Wednesday 30 September 2015

Serial Killers: Milton Johnson

Born: May 15, 1950

Number of victims: 10+  

Date of murders: June - August 1983 

Method of murder:  Shooting / Stabbing

Location: Illinois   




Convicted on a rape charge in 1970, at the age go just 19, Milton Johnson was sentenced to 25 years in prison. That should have seen him incarcerated until at least 1986, but the authorities saw fit to release him in March, 1983. Johnson responded to their generosity by launching a campaign of terror that would leave at least ten people dead in the space of just two months.

Johnson’s M.O. was particularly savage. He confined his attacks to the weekends, when he had access to a truck. Then he’d drive to one of the small communities surrounding Joliet, Illinois and cruise the streets until he came across a likely victim. He’d then attack with extreme ferocity, raping and robbing the victims before executing them in cold blood, whether they offered resistance or not. The police response was to mobilize every available officer in Will and Cook counties but somehow Johnson always managed to evade them. Two deputies who did manage to run him to ground were ruthlessly gunned down.

Johnson’s campaign of terror eventually came to an end when a woman reported him for harassing her in his truck, tailgating and trying to force her off the road. The woman had written down the license plate number and it was tracked to Johnson’s uncle, who told detectives that he usually allowed his nephew to use it at the weekends. Once in custody, a plethora of evidence - including fibers and fingerprints - tied Johnson to the crime scenes.

Convicted of all counts in September 1984, Johnson was sentenced to death. He currently awaits execution at Joliet, Illinois, close to his many crime scenes.


Read the horrific story of Milton Johnson, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 2. 
Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 29 September 2015

Serial Killers: Edward Edwards

Born: June 14, 1933

Number of victims: 5+   

Date of murders: 1977 - 1996 

Method of murder:  Shooting / Strangulation

Location: Ohio / Wisconsin   




Born in Akron, Ohio in 1933, Edward Edwards grew up an orphan after his mother committed suicide in front of him. To that trauma was added the abuse he suffered in various orphanages until he eventually escaped by joining the Marines. Military life, however, was not to his liking and after his discharge he hit the road, supporting himself by odd jobs and petty crime. His first brush with infamy came in 1955, when he escaped from prison and went on a robbery spree which saw him elevated to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.

Released from prison in 1977, Edwards started drifting again. Over the next two decades, he would commit at least five murders. He is also believed responsible for double homicides in Portland, Oregon and Grand Falls, Missouri, and another murder in San Francisco. He was eventually arrested in 2009 after he murdered his foster son in an effort to claim on a life insurance policy.

Edwards was sentenced to death for that murder, but he died in prison on April 7, 2011, before the sentence could be carried out.

Read the horrific story of Edward Edwards, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 1. 
Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 28 September 2015

Serial Killers: Daniel Conahan Jr.

Born: May 11, 1954

Number of victims: 6  

Date of murders: 1994 - 1996  

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: Florida  




Between 1994 and 1996 the bodies of six young men were discovered in the dense woods of Charlotte County, Florida. The corpses were found in varying stages of decomposition, but it was evident that they had been strangled and, based on similarities found at the crime scenes, detectives were confident that a serial killer was responsible.

Yet despite their best efforts, the “Hog Trail Killer" remained frustratingly elusive until mid-1996, when a man came forward with an interesting story to tell. In 1994, he had been approached by a man who had offered him money to pose for nude photographs. After he accepted, the man had driven him to a wooded area where he’d agreed to be tied to a tree for the snapshots. Once he was restrained, the photographer had turned on him, raped him and tried to strangle him. He’d given up and fled when his victim had put up a fight.

The tip-off proved to be the break investigators had been waiting for. It led to a local man named Daniel Conahan Jr. who was was quickly arrested and charged with attempted murder. That charge was later dropped but by then prosecutors had build a case against Conahan for the 1996 murder of Robert Montgomery. Montgomery was one of the victims found in the woods. He had been strangled and emasculated. 

Conahan denied killing Montgomery, but there was strong forensic evidence linking him to the crime and it was enough to convince the jury. Found guilty of murder in December, 1999, he was sentenced to death.


Read the horrific story of Daniel Conahan Jr., plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Sunday 27 September 2015

Serial Killers: Vernon Brown

Born: October 1, 1953

Number of victims:  3 - 5+ 

Date of murders:  1980 - 1986

Method of murder:  Strangulation

Location:  Indiana / Missouri  




A criminal with a disconcerting interest in young girls, Brown racked up his first jail time in Indiana in 1980, when he was sent to prison for molesting a 12-year-old. Shortly after his release, nine-year-old Kimberly Campbell was found raped and strangled to death in a house owned by Brown's grandmother. Brown was the obvious suspect but the police were unable to find enough evidence to charge him. A year later he skipped town to avoid arrest on new child molestation charges.

