enforcement and a

religious group known as the Branch

Davidians no one seems able to write

about those events in an unbiased manner

since it seems that the whole thing was

preventable even the academics appear to

have a cause so it's difficult at times

to piece together what exactly happened

and who was to blame was quresh a

manipulative psychopath who exploited an

opportunity as many FBI agents claim or

was he just a deluded religious leader

whose private play was suddenly Exposed

on the world stage

perhaps we'll never know hostage

negotiator Christopher Whitcomb writing

in cold zero and true crime writer

Clifford leindecker in massacre at Waco

Texas both present a chronology of the

facts on that momentous Sunday morning

somewhere between 70 and 76 armed Agents

from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and

Firearms the ATF prepared to move on a

group of wooden buildings outside the

central Texas town of Waco

known as the Mount Carmel Center the

place was occupied by members of an

apocalyptic religious group that was led

by a man named David koresh rumored to

be stockpiled inside was an arsenal of

explosives and weapons some of which

reportedly had been illegally converted

to Rapid Fire automatic that put them

under atf's jurisdiction

a UPS driver had tipped off the

government when a package Bound for

Mount Carmel had broken open to reveal

casings for hand grenades while the

group did earn money from gun sales and

were legally allowed to trade in arms it

appeared that they weren't following

protocol

some neighbors also reported a lot of

target practice but there was more too

that came out in the days ahead line

decker claims that the local newspaper

was running a series of articles about

qureshia's dubious activities entitled

the sinful Messiah based on accounts by

defectors like Mark Pro who later

authored inside the cult

Roe had hired detectives to Snoop around

and when contacted by the ATF he

supplied a number of detailed

descriptions of his former Associates he

denounced quresh speaking of polygamy

and other out-of-place practices

involving children

thanks to some of these leads the ATF

set up several agents to act as college

students interested in quresh's

teachings they moved into a house nearby

and came over to visit Catherine

wessinger a religious scholar at La Loya

University who penned how the Millennium

comes violently claims that they never

fooled the Davidians

then that February 28th morning a

reporter asked for directions from a

person who was connected to the

Davidians and that person alerted quresh

at the time one of the ATF agents was at

Mount Carmel and he left in a hurry that

behavior alerted quresh who was already

aware that people had been asking

questions about him the agent who left

called the ATF Commander to let him know

that the Davidians were aware of their

approach there was no more secrecy in

fact there never really had been since

reporters either accompanied the agents

or arrived before them at the Target

area clearly they'd been alerted line

decker writing from the atf's point of

view said that it seemed early enough in

the day to the commanders that surprise

was still on their side besides it was

Sunday and the guns were supposedly

locked up for the Day of Prayer so the

agents got into a convoy and drove out

to the barren grounds to serve their

warrants and seize any illegal items a

Blackhawk helicopter from the Texas

National Guard accompanied them along

with two others belonging to the ATF

everyone was aware of the potential risk

Corrections paranoia about the

government as the agent of Satan didn't

help matters because the atf's advance

only proved the truth of his prophecies

they would be attacked by the

Babylonians

even so no one anticipated what actually

happened the agents hoped that this

incident could be settled quickly at

nearly 10 o'clock as three teams formed

to enter the building an agent went to

the compound's front door and knocked

the first entry team was to be inside

the front door within seven seconds

after the Convoy pulled up to the

compound says line decker all these

assault teams would be deployed within

13 seconds

they'd been preparing this for eight

months and each team had an assignment

protect the children neutralize the

military force and seize the arms quresh

looked out from behind a steel door and

learned that the agents had a search

warrant instead of letting them in he

slammed the door and then someone

started shooting

it's not clear from which side the first

bullets came but both sides commenced a

fierce gun battle

wessinger says that the survivors of the

Skirmish and the subsequent standoff

claim the bullets came in through the

ceiling which meant that agents in the

helicopters were firing into the

compound

the ATF in several hearings afterward

says no one in the Choppers fired a

single shot by some reports agents were

shooting the dogs to get them out of the

way and that's what started the deadly

Crossfire between the two groups women

from inside who survived claim they'd

placed their bodies over the children to

protect them from the reign of bullets

several agents were hit right away and

multiple shots came at the hovering

Choppers

one member of the team that penetrated

the building was shot in the head and

killed several who had climbed to the

roof rolled off when hit from noises

inside said agents in later hearings it

was clear that the cult had some heavy

artillery

bullets even pierce the reporters cars

and then concussion grenades known as

flashbangs exploded among the agents

harass and his crew appeared to have

Superior weapons they also had the

advantage of cover while the agents were

out in the open

nevertheless women were screaming inside

and men were yelling ATF bullets pierced

the front door behind which koresh had

been standing several people had been

hit including cultists firing from the

tower and four were wounded while five

were dead whoever had started it both

sides knew they would have to fight hard

for survival

the intense Skirmish continued for

around two hours before truce was called

allowing the ATF to remove their dead

and wounded it turned out that 20 agents

had been hit but emergency facilities

were 20 minutes away

the wounded were transported but too

late for four men who'd sustained mortal

wounds wessinger claims that the count

was 20 wounded and four dead but FBI

records indicate that 16 were wounded

and four were dead while the ATF waited

through a tense afternoon they arranged

to make some statements over a local

radio station in the hope that koresh

was listening to let him know there

would be no new attacks yet around five

o'clock when three cultists walking

outside the compound to return there

from work encountered ATF agents the

shooting resumed agents killed one and

captured one of the trio while one got

away and officials then broadcast a

request to koresh to give up without a

fight his response was a scripture

reading wessinger interprets his

behavior within her analysis of end

times religious groups by pointing out

that his ultimate concern was to obey

God's will as revealed in the Bible in

order to be included in the millennial

Kingdom

they had believed that day to be

imminent and had armed themselves for

eventuality inside the buildings were

over 100 people who believed in

quresha's Divine gifts and his ability

to dictate to them what God wished for

them

several apostates who were advising the

ATF indicated the disease could very

well trigger a mass suicide like

Jonestown

nevertheless ATF director Stephen

Higgins as reported by wessinger had

insisted two days before that a show of

force against this group was necessary

haresh quickly contacted the media and

participated in several live interviews

with CNN about how the ATF had

endangered his flock he emphasized the

number of children who lived in the

compound and said that he'd been shot

and was bleeding badly he expected to

die in fact as wessinger indicates he

probably interpreted this as another

fulfillment of the prophecy of the Lamb

being morally wounded by that time the

ATF was reinforced along with local

police officers Texas Rangers members of

the FBI's hostage Rescue Team HRT the

FBI's special agent in charge Sac from

the San Antonio office a bomb squad and

several U.S Marshals the media too began

to pour in koresh released four children

ranging in age from three to six and

everyone settled in for a long night

former Davidian Mark Pro provides a long

history of the development of the Branch

Davidians as an offshoot from The

Seventh-Day Adventist Church he also

details how quresh Rose to power and

eventually took over

in the beginning his name was Vernon J

Howell and he was a high school dropout

with the gift of the gab The Seventh-Day

Adventists advocated purity of the body

as the temple in which the Holy Spirit

resides so their habits of eating and

drinking were strict they believed the

final battle between good and evil could

happen at any time and when it did only

a select number would witness the return

of Jesus Christ and be saved yet some

members wanted regulations to be even

stricter and from the original Church

several sects formed within this

congregation during the early 1930s

Victor T hutef preached about the

approaching apocalypse he was chosen by

God to cleanse the church and when his

defiant dogmatism forced him out he took

several followers with him in 1935 they

purchased land outside Waco calling it

Mount Carmel Center

then hutf renamed his SEC the Davidian

Seventh-Day Adventists and when he died

in 1955 his wife Florence succeeded him

as the leader

she gave a confident prediction for the

exact date of the World's End in 1959

and many frightened converts flocked to

Waco

when her prediction proved false

Benjamin Bowden then attracted a

disillusioned group to himself he called

this group the branch which then became

the Branch Davidians when he died his

wife Lois became the new prophet and

among the more ambitious members of her

group was Vernon J Howell who had joined

in 1983. he was easy going handsome and

aggressive with the flamboyance of a

rock star

he could take any Bible verse and

discuss it endlessly which made him seem

highly intelligent even gifted possibly

inspired Lois bowden's son in Heir

George hated Howell he intended to be

the group's next leader no matter how

Charming Howell might seem there could

only be one Messiah as these two faced

off how will charm the elderly Lois into

taking him as a lover he claimed it was

God's Divine command that they produce a

child together although they failed in

this eventually the two men gathered

their respective supporters each

claiming exclusive access to biblical

revelation

Howell insisted that as God's seventh

messenger it was he who would set off

the chain of events that would bring on

the Apocalypse in some ways he was right

at least for his own Vlog when Lois died

in 1986 Boden forced howlout Howell left

for a while but then returned for a

Face-Off Bowden had dug up the corpse of

an elderly woman to challenge Howell to

raise her from the dead

so Howell tried to use this incident to

get Boden arrested the sheriff needed

proof so Howell armed himself and took

some men to enter Mount Carmel to get

photographs

Bowden came at them with an Uzi and they

shot back

surprisingly no one was killed but

Bowden quickly went to prison on an

unrelated charge and not opened the door

for Howell to take over in a court trial

Bowden appeared to be more dangerous

especially when he had the corpse

brought into the courtroom to prove his

powers

Howell was acquitted of all charges and

he saw this as a sign of God's

protection

Bowden left town and was later committed

to a mental hospital

now Howell was free to affirm himself as

a harbinger of the Book of Revelations

who could interpret the Prophecies of

the Seven Seals when inspired One Day by

the new light he divided husbands from

wives and claimed all the women as his

own

he gave each girl a star of David which

bro says was a symbol indicative of

ownership that cheap piece of jewelry

signified that a female belonged to the

exalted House of David and was destined

to become a handmaiden to the Lord the

Lord in this case being Howell it was

important Howell said that as God he had

to spread his seed and create a Divine

Army then he dubbed his male followers

Mighty Men the guards of King Solomon's

bed and they were to be his primary

soldiers

it was estimated that he claimed at

least 15 girls and women for his Harem

some as young as 12. in 1990 Howell

changed his name to David koresh to

bring together the concept that he was

an heir to King David and that his name

meant death he dictated strict rules

about how his flock should spend their

days apparently changing those rules at

whim and he preached at his flock day

and night yet he himself was above the

rules he could eat food forbidden to

them sleep till noon and drink alcohol

by 1992 quresh was teaching his

followers about martyrdom for the cause

at the same time he was stockpiling food

and collecting arms to defend himself

against any attacks whether from

defectors or government agents the

Babylonians

while wessinger claims that there's no

evidence that the Branch Davidians were

actually using the guns they were

selling they clearly had a Siege

mentality the cult managed to acquire

sufficient supplies especially in terms

of instant storable meals to last a year

if the need arose

according to defectors koresh demanded

to know from members of his group how

far they were willing to go in defense

of the true Faith the only way to serve

God was to be willing to die

he even taught the children that suicide

might one day be required and showed

them how to do it with cyanide Oregon

eventually he changed the name of Mount

Carmel to Ranch apocalypse the first few

days following the failed ATF raid the

government assembled a crisis management

team to talk with the cornered Branch

Davidians in there report to the deputy

Attorney General on the events at Waco

Texas compiled in October that year the

FBI described their crisis Management

program for handling situations like

this

acting quickly they determined what

resources would be needed and selected

people for a team that meant negotiators

tactical Personnel support people local

law enforcement consultants and Liaisons

with the media

special agent in charge Jeffrey Jamar

took over raising the hackles of the ATF

who later said they'd never asked for

help by five o'clock pm on the second

day the FBI had a full Command Center

operating which they'd set up at a

hangar at a former air base about a mile

from the Branch Davidian compound

from the first day to the last the place

was abuzz with activity the critical

incident negotiation team supervised the

negotiations using a team leader an

agent on the phone talking with someone

inside the compound secondary

negotiators who handled that person's

suggestions and people to prepare the

reports for the end of each day these

were kept in envelopes for anyone to

read who might need information quickly

the initial Communications had occurred

between atf's special agent James

Cavanaugh and David koresh but then

Lieutenant Larry Lynch of the Waco

Police Department took over speaking

mostly with Steve Schneider and Wayne

Martin koresha's trusted lieutenants

Schneider was a disaffected Seventh-Day

Adventist evangelist and Martin was an

attorney

after the cult's messages to the media

the phone lines were rerouted from the

compound so that anyone inside who

dialed out would only get an FBI

negotiator on the other end during the

second day three negotiators kept up

unceasing contact with 15 different

members of quresh's group but that soon

changed to contact with mostly Schneider

or koresh outside the job of the hostage

rescue team was to control the perimeter

around the compound for which they used

different types of intimidating tanks

Christopher Whitcomb describes what it

was like to be there and he makes it

clear that while the negotiators were

trying to settle things peacefully the

HRT was ready for action it was clear

that the FBI's own people were working

at odds with each other and many of them

knew it throughout the siege yet each

side believed it was right negotiators

insisted that tactical behavior only

fulfilled creces prophecy and

strengthened his resolve while the HRT

people with their pro-military mindset

believed that encroaching on his

territory intimidated him and weakened

him in the eyes of his flock koresh

informed the FBI that he'd been hit by

two bullets one through the hip and one

through his left wrist he refused

medical assistance

however he did release 10 more children

that day including a baby the FBI

believed there was hope that he might

eventually give up although a

psychological consultant was convinced

that koresh himself would never

surrender

God was not going to prison

then things got ugly

when kresh realized he couldn't dial out

to anyone except the FBI he threatened

more violence and hung out banners for

requests for the media even so he

repeatedly assured anyone who asked that

he had no plans for suicide he promised

to let everyone out if his message was

played for the whole nation as a show of

good faith he sent out a few more

children also as a show of good faith

the FBI made arrangements for the

broadcast on March 2nd while U.S

Marshals prepared to take people into

custody

then they awaited the hour-long tape

that kresh was making it arrived at 8am

along with the release of two more

children and two adults as several

Christian radio stations broadcast

speech negotiators worked out the

surrender Logistics

haresh was to come out first carried on

the stretcher then Schneider was to send

someone out every two minutes Vehicles

were put in place to pick them up that

afternoon quresh assured negotiators

that the plan was proceeding he just

wanted to lead his people in prayer then

at six o'clock he said that God had

instructed him to wait there would be no

surrender that day

however all he offered were Bible

readings and statements of resistance

according to the FBI report they learned

the things were not as they seemed even

as koresh had denied ideas about suicide

he had actually formed a rather

Insidious plan according to one of his

own followers quresh believed he was

about to die so he'd instructed his

group and what they were to do once he

expired they were to carry him outside

on a stretcher and then fire on the

agents so they would kill and then be

killed some of them were given hand

grenades and allegedly koresh had

instructed them to stand together in

small groups and pull the pins that way

they could take as many of the Beast

with them as possible

everyone was to die but then quresh had

a change of heart perhaps because he was

not dying after all

after talking about meeting in the next

World the Davidians gathered to pray and

to wait for further instructions quresh

then advised them that they should not

emerge at that time because he had

sinned by indulging in whiskey and

prohibited food that would effectively

eliminate their salvation

the standoff continued the next day

koresh reiterated that his commands came

from God and he sent out one child with

nine puppies then he offered more

scripture interpretations he told the

FBI that if his boss took it into his

mind to punish them for what they had

done it would be the start of World War

III while the negotiators quickly grew

bored of his endless hours of rambling

speeches they wanted to get as many

children out as possible so they

listened patiently yet then quresh

indicated that his own children would

not be coming out the FBI began to

realize that this man was unpredictable

the negotiators consulted with several

mental health experts and religious

Scholars and there appeared to be little

consensus except that koresh was likely

to be dangerous if pushed too far

since 1993 many scholars have tried to

interpret the situation in retrospect

condemning the FBI for their lack of

understanding if only they'd been

educated in biblical passages wessinger

says they would have known what koresh

was communicating

Jane Doherty a professor of conflict

resolution writes that a study of these

religious groups indicates that a

propensity towards Millennial beliefs

appears to be imprinted on the human

psyche the roots of a violent encounter

such as that between the ATF and Branch

Davidians are inherently interactive the

group itself would probably not become

violent without the Catalyst of

aggression or persecution

such groups are easy targets for normal

people to demonize and as such the setup

tends to invite a clash one psychiatrist

Park Dietz who came to the command

center early read through all the

reports and said the koresh appeared to

have anti-social and narcissistic traits

as well as paranoid and grandiose

delusions while some appeal to the

rational side of his personality might

work short term in the long run his

Psychopathology would erupt he would

become dangerous the best approach was

to validate his ideas and get him to

believe that his mission had not yet

been accomplished while he warned the

FBI to be consistent it became clear to

negotiators that much of the ground they

gained in discussions with quresh was

lost through bad judgment Pete smyrick a

criminal investigative analyst wrote a

report to headquarters back in Virginia

that the on-site commanders were moving

too rapidly toward Tactical deployment

he advised backing off with the tanks

the HRT was just making the situation

more volatile for years quresh had been

brainwashing his followers in this

battle between the church and the enemy

one memo read on February 28th his

prophecy came true

koresh is still able to convince his

followers that the end is near as he

predicted their enemies will surround

them and kill them it wouldn't be

effective to use a traditional hostage

strategy in this situation they weren't

dealing with criminals but with a

religious fanatic whose followers would

do whatever he said even worse than the

show of force was the way the FBI seemed

to be punishing every good act that

koresh did when he sent people out Jamar

did things like turn off the electricity

or broadcast raucous music

koresh was clearly annoyed by all of

this and it was no wonder that he

believed that God instructed him to

resist rather than surrender they were

playing against his divinity trying to

weaken him so he was reaching for all

