Colorado Serial Killers.
Colorful Colorado. The “purple mountains majesty” Katherine Lee Bates wrote about. Home of the adventurer, the brave, and the Broncos. The most beautiful playground in the U.S—maybe the world. Born and raised, so maybe I’m biased. Whatever the truth, nothing bad can happen in such a glorious space. Right?
Unfortunately, heinous acts occur everywhere. Gone are the days where screen doors were once left open, ‘”in case anyone wants to pop by” – or leaving the house unlocked at night. You wouldn’t dare leave your keys in the ignition as you run in for groceries, nor let your kids roam free until dark. Big cities, small towns – it doesn’t matter where you are these days. Crime doesn’t discriminate. Even when it comes to gender.
Many find it difficult to believe women can be serial killers. And while it’s true most serial killers are male this is not exclusive. Colorado had a rather notorious serial killer in her midst back in the 1970’s, known as the Black Widow. Judy Buenoano, (a poor attempt at a Spanish translation of “Goodyear”) poisoned four victims, three of whom died. After having a baby as a teen, Judy married James Goodyear. Sadly, upon his return from Vietnam, Judy added poison to her husband’s daily “special vitamin C drink” and he died within four months. Luckily, the merry widow was able to collect her husband’s life insurance policy, and VA benefits.
Next, Judy set her sights on Bobby Morris, a Colorado resident. To her credit, Judy seemed to find happiness with Morris—for a few years. Apparently confident after getting away with one murder, Judy dipped back into the same well, poisoning Morris to death. And just as fast, cashed in on his life insurance policy. Killing, as it turned out, was a surprisingly lucrative way to make a living.
Judy’s next victim was her own son, who lost the use of his legs due to arsenic poisoning. He drowned when Judy threw him off a boat, watching as he sunk to his death. Her fourth victim, fiancé John Gentry, was persuaded to make Judy the beneficiary of a large life insurance policy, while feeding him poison. But when he refused to die, Judy (possibly feeling a bit put out) became impatient and tried to blow Gentry up in his car. Luckily Gentry proved surprisingly resilient, and survived the car bomb. To this day, he is the only known survivor of Buenoano.
Judy was executed in 1998 by (not lethal injection, which would have been too ironic) electrocution.
Colorado’s law enforcement history has a couple of
“what were you thinking?” moments, when it comes to serial killers. Scott Lee Kimball is one of those
“oops!” scenarios the FBI would rather not recall. Kimball, who was in prison for check fraud, was released early to become an FBI informant (despite having escaped from a Montana prison). Under public supervision, Kimball began his life as a snitch for the feds. During his down time, however, Kimball honed a second skill—murdering young women and dumping their bodies in the nearby mountains. His first victim, LeAnn Emry, was on her way to Mexico to go spelunking when Kimball attacked. He says he only shot her twice in the back, and
killed her, because she was trying to get away from him (ponder that logic for a moment). About two weeks later, Kimball claimed that no, in fact he
wasn’t the one who shot Jennifer Marcum—but he did give her a lethal dose of heroin. Most disturbingly, after killing his third victim (nineteen-year-old Kaysi McLeod), he married her living mother, honeymooning not far from where he’d dumped Kaysi’s body. ...
https://crimereads.com/the-unsettling-history-of-serial-killers-in-colorado/