50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Volume 2

At any given time there are between 30 and 50 serial killers roaming the streets of America. These are their stories.

A catalogue of evil, including;

Sean Vincent Gillis: A depraved psychopath who used his victims' body parts as sex toys.

Thomas Piper: Outwardly respectable clergyman who had a deadly obsession with little girls.

Louise Peete: Sex-crazed femme fatale who committed three murders and also drove four of her husbands to suicide.

Thor Nis Christiansen: Killed four young women in order to have sex with their corpses.

Roger Kibbe: The deadly I-5 Strangler, who murdered as least 8 stranded female motorists along California's freeways.

Orville Lee Majors: Angel of Death who waged a deadly campaign against his elderly patients. Believed to be responsible for over 100 murders.

Robert Shulman: Long Island prostitute slayer who bludgeoned his victims before hacking them to pieces.

Tillie Klimek: "Psychic" who predicted her victims' deaths, right before she poisoned them. 

Jarvis Catoe: D.C. serial killer whose murder spree prompted a Congressional hearing, and changes to the Washington Police Department.

Mack Ray Edwards: Caltrans employee who found a unique way of getting rid of his victims - he buried them under the freeways he was building.

Plus 40 more riveting cases... Click here to grab a copy

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50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume Two

Richard Angelo

Richard Angelo never wanted to hurt anyone. All he wanted to do was create a situation where he could show his expertise and come out looking like a hero. After all, he’d being doing that all his life. The former Eagle Scout and volunteer fireman was admired by friends and neighbors alike for his devotion to duty. It instilled in him an obsessive need for recognition – an obsession that would have tragic results for the patients of Good Samaritan Hospital, in West Islip, New York.

After graduating from New York State University in May 1985, Angelo worked as a registered nurse at two Long Island hospitals. In April 1987, he found employment at Good Samaritan Hospital where he was assigned to the night shift, on a ward for intensive care patients. Angelo was quite happy to work the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. stretch. In fact, he seemed to prefer it.

In the latter months of 1987, staff doctors at Good Samaritan started picking up some unusual patterns. Patients who appeared to be recovering from surgery were suddenly deteriorating and dying for no apparent reason. Hospital administrators were both perplexed and alarmed. Especially when the rate accelerated and there were six suspicious deaths in under a month between September and October.

Then, on October 11, an incident occurred that blew the case wide open. Patient Girolamo Cucich was approached by a bearded man in a hospital uniform who informed him, “I'm going to make you feel better,” before injecting something into his I.V. tube. Almost immediately, Cucich experienced numbness and felt his chest constrict. Drawing on his last ounce of strength, the patient pressed the buzzer to summon a nurse. The action saved his life, and no doubt those of countless other patients as well.

On October 12, police questioned Richard Angelo, the only bearded nurse on the hospital’s staff, about the incident. Angelo denied any contact with the patient, but after lab tests found traces of Pavulon (a drug that produces muscular paralysis) in Cucich’s blood, the police obtained a warrant for Angelo’s locker. Inside, they found hypodermic needles and a vial of potassium chloride, a drug that can induce cardiac arrest if misused. Angelo had no need for this drug, neither was he authorized to have it in his possession.

On November 14, detectives searched Angelo's apartment and took into evidence vials of Pavulon and Anectine (a similar drug). Angelo was arrested the following day, while attending an out-of-town conference for emergency medical technicians.

In custody, he confessed to a series of murders, admitting that he injected on average two patients per week with Pavulon or Anectine. Asked why he’d done it, Angelo told investigators: “I wanted to create a situation where I would cause the patient to have some respiratory distress or some problem, and through my intervention or suggested intervention or whatever, come out looking like I knew what I was doing. I had no confidence in myself. I felt very inadequate.”

The only problem with this plan was that, more often than not, Angelo was not able to save the patient. In his last six weeks on the job, there were 37 “Code Blue” emergencies, during which 25 patients died. A conservative estimate put the number of Angelo's victims at 38. 

Angelo would eventually be convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, one count of second-degree manslaughter, one count of criminally negligent homicide, and six counts of assault. He was sentenced to a term of 61 years to life.

***

Richard Biegenwald

Richard Biegenwald had a troubled start to life. The son of an abusive alcoholic, he suffered regular beatings as a child. In retaliation, he burned down the family home and was sent for psychiatric observation. He was just 5-years-old at the time.

By age eight, Richard was a habitual drinker and gambler; at 11, he received a series of electroshock-therapy treatments at New York's Bellevue Hospital. A year later, he lit himself on fire in an apparent suicide attempt. Sent to the State Training School for Boys at Warwick, New York, he was soon in trouble again, for theft and for inciting other inmates to escape.

With a background like that, it was always likely that Biegenwald would turn to a life of crime, and so it proved. Arrested at 16 for transporting a stolen car across state lines, he spent a few months in a juvenile correctional facility. It did little to discourage him. Shortly after his release, he and another youth stole a car and held up a liquor store. In the process, Biegenwald shot and killed the proprietor, Stephen Sladowski, a 47-year-old father of four.

Biegenwald and his partner were arrested in Maryland two days later, after   Biegenwald fired a shotgun at state troopers who had pulled them over for speeding. Convicted of murder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released on parole in 1975, having served just 17 years.