Brown showed up next in St. Louis, Missouri. In March 1985, 19-year-old Synetta Ford was found stabbed and strangled in her St. Louis apartment. Working under an alias at the apartment complex, Brown again came under suspicion only for the charges to be dropped for lack of evidence.

On October 25, 1986, nine-year-old Janet Perkins disappeared while walking home from school in St. Louis. Her route would have taken her directly past Brown’s residence and when police searched the premises they found the little girl's raped and strangled body hidden in the basement. Brown claimed that he had been under the influence of drugs when he killed Janet, but there would be no escape this time.

Found guilty of murder, Vernon Brown was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in Missouri on May 17, 2005. Two more murders have subsequently been linked to him and he remains a suspect in 20 more. 



Read the horrific story of Vernon Brown, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 5
Available now on Amazon
 
 

Saturday 26 September 2015

Serial Killers: Jeremy Bryan Jones



 Born: April 12, 1973

Number of victims: 21    

Date of murders: 1992 - 2004

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing  

Location:  Kansas / Alabama / Georgia / Louisiana



Handsome and charming, Jeremy Bryan Jones boasted that he could “talk the panties off a nun.” But the silver-tongued ladies’ man was also a brutal rape slayer who embarked on a decade long murder campaign from 1992 to 2004, during which he may have killed at many as 21 women.

Arrested eventually in 2004 for the murder of 16-year-old Amanda Greenwell, Jones boasted to police about his killing spree. In a rambling confession, he admitted that he’d killed Tina Mayberry outside a Douglasville bar in 2002 and that he kidnapped, raped and killed Patrice Endres, a 38-year-old hairdresser from Forsyth County. In addition, he claimed to have killed three prostitutes in Mobile, Alabama, five in the Atlanta, Georgia and another in New Orleans.

Jones also said that he was the man behind an unsolved double homicide in Oklahoma, in which a couple was shot to death in their trailer and then set alight. Their 16-year-old daughter and her best friend are still missing. According to Jones, he raped and killed the girls, then threw their bodies into a mine shaft.

Although detectives were initially dubious of these claims, a polygraph and further investigation connected Jones conclusively to four murders, with strong links to at least a dozen more, spanning Kansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Jones was sentenced to death in November 2005, for the murder of 44-year-old Lisa Nichols in Turnerville, Alabama.  


Read the full, horrific story of Jeremy Bryan Jones, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 5.
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Friday 25 September 2015

Serial Killers: Josephine Gray


Born: 1946

Number of victims: 3    

Date of murders:  1974 - 1996

Method of murder: Shooting   

Location: Maryland



A “Black Widow” who saw off two husbands and a lover, Josephine Gray was obsessed with the idea of easy money, and was not afraid to use murder to get it. Her first victim was her husband, Norman Stribbling, who died of a single gunshot to the head on March 3, 1974. Gray was suspected of murder after two men testified that she had tried to hire them to kill Stribbling. But in the end, there was insufficient evidence to make the case and the insurance company paid out on Stribbling’s $16,000 life policy.

In November 1975, Josephine married William Robert Gray, with whom she had been having a long term affair. William Gray was shot to death on November 9, 1990. Again foul play was suspected but again there was no evidence and Josephine collected an insurance payout of over $54,000.

Gray’s next beau was Clarence Good, who she had already been living with at the time of her husband’s death. In March 1996 Goode took out a $100,000 life insurance policy, with Gray as the sole beneficiary. On June 21, 1996 his body was found in the trunk of his car with a bullet wound to the head. A subsequent investigation found blood in the home he had shared with Gray, but still no charges were brought. Gray did, however, receive a check of $90,000 from the insurance company. 

So far Josephine Gray had profited from three murders without so much as a charge being brought against her. But her luck eventually ran out when the US States attorney charged her with fraud in collecting on the three life policies. Found guilty, she was sentenced to 40 years in prison.


Read the full, horrific story of Josephine Gray, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 5.
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Thursday 24 September 2015

Serial Killer Video: Danny Rolling - The Gainesville Ripper



Known as the Gainesville Ripper, Rolling murdered five students in Gainesville, Florida, literally hacking them apart. He was also convicted of a triple triple homicide in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. Rolling was executed by lethal injection in 2006.

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Serial Killers: Gary and Thaddeus Lewingdon


Number of victims: 10   

Date of murders: 1977 - 1978 

Method of murder: Shooting  

Location: Columbus, Ohio 

Known as the .22 Caliber Killers, this deadly pair of siblings terrorized central Ohio in 1977-78, shooting to death 10 victims in a series of apparently motiveless attacks.

The first murders occurred on December 10, 1977, when Joyce Vermillion, 37, and Karen Dodrill, 33, were gunned down outside a cafe in Newark, Ohio. Then, in February 1978, Robert McCann, 52; his mother, Dorothy, 74; and his girlfriend, Christine Herdman, 26 were shot to death at McCann’s home. Shell casings found at the scene linked the killings to the earlier double homicide but got State investigators no closer to solving the case.

