Harold Shipman

Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman
Background information
Birth name	Harold Fredrick Shipman
Also known as	"Dr. Death"
Born	14 January 1946 Nottingham, England
Died	13 January 2004 (aged 57) HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England
Cause of death	Suicide by hanging
Killings
Number of victims:	218+
Span of killings	1975–1998
Country	England, United Kingdom
Date apprehended	7 September 1998

Harold Fredrick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004) was a convicted English serial killer. A former doctor by profession, he is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history with 218 murders being positively ascribed to him, although the actual number is probably much higher.
On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of 15 murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and the judge recommended that he never be released.
After his trial, the Shipman Inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, investigated all deaths certified by Shipman. About 80% of his victims were women. His youngest victim was Peter Lewis, a 41-year-old man. Much of Britain's legal structure concerning health care and medicine was reviewed and modified as a direct and indirect result of Shipman's crimes, especially after the findings of the Shipman Inquiry, which began on 1 September 2000 and lasted almost two years. Shipman is the only British doctor found guilty of murdering his patients.
Shipman died on 13 January 2004, after hanging himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.

Early life and career

Harold Frederick Shipman was born in Nottingham, England, the second of four children of Vera and Harold Shipman, a lorry driver. His working class parents were devout Methodists. Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died of cancer when he was 17. Her death came in a manner similar to what later became Shipman's own modus operandi: in the later stages of her disease, she had morphine administered at home by a doctor. Shipman witnessed his mother's pain subside in light of her terminal condition, up until her death on 21 June 1963.

Shipman continued working as a GP in Hyde throughout the 1980s and founded his own surgery on Market Street in 1993, becoming a respected member of the community. In 1983, he was interviewed on the Granada television documentary World in Action on how the mentally ill should be treated in the community.

Detection

In March 1998, Dr Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde, prompted by Deborah Massey from Frank Massey and Son's funeral parlour, expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular, she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had needed countersigned. The matter was brought to the attention of the police, who were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges; The Shipman Inquiry later blamed the police for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. Between 17 April 1998, when the police abandoned the investigation, and Shipman's eventual arrest, he killed three more people. His last victim was Kathleen Grundy, a former Lady Mayor of Hyde, who was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. Shipman was the last person to see her alive, and later signed her death certificate, recording "old age" as cause of death.Grundy's daughter, lawyer Angela Woodruff, became concerned when solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently by her mother (although there were doubts about its authenticity). The will excluded her and her children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. Burgess told Woodruff to report it, and went to the police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was exhumed, and when examined found to contain traces of diamorphine (heroin), often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients. Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a typewriter of the type used to make the forged will.

Prescription For Murder, a book by journalists Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie, reports two theories on why Shipman forged the will. One is that he wanted to be caught because his life was out of control; the other reason, that he planned to retire at fifty-five and leave the country.

Trial and imprisonment

Shipman's trial, presided over by Mr Justice Forbes, began on 5 October 1999. Shipman was charged with the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy, all of whom had died between 1995 and 1998.
On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of killing 15 patients by lethal injections of diamorphine, and forging the will of Kathleen Grundy. The trial judge sentenced him to 15 consecutive life sentences and recommended that he never be released. Shipman also received four years for forging the will. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners.
On 11 February 2000, ten days after his conviction, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off its register.
Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any statements about his actions. His defence tried, but failed, to have the count of murder of Mrs Grundy, where a clear motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no obvious motive was apparent. His wife, Primrose, apparently was in denial about his crimes as well.
Although many other cases could have been brought to court, the authorities concluded it would be hard to have a fair trial, in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Also, given the sentences from the first trial, a further trial was unnecessary. The Shipman Inquiry concluded Shipman was probably responsible for about 250 deaths. The Shipman Inquiry also suggested that he liked to use drugs recreationally.
Despite the prosecutions of Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957, Dr Leonard Arthur in 1981, and Dr Thomas Lodwig in 1990 (amongst others), Shipman is the only doctor in British legal history to be found guilty of killing patients. According to historian Pamela Cullen, Adams had also been a serial killer—potentially killing up to 165 of his patients between 1946 and 1956—and it is estimated he may have killed over 450, but as he "was found not guilty, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the system until the Shipman case. Had these issues been addressed earlier, it might have been more difficult for Shipman to commit his crimes." H. G. Kinnell, writing in the British Medical Journal, also speculates that Adams "possibly provided the role model for Shipman".