Back on the streets, Biegenwald worked a number of odd jobs, but he soon fell foul of the law, first for failing to report to his parole officer and then for a 1980 rape. The charge was eventually dropped, but he was returned to prison to serve six months for the parole violation.  

Biegenwald had married in the interim and upon his release he and his wife moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey, where he found work as a maintenance man.  Also living in his new apartment block was ex-con, Dherran Fitzgerald. The two men struck up an acquaintanceship and began hanging out together.

On January 4, 1983, the body of 18-year-old Anna Olesiewicz was found behind a restaurant in Ocean Township, north of Asbury Park. She’d last been seen on the Asbury Park boardwalk on August 28, 1982. Anna had been shot four times in the head, but police were confused as to the motive. The corpse was fully clothed and there was no evidence of rape. 

Upon hearing of the recovery of the body, a girlfriend of Biegenwald's wife placed a call to the police and accused Biegenwald of the crime. Biegenwald was arrested on January 22, along with his cohort, Dherran Fitzgerald. A search of his apartment turned up pipe bombs, pistols, a machine gun, knockout drops and marijuana, a live puff adder, and the floor plans of various local businesses.

In custody, Fitzgerald quickly rolled on his partner and told police about two corpses buried at the home of Biegenwald's mother, on Staten Island.

Following Fitzgerald’s directions, investigators dug up the remains of 17-year-old Maria Ciallella, last seen in October 1981, and Deborah Osborne, also 17, missing since April 1982. Ciallella had been shot twice in the head; Osborne had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen.

Fitzgerald later led officers to another grave, that of 17-year-old Betsy Bacon. She’d been shot twice in the head and buried to the north of Asbury Park. Another excavation yielded the body of William Ward, a drug dealer and prison escapee. Like the other victims, Ward had been killed by gunshot wounds to the head, five in his case. He was found buried outside of Neptune City, New Jersey. Biegenwald was also suspected, but never charged, in two other murders.

Biegenwald was indicted on five counts of first-degree murder, and with Dherran Fitzgerald testifying for the prosecution, the outcome was always a formality. He was found guilty and sentenced to die by lethal injection. The sentenced was later overturned by an Appellate Court and commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Richard Biegenwald died at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey on March 10, 2008. Cause of death was given as respiratory and kidney failure. He was 67 years old.

***

Terry Blair

Given Terry Blair’s family history, it was an even bet that he’d end up on the wrong side of the law. His brother, Walter Blair Jr., was executed for murder in 1993; half-brother, Clifford Miller, drew a 240-year term for attempted murder, kidnapping, rape and forced sodomy; mother, Janice Blair, shot a man to death but entered an Alford plea (effectively, no contest) and escaped jail time.

By the time he came under suspicion for a series of prostitute murders, Terry Blair himself had already spent 21 years behind bars for killing Angela Monroe, the pregnant mother of his two children. Angry with Monroe for continuing to work as a prostitute, Blair had beaten the woman to death.

That was in 1982 and Blair had served 21 years of a 25-year sentence before being released in 2003. Not long after, he was returned to prison for a parole violation, but by June, he was back on the streets. Unbeknownst to the authorities, Blair had already committed murder during his brief period of freedom, strangling prostitute Nellia Harris to death.

On June 14, the body of 42-year-old Kansas City prostitute, Anna Ewing, was found on a vacant lot. She’d been strangled with such force that her neck was broken.

Prostitute murders are notoriously difficult to solve and the police did not hold out much hope of an arrest unless the killer struck again. They were unprepared though, for the unprecedented murder spree that Terry Blair would unleash.

Blair hated prostitutes, a point he’d make forcibly to acquaintances at every opportunity. He’d spent 21 years in prison stewing over this hatred. Now it erupted in an orgy of violence that claimed five more lives in the space of just two days. Patricia Wilson Butler, 58, died on September 2, 2004, the same night that 38-year-old Sheliah McKinzie was strangled to death. Two days later Blair outdid even that spree, killing three women on September 4. Darci Williams, 25, Carmen Hunt, 40, and 31-year-old Claudette Juniel were all strangled to death. Juniel, in addition, suffered a broken neck. 

The bodies still lay undiscovered when an anonymous tipster placed a call to 911 on September 4 and told the dispatcher where one of the victims could be found.

“How do you know a dead body is there?” the dispatcher asked.

“I put it there,” the caller answered, adding, “Look up under the branches, under the bushes by the alley. It's an abandoned house. It's red.”

The dispatcher then asked for the victim’s name to which the caller responded.
“She's a prostitute, like the other two.”

“You killed them also?” the dispatcher asked

“Yeah,” the caller said, before hanging up.

A day later, the anonymous caller again rang 911. This time he reported two more bodies, referring to them as scum. He promised to call again and said there were six bodies in all. Terry Blair would be arrested before he had time to make that call.

On October 15, 2004, Blair was charged with six counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault, and three counts of forcible rape.

In exchange for the prosecution dropping two additional charges against him (for the murders of prostitutes Sandra Reed and Nellia Harris) and for not seeking the death penalty, Blair agreeing to waive his right to a jury trial. Kansas City prosecutors had offered a similar deal to serial killer Lorenzo Gilyard a year earlier.

Blair was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is currently incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Missouri.

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