Three more people were shot to death in April and May, before Thaddeus Lewingdon told his brother that he wanted out. Unperturbed, Gary carried on the murder spree on his own, gunning down 56-year-old Joseph Annick in his East Side garage on December 4, 1978.     

On December 9, 1978, Lewingdon tried to use Annick’s credit card at a Columbus discount store and was arrested. Once in custody, he confessed to 10 murders, implicating his brother in all but one of them.

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison, where both later died, Thaddeus of lung cancer in 1989, and Gary of heart failure in 2004.


Read the full, horrific story of Gary and Thaddeus Lewingdon,
 plus 29 more serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 5  
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Serial Killers: Lemuel Smith


Born: July 23, 1941

Number of victims: 6   

Date of murders: 1958 - 1981

Method of murder: Beating / Shooting / Strangulation  

Location: Albany, New York



Lemuel Smith was already a convicted serial killer, serving a triple life term, when he committed the most sensational murder of his criminal career on May 15, 1981. That involved the brutal rape slaying of on-duty female correctional officer, Donna Payant, who was savagely strangled and beaten to death. Smith, however, had left telltale clues on his victim’s body, several bite marks which were conclusively matched to him.

The murder of a corrections officer carries a mandatory death sentence. However, Smith’s case soon attracted high profile human rights lawyers, William Kunstler and C. Vernon Mason, who agreed to defend him. They employed a controversial strategy, attacking the character of this victim, suggesting (without basis) that Donna Payant had been promiscuous and that one of her colleagues had killed her. It was to no avail. Found guilty of murder, Smith was sentenced to death.

The brutal killer would, however, escape the executioner when his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1984. Celebrating that decision, Smith boasted that he could rape and kill and that the state couldn’t touch him. He was wrong on that score. Deemed a danger to his fellow prisoners he was sent to solitary confinement where he would remain for the next twenty years, the longest such span for a prisoner in the United States.  


Read the full, horrific story of Lemuel Smith, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 7. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Serial Killers: David and Catherine Birnie



Number of victims: 4   

Date of murders:  October-November 1986  

Method of murder: Strangulation, Stabbing  

Location:  Perth, Western Australia  


A depraved killer couple, David and Catherine Birnie are among Australia’s most notorious serial killers, responsible for the deaths of four young women ranging in age from 15 to 35. Each of the victims was either lured or forced back to the Birnies’ home in Perth, Western Australia. There, they were subjected to prolonged rape and torture before being murdered. Three of the victims were strangled to death, the fourth was brutally stabbed and bludgeoned with an axe.

How long the Birnies might have continued their campaign of murder, and how many victims they might have claimed, is frightening to contemplate. But on November 10, 1986 intended fifth victim Kate Moir, 17, managed to escape from the house. She ran naked to a nearby grocery store, where staff called the police. Once in custody, Catherine Birnie held tough, while David quickly cracked and admitted to four murders. He later led police to the graves of the victims.

Convicted on all counts the Birnies each received four consecutive life sentences. David Birnie committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell on October 7, 2005.


Read the horrific story of David and Catherine Birnie , plus 23 more serial killer cases in 
Australian Monsters. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Sunday 20 September 2015

Serial Killers: Robert Black

Born: April 21, 1947

Number of victims:  3 +

Date of murders:  1982 - 1990

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: United Kingdom   




Known as “Smelly Bob” due to his poor personal hygiene, Robert Black is one of the UK’s most notorious child killers. Adopted as a child, he developed disciplinary problems early in life leading up to his first attempt at rape at the age of just 12. By then he was already obsessed with young girls, an obsession that would lead to his first arrest, for ‘lewd and libidinous,’ behaviour when he was 17.

But that was only the start. On July 30, 1982, 11-year-old Susan Maxwell was abducted from the village of Cornhill on the English/Scottish border. Black then raped and strangled the little girl, eventually dumping her body 250 miles away in central England (he was working as a delivery driver at the time).

On the evening of July 8, 1983, Black claimed a second victim. Five-year-old Caroline Hogg was adducted near her home in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was found 10 days later in a ditch in Leicestershire, some 300 miles away. Thereafter, Black somehow managed to keep his carnal desires at bay for three years, until March 26, 1986, when he murdered 10-year-old Sarah Harper. 

Black was eventually arrested on July 14, 1990, while trying to kidnap another little girl. Found guilty of three murders on May 19, 1994, he was sentenced to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2029, by which time he will be 82 years old. He is the primary suspect in several other child murders.


