Patrick Kearney

Patrick Kearney
Born	Patrick Wayne Kearney September 24, 1939(age 76) Los Angeles, California
Other names	The Freeway Killer The Trash Bag Killer
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Killings
Victims	21 -28+
Span of killings	1965–March 13, 1977
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	July 1, 1977

Patrick Wayne Kearney (born September 24, 1939) is an American serial killer who preyed on young men in California during the 1970s. He is sometimes referred to as "The Freeway Killer". Kearney may be among the most prolific serial killers in United States history, claiming possibly as many as 43 victims according to law enforcement.

He was the oldest of three sons and was raised in a reasonably stable family. His early life was not without some trauma, however; as a thin and sickly child, he was often a target for bullies at school. In his teens, he became withdrawn and fantasized about killing people.

Born in East Los Angeles, Kearney also lived in Texas. He moved back to California after a brief marriage ended in divorce and eventually worked as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft.

It was from his experiences in his early years in California that Kearney cultivated his skill as a gay pickup artist. Kearney mostly sought out partners in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, where he used his fluency in Spanish and keen interest in Latin American culture as a basis to connect with potential partners. Kearney claimed to have killed his first victim, a hitch-hiker he picked up and murdered in Orange, California, around 1965. He claimed several more victims, mostly transients, before moving to Redondo Beach, near Los Angeles, in 1967 with a younger man named David Hill, who became his lover.

As time passed Hill and Kearney began to argue more often, and Kearney would go out for long solitary drives in his Volkswagen Beetle or his truck. He would then pick up young male hitchhikers or young men from gay bars and murder them. Kearney was primarily a necrophile, and was generally consistent in the manner in which he murdered his victims and disposed of their remains. Standing only 5'5" tall, being of slight build, and typically preferring victims of greater stature than his, Kearney was forced to resort to a system of subduing his victims that was unlikely to fail or create situations which could place him in physical danger or cause unwanted exposure to authorities. Kearney was not known to resort to sadism or inflict pain on his victims as the other "Freeway Killers" did, preferring quickness and efficiency. While Kearney did later confess to having experimented with his victims' bodies out of curiosity, such as cutting open one of their stomachs, he did so post-mortem and did not inflict any physical suffering.

Kearney confessed to having committed his first murder in the Spring of 1962. The victim's name is unknown, but he was confirmed to be age 19 and white. Kearney had convinced the male to take a ride on his motorcycle with him to a secluded area outside of Indio, California. When they arrived, Kearney shot the man in the head and sexually assaulted the body. It is unknown if the body was ever found but Kearney did indeed confess to committing this murder and two additional during the year 1962. The second victim being the younger cousin of Kearney's first victim, who had witnessed Kearney drive away with the first victim.

The first murder that Kearney confessed and was convicted of was in 1967 while living in Culver City, CA, approximately one year after moving in with David Hill. The murder took place in Tijuana, Mexico where Hill and Kearney were visiting a close friend of Hill. Identification of the victim was impossible, as Kearney only knew him as "George". Kearney shot him between the eyes with his pistol as he slept in the master bedroom of his Tijuana, Mexico home. After killing George, Kearney took the body into his bathroom where he first sodomized the body as it lay in the bathtub and afterward proceeded to dismember and skin it with an X-Acto knife. Afterward, Kearney decided to extract the bullet from the victim's head to ensure that it would not be traced to his gun, then he buried George's dismembered body behind his garage and buried the remains in the yard. Kearney did not kill for over a year following this murder, primarily out of fear that law enforcement would inquire about George's disappearance.

As time passed, Kearney greatly refined his modus operandi, which enabled him to carry out his crimes much more efficiently and frequently. Starting in 1974, Kearney is estimated to have committed murders on an almost monthly basis. After picking up his victims along the freeway or at gay bars in his Volkswagen or in his truck, Kearney would typically shoot his victims in the temple above the ear without warning, with a Derringer .22 pistol in his right hand while steering his car with his left hand and simultaneously monitoring the speed limit to minimize the predictability of the altercation and to avoid exhibiting any unusual behavior to potential witnesses. After murdering his victims, Kearney would leave the bodies slumped upright in the passenger seat and drive to a secluded area to sexually violate them.

After copulating with his victims' corpses, Kearney would usually mutilate and dismember the remains with a hacksaw before disposing of them in various locations such as in canyons, in landfills, and along the freeways, usually in industrial trash bags. In some cases, Kearney disposed of the bodies in the desert where the remains could be consumed by carrion-eating animals. Kearney would sometimes drain the victim's blood to eliminate odor and would also sometimes bathe the body parts prior to disposal to minimize the presence of dried blood and eliminate fingerprint evidence. Sometimes, Kearney would beat his victims after they were dead. He perceived beating his dead victims as a cathartic exercise and a means by which he could effectively vent suppressed anger and animosity, and acquire a sense of power. Often, the victims resembled people who had bullied him in his childhood.

Although Kearney primarily preyed on young men, there were known child and adolescent victims, as well. Kearney's youngest victim was Ronald Dean Smith, age 5, who disappeared in Lennox, CA on August 24, 1974. His body was discovered in Riverside County on October 12, 1974. Merle "Hondo" Chance, 8, of Venice, CA vanished on April 6, 1977 while supposedly riding his bicycle in the vicinity of Kearney's place of work. Kearney claims to have smothered the boy, taken his body home overnight and later disposed of the remains in the Angeles National Forest off of Angeles Crest Highway, approximately 11 miles north of Altadena, CA. Chance's decomposed remains were discovered on May 26, 1977. Merle Chance was Kearney's last known victim.