Death

Harold Shipman committed suicide by hanging in his cell at Wakefield Prison at 06:20 on 13 January 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday, and was pronounced dead at 08:10. A Prison Service statement indicated that Shipman had hanged himself from the window bars of his cell using bed sheets. Some British tabloids expressed joy at his suicide and encouraged other serial killers to follow his example; The Sun ran a celebratory front page headline, "Ship Ship hooray!"
Some of the victims' families said they felt cheated, as his suicide meant they would never have the satisfaction of Shipman's confession, and answers as to why he committed his crimes. The Home Secretary David Blunkett noted that celebration was tempting, saying: "You wake up and you receive a call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's done it."
Despite The Sun's celebration of Shipman's suicide, his death divided national newspapers, with the Daily Mirror branding him a "cold coward" and condemning the Prison Service for allowing his suicide to happen. The Independent, on the other hand, called for the inquiry into Shipman's suicide to look more widely at the state of Britain's prisons as well as the welfare of inmates. In The Guardian, an article by Sir David Ramsbotham (former Chief Inspector of Prisons) suggested that whole life sentencing be replaced by indefinite sentencing as these would at least give prisoners the hope of eventual release and reduce the risk of their committing suicide as well as making their management easier for prison officials.

Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, although he had reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide so that his widow could receive a National Health Service (NHS) pension and lump sum, even though he had been stripped of his own pension. His wife received a full NHS pension, which she would not have been entitled to if he had died after the age of 60. FBI profiler John Douglas asserted that serial killers are usually obsessed with manipulation and control, and killing themselves in police custody, or committing "suicide by cop", can be a final act of control. Shipman had been encouraged to take part in courses which would have had him confess his guilt. After refusing, he became emotional and close to tears when privileges - including the opportunity to telephone his wife - were removed. Privileges had been returned the week before the suicide. Additionally, Primrose, who had consistently believed that Shipman was innocent, might have begun to suspect his guilt. According to Shipman's ex-cellmate Tony Fleming, Primrose recently wrote her husband a letter, exhorting him to "tell me everything, no matter what".

John Couey

John Couey
Prison booking photo of John Couey
Born	John Evander Couey September 19, 1958 Florida, United States
Died	September 30, 2009 (aged 51) Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Conviction(s)	First degree murder, burglary, kidnapping, sexual battery
Penalty	Death sentence
Status	Deceased (prior to execution date)
Occupation	Truck driver

John Evander Couey (September 19, 1958 – September 30, 2009) was an American sex offender convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering nine-year old Jessica Lunsford in February 2005, in Florida. Lunsford's disappearance and Couey's subsequent confession and trial received extensive media coverage. Due to Couey's actions, Jessica's Law was enacted in Florida, and Congress created the Jessica Lunsford Act. A jury recommended that Couey receive the death penalty, and on August 24, 2007, he was sentenced to death. Couey died on September 30, 2009, of anal cancer before his sentence could be carried out.

Past charges and convictions

Couey had an extensive criminal record that included 24 arrests for burglary, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, and indecent exposure. During a house burglary in 1978, Couey was accused of grabbing a girl in her bedroom, placing his hand over her mouth, and kissing her. Couey was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was paroled in 1980. In 1991, he was arrested in Kissimmee on a charge of fondling a five-year-old child. Because of more lenient laws at that time, Couey was released early.

Abduction, rape, and murder of Lunsford

On February 24, 2005, the family of Jessica Lunsford discovered that she was missing from the home she shared with her father and grandparents. Couey later was accused of entering her house through an unlocked door at about 3 a.m. He awoke her, told her "Don't yell or nothing" and told her to follow him out of the house.
In a videotaped and recorded deposition which later was thrown out by his Florida trial court (see below), he admitted to sexually assaulting Lunsford in his bedroom. The admission stated that she was kept in his bed that evening, where he raped her again in the morning. It further stated that Couey put her in his closet and ordered her to remain there, which she did as he reported for work at "Billy's Truck Lot". Lastly, the admission recounted that three days after he abducted her, Couey bound the child's wrists together with speaker wire, placed her in a garbage bag, placed the bag containing her inside another garbage bag and buried her alive in a shallow grave, where she suffocated to death. Because Couey had asked for an attorney before being interrogated but was not given one, his trial court threw out this statement as being obtained in violation of Couey's Sixth Amendment right to counsel and right to due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment.
On March 18, 2005, police found Lunsford's body at Couey's residence located on West Sparrow Court, under the front porch and buried in a hole approximately 2½ ft deep by 2 ft in diameter (0.8 m deep by 0.6 m dia.), covered with leaves. The body was removed from the ground and transported to the coroner's office. Her body had undergone "moderate" to "severe" decomposition and, according to the publicly released autopsy reports, was skeletonized on two fingers that Lunsford had poked through the bags before suffocating to death. The coroner ruled that death would have happened even in best circumstances within three or five minutes from lack of oxygen.

Criminal proceedings

The trial was moved to Miami after officials were unable to seat an impartial jury in Citrus County where the trial was first scheduled to be held.
On March 7, 2007, Couey was found guilty of all charges in relation to Lunsford's death, including first degree murder, kidnapping, burglary, and sexual battery. The jury deliberated for four hours, tasked with recommending either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, the only two possible sentences available under Florida law.
A week later, after about one hour and 15 minutes of deliberation, a jury recommended Couey be put to death.
On August 11, 2007, a jury overseeing the Lunsford case voted 10-2 that Couey be eligible for the death sentence. Defense for Couey argued that he had suffered from a lifetime of emotional abuse and had a below normal IQ, which would enable him to avoid a death sentence under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the execution of mentally handicapped people. However, the most credible intelligence test rates Couey's IQ at 78, slightly above the standard accepted level of mental retardation, which is 70.