Read the horrific story of Robert Black, plus 14 more serial killer cases in 
British Monsters Vol 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Saturday 19 September 2015

Serial Killers: The Bloody Benders

Number of victims: 11+ 

Date of murders:  1872 - 1873

Method of murder: Bludgeoning / Stabbing

Location: Lebette County, Kansas 

It is one of the most incredible stories of the old West, a family of serial killers operating an inn and general store in Labette County, Kansas, and preying on unwary travellers. But that is exactly what happened just outside of Osage township between 1872 and 1873.

The story takes place at a dingy shack named the Wayside Inn, the proprietors of which were a family named Bender - John Bender, his wife, son John Jr., and daughter Kate. The family operated a simple but effective M.O. When a traveller arrived they’d seat him a a table, his back to a canvas partition. Kate, who was known to be quite a beauty, would then engage the hapless traveler in conversation, while one of the men crept up behind and dispatched him with a blow from a sledgehammer. The family would then rob the victim before burying the body in a nearby orchard.

At least 11 people were killed in this way before the Benders committed the murder that would finally expose their murderous deeds. George Loncher was on his way to Iowa with his young daughter when they fell victim to the murderous clan. Dr William York, a friend of Loncher’s, then went looking for him. He too disappeared.

Unfortunately for the Benders, Dr York was well connected. One of his brothers was a US senator, another was a colonel in the army. When Colonel York arrived at the inn asking questions about his brother, the Benders denied ever meeting him. However, the visit had spooked them. Within weeks they had fled, abandoning their property. A subsequent search of the premises and the adjacent orchard turned up 11 bodies including those of Dr York, George Loncher, and his young daughter.

A massive search was launched for the Benders but they were never found. Their ultimate fate remains a mystery to this day. 


Read the horrific story of the Bloody Benders, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Thursday 17 September 2015

Serial Killer Video: John Norman Collins - The Ypsilanti Ripper


A Ted Bundy prototype, 21 year old Eastern Michigan University student John Norman Collins brutally murdered and mutilated seven young coeds between 1967 and 1969. He was eventually convicted of only one murder and although he's always maintained his innocence, the murders stopped after he was caught. 

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Serial Killers: Rory Conde

Born: June 14, 1965

Number of victims:  6

Date of murders:  1994 - 1995

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location:  Florida




Known as the “Tamiami Trail Strangler,” Rory Conde haunted the section of Highway 41 running from to Tampa to Miami, claiming six victims between 1994 and 1995.

The first to die was a cross dressing male prostitute named Lazaro Comesana, whose body was found dumped at the side of the road on September 16, 1994. A second victim, Elisa Martinez, was found just three weeks later on October 8. When a third prostitute, Charity Nava, turned up dead, investigators knew that they had a serial killer on their hands. Conde had left a note on the body taunting the police to ‘catch me if you can.’

Florida authorities certainly tried to do that, but despite their efforts, three more women were strangled to death between November 26, 1994 and January 12, 1995. Then, inexplicably, the killer dropped out of sight.

On June 19, 1995, neighbors of Rory Conde called the police after they heard banging sounds coming from his house. Conde was not at home when officers arrived, but inside they found a terrified woman, bound and gagged. A warrant was then issued for Conde’s arrest. He was eventually tracked to his grandmother’s house on June 24, 1995. Under interrogation, he stunned detectives by admitting to the Tamiami Trail murders.

Conde faced separate trials for each of the six murders, drawing a death penalty for the murder of Rhonda Dunn and striking a deal for life in prison in the other five cases. He currently awaits execution. 


Read the horrific story of Rory Conde, plus 49 more serial killer cases in
50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 3
Available now on Amazon
 
 

Murder Most Vile Volume 7

18 classic true crime cases from around the world, including; 
 
Mother Knows Best: How far will a mother go to maintain control over her children? As far as torture? As far as murder?

A Killer On The Doorstep: A beautiful young model returning home from a night on the town; a sexual predator lying in wait; a monstrous crime about to happen.

A Lust For Blood: A real life vampire is stalking the streets of Sacramento, tearing his victims apart and drinking their blood.

Dealing With the Preacher: Who could have known that the respected small town preacher was actually a sex-obsessed serial killer?

A Tale Of Two Girls: Alyssa was your typical inquisitive teen. The question she most wanted answered was: “What’s it like to kill someone?”

Dr. Death: An enterprising criminal with a unique approach to bank robbery, first poison all the staff then flee with the money.

Murder At Big Sur: Deana thought that she was among friends. Little did she know the cruel fate those “friends” had planned for her.

The Shark Arm Murder: When the Coogee Aquarium’s latest exhibit regurgitates a human arm in front of horrified onlookers, the hunt is on to catch a killer.

Plus 10 more riveting true crime cases. Click here to get your copy now.


