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Serial Killers

A former Los Angeles rubbish collector has been found guilty in the "Grim Sleeper" serial murders which spanned more than 20 years and left 10 dead.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr killed nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007, before dumping their bodies, often in alleyways.

Prosecutors said Franklin Jr, 63, stalked vulnerable young black women before shooting or strangling them.

He began by targeting drug addicts during LA's crack cocaine epidemic.

Franklin Jr was convicted after a two-month trial at LA County Superior Court and could face the death penalty.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36215690
 
There was a good, if very grim, documentary by Nick Broomfield about him recently. The conclusion was that since American society had given up on so many people in that region, his victims could number many more. The reason he got away with it for so long was that nobody gave a shit about those he killed. Awful, really.
 
I've occasionally thought that if you went to cities you had no connection with and had never been before, and targetted drug addicts, prostitutes, the lonely homeless and the like then you could get away with many murders. Kill one random victim you've never met no more than once a year and your activites would be almost undetectable. Even in these days of CCTV and numberplate recognition if you were careful about what you wore and used public transport then it would take a very long time for the police to join the dots - if they ever did. It really wouldn't surprise me if there are small scale sociopathic serial killers out there today following this pattern and quietly living their lives the rest of the time.
 
Carse said:
I've occasionally thought that if you went to cities you had no connection with and had never been before, and targetted drug addicts, prostitutes, the lonely homeless and the like then you could get away with many murders. Kill one random victim you've never met no more than once a year and your activites would be almost undetectable. Even in these days of CCTV and numberplate recognition if you were careful about what you wore and used public transport then it would take a very long time for the police to join the dots - if they ever did. It really wouldn't surprise me if there are small scale sociopathic serial killers out there today following this pattern and quietly living their lives the rest of the time.
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I fear that you may be correct.
 
I think there are sociopaths in cars that lead others into accidents as well. I've had a couple of 'interesting' incidents where I was given an all clear...but it wasn't. I have a policy (due to some advanced driver training) of never taking anyone's words for a clear road and always check myself...luckily.
 
Coal said:
I think there are sociopaths in cars that lead others into accidents as well. I've had a couple of 'interesting' incidents where I was given an all clear...but it wasn't. I have a policy (due to some advanced driver training) of never taking anyone's words for a clear road and always check myself...luckily.
Click to expand...
"Always assume that everyone else on the road is an idiot" was how my Dad put it to me .. AKA drive carefully.
 
America's first serial killer stalked Texas in the 1880s

Pop culture’s fascination with serial killers is waning. By now, in the raw light of 21st-century terrorism and mass murder, the stylish savagery of Hannibal Lecter seems somehow quaint. But as Skip Hollandsworth reminds us in his new book, The Midnight Assassin (Henry Holt, 270 pp., **½ out of four stars), there was a time when the very concept of a motiveless murderous maniac was unheard of, impossible to grasp, and could spur a population to panic.

In this case, it was the people of Austin, Texas, who suffered through the end of 1884 and the beginning of 1885 with a fiend on the loose, one who bludgeoned women to death in their homes for no apparent reason, and was never caught. A few years later, when Jack the Ripper began cutting the throats of prostitutes in London’s Whitechapel, it was theorized that the Austin killer had crossed the Atlantic.

We may never know whether America’s first known serial killer was also the world’s most legendary, but Hollandsworth, executive editor of Texas Monthlymagazine, digs into the yellowing evidence. The result is a lucid, lurid, often windy page-turner that evokes a simpler time, when Texas was young and its cities were on the rise, competing then as now for tourism, population and business growth. ...

http://nyc.epeak.in/frame/?url=aHR0...VyLXN0YWxrZWQtVGV4YXMtaW4tdGhlLXMv&id=1498505
 
Here's one I'd not heard of.

The Blackout Ripper

Over six days in Feb 1942, Gordon Cummins took advantage of blackout conditions to murder 4 women on consecutive nights & attempted to murder 2 others. He mutilated the bodies of 3 of his victims.

At the time of his arrest he had no criminal record or known history of violence, and was married.

He was arrested within days, found guilty pretty quickly, then hung pretty quickly. He'd kept various items of his victims which were found at his lodgings & his fingerprints were found at victim's flats. The police had also figured out the murderer was left-handed.

Very weird. Previously non-violent man goes nuts suddenly. Did he use the cover of blackout to act out buried fantasies? Maybe he thought 'well I'm going to die in the war anyway', or maybe he just went psychotic..
 
A serial killer/killers may be at work.

Dozens of women vanish on Canada’s Highway of Tears
Failure to investigate disappearances of aboriginal women has become political scandal
Delphine Nikal (16) was last seen hitchhiking from Smithers, an isolated northern Canadian town on a spring morning in 1990.

Ramona Wilson (16), a member of her high school baseball team, left home one Saturday night in June 1994 to attend a dance a few towns away. She never arrived. Her remains were found 10 months later near the local airport.

Tamara Chipman (22) disappeared in 2005, leaving behind a toddler. “She’s still missing,” Gladys Radek, her aunt, said. “It’ll be 11 years in September.”