On June 16, 1976, Kearney killed Micheal Craig McGhee, 13, of Redondo Beach, CA. Records confirmed that McGhee had a lengthy history of juvenile delinquency. Kearney claimed to have picked up McGhee, who was hitchhiking from Inglewood Avenue near Lennox to Torrance, CA. According to the police, Kearney had befriended the boy and invited him to attend a camping trip to Lake Elsinore over the course of a weekend. Kearney claimed to have perceived McGhee as a potential threat and shot him without warning after McGhee openly boasted of his criminal exploits and inquired about the presence and location of burglar alarms in Kearney's home. Later, when interviewed by detectives, Kearney implied that he had destroyed the remains, stating: "I disposed of the body...You aren't going to find him."

The victim who ultimately led to Kearney's arrest was a young man named John LaMay, 17, whom he killed on Sunday, March 13, 1977. At approximately 5:30 pm on that same day, LaMay had told a neighbour he was going to Redondo Beach to meet a man named Dave, whom he had met at a local gym. This was in fact David Hill, and Hill had given LaMay the address to Kearney's home. Hill was absent when LaMay arrived, so Kearney invited LaMay in to watch television until Hill returned. Without provocation, Kearney impulsively reached for his .22 Derringer and shot LaMay in the back of the head. Kearney later dismembered the corpse and dumped the remains in the desert.

When his killing spree was at its zenith, Kearney's odd tendencies went largely undetected. A local grocery store owner named Jerry Stevens did, however, note that Kearney had an unusual interest in knives and frequently purchased butcher knives after examining them and inquiring about the quality of the steel. Stevens also described Kearney as "a loner with an eerie sense of quiet about him." Kearney's supervisor at Hughes Aircraft referred to him as a "model worker."

LaMay's remains were found on March 18, 1977. Police had actually been to Kearney's home for the LaMay investigation prior to 8-year-old Merle "Hondo" Chance's kidnapping and murder. The police soon discovered that LaMay had been seen in the company of Kearney and Hill. The two fled to El Paso, Texas, and Kearney resigned from his job. The fugitives' families persuaded the pair to turn themselves in.

Hill, 36 years old at the time, was eventually cleared of any involvement in his partner's crimes and was released.

Kearney, on the other hand, made a full confession of his crimes, initially admitting to a total of 28 murders and subsequently to seven more. In order to avoid the death penalty, he agreed to plead guilty. Kearney was charged with 21 counts of murder, and as agreed, he pled guilty and was given 21 life sentences. Police are certain that Kearney was responsible for the other seven murders he had admitted to, but they lacked the physical evidence to charge him. Kearney has been incarcerated at California State Prison, Mule Creek as of October 2014.

Gennady Mikhasevich

Gennady Modestovich Mikhasevich
Born	7 april 1947 Vitebsk Oblast, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Died	25 september 1987
Killings
Victims	36 confirmed; confessed to 43, probably 55+
Span of killings	1971–1985
Country	Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
State(s)	Vitebsk Oblast
Date apprehended	9 December 1985

Gennady Modestovich Mikhasevich (Belarusian: Генадзь Мадэставіч Міхасевіч; 1947–1987) was a Soviet serial killer. He murdered 36^[1] women during the period from 1971 to 1985 in Vitebsk, Polotsk and the rural areas in the nearby regions of the Byelorussian SSR.

Gennady Mikhasevich was born in the village of Ist (Vitebsk Oblast) in 1947,and served in the army. He committed his first murder on 14 May 1971. He himself later explained that the killing spree started after he had returned from the army only to find out that his girlfriend had left him and got married in the meantime. On the night of 14 May 1971, he was on his way from Vitebsk toPolotsk. It was late so he could not catch a bus to Polotsk where his parents lived. Mikhasevich reported he was feeling despondent because of the breakup with his girlfriend and had prepared a loop to hang himself. However, he accidentally met a young woman on the road. He decided to kill her, venting his anger on her. He murdered again in October, 1971, and strangled two other women in 1972, near Vitebsk. Mikhasevich graduated from a technical school in Vitebsk in 1973 and returned to Ist, starting to work in a sovkhoz. He got married in 1976. In the meantime, the murders went on.

Many of his murders coincided with rape. He either strangled or smothered his victims, either assaulting them in solitary locations or (during later years) after having lured them into his own car (he possessed a red Zaporozhets) or the machines of his workplace (he later had a job in machine repair service). Mikhasevich did not carry weapons, instead he used improvised means (e.g. a cord made of rye). Besides killing, he robbed his victims of money and valuable items (that he would sometimes give to his wife as a gift), and sometimes even of household items like scissors.

In outward appearance, Gennady Mikhasevich was a good family man, a teetotaller, had two children, was a conscientious worker; he was also member of the Communist Party (also served as a local party functionary) and of Voluntary People's Druzhina.

The investigation started to advance in the 1980s, as the young investigator Nikolay Ignatovich firmly stood up for the idea that all the killings of females near motorways in the region were committed by one person, a serial killer, not separate murderers, as the investigators had conveniently presumed. The police also suspected that the serial killer was using a red Zaporozhets; as they started checking all the people of the Oblast, who possessed such a car, Mikhasevich as a druzhinnikparticipated in these actions, in a way searching for himself. This also enabled him to learn of the steps the investigators were taking beforehand. The year 1985 was especially 'prolific' for the murderer: he killed 12 women in this year alone.