the symbols of his power

it was a no-win situation even so after

the 51 days that The Siege ensued the

revolving teams of negotiators kept

trying to resolve things peacefully and

save the largest number of people

possible the Behavioral Science people

were well aware that the HRT and other

military-minded Personnel viewed them as

soft but they knew their job hundreds of

suggestions were faxed and mailed to

them every day from people all over the

country and some experts even showed up

one man from a nearby University wrote a

letter to quresh that he expected the

FBI to deliver in it he said that quresh

was misreading the scriptures and he

pointed out several Divine directives

that would indicate what God was really

saying other people wanted to be allowed

into the compound to argue the Bible

with quresh they were well-meaning but

they failed to understand the kind of

person quresh was they believed he could

simply be reasoned into a different

position and then give up a few more

aggressive people even threatened to

force their way in to either help koresh

or show him the error of his ways in

fact on separate occasions two men

managed to accomplish this

they were welcomed inside to be

proselytized and they both left before

the final days

a man claiming to be Jesus's brother

arrived from Florida to talk with quresh

and another claiming to be Jesus himself

said that he had to go in and set quresh

straight on who Christ really was

one well-known Minister claimed that

qresh was possessed by a demon and

needed an exorcism which he offered to

perform

many of these interventions amuse the

negotiators but at the same time they

were well aware that fewer people were

coming out and that quresh could remain

inside with his band for quite a long

time perhaps as long as a year

he had supplies stashed away and water

the worst thing for his people was the

cold nights without electricity but so

far they were enduring that they asked

for milk for the children which the FBI

could hardly refuse

trying to resolve things quickly the

negotiators tried to put together a

strategy that relied on those things

that quresh most wanted they knew he had

won in court against Bowdoin and that he

appeared to be enjoying all of the

sudden Fame so they worked on that angle

the ATF had attacked they could prove it

from the crime scene and koresh could

take them to court and win he would then

draw even more followers and the Branch

Davidians would be known all over the

world they were already on the cover of

the major news magazines and the world

was watching koresh could parlay this

into something beneficial for himself

and his followers yet even as they said

these things to him they were aware that

he knew he had some other concerns dead

ATF agents and charges of polygamy he

was likely aware that things would not

go as easily as promised trying to get

around quresh the FBI made tapes of the

children who had come out showing they

were cared for and urged them to appeal

to their parents to join them

sent these tapes into the compound and

each time they called The Press together

for a television broadcast they turned

the electricity back on so the Davidians

could see what they were saying the

agents expressed concern for their

safety and clarified inaccurate

speculations

one other Ploy was to record quresh on

the phone and when his words seemed to

undermine his preaching they would

broadcast that over a loudspeaker for

the rest of the cult to hear it was

hoped that at least some of them in

particular the kilou tenants would see

the inconsistency and question their

leader yet on March 9th just over a week

since the siege had begun koresh sent

out a videotape on which he and

Schneider had recorded interviews with

people inside the compound each one

expressed a firm desire to remain there

they were not coming out unless God

ordered them to ultimately koresh was in

control

he would decide when he'd negotiate and

when he wouldn't the FBI would have to

sit there and wait on March 12th

Davidian Kathy Schroeder came out when

questioned she denied any plans for

suicide yet when she tried calling back

into the compound she received no answer

she did admit that some people inside

wanted to come out but were afraid of

koresh they wouldn't leave until he told

them to that message was alarming that

meant the qurash might well have a plan

that exploited his group members

inability to act for themselves

at that point special agent in charge

Jamar decided to shut off the

electricity for good up until then he'd

allowed it to come on for short periods

of time but he was tired of all the

dilly-dallying this tactic angered

everyone inside the compound and further

annoyed the negotiators quresh rightly

called it an act of bad faith and

Schneider said that the three people

who'd been about to come out were now

going to remain

a couple of days later the Tactical

people placed bright lights outside the

compound at night to make it difficult

for those inside to sleep and stepped up

the loud music as an annoyance wessinger

lists the kind of music used as Tibetan

Buddhist chants bagpipes seagulls crying

helicopters dentist drills Sirens dying

rabbits a train and songs by Alice

Cooper and Nancy Sinatra a rock group

actually offered to come in and play

music that they knew would be

psychologically demoralizing but their

offer was rejected then the HRT drained

the compound's diesel storage tanks more

adults came out and caress said he would

send out no one else

then the loudspeaker system failed much

to jamar's frustration and to the

negotiator's relief although they later

got it working again

the crisis management team advised Jamar

that since quresh offered no specific

time frame for surrender the weight

could be indefinite at that point the

introduction of tear gas was mentioned

to avoid this the negotiators made

correction offer in prison he could

communicate with his followers and make

a worldwide broadcast on CNN

in order to have these privileges

correctionist people had to leave by 10

o'clock the next day March 23rd koresh

rejected the deal and tore up the letter

and one more man emerged at this point

Schneider became more belligerent in his

phone conversations and many at the

command center felt that something

negative was building

on March 25th the FBI sent in an

ultimatum sent a minimum of 20 people

out by the end of the afternoon or they

would begin to prepare for action

when no one emerged the FBI removed

motorcycles and other vehicles from in

front of the compound two days later

according to FBI documents Schneider

denied quresha's self-professed Divinity

and hinted that the FBI might burn the

building to get them out that seemed

like a rather enigmatic comment perhaps

even a hint of what was being discussed

inside then several days were taken up

with meetings between quresh Schneider

and two lawyers one of whom had been

hired by quresh's mother

once that was settled koresh decided

that he wanted to spend Passover in the

compound

since he was the leader of a religious

group there was no real point in arguing

the FBI gave in and waded through the

Passover period as it neared an end

quresh announced that he would observe

it for seven more days

Passover was officially at an end but

who could argue once again it was clear

that he was in charge by this time it

was clear to everyone that it was going

to be one thing after another with him

he wrote and sent out several letters

over the next few days that indicated he

would never surrender or leave

voluntarily by April 10th it appeared to

be time to resume discussions about tear

gas and this time the argument was

presented to the newly sworn attorney

general Janet Reno having only recently

taken up the reins this was a difficult

situation to be in

she asked for information about the gas

in particular whether it was harmful to

children

she was assured that it was not

the FBI wanted to use a substance called

chlorobenzylidine melanonitrile or CS

gas

they claimed that it was not flammable

but other sources insist that it's

highly flammable

since the FBI did not expect Flames to

be present they might have believed

there was no real Danger

however inside the compound to warm

things up at night and to read the group

was using kerosene lamps it seemed

reasonable to expect that someone might

have thought of that yet clearly no one

did even as these discussions were

underway there were few intermittent

conversations with quresh who offered

more of what they called Bible Babel and

negotiations appear to be stalled quresh

was now saying that he needed time to

write a manuscript on the meaning of the

Seven Seals and he was at work on that

now

he asked for supplies to accomplish this

and the FBI sent those in he completed

it on April 16th yet still he did not

come out some of his followers who

managed to get out said that he had only

completed work on the first seal while

the FBI believed he'd finished the

entire manuscript and still resisted

them by that time they'd had it they no

longer believed any of quresh's promises

on April 17th Reno approved of the use

of Cs gas to end the six-week standoff

apparently she felt that the negotiators

had come to an impasse and that the

sanitary conditions of the compound were

deteriorating

she was thinking of the 23 children

still inside in addition to that the

operation was getting expensive with no

foreseeable end tear gas was

uncomfortable but it would not harm

anyone the HRT was instructed to insert

it gradually over a period of 48 hours

and then be ready to capture people as

they emerged arrest warrants were

obtained for every person known to be

inside and search warrants for the

compound were in hand teams prepared to

wash gas off the children as they

emerged and to get them to safety on

April 18th tanks continued to remove

vehicles from the front of the compound

tension was high and it was clear that

koresh was upset especially when they

moved his black Camaro he called the

command center and said if you don't

stop what you're doing this could be the

worst day in law enforcement history a

sniper with a good view of the compound

reported that someone from inside had

hung a sign on a window that read Flames

await it was an ominous message the

negotiators weren't sure what it meant

but they suspected that koresh had a

plan

they were soon to find out just after

Dawn on Monday morning April 19th the

FBI phoned the compound to warn those

inside about what was to occur

leindecker provides a full description

of what was said it was not an assault

the FBI insisted but a means of getting

the Davidians to come out this was the

most uncomfortable tactic they'd used

thus far and if it didn't work they

could only resort to real aggression yet

they believed that no one would long

endure the harsh fumes of the gas it

burned the mouth eyes skin and lungs to

the point that any reasonable person

would accept a way to escape it three

minutes after the initial call two

combat engineering Vehicles approached

the buildings punched holes into the

fragile walls and began to spray tear

gas through nozzles into the compound

propelled by non-combustible carbon

dioxide nearby were in Abrams tank and

nine Bradley Vehicles while Choppers

flew overhead taking aerial photos

everyone was under orders that if

children were in any way endangered the

mission was to be aborted abruptly the

Davidians opened fire at the tanks yet

the tear gas injection continued and CS

grenades were thrown in through the

windows the walls of the buildings were

no match for the tanks and large holes

appeared wherever the tanks were used

then the vehicles pulled back for an

hour to reload and went at it again

the Davidians responded with more

gunfire they also tossed the telephone

out the front door a sign that all

negotiations had ceased although

survivors claimed that the tanks had

broken the phone lines at this point if

those who said they were using kerosene

lamps were correct and if the tanks had

indeed knocked them over the fires would

already have started and spread however

it would be several hours before that

occurred putting the claims into some

doubt the Texas wind was fierce that

morning which was not good for the

Tactical teams the FBI continued to

broadcast please for the Davidians to

come out hoping that at least the women

with children would do so they assured

those inside that no one would be harmed

but the Davidians had already seen some

of their fellow members LED away in the

days before in handcuffs and orange

prison suits this was yet another

tactical error meant to display Force

then just a few minutes after noon the

buildings quickly went up in flames and

the fire spread fast agents close to the

building heard gunfire and they assumed

that the people inside had decided to

end it with a mass suicide an HRT agent

later claimed that he'd seen someone

light a fire in front of the building

and several loud explosions inside

erupted into a giant plume of black

smoke that filled the sky helicopters

flew back and forth recording what they

could but no one knew how dangerous it

might be to get close

again a message was broadcast over the

loudspeaker that koresh should send his

people out only nine emerged one woman

who came out her clothing in Flames

tried to go back in but was caught by an

ATF agent and brought to safety

firefighters arrived but the FBI made

them keep their distance due to gunfire

and the possibility of more explosions

around 12 45 they entered the building

and found numerous incinerated bodies

most were well beyond immediate

identification

the negotiators who had worked long

hours to ensure a peaceful resolution

were stunned they had predicted

something along these lines of

aggression of any kind were used even so

they had not imagined the magnitude of

what did happen and now it was time to

investigate the crime scene

for that another team was called into

action and those agents whose work was

done went home

they were aware there would be endless

inquiries about how such an event could

have occurred by the end of that

shocking day 80 people were found dead

23 of them under 17. koresh had fathered

14 of them while rumors spread that

Kress himself had escaped through

underground tunnels his body was later

identified by dental records he'd been

shot in the head many of the victims had

died from gunshot wounds over 100

Firearms were eventually recovered from

the scene and four hundred thousand

rounds of ammunition wessinger states

that many of them were still in their

plastic wrappers apparently scheduled

for shipment rather than for use but

that's an interpretation without

evidence

it wasn't long before accusations were

flung from both sides that the other

side had started the fire and the FBI

brought to court what they felt was

clear evidence that the Davidians had

done it they produce surveillance audio

tapes of people inside the compound

joking the day before about catching on

fire on the actual day there were

recorded commands to spread the fuel and

light the torch yet survivors who had

escaped the compound claim there had

never been a suicide plan

still they could not explain why koresh

refused to come out for six hours after

the introduction of tear gas

the subsequent investigation showed that

the fire had three points of origin

which would not have happened

accidentally one canister that had

incendiary potential and that matched

what the FBI was using was actually

found in water so it could not have

started a fire

yet if it was true that CS gas was

flammable then the amount pumped into

the compound could easily have caught

fire the question was what was the true

source of the fire

had the tanks knocked over oil lamps if

so why hadn't the fire begun earlier no

one seemed to have satisfactory answers

but everyone pointed the finger

including people who were not even there

nevertheless it was no doubt that the

initiating ATF raid was ill-planned and

completely unnecessary koresh could have

been arrested peacefully away from the

compound while a search was activated

even if the ATF firmly believed that

only an element of surprise would have

allowed the plan to succeed once that

surprise was lost they should have

stopped and prepared for something else

there was little evidence of awareness

of what the Davidians were all about and

it was clear that a paramilitary

maneuver simply to inspect some guns was

Overkill

in a videotape for the History Channel

entitled Cults journalist Mike Wallace

sternly points out that there were many

people to blame for what happened to the

Branch Davidians inside the compound not

just them and there might never be

complete Clarity on the issue

the ATF made another suspicious decision

as well on May 12th less than a month

after the incident they bulldozed the

site in other words if there were any

clues remaining after the fire that

might have provided information as to

what took place they were now Beyond use

most Americans afterward blame the

Branch Davidians for what had taken

place

but in later years the sentiment shifted

somewhat and some home-grown radicals

decided there should be some payback

only two years later on the anniversary

of the fire Timothy McVeigh left a truck

full of explosives outside the Alfred P

murra Federal Building in Oklahoma City

killing or injuring hundreds of workers

and their children

those who view the government the way

koresh did are unlikely to accept any

explanation but one unwarranted

government persecution

David koresha decided that the fifth

seal of chapter 6 in the Book of

Revelation predicted that Armageddon

would occur there at Mount Carmel it

describes those who were slain for the

word of the Lord and mentions a waiting

period after which the entire Community

would be killed according to quresh's

understanding through this violence he

and his people were to achieve salvation

while there were predictions from

religious and political Scholars that

another Waco was in the making among

other secretive groups the FBI did learn

from the incident

the next time they were faced with a

similar standoff the Freeman and

Garfield County Montana in 1996 they

approached it much differently from

March 25th to June 13th the FBI

confronted a small group of Christian

Patriots who called themselves the

Freeman their aim was to overthrow the

government which they viewed as satanic

as part of a protest some of them

stopped paying taxes and government

loans which resulted in the Foreclosure

of their property instead of leaving

they tried setting up their own local

government and threatened to arrest even

to hang local government officials

this brought in the FBI but with

restrictions from attorney general Reno

that there would be no armed

confrontation

the Freeman that gathered on a

foreclosed Wheat Farm were armed but the

federal agents relied on more than 40

negotiators including family members of

the protesters to try to bring about a

peaceful resolution

no one wanted another Waco

those on the farm were offered

conditions that allowed them to remain

loyal to their concerns and to run their

own defense even as 14 of them were

taken into custody in other words

contrary to Waco

the FBI avoided acting in a way that

confirmed the group's persecutory belief

system and the matter ended in the

courtroom for issues of tax evasion

rather than on an impromptu Battlefield

about 5 30 p.m on Sunday March 13 1977

John LeMay 17 told his next-door

neighbor that he was going to Redondo

Beach to see a guy he'd met at a gym in

downtown Los Angeles whose name was Dave

when John didn't come home that night or

the next day his hysterical mother

called the El Segundo police certain

that something had happened to him

claiming that her son didn't just go off

for days at a time police chalked it up

as another teen runaway on March 18th

the remains of John LeMay who was

homosexual were discovered beside a

highway south of Corona he had been

carefully dismembered all the body parts

washed and drained of blood and neatly

packed into five industrial trash bags

each bag was carefully sealed with nylon

filament tape and three of the bags had

been crammed into an empty 80 gallon oil

drum the other two left on the ground

next to it the boy's head was missing

but a birthmark clearly identified the

remains as belonging to John LeMay the

decade of the 70s was a confusing time

for young people particularly young gay

people the AIDS epidemic hadn't been

named as a serious threat yet the

popularity of gay bath houses gay bars

and anonymous sex in Parks public

toilets and parties was at its frenzied

Zenith gays were coming out with a

Vengeance and they were finally taking

what they considered their rightful

freedoms in the wake of the free love

60s in San Francisco's hate Ashbury

young people headed to California in

droves

gay teens were drawn there as if to

Mecca misunderstood youths ran away from

unsympathetic parents stuck out their

thumbs and headed to their promised land

they didn't necessarily find what they

were looking for many of them ended up

as boy prostitutes trying to eke out a

meager living

during the 70s and early 80s more than a

hundred young hitchhikers caught rides

on the streets and freeways of Southern

California and didn't live to tell about

it they were young pretty and eventually

desperate according to Berkeley

psychologist Michael Evans homosexuals

are an easy population to get access to

in some Anonymous way

Chicago Police Sergeant Richard Sandberg

put it another way the gays are easy

prey hitchhiking has never been a safe

mode of transportation but in the 1970s

getting into a car with a stranger was a

horrifyingly common occurrence Predators

cruised the freeway on ramps and Beach

highways they frequented bars hoping to

find young boys in an agreeable state of

inebriation

sometimes they were looking for money

sometimes for quick impersonal sex

sometimes they wanted to vent their

frustrations and rage on someone anyone

unsuspecting while homosexuals

constitute only about five percent of

serial killers they're more prone to

Overkill than their straight

counterparts indulging in the more

horrific extremes of torture mutilation

and dismemberment gay men are also among

the most prolific of serial killers the

sheer promiscuity of their crimes is a

kind of grotesque mirror of the

free-ranging sexual lifestyle embraced

by so many gay men in the pre-aids era

of the 1970s

why homosexual serial killers as a group