Click the "Read More" link below to read the first chapter of

Murder Most Vile Volume Seven

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Serial Killers: Richard Trenton Chase

Born: May 23, 1950

Number of victims: 6  

Date of murders: 1977 - 1978  

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Sacramento, California  




A deeply disturbed young man, Richard Trenton Chase committed murder for one of the most bizarre motives ever recorded. He believed that he had to drink human blood and eat human flesh in order to prevent his own blood turning into powder.

Chase had already been in and out of mental institutions when he killed his first victim on December 29, 1977. The murder was a simple drive-by shooting, apparently committed as a rehearsal for the carnage that was to come.

The next victim was Theresa Wallin, 22, three months pregnant when Chase broke into her home, shot her to death and then raped and severely mutilated her body. He also gathered a yogurt container full of blood, which he drank it at the scene.

Six days later, on January 27, Chase committed and even bloodier massacre, killing 38-year-old Evelyn Miroth, her friend, Dan Meredith, and two children, Evelyn's six-year-old son Jason and her 22-month-old nephew, David. All of the victims were shot to death, their bodies horrendously mutilated. Blood was drained from the corpses and skulls cracked open to remove brain matter. Internal organs were sliced up and liquidized in a blender, making a vile concoction, which Chase then drank.

Chase was eventually caught after a former friend tipped off the police that he might be the killer. Surprisingly, he was deemed fit to stand trial and, having been found guilty, was sentenced to death on May 8, 1979. He committed suicide in his cell on December 26, 1980, taking an overdose of prescription antidepressants.     


Read the full, horrific story of Richard Trenton Chase, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 8. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 14 September 2015

Serial Killers: John Fautenberry

Born: July 4, 1963

Number of victims: 6 

Date of murders: 1990 - 1991 

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing 

Location:  Alaska / New Jersey / Ohio / Oregon 




A wandering serial killer and one time truck driver, John Fautenberry committed six brutal murders across four different states between November 1990 and March 1991. Fautenberry began his killing spree in Oregon, in November 1990, when he shot a man who had taken pity on the down and out drifter and bought him a meal. The man made the mistake of confiding in Fautenberry that he was carrying $10,000 in cash. He ended up with a bullet in his head. Fautenberry then traveled to New Jersey where he shot a man at a truck stop and robbed him of his wallet.

On February 17, 1991, 45-year-old trucker, Joseph William Daron stopped to give Fautenberry a ride when he found him hitchhiking along the I-275 in Ohio. Fautenberry thanked his benefactor by shooting him twice in the chest and robbing him of his truck, cash and valuables. He then traveled back to Oregon where he shot a woman twice in the back of the head before absconding for Juneau, Alaska.

While in Alaska, another man had the misfortune of falling for Fautenberry’s sob stories. He offered the drifter a place to sleep for the night. Fautenberry stabbed him to death, delivering 17 savage wounds.

Arrested soon after, Fautenberry confessed to his previous crimes. He was extradited to Ohio, where the murder of Joseph William Daron earned him the death penalty.

John Fautenberry was executed by lethal injection on July 14, 2009.


Read the horrific story of John Fautenberry, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 2.
 Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Sunday 13 September 2015

Serial Killers: Shelly Andre Brooks

Born: January 22, 1969 

Number of victims: 7

Date of murders: 2001 - 2006

Method of murder: Bludgeoning 

Location: Detroit, Michigan




A particularly vicious rape slayer, Shelly Andre Brooks carried out a campaign of terror against Detroit, Michigan’s prostitute population between 2001 and 2006, claiming at least seven victims. The women were all beaten to death with rocks or chunks on concrete, their bodies left in abandoned buildings and vacant lots on the city’s east side.

All of the women had been lured to these remote locations with the promise of cash for sex. However, once Brooks had the victim isolated, he turned on her, attacking without mercy. He would then have sex with the victim, either while she was dead or dying.

Brooks, who has been positively linked by DNA to seven murders, is suspected of at least seven more. But he might have gone on killing indefinitely had he not allowed one of his victims to escape. Following his usual M.O., Brooks lured the woman to a quiet spot then beat her unconscious, raped her, and left her for dead. The woman, however, survived and was able to name her attacker by the name she knew him - “E.” This was the street name used by Shelley Andre Brooks.

Confronted with the evidence against him, Brooks soon confessed. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


Read the horrific story of Shelly Andre Brooks, plus 49 more sensational murder cases in
50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 2.
Available now on Amazon



 
 
 
 

Saturday 12 September 2015

Serial Killers: William Burke and William Hare


Number of victims: 17

Date of murders: 1827 - 1828

Method of murder: Suffocation

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

A unique pair of serial killers, William Burke and William Hare were Irish immigrants who committed a string of murders in Edinburgh, Scotland during the 1820s. The motive for the murders was profit. Universities in those days paid a handsome price for fresh cadavers to be used in anatomy classes, leading to many criminals taking up the lucrative trade of grave robbing. Contrary to popular belief, Burke and Hare were not grave robbers themselves, but they must have been well aware of the macabre trade. 