Eventually, Mikhasevich, who was now getting concerned, made a fatal mistake: in order to derail the investigation, he sent an anonymous letter to the local newspaper on behalf of an imaginary underground organization 'Patriots of Vitebsk', supposedly calling on his fellow militants to intensify their struggle of killing communists and lewd women. When he left a similar hand-written note next to his new victim, again signed on behalf of 'Patriots of Vitebsk', the investigators started to ascertain the handwritings of the male residents of the Oblast. Having checked 556,000 samples, the experts detected that the sample with the handwriting of Gennady Modestovich Mikhasevich had striking resemblance with the handwriting on the murderer's notes. Further investigation revealed other evidence, convincing them of Mikhasevich's guilt.

He was finally arrested in December 1985, after initial denial, he confessed and was sentenced to death and executed in 1987. His case became notorious in the USSR (“The Vitebsk Case” (“Витебское дело”)), as it revealed both the incompetence of the police and the corruption of the law enforcement agencies: by the time Mikhasevich was finally arrested, 14 people had already been convicted for the crimes Mikhasevich committed, the suspects had been often forced to confess by torture, and a couple of them had been sentenced to death and executed for the crimes they did not commit.

William Lester Suff

William Suff
1974 Texas mugshot
Born	Bill Lee Suff August 20, 1950 (age 65) Torrance, California
Other names	William Lester Suff, The Riverside Prostitute Killer, The Lake Elsinore Killer
Criminal penalty	Death
Conviction(s)	Attempted murder Murder
Killings
Victims	12–22
Span of killings	1974–1992
Country	U.S.
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	January 9, 1992

William Lester Suff (born August 20, 1950, as Bill Lee Suff), also known as the Riverside Prostitute Killer and the Lake Elsinore Killer, is an American serial killer.

Early crimes

In 1974, a Texas jury convicted Suff and his then-wife, Teryl, of beating their two-month-old daughter to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later reversed Teryl’s conviction but upheld Suff's in Suff v. State (Tex. 1976) 531 S.W.2d 814, finding insufficient evidence to convict her as either the primary actor or a principal in their baby's murder. Though Suff was sentenced to 70 years in a Texas prison, he served only 10 years before his 1984 release on parole.

Murders

Suff subsequently raped, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more prostitutes in Riverside County, beginning in 1986. On January 9, 1992, Suff was arrested after a routine traffic stop.

Described as a mild-mannered loner, Suff worked as a county stock clerk who allegedly delivered supplies to the task force investigating his killing spree. He liked to impersonate police officers and cooked chili at office picnics. In fact, it was alleged that he used the breast of one of his victims in his chili, which won the "Riverside County Employee Chili Cookoff." He was also working on a book about wild, lethal dogs. He enjoyed vanity plates and was an avid volunteer in the county's car-pooling program.

Trial

On July 19, 1995, a Riverside County jury found Suff guilty of killing 12 women and attempting to kill another, though police suspected him responsible for as many as 22 deaths. During the penalty phase that followed, the prosecutor presented evidence linking Suff to the 1988 murder of a San Bernardino prostitute, as well as evidence that despite his prior Texas prison term for murdering his first daughter, he abused and violently shook his three-month-old daughter by his second wife. On August 17, 1995, after deliberating for only 10 minutes, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on all 12 murder counts. On October 26, 1995, the trial court followed the jury's recommendations and ordered Suff condemned to death. Suff resides on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Book[edit]

In 1997 "Cat and Mouse - Mind Games With A Serial Killer" was published by Dove Books. Suff met with author Brian Alan Lane and told his story. The book includes short stories and poems written by Suff and photos of several of his victims.

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Ottis Toole

Ottis Toole
Toole's 1983 mugshot
Born	Ottis Elwood Toole March 5, 1947 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Died	September 15, 1996 (aged 49) Raiford, Florida, U.S.
Cause of death	Cirrhosis
Resting place	Florida State Prison Cemetery
Nationality	American
Criminal charge	Arson, First-degree murder
Criminal penalty	Death commuted to life in prison
Criminal status	Deceased
Killings
Victims	6+
Span of killings	Unknown–1983
Country	United States
State(s)	Florida and Texas
Date apprehended	April 1983
Imprisoned at	Florida State Prison

Ottis Elwood Toole (March 5, 1947 – September 15, 1996) was an American drifter who was convicted of six counts of murder. Like his companion Henry Lee Lucas, Toole made confessions he later recanted, but which resulted in murder convictions. The discrediting of the case against Lucas for crimes in which Toole had offered corroborating statements created doubts as to whether either was a genuine serial killer or, as Hugh Aynesworth suggested, both merely compliant interviewees who police used to clear unsolved murders from the books. Toole received two death sentences, but on appeal they were commuted to life imprisonment. He died in his cell from cirrhosis, aged 49. Police attributed the murder of Adam Walsh to Toole on the basis of recanted statements. Lucas had backed Toole's confession to the Walsh murder, claiming he had been in possession of the victim's severed head.

Ottis Elwood Toole (sometimes misspelled "Otis") was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. Toole's mother was abusive; Toole claimed she would dress him in girls' clothing and call him Susan. His father was an alcoholic who abandoned him. Ottis claimed that as a young child, he was a victim of sexual assault and incest at the hands of many close relatives and acquaintances, including his older sister and next door neighbor. He claimed that his maternal grandmother was a Satanist, who exposed him to various Satanic practices and rituals in his youth, including self-mutilation and grave robbing, and dubbed him "Devil's Child". Toole claimed this abuse began when he came out as gay to his family.

He was often designated as suffering from mild mental retardation, with an I.Q. of 75. He also suffered from epilepsy, which resulted in frequent grand mal seizures. Throughout his childhood, he ran away from home often and often slept in abandoned houses. He was a serial arsonist from a young age and was sexually aroused by fire.