should be especially sadistic is an

interesting question although one

element is surely the prevailing

homophobia of American society which

causes many gay men to grow up with a

deep-seated sense of self-hatred a

violent homophobia of their own when

these feelings are combined with the

Psychopathology of a serial killer the

results can be particularly appalling

the FBI estimates that somewhere between

10 and 50 serial killers are still at

large in America Patrick Wayne Kearney

was born in Texas in 1940 the youngest

of three boys he was thin shy prone to

illness and an easy target for

schoolyard bullies by the time he was

eight years old he knew he would kill

people by the time he was a much

ridiculed teen he was actively

fantasizing about murder

his fantasies were very detailed and

then he tried it it started in the

mid-60s in Tijuana and San Diego he

picked up guys in bars bus stops and

places where gay men congregated looking

for a quickie in the bushes

they were easy to find easy to kill

bodies easy to dispose of in the desert

but in his public life Kearney appeared

normal

he put his time in with the Army as well

as into a short marriage neither of

those situations suited him in 1962

Kearney met David Douglas hill hill was

married and an army veteran a six foot

two High School Dropout from Lubbock

he'll join the Army in 1960 but was

quickly discharged on a diagnosis of an

unspecified personality disorder back in

Lubbock he married his high school

sweetheart but like kearney's trial

marriage Hills was short-lived when he

met Kearney Hill divorced his wife and

moved to California with Kearney in

1967. Patrick got a good job as an

Aeronautics engineer with Hughes

aircraft and David stayed home but

thought was love at first sight when

they met their 10-year life together was

tumultuous and stormy frequently Hill

would stomp out of the house and go

spend a few nights with some friends or

he'd pick up a one-night stand out of

frustration and revenge occasionally he

went all the way home to Lubbock but he

always returned when Hill was gone

kearney's impotent frustrations reached

a boiling point there was only one thing

he knew that would satisfy those

feelings of repressed rage when Hill

left the house after a fight Kearney

would go prowling

he'd jump in his Volkswagen and go out

to pick up hitchhikers or young men from

gay bars

being of slight build he had a Surefire

system of subduing his victims he shot

them in the head with a 22 caliber

pistol without warning sometimes he'd be

driving down the highway paying strict

attention to the speed limit with his

left hand on the steering wheel then

shoot his victim in the passenger seat

with his right then he'd drive around

until he found a suitably private place

for him to relieve his frustrations bent

his rage and wield his power

as soon as he was alone with their

corpses he would undress them and have

sex with them then he would employ the

hacksaw and cut them into pieces if he

was at home he did this in the bathroom

fastidiously washing each body part and

draining it of blood to keep it from

smelling he left no fingerprints in the

dried blood he learned all this from

carefully reading the notorious crimes

of Dean Coral who murdered 17 young boys

in Houston wrapped them up in trash bags

and buried them kareny studied Coral's

heinous crimes and collected newspaper

clippings as news of his torture and

murder spree came to a violent

conclusion when one of his vicious

accomplices killed Coral with his own

gun

most of kearney's victims reminded him

of the type of person who had given him

a bad time during his teenage years

blonde and arrogant sometimes after he

killed them and had sex with their

corpses he would beat them Patrick

Kearney wasn't the only one killing

young people in Southern California

during this time the hillside stranglers

Angelo buono and his equally psychotic

cousin Kenneth Bianchi were plying their

trade in the same area at the same time

abducting young girls torturing them

strangling them and dumping their bodies

wherever convenient Zodiac Killer was on

the loose taunting police and reigning

Terror with his random murders the zebra

killers were randomly hacking people to

death with machetes in San Francisco and

closer to home Randy craft was proving

to be one of the all-time most demented

killers of gays with his

incomprehensible sadistic torture

methods William bonan with a sidekick

Vernon butts was also committing

horribly grisly murders on young gay men

and discarding the remains alongside the

freeways no wonder the police were

confused they didn't know how many

serial killers they had and they didn't

know how many of them were copycat

murders

but as the body count Rose they noticed

some Market differences in the modus

operandi one murderer later to be

identified as Randy craft routinely

picked up hitchhikers gays Marines or

whoever caught his fancy he then drugged

them tortured them for hours and ended

up by castrating them and shoving

whatever was handy a broom handle a tree

branch a pole the victim's own genitals

or underwear into their rectums he

usually did this while the victim was

still alive and screaming William bonan

strangled his victims with rope cord or

the victim's t-shirt before ripping the

corpses and throwing the bodies to the

side of the road but one killer stood

out from the others by carefully

dismembering his victims cleaning them

up and tidally bagging them the Press

called these the trash bag murders the

homicide cops called them the bag

murders

some experts claim that serial killing

is an addiction once they begin killing

and sometimes they kill the first time

by accident serial killers find

themselves addicted to murder in an

intense cycle that begins with homicidal

sexual fantasies that in turn spark a

desperate search for crimes leading to a

brutal killing followed by a period of

cooling off and a return to a normal

daily routine with all its unbearable

stresses disappointments and hurts which

lead back to the re-emerging need to

start fantasizing about killing again

once a killing cycle is triggered it is

rarely broken

with time trapped in this addiction

cycle serial killers become more

frenzied and the frequency and violence

of their murders escalate exponentially

until they're either caught or burnout

the killer reaches a point where killing

no longer satisfies them and they stop

on their own accord if nothing else

interrupts their killing career

some commit suicide move on to commit

other crimes or turn themselves into the

police

a study of 326 U.S male serial killers

between 1800 and 1995 concluded that 87

percent had killed at least one stranger

and 70 percent killed only strangers

the most prolific serial killers also

tend to be the most organized they

methodically stalk their victims for the

best opportunity to strike so as not to

be seen and they smartly dump the bodies

far away so as not to leave any clues

although anyone can be targeted victims

of serial killers tend to be the most

vulnerable in society children

prostitutes and the elderly but the most

striking and intriguing aspect of Serial

murderers is the nature of their

motivation to satisfy an intense

appetite for power and sadism the serial

murderer tends to kill not for love

money or Revenge but just for the fun of

it because it makes him feel good

because John LeMay told his neighbor

that he was going to visit someone named

Dave in Redondo Beach police equated

that name with a name that regularly

appeared in the sign-in sheets at the

gay bath houses and soon was knocking on

the door of the modest Kearney Hill home

in Redondo kernian Hill welcomed them in

and seemed to be relaxed concerned about

the missing boy and totally innocent

while there though investigators help

themselves to a few carpet fibers

because For the first time in a trash

bag murder carpet fibers have been

caught up in the nylon filament tape

used seal the bags the fibers matched as

soon as the police left Kearney

destroyed all the files he'd kept on

Dean Coral the police came back and

asked for samples of both kearneys and

Hills pubic hair as well as hairs from

their dog the pair cooperated fully all

the fibers and hair matched evidence

left on lemay's body but when the cops

came back again this time with a search

warrant the couple was gone police found

a hacksaw with a fresh clean blade but

little bits of Blood and Tissue were

caught up in the corners

John lemay's Blood and Tissue they found

residual blood all over the bathroom

invisible to the naked eye but clearly

there under forensic examination they

found familiar nylon filament tape and a

search of kearney's office at Hughes

aircraft offered up a source of the

exact same trash bags used in what was

looking like upward of 20 murders

a good public relations campaign can be

hard for a criminal to outrun most

notably victims families use public

relations as a tool to ferret out

information from the public and to keep

pressure on the investigative bodies

tearful press conferences like those the

families of Lacey Peterson Natalie

Holloway and Brooke wilberger held keep

the story in the public eye and keep the

local police on their toes Amber Alerts

and the America's Most Wanted television

show turned citizens into amateur

sleuths rewards like those posted by

families or by Oprah Winfrey tend to

capture the attention of the viewing

public an outgrowth of which is a better

informed citizenry and fewer places for

a fugitive to hide the Hillside

Strangler investigation task force was

construed as a public relations vehicle

the Los Angeles Police Department going

through the usual high-profile motions

to reassure the public set up a special

task force which included the

investigating officers from the Glendale

Police Department and the Los Angeles

sheriff's department not that they had

anything new to go on but all the busy

commotion and news conferences looked

good on television

the pressure was on Kearny and Hill too

with their photographs posted on posters

when the heat was clearly on Kearney and

Hill flew to El Paso Texas but knew that

life on the lamb was not for them the

cops knew who they were and what they

looked like

at the behest of relatives the pair

returned to California and at 1 30 pm on

July 1 1977 walked into Riverside County

Sheriff's Office pointed at a wanted

poster with their pictures on it and

said we're them they were booked on

suspicion of two murders and had been

wanted for questioning in connection

with six other slayings

they were arraigned on the two murder

charges Bale was set at five hundred

thousand dollars each Kearney cooperated

fully with the police

he said the murders excited him and gave

him a feeling of dominance

the idea of hurting and killing someone

sounded sexually exciting when officers

skrilled him about picking up Marines

and feeding pills and booze to his

victims they got a blank look from him

they persisted wanting to know if he had

ever put anything but his penis into his

victim's rectums he used towels to keep

the bodies from leaking all over his

bathroom before he dismembered them

Kearney told them the police persisted

hoping to put to rest more of their

freeway Mysteries

how about torture did he Ram anything

into an anus for the sheer pleasure of

it recognition crossed kearney's face

and he shook his head I am not the

wooden stake he said he knew exactly

what the detectives were getting at but

impaling strangling and torturing his

victims wasn't his style a Bullet to the

Head was clean and simple he seemed

offended that he would be confused with

Randy craft

the trash bag murders investigation

began officially on April 13 1975 when

the body of Albert Rivera 21 of Los

Angeles was found near Highway 74 East

of San Juan Capistrano in a heavy duty

trash bag but according to Kearney in a

series of letters confessions and

conversations with the police the

killing began much earlier in the

mid-60s in Tijuana and San Diego

he led them to the site where he had

Buried one of his first victims known

only as George behind his and Hills

Culver City Apartment the victim was

killed around Christmas 1968. the police

dug where Kearney indicated and came up

with a skeleton with a single Bullet

Hole in its skull after killing George a

paranoid Tierney laid low for over a

year

nobody came knocking on his door and he

realized that he had actually gotten

away with murder

a neighbor said he occasionally heard

what she thought were gunshots but had

no idea they came from the kernian Hill

apartment after his arrest Kearney wrote

letters to the police detailing the

crimes the names of the victims and the

places the bodies could be found an 18th

count of murder was filed the same day

that the 13th Hillside Strangler victim

was found as to John LeMay Hill wasn't

home when his young lover came to the

house so Kearney invited him in to watch

television

without provocation Kearney shot Lemay

in the back of the head and later dumped

his remains in the desert he liked using

the desert the desert animals and

insects removed evidence quickly and

efficiently things disappear very

rapidly in the desert he told

investigators you can put a small animal

on an ant hill and it disappears right

in front of your eyes

Kearney once had a flat tire during one

of his drives to the desert to dispose

of a body when he discovered that the

spare was flat too he had to call a tow

truck to get his car to a service

station

Kearney stood by Sweating Bullets while

the attendant fixed the flat never

questioning the bags in the back seat

which contained arms legs a rib cage and

some intestines

another time he locked his keys in the

car while inspecting possible dump sites

it took him hours to Jimmy open the lock

with a coat hanger nervously looking

over his shoulder the whole time freshly

filled trash bags again in the back seat

as soon as the bags were unloaded though

he felt an enormous sense of relief

accomplishment and power after hearing

three hours of evidence the Riverside

County grand jury refused to indict

David Hill public defender Malcolm

McMillan spirited him out of jail under

cloak of secrecy to protect him from

reporters and photographers

he'll fled California and return to

Lubbock Riverside District Attorney

Byron Morton said the evidence against

Mr Hill was weak adding that much of the

information Unearthed by Riverside

investigators tended to exonerate Hill

MacMillan said he was not surprised the

grand jury refused to indict Hill adding

that he didn't think there is sufficient

evidence to hold him to answer in

Superior Court Kearney said that hill

was neither involved in nor aware of the

murders

he said that he committed all the

murders while Hill was away did Kearney

take all the blame to free an innocent

man or to absolve his lover is it likely

that hill was innocent against the

advice of his attorney Patrick Kearney

changed his not guilty plea to a plea of

guilty his attorney advised him to plead

not guilty by reason of insanity but

Kearney pleaded guilty to the original

Three charges of murder and asked to be

sentenced immediately in an apparent

move to avoid California's death penalty

his actions were moot the death penalty

law didn't go into effect until August

1977. all of kearney's homicides

predated that time so the death penalty

was never an option for prosecutors

Superior Judge John Hughes handed down a

life term with the possibility of parole

in seven years

judge Breckenridge said this defendant

has certainly perpetrated a series of

ghastly and grisly crimes

I can only hope the community release

board will never release Mr Kearney he

appears to be an insult to humanity for

what seems to be approximately 32

murders Kearney was eventually charged

with 21 counts of murder and received 21

life sentences if all of his confessions

are truthful he also murdered two

children ages 5 and 8 along with four

victims whose bodies were never

recovered at least seven of his victims

remain unidentified Patrick Kearney is

today living out his life sentences in

California

he writes essays and has a few of them

published the trash bag murders are

considered among the most heinous crimes

of the 20th century Patrick kearney's

swath of death ranks him with the likes

of Jerry brudos Ted Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer

and John Wayne Gacy if he hadn't gotten

sloppy consciously or unconsciously he'd

probably still be doing it today

in the suburb of Melbourne Australia

known as Frankston during a span of

weeks in the summer of 1993 two teenage

girls and a young adult woman lost their

lives at the hands of a violent serial

killer and another middle-aged woman was

attacked but managed to survive

since none of the victims were linked to

one another except for their location

which was less than an hour from

Melbourne in Southeastern Victoria the

crimes were not initially connected for

certain but eventually police highly

suspected they were in pursuit of a

single serial killer in these cases who

was in the habit of choosing victims

randomly and stabbing them to death the

community would soon find out that the

killer was someone who had lived among

them for a while a 21 year old man named

Paul Charles denier at six feet tall and

being overweight as well he definitely

looked like an imposing Force but it was

his complete lack of emotion when

arrested that revealed how devoid of

humanity he really was while some have

described denier's resembling Canadian

actor John Candy who was famous for his

role in numerous comedies such as planes

trails and Automobiles The Blues

Brothers Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings

and 40 other films the similarities

stopped at the physical level

denier was no animal lover nor a family

man as his celebrity lookalike had been

in fact denier's history involves the

same telltale signs as many other serial

killers animal abuse being prominent in

his childhood as for movies denier much

preferred those centered around blood

and gore rather than comedy supposedly

watching and re-watching many times

films like The Stepfather Halloween and

fear he admitted to the police that he

had had the urge to kill for the better

part of his adolescence claiming since

just 14 years of age

I've always wanted a kill waiting for

the right time waiting for that silent

alarm to trigger me off this culminated

seven years later

born to British parents who had

immigrated to Australia in 1965 Paul

Charles denier arrived into this world

on April 14 1972 in Sydney Maureen and

Anthony denier had two older boys at the

time and would have another boy and a

girl after Paul as an infant Paul was

said to have taken a fall off a bench

bumping his head and so there was a

running family joke blaming anything

Paul did that was out of the ordinary on

the incident while that teasing occurred

at home in school denier at first

struggled to socialize with others in

kindergarten even though he seemed to

adjust by the end of the year even so

the family's move in 1981 was not an

easy adjustment for tenure the move had

been brought about by Anthony denier's

work he was taking a management position

at the stake place on Center Road in

South Oakley which was on the Frankston

train line while all of the denier

children had a hard time leaving

Campbellton Paul denier was said to be a

completely different child at his new

school Northvale primary he was

described as a loner as a lacking

self-confidence and is being unmotivated

in his studies his fiscal

characteristics didn't help denyer blend

in much either he was noticeably tall

and also much heavier than other kids

his interests also put him at odds with

the norm collecting knives and homemade

slingshots as well as clubs using a

homemade knife denier split the throats

of his sister's teddy bears as if

destroying his siblings toys were not

disturbing enough he moved on a tent to

stab and slit the throat of the family's

kitten with his brother's pocket knife

proceeding to hang it then from a tree

in their backyard later on it came about

that denier had also treated a friend's

cat in a similar manner slaughtering it

and then he slid the throats of its

kittens multiple counts of animal

cruelty he even allegedly slaughtered

and dismembered two goats in a paddock

next door to his last place of

employment a marine Workshop he was

fired though as his employer felt he

didn't spend much time working and

instead poured his time into a hobby of

making knives at the job site other

crimes started piling up on denier's

record as he entered his teens including

car theft although he was only given a

warning for that just a couple of months

later he was charged with a false report

of a fire theft and willful damage he

was in trouble again and again

the crimes became more specifically

violent against humans and at age 15 he

was charged with assault when he coerced

another boy to masturbate publicly he

even lost employment due to his

treatment of people having allegedly

assaulted a woman and child with a line

of shopping trolleys at Safeway

supermarket Safeway did open a different

chapter in denir's life though as he met

Sharon Johnson while at work there in

1992. this would have been as close to a

normal relationship as he would ever

have other jobs never gave him a chance

such as the time he applied to the

Victorian police force perhaps

fortunately he was rejected citing his

being unfit physically unable to hold

down a job only added to the signs of

being a social outcast and he continued

to be obsessed with death or her murder

movies and in general anything Macabre

during all of this denier moved in with

Sharon Johnson who lived in a flat on

Denon Road in Frankston denier was

jobless and had a great deal of

unfocused time on his hands while Sharon

was working two jobs to keep up with the

bills not too long after denyer moved

into the flat disturbing things started

happening in the area a burglary

occurred in one flat and all of that

tenant's engagement photos and clothes

had been slashed with a knife there were

also accusations of a Peeping Tom by

another tenant meanwhile Daniel and

Johnson had become friends with yet

another tenant Trisha who had a sister

named Donna Donna didn't live on the

same block but close enough by with her

newborn baby and her fiance Les who

worked delivering pizzas late into the

night one evening Donna experienced a

series of unnerving prank calls and

joined Les with a baby out for a while

upon all arriving back to their home for