Sentence

On August 24, 2007, Couey was sentenced by Circuit Judge Richard Howard to death, as well as three consecutive life terms for his crimes. In accordance with Florida State Law, the death sentence was automatically appealed. His Florida Department of Corrections number was 063425.

Death

On September 30, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. EST, Couey died at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital after complications from anal cancer, before the sentence of the court could be carried out.

Is this the face of Jack the Ripper?

On this day 123 years ago, Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim. But who was this serial killer? This new e-fit finally puts a face to Carl Feigenbaum, a key suspect from Germany.

I have for years suffered from a singular disease which induces an all-absorbing passion, this passion manifests itself in a desire to kill and mutilate every woman who falls in my way, I am unable to control myself”

What Feigenbaum allegedly told his lawyer

 

Jack the Ripper is the world's most famous cold case - the identity of the man who brutally murdered five women in London's East End in autumn 1888 remains a mystery.

More than 200 suspects have been named. But to Ripper expert Trevor Marriott, a former murder squad detective, German merchant Carl Feigenbaum is the top suspect.
Convicted of murdering his landlady in Manhattan, Feigenbaum died in the electric chair in New York's Sing Sing prison in 1894. His lawyer suspected him of the Ripper murders too.
No photos of Feigenbaum exist. So Marriott has produced this new e-fit for BBC One's National Treasures Live, created from the description on the admittance form when he was in prison on remand in New York.
Why does Marriott think Feigenbaum is Jack the Ripper? Evidence, in the form of police documents and hundreds of letters to the authorities and newspapers, give us some clues.

Age 54. Complexion med[ium]. Eyes grey. Hair dark brown. Stature 5ft 4 1/2. Weight 126 [pounds, 57kg]. Medium sized head, hat 6 7/8 or 7. Shoes 8.
Hair grows thin on top of head. Small slim neck. Eyes small and deep-set. Eyebrows curved. Forehead high and heavily arched. Nose large, red and has raw pimples. Teeth poor + nearly all gone on left sides.
Anchor in india ink on right hand at base of thumb and first finger. Round scar or birthmark on right leg below left knee.

The assumption has long been that Jack must have had anatomical knowledge because of the skill with which his victims' organs were removed.

But it's possible these were cut out in the mortuary, rather than by Jack at the scene. The 1832 Anatomy Act made it legal for medical personnel to remove organs for training purposes.
This theory is supported by documents on the fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes. The inquest report shows only 14 minutes elapsed from the time the police did their last sweep of the square in which she was killed and her body being discovered.
Was this really enough time for someone to have killed Eddowes, removed her uterus with surgical precision, and all in near complete blackness? Regardless of one's medical knowledge, this seems a stretch.
So Marriott believes Jack wasn't necessarily a surgeon after all.
He began to investigate other groups who might have been in the area. St Katharine and the London Docks are a short walk from Whitechapel, a place merchant seamen would have flocked to as it was an infamous red light district. Such close proximity would have made it easy for the killer to steal back to his ship unnoticed.

Jack the Ripper's victims

• Five women were brutally killed in the East End of London in autumn 1888
• Mary Ann Nicholls, 31 August
• Annie Chapman, 8 September
• Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, 30 September
• Mary Jane Kelly, 9 November

The gaps between the murders also suggest the killer may have been a traveller.

This theory fits with other facts, too. Although some suggest the killer was a resident of Whitechapel, wouldn't locals have given him up to the police? Especially after a reward was offered.
After some digging, Marriott came across records which showed the Nord Deutsche Line, a German merchant vessel group, had a ship called the Reiher docked at the time of the murders.
When Marriott investigated the seamen aboard this ship, he came across the convicted murderer Feigenbaum.
Having watched his client die in the electric chair, Feigenbaum's lawyer William Lawton told the press he believed him to be responsible for the Ripper murders in London. Feigenbaum had confessed, he said, to suffering from a disease which periodically drove him to murder and mutilate women.
What was this disease which made him undertake such brutal acts? Today, a psychiatrist is likely to describe it as a psychotic episode. Fortunately, few people with psychotic tendencies go on to become serial killers, but those who do gain an infamy matched by no other crime.

Crime and the Victorians

 

The Jack the Ripper murders provoked a nationwide panic whipped up by press sensationalism. Violence, especially violence with a sexual frisson, sold newspapers.
But violent crime never figured significantly in the statistics or in the courts.
By the late 19th Century, developments in psychiatry and the popularity of social Darwinism led to "the criminal classes" being identified as individuals suffering from some form of behavioural abnormality, either inherited or nurtured by dissolute and feckless parents. This informed the way they were treated by the criminal justice system.
The English police took the prevention of crime as their watchword. The assumption was that the unskilled, working class constable, patrolling his beat at a regulation two and a half miles an hour, would deter offenders.

