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Why was she ever released? A second killing less than a year after first release. I would consider that a high risk reoffender.
Well from the report it seems she stabbed the girlfriend to death in 1985 & was sentenced to 6 - 12 years in prison but was only released in 2019 - 34 years later.

I can only assume they thought he/she would be low risk at the age of 80. Wrong assumption as it happens..
 
No, he served 20 years for the first murder, then shortly after killed another one and did time again. This murder was after the second release. Perhaps technically a serial killer, but it seems a wrong description.
 
No, he served 20 years for the first murder, then shortly after killed another one and did time again. This murder was after the second release. Perhaps technically a serial killer, but it seems a wrong description.

On FBI site:.

There has been at least one attempt to formalize a definition of serial murder through legislation. In 1998, a federal law was passed by the United States Congress, titled: Protection of Children from Sexual Predator Act of 1998 (Title 18, United States Code, Chapter 51, and Section 1111). This law includes a definition of serial killings:
.
The term ‘serial killings’ means a series of three or more killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors.

An FBI organised symposium came to the following conclusions:

The different discussion groups at the Symposium agreed on a number of similar factors to be included in a definition. These included:

• one or more offenders
• two or more murdered victims
• incidents should be occurring in separate events, at different times
• the time period between murders separates serial murder from mass murder

In combining the various ideas put forth at the Symposium, the following definition was crafted:

Serial Murder: The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events.


https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder#two
 
Yes, technically a serial killer as mentioned.
 
Looks like a rather nasty serial killer was/is at work.

Police have arrested a man following a string of five shootings - all targeting homeless people as they slept.

A masked gunman struck five times in nine days in both New York and Washington DC. Two of the men died. One's tent was set on fire, after he was stabbed and shot.

On Tuesday, only two days after a multi-state manhunt was launched, DC police said a suspect had been arrested for homicide. DC's Metropolitan Police Department had posted new photos of the suspect, offering a reward up to $55,000 (£$42,000) for tips that led to his arrest and conviction. Hours later, they announced there had been an arrest.

According to detectives, the "modus operandi" had been the same in each case.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60752390
 

Suspect in deadly shooting spree of DC, NYC homeless people arrested


A suspect in the serial killing and shooting of homeless people in the Big Apple and Washington, DC, was arrested early Tuesday in the capital, police announced.

The gunman – identified by a high-ranking police official as Gerald Brevard III, 30 – was busted when investigators tracked him down at a DC gas station, officials said.

homeless-killer-21.jpg


Police believe the same handgun was used in all the shootings, with ballistics linking at least one shooting in each city.

The first linked attack was on March 3 in DC, which was followed by two more shootings there, including the first fatality, who was found dead in a burning tent in the early hours of March 9.

He was initially thought to have suffered fatal burns, but a subsequent autopsy revealed that the man had died of multiple stab and gunshot wounds.

The suspect in the homeless shootings on security footage.

The suspect in the homeless shootings on security footage.@DCPoliceDept/Twitter

By Saturday, Brevard was in the Big Apple, where a security camera in Soho caught the chilling images of someone shooting a homeless man on King Street around 4:30 a.m., wounding the victim.

The victim screamed and the gunman fled, police said.

An hour later, cameras on Lafayette Street captured him kicking a homeless man wrapped in a sleeping bag, before drawing his gun and firing — an execution at point-blank range.

“He looked around. He made sure no one was there. And he intentionally took the life of an innocent person,” Adams said.

DC Police Chief Robert Contee III said Monday that “a ton of video and camera footage” had helped point to the same man.

https://nypost.com/2022/03/15/suspect-in-deadly-shooting-spree-of-dc-nyc-homeless-people-arrested/

maximus otter
 
In the U.S. there may be a breakthrough on the person known as the I-65 killer.

FBI apparently to make an announcement:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...sedgntp&cvid=1ba1beb6621243f9a0caf667203f9b0a

Indiana State Police and FBI officials have identified Harry Edward Greenwell as the alleged killer.

According to ISP, Sgt. Glen Fifield DNA results used to identify Greenwell were “99.999% positive.”

Greenwell, however, died of cancer in 2013, officials said.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18175194/days-inn-killer-named-harry-edward-greenwell/

:mad:

maximus otter
 
Indiana State Police and FBI officials have identified Harry Edward Greenwell as the alleged killer.

According to ISP, Sgt. Glen Fifield DNA results used to identify Greenwell were “99.999% positive.”

Greenwell, however, died of cancer in 2013, officials said.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18175194/days-inn-killer-named-harry-edward-greenwell/

:mad:

maximus otter
Well, I think there is a measure of happiness in this news - the guy is dead and can't kill or hurt anyone else. I am shocked to discover that some of my Fellow Fortean Travelers are more bloodthirsty vengeful justice-seeking than I am. :)
 
I was going to put this in the WTF thread but I can't find it but I guess here is just as appropriate.