Dozens of Canadian women and girls, most of them indigenous, have disappeared or been murdered near Highway 16, a remote ribbon of asphalt that bisects British Columbia and snakes past thick forests, logging towns and impoverished Indian reserves on its way to the Pacific Ocean. So many women and girls have vanished or turned up dead along one stretch of the road that residents call it the Highway of Tears.

A special unit formed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officially linked 18 such cases from 1969 to 2006 to this part of the highway and two connecting arteries. More women have vanished since then, and community activists and relatives of the missing say they believe the total is closer to 50. Almost all the cases remain unsolved.

The Highway of Tears and the disappearances of the indigenous women have become a political scandal in British Columbia. But those cases are just a small fraction of the number who have been murdered or disappeared nationwide. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have officially counted about 1,200 cases over the past three decades, but research by the Native Women’s Association of Canada suggests the total number could be as high as 4,000.

In December, after years of refusal by his conservative predecessor, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced a long-awaited national inquiry into the disappearances and murders of indigenous women. The inquiry, set to cost 40 million Canadian dollars (€27 million), is part of Trudeau’s promise of a “total renewal” of Canada’s relationship with its indigenous citizens, and it comes at a critical time. ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/dozens-of-women-vanish-on-canada-s-highway-of-tears-1.2660100
 
Phoenix Serial Shootings: Four More Crimes Added to Deadly Pattern

Investigators have now released a sketch of the gunman, who is suspected of killing seven peoplesince March 18. The motive is unknown.

"It's scary just knowing that somebody is out there taking innocent lives — someone's mother, someone's daughter — for no reason, and nobody has any answers," said BreAngela White, who just learned that her mother's April 19 slaying was linked to the others.

Last month, cops announced that they had connected four shootings in the Maryvale neighborhood in which victims were ambushed outside their homes, near their cars. Law enforcement sources told NBC News that physical evidence links the murders.

As part of the investigation, police began reviewing all shootings since the start of the year — a process that revealed four more crimes as part of the pattern. In two, the victims were wounded; in a third, a woman was killed. The fourth involved gunshots fired into an empty car. ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ore-crimes-added-to-deadly-pattern/ar-BBugSnX
 
The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.

I stumbled across this horrible case today, as I was researching another Walter Collins - a British light music composer!

As I was looking for a picture, it was the sad fate of a younger American Walter Collins which caught my eye,

He died at the hands of serial sex-killer Gordon Stewart Northcott, who enlisted his own mother to assist in the crime.

The subsequent treatment of Walter Collins' mother by the police beggars belief. I thought I had heard everything but this is a shocking story of the most Gothic American kind. It's nearly ninety years ago but the horror is still palpable.

It appears to have "inspired" various film and television adaptations but it's not a tale you would need to exaggerate. :(
 
JamesWhitehead said:
The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.

I stumbled across this horrible case today, as I was researching another Walter Collins - a British light music composer!

As I was looking for a picture, it was the sad fate of a younger American Walter Collins which caught my eye,

He died at the hands of serial sex-killer Gordon Stewart Northcott, who enlisted his own mother to assist in the crime.

The subsequent treatment of Walter Collins' mother by the police beggars belief. I thought I had heard everything but this is a shocking story of the most Gothic American kind. It's nearly ninety years ago but the horror is still palpable.

It appears to have "inspired" various film and television adaptations but it's not a tale you would need to exaggerate. :(
Click to expand...

Great story.
 
I used to be fascinated with serial killers.

But then, through my work, I met and worked with many murderers. Not serial killers admittedly, but murderers nonetheless, some multiple.

To a man, every single one was a needy, self-obsessed, whiny little prat. Weak little mummy's boys.

Never been fascinated with killers since.
 
Serial killer groupies (as you do) .. a full documentary. Weird.

 
Elizabeth Wettlaufer is a Harry Potter fan. Those are the ones you need to watch.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer: What we know about murder accused nurse
  • 26 October 2016
The former nursing home worker accused of killing eight elderly residents came across as a doting daughter, an animal lover and a Harry Potter fan, according to her social media profile.

But Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer's Facebook page also hinted at personal struggles.

The 49-year-old faces eight charges of first-degree murder over the deaths in southern Ontario between the years of 2007-14.

The victims were all residents in two long-term care facilities where Ms Wettlaufer worked and were between 75 and 96 years-old.

Earlier today, a spokesperson for Caressant Care, the facility in Ms Wettlaufer's hometown of Woodstock where seven of the residents died, said the accused had not been their employee for about two and a half years.

Neighbours in the apartment building where Ms Wettlaufer resided described her as a pleasant person who lived alone with her dog.

"We would chat and have laughs. She seemed like an everyday, normal kind of person," Derek Gilbert told CBC.

On the Ontario College of Nurse's website, her profile states that she became a registered nurse in June 1995 but that she resigned on 30 September 2016.

The profile also lists her former surname as Parker, and notes that she is facing murder charges and in currently being held in custody. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37770264?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
ASHLAND, Ohio – Authorities in Ohio have identified the remains of a woman whose death has been connected to a man suspected in the killings of at least three other women.