At the time, everyone believed all five women had been killed by the same man.

But having reviewed the evidence, Elizabeth Stride may have died at the hands of another killer, as everything about her murder is different to the others.
"Firstly the time the murder took place, and the knife used to cut her throat was much smaller than all of the other victims, hence the knife wound to her throat was much smaller and she had no other mutilations," says Marriott.
"The location was different to all of the others. The murder was right by the side of a workers' club which was packed with men at the time."
And now a serious question mark hangs over the death of Mary Kelly too.
"Fresh material has come to light which may suggest she was not Mary Kelly but someone else,"  "If that is the case, there is a motive and likely suspects for her murder."
As a forensic anthropologist, to review the ultimate cold case is a privilege. Initially, I thought Carl Feigenbaum was that serial killer. His profile fit.
But further evidence, outlined above, may show these murders were not all committed by the same person. Feigenbaum could have been responsible for one, some or perhaps all.
We have shed new light on this old case. But it is certainly not solved, and this dark tale has many more secrets to give up before we know, for sure, the name of the man we call Jack the Ripper.

Former policeman 'carried out Georgiy Gongadze murder on behalf of Leonid Kuchma'

A top-ranking former policeman has confessed to carrying out Ukraine's most infamous post-Soviet murder, claiming he was acting on the orders of Leonid Kuchma, the former president.

Ukrainian reporter Georgiy Gongadze (L), together with the editor of his Ukrainskaya Pravda internet newspaper Alyona Pritula 

In closed-door testimony at his own trial this week, Olexiy Pukach claimed that he murdered famous investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000 at the behest of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's president from 1994-2005.

His testimony opens a new chapter in a murder case that played a key role in ending the autocratic 10-year reign of Mr Kuchma, ushering in a period of reform and turmoil.

The Kuchma government's inability to solve the murder at the time set the stage for the country's 2004 Orange Revolution during which protesters brandished placards demanding to know what happened to the 31-year-old crusading journalist.

Mr Pukach's allegation is strongly denied by lawyers for Mr Kuchma, 73. But it comes at a time when the embattled former president has already been charged with involvement in the killing. It is likely to complicate his efforts to clear his name.

A lawyer acting for Mr Gongadze's widow urged Mr Pukach, who has confessed to strangling and beheading the dead journalist with an axe, to back his words with proof. "Naming the names is not enough," said Valentina Telychenko, the lawyer. "The circumstances need to be properly described."

The murder of Mr Gongadze, who specialised in uncovering corruption, remains one of the most horrific crimes to have been committed in post-Soviet Ukraine. The journalist was kidnapped on September 16 2000 after leaving a friend's flat in Kiev. Two months later, his headless and badly disfigured corpse was found in a forest 40 miles from the Ukrainian capital.
Mr Kuchma has always denied any involvement in the killing. But a recording made public soon after the murder suggested he had a strong motive. In it, Mr Kuchma was heard telling two colleagues that he was deeply irritated by the journalist's writings.
The three men were even heard discussing ways of silencing Mr Gongadze, including kidnapping him and taking him to Chechnya.
Mr Kuchma eventually admitted the voice on the tape was his but insisted it had been selectively edited to distort its meaning. His lawyer, Viktor Petrunenko, said that Mr Pukach's claims about the former president's alleged involvement in the murder were slanderous. "His motive for slander is obvious," he said. "It is to cast himself as an unthinking individual without his own free will who carried out somebody else's orders so that he can avoid harsh punishment such as life imprisonment."
Mr Kuchma's supporters have claimed that the accusations against him are politically-motivated revenge ordered by Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's current president. Mr Yanukovych has strongly denied that.

Harvey Glatman

Harvey Glatman
Background information
Birth name	Harvey Murray Glatman
Also known as	The Glamour Girl Slayer The Lonely-Hearts Killer
Born	December 10, 1927 The Bronx, New York City
Died	September 18, 1959
Cause of death	Gas chamber
Conviction	Kidnapping Murder Robbery
Sentence	Death
Killings
Number of victims:	3 or 4
Span of killings	August 1, 1957–July 13, 1958
Country	USA
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	October 31, 1958

Harvey Murray Glatman (December 10, 1927 – September 18, 1959) was an American serial killer active during the late 1950s. He was known in the media as "The Lonely Hearts Killer".

Early life

Born in the Bronx to a Jewish family and raised in Colorado, Glatman exhibited antisocial behavior and sadomasochistic sexual tendencies from an early age. At the age of 12, his parents noticed he had a red, swollen neck, he described being in the bathtub, placing a rope around his neck, running it through the tub drain, and pulling it tight against his neck, "achieving some kind of sexual pleasure from this act." His mother took him to the family physician and was told he "would grow out of it." As a teenager, he would break into women's apartments, where he tied them up, sexually molested them and took pictures as souvenirs. He was caught in one such act in 1945 and charged with attempted burglary. Less than a month later, while still out on bail awaiting trial, he kidnapped another woman and molested her before letting her go. She went to the police, and Glatman went to prison for eight months.
Once out of prison, Glatman moved to Albany, New York, where he was eventually arrested in 1946 for a series of muggings. He served time at the New York State Reception Center at Elmira and then in the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where prison psychiatrists diagnosed him as a psychopath. He was nevertheless a model prisoner and was paroled in 1951. He returned to Denver in 1951 and lived there until 1957. He worked as a TV repairman and also hired young women to pose for him in bondage situations. He claimed that his photos would be published on the covers of detective magazines, but none were.