Apparently Levi Bellfield has asked to get married in prison!!

https://news.sky.com/story/levi-bel...l-killers-request-for-prison-wedding-12611017

Let him get married, if it's refused it'll only get him more publicity as the story runs and runs. Ideally the wedding should be ignored by the MSM but the tabloids will squeeze every possible sale out of it with faux outrage and fury.
 
He was obsessed with serial killing and went to murder this woman.

A man fascinated with serial killers murdered 18-year-old Bobbie-Anne McLeod, who was abducted from a bus stop in Plymouth, a court heard.

Cody Ackland was obsessed with serial killers, in particular Ted Bundy, and had searched the internet for Fred West and Ivan Milat in the weeks leading up to the murder. Miss McLeod's body was found in woodland in November 2021. Ackland, 24, pleaded guilty to murder at an earlier hearing.

Prosecuting at the sentencing hearing, Richard Posner told Plymouth Crown Court Ackland had searched DIY stores for tools including hammers, crowbars and cutting tools.

"Cody Ackland led a double life," the prosecutor said. "He held such an unhealthy fascination and desire to imitate serial killers. His fascination was to become an unimaginable wicked reality for Bobbi-Anne."

The court heard that Ackland struck Bobbi-Anne McLeod on the head with a claw hammer at the bus stop in Leigham as she waited for her bus between 18:05 and 18:15 GMT.


https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-61506642
 
'Fascination with serial killers' applies to a lot of people who don't go off and buy hammers to murder people with. If I was on the jury that would cut no ice with me at all. It's like assuming everyone who was abused in childhood goes on to be an abuser. Or like fitting up the local 'odd' person when you've no idea who the killer is.

You'd hope that not the way the police think any more. But apparently it still is.
 
'Fascination with serial killers' applies to a lot of people who don't go off and buy hammers to murder people with. If I was on the jury that would cut no ice with me at all. It's like assuming everyone who was abused in childhood goes on to be an abuser. Or like fitting up the local 'odd' person when you've no idea who the killer is.

You'd hope that not the way the police think any more. But apparently it still is.
I think you’ve grasped the wrong end of the stick. Those aren’t the Police’s words but the Prosecution's & he wasn’t pleading mitigation but stating fact. According to the report he actually said:

"He held such an unhealthy fascination and desire to imitate serial killers. His fascination was to become an unimaginable wicked reality for Bobbi-Anne.”

I can’t see any reason to badmouth the police in this case - the guy confessed & has been jailed for a minimum of 31 years.
 
I think you’ve grasped the wrong end of the stick. Those aren’t the Police’s words but the Prosecution's & he wasn’t pleading mitigation but stating fact. According to the report he actually said:

"He held such an unhealthy fascination and desire to imitate serial killers. His fascination was to become an unimaginable wicked reality for Bobbi-Anne.”

I can’t see any reason to badmouth the police in this case - the guy confessed & has been jailed for a minimum of 31 years.
I'm not 'badmouthing' the police. It's a job I couldn't do. However, anyone who studies the process of justice will very soon come to realise that many people involved in the process have fixed ideas on stereotyping. Dignify it with profiling if you like. Or you could go further than I would and call it institutional prejudice.

The evidence in this case hopefully will be conclusive. But because the suspect pleaded guilty it wasn't tested in court. The suspect _may_ have been coerced into pleading guilty. Possibly on the promise of leniency.

And then the prosecution is using emotional pleas to the judge to get a more severe sentence. This I dislike.

I have seen this railroading process in operation on a member of my own family, on a lesser crime, with the result that I have no idea to this day whether he/she was guilty or not. If all the evidence had been exposed in open court I'd at least have had full information.

I don't believe people in the justice system are all good or all bad, but they are a results driven bureaucracy and not everyone is immune to temptation.
 
I'm not 'badmouthing' the police. It's a job I couldn't do. However, anyone who studies the process of justice will very soon come to realise that many people involved in the process have fixed ideas on stereotyping. Dignify it with profiling if you like. Or you could go further than I would and call it institutional prejudice.

The evidence in this case hopefully will be conclusive. But because the suspect pleaded guilty it wasn't tested in court. The suspect _may_ have been coerced into pleading guilty. Possibly on the promise of leniency.

And then the prosecution is using emotional pleas to the judge to get a more severe sentence. This I dislike.

I have seen this railroading process in operation on a member of my own family, on a lesser crime, with the result that I have no idea to this day whether he/she was guilty or not. If all the evidence had been exposed in open court I'd at least have had full information.

