April 12, 2013
Aspiring Serial Killer Pronounced Dead
When Derek Richardson was arrested earlier this year and charged with killing two area women, police said they were convinced he would have killed again. But in the end the only other life Richardson would take was his own. Clay County officials announced that the 27-year-old Kansas City, North, man died at a hospital where he was taken Sunday after a jail cell suicide attempt. Read more...
March 28, 2013
Head Found in 1989 Identified
A woman whose severed head was found on a New Jersey golf course more than 20 years ago has been identified, and police say the trail leads to a notorious serial killer. Authorities say 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Joel Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s. They cite physical evidence and Rifkin's statements in linking Balch's killing to him. Read more...
March 02, 2013
Governor Rejects Bruce Davis Parole
Governor Jerry Brown became the second California governor to reject a parole board decision to grant release to a former member of the Charles Manson Family. Gov. Brown rejected the parole board's recommendation to release convicted killer Bruce Davis, who has served more than 40 years in prison. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a previous parole for Davis in 2010. Read more...
February 25, 2013
FBI Ends 'Speed Freak' Victim Search
After spending a month digging through an abandoned well in San Joaquin County with no results, the FBI has decided to call off the search for more possible victims of the "Speed Freak Killers." The search of the 100-foot deep well turned up only animal bones, trash and discarded items. The FBI was led to the well by convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine. Read more...
February 18, 2013
Man Arrested in Kansas City Prostitute Murders
Kansas City authorities have arrested a man in the deaths of two prostitutes who bodies were found a year apart posed along the side of rural Missouri roads. Derek Richardson has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandonment of a corpse. Police said Richardson has confessed to "intimate details of the crimes. Read more...
February 07, 2013
Grand Jury Indicts 'Skid Row Stabber'
A Los Angeles man who had two murder convictions overturned by federal appellate courts has been charged with three other murders authorities say were the work of the "Skid Row Stabber." Los Angeles County grand jury indictments unsealed show that Bobby Joe Maxwell was charged with murder again in three cases dating back to the 1970s. His original jury in those cases deadlocked in 1984. Read more...
January 14, 2013
Search Approved for Gacy Victims
Investigators in Illinois have finally gained approval for a search under an apartment complex for more possible victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The search will focus on a housing complex where Gacy's late mother once lived on Chicago's northwest side. Gacy was executed in 1994 after his conviction for 33 murders. Read more...
December 04, 2012
Police Hope Gacy's DNA Closes Cases
Detectives have long wondered what secrets serial killer John Wayne Gacy and other condemned murderers took to the grave when they were executed -- mostly whether they had other unknown victims. Now, in a game of scientific catch-up, the Cook County Sheriff's Department is trying to be creative: They've created DNA profiles of Gacy and others and figured out they could get the executed men entered in a national database shared with other law enforcement agencies because the murderers were technically listed as homicide victims themselves when they were put to death by the state. Read more...
December 03, 2012
Confessed Killer Commits Suicide
A confessed serial killer facing a possible death penalty for the murder of an 18-year-old Anchorage coffee kiosk clerk has been found dead in his jail cell. Israel Keyes died as a result of an apparent suicide, according to federal and local law enforcement officials. Keyes was scheduled to go on trial in March for the February death of Samantha Koenig. Read more...
November 23, 2012
Man Charged in Shopkeepers Case
A 64-year-old Staten Island man has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of three Brooklyn shopkeepers. Police said Salvatore Perrone, previously known as "John Doe Duffel Bag" from video surveillance near the shootings, has confessed to two of the murders. Investigators did not reveal a motive for the shootings, although all three victims were Middle Easterners. Read more...
October 01, 2012
Younger DC Sniper Expresses Remorse
Convicted D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo said in a newspaper interview published Sunday that the devastated reaction of a victim's husband made him feel like "the worst piece of scum." Malvo expresses remorse in the interview with The Washington Post and urged the families of victims to try and forget about him and his partner John Allen Muhammad so they can move on. Read more...
Serial Killer's House May Become Memorial
The site of a notorious Cleveland serial killer's house could soon become a memorial. A group of local architects are designing a memorial for the now-vacant lot. Anthony Sowel was convicted of killing 11 women at the house that stood there between 2007 and 2009. Architects from the Cleveland chapter of the American Institute of Architects met with relatives of the victims, residents and community and city leaders to get their input about the design. Read more...
September 27, 2012
FBI Surveying Another 'Speed Freak' Burial Site
The FBI is surveying a site in Linden related to the so-called Speed Freak serial killers, but no digging for remains has begun. FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said several questions still need to be answered before any new excavation begins. In August, convicted killer Wesley Shermantine was briefly taken from death row to help investigators find more victims. He said at the time that authorities missed the "boneyard" where as many as a dozen more bodies are buried. Read more...
September 04, 2012
More 'Speed Freak Killers' Victims Found
The remains of at least four victims and a fetus have been uncovered by FBI investigators searching locations given to them by a California death row inmate known as one of the 'Speed Freak Killers.' Convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine said that authorities still have not located the "boneyard" where he claims most of the victims are buried. Read more...