Murders

Glatman moved to Los Angeles, California in 1957 and started trolling around modeling agencies looking for potential victims. He would contact them with offers of work for pulp fiction magazines, take them back to his apartment, tie them up and sexually assault them, taking pictures all the while. He would then strangle them and dump the bodies in the desert.
Glatman is also a suspect in the slaying of "Boulder Jane Doe", a victim whose corpse was discovered by hikers near Boulder, Colorado in 1954. Her identity remained a mystery for 55 years. In October 2009, the Sheriff’s Office was notified by Dr. Terry Melton, of Mitotyping Technologies in State College, Pennsylvania, that her lab had made a match between "Jane Doe's" DNA profile and that of a woman who thought the unidentified murder victim might be her long-lost sister. The positive identification of "Boulder Jane Doe" was an 18-year-old woman from Phoenix, Arizona, named Dorothy Gay Howard.
Glatman was in Colorado at the time and was driving a 1951 Dodge Coronet. The damage done to the body was consistent of being hit with the same car.

Arrest and death

Glatman was arrested in 1958, caught in the act of kidnapping what would have been his fourth murder victim; a patrolman saw him struggling with a woman at the side of the road, and arrested him. He willingly confessed to the other three murders and eventually led the police to a toolbox containing pictures of the victims which he had taken. He was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder and executed in the gas chamber of San Quentin State Prison on September 18, 1959. His last words were :"I knew this is the way it would be."

Cleveland Torso Murderer

Cleveland Torso Murderer
Map of Cleveland, Ohio
Background information
Also known as	Cleveland Torso Murderer, Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run
Killings
Number of victims:	12 to 15
Country	USA
State(s)	Cleveland, Ohio

The Cleveland Torso Murderer (also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) was an unidentified serial killer who killed and dismembered at least 12 victims in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the 1930s.

Murders

The official number of murders credited to the Cleveland Torso Murderer is 12, although recent research has shown there may have been more. The 12 victims were killed between 1935 and 1938, but some, including lead Cleveland Detective Peter Merylo, believe that there may have been as many or more than 40 victims in the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown, Ohio area between the 1920s and 1950s. Two strong candidates for addition to the list of those killed are the unknown victim nicknamed the "Lady of the Lake", found on September 5, 1934, and Robert Robertson, found on July 22, 1950.
The victims were usually drifters whose identities were never determined, although there were several exceptions. Victims number 2, 3, and 8 were identified as Edward Andrassy, Flo Polillo, and possibly Rose Wallace, respectively. Invariably, all the victims, male and female, appeared to be from the lower class of society — easy prey in Depression-era Cleveland. Many were known as "working poor" who had nowhere else to live but the ramshackle shanty towns in the area known as Cleveland Flats.
The Torso Murderer always beheaded and often dismembered his victims, sometimes also cutting the torso in half; in many cases the cause of death was the decapitation itself. Most of the male victims were castrated, and some victims showed evidence of chemical treatment being applied to their bodies. Many of the victims were found after a considerable period of time following their deaths, sometimes a year or more. This made identification nearly impossible, especially since the heads were often not found.
During the time of the "official" murders, Eliot Ness held the position of Public Safety Director of Cleveland; a position with authority over the police department and ancillary services, including the fire department. Ness was unsuccessful in the investigation, and despite his reputation for the conviction of Al Capone, Ness's career as a detective was over four years after the murders ended.

Victims

Most researchers consider there to be 12 definite victims, although new evidence includes a woman dubbed "The Lady of the Lake". Only two victims were positively identified; the other ten were divided by six John Does and four Jane Does.