I don't believe people in the justice system are all good or all bad, but they are a results driven bureaucracy and not everyone is immune to temptation.
I can’t comment on your relation’s case but in this one I don’t see much to criticise. The guy seemingly was fascinated by serial killing etc then acted on it.

Police found 3216 images ‘of a disturbing nature’ on his phone. He abducted & murdered Bobby-Anne McLeod then confessed. 31 years I'm not qualified to assess as too long or too lenient. I wouldn't argue with it though.
 
I can’t comment on your relation’s case but in this one I don’t see much to criticise. The guy seemingly was fascinated by serial killing etc then acted on it.

Police found 3216 images ‘of a disturbing nature’ on his phone. He abducted & murdered Bobby-Anne McLeod then confessed. 31 years I'm not qualified to assess as too long or too lenient. I wouldn't argue with it though.
Look, I have no idea of the detailed circumstances. I'm criticising the use of the 'fascination with serial killers' as a justification for a longer sentence.

Images of a disturbing nature? I've got crime scene images - the standard ones of Mary Jane Kelly the last Ripper victim - on my laptop. . I would suspect there have been few more disturbing images outside of war or holocaust.

It's only in my wilder imaginings that I fear it might be why he was a suspect and maybe coerced into a confession - I have no evidence for that. But then, because he plead guilty, we have no information on the strength of the evidence against him. And don't tell me no-one has been coerced into a confession - there are examples. But again, I'm not suggesting that's what always happens - but it can and has.
 
Or like fitting up the local 'odd' person when you've no idea who the killer is.

You'd hope that not the way the police think any more. But apparently it still is.

a) Ackland surrendered himself and admitted his vile crime. He had been sentenced - IIRC - to a minimum of 31 years.

b) “Fitting up” means actively framing someone for a murder. I’m not aware of this happening in decades, though I’m open to correction.

maximus otter
 
a) Ackland surrendered himself and admitted his vile crime. He had been sentenced - IIRC - to a minimum of 31 years.

b) “Fitting up” means actively framing someone for a murder. I’m not aware of this happening in decades, though I’m open to correction.

maximus otter
Barry George? Colin Stagg? The two separate 'Cardiff Threes'? There are others.

Maybe don't meet your exact definition of 'fitting up'.

I'm not suggesting this is normal practice. But it happens.
 
Look, I have no idea of the detailed circumstances. I'm criticising the use of the 'fascination with serial killers' as a justification for a longer sentence.

Images of a disturbing nature? I've got crime scene images - the standard ones of Mary Jane Kelly the last Ripper victim - on my laptop. . I would suspect there have been few more disturbing images outside of war or holocaust.

It's only in my wilder imaginings that I fear it might be why he was a suspect and maybe coerced into a confession - I have no evidence for that. But then, because he plead guilty, we have no information on the strength of the evidence against him. And don't tell me no-one has been coerced into a confession - there are examples. But again, I'm not suggesting that's what always happens - but it can and has.
Well, again according to the reports, he wasn’t ‘fitted up’ or became a suspect because of images on his phone - that’s not how it happened. He freely walked into the police station & admitted the murder. It’s the prosecution’s job to get a conviction & he doesn’t seem to have exaggerated wildly in his language as reported.

The fact that others have been ‘fitted up’ by police previously has no bearing on this case. You seem to be worrying his sentence is too harsh for the crime of abduction/murder. It remains to be seen whether he recants his confession due to coercion.

I suspect that unless you go on a murdering spree the images on your computer will go unnoticed.
 
Well, again according to the reports, he wasn’t ‘fitted up’ or became a suspect because of images on his phone - that’s not how it happened. He freely walked into the police station & admitted the murder. It’s the prosecution’s job to get a conviction & he doesn’t seem to have exaggerated wildly in his language as reported.

The fact that others have been ‘fitted up’ by police previously has no bearing on this case. You seem to be worrying his sentence is too harsh for the crime of abduction/murder. It remains to be seen whether he recants his confession due to coercion.

I suspect that unless you go on a murdering spree the images on your computer will go unnoticed.
Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree, although I'm by no means sure you are getting the point I'm trying to make, which is no doubt my fault in failing to make it clearly.
 
When I was still at school, a female friend of mine used to say that if she was ever murdered, the press would report that she had a macabre fascination with serial killers, as she had a few books on them - and this was over 30 years ago. My cyber-friend in the US likes nothing better than true crime TV. There have always been people interested in serial killers, some of them very unlikely, but most of them don't then go out and do what this particular scumbag did. So I can see this discussion from both sides. (I will also add that I went to Uni on Plymouth, as did my eldest, and he now has a house not that far from where the victim's body was dumped...)
 
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