In 1827, one of the lodgers at the inn Hare ran with his common law wife, fell ill and died. The old man owed Hare £4 in rent and Hare decided to recoup his debt by selling the body to the anatomy offices of Professor Robert Knox. The sale gained Hare 7 pounds 10 shillings and struck him as an easy way to make money. He and Hare then cooked up a devilish scheme. Rather than dig up corpses they were going to create their own.

Over the next year, the heartless killers would claim 16 more victims. There M.O. was invariably the same. An intended victim would be invited back to Hare’s place, then plied with whiskey. Once the victim passed out, one of the killers would hold him or her down while the other placed a hand over the victim’s mouth and nose, causing suffocation.

Initially, Burke and Hare chose victims that were not from their local community, but as the killing progressed, they became careless and lazy. Their eventual downfall came when they killed a woman named Mary Docherty, whose sudden disappearance roused suspicion.

Brought in for questioning, Burke and Hare told conflicting stories. The police then decided that Burke was the main culprit and offered Hare immunity to testify against his accomplice. Hare grabbed the lifeline with both hands.

William Burke was eventually tried and found guilty. He was hanged at Edinburgh on January 28, 1829. William Hare was released from custody in February 1829 and immediately fled Scotland. His ultimate fate is unknown. 


Read the full, horrific story of Burke and Hare, plus 9 more serial killer cases in 
British Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Serial Killers: Johnny Ray Johnson


Born: August 2, 1957

Number of victims:  3  

Date of murders: 1994 - 1995 

Method of murder: Beating / Strangulation  

Location: Texas



A brutal rapist, Johnny Ray Johnson graduated to murder in 1994, when he beat 41-year-old Leah Smith to death during an argument over payment for drugs. Smith had agreed to have sex with Johnson in exchange for some of his crack cocaine. However, after smoking the drugs, she reneged on her part of the deal. Johnson then became angry and beat her into submission before raping her. When she threatened to go to the police, he stomped on her head and left her to die in an alley.

After that murder, Johnson fled to Houston, where he found work as a taxi driver. He must have found murder to his taste because he repeated the act at least twice in Houston. On these occasions, he beat and strangled the women even though they agreed to have sex with him. He also raped and severely beat several other women, who were fortunate to escape with their lives.

Finally, in May 1995, one of his victims found the courage to go to the police. Identified via a photo array, Johnson was picked up and brought in for questioning. Under interrogation, he admitted to three murders and numerous violent sexual assaults.

Johnson was eventually convicted of Leah Smith’s murder and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in Texas on February 12, 2009.      


Read the full, horrific story of Johnny Ray Johnson, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 3.
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Thursday 10 September 2015

Serial Killers: Leonarda Cianciulli

Born: November 14, 1893

Number of victims: 3 

Date of murders: 1939 - 1940 

Method of murder: Axe 

Location:  Correggio, Italy




In one of the most bizarre serial killer cases ever recorded, Leonarda Cianciulli, an Italian woman from Correggio, hacked three of her friends to death and used their body fat to make soap and their blood to make chocolate flavored tea cakes.

Cianciulli first turned to murder in 1939, when her son was conscripted into the Italian army at the start of World War Two. A deeply superstitious woman, she became convinced that he would be killed unless she made a human sacrifice. It was then that she decided to murder her three friends, Faustina Setti, Francesca Soavi, and Virginia Cacioppo.

After luring each of the women to her home on the pretext of providing advice on romance or employment, Cianciulli murdered them with an axe. She then dismembered the corpses, using the fat to make soap which she distributed freely around the neighborhood. The blood was dried and then ground into a powder which she mixed into her tea cakes.

Cianciulli was eventually caught after one of her victim’s relatives reported to police that the missing woman had last been seen going into Cianciulli's house. Questioned about the disappearance, Cianciulli immediately confessed, sparing none of the lurid details.

At trial, the court surprisingly found that she was not insane and therefore responsible for her actions. She was sentenced to thirty years in prison, although she eventually ended up at the women's criminal asylum in Pozzuoli. She died there on October 15, 1970. 


Read the incredible story of Leonarda Cianciulli, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Serial Killers: Arthur Gary Bishop

Born: 1951

Number of victims:  5

Date of murders:  1979 - 1983

Method of murder: Bludgeoning / Drowning

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah  




Raised as a devout Mormon in the small town of Hinkley, Utah, Arthur Gary Bishop first succumbed to his warped sexual urgings when he served as a mentor in the "Big Brother" program. At first, no one suspected him of molesting the boys under his care. However, he got into trouble with the law on another charge, that of embezzlement. While awaiting trial, he skipped out on his bail and fled to Salt Lake City, where he adopted the alias "Roger Downs."