In the documentary Death Diploma, Toole claimed he was forced to have sex with a friend of his father's when he was five years old. He felt he knew he was gay when he was 10, and claimed to have had a sexual relationship with a neighborhood boy when he was 12. Toole dropped out of school in the ninth grade and began visiting gay bars. He also claimed to have been a male prostitute as a teenager, and became obsessed with gay pornography. Toole claimed to have committed his first murder at the age of 14, when after being propositioned for sex by a traveling salesman, Toole ran over the salesman with his own car. Toole was first arrested at the age of 17 in August 1964 for loitering.

Much information on Toole between 1966–73 is unclear, but it is believed that he began drifting around the Southwestern United States and that he supported himself by prostitution and panhandling. While living in Nebraska, Toole was one of the prime suspects in the 1974 murder of 24-year-old Patricia Webb. Shortly after, he left Nebraska and briefly settled in Boulder, Colorado. One month later, he became a prime suspect in the murder of 31-year-old Ellen Holman, who was murdered on October 14, 1974. With many accusations against him, Toole left Boulder and headed back to Jacksonville.

In early 1975, Toole returned to Jacksonville after drifting and hitch-hiking through the American South. On January 14, 1976, he married a woman 25 years his senior. She left him after three days, after discovering his homosexuality. Toole said during an interview his marriage was a tactic meant to conceal his true sexuality.

Murders and imprisonment

Photograph of Lucas and Toole together.

In 1976, Toole met Henry Lee Lucas at a Jacksonville soup kitchen, and they soon developed a sexual relationship. Toole later claimed to have accompanied Lucas in 108 murders, sometimes at the behest of a cult called "The Hands of Death". Police, however, discounted the uncorroborated claim of the cult's existence. 

On January 4, 1982, Toole barricaded 64-year-old George Sonnenberg in a boarding house where he was living in Jacksonville and set the house on fire. Sonnenberg died a week later of injuries he sustained in the fire. In April 1983, Toole was arrested for an unrelated arson incident in Jacksonville. For that crime, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. While in custody, Toole confessed to killing George Sonnenberg. Toole signed a confession stating that he and Sonnenberg had begun a sexual relationship and, after the two had an argument, Toole lit Sonnenberg's home on fire.

Two months later in June, his accomplice Henry Lee Lucas was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm. It was then Lucas began boasting about the murderous rampage orchestrated by the two. At first, Toole had denied involvement but later began backing up Lucas's confessions. Lucas also backed Toole's confession to the murder of Walsh. Journalist Hugh Aynesworth and others investigated for articles that appeared in The Dallas Times Herald. It was calculated that Lucas would have had to use his 13-year-old Ford station wagon to cover 11,000 miles (18,000 km) in one month (i.e., around 370 miles (600 km) per day) to have committed the crimes police attributed to him. Lucas became widely regarded as a compliant interviewee who was used by police to clear up unsolved murders that he had not been involved in, aided by Toole giving false statements in collaboration.

During Toole's trial for murdering George Sonnenberg, Toole claimed that he did not light the home on fire and only signed the confession so he would be extradited back to Jacksonville. On April 28, 1984, a jury found Toole guilty of first degree murder and sentenced him to death. Later that year, Toole was found guilty of the February 1983 strangulation murder of a 19-year-old Tallahassee, Florida woman, and received a second death sentence; on appeal, however, both sentences were commuted to life in prison.

After his incarceration, Toole pleaded guilty to four more Jacksonville murders in 1991 and received four more life sentences.

Confessions

On October 21, 1983, while imprisoned for two unrelated murders, Toole confessed to the 1981 murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. A few weeks after Toole made the confession, however, police investigating the case announced that they had lost Toole's impounded car and machete. John Walsh, Adam's father, continued to maintain that he believed Toole to be guilty. On December 16, 2008, Hollywood, Florida, police announced Toole as the murderer, and the Adam Walsh case was closed. The police did not reveal any new physical evidence and pointed out that they still had no DNA evidence. Toole confessed that on that same day he ambushed and killed 46-year-old Joana Holter in her home while she was attending to groceries with the same machete which he used to decapitate Adam Walsh.

In 1984, Toole confessed to two unsolved northwest Florida slayings, including one of the I-10 murders. During an interview, he admitted to killing 18-year-old David Schallart, a hitchhiker he picked up east of Pensacola. Schallart's body, bearing five gunshot wounds in the left side of the head, was found on February 6, 1980, approximately 125 feet (38 m) off I-10's eastbound lane, 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Chipley. The second confession involved the death of 20-year-old Ada Johnson. Toole confessed that he shot her in the head on a road outside of Fort Walton Beach after kidnapping her at gunpoint at a Tallahassee nightclub. Psychiatrists Dr. Urbina and Dr. Sanches testified at Toole's 1984 Florida Supreme Court appeal that he was extremely impulsive and exhibited antisocial behavior as a result of a personality disorder and that he was a pyromaniac. The court found sufficient evidence that Toole was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.

Murder of Adam Walsh

Twenty-seven years after the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh, authorities officially named Toole as the likely killer.

Toole claimed to have picked Walsh up in a Sears mall parking lot. Toole said he offered him candy and toys and that Walsh came willingly. Walsh soon wanted to go home and began crying. Toole said he then punched him in the face. Walsh started crying more, and according to Toole, he began to "wallop" Walsh, knocking him out. Toole eventually pulled over in a rural area and decapitated Walsh with a machete. He drove around for several days with Walsh's head, forgot about it, and once rediscovering it, tossed it into a nearby canal. Police somehow lost his impounded car and its bloodstained carpeting, hindering their ability to proceed with the investigation.