July 31, 2012
Killer's Victims' Families Want Answers
The arrest of Jerry Frank Townsend on Sept. 5, 1979 ended the hunt for a brutal serial killer and rapist who had terrorized a predominantly African-American neighborhood in northwest Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But it began an enduring miscarriage of justice. Townsend spent 22 years of his life in prison until he was exonerated by DNA tests that did not exist when he was arrested. Eddie Lee Mosley remained free to continue to rape and kill until his 1987 arrest and confinement in a state hospital for the criminally insane. Read more...
June 23, 2012
Serial Killer Sentenced to Death for 3 Murders
A convicted serial killer was given a death sentence for strangling a 15-year-old girl and two women in the Los Angeles "Southside Slayer" attacks of the 1980s and 1990s, according to prosecutors. Michael Hughes, 55, was convicted last November of killing his victims after DNA evidence tied him to murders authorities say were committed for sexual gratification. Hughes was convicted of killing 15-year-old Yvonne Coleman, 36-year-old Verna Williams and 32-year-old Deborah Jackson between 1986 and 1993. Williams and Jackson were prostitutes. Read more...
June 22, 2012
Serial Killer Arraigned in NYC
A convicted California serial killer pleaded not guilty to murdering two women in New York City in the 1970s, charges lodged just last year after suspicion swirled around him for decades. Rodney Alcala, a former dating-show contestant who has spent the last 33 years tangling with authorities in a series of trials and overturned convictions, was arraigned Thursday in the deaths of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover. Read more...
June 21, 2012
Serial Killer to Face New York Murder Charges
A convicted serial killer who has been sentenced to death in California has been transported to New York to face murder charges in the deaths of two young women in the 1970s. Rodney Alcala was flown to New York to be arraigned on charges that he was indicted on in January 2011. Read more...
June 20, 2012
Green River Killer Victim Identified
DNA from family members have helped Washington state authorities to positively identified another victim of one of history's most prolific serial killers. The remains of a 20-year-old woman found in Auburn, Washington in 1985 was a victim of Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. The body has now been identified as Sandra Denise Major who was reported missing Dec. 24, 1982. Read more...
May 01, 2012
Prosecutor Won't Call Murder Suspect Serial Killer
An Indiana prosecutor says he's not ready to accuse a man charged in the deaths of two women of being a serial killer, though the slayings seem to meet the definition. Fifty-four-year-old William Clyde Gibson was charged last week with murder in the deaths of a 75-year-old family friend found dead April 19 in Gibson's New Albany home and the 2002 death of Florida hairdresser whose body was found near the Ohio River. Police also are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman whose body was found Friday in Gibson's backyard. Read more...
April 12, 2012
Charles Manson Denied Parole Again
Saying he shows no signs of rehabilitation, a California Parole Board has denied parole for Charles Manson, leader of a 60s cult responsible for the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders of 1969. It was the 12th time that Manson has been denied parole since his death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1977. Manson did not attend his parole hearing at Corcoran State Prison. Read more...
April 06, 2012
Flashback: Charles Manson
In 1969 Charlie Manson emerged from his prison cell onto the streets of Haight-Ashbury and soon became the leader of followers who became forever known as the Family. How did this unkept, unattractive little man become the leader of a murderous cult that committed some of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century? Read more...
Serial Killer's Letters Sped Up Execution?
Serial killer David Alan Gore is set to be executed sooner than he expected, in part because he could not stop bragging about raping and murdering four teenagers and two women in Florida three decades ago. An author published the inmate's grotesque letters, and a newspaper columnist and editorial board brought the case to the attention of Florida Gov. Rick Scott. The Republican promptly signed the death warrant, even though more than 40 other men have been on death row longer. Read more...
April 02, 2012
Sheriff Wants to Dig Up Gacy Yards
An Illinois sheriff hopes to excavate a Cook County backyard in hopes of finding more victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, the Chicago Tribune reported. Gacy, convicted of killing 33 boys and young men and then stuffing them in the crawl space beneath his house, was executed in 1994. But Anita Alvarez, the state's attorney for Cook County, has so far denied Sheriff Tom Dart's request, saying the sheriff does not have enough new information to merit a warrant. Read more...
Texas Nurse Convicted in Bleach Deaths
A former Texas nurse accused of killing five of her patients and injuring five others by injecting bleach into their kidney dialysis tubing was found guilty of capital murder. Kimberly Clark Saenz, 38, was fired in April 2008 after a rash of illnesses and deaths at a Lufkin dialysis clinic run by Denver-based health care giant DaVita Inc. She was charged a year later. Read more...
March 26, 2012
Woman Says Serial Killer Raped Her in 1961
A 74-year-old woman who says she was raped in California over 50 years ago by the man accused of the serial "Alphabet Murders" could become a key witness in his trial, but said police at the time treated her as if she were to blame. If the woman is called to testify in the trial of Joseph Naso, 78, who is accused of killing two Northern California prostitutes in the 1970s and two more in the 1990s, her testimony could help prosecutors show he has displayed a long pattern of sexual violence. Read more...