On October 14, 1979 four-year-old Alonzo Daniels, went missing from the Salt Lake City apartment complex where "Roger Downs" lived. A year later, on November 9, 1980, 11-year-old Kim Peterson disappeared. Eleven months after that, on October 20, 1981, four-year-old Danny Davis vanished from a busy supermarket in southern Salt Lake County.

Eighteen months passed. Then, on June 22, 1983, Troy Ward disappeared from a Salt Lake City park on his sixth birthday. Less than a month later, 13-year-old Graeme Cunningham vanished from his home, just two days before he was scheduled to go on a camping trip with an adult chaperone, 32-year-old Roger Downs.

While questioning Downs, detectives realised that they had spoken to him before, regarding the disappearances of Alonzo Daniels and Kim Peterson. That raised a red flag and it was decided to bring him in to the station. Under interrogation, Bishop quickly cracked and admitted to five counts of murder.

At trial, Bishop tried to deflect the blame, saying that his addiction to child pornography had driven him to kill. He was nonetheless found guilty and sentenced to death. The vile child killer was executed by lethal injection on June 10, 1988 at the Utah State Prison.


Read the horrific story of Arthur Gary Bishop, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 8. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Serial Killers: Blanche Taylor Moore


Born: February 17, 1933

Number of victims:  4

Date of murders: 1968 - 1986 

Method of murder: Poisoning   

Location: North Carolina



When Rev. Dwight Moore became ill with symptoms that looked suspiciously like poisoning in  1989, the police began investigating the most obvious suspect, his wife Blanche. A toxicology test was ordered and revealed that the reverend had ingested a large amount of arsenic. Miraculously, he recovered. When he did, he refused to believe that his wife was in any way involved. 

The police, however, remained suspicious of Blanche Moore and that suspicion only increased when they learned that her first husband, James N. Taylor, and former boyfriend, Raymond Reid, had died in suspicious circumstances, as had her father, P.D. Kiser and her mother-in-law, Isla Taylor. In the first three cases, Moore had benefited from insurance payouts.

Exhumation orders were duly obtained for the bodies and when tests revealed copious amounts of arsenic, Moore was charged with murder. Despite protesting her innocence, Moore was convicted on one count of murder (for killing Raymond Reid), She was sentenced to death on January 18, 1991, although that sentence has yet to be carried out.


Read the full, horrific story of Blanche Taylor Moore, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
 50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 4.
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Monday 7 September 2015

Serial Killers: Nicolas Wiley


Born: 1962

Number of victims: 3   

Date of murders: 2004

Method of murder:  Stabbing 

Location: Syracuse, New York



A violent sex offender with a long rap sheet, Nicolas Wiley was inexplicably paroled from prison in early 2004. After his release, he found work as a handyman at an apartment complex in Syracuse, New York. Within weeks of him taking up that position, 31-year-old Lottie Thompson was found stabbed to death in her apartment. It was Wiley himself who tipped the building manager off to a foul smell coming from the apartment.

While working the crime scene police discovered that two other young women had recently gotten missing from the same building, 22-year-old Hannah Finnerty and Tammy Passineau, aged just 17. 

Finnerty’s body was discovered in a nearby dumpster, dead from multiple stab wounds. The other victim has never been found, leading police to speculate that she may have been stuffed it into a garbage can that was hauled off to the county’s trash burning plant.

As a registered Level 3 sex offender, Wiley was an obvious suspect and under interrogation he soon implicated himself in the murders, also hinting that there might be other victims.

Found guilty on two counts of murder, Wiley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His case resulted in the New York State Senate passing legislation that compels law enforcement agencies to inform residents of convicted sex offenders living in their communities.


Read the full, horrific story of Nicolas Wiley, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
 50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 5.
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Sunday 6 September 2015

Serial Killers: Scott Erskine

Born: December 22, 1962

Number of victims: 3+ 

Date of murders: 1989 - 1993 

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: California / Florida   




A sexual deviant from an early age, Scott Erskine first fell foul of the law at age 15, when he was arrested for the knifepoint rape of a 13-year-old girl. At 18, he graduated to adult prison after knocking a 14-year-old boy unconscious and trying to rape him. That earned him four years in prison.

Erskine was paroled in 1984. Upon his release, he married and moved to Florida, where he fathered a son. However, the marriage was short-lived, due to Erskine’s physical and sexual abuse of his wife.

In 1993, back in California, Erskine abducted a woman from a bus stop and held her at his home for several days, repeatedly raping and sodomizing her. Eventually, he let her go, threatening to kill her if she told anyone. The woman went directly to the police and Erskine was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison.

As a convicted sex offender, Erskine was required to submit his DNA to a statewide database. When the police ran it, they were in for a surprise. It returned a match to the unsolved rape murders of 9-year-old Jonathan Sellers and 13-year-old Charlie Keever in March 1993. The boys had gone missing from Palm City, California and were found near the Otay River. Both had been bound, gagged and sexually molested. Charlie was lying on the ground, while Jonathan was found hanging from a tree.