Order of discovery	Victim	Date found	Location	Autopsy report	Estimated time of death	Date of murder	Probable order of murder
1	John Doe I	September 23, 1935	Jackass Hill area of Kingsbury Run (near East 49th and Praha Avenue)	Male body was never identified. Decapitated but head recovered.	Initial estimates were seven to ten days. It was later revised to three to four weeks.	August/September 1935	1
2	Edward W. Andrassy	September 23, 1935	Jackass Hill area of Kingsbury Run	Andrassy was found lying about 30 feet (9.1 m) from John Doe I. He had been decapitated, his head was recovered.	Two to three days	September 1935	2
3	Florence Genevieve Polillo (alias Martin)	January 26, 1936	Between 2315 and 2325 East 20th Street in downtown Cleveland.	Her body had been chopped up. Her head was never found.	Two to four days	January 1936	3
4	John Doe II	June 5, 1936	Kingsbury Run	The victim was decapitated while alive. His head was recovered. †	Two days	June 1936	5
5	John Doe III	July 22, 1936	Big Creek area of Brooklyn, west of Cleveland	The victim was dismembered while still alive. His head was recovered. This unidentified male body was the only known West Side victim.	Two months	May 1936	4
6	John Doe IV	September 10, 1936	Kingsbury Run	Only half the torso was found, nothing remained below the hips. The head was never found or the body identified.	Two days	September 1936	7
7	Jane Doe V	February 23, 1937	Euclid Beach on the Lake Erie shore	The unidentified female body was found at the same spot as the 1934 non-canonical victim, nicknamed "The Lady of the Lake" (see below). The head was never found.	Three to four days	February 1937	8
8	Jane Doe VI	June 6, 1937	Beneath the Lorain-Carnegie bridge	Only black victim. The body was decapitated and missing a rib. The head was recovered. ‡	One year	June 1936	6
9	John Doe VII	July 6, 1937	Pulled out of Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats	Body of this male was recovered but the head was never found.	Two to three days	July 1937	9
10	Jane Doe VIII	April 8, 1938	Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats	Only the lower leg was recovered. Both the head and the rest of the body were never found. Only victim to have drugs in her system.	Three to five days	April, 1938	12
11	Jane Doe IX	August 16, 1938	East 9th Street Lakeshore Dump	Decapitated female body. Head recovered.	Four to six months	February to April 1938	11
12	John Doe X	August 16, 1938	East 9th Street Lakeshore Dump	Discovered at the same time as Jane Doe IX. Male decapitated body. Head was found in a can. Victim never identified.	Seven to nine months	November 1937 – January 1938	10

^ †: The victim had six unusual tattoos on his body. One included the names "Helen and Paul" and another had the initials "W.C.G." His undershorts bore a laundry mark indicating the owner's initials were J.D. Despite morgue and death mask inspections by thousands of Cleveland citizens in the summer of 1936 at the Great Lakes Exposition, the "tattooed man" was never identified.
^ ‡: Victim was possibly "Rose Wallace". Dental work was considered a close match by police and her son (who felt certain that the victim was his mother). Exact identification could not be achieved because the dentist who carried out the work had died years before. Doubts remained because the body was estimated to have been dead for a year whereas Wallace had only been missing for 10 months.

Possible victims

Several non-canonical victims are commonly discussed in connection with the Torso Murderer. The first was nicknamed the Lady of the Lake and was found near Euclid Beach on the Lake Erie shore on September 5, 1934, at virtually the same spot as canonical victim number 7. Some researchers of the Torso Murderer's victims count the "Lady of the Lake" as victim number 1, as well as "Victim Zero".
A headless, unidentified male was found in a boxcar in New Castle, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1936. Three headless victims were found in boxcars near McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, on May 3, 1940. All bore similar injuries to those inflicted by the Cleveland killer. Dismembered bodies were also found in the swamps near New Castle, Pennsylvania during the years 1921 to 1934 and 1939 to 1942.
Robert Robertson was found at a business at 2138 Davenport Avenue in Cleveland on July 22, 1950. He had been dead six to eight weeks when found and appeared to have been intentionally decapitated.

Suspects

Two suspects are most commonly associated with the Torso murders, although there are numerous others occasionally mentioned.
On August 24, 1939, Cleveland resident Frank Dolezal, who was arrested as a suspect in Florence Polillo's murder, died under suspicious circumstances in the Cuyahoga County jail. After his death it was discovered that he had suffered six broken ribs - injuries his friends say he did not have when arrested by Sheriff Martin L. O'Donnell some six weeks prior. Most researchers believe that there exists no evidence that Dolezal was involved in the murders, although at one time he did admit killing Flo Polillo in self-defense. Before his death, he recanted his confession, and recanted two others as well, saying he had been beaten until he confessed.
Most investigators consider the last canonical murder to have been in 1938. One very strongly suspected individual was Dr. Francis E. Sweeney. Significantly, Sweeney worked during World War I in a medical unit that conducted amputations in the field. Sweeney was later personally interviewed by Eliot Ness, who oversaw the official investigation into the killings in his capacity as Cleveland's Safety Director. During this interrogation, Sweeney, whom Ness code-named "Gaylord Sundheim," is said to have "failed to pass" two very early polygraph machine tests. Both tests were administered by polygraph expert Leonard Keeler, who told Ness he had his man. Nevertheless, Ness apparently felt there was very little chance of obtaining a successful prosecution of the doctor, especially as he was the first cousin of one of Ness' political opponents, Congressman Martin L. Sweeney (d.1960) who had hounded Ness publicly about his failure to catch the killer. (in fact Congressman Sweeney was a political ally of and was related by marriage to Sheriff O'Donnell (d.1940), and an opponent of Republican Cleveland mayor Harold Burton who had appointed Ness). After Dr. Sweeney committed himself, there were no more leads or connections that police could assign to him as a possible suspect. The killings apparently stopped after Sweeney voluntarily entered institutionalized care shortly after the last official murders were discovered in 1938. From his hospital confinement, Sweeney would mock and harass Ness and his family with threatening postcards into the 1950s. He died in a veterans' hospital at Dayton in 1964.
In 1997, another theory speculated that there may have been no single "Butcher of Kingsbury Run" because the murders could have been committed by different people. This was based on the assumption that the autopsy results were inconclusive. Firstly Cuyahoga County Coroner Arthur J. Pearce may have been inconsistent in his analysis as to whether the cuts on the bodies were "expert" or slapdash. Secondly his successor, Samuel Gerber, who began to enjoy press attention from his involvement in such cases as the Sam Sheppard murder trial, garnered a reputation for sensational theories. Therefore the only things known for certain was that all the murder victims were dismembered.