Hollywood, Florida Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said Ottis Toole had been the prime suspect all along, but went on to admit that although Toole's case was weak, he could have been charged during the original investigation. Wagner acknowledged that many mistakes were made by the department and apologized to the Walsh family. Public critics of the indictment argue that lack of new (public) evidence, and the inability of the defendant to defend himself of the allegations, leaves no definitive claim to his guilt. To this Wagner has stated: "If you're looking for that magic wand, that one piece of evidence, it's not there."However, by reexamining previously uncorrelated evidence, police and the Walsh family are satisfied with the new report and existing evidence that points only to Ottis Toole.

In response to the naming of his son's alleged murderer, John Walsh stated: "We can now move forward knowing positively who killed our beautiful little boy."

The decision was finally reached once Toole's niece told John Walsh that her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he had murdered and decapitated Adam Walsh.

Death

On September 15, 1996, at the age of 49, Ottis Toole died at Florida State Prison of cirrhosis. As his body went unclaimed, he was buried in the Florida State Prison Cemetery.

Ray and Faye Copeland

Ray and Faye Copeland
Background information
Birth name	Ray Copeland Faye Della Wilson
Born	December 30, 1914 (Ray Copeland) August 4, 1921 (Faye Copeland) Harrison, Arkansas
Died	October 19, 1993 (Ray Copeland) December 28, 2003 (Faye Copeland)
Cause of death	Natural causes
Sentence	Death
Killings
Number of victims	5-12
Country	USA
State(s)	Missouri
Date apprehended	October 17, 1989

Ray Copeland (December 30, 1914 – October 19, 1993) and Faye Della Copeland (August 4, 1921 – December 28, 2003) became, at the ages of 76 and 69 respectively, the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States. They were convicted of killing five drifters. When her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999, Faye Copeland was the oldest woman on death row.

On November 1, 1990, 69-year-old Faye Copeland went to trial. According to articles in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Faye claimed she did not know her husband was a murderer. Although her marriage to Ray was fraught with abuse, the jury convicted her of four counts of murder and one of manslaughter. Faye had written a list of names that included the murdered drifters, each of whom had an X next to his name (as did 7 others, who remain missing). As Faye was sentenced to death by lethal injection, she sobbed uncontrollably. When Ray Copeland was told about the verdict on his wife his reply reportedly was, "Well, those things happen to some you know"; he apparently never asked about Faye again. Ray is rumored to have been a spoiled child, often demanding things. Although he came from a poor family, if Ray wanted something, it was said to have been soon acquired for him by any means possible. He was strongly disliked by neighbors, who believed he beat Faye and their four children. Prior to the murder convictions, Ray had a long history of crimes ranging from petty theft to grand larceny. He was convicted of writing bad checks on a number of occasions. The Copelands were caught and charged with murder after a drifter, named Jack McCormick, claimed to have spotted human remains on their land. Evidently, Ray had hit upon the scheme of hiring drifters, having them pay for cattle at auction with bad checks (which Ray by then was loath to do personally, given his prior convictions), then killing the drifters once they were no longer of any use, with a single bullet to the back of the head. It is unclear if Faye had any knowledge of this scheme, and her lawyers argued that she suffered from battered woman syndrome.

On August 10, 2002, Faye Copeland suffered a stroke, which left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. Weeks later, in September 2002, Governor Holden authorized a medical parole for Faye, fulfilling her one wish that she not die in prison. She was paroled to a nursing home in her hometown. The following year, on December 28, 2003, she died aged 82 at the Morningside Center nursing home in Chillicothe, Missouri, from what Livingston County coroner Scott Lindley described as natural causes (disease). She left behind five children, seventeen grandchildren, and (at last count) twenty-five great-grandchildren.

Ray had died on October 19, 1993, of natural causes while awaiting execution.

Robert Black (serial killer)

Robert Black
Robert Black mugshot
Background information
Born	21 April 1947 (age 65) Grangemouth, Scotland
Penalty	Life imprisonment
Killings
Number of victims	4+
Country	United Kingdom
Date apprehended	14 July 1990

Robert Black (born 21 April 1947) is a Scottish serial killer convicted of the kidnapping and murder of four girls between the ages of 5 and 11 between 1981 and 1986 in the United Kingdom. He was convicted of sexually assaulting one of the girls and of raping the other three. Black was also convicted of the kidnapping of a fifth girl and the attempted kidnapping of a sixth.

Black is a diagnosed psychopath, who is also suspected of a number of unsolved child murders in the UK dating back to 1969 and others in the 1970s throughout Europe.

Black was born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire. Black's natural mother, Jessie Hunter Black, refused to put his father's name on his birth certificate and had him fostered. Black was brought up by a foster couple who were in their 50s, Jack and Margaret Tulip. Black did not fit in at school and was given the nickname 'Smelly Robby Tulip' by his classmates, who noticed that Black preferred to hang around with children a year or two younger than he was, rather than people his own age. He developed an early reputation for aggressive and wayward behaviour. Locals recalled that Black often had bruises, although Black himself later said he could not recollect where these injuries came from. Margaret Tulip looked after Black on her own from when he was five until she died in 1958 when he was 11. He was then sent to a children's home in Falkirk. His increasingly aggressive behaviour meant he was moved several times over the following years.