March 13, 2012
Killer Hints at 72 More Victims
A local television station in Sacramento has received more letters from a convicted serial killer who claims he can lead authorities to dozens of victims of his former codefendant and a third man. Wesley Shermantine claims Loren Herzog, and a man the station is not naming, had as many as 72 victims. Shermantine says he will begin revealing the location of their bodies when he receives $33,000 promised to him by bounty hunter Leonard Padilla. Read more...
March 12, 2012
'Speed Freak Killer' Sends New Letter
A Sacramento television station has received a second letter from serial killer Wesley Shermantine, with it claiming that he knows of more than 70 murder victims. Shermantine wrote reporter CBS-13 Koula Gianulias saying that his accomplice, Loren Herzog, and a third man killed 72 people. The station did not identify the third man. Read more...
March 08, 2012
Dead Inmate Killed Up to 20
A man convicted of murdering three women and who died in prison in 1996 killed four other women between 1979 and 1988 and might be responsible for as many as 20 homicides, authorities said. Vincent Groves, a tall hulking athlete who was a member of a state basketball championship team in the 1970s, strangled most of his victims, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. Read more...
March 05, 2012
Company Sponsors 'Jeffrey Dalmer Tour'
A Milwaukee marketing company is selling tickets for a 'Jeffrey Dalmer Walking Tour' that features sites where the serial killer stalked his victims. The tour has drawn complaints from the family members of some of Dalmer's victims. Read more...
March 03, 2012
Some Upset About Dahmer Walking Tour
A marketing group in Wisconsin wants to give walking tours of the bar where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer met and hung out with some of his victims. But when victims' families and others found out about the tours this week through a Groupon promotion for a cut-rate tour, they started calling for the tour, which they described as insensitive and in poor taste, to end. Read more...
February 20, 2012
More Human Remains Found on Long Island
Police said that more human remains have been found on New York's Long Island, in the same area where authorities are hunting for a possible serial killer. The Suffolk County Police Department said the remains -- confirmed to be human -- were discovered by a man walking his dog in Manorville, N.Y. Read more...
Speed Freak Killer Cites More Bodies
Sacramento television station CBS-13 has received a letter it says is from serial killer Wesley Shermantine claiming he knows of sites where the bodies of additional victims were dumped. The station reports that in a letter with Shermatine's signature from San Quentin State Prison, the convicted killer says there are two locations where his accomplice, Loren Herzog, disposed of two victims. Shermantine says he hasn't revealed the locations because he hasn't been paid $33,000 promised by bounty hunter Leonard Padilla. Read more...
February 16, 2012
Serial Killer's Tips Leads to Burial Sites
Investigators have found almost 1,000 human bone fragments in an old abandoned California well as they excavate one of five burial sites marked on a serial killer's map. The bones are believed to be the victims of the 'Speed Freak Killers' who were convicted of seven murders, but were suspected in many more. Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, who were childhood friends, are suspected in dozens of deaths in California in the 1980s and 1990s. Read more...
February 15, 2012
Did John Wayne Gacy Have Accomplices?
Chicago law enforcement officials are investigating the possibility that a notorious serial killer, who was executed 20 years ago, may have had accomplices to several of his murders. Authorities are looking into the possibility that John Wayne Gacy had help with killing some of his victims. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced the investigation after two defense attorneys presented evidence that pointed to more than one killer. Read more...
February 13, 2012
More Remains Found in With Killer's Help
Authorities searching with the help of a convicted serial killer found more human remains Saturday — the first bones discovered at an abandoned well on a cattle ranch where a death row inmate claimed 10 or more victims may be buried, authorities said. The discovery marked the third straight day that remains were found with a map prepared by Wesley Shermantine. He and his childhood friend, Loren Herzog, were called the "Speed Freak Killers" for a methamphetamine-fueled killing spree that had as many as 15 victims. Two sets of remains had been found Thursday and Friday near property once owned by Shermantine's family about 60 miles south of Sacramento. Read more...
February 11, 2012
Serial Killer Gacy Had Accomplices
Nearly two decades after Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy was executed for torturing, raping and murdering 33 men and boys in the 1970s, two lawyers say they've unearthed evidence that indicates he didn't act alone in some of the slayings. Criminal defense attorneys Robert Stephenson and Steven Becker, who are partners in a Chicago law practice, said they re-examined the circumstances surrounding the disappearances of some of the victims. Their conclusion: the so-called "Killer Clown" had at least three accomplices. Read more...
January 24, 2012
DNA Nabs New York Serial Killer
DNA has identified another cold case serial killer. More than a decade later, the cases of three murdered women have been linked to a prisoner serving a drunk driving conviction who was up for parole after volunteering a DNA sample. Instead, he was sentenced last week to 75 years to life in prison. Until he submitted his DNA, Francisco Acevedo wasn't even a suspect in the Yonkers, New York murders. Read more...
Serial Killer Ordered to Stand Trial
A suspected serial killer will stand trial for the decades-old murders of four Northern California women. A Marin County Superior Court judge ruled that prosecutors presented enough evidence against 78-year-old Joseph Naso. Naso is accused of killing two women in the 1970s and another two in the 1990s, and dumping their naked bodies in rural areas. Read more...