Tried and found guilty of the murders, Erskine was sentenced to death. He has subsequently been linked by DNA to the rape/murder of 26-year-old Renee Baker, in Florida on June 23, 1989.  


Read the horrific story of Scott Erskine, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 2. 
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Saturday 5 September 2015

Serial Killer Video: Harvey Carignan - The Want Ad Killer


Reprieved from a death sentence in Alaska and then paroled, Harvey Carignan murdered at least 5 women between 1949 and 1974. ‘Harv the Hammer,’ as he was known, bludgeoned his victims to death in what are some of the most brutal murders in American criminal history.  He is the prime suspect in over 40 more murders. 

Serial Killers: Juana Barraza



Born: December 27, 1958

Number of victims: 11+   

Date of murders: 2002 - 2006 

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Mexico City, Mexico


One of Mexico's most prolific serial killers, Juana Barraza was a female wrestler with a deadly sideline in murder. Active between 2002 and 2006, Barraza claimed at least 11 elderly female victims, strangling them to death in their apartments after gaining entry by posing as a social worker. She would then steal cash and valuables before fleeing.

With all of Mexico City in a panic, the police refused to believe reports of a broad-shouldered woman seen near many of the crime scenes. Instead they insisted that the killer was a transvestite. And while they continued to harass the city’s transvestite population, the killings went on unabated.

The break in the case came in 2006, when Barraza was spotted leaving the house of a woman who was later found strangled with a stethoscope. When Barraza was arrested near the scene, she was found to be in possession of social benefits papers and a social worker's identification card, which she had used to gain entry to her victims' homes.

Found guilty of 11 counts of murder, Barraza was sentenced to 50 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Mexican law. Police believe she may have been responsible for as many as 40 deaths.


Read the full, horrific story of Juana Barraza, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Serial Killers: Craig Price



Born: 1974

Number of victims: 4  

Date of murders:  1987 - 1989

Method of murder:  Stabbing / Beating 

Location: Warwick, Rhode Island



Considered the youngest serial killer in US history, Craig Price was responsible for a brutal series of murders in Rhode Island in the late 1980s. A black youth from a working class family, Price committed his first murder at the age of just 13. The victim was Rebecca Spencer, a 27-year-old white female who he had been watching for months before he eventually broke into her home and stabbed her to death in a frenzied attack.

Two years later, in 1989, Price committed and even more savage attack. Now 15, he invaded another neighborhood home and murdered the occupants, Joan Heaton, 39, and her daughters, Jennifer 10, and Melissa 8. 

The killings were so similar to the Spencer murder that the FBI was called in to compile a profile of the likely suspect. But their analysis failed to suggest a black teenager as the killer. Instead, it was the work of an observant detective that brought Price to justice. Noting a cut on the teenager’s hand, the detective asked him about it. When Price told a rather obvious lie, he was elevated to the top of the suspect list.

Price was brought in for questioning and soon made a confession. Found guilty at the subsequent trial, he was ordered to be incarcerated until the age of 21, a period of just 5 years. However, as Price continued to offend in prison, fresh sentences were added to his term. He currently has at least 20 more years to serve.


Read the full, horrific story of Craig Price, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 10. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Serial Killers: Andras Pandy


Born: June 1, 1927

Number of victims: 13   

Date of murders:  1986 - 1992

Method of murder: Bludgeoning 

Location: Brussels, Belgium 



A Hungarian clergyman, Andras Pandy fled to Belgium in 1956 after the failed Hungarian uprising against Russian control. Employed as a pastor by the United Protestant Church, he married a Hungarian woman who he met through a lonely heart’s column. The couple would have several children together, but by the time Pandy resigned from the church in 1992, his wife and four of his children were missing.

Pandy covered up the disappearances by insisting that his family had returned to their homeland. And he took elaborate steps to keep up the deception, writing fake letters and even hiring young actors to pose as his offspring.

What actually happened to Pandy’s relatives would remain a secret until 1997, when his daughter Agnes went to the police. She had an incredible story to tell. Apparently her father had taken her as a lover and had then coerced her into helping him kill his wife, plus four of his children. The victims had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer, then dismembered. Body parts had been buried in different locations, with some simply dumped at abattoirs.

Arrested on October 20, 1997, the 71-year-old Pandy protested his innocence. 
But after police found human bones, blood-spattered walls, and chunks of flesh at his former residence, he was charged with murder. Pandy was also suspected of adopting an unspecified number of Romanian orphans, bringing them to Belgium, and then killing them. 

Pandy was sentenced to life in prison on March 8, 2002. He died there on December 23, 2013. 


Read the full, horrific story of Andras Pandy, plus 29 more serial killer cases in