Early crimes

While living with the Tulips, Robert Black developed sexual self-awareness at a young age. He later said that from the age of eight he would often push objects up his anus. This was a practice that he would continue into adulthood. As a young child, he also had an interest in the genitals of other children. At the age of five, he and a girl both took off their clothes and compared each other's genitals.

Black first attempted rape at the age of 12 along with two other boys. They attacked a girl in a field, but found themselves unable to complete the act of penetration.The authorities were notified and Black was moved to the Red House in Musselburgh. While there, a male staff member sexually abused him. It was while Black was at Red House that he also entered Musselburgh Grammar School, where he developed an interest in football and swimming.

At 15, Black left Red House and found a job working as a delivery boy in Greenock near Glasgow. He later admitted that, while on his rounds, he molested 30 to 40 girls with various degrees of success. None of these incidents seem to have been officially reported until his first conviction at the age of 17 when he lured a seven-year-old girl to a deserted building, strangled her until she lost consciousness and then masturbated over her unconscious body. He was arrested and convicted of 'lewd and libidinous' behaviour for this offence, but received only an admonishment.

After this, Black moved back to Grangemouth and got a job with a builders' supply company. He also found a girlfriend, Pamela Hodgson, and asked her to marry him. Black was devastated when she ended the relationship several months later. In 1966, Black molested his landlord and landlady's nine-year old granddaughter. The girl eventually told her parents. They took no legal action but Black was ordered to leave the house.

At this time, Black moved back to Kinlochleven, where he was raised. He took a room with a couple who had a seven-year-old daughter. As before, Black molested the girl. This time, when the sexual abuse was discovered, police were notified. Black was sentenced to a year of borstal training at Polmont.

On his release, Black left Scotland and moved to London. In London, Black found work as a swimming pool attendant and would sometimes go underneath the pool, remove the lights and watch young girls as they swam. Soon, a young girl complained that Black had touched her and although no official charges were brought, Black lost his job.

While Black lived in London he spent a lot of time in pubs playing darts. He became a reasonably good player, and a well-known face on the amateur darts circuit. Darts world champion Eric Bristow knew Black vaguely during this time, remembering him as a "loner" who never seemed to have a girlfriend. In 1976, Black began working as a van driver. It was while working as a driver that he developed a thorough knowledge of some of the UK's roads, particularly its minor roads.

Murder of Jennifer Cardy

On 12 August 1981, nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy cycled from her house in Ballinderry, County Antrim in Northern Ireland to meet a friend. Her bicycle was recovered close to her home. Her body was found at McKee's Dam near Hillsborough, County Down six days later. She had been sexually assaulted. Black, who at the time was working in the area for a poster-delivery company, was convicted of her kidnap, sexual assault and murder at Armagh Crown Court on 27 October 2011. On 8 December 2011 he was sentenced to 25 years for her murder and told by the judge he would be at least 89 before he was considered for release.

Murder of Susan Maxwell

On 30 July 1982, 11-year-old Susan Maxwell from the village of Cornhill on Tweed, on the English side of the English/Scottish border left her home to play a game of tennis across the border in Coldstream. Several local witnesses remembered seeing her until she crossed the bridge over the River Tweed, after which there were no sightings of Susan. Nobody saw it happen, but at some point between the river and Coldstream, Susan was abducted by Black. He raped and strangled her and dumped her body about 250 miles away by the side of the A518 at Loxley near Uttoxeter,Staffordshire, England.

Murder of Caroline Hogg

On the evening of 8 July 1983, five-year-old Caroline Hogg from Portobello, an eastern suburb of Edinburgh, went out to play near her home for a few minutes. She never returned. Many witnesses reported seeing a scruffy-looking man watching a young girl, believed to be Caroline, in the playground near her home, then holding hands with her in a nearby amusement arcade. The man was Black. Caroline's body was found 10 days later in a ditch in Leicestershire, around 300 miles from her home. The cause of death could not be determined due to decomposition (as had been the case with Susan Maxwell), but the absence of clothes suggested a sexual motive.

Murder of Sarah Harper

Three years later, on 26 March 1986, 10-year-old Sarah Harper went missing from Morley in Leeds after leaving her home to go to the corner shop to buy a loaf of bread. The shopkeeper remembered Sarah coming in to the shop, but she never returned home. The last sighting of Sarah was of her walking towards the snicket that she used as a shortcut. Black kidnapped, raped and murdered her. Her body was found dumped in the River Trent near Nottingham a month later.

Police investigation

The bodies of Maxwell, Hogg and Harper were found within 26 miles of each other, and police already believed that these three murders were linked. Detectives also thought that, because all three victims had been left long distances from where they had been taken, that the killer travelled as part of his occupation - possibly a lorry driver. The police faced great pressure to solve the crimes, as some newspapers compared them to the Moors Murders. It was one of the first inquiries to use the HOLMES computer system widely, following recommendations in the aftermath of theYorkshire Ripper investigation.

Black has been considered as a suspect by police in the unsolved murder or disappearance of a number of other girls, including the disappearance of April Fabb in April 1969, and thedisappearance of Genette Tate in August 1978. He has been questioned about these cases, but prosecutors have said that there is insufficient evidence to charge Black.

Capture and first trial

Black was arrested on 14 July 1990, near Stow, Scotland. He was seen snatching a six-year-old girl off the street and bundling her into his van. An alert member of the public called the police who chased after the van and subsequently apprehended Black when the van was recognised as he doubled back. The girl's father discovered the child in the back of the van, tied up, gagged with tape and stuffed head-first into a sleeping bag. She had been sexually assaulted. A search of Black's home revealed a large collection of child pornography.