Harpe brothers

Micajah "Big" Harpe (1768? – August 1799) and Wiley "Little" Harpe (1770? – January 1804), were murderers, highwaymen, and river pirates, who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the late 18th century. Their crimes appear to have been motivated more by blood lust than financial gain and many historians have called them the nation's first true "serial killers"
The Harpes are said to have been brothers ( though some sources say cousins), born in Orange County, North Carolina to Scottish parents. Their father or their uncles, were allegedly of Tory allegiance, who fought on the British side during the Revolutionary War. Big Harpe is known to have had two wives, sisters Susan and Betsey Roberts. Little Harpe married Sally Rice, daughter of a Baptist minister.

Atrocities

As young men, the Harpes lived with renegade Creek and Cherokee Indians who committed atrocities against both white or Caucasian settlers and against their own tribes.
By 1797 the Harpes were living near Knoxville, Tennessee. However, they were driven from the town after being charged with stealing hogs and horses. They were also accused of murdering a man named Johnson, whose body was found in a river, ripped open and weighted with stones. This became a characteristic of the Harpe's murders. They butchered anyone under the slightest provocation, even babies. R.E. Banta in The Ohio claims that Micajah Harpe even bashed his infant daughter's head against a tree because her constant crying annoyed him. This was the only crime he would later confess genuine remorse for.
From Knoxville they fled north into Kentucky. They entered the state on the Wilderness Road, near the Cumberland Gap. They are believed to have murdered a peddler named Peyton, taking his horse and some of his goods. They then murdered two travellers from Maryland.

Deaths

In July 1799, John Leiper raised a posse to avenge the murder of Mrs. Stegal, including Moses Stegal, the victim's husband. Leiper reached Harpe first, and managed to shoot Big Harpe. After a scuffle with a tomahawk, Leiper overcame Harpe. When Stegal arrived, he decapitated Harpe and stuck his head on a pole, at a crossroads still known as "Harpe's Head," or Harpe's Head Road in Webster County, Kentucky. By the end of their reign of terror, the "Bloody Harpes" were responsible for the known murders of, no less than, 40 men, women, and children. Little Harpe eluded the authorities for some time, using the alias John Setton, until allegedly being caught in an effort to get a reward of his own on the head of an outlaw, Samuel Mason. He was captured in 1803 and hanged, following his trial, on 8 February 1804.

Descendants

After the atrocities committed by the Harpes, many members bearing the family name changed their name, in some way, to hide the heritage of their infamous ancestors. The Harpes may have disguised their Tory past from their Patriot (American Revolution) neighbours, by changing their original name of "Harper," which was a common Loyalist name in Revolutionary War-era North Carolina. Some went by "Harp" merely removing the final "E" in Harpe, but leaving the pronunciation the same. Others changed the name significantly. Wyatt Earp is a famous example said - though unconfirmed - to have been a member of the Harpe family.
There are still descendants of the family today, including those that have changed their surname back to the original spelling.

US serial killer Joseph Naso, 77, 'murders 4 women who have same initials'

AN alleged serial killer has been charged with the murders of four women whose first and last initials were the same.  Joseph Naso, 77, is said to have killed Roxene Roggasch, Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons and Tracey Tofoya - who had nothing in common apart from their odd names. All the slayings were in California - but police fear Naso may have murdered three girls in New York in the 70s - with one also called Carmen Colon. The three schoolgirls - who had the same first and last initials - were dubbed the "Double Initial Murders". Naso, of Reno, Nevada, may even be linked to more killings because he travelled as a photographer. Nevada cop Chris Perry said: "When a person kills more than once, it doesn't stop."

Charged ... Joseph Naso

The California killings were carried out from 1977-1994. Naso is in custody in the state.

SAN RAFAEL -- The Nevada man accused of killing four women, including a woman whose body was dumped in Contra Costa County, went back and forth with a Marin County judge on Monday over how he would defend himself.