the night after Les's work was complete

they were met with quite a horrific

scene on the wall next to their

television was a message that appeared

to be written in blood dead Dawn and a

second message that read Donna you're

dead

scattered along the floor across the

living room and kitchen were the

entrails of Donna's cats Buffy blood was

everywhere

draped over the bulk of the cat's

disemboweled body was a picture of a

bikini-clad woman

oddly one of Buffy's eyes was bulging

from its socket while the other eye was

missing completely in a hauntingly

similar manner to another portion of the

story Buffy's kittens were not spared in

the bathroom the two kittens their

throats cut were lying in the baby's

bath which was full of bloodied water

no room untouched there's even blood

everywhere in the laundry room sprayed

all up the walls and even a freshly

laundered basket full of baby clothes in

another area the baby's clothing had

been slashed and destroyed as well the

flat itself had damages beyond the

remains of The Cat in the kitchen

cupboard doors bore splintered holes

where someone had kicked them in the

Intruder had opened every drawer and

clothes were ripped and strewn all

throughout the bedroom a collection of

centerfold Pinups that less had kept had

been slashed and stabbed with some sort

of a knife another photo of a semi-clad

model was found at the baby's crib the

words Donna and Robin had been sprayed

in white shaving foam on The Dressing

Table mirror who Robin was remained a

mystery as one might imagine Donna

couldn't bring herself to stay at the

flat ever again after that night in

February 1993 so she opted to stay

temporarily with her sister Trisha until

she found another place

Paul denier who knew Donna quite well

through Trisha had the gall to tell

Donna that she would be safe now even

going as far to say that if the police

found out who was responsible that he

would make it his mission to take care

of them for her just a few months later

a series of events unfolded that tied

everything together in June Elizabeth

Stevens an 18 year old student was

reported by her aunt and uncle is

missing she'd been staying with them but

didn't return in the evening they

reported her unfortunately her body was

recovered in Lloyd Park just a short

drive from Frankston on cranbourne Road

in langwarin the next day Saturday June

12 1993. her injuries were numerous six

deep knife wounds had penetrated her

chest four Cuts ran from her breast

through her abdomen and four ran across

to form a crisscross pattern of squares

her face had suffered cuts and abrasions

and her throat had been cut her nose

appeared to have been broken

although her bra was found around her

neck a postmortem exam indicated no

sexual intercourse had occurred as

Elizabeth had no known involvement with

anyone who would have been violent her

murder was suspected to be at random as

police went to Great Lengths to find the

killer they spared no resources even

going so far as to display a life-size

mannequin at a roadblock near the bus

stop where the teenager had last been

seen hoping that new details would be

brought forward in the case and

therefore New Leads bus drivers and

passengers were questioned all of the

residents in the district were as well

even the local libraries were

investigated but no one seemed to know

anything more then in July on the 8th a

41 year old named rosatoth who worked as

a bank clerk was violently attacked on

her way home from Seaford in the

Frankston District her attacker claimed

to have a gun and attempted to force her

into the cover of the woods Mrs Toth

fought off her attacker despite him

ripping hair from her head she bit his

hands and continued fighting back until

he gave up and ran away at which point

she merged with torn stockings and no

pants at a roadway where she caught the

attention of a car that was approaching

she escaped with her life that night and

police assumed it was a purse snatching

gone wrong that same night a 22 year old

woman Was preparing dinner when she

realized she was out of milk she drove

to the store in Seaford but went missing

during the trip she was the mother of a

newborn Jake who was just 12 days old

and her name was Debbie Freeman it

wasn't until the 12th four days later

that her body was found by local farmer

in Carrom Downs Debbie Freeman had been

stabbed a total of 24 times along her

chest neck head and arms and also was

strangled but like the first victim she

had not been sexually violated

the police began to link both of these

stabbings and the attack on razatoth

looking for just one suspect for all

three of these crimes to deal with the

fear in the community a help center

called operation reassurance was created

to be a resource for women regarding how

to prevent attacks and what to do if one

was attacked even so one more teenager

would lose her life before the killer

was stopped on July 30th Natalie Russell

who was 17 years old was riding back to

her house from John Paul College on her

bike in Frankston it was the middle of

the afternoon when she disappeared that

night her remains were found in some

bushes between the peninsula and the

Long Island golf clubs her slain body

bore multiple stab wounds around her

face and neck her throat was slashed and

yet there was no proof of sexual

intercourse just as in the cases of the

other two murdered women there was

something new in this case though a

piece of evidence that would become key

was left on the body

a small piece of skin thought to be from

a finger was removed from the neck of

the victim that had belonged to her

killer also a sighting by a reliable

source a police officer no less had

occurred that seemed to be related at

about 3 pm someone had seen a Toyota

Corona that was memorably yellow and

near the bike track this was about the

time the coroner thought the murder of

Natalie Russell had taken place the

officer had written down the

registration number after determining

the car had no plates and so was suspect

running the registration number gave the

police a match with a report from a

postal worker

the man had been sitting suspiciously in

the front seat slumping as if he didn't

want to be seen and something about it

had bothered the postal worker that

wasn't much but it also came up that

this was a match to a car seen in the

area where Debbie Freeman's body was

discovered and that was no random

Circumstance the registration indeed

belonged to Paul Charles denier denier

wasn't home though when the police

showed up at his apartment at 3 30 PM

that day detective Mick Hughes and

Charlie bezina slipped a card under the

door and requested contact hoping to

hear something later

Sharon Johnson was the one who called

them back at 5 15 pm and they reassured

her it was just part of the canvassing

of the neighborhood a routine inquiry

they didn't want to scare denier off

before they could find him and quickly

proceeded to put together a team within

10 minutes the group headed by mchughes

Rod Wilson and CIB detective Darren

O'Loughlin were at the scene of the

flats at 186 Frankston Dandenong Road

ready to take denier when they knocked

denier seemed rather calm and collected

and had an answer for most of the

questions they asked him why was he

driving a car with no plates well he

actually had a 28-day permit to do so

while he made the repairs it needed

before it could be registered why had

his car been seen in the areas of each

crime scene during the time frames of

the murders he claimed his card broken

down near the bike trail which was the

area where Natalie Russell had been

found and that he had been picking up

Sharon near the train when his car had

been spotted the other time what didn't

match up were all of the cuts and even

the missing skin on his hands he had an

answer for that too tying it back to the

car repairs and saying that he'd gotten

injured while working on the fan in the

car engine denier denied knowing

anything about the murders at all except

for what he'd learned from the news

but the detective saw through all of the

excuses and numerous coincidences they

proceeded to take him into the police

station for questioning in the

interrogation room they requested hair

and blood samples for a DNA test all

throughout the night he had maintained

his innocence but the realization of the

implications of a DNA match changed the

game for him he asked how long the

results would be before they returned he

wanted to know if they had a sample from

the victims that purportedly had come

from the Killer out of nowhere he

suddenly and spontaneously admitted okay

I killed all three of them detective

Darren o'loughlin's interrogation was

finally getting somewhere it was now the

early morning hours of August 1st and

denyer began to reveal the details of

his murders of Elizabeth Stevens Debbie

frame and Natalie Russell as well as

Rosa toth's attack in a detached

completely unremorseful and almost smug

manner denier delivered his confession

as one who was describing a job process

to a group of new employees or

recounting his day to an acquaintance

but certainly not like one who is

describing violent acts the sense of

control he appeared to feel was

something he immensely enjoyed he was

the only one who had information that

they were after and he knew it as for

Elizabeth Stevens murder he confirmed

that it was at random he described it as

being a rainy gloomy Knight and she had

gotten off the bus around 7pm at the

stop on cranbourne Road in langwarrin he

was waiting around the bus stop saw her

and decided to follow her while it would

have only been a short walk until she

was back at the safety of her aunt and

uncles instead she found herself being

grabbed from behind and told that she

would be finished off if she screamed or

tried to run denier used a piece of

aluminum pipe to feign having a gun held

on his victim and persuaded her to go

into the woods at Lloyd Park his account

included that they walked into a bit of

Bushland beside the main track in Lloyd

Park sat there you know stood in the

bushes for a while just I can't remember

just standing there I suppose I held the

gun to the back of her neck walked

across the track over towards the other

small Sand Hill or something

and on the other side of that Hill she

asked me if she could you know go to the

toilet so to speak so I respected her

privacy so I turned around and

everything while she did it and

everything

when she finished we just walked down

toward where the goal posts are and we

turned right and headed toward the area

where she was found I got to that area

there and I started choking her with my

hands and she passed out after a while

you know the oxygen got cut off to her

head and she just stopped and then I

pulled out the knife and stabbed her

many times in the throat and she was

still alive then she stood up and we

walked around and all that just walking

around a few steps and then I threw her

on the ground and stuck my foot over her

neck to finish her off he continued in

his straightforward manner despite how

gruesome the details became the

interrogation video has an account of

him showing detectives just how he

strangled Elizabeth employing his thumb

into her throat and how he had stabbed

her throat he even remembered in clear

detail the trauma signs Elizabeth

displayed right before her death in the

form of shaking but he continued to

recount all of this without any emotion

and the motive for all this violence

denier stated that he just wanted to

kill

just wanted to take a life because I

felt my life had been taken many times

immediately after her death denier had

then left Elizabeth Stevens body near

the drain and disposed of the knife now

in pieces and which he had made himself

along his route back home of course this

wasn't the only crime in which he had

made use of his fake gun or homemade

knives

he also confessed in detail to the July

8th incident with Mrs Toth having also

come up from behind her after following

her from the station in Seaford and

having placed his hand over her mouth to

ensure she didn't scream instead Mrs

Toth had bit his finger through to the

bone as she put up a fight that

ultimately ended up with her being able

to escape him Mrs Toth at first couldn't

get the attention of any passing cars

and denier had initially not given up

chasing after her and grabbing her by

the hair he tried similar threats as he

had used on Elizabeth

shut up or I'll blow your goddamned head

off and Mrs Toth supposedly nodded and

started to go with him until she tried

again to escape and successfully caught

the attention of another car at this

point tenure left to evade being caught

and what would he have done if he had

been successful in getting her to go

with them I was just gonna drag her into

the park and kill her that's all that

same night he went back to the train

station and got on as if nothing had

happened heading toward Frankston and

departing the bus at kananuk it was

nearby this station that Debbie frame

was on her milk run stepping out of her

great Pulsar which Daniel decided to

enter via the rear door and crouched

down to wait

she got in unaware and began to drive it

was at that time denier began to use his

fake gun routine to gain control of the

situation I waited for her to start up

the car so no one would hear her scream

or anything then you're conveyed and she

put it into gear and she went to do a

U-turn I startled her just as she was

doing that turn and she kept going into

the wall of The Milk Bar which caused a

dent in the Bonnet I told her to you

know shut up or I'd blow her head off

and all that he even admitted to

noticing the baby car seat in the back

when the police asked him if anything

was in the back seat and so the

knowledge that she was the mother of a

small child did not even deter him

guiding her to a remote area denier

continued to threaten her I told her

when we got there if she gave any

signals to anyone I'd blow her head off

I'd decorate the car with her brains the

terrified woman drove until she was told

to pull over by a stand of trees in the

darkness and cover of the woods he

presented a new addition to his

collection of tools a simple cord I

popped it over her eyes real quickly so

she didn't see it because I was gonna

strangle her but I didn't want her to

see the cord first I lifted the cord up

and said can you see this and she just

put her hand up to grab it to feel it

and when she did that I just yanked on

it real quickly around her neck and then

I was struggling with her for about five

minutes after strangling Debbie with a

cord until she was all but lifeless he

proceeded to use his knife to stab her

in the neck and chest she started

breathing out of her neck just like

Elizabeth Stevens he told the detectives

I could hear bubbling noises just as Mrs

Toff had Debbie fought for her life but

the isolated area gave her little chance

to overcome her attacker he was recorded

as saying yeah she put up quite a fight

and her white jumper was pulled off

during that time as well

I just felt the same way I did when I

killed Elizabeth Stevens as the single

stab to the stomach was noticeable the

police inquired about that specifically

I lifted her up top and then plowed the

knife into her gut I wanted to see how

big her boobs were he said that when he

saw Debbie's bare stomach he just lunged

at it with a knife when it was obvious

Debbie was no longer alive he disposed

of her body in the trees covering it

with some branches which he said he

broke off himself from the surrounding

trees

realizing that he had dropped his knife

he spent some time perhaps five minutes

searching the area until he recovered it

and took it with him he actually used

Debbie Freeman's car to get back closer

to home leaving it to walk the rest of

the way once there he called Sharon who

was at work and arranged a meter to pick

her up the cannonok railway station

where the incident had all begun

but why had he killed Debbie frame same

reason why I killed Elizabeth Stevens I

just wanted to came the chilling answer

it was not until the next morning that

denier had seemed to think anything of

the other contents of the car he had

abandoned he actually had the guts to go

back to it in order to retrieve certain

items the milk eggs chocolate and

cigarettes which had all been from The

Milk Bar and Debbie's purse he intended

to dispose of all these dumping the milk

and eggs burning the cartons and bearing

the purse in a golf course

obviously aware that his possession of

any evidence could lead to his being

caught he hid the knife Parts in the

Flat's laundry room air vent yet he

admitted all this freely now

this golf course would be the same one

near where he killed Natalie Russell

along the bike track this was no

coincidence though and police were about

to learn of one major difference between

the previous attacks and this final one

so far the questioning had resulted in

confessions for all but one of the

crimes denier was the main suspect for

and the process had taken a total of 12

hours

if what had been shared so far wasn't

enough to convince everyone that Paul

denier was beyond all hope of Being

Human and needed to be locked up for

life and stripped of all freedoms than

what he was about to share would

certainly ensure his fate was sealed in

this chapter of tenure's confession he

freely admits that a certain level of

planning went into Natalie Russell's

murder

he had a desire to abduct a young woman

and although he didn't have a specific

Target in mind he did have a location

the bike track at the floor and fauna

Reserve in nearby langwarrin then under

the cover of woods just as in the other

cases he would murder the young woman as

the reserve was bordered by a wire fence

he came prepared with pliers making a

hole in three separate places through

which he could drag his victim into the

woods he did this much earlier in the

day and then returned to the site in the

afternoon he only had to wait about 20

minutes after he arrived at 2 30 before

a young woman entered the path off the

road from John Paul College she wore a

blue school uniform following his victim

and armed with another homemade knife

and leather strap he told the

investigators I stuck about 10 yards

behind her until I got to the second

hole and just when I got to that hole I

quickly walked up behind her and stuck

my left hand around her mouth and held

the knife to her throat and that's where

that cut happened I cut that on my own

blade he explained his thumb with the

missing skin

as Natalie struggled he threatened her

and then she supposedly started to offer

him things in exchange for her life she

said you can have all my money have sex

with me and things just said disgusting

things like that really

he did not realize how perverse it was

that he would be so disgusted by the

victim he was attacking this was the

only emotion he seemed to show

throughout all of the interviews unless

you count the almost sense of Pride he

gave off the cut on her face happened as

denier compelled Natalie to kneel in

front of him and then lie down as he

held the knife near her eye he held her

by the throat and she struggled and he

cut her face as she managed to stand

back up

she screamed and I just said shut up

shut up shut up shut up and if you don't

shut up I'll kill you if you don't do

this I'll kill you if you don't do that

then you described his response and she

said what do you want from me I said all

I want you to do is shut up and so when

she was kneeling on the ground I put the

strap around her neck to strangle her

and it broke in half and then she

started violently struggling for about a

minute until I pushed got her onto her

back again and pushed her head back like

this and cut her throat denier had no

issue demonstrating the details of his

actions as he spoke I cut a small cut at

first and then she was bleeding and then

I stuck my fingers into her throat and

grabbed her cords and I twisted them

when asked why he would do that he

answered my whole fingers like that much

of my hand was inside her throat when

asked again he gave more details

stop her from breathing and then she

slowly stopped she sort of started to

faint and then she was weak a bit weaker

I grabbed the opportunity of throwing

her head back and one big large cut

which sort of cut almost her whole head

off and then she slowly died while most

can imagine the job of a detective can

be tough listening to the confessions

and working at scenes of a serial killer

brought the detectives through such a

dark side of humanity it was hard to

keep composure to finish the

interrogation yet they asked for the

sake of thoroughness why did you kill

her just the same reason as before just

everything came back through my mind

again I kicked her before I left he said

the kick was to ensure she was actually

dead and yet he slashed her one more

time after that ironically he was almost

caught then and there as he walked back

to his car with Natalie's blood still on

his hands you saw two officers examining

his car because of its lack of plates

and decided to leave it there and walk

back to his flat taking a different

route

to conceal the evidence he hid the knife

again but this time in the backyard

after cleaning up he went about business

as usual picking up Sharon from work and

going on to socialize with her at her

mother's home in town

adding to the list of crimes he then

tacked on a confession about his

neighbor's sister Donna and her cats he

even admitted that he had brought one of

his knives to murder Donna but she was

not home by the time he'd arrived while

that may have been the start of the

violence against women in the area

denier admitted he had stalked women for

years just waiting for the right time

waiting for that silent alarm to trigger

me off waiting for the sign what was it

about women that tenure had such a

problem with I just hate him I beg your

pardon said a Lachlan I just hate him

tenure repeated those particular girls

astolachlan in reference to Daniel's

victims or women in general

the exception would be Sharon who was

apparently completely clueless about her

boyfriend's doings while she was busy

working to support them

Sharon's not like anyone else I know I'd

never hurt her she's a kindred spirit

denier said and so denyer was formally

charged with three counts of murder and

initially one count of attempted murder

the charge for the incident with Mrs

Toth was changed to abduction later on

he pled guilty to all on December 15

1993.