The following month, Black was convicted of abduction and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Murder trials

Police suspected Black of the murders of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper. They checked his petrol receipts and eventually charged Black with all three murders, in addition to the attempted kidnapping of a 15-year-old girl who had escaped from a man who had tried to drag her into a van in 1988.

Black stood trial at Newcastle upon Tyne Moot Hall on Wednesday 13 April 1994 and denied the charges.Having sifted through many thousands of petrol-station receipts, the prosecution was able to place him at all the scenes and show the similarities between the three killings and the kidnap of the six-year-old girl who had been rescued. Juries are not usually allowed to know of a defendant's current or past convictions, but in this case the judge allowed it.

On 19 May, the jury found Black guilty on all counts, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment and told that he should serve at least 35 years. This would keep him behind bars until at least 2029, when he would be 82.

On 16 December 2009, Black was charged with the murder of Jennifer Cardy. He was found guilty on 27 October 2011 and was given a further life sentence by Armagh Crown Court.

On 8 December 2011, Black was told that he would be at least 89 years old before he would be considered for release.

Smiley face murder theory

The Smiley face murder theory (variations include Smiley face murders, Smiley face killings, Smiley face gang, and others) is a theory advanced by two retired New York City detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, that a number of young men found dead in bodies of water across several states over the last decade did not accidentally drown, as concluded by law enforcement agencies, but were victims of a serial killer or killers.

Letter from Congressman Sam Graves to the Honorable Robert Muller concerning new evidence and a request that FBI reopen the Smiley Face Killings.
As recently as 2008, Gannon and Duarte were examining evidence going back to the late 1990s that they believe connects the deaths of 40 or more college-age males, whose dead bodies were found in water in 11 states, often after leaving parties or bars where they were drinking. The men, according to the former detectives, often fit a profile of being popular, athletic, and good students, and most were white.
Gannon and Duarte have theorized that the young men were all murdered, either by an individual or by an organized group of killers. The term smiley face became connected to the alleged murders when it was made public that Gannon and Duarte had discovered graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where they think the killer dumped the bodies in at least a dozen of the cases.
[edit]Reception of the theory

Other police forces that have investigated the deaths dispute the conclusion that the cases are linked. The Lacrosse, Wisconsin police department, which was in charge of eight of the investigations, released an official statement reiterating their original conclusions that the deaths were accidental drownings of inebriated men and stating that no smiley face symbols were found in connection with any of these cases. The Center for Homicide Research in Minneapolis, MN has recently published a research brief that also attempts to scientifically refute the theory. In March 2009, Lee Gilbertson, a criminal justice faculty member at St. Cloud State University, voiced his support for the theory on an episode of Larry King Live which discussed the alleged murders.
Criminal profiler Pat Brown calls the serial killer theory "ludicrous", arguing that the evidence does not fit what is known about serial killers. Brown also believes that the smiley face images found in some of the cases are likely nothing more than coincidences based upon making a guess at where the body entered the water and searching a wide area until an example of smiley face graffiti can be found. "It's not an unusual symbol," she told Matt Smith of the Minneapolis-based newspaper City Pages. "If you look in an area five miles square, I bet you could find a smiley face."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued the following statement:
"...The FBI has reviewed the information about the victims provided by two retired police detectives, who have dubbed these incidents the “Smiley Face Murders,” and interviewed an individual who provided information to the detectives. To date, we have not developed any evidence to support links between these tragic deaths or any evidence substantiating the theory that these deaths are the work of a serial killer or killers. The vast majority of these instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings. The FBI will continue to work with the local police in the affected areas to provide support as requested..."
Ruben Rosario of the Pioneer Press questions the motives of Kevin Gannon. He states that Gannon has failed to provide any factual evidence that a group of killers exists, and that others, like reporter Kristi Piehl (the original reporter of Gannon and Duarte's theory), and some of the parents of the young men, who were at first encouraged by Gannon, now wonder if he isn't actually hurting the families who are trying to get over the loss of a child. One of the parents, Bill Szostak, and Rosario even speculate that Gannon is out for either money or the notoriety and press attention. Another parent, Kathy Geib, is working with Piehl and others, but their main goal now is just to get police to take a compulsory second look at cases of alcohol-related drownings

West Mesa murders

West Mesa murders
Location Albuquerque, New Mexico
Date Discovered Feb. 2, 2009
Deaths 11
Perpetrators Unknown
The West Mesa Murders refer to the remains of 11 women found buried in 2009 in the desert on the West Mesa of Albuquerque, New Mexico. No suspects have been identified in the case and a serial killer is believed to be responsible.

On February 2, 2009, a woman walking a dog found a human bone on the West Mesa of Albuquerque, New Mexico metropolitan area, and reported it to police. As a result of the subsequent police investigation, authorities discovered the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus buried in the area. All the women were young; most were Hispanic, and most were involved with drugs and prostitution.
Police suspect that the bodies were all buried by the same person or persons, and may be the work of a serial killer sometimes referred to as the West Mesa Bone Collector. Authorities also believe that the murders are closely linked to the annual state fair, which attracts large numbers of prostitutes to the area in the fall.