A coroner identified the woman whose body was found in September near Mansfield as Candice Cunningham. Media reports say she had been living with Shawn Grate this past summer.

Grate has been charged in the deaths of two women whose bodies were found in a house thought to be vacant in Ashland. He has been jailed since September.

Authorities say that following his arrest, Grate confessed to killing two other women, including Cunningham. He hasn't been charged in those two deaths.

His attorneys haven't returned phone calls seeking comment.

The identity of a fourth woman linked to Grate still hasn't been determined.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/01/body-linked-to-man-suspected-killing-women-is-identified.html
 
Authorities have found a third body on the property of Todd Kohlhepp, the South Carolina real estate agent accused of murder and kidnapping.

The body, found Monday, was close to another body recovered the day before, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger told reporters. Not much is known about the two bodies. Tests by the coroner's office are to begin Tuesday.
"I can't state male or female, and ages," Clevenger said. "I can't state how long they've been deceased or how long they've been buried. There are a number of things I don't know at this moment, because I've got some more testing I've got to do."

Last week, authorities found the body of 32-year-old Charles Carver on Kohlhepp's farm near Woodruff, in northwest South Carolina. Carver was the boyfriend of Kala Brown, who was rescued from a metal shipping container on Kohlhepp's property.

Kohlhepp was arrested last week after authorities found the chained Brown, who was screaming for help. Kohlhepp confessed to a series of killings, authorities said.

The registered sex offender faces murder and kidnapping charges. Authorities say he could be connected to at least seven homicides.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/08/us/south-carolina-murders-todd-kohlhepp/index.html
 
Serial Killer? Cop Shooter's Gun Tied to 5 Earlier Homicides

Police who killed an Alaska cop shooter over the weekend said Tuesday they have linked the man's gun to at least five other homicides this year in Anchorage, where residents have been on edge about a possible serial killer.

The man, identified as James Dale Ritchie, 40, wheeled around and shot Anchorage police Officer Arn Salao multiple times before dawn Saturday as he tried to stop Ritchie for allegedly having stiffed a cabdriver, authorities said Tuesday.

"The gun was unloaded on this officer," Police Chief Chris Tolley said at a briefing late Tuesday morning. Salao and Sgt. Marc Patzke returned fire, and Ritchie died at the scene, said Tolley, who described both officers as heroes.

Salao remained hospitalized Tuesday after two emergency operations, said police, who would say only that he was out of intensive care and was "recovering."

Ballistics tests later showed that Ritchie's gun, a Colt Python .357 revolver, was also used in two double homicides and in a fifth killing in Anchorage this year, Tolley said. The bodies of the four victims of the double homicides were all found along bike trails, while the fifth victim's bicycle was stolen by his killer, police said.

"It is just heartbreaking," Tolley said.

At least four other people have been killed under similar circumstances this year, police have said — making a total of nine possibly related homicides. Anchorage averages about a dozen homicides a year, but it has already topped 25 this year. ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...rs-gun-tied-to-5-earlier-homicides/ar-AAklsIo
 
ramonmercado said:
The London Underground Serial Killer: Separating Truth From Urban Legend

News broke yesterday of a possible serial killer operating on the London Underground in the 1970s, murdering up to 18 people by pushing them under trains. Worse: Scotland Yard has been accused of covering up the killings for the sake of avoiding panic.

Former detective Geoff Platt claims that convicted murderer Kiernan Kelly confessed to the killings in 1984 after murdering his cell-mate William Boyd. Kelly, described as ‘a violent drifter’, then confessed to murdering two other men in London in the 1970s for which he was convicted. He had already been charged with attempted murder when he allegedly pushed a man in front of a train at Kensington station in 1984 but was acquitted. The reports do not say which ‘Kensington station’.

Geoff Platt claimed to have been one of the police officers present when Kelly made his confession after murdering William Boyd.

"He was loaded with testosterone and adrenaline, mentally, physically and sexually aroused and could not stop talking about what he had done. He was asked if he had murdered his cellmate and he admitted that he had, and, unprompted, he then went on to admit that he had also previously killed fifteen other people. There being no evidence to support this claim, the police officers refused to accept his story and Kelly had to work very hard to convince them that he was telling the truth."

The reported number of murders varies from 18 in the Independent and 16 in the Mirror as well as the above 15. Platt claimed that Scotland Yard and/or "press officers working for the Government" suppressed this confession to prevent terror on the London Underground.

http://londonist.com/2015/07/the-london-underground-serial-killer-separating-truth-from-urban-legend
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A radio documentary about this case.

Anatomy of an Irish Serial Killer
Kieran Patrick Kelly from Rathdowney in Co. Laois is purported to have murdered up to 31 individuals between 1953 and 1983 in the UK. Could this be true? Robert Mulhern unravels a curious tale of murders, confessions, contradictions and a book deal (2016)

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2016/1110/830624-anatomy-of-an-irish-serial-killer/
 
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