standing trial before Justice Frank

Vincent at the Supreme Court of Victoria

the court heard expert testimony from a

clinical psychologist Ian joblin while

denyer was awaiting trial in the months

prior Joplin had the opportunity to

examine him what he observed in denir

was especially disturbing as denier not

only failed to show remorse but also

showed evidence of deriving great

pleasure from discussing the murders

denier also took little responsibility

for his life beyond admitting he had

done these things

he blamed his parents and the way they

raised him he accused one of his older

brothers of sexual abuse against him and

even his lack of employment as reasons

why he became a serial killer these

excuses could have been the stories of

many others all who never became serial

killers though his psychological

condition was beyond someone who just

hadn't had great luck in life his very

nature was aggressive cruel and thrived

on the suffering of others the suffering

he himself caused the term sadist was

used to describe denier he received

pleasure and albeit temporary

satisfaction every time he committed a

murder very quickly though he would lose

this satisfaction and then would set out

to kill again there was no cure for such

a person or hope for them to readjust to

society with this and all of the murder

evidence along with his confession

denier was sentenced on December 20th of

the same year the murders took place

he was given three terms of life

imprisonment plus eight years for the

abduction charge and no parole was set

acknowledging the suffering of the

community as a whole the judge said the

fear you have caused to thousands of

women in the community will be felt for

a long time for many you are the fear

that quickens their step as they walk

home or causes a parent to look

anxiously at the clock when a child is

late to the dismay of many especially

the victims families denier won an

appeal to the full court of the Supreme

Court of Victoria on July 29 1994 his

parole period was set at 30 years which

was still the highest set on record

besides that of Ashley Colston who also

murdered three people at age 35. without

a sentence of Lifetime imprisonment they

could see a day when the Frankston

serial killer would be released and just

50 some years old definitely still a

threat to the community considering

mental health experts are unable to

offer anything that could change such a

person's bent towards violence and

darkness

in September 1978 Rodney Alcala was a

winning contestant on Chuck paris's The

Dating Game Barris would later claim the

show was a front for his work with the

CIA alcala's tale is at least as lured

the game show had recently been revamped

to be more suggestive it was as corny as

ever

Alcala with his long hair leisure suit

gold chain earrings and pushy charms fit

the part perfectly

the episode introduced him to The

Bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw as a

successful photographer who got his

start at the age of 13 when his father

found him in the dark room fully

developed the host told Bradshaw that

Alcala from Los Angeles was into

skydiving and motorcycling Alcala

managed to be somewhat less awkward than

his two competitors

Bradshaw a teacher from Phoenix Arizona

asked the three Bachelors hidden from

her view behind a screen to describe

themselves

I'm serving you for dinner what are you

called and what do you look like I'm

called the banana and I look really good

the lean Alcala confidently told her

peel me

intrigued Bradshaw then asked him to

pretend to audition for her drama class

she suggested he take the part of a

dirty old man

as a convicted sex offender it was

something he had some experience with

already so he just growled come on over

here

somehow his Commons worked and the lucky

pair won tennis lessons and a trip to

Magic Mountain one of the Los Angeles

area's local amusement parks

but after talking to alkala Backstage

Bradshaw wisely decided that Alcala was

less a swinging single than simply

creepy

she never did accompany him on that date

more than 20 years later Alcala would

point to a tape of that Dating Game

episode as proof that he'd already owned

the pair of gold ball earrings that

prosecutors would contend he was keeping

as a trophy of his kills along with a

collection of photographs of his Full

Assault and murder victims and Targets

in January 2010 Rodney James Alcala

started his third trial for the 1979

murder of a 12-year-old girl from

Huntington Beach California Robin samso

the courts had thrown out his two

previous convictions on technicalities

thanks to developments in DNA and blood

evidence technology in the 2010 trial

prosecutors would also charge him with

assaults and death of Jill barcom

Georgia wixted Charlotte lamb and Jill

parento he'd already been convicted of

two sex crimes and New York detectives

now believe he also killed two women in

Manhattan during the 70s James Alcala

was born in San Antonio Texas in 1943.