Victims

The remains discovered in 2009 were identified as those of the following women, all of whom disappeared between 2003 and 2005:
Monica Candelaria, 22
Victoria Chavez, 26
Virginia Cloven, 24
Syllania Edwards, 15
Cinnamon Elks, 32
Doreen Marquez, 24
Julie Nieto, 24
Veronica Romero, 28
Evelyn Salazar, 27
Michelle Valdez, 22
Syllania Edwards, a 15 year-old runaway from Oklahoma, was the only African American, and the only victim from out-of-state. Michelle Valdez was four months pregnant at the time of her death.
On December 9, 2010, Albuquerque police released six photos of seven unidentified women who may also be linked to West Mesa. Some of the women appear to be unconscious, and many share the same physical characteristics as the original 11 victims. The following day the police released an additional photograph of another woman; this woman was subsequently identified by family members, who reported that she had died of natural causes several years ago. On December 13, 2010, police reported that two of the women in the photos had been identified as alive, and could have valuable information if they can be located. Police would not say how or where they had obtained the photos.

Suspects

Two men who initially attracted police attention in connection with the murders were Fred Reynolds and Lorenzo Montoya. Reynolds was a pimp who knew one of the missing women and reportedly had photos of missing prostitutes; he died of natural causes in January 2009. Lorenzo Montoya lived less than two miles from the burial site; in 2006 there were reportedly tire tracks leading from his trailer to the site. In December 2006, Montoya strangled a teenage prostitute at his trailer; he was shot to death by the prostitute's boyfriend.
In August 2010, police searched several properties in Joplin, Missouri associated with a local photographer and businessman in connection with the West Mesa cases.They confiscated "tens of thousands" of photos from the man, who reportedly used to visit the state fair in Albuquerque.
In December 2010, convicted Colorado serial killer Scott Lee Kimball stated that he was being investigated for the West Mesa murders; he denies killing the women.
No official suspects have ever been named in connection with the murders. A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden, circa 1889
Born	Lizzie Andrew Borden July 19, 1860 Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Died	June 1, 1927 (aged 66) Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Resting place	Oak Grove Cemetery
Nationality	American
Known for	Murder trial defendant
Net worth	~$1,000,000 (1927)[1] ($25 million today)
Parents	Andrew Jackson Borden (1822–1892) Sarah Anthony Morse (1823–1863), mother Abby Durfee Gray (1828–1892), stepmother
Relatives	Emma Lenora Borden (1851–1927), sister Alice Esther Borden (1856–1858), sister John Vinnicum Morse, uncle

Lizzie Andrew Borden^[] (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was a woman in New England who was tried for killing her father and stepmother with a hatchet on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The murders, subsequent trial, and ensuing trial by media became a cause célèbre. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried and she has remained a notorious figure in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day.

The body of Andrew Borden

On August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden had gone into Fall River to do his usual rounds at the bank and post office. He returned home at about 10:45 a.m.; Lizzie Borden claimed that she found his body about 30 minutes later.

During the murder trial, the Bordens' twenty-six-year-old maid, Bridget Sullivan, testified that she was lying down in her room on the third floor of the house shortly after 11:00 a.m. when she heard Lizzie call to her, saying someone had killed her father; his body was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room. Andrew Borden's face was turned to the right-hand side, apparently at ease, as if he was asleep.

Shortly thereafter, while Lizzie was being tended by neighbors and the family doctors, Sullivan discovered the body of Abby Borden in the guest bedroom located upstairs. Both Andrew and Abby Borden had been killed by crushing blows to their skulls from a hatchet. Andrew Borden's left eyeball was cleanly split in two.

Motive and methods

The upstairs floor of the house was divided. The front was occupied by the Borden sisters, Lizzie and Emma while the rear was occupied by Andrew and Abby. Meals were seldom eaten together. Andrew was known by family, friends, and business associates as tight-fisted and generally rejected modern conveniences. Though far from poor, the family still threw their excrement buckets (slops) onto the backyard. The two daughters, well past marriage age, gladly entered the modern outside world whenever they visited friends.

Conflict had increased between the two daughters and their father about his decision to divide the valuable properties among relatives before his death. Relatives of their stepmother had been given a house, and the two sisters demanded and received a rental property. They later sold this property to their father for cash. John Morse, brother to the deceased Sarah Borden, had come to visit on the week of the murders. His visit was to facilitate transfer of Swansea farm property, which had been the summer home for the Borden family. Shortly before the murders, a major argument had occurred which resulted in both sisters leaving home on extended "vacations".

Furthermore, it was well known that Lizzie and her stepmother had had a falling out years before the murder. Her entire life Lizzie had called Abby Borden by the common matronly moniker “Mother” but according to her sister in the trial documents, about five or six years before the untimely demise of the two parents she had taken to calling her “Mrs. Borden” instead.^[7]

The Borden house, where the murders took place.

The guest room where Abby Borden was murdered.

The barn behind the home did not see much use after Andrew sold the horse. Lizzie had some pigeons in cages on the second floor that she fed and watered. She arrived one day to find the pigeons lying on the ground with their heads chopped off. Andrew said he killed them with an axe because the birds were attracting young boys in the neighborhood to the barn, and he felt they might get hurt or start a fire.

Lizzie had attempted to purchase prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) from local druggist Eli Bence, but Bence refused. Lizzie claimed she planned to use it to clean a seal skin cloak; the defense argued that this incident was not admissible evidence.

Shortly before the murders, the entire household became violently ill. As Mr. Borden was not a popular man in Fall River, Abby feared they were being intentionally poisoned. The family doctor, however, diagnosed their illness as food poisoning. Andrew Borden had purchased cheap mutton for the family to eat, and they left it on the stove for days, used for multiple meals. The family believed the milk was being tainted by someone; after the murders, the milk was tested but nothing was found that could be connected to their illness. Both murder victims had their stomachs removed in an autopsy performed in the Borden dining room on the day of their deaths. The stomachs, with their contents, were packaged and sent to Harvard Medical School to be examined for toxins; nothing was found.