Joseph Naso told the perplexed judge that he needed more time to find an attorney or a legal adviser.
Naso, 77, said he needed a month or two to find a lawyer he could trust to advise him. At the same time, he said he wanted to continue representing himself.
"It's not clear to me exactly why you want a continuance," Marin Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet told Naso, noting a confusing motion filed by the suspect who so far has represented himself. "The motion suggests you may be asking to have a lawyer represent you," or a lawyer to act in an advisory capacity, the judge observed.
"All of the above," Naso replied. "It's not so much the question of spending money to retain counsel but of retaining someone I can trust and feel confident of to represent me. There are people out there who would like to get my money."
"I have decided I do need legal counsel for this case," Naso continued. At the same time, "I would like to maintain that privilege" of representing myself.
"If you were to ask me right now do I want counsel or do I want to represent myself, I can't answer that," Naso said.
"The bottom line is, if I can find an attorney who is reasonable and is not just out for my money, I would consider that."
I have no idea what you're talking about," the judge said at one point. Authorities have said Naso has access to about $1 million in savings.
Ultimately, Sweet said there was no good cause to delay a Sept. 6 preliminary hearing.
Naso said he was wary of attorneys because he had been burned by one and said he had talked to a half-dozen lawyers and was having trouble finding one that measured up.
"In this county there are not that many attorneys who are interested in this type of case," he said.
Naso has pleaded not guilty to charges of killing four women: Roxene Roggasch, 18, dumped near Whites Hill above Fairfax in 1977; Carmen Colon, 22, found near Port Costa in 1978; Pamela Parsons, 38, found in Yuba County in 1993; and Tracy Tafoya, 31, found in Yuba County in 1994. The cases are being prosecuted in Marin Superior Court.

Amber Hagerman

Amber Rene Hagerman
Born	November 25, 1986
Died	January 15, 1996 (aged 9) Arlington, Texas

Amber Rene Hagerman (November 25, 1986 – January 15, 1996) was a young girl who became a victim of an abduction and murder. On January 13, 1996, she was riding her bike near her grandparents' home in Arlington, Texas, and was kidnapped soon thereafter. Her murder would later inspire the creation of the AMBER Alert system.

Abduction

On January 13, 1996, Amber was visiting her grandparents at their home in Arlington, Texas. Her grandparents kept two bicycles for Amber and her younger brother Ricky. The children asked if they could go for a quick ride, and Amber's mother and grandfather said yes but only to go around the block. Amber and Ricky pedaled around two corners, before Ricky stopped and said "I'm going back because Mama said only to go around the block", and Amber carried on riding to the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store. Neighborhood kids enjoyed riding on a ramp there, so Amber rode round a few times, within the view of Jim Kevil. According to Kevil, a white or Hispanic man in a black pickup truck sprinted up to Amber and dragged her into his truck. When Ricky got home, his grandparents and mother asked where Amber was, and he said he didn't know. They told him to go and look for her, and when he returned, he said "I can't find sissy". When Amber's grandfather drove round to the parking lot looking for Amber, the police had arrived, who told him that Kevil had seen a man kidnapping a young girl. Police rushed to the scene, but all they found was a bicycle. Amber's grandfather said "that's my granddaughter's bicycle". Amber was the second child in her family to have been kidnapped. Her father's two-day-old granddaughter was abducted in 1991 and recovered safely 10 hours later.
Arlington police began searching for Amber immediately. Volunteers searched for Amber Hagerman for several days, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated. Four days after her abduction, a man walking his dog found Amber's corpse in a creek bed. An autopsy revealed that her throat had been cut. She had been alive two whole days before being killed. Although a $75,000 reward was offered for information leading to Amber's killer, he was never found. The task force investigating Amber's murder was dissolved in June 1997.

Additional investigation

On April 20, 2009, a group of college students with Bauder College's Cold Case Investigative Research Institute began a year-long pursuit to solve the case. The volunteers have also reviewed other high-profile cold-cases such as Chandra Levy.

Legacy

Within days, Hagerman's mother, Donna Whitson (now Donna Norris), was "calling for tougher laws governing sex offenders". Whitson testified in front of the U.S. Congress in June, asking legislators to create a nationwide registry of sex offenders. Representative Martin Frost, the Congressman who represents Whitson's district, proposed an "Amber Hagerman Child Protection Act." Among the sections of the bill was one that would create a national sex offender registry. Both of Hagerman's parents were present when President Bill Clinton signed into law the bill creating the national sex offender register. Whitson and Richard Hagerman then began collecting signatures in Texas, which they planned to present to then-Governor George W. Bush as a sign that people wanted more stringent laws for sex offenders.

AMBER Alert

The first AMBER Alert trial was run in 1996 at KRLD Radio Studio at the Ball Park in Arlington, Texas. In October 2000, the United States House of Representatives adopted H.R. 605 which encouraged communities nationwide to implement the AMBER Plan. In April 2003, President George W. Bush signed the AMBER Alert legislation, making it a national program.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children assists in the implementation of AMBER Alerts.
In 2006, a TV movie, Amber's Story, was broadcast on Lifetime. It stars Elisabeth Röhm and Sophie Hough.
A comic book entitled Amber Hagerman Deserves Justice: A Night Owl Story was issued by Wham Bang Comics in 2009. It tells the story of Amber and the investigation into her murder.