by the time he was 12 he and his mother

and sisters were living in Suburban Los

Angeles

his father had runoff Alcala joined the

army when he was 17 and served as an

army clerk but he only lasted a few

years

in 1964 he had a nervous breakdown

a military psychiatrist described him as

an anti-social personality

discharged he returned to Los Angeles

and enrolled at UCLA where he received a

bachelor Fine Arts degree in 1968. that

same year he abducted and nearly killed

an eight-year-old girl

tally S as the Press would know her was

on her way to school in Hollywood when a

passerby saw Rodney Alcala lure her into

his car on Sunset Boulevard the witness

followed Alcala and the girl to his De

Long prey Avenue apartment and called

the police

by the time officers arrived on the

scene Alcala had bashed the girl's skull

with a metal pipe and rear when they

knocked he stalled and snuck out the

back leaving the child nearly dead

surrounded by photography equipment Los

Angeles police detective Steve hodle

investigated he says professors at UCLA

told him he must have the wrong guy they

just couldn't imagine that the

well-spoken sophisticated art student

could have committed such a crime

Alcala fled Los Angeles to New York to

evade arrest

under the name John Berger Alcala

balanced a Playboy lifestyle with

coursework at New York University

including a film class taught by Future

sex offender Roman Polanski if NYPD

investigators are right Alcoa also

followed his crimes against talies with

another attack this one deadly on June

12 1971 someone reaped Cornelia Michael

Crilley and strangled her with her own

nylon stockings leaving her dead in her

apartment at 427 East 83rd Street the 23

year old TWA flight attendant had just

moved to the block back then famous

among Manhattan singles for its

unusually high concentration of

stewardesses and secretaries perhaps it

struck the attacker as a fertile hunting

ground at the time of the discovery of

the body the NYPD initially suspected

krilly's boyfriend Leon Borstein they

now believe that Rodney Alcala committed

the crime and say that saliva evidence

ties him to the crime scene

Borstein was then a Brooklyn assistant

district attorney

he has since served as the chief special

prosecutor for New York City

Borstein thinks Crilley met Alcala as

she moved into her new apartment he

speculates that the friendly young woman

might have accepted alcala's help in

moving some furniture

with the cops distracted by Borstein

Alcala slipped away again

still using the John Berger Alias he

took a job at a drama camp near New

Hampshire's Lake Sunapee when two

teenage girls took Shelter From a sudden

summer storm in the post office of the

Tiny Village of George's Mills they

noticed that their camp counselor John

Berger looked a lot like the Rodney

Alcala pictured on the FBI's 10 most

wanted poster the authorities were

seeking Alcala for the California

assault on Young talies

the Camper's alerted authorities and in

August of 1971 Alcala was arrested for

that crime the acrylic case was still

open but Alcala was found guilty and

sentenced for kidnapping and reaping

talies

thanks to then lenient California laws

that emphasized rehabilitating sex

offenders rather than putting them away

he served only 34 months despite

indications that the girl would have

died from her injuries had the witness

not LED police to alcala's apartment so

quickly

Rodney Alcala would soon be free to

strike again

in 1974 a 13-year-old girl known in

trial reports as Julie J made an

emergency call claiming that a man had

kidnapped her in Huntington Beach

she'd been waiting for the bus and

Rodney Alcala had offered her a ride to

school he then refused to let the

panicked girl out of his car until they

got to bolsachika State Beach

he dragged Julie to the cliffs forced

her to smoke marijuana and kissed her

Alcala was convicted only of violating

parole and Furnishing a minor with

marijuana

he spent just another two years in

prison when he got out alcala's trusting

parole officer gave him permission to go

to New York to visit relatives for the

summer of 1977. David Berkowitz better

known as the Son of Sam would be

arrested that August for a two-year

crime spree during which he shot Seven

young women and two men around New York

City

Alcala allegedly added to this summer of

Terror NYPD investigators believe Alcala

murdered a young Manhattan socialite

that summer

Ellen hover 23 was the daughter of

hermannhover the owner of Ciro's a

legendary Hollywood nightclub

Ciro's was first the epitome of big band

swing the height of rat pack glamor

Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin served as

Ellen's Godfathers her grandmother was a

gossip writer her Aunt Sheila Weller

writes for Vanity Fair

Ellen Hover was last seen in her

apartment on 3rd Avenue at 44th Street

on July 15

1977. her date book showed that she had

an appointment to meet with one John

Berger that same day

her stepfather hired a private

investigator and the family took out an

ad in the New York Times soliciting

information on the mysterious John

Berger Alcala simply moved back to Los

Angeles reverted to his own name and got

a job as a typesetter at the Los Angeles

Times

no one came forward with information on

John Berger until later that year

a tip to the FBI pointed out that a New

Hampshire Drama Camp counselor named

John Berger had been taken away by the

police a few years before

the FBI finally connected the dots and

questioned Alcala in Los Angeles

he admitted knowing Ellen hover but

investigators hadn't yet found her body

so they let him go and apparently filed

the case away

Ellen hover's body was eventually found

on the Rockefeller estate in North

Tarrytown New York just miles from a

hover family summer house and mere yards

from where an aspiring model would later

report that Berger had taken photos of

her meanwhile Rodney Alcala was up to

his old tricks while New York was busy

with the Son of Sam killings Los Angeles

endured the Hillside Strangler which

actually turned out to be two men who

were killing young women and dumping

their bodies in the wooded Ravines

around the city

and Los Angeles also had Rodney Alcala

again

the Los Angeles Police Department

initially thought the murder of Jill

barkholm 18 was the hillside strangler's

work Jill barcombe was a runaway

originally from Brooklyn

one of 11 kids she'd volunteered as a

candy striper and played the trumpet in

high school

she was barely five feet tall and

weighed less than 100 pounds when her

abductor picked her up on Sunset

Boulevard

her lifeless body showed up on a service

road off Mulholland Drive near Marlon

Brando's home in November 1977 the

discovery of barcom's corpse interrupted

a film shoot

she was nude kneeling as if she'd been

deliberately posed

her skull had been crushed probably with

a bloodied rock found nearby she'd been

assaulted and she'd been strangled three

times with a belt with her pantyhose and

with one of her pants legs

investigators now say that DNA evidence

at the scene matches Alcala the Hillside

Strangler task force eventually followed

Alcala to his mother's home interviewing

him there in March 1978. they were

questioning all sex offenders in the

area

they didn't actually suspect him of the

killings but did charge him with

possession of a small amount of

marijuana he was out of jail on the drug

charge by the end of June soon after he

appeared on The Dating Game but Rodney

Alcala had already claimed other victims

in December 1977 Georgia wicksted a 27

year old nurse was discovered dead in

her Malibu apartment this was just a

month after Jill barcone's murder and a

mere few days after the FBI had

questioned Rodney Alcala regarding Ellen

hover's death in New York earlier that

year

wixted 27 was last seen when she drove

another nurse Barbara Gale home from a

bar when she didn't show up for work the

next day Gail and her co-workers

reported her missing police arrived at

wickstead's apartment to find signs of

forced entry wixted was posed naked on

her bedroom floor strangled with her

nylons

she'd been assaulted and her skull had

been bashed in apparently with a nearby

hammer prosecutors now say DNA evidence

and a handprint found at the scene match

alcalas

Rodney alcala's crimes seemed to have

been falling into a pattern but no one

saw it at the time in June 1978

Charlotte lamb a 32 year old legal

secretary from Santa Monica was found

dead under similar circumstances in the

laundry room of the apartment complex

where she was living in El Segundo she'd

been assaulted beaten and strangled with

a shoelace and was posed with her hands

behind her back DNA at the scene would

once again turn out to match that of

Rodney Alcala and DNA on a pair of

earrings found in his storage locker

after Robin samso's murder would

eventually prove to match Lamb's DNA

Alcala had been interviewed by the

Hillside Strangler task force in

conjunction with Jill barcom's death

just weeks before he allegedly whipped

and killed lamb there would be more in

February 1979 Rodney Alcala later

confessed he picked up a 15 year old

hitchhiker in Riverside County he drove

Monique H to his apartment and they

engaged in Intercourse supposedly with

her consent in the morning they drove to

the mountains Alcala took nude photos of

her as well as several of the two of

them simulating sex acts

but he scared her she screamed and tried

to get away

he tied her up beat and ripped her in

his confession he would claim that it

hadn't been planned and that things had

gone wrong he'd lost control of the

situation

he drove her back to Riverside from a

motel she called the police to report

the rape and kidnapping Rodney alcala's

mother posted bail and he would strike

again

in June 1979 Jill parenteau a 21 year

old computer key punch operator left

work early to go to a baseball game

when she didn't make it to work the next

day police went to her Burbank apartment

to investigate

they once again found a scene of forced

entry and a woman dead

parental was dead naked on her bathroom

floor

she was posed with pillows under her

shoulders she'd been insulted beaten and

strangled her Killer cut himself

crawling in a window

blood evidence matching that of three

percent of the population did not rule

out or confirm Rodney al-kawa as the

perpetrator

parentos friend Catherine Bryant

testified that she and parento had met

Alcala at a club several times

the same month that Jill parenteau was

ripped and murdered Alcala allegedly

killed an underage girl on June 20th

1979 Robin samso a 12 year old

Huntington Beach girl was on her way to

ballet class

she was late so she'd borrowed her best

friend's yellow Schwinn bicycle

she and the bicycle disappeared that day

her decomposing body was later found in

the foothills of the Sierra Madres

earlier neighbor Jackie young had chased

a strange man away from Robin samso and

her friend Bridget wilvert when they

were playing along Huntington Beach's

low Cliffs according to Young the man

was trying to get little girls in

swimsuits to let him photograph them

young and wilvert would later provide

police with information that helped them

produce a sketch that a parole officer

would recognize as Rodney Alcala Tony

Esparza 15 and Joanne merchland 14 would

later testify that on June 19th at the

same Beach a man fitting alcala's

description had offered the marijuana

and begged to take their photos for a

bikini contest

several other Witnesses including

Lorraine Wertz and Patty Elmendorf said

that Alcala had accosted them on June

20th Esparza and merchland came forward

when they saw Alcala on the news

warts was contacted after police found a

photo of wurtz in alcala's Seattle

storage locker Dana crappa then working

as a ranger in the Los Angeles National

Forest had testified that she saw a man

trying to lead a girl down to a stream

the same day that Robin samso

disappeared she says he was driving a

Datsun F10 which was the make and model

that Alcala owned in 1979. 12 Days After

samso's disappearance William popkey

another U.S parks ranger found Robin

samso's decomposing remains

he initially assumed they were deer

bones and tossed one to krapa Robin's

left foot and portions of her hands were

missing and her skull had been separated

from her neck a kitchen knife and one of

her shoes were nearby

the decomposition meant that

investigators were unable to determine

whether she'd been right on July 24 1979

police arrested Alcala at his mother's

Madre Park home they soon charged him

with the murder of Robin samso the story

was far from over when investigators

searched Rodney alcala's mother's house

they found a receipt for a storage

locker in Seattle

the locker held numerous photographs of

young girls including one of lorry wurtz

they also found a pair of gold ball

earrings allegedly worn by Robin samso

and belonging to her mother Alcala still

claims he'd long owned those himself the

second pair of earrings with tiny roses

wood years later reveal Charlotte Lamb's

DNA police believe that Alcala was

keeping the photos and earrings as

trophies of his crimes

Alcala apparently spent just a few days

in Seattle that July he told his

girlfriend Elizabeth Keller that he'd

been in Dallas where he said he was

planning to open a photography studio

he told other friends and acquaintances

that he was moving to Chicago

with the evidence from the storage

locker and testimony from Witnesses

prosecutors brought Alcala to trial for

his crimes against Robin samso Robin

samso's mother Marianne Connolly brought

a 25-caliber pistol to the trial

she ultimately decided not to use it

believing that the legal system would

deal justly with her daughter's killer

Alcala had an alibi he claimed at the

time of her abduction he was at Knott's

Berry Farm applying for a job to become

a disco photographer alcala's sisters

Christine De La cerda and Marie troiano

and his mother insisted that Alcala had

called both sisters from his mother's

house around the time of Robin's

abduction

while those calls do appear on phone

bills there's no way of confirming

whether Alcala or his mother made them

in 1978 Rodney James Alcala was found

guilty of first-degree murder with a

deadly weapon and kidnapping the

kidnapping charge qualified as a special

circumstance that exposed him to the

death penalty Marianne Connolly though

never worked again and she developed a

drug problem

's three siblings Tara Ann Tim and

Robert were never the same

because alcala's conviction was

overturned

twice

Rodney Alcala was twice found guilty of

the kidnapping and murder of Robin samso

both convictions were overturned on

technicalities first by the California

Supreme Court in 1984 then by a U.S

Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001. in

1984 the California Supreme Court

decided that the jury shouldn't have

been allowed to hear about alcala's

other convictions

furthermore the judges believe the two

of alcala's inmates who testified

against him had perjured themselves

Robert Dove and Michael Herrera

testified that Alcala had told Herrera

that he had lured the girl into his car

by offering her money for photos and

promising to drive her to her ballet

class

Dove had overheard the conversation in

which Alcala allegedly had told Herrera

that he hadn't stabbed the girl but beat

her unconscious

Herrera also said that Alcala told him

that he'd left the girl's bicycle behind

a thrift store the owner of a thrift

store in El Monte testified that he had

indeed found a child's yellow Schwinn

behind a shop in 2001 the defense

claimed that the prosecution hadn't

properly handled Dana crappa's

statements she had claimed Amnesia and

didn't testify during the second trial

but her previous testimony was presented

in her absence

Alcala remained in prison and he's been

keeping himself busy he's tried to sue

the California state prison system over

fall that he took and over refusing to

provide him with a low-fat diet

he's spoken out against the new state

policy of routinely testing and

comparing DNA the practice that has tied

him to the rapes or murders of Jill

barcom Georgia wixted Charlotte lamb and

Jill parento and in 1994 he wrote a book

defending himself you the jury

he still denies that he killed Robin

samso he's flip-flopped first saying

that an insanity defense esculpates him

in the deaths of barkholm wicksted lamb

and parento and then insisting that he

didn't kill them either

but now he's on trial for the deaths of

the girl and all four women

Rodney James Alcala was accused of

killing Robin samso Jill barcombe

Georgia wixted Charlotte lamb and Jill

parento he was eligible for the death

penalty due to special circumstances

because he was accused of multiple

murders as well as murder during rape or

kidnapping he objected to trying the

five murders in a single case

Superior Court Judge Francisco P Briseno

presided over the case in Santa Ana

California Deputy district attorney Matt

Murphy was Prosecuting during Dating

Game Killer Rodney alcala's 2010 trial

Orange County Deputy district attorney

Matt Murphy called Alcala a monster and

said he deserved to die

he told the jury that Alcala was a

hunter who stalked and killed his prey

simply because he liked it Murphy

alleged that Alcala would strangle

victims with his bare hands until they

passed out

he'd strangle them again with pantyhose

or shoelaces once they were dead he'd

pose their bodies and take pictures

on February 25th 2010 a third jury found

Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala guilty

of the 1979 murder and kidnapping of

Huntington Beach ballerina Robin samso

12. they also finally found him guilty

of first-degree murder in the deaths of

four adult women Jill barcom Georgia

wixted Charlotte lamb and Jill parento

on March 30th 2010 judge Francisco

preseno sentenced him to death for the

crimes it was alcala's third death

sentence the verdict in his other two

trials for samso's murder were

overturned if third time's the charm

maybe the sentence will stick this time

but the haunting contents of alcala's

Seattle storage locker have left

Huntington Beach Police fearing that

this fiend's crimes weren't limited to

the deadly civil assaults in Southern

California for which this trial is

hopefully finally brought Justice

unsurprisingly the trial was a circus

Alcala defended himself judge brazeno

had to speak privately with Alcala

numerous times throughout the

proceedings to explain basic legal terms

to him and to curb the 66 year olds

theatrics new forensic evidence butcher

sing the charges against Alcala for his

crimes against the women was

supplemented by testimony from two other

victims whom he'd long been convicted

and sentenced for assault he'd picked up

Monique H to take photographs brought

her to a secluded rural area then beat

sodomized and raped her Alcala did what

he could to avoid the charges in their

penalty early in the trial he showed a

clip from his winning 1978 appearance on

television's Dating Game claiming that

it showed him already wearing the

earrings that supposedly tied him to the

samso murder

jurors seem to have trouble making out

the earrings and the grainy footage they

weren't convinced by his defense in his

closing arguments Alcala told jurors

that if they gave him the death penalty

they would be Killers themselves

he then played them an extract from Arlo

Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant massacree a

sprawling anti-vietnam epic I want to

kill I mean I wanna I wanna kill

I wanna I wanna see I wanna see blood

and gore and guts and veins in my teeth

I mean kill kill kill kill kill kill

Alcala reminded the jury that he would

fight a death sentence and it would be

automatically appealed he suggested that

a life sentence would be easiest for

everyone

the families of the victims spoke at the

sentencing in 2005 Jill barcom's Brother

Bruce had sent Alcala a present a copy

of Out of the Shadows a book on sex

addiction with the book he had sent a

letter in which he begged Alcala to

spare the families the pain of a trial

and confess to any murders he'd

committed clearly Bruce barcom hadn't

persuaded this brutal killer to come

clean

after all Cal was convicted Huntington

Beach detectives released photos from

the Shoreline Washington storage locker

where Alcala had squirreled away

trophies from his attacks including

photos of many of his victims as well as

earrings that linked him to Robin samso

and Charlotte lamb the Suburban Seattle

Locker also held hundreds of photos of

women and children both boys and girls

often at the beach or Park sometimes

nude

some of these photos had addresses

scrawled on the back police have tracked

down those families and were able to

confirm that their loved ones were still

alive authorities continue to hope

people who recognize the other

photographs will come forward

Seattle Police requested DNA samples so

they can determine whether Alcala was

behind the deaths of two teenagers

killed in Seattle in the 1970s

Antoinette Whittaker 13 was found dead

in a vacant lot in Northeast Seattle's

Lake City in July 1977. Joyce gaunt 17

was found dead in South Seattle's

seaward Park in February 1978. Whitaker

had not been assaulted but the

developmentally disabled gaunt had been

detectives have requested a DNA

comparison to see whether alcawa is a

match the King County Sheriff's Office

was also looking into whether Alcala may

have been responsible for deaths in the

surrounding area including that of

cherry Greenman who disappeared from

Waterville Washington at the age of 19

in 1976. just as the Los Angeles Police

Department originally attributed Jill

barcom's death to the Hillside Strangler

authorities at one time had looked for a

link between Greenman and the Green

River Killer New Hampshire investigators

are looking into whether Alcala may have

been responsible for any crimes when he

worked as John Berger as a camp

counselor in the area between 1969 and

1971. Rodney Alcala also remains a

person of interest in the deaths of

aerys Ellen hover and TWA stewardess

Cornelia Michael Crilley in New York in

the 1970s

in March 2010 the Huntington Beach

California and New York City police

departments released 120 of alcala's

photographs and sought The public's help

in identifying them in the hopes of

determining if any of the women and

children he photographed were additional

victims

approximately 900 additional photos

could not be made public police said

because they were too sexually explicit

in the first few weeks police reported

that approximately 21 women had come

forward to identify themselves

and at least six families said they

believed they recognized loved ones who

disappeared years ago and were never

found none of the photos was

unequivocally connected to a missing

person case or unsolved murder until

2013 when a family member recognized the

photo of Christine Thornton 28 whose

body was found in Wyoming in 1982 as of

July 2021 110 of the original photos

remained posted online and police

continued to solicit The public's help

with further identifications

in September 2016 Alcala was charged

with a murder of 28 year old Christine

Ruth Thornton who disappeared in 1977.

in 2013 a relative recognized her as the

subject of one of alcala's photos made

public by Huntington Beach PD and NYPD

her body was found in Sweetwater County

Wyoming in 1982 but was not identified

until 2015 when DNA supplied by

Thornton's relatives matched tissue

samples from her remains Alcala admitted

taking the photo but not to killing the

woman who was approximately six months

pregnant at the time of her death

Thornton is the first alleged murder

victim linked to the Alcala photos made

public in 2010

the 73 year old Alcala was reportedly

too ill to make the journey from

California to Wyoming to stand trial on

the new charges Alcala died of

unspecified natural causes in Corker in

California on July 24 2021 at the age of

77.

during the 1960s when there is no

shortage of drama in the nation's

courtrooms one murder case stood alone

in its ability to shock the country the

crime was not as gruesome as some others

since many more were just as violent and

still more that easily surpassed it the

victim was an ordinary working girl not

at all wealthy and not a member of any

Elite Class

her name was Catherine Genovese the 28

year old daughter of Italian-American

parents but to millions of people who

read her story when it first appeared in

New York City's press she would forever

be remembered as Kitty Genovese what

happened to her what happened to all of

society on that Dreadful night in the

spring of 1964 would reverberate across

the country and generate a national

soul-searching that's reserved for only

the most catastrophic of events her name

has become synonymous with a dark side

of an urban character that for many

people represents a harsh and disturbing

reality of big city life during the

1940s and into the 1950s the Genovese

family lived and worked in Brooklyn New

York in the 1940s Catherine's father

Vincent a Genovese started his own

business of supplying coats and aprons

to local businesses it was called The

Bay Ridge Cogen apron Supply Company

he became moderately successful and in

1954 Gina's wife Rachel decided to move

to New Canaan Connecticut the decision

came shortly after Rachel had witnessed

a shooting near their home

by that time they had five children the

oldest being Catherine who was 19. but

she chose to remain behind in New York

and stick it out while the rest of the

family moved to the suburbs

Catherine was an attractive outgoing

woman who liked Latin American music and

loved to dance

a graduate of Brooklyn's Prospect

Heights High School in 1954 she was also

interested in history and politics and

could debate on many issues I remember

that she loved to talk politics and knew

a great deal about what was going on

said her younger brother Bill Genovese

she was a Renaissance woman interested

in a lot of different subjects he said

by 1963 she had moved to Queens

she rented an apartment located on the

second floor of a commercial building on

Austin Street in the Kew Gardens section

of Queens a quiet mostly residential

area

she shared her space with a girlfriend

Marianne zielonko Catherine later got a

job as a bar manager in Eves 11th Hour

Club a small neighborhood Tavern on

Jamaica Avenue and 193rd Street in the

Hollis section of the borough the bar

was about five miles from her apartment

and she drove her red Fiat to the

restaurant nearly every night she worked

late sometimes into the early morning

hours

it made her nervous to return to her

apartment in the dark but it was

something that could not be avoided and

being a city girl her whole life

Catherine had the typical resiliency and

determination of a native New Yorker on

weekends she would come to visit the

family in New Canaan but it was never

enough

Catherine was always busy with her

career and running back and forth to

Connecticut and New York City she wanted

to visit Italy and dreamed of one day

opening an Italian restaurant with her

father in New Canaan her parents worried

about her living in Queens but accepted

it as a part of City Life and is what

she wanted but her heart was never far

from her family

I believe she found an inner peace when

she spent weekends with us in

Connecticut said Vince

she was full of life the city was one

part of her new Canan was another

along a Serene tree-lined Street in the

Kew Gardens section of Queens New York

City Catherine Genovese began the last

walk of her life in the early morning

hours of March 13 1964.

she had just left work and it was 3 15

am when she parked her red Fiat in the

Long Island Railroad parking lot 20 feet

from her apartment door at 8270 Austin

Street as she locked her car door she

took notice of a figure in the darkness

walking quickly toward her

she became immediately concerned as soon

as the stranger began to follow her as

she got out of the car she saw me and

ran the man told the court later

I ran after her and I had a knife in my

hand she must have thought that since

the entrance to her building was so

close she had reached safety within

seconds but the man was faster than she

thought at the corner of Austin Street

and Lefferts Boulevard there's a police

call box which linked directly to the

112th Precinct

she may have changed direction to call

for assistance but it was too late the

man caught up with Catherine who was all

of five foot one inches and weighed just

105 pounds near a street light at the

end of the parking lot I could run much

faster than she could and I jumped on

her back and stabbed her several times

the man later told cops oh my God he

stabbed me she screamed please help me

please help me

some apartment lights went on in nearby

buildings

Irene Frost at 8268 Austin Street heard

Catherine screams plainly there was

another shriek she later testified in

court and she was lying down crying out

up on the seventh floor of the same

building Robert Moser slid open his

window and observed the struggle below

hey let that girl alone he yelled down

into the street the attacker heard Moser

and immediately walked away

there was quiet once again in the dark

the only sound was the sobbing of the

victim struggling to her feet the lights

in the apartment went out again

Catherine bleeding badly from several

stab wounds managed to reach the side of

her building and held onto the concrete

wall

she staggered over to a locked door and

tried to stay conscious within five

minutes the assailant returned

he stabbed her again

I'm dying I'm dying she cried to no one

but several people in her building heard

her screams lights went on once again

and some windows opened tenants tried to

see what was happening from the safety

of their Apartments

the attacker then ran to a white Chevy

Corsair at the edge of the railroad

parking lot and seemed to drive away on

the sixth floor of 8240 Austin Street

marchering Samuel koschkin witnessed the

attack from their window

I saw a man hurry to a car under my

window he later said he left and came

back five minutes later and was looking

around the area

Mr koshkin wanted to call the police but

Mrs koshkin thought otherwise

I didn't let him she later told the

Press I told him there must have been 30

calls already

Miss Andre Peak a French girl who lived

on the second floor heard the commotion

from her window

I heard a scream for help three times

she later told the court I saw a girl

lying down on the pavement with a man

bending down over her beating her at

about 3 25 am Catherine bleeding badly

stumbled to the rear of her apartment

building and attempted to enter through

a back entrance

the door was locked she slid along the

wall until she reached a hallway leading

to the second floor of 8262 Austin

Street but she fell to the vestibule

floor

in the meantime the man had returned

again

I came back because I knew I'd not

finished what I set out to do he told

cops later

he walked along the row of doors and

calmly searched for the woman

he checked the first door and didn't

find her he followed the trail of blood

to the doorway where Catherine lay

bleeding on the tiled floor

and there while the defenseless victim

lay semi-conscious incoherent from Pain

and loss of blood he cut off her bra and

underwear and assaulted her he then took

49 in cash from her wallet why would I

throw the money away he asked the court

in his trial as Catherine moaned At His

Feet probably unable to comprehend what

had happened to her the man viciously

stabbed her again and killed her the man

who had selected his victim purely at

random ran to his car still parked where

he left it the entire event had lasted

32 minutes

he said later that murder was an idea

that came into my mind just as an idea

might come into your mind but I couldn't

put mine aside he jumped into his white

sedan and fled the scene

a few blocks away he came to a red light

he glanced over at the car idling next

to him and saw that a man was asleep

behind the wheel

the killer got out of his car and

awakened the sleeping driver

he told the man he should go home

then the killer full of himself 49

richer and not at all ashamed of what he

had done got back into his own car and

drove off into the night Catherine was

his third murder

at about 3 50 am a neighbor Carl Ross

who lived on the second floor of

Catherine's building on Austin Street

finally called the police

but before he did he called a friend in

nearby Nassau County and asked his

opinion about what he should do after

the police were notified a squad car

arrived within three minutes and quickly

found Catherine's body in the hallway on

the first floor she had been stabbed 17

times

her torn and cut clothes were scattered

about her and her open Wallet lay on the

floor next to her

driver's license identified her as

Catherine Genovese detectives from the

112th responded and began an exhaustive

investigation it was a frigid winter

morning and a Brisk unrelenting wind

made it seem even colder a canvas of the

neighborhood turned up several witnesses

including the one who had notified the

police

when cops finished pulling the immediate

neighborhood they discovered at least 38

people had heard or observed some part

of the Fatal assault on Kitty Genovese

Kew Gardens is a residential area

located at the center of the borough of

Queens one of the most populated

communities in America

if queens were a city it would be

America's fifth largest

the area of Kew Gardens is generally

middle class where houses in 1964

typically sold for thirty to fifty

thousand dollars

it resembled a small village in the

suburbs rather than a city neighborhood

mostly white working class and typically

one of the hundreds of small communities

that made up Metropolitan New York City

Austin Street is the focal point of the

neighborhood on this neat picturesque

Avenue their shops a small Park and a

busy train station where commuters catch

the Long Island Railroad to Grand

Central 15 minutes away not the kind of

place where one would think a person

could be murdered without anyone

offering even a smidgen of assistance

we thought it was a lover's quarrel said

one tenant frankly we were afraid said

another Witness

one woman who didn't want her name used

said I didn't want my husband to get

involved

others had different explanations for

their conduct

we went to the window to see what was

happening but the light from our bedroom

made it difficult to see the street

there were lots of excuses

maybe the most apathetic was the one who

told reporters I was tired but the mere

fact remained that dozens of people

stood by and watched a human being being

brutally assaulted for an extended

period of time and did nothing

if we had been called when he was first

attacked the woman might not be dead now

an assistant Chief Inspector told the

Press at the time

New York City Deputy Police Commissioner

Walter arms said this tendency to shy

away from reporting crimes is a common

one that was a revelation to the public

some detectives were stunned others

simply saw the unwillingness to get

involved as representative of the times

apathy especially in urban settings was

everywhere not only in Kew Gardens

in her own defense one neighbor said she

was too afraid to call I tried I really

tried she said but I was gasping for air

and was unable to talk into the

telephone

as killings go the murder of Catherine

Genovese was not a spectacular one nor

did it generate much publicity when it

happened the original NYPD complaint

report reduced the episode to just five

type written lines Carl Ross heard calls

of help at his residence

he saw a woman later identified as Kitty

Genovese lying face down in the ground

floor hallway she was taken to Queen's

general hospital with multiple stab

wounds and pronounced Dead on Arrival

then taken to the morgue there were

hundreds of killings in New York City in

1964 and 9 360 murders in America that

year a random killing in the street was

not big news

the New York Times delegated a few short

paragraphs to the incident on page 12.

for two weeks it laid dormant and

gathered virtually no public attention

it wasn't until March 27th when the

times published its famous 37 who saw

murder didn't call article by Martin

gansberg that the killing became big

news

the New York City media picked up on the

wider themes of the event camera Crews

and newscasters descended on Kew Gardens

the Press searched the neighborhood for

any scrap of uncovered information no

matter how small or insignificant Kitty

genovese's story began to take shape

during the week after the murder the 30

detectives who were assigned to the case

sifted through the neighborhood of Kew

Gardens and Forest Hills

they located a Milkman who was able to

furnish a description of a suspect

others also had observed Catherine's

killer in the area prior to the murder

and were able to add to the description

but it wasn't until six days later when

a suspect was arrested stealing a

television during a house burglary the

cops had their man Winston Mosley 29.

Mosley had no criminal record he was

married owned a home in Queens and had

two kids

sleight of build barely five foot eight

with thin features and a brooding

appearance Mosley was a machine operator

who worked in Mount Vernon in nearby

Westchester County

his arrest report dated March 19 1964

lists his occupation as Remington ran

tab operator he did not seem to be the

type of person who committed Street

muggings or murder but mostly quickly

confessed to the Genovese killing and

two others

he told cops that he had killed Barbara

kraleck 15. on July 20th in Springfield

Gardens queens and shot Annie Mae

Johnson 24 of South Ozone Park Queens on

February 29th both were Savage killings

trouble was another man named Alvin the

monster Mitchell 18 a local gang member

was already in custody for The kralik

Killing he had allegedly also confessed

to the teenager's murder but Mosley was

insistent he had killed them all he said

in the murder of Annie Mae Johnson

mostly insisted that he shot the victim

several times

I shot her in the stomach I reloaded and

shot her again in the stomach he told

cops

but the autopsy on Johnson had listed

the cause of death as puncture wounds

from a sharp object such as a

screwdriver or a file

based on Mosley's confession the body

was exhumed from a cemetery in Monk's

Corner South Carolina and a second

autopsy was performed using X-ray

equipment borrowed from a South Carolina

Medical College in Charleston the

coroner found Six Bullets inside

Johnson's body four of these bullets

were recovered the finding of these

bullets adds a lot of credence to

Winston Mosley's other statements

Queen's district attorney Frank O'Connor

told the Press

in the murder of fifteen-year-old

Barbara crawlik there was no blood

evidence available no test yet existed

that could compare bodily fluids for

conclusive DNA identification Mosley

however was able to supply details that

conform to the existing evidence

cops were satisfied they had the right

man

even his own crown-appointed attorney

Sydney G Sparrow believed Mosley

I'm convinced Mosley did all three of

these killings he told reporters after

he met with his client for three hours

in the Kings County psych ward there are

too many things he knew that only the

killer could know he added but there was

more Mosley confessed to other attacks

during nighttime Expeditions in which he

would roam the street searching for

victims at random

he said he had raped many women

frequently robbing them in the process

Mosley admitted to dozens of burglaries

including the one for which he was

arrested when he was caught stealing a

television but it was the assaults that

had detectives interested particularly

the failed attempts of rape which

several women reported Mosley it seemed

preferred sex with the dead Dr Oscar

Diamond a psychiatrist for Manhattan

State Hospital performed a pre-trial

psychiatric examination of Mosley he

told me he got no thrill with live women

he reaped he told the court later

by mid-april the Kitty Genovese story

had taken hold and the nation began a

lengthy period of analysis and

self-deprecation why would civilized

people turn away from another human

being in dire need of assistance

as the details of the killing emerged it

became plain that if any of the 38

Witnesses had simply called the police

at the first sign of trouble the victim

could have survived the initial stab

wounds inflicted may not have been fatal

timely medical treatment could have

saved the life of Catherine Genovese

were the witnesses really that

cold-hearted people wondered some

psychologists blamed television for the

sad State of Affairs in Kew Gardens

in a symposium held in Manhattan's

Barbizon Plaza Hotel in early April

1964. psychiatrist Ralph s Bernard said

television was at least partly to blame

we underestimate the damage that these

accumulated images do to the brain he

said the immediate effect can be

delusional equivalent to a sort of

post-hypnotic suggestion the witnesses

became confused and Paralyzed by the

violence they witnessed outside their

window he explained they were fascinated

by the drama by the action and yet not

entirely sure that what was taking place

was actually happening he said that

explanation fit in neatly with what some

of the witnesses had told police

they claimed that when they saw the

disturbance on Austin Street they

imagined it was an argument between a

man and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend

none really thought that they were

witnessing a real killing we thought it

was a lover's quarrel one witness later

said another neighbor repeated that

assertion when he said I thought there

were some kids having some fun others

complained of the media attention and

said the Press made the neighborhood

look bad these things happen every day

all over the world one neighbor told the

reporter the stories were only giving us

a black eye

Dr Carl meninger a world-renowned

psychiatrist and founder of the manager

clinic in Topeka Kansas also spoke at

the symposium public apathy to crime is

itself a manifestation of aggressiveness

he told the audience people turn away

for a variety of reasons including their

desire not to get involved but were

people in big cities more apathetic

colder and indifferent than others in

more rural environments

or was the Kitty Genovese syndrome as

some psychologists characterized it

indicative of society as a whole one

Dynamic brought forth was the bystander

effect

this theory speculates that as the

number of bystanders increases the

likelihood of any one bystander helping

another decreases

as a result additional time will pass

before anyone seeks outside help for a

person in distress another hypothesis is

something called the diffusion of

responsibility

this is simply a decrease in the feeling

of personal responsibility one feels

when in the presence of many other

people

the greater the number of bystanders the

less responsibility the individual feels

in cases where there are many people

present during an emergency it becomes

much more likely that any one individual

will simply do nothing

in essence the 38 Witnesses felt no

responsibility to act because there were

so many witnesses each one felt that the

other witness would do something

social psychology research supports the

notion that Catherine Genovese had a

better chance of survival if she'd been

attacked in the presence of just one

witness why had so many people stood by

and done nothing while an innocent

person was killed before their eyes

seldom has the times published a more

horrifying story than its account of how

38 respectable law-abiding middle class

Queen citizens watched a killer stalk as

young woman victim without one of them

making a call to the police department

that might have saved her life the times

wrote in an editorial on March 28th it

seemed to be too much for everyone to

digest though psychologists had several

theories to explain the depressing

conduct of the people in Kew Gardens

some dismissed it as a natural extension

of urban environment to people who lived

in Middle America or small towns the

reaction of the witnesses to the

Genovese murder was symbolic of the

hectic life in cities like New York

to them citizens in a large Metropolis

are not likely or willing to help a

stranger need although many New Yorkers

would disagree with that premise

Stanley Milgram one of America's

foremost researchers in social

psychology rode in the nation the Kew

Gardens incident has become the occasion

for a general attack on the city it's

portrayed as callous cruel indifferent

to the needs of the people and holy

inferior to the small town and quality

of its personal relationships others

like Lieutenant Bernard Jacobs of the

nycpd who led the police investigation

could not understand the reactions of

the 38. he told the Press where are they

in their homes near phones why should

they be afraid to call the police

it was a good question and there were

disturbing answers as well the police

received a great deal of criticism from

an angry public who had a deep

resentment against what they perceived

to be an indifferent rude and abusive

Police Department have you ever reported

anything to the police one letter to the

editor asked if you did you would know

that you're subjected to insults and

abuse from annoyed undutiful police

another frequent complaint was the

difficulty of calling the local police

precinct in 1964 there was no Universal

9-1-1 system

a caller had to dial the number to their

Precinct and sometimes the call went

somewhere else

the Genovese murder became a pivotal

factor in changing the phone reporting

procedure for the New York City Police

Department Dr Iago Goldston a New York

City psychiatrist said I would assign

this to the effect of the megalopolis in

which we live which makes closeness very

difficult and leads to the alienation of

the individual to the group another

professor was not so kind when he wrote

that the murder goes to the heart of

whether this is a community or a jungle

the killing of Kitty Genovese soon

became symbolic of all that was wrong

with modern society especially in cities

apathy was endemic beginning in April of

1964 New York City Newspapers printed a

series of stories highlighting the

apathy and callousness of citizens

one story which appeared on June 8th in

The Daily News told of a distraught man

who was perched on a 10-story ledge of a

Broadway office building

as police tried to talk the man down a

large crowd gathered in the street and

chanted jump jump

when the man was finally pulled off the

ledge the crowd loudly booed the cops

but an unidentified Theologian provided

the most telling piece of irony when he

sought to explain the urban problem of

indifference and the unwillingness of

the ordinary person to become involved I

can't understand it maybe the

depersonalizing here has gone farther

than I thought he told the times

he then added but don't quote me the

trial of Winston Mosley opened on June 8

1964.

though he originally pled not guilty his

attorney Sydney G Sparrow changed the

plea at the last minute to Not Guilty by

reason of insanity

since Mosley had already provided

detectives with a signed confession

which described exactly how he had

performed the killing there were not

many options left to the defense

many of the details of the murder made

public were derived from the written

confession and to plead not guilty to

the charges seemed ludicrous much to the

Chagrin of the defense team however

Mosley was pronounced sane by a state

psychiatrist

four residents of the Kew Gardens

neighborhood testified to the trial one

of them Miss Peak said that she saw

Catherine Genovese lying in the street

the poor girl got up slowly walking to

the parking lot I heard two last screams

for help but couldn't see her then she

said tearfully another Resident Robert

Moser said he yelled at the assailant

who then ran away

I hollered hey get out of there what are

you doing

he jumped up and ran like a scared

rabbit took off really quick he told the

court but it was mostly himself Who

provided both drama and revulsion to the

packed courtroom

he testified on the morning of June 11th

called to the stand by his own attorney

in the hope that the jury would see

Winston Mosley was insane

dressed in a neat short-sleeved white

shirt and speaking in a detached clear

voice he answered almost every question

in an even-handed manner

Sparrow asked his client about previous

crimes and Mosley admitted that he had

stabbed and killed 15-year-old Barbara

crawlik on July 20th 1963. Mosley also

confessed on the stand to the shooting

murder of Anne Mae Johnson on February

29 1964.

he said he shot Annie Johnson repeatedly

on the night of February 20th I intended

to kill her he told the court I didn't

think she was dead so I shot her again

when he turned her over Mosley said he

saw that she was dead I decided to reap

her he said without emotion then he

dragged her body into her home where he

set fire to her naked body in her living

room in the kralik murder Mosley said he

wanted to rape the teenager but was

scared Away by someone in the house

I looked at her for maybe a few seconds

then I put my knife into her as I was

stabbing her she squirmed free from my

grip I put my hand over her mouth and I

stabbed her some more he said to a

hushed courtroom

when it was time to describe the

Genovese murder Mosley said that he went

out on the night of March 13th for the

purpose of killing someone

I went out that night intending to kill

a woman he told the court when I got

such a thought it remained with me

regardless of what I might be thinking

he said I had a hunting knife that I'd

taken from a previous burglary and I

took that with me he added Mosley said

that he followed Catherine from her car

in the railroad parking lot to a nearby

building where he stabbed her the first

time I plunged the knife into her back

twice she fell down he said he saw

lights come on in the building across

the street and then returned to his car

to move it I realized the car was parked

where people could see it and me so I

moved it some distance away he said

mostly hurt some of the tenants of the

building yelled down at him but he said

he was unconcerned I had a feeling this

man would close his window and go back

to sleep he said to Cops and sure enough

he did on June 11th the defense and

prosecution summed up the case in front

of the 11-man one-woman jury

Sydney G Sparrow tried hard to get the

jury to accept the Not Guilty by reason

of insanity plea he tried to make the

court understand that Winston Mosley

lived a Dr Jekyll Mr Hyde existence

by day he had a regular job was married

had a family and seemed like any other

ordinary citizen

but at night he turned into a monster

addicted to murder and sexual frenzies

he said Mosley was a schizophrenic

personality and legally insane was It

Sane for him to go on about what he was

doing when 10 20 30 or 50 people were

opening Windows opening and closing

doors yelling at him he asked the jury

but the prosecuting attorney assistant

district attorney Frank Cacciatore was

ready

Mosley was a panther a beast roaming the

streets of Queens in the dead of night

he shouted at the courtroom judge J

Erwin Shapiro instructed the jury on the

insanity plea legal sanity means a

person must be held criminally

responsible for his conduct unless he

had such a defective reason that he

cannot distinguish between right and

wrong he said and through all of the

arguing and summations which lasted into

the late afternoon of June 11 1964.

Winston Mosley sat calmly in his seat at

the defense table

jury deliberations began at 4 pm at the

Queen's Supreme Court building just a

few minutes walk from Austin Street

where Catherine was murdered three

months before

by 10 30 PM less than seven hours later

a verdict was reached Mosley was found

guilty of murder in the first degree

he stood motionless as he heard the jury

announce its decision

he made no outward signs of emotion when

asked by the court clerk of his date of

birth he said I was born on March 2nd

1935 Manhattan graduate of high school I

occasionally go to church

then Court officers took him away

there were only about 10 Spectators

present when the verdict was announced

most people thought there would not be a

verdict until Monday and had left for

the weekend

conspicuous in their absence was the

Genovese family no one from the family

had ever visited the courtroom

none of us went to the trial not even

mom or dad said Bill Genovese we tried

to protect the family from the publicity

especially mom we hid the newspaper

articles from her

on Monday June 15 1964 Mosley was

brought back to Queen's County Supreme

Court for sentencing this time the

courtroom was packed with Spectators and

reporters the prosecution was allowed to

introduce any matters which they deem

relevant to show aggravating

circumstances of the defendant's

behavior

Four Women testified that Mosley had

also attacked them

he had beaten one of them but another

and robbed all four the testimony was

graphic and had an emotional impact on

the jury

life imprisonment isn't that at all this

monster can live to stalk the streets

again pleaded assistant district

attorney Frank cacciatore the jury

retired to consider the sentence a short

time later they announced their decision

we the jury recommend the death penalty

the jury Foreman said to the court the

room erupted into loud spontaneous

Applause and cheers

judge Shapiro pounded his gavel to

restore order

I've never seen anything like this never

not at such a Time said a veteran court

officer to reporters

once the clamor had settled down and

people took their seats again the judge

added his own thoughts I don't believe

in capital punishment but when I see

this monster he said I wouldn't hesitate

to pull the switch myself when he was

arrested in March 1964 Mosley was 28

years old

he owned a house in Queens was married

and had two children

he had a steady job and no criminal

record but Catherine was not his only

victim he committed dozens of burglaries

and rapes which he later admitted to the

police and at his trial

I chose women to kill because they were

easier and didn't fight back he once

said after his conviction Mosley was

remanded to the Department of

Corrections and eventually shipped to

Attica prison in 1967 the New York state

court of appeals found that evidence of

Mosley's mental condition should have

been admitted into trial his death

sentence was reduced to life

imprisonment

but in 1968 during a routine transfer to

a hospital in Buffalo Mosley managed to

overpower a guard and steal his gun

he later took five people hostage and

ripped a woman in front of her husband

the FBI located the escaped killer in a

second floor apartment in downtown

Buffalo

a courageous FBI agent named Neil Welsh

managed to enter the apartment and for

nail biting half hour Mosley and Welsh

pointed guns at each other point blank

while they continued negotiations

mostly later surrendered you ship back

to Attica prison where he became just

another lifer over the years Mosley like

a lot of other convicts who realized

they may never get out of prison became

somewhat philosophical

prison as it presently stands is an

inherently evil place that insidiously

and systematically works to destroy

imprisoned persons he said later

he was at Attica in September 1971 when

a bloody Riot erupted killing 10 guards

and 29 prisoners

I went through a trial of fire and death

he said in a letter to the New York

Times

the 71 Attica Rebellion profoundly

affected me I vowed right then and there

that I was going to get on the right

track and make amends for my past

wrongdoing in 1977 Mosley wrote a long

letter to the times airing his thoughts

on his killings and life in prison as

for the Catherine Genovese murder he

said the crime was tragic but it did

serve Society

urging it as it did to come to the aid

of its members in danger or distress

the times apparently seeing something

profound in Mosley's words saw fit to

publish the entire article in its op-ed

section under the alluring title today

I'm a man who wants to be an asset on

April 11 1977.

the story spanned four columns replete

with graphics and Mosley's own

description of a different and

constructive multiple killer the man who

killed Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964

is no more Mosley wrote another vastly

different individual has emerged a

Winston Mosley intent and determined to

do constructive not destructive things

Mosley realized he'd become eligible for

parole and he began a concentrated

effort to gain release from prison

he read books from the prison library

and using taxpayer funds was able to

enroll in a college program

in the late 1970s he became one of the

first inmates in New York state to earn

a college degree when he received a ba

in sociology from Niagara University

he wrote letters to newspapers and

continued his campaign to obtain a

parole

During the period of 1984 through 1995

Mosley appeared before the state parole

board six times

his appearances were marked by his

bizarre self-serving comments to the

panel and he frequently assumed the role

of society's victim for a victim outside

it's a one-time or one hour or one

minute Affair but for the person who's

caught it's forever he said in 1984.

people do kill people when they mug them

sometimes he added at One Parole hearing

Mosley claimed he had written a letter

to the Genovese family to apologize for

the inconvenience I caused

the Genovese family strongly denied

receiving any such communication nor did

they wish for one in 1995 at the age of

60 Mosley thought he had found a way out

of prison

he appealed to a federal court to give

him a new trial because he claimed that

his attorney Sydney Sparrow had a

conflict of interest during his trial

had once represented Catherine Genovese

on a minor gambling charge and therefore

mostly surmised he could not represent

him when he was accused of her murder

this time however the Genovese family

did attend all three brothers Vince

Frank and Bill who lost both legs in

1967 during the Vietnam war and his

sister Susan were there it was tough to

hear it all again said bill but it was

tougher on Vince who testified

then 82 years old also attended the

hearing and later said that Mosley was a

liar trying to get out of prison anyway

he can

on November 13 1995 a federal judge

denied Mosley's request for a new trial

saying that Sparrow in 1964 gave Mosley

effective competent and capable counsel

under difficult circumstances

he was returned to prison once again

for the families of murder victims there

is never closure only a periodic respite

from the sorrow that once dominated

their lives

a long time has passed since the murder

in Kew Gardens but in many ways it's

still recent for those who loved

Catherine from time to time the Press

still calls on the Genovese family

I was consulted in a project for the

History Channel said Bill the ex-marine

and Vietnam veteran

he lost his legs in combat on a Friday

the 13th the same day that Catherine was

killed but three years later

see they're going to do the story anyway

so we might as well cooperate he said

Vince nodded his head in agreement at

least we have some measure of control if

we cooperate he said of the 38 Witnesses

the family had little to say it was

shocking devastating awful our sister

could have been saved Vince said I don't

know who they are even I didn't want to

talk to any of them the witnesses

however and their failure to take action

on the night of March 13 1964 will never

be forgotten in the past four decades

Catherine's murder has been absorbed

into the vast psychological database of

human Behavioral Science to be studied

analyzed picked apart in classrooms and

written about in college textbooks but

that development intends no disrespect

for her death her case came to symbolize

the corruption of modern city life a

life in which everyone is too frightened

or too selfish to help another person a

life in which the value of

humanitarianism has been forgotten

rights Professor Helen Benedict of

Columbia University

Mosley was denied parole on 18th time in

November 2015 and died in prison on

March 28 2016 at the age of 81. he had

served 52 years making him one of the

longest serving inmates in the New York

state prison system

Rey and Faye Copeland aren't the only

husband and wife Killers but they may be

the most bizarre not only did they

commit multiple murders together but

they were both eligible for Social

Security at the time of their crimes

little information is readily available

and few Studies have been conducted on

perpetrators over the age of 60.

according to the 2000 Russian Journal of

Psychiatry most elderly murderers

demonstrate a close relationship between

pre-senile senile disorders and social

psychological factors and more than half

demonstrate clear evidence of

Psychopathology another study conducted

that same year by the medical

Correctional Authority showed that most

of those sent to prison for the first

time when 60 or older had committed

Crimes of Passion Rey and Faye were

convicted of killing five men and none

of them were Crimes of Passion that's

not to say that they were in their right

Minds at the time perhaps by looking at

the complete picture we can get a better

understanding of what drove them to kill

bill on August 20th 1989 the Nebraska

Crime Stoppers hotline logged a call

from 57-year-old Jack McCormick he had

recently moved from Missouri where he

had witnessed several events that made

him fear for his life he had worked on a

farm for an elderly couple named Ray and

Faye Copeland who would use Drifters to

commit crimes involving the sale of

livestock in the beginning He was

unaware of the illegal activities but he

eventually realized what was going on

McCormick said Mr Copeland eventually

became aware of his suspicions and tried

to kill him which is why he fled as the

conversation came to a close McCormick

mentioned that he had seen several human

bones on the farm Nebraska authorities

while somewhat skeptical of the story

notified detectives in Missouri Copeland

had a long arrest record for forgery and

cattle theft so Missouri authorities

took the tip very seriously they spent

the next few months Gathering evidence

and used McCormick's statements to

secure a search warrant on the morning

of October 9 1989 Sheriff Leland Odell

along with as many as 40 officers

several backhoes and teams of

bloodhounds descended upon the Copeland

farm with such a large area to cover

Odell needed all the help he could get

after spending a week scouring the farm

and surrounding property investigators

had not found any evidence to back up

McCormick's story some were beginning to

wonder if they had made a terrible

mistake nonetheless on October 17 1989

all doubts were put to rest

investigators discovered three bodies in

a local Barn Ray Copeland was known to

use each one was buried in a separate

grave and they were later identified as

21 year old Paul Jason Cowart from

Dardanelle Arkansas 27 year old John W

Freeman from Tulsa Oklahoma and 27 year

old Jimmy Dale Harvey from Springfield

Missouri all three had died from a

single gunshot wound to the back of

skull the following week investigators

searched another barn Rey was known to

use more than a dozen deputies and

volunteers spent several hours removing

2 000 bales of hay which was stacked

ceiling High investigators discovered a

body wrapped in black plastic beneath

the barn floor the victim had also been

killed by a single gunshot to the back

of the head he was later identified as

Wayne Warner age unknown

during a search of Ray's home

investigators seized a 22 caliber Marlin

bolt action rifle according to the

Kansas City Star ballistic tests later

revealed it was the weapon used in each

murder investigators also discovered a

handwritten list of farm helpers in

Phase writing 12 of the names had

scrawled X's by them five of those men

turned up dead and investigator

suspected that the others who turned out

to be missing were also dead in addition

they also found a quilt which Faye had

made from the clothing of the murdered

men as the search began to wind down

investigators made one final Discovery

while examining an old well close to

where Warner's body was found they

discovered the body of another man he

was later identified as 27 year old

Dennis Murphy as with the others his

death resulted from a single Bullet to

the back of the head prosecutors were

quick to offer Faye Copeland a deal if

she were to tell investigators wear more

body might be found they would only

charge her with conspiracy to commit

murder and she would serve a few months

in jail for her cooperation regardless

they claimed to have no knowledge of any

of the murders both Rey and Faye

Copeland were arraigned on five counts

of first-degree murder prosecutors did

not want to take any chances and Rey was

taken to a state mental hospital for

evaluation the last thing the state

wanted was an insanity defense the

public defender's office knew it would

be hard to defend the couple together so

they filed for a motion to have the

cases tried separately no one knew for

certain which direction the trial would

take but everyone suspected Faye would

have a better chance on her own the

prosecution was playing Hardball and

rather than life in prison they were

seeking the death penalty in both cases

Ray Copeland was born in Oklahoma during

1914 just as World War one was beginning

in Europe Rey's parents Jess and Laney

Copeland moved around frequently as he

was growing up and eventually settled in

Ozark Hills Arkansas by this time Rey's

mother had given birth to a daughter and

another son following the conflict in

Europe the Great Depression began in

order to survive every person had to

contribute to the family's survival Rey

was no exception and during his fourth

grade of schooling he dropped out to

help with a family's small farm little

is known about Rey's adolescent years

but friends of the family later

described him to Miller as stubborn and

insubordinate Rey's Life Of Crime

started at the age of 20 when he stole

two hogs from his father and sold them

in another town

father later found out but no formal

charges were ever filed for the next

several years Rey continued to commit

Petty thefts the majority of his illegal

activities revolved around the theft of

livestock but he eventually started to

commit more serious crimes in 1936 he

was arrested in Harrison Arkansas and

charged with forging government checks

he was later sentenced to one year in

the county jail after serving out his

sentence Rey moved back to his parents

Farm there's no public record of his

activities for the next three years so

he either managed to stay out of trouble

during this time or he was more careful

in the crimes he chose to commit things

began to look up for Rey during the

Spring of 1940. during a routine visit

to a physician's office he met a young

girl named Faye Della Wilson the

fair-haired 19 year old was the daughter

of Rufus and Gladys Wilson a

hard-working couple from Harrison

Arkansas Faye's parents had very little

money but they did manage to raise

raised seven children in a dirt floor

cabin Ray and Faye quickly hit it off

and less than six months later they were

married within a year of their nuptials

the couple had a boy whom they named

Everett two years later Faye gave birth

to another child Billy Ray in 1944 Rey

decided to move his growing family to

Fresno County California the following

year the couple's first and only girl

Betty Lou was born two years later in

1947 the couple's third son alvia was

born in 1949 Rey was accused of stealing

horses from a local farmer no charges

were filed but Rey's reputation was

severely damaged later that same year

Faye gave birth to the couple's fifth

child William Wayne due to suspected

horse thefts Rey was unable to find

Steady work so he eventually moved his

family back to Arkansas the Copelands

were in Arkansas for less than a month

when Rey was arrested for cattle theft

charged with grand larceny he was

convicted and sentenced to one year in

jail upon his release from prison Rey

moved his family to Rocky Comfort

Missouri the change in scenery did not

help and in 1951 Rey was again arrested

for cattle theft he was sentenced to

manual labor on the judge's Farm in 1953

Ray moved his family to Illinois over

the next eight years the Copelands moved

from town to town and Rey was arrested

on at least three separate occasions for

writing bad checks fines and jail time

did little to deter Rey and he continued

to dabble in illegal activities in 1961

Ray paid for 20 head of cattle with a

2960 check the seller soon discovered

the check was no good and Rey was

arrested and sentenced to nine months

behind bars directly after his release

Rey passed another bad check during the

purchase of 19 head of cattle he was

again arrested and sentenced to another

nine months in jail

after his last stint in jail Rey finally

came to the realization that something

needed to change he was spending more

time as a prisoner than he was a free

man unfortunately rather than change his

actions he ultimately decided he needed

to change his methods he needed to

formulate a new game plan and he decided

to go straight until he could figure out

the details during the summer of 1966

Rey decided it was time to move once

again and he took his family to Missouri

the following year the Copeland Clan

purchased a small farm with 40 acres of

land they paid six thousand dollars for

their new home which was located in

Mooresville Missouri they were in

desperate need of money so Faye took a

job at Midwest Quality gloves

Corporation over the course of the next

several years many of Rey's neighbors

began to loathe him they viewed him as a

penny-pinching old man and several

suspected he beat his wife and children

his wife and kids would verify these

suspicions many years later

Rey had a Keen Eye for cattle and he

knew a good deal when he saw one his

only problem was he never had any money

as the old saying goes it takes money to

make money so by the early 1970s Rey

began working out the details of his new

plan he knew he could not continue

writing bad checks he never got away

with it in the past and the last thing

he wanted was to be sent back to jail

his arrest record was long enough and

another arrest could send him away for a

substantial period of time no he knew he

could not risk doing that himself but

then he wondered if he could convince

someone else to do it for him someone no

one knew and someone who could disappear

without rousing any suspicion the plan

needed some work but he was certain he

had stumbled onto something feasible

once Rey worked out the details he began

showing up at cattle auctions with

hitchhikers and Drifters the two men

would sit on opposite sides of each

other during the sales and Rey would

signal whenever he wanted a particular

group of livestock when it came time to

complete the purchase Rey would have the

man write out a check from Rey's book

and sign his name to it the check would

eventually bounce but by then Rey would

already have sold the cattle when law

enforcement confronted him about the

checks Rey would pretend to have no

knowledge of the sales and would

Proclaim his innocence by pointing out

the signatures on the checks were not in

his handwriting hey events no charges

could be filed against him the scam was

not very sophisticated but surprisingly

he was able to pull it off dozens of

times Rey used several different

Drifters and all of them would disappear

after the sales Rey felt it formulated

the perfect plan but he did not count on

the determination of local law

enforcement to prove his involvement in

the cattle scams investigators

eventually caught up with one of The

Drifters the man Gerald Perkins was

cooperative with detectives and he

provided them with a detailed account of

Rey's schemes Rey was quickly arrested

and ended up serving almost two years in

jail for check forgery after his release

from prison Ray managed to stay out of

trouble for several years he still felt

his plan was successful if in need of

some minor adjustments by the mid-1980s

Rey had fine-tuned his last scheme and

was eagerly putting it into operation he

would still use Drifters the only

difference being he would not not have

them write checks from his account

instead he would have them get a post

office box and open an account in their

own name and have them write checks from

their own account at various livestock

auctions Rey would explain this to them

by saying the auctioneers disliked him

and would not give him a fair shake once

The Drifter wore out his welcome Rey

would see to it that he disappeared for

good on November 1st 1990 69 year old

Faye Copeland went to trial according to

articles in the Saint Louis

Post-Dispatch face defense was that her

husband had committed the killings

without her knowledge she claimed she

was both a bystander and a victim of

battered woman syndrome as evidence of

her guilt prosecutors presented the list

and quilt discovered during a search of

the farm the jury found her guilty of

five counts of first-degree murder the

judge sentenced her to death by lethal

injection for four of the counts and

life without parole for the fifth upon

hearing her sentence Faye Copeland

sobbed uncontrolled probably the morning

after phase verdict a sheriff involved

in the case was transporting Ray

Copeland to a Kansas City Hospital for

another mental examination during the

trip the sheriff began questioning Rey

about Faye's trial you hear about the

verdict Ray now what happened well they

found her guilty and recommended

execution for her Ray well those things

happen to some you know he responded Rey

never asked about Faye again on March 7

1991 76 year old Ray Copeland went to

trial after weeks of testimony and the

admittance of the prosecution's

ballistic test results a jury of his

peers found him guilty on all five

counts of first-degree murder he was

then sentenced to death by lethal

injection upon hearing the verdict Rey

simply mumbled I'm okay

Ray and Faye Copeland became the oldest

couple in American history ever

sentenced to death two years later while

awaiting execution at the Potosi

Correctional Center 78 year old Ray

Copeland died to this day many

investigators believe Rey was

responsible for other murders which have

yet to be discovered on August 6 1999

U.S District Judge Orchard Smith

overturned the death sentence for 78

year old Faye Copeland Faye's attorney

was quoted by the Columbia Daily Tribune

as saying the evidence of phased guilt

was pretty thin they just happened to be

there she worked in the greenhouse at

the prison every day she wouldn't hurt a

fly I think you can ask the warden and

he would say he could open the door and

there wouldn't be a danger to anybody

Faye's attorney filed the appeal because

the Livingston County jury that

convicted her was not allowed to hear

evidence of battered women's syndrome

even though the death penalty was no

longer an issue the judge allowed her

murder convictions to stand and she was

ordered to remain in prison for the rest

of her life several women's activist

groups began to protest phase

imprisonment claiming she had suffered

enough and that she presented no threat

to society but their requests to commute

her sentence to time served fell upon

deaf ears two weeks after her sentencing

Faye Copeland gave a rare interview to

Lee Kavanaugh of the Kansas City Star

the following are excerpts from that

interview I couldn't have flowers at

home he didn't like me to be tending to

anything other than him as long as I was

with him or working the cattle or the

tractor that was okay but flowers no he

didn't like them I was raised to love my

husband and support him no matter what

the man is the head of the family the

Bible says it should be that way it

wouldn't do to say if Rey was mean to me

or not yes he did mess up my life but

that's not to say that I wasn't a good

wife to him I was never mean to him

maybe we'd have got along better if I'd

knock the out of him a few times

I've often thought since maybe this was

for the best where did I go wrong if I

went wrong I know one place was getting

married at all but he was my life for

many many years I didn't know anything

else will I get out I may go out feet

first but I'll get out of here someday

in November of 2000 Missouri attorney

general Jay Nixon appealed judge Smith's

ruling and asked the eighth Circuit

Court of Appeals to reinstate Faye's

death sentence but the federal appeals

court upheld the decision they remained

quiet during most of the proceedings but

when asked if she had anything to say

she stood up stating at that hearing I

think I've paid for what I did or what I

knew God will forgive me for anything

I've said or done afterward face son Al

Copeland spoke briefly with the

Associated Press and said he had been

pressing for his mother's release since

she was imprisoned there's no way in the

world mom could have done what they said

she had done he said but in regards to

his father Al said he was guilty I have

no qualms about that the following month

Tom and Janette block founders of

missourians against State killing or

mask began fighting to have Fey released

from prison they desperately sought The

public's help and requested that people

send letters of support for Faye during

this time this author contacted the

group and later received the following

reply while we're grateful that Faye is

out of danger of execution we're

disappointed that she will remain in

prison for the rest of her life we have

an application for clemency pending

before Governor Wilson asking that he

commute her sentence to time served I've

attached a copy of the petition anyone

interested in helping could write and

urge the governor to grant our petition

thanks for your support Sean D O'Brien

public interest litigation clinic on

August 10 2002 Faye Copeland suffered a

stroke which left her partially

paralyzed and unable to speak weeks

later she was paroled to a nursing home

in her hometown the following year on

December 30th 2003 82 year old Faye

Copeland died at the Morningside Center

Nursing home from what Livingston County

Coroner's Scott Lindsay described as

natural causes they finally gain freedom

even if it was beat first

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foreign

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thank you

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