15. SERIAL KILLER COINCIDENTAL CATCHINGS

Just as each individual serial killer has their own unique methods of stalking, killing, and disposing of their victims, they also have their own unique ways of ending their killing sprees. In most cases serial killers carry on killing as long as possible. They take all the precautions they can think of and are usually not stopped until enough detective work and evidence gathering is done. Often times, one does not think they will actually get away with it. Maybe they hope they will but apparently what’s more important to these types is their uncontrollable urges to kill. For one insane reason or another they find the urge to kill simply irresistible. However, when they actually do get away with it they feel invincible and are bound to strike again and again and again. If they are successful too many times they grow bolder, which leads to more killing, more notable victims, and in more public places and times. As a result they sometimes grow careless and begin to leave more and more evidence. Some may feel so invincible that they begin taunting authorities, the public or even sometimes the families of their victims. This can lead to their undoing, as was the case with Albert Fish. He felt it necessary to write a letter to the mother of 12 year old Grace Budd, a girl he’d strangled to death and cannibalized afterwards, to explain in detail the atrocities carried out on her daughter and to let her know how much pleasure he’d gotten out of it. This very letter would prove to be his demise. The foolish old man had a return address simply scribbled out on the envelope he sent it in. A lousy precaution possibly brought about by a feeling of invincibility. In some cases it is pure luck that they are able to get away with any of it and vice versa it is sometimes pure luck that leads to them being caught.
John George Haigh, otherwise known as the Acid Bath Murderer operated in the early 20th century. His victims were anyone he could gain a profit from after death. His weapon of choice varied but his method of disposal was always the same. His victims were kept in 40 gallon vaults of sulfuric acid until they dissolved; afterwards the sludgy remains were dumped down a sewer drain.
He was born in Britain in 1909 and his childhood surrounded by strict religious beliefs. In this particular case the religious upbringing led to a criminal lifestyle, most likely it all started as rebellion. Before he was a murderer he was a scam artist, but apparently not a very good one. He was arrested on fraud charges by the age of 24. He served 15 months for that offense. A little over a year after his release he was in trouble with the law again. This time it was due to a phony solicitors office he’d set up to run stock market scams. He served 4 years this time around. Again it was only about a year after his release that John found himself back to his old tricks. He was back in prison for scamming a young lady friend of his family. He chose to spend his time behind bars wisely (or so he thought) and studied law in an attempt to piece together the perfect crime. It was during these studies that he made the worst misconception of his life. He read in his law books that without a corpus delicti no conviction of murder could be made. The Latin term he believed meant a body actually meant a body of evidence confirming a crime has been committed. So at this point he came to the conclusion that the only thing between him and his riches were human bodies. He set out to find a way to completely destroy human bodies thus leading him to his famous method of disposal, dissolving the people in vaults of sulfuric acid. He was able to practice on field mice while in jail. He calculated how long it took for the mice to be dissolved and figured about how long it would take on a human.
In 1943, at the age of 34 he was released and ready to begin. He reconnected with an old friend named William McSwan who became John’s first unfortunate victim. After being bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe his body was dissolved and dumped in the sewers. John had forged documents which helped him gain power of attorney of his old friend's estate. To avoid Williams's parents from becoming suspicious John sent them a letter telling them their son had left for Scotland to avoid the draft. Yet McSwan’s parents were not persuaded their son would leave without telling them himself. When they pried too far Haigh disposed of them the same way he had their offspring.
He then took out a couple by the name of Henderson, this time shooting both in the head before dissolving their remains. Following the Henderson’s down the sewer was 69 year old widow, Olivia Durand Deacon. Friends missed her and went to authorities. The last they’d heard from her she was headed to John’s workshop, never to be seen again. Police confronted John George Haigh and in his possession was some of Olivia’s jewelry. When faced with this undeniable evidence John grew smug and challenged authorities. Seeing as he’d destroyed all traces of evidence, he claimed, you cannot convict me. He was of course dead wrong. And, had such a law even existed he’d failed in his attempts of destroying everything. In the sewers investigators recovered 28 lbs of human fat, 3 gallstones, 18 bone fragments, a piece of a foot, and Olivia’s dentures. Haigh attempted and failed at an insanity plea, even after taking himself so far into his lie that he drank a cup of his own urine. He was found guilty and hanged Aug 6, 1949.
Fritz Haarman, otherwise known as the Butcher of Hanover was not discovered until he made a careless mistake as well. His killing spree began in 1919, the same year he met his homosexual lover Hans Grans. Hans would select the victims (young boys and men) and Fritz was responsible for killing them. Sometimes he’d disguise himself as a cop to lure his victims in. Once in his clutches they were sexually assaulted before having their throats torn out by Fritz’s teeth. The total amount of men or boys who died at the hands (or teeth) of Fritz Haarman is unknown. As one final insulting atrocity to his victims Fritz would sell the meat from the bodies to the black market. The clothes from the victims were also sold if Fritz or Hans did not want them. The bones were thrown into a lake. On June 22, 1929 Fritz was caught trying to molest a young boy. Besides the fact that a search warrant was soon to be carried out on his home that would turn up much evidence, and the fact that fishermen were pulling up bones instead of fish, Fritz was also discovered when the mother of one of his victims recognized her missing son’s coat on another little boy. The boy was questioned as to where he’d got the coat from and he readily led them to Fritz Haarman. Fritz quickly confessed to his crimes and Hans involvement in them. Hans was given a 12 year sentence and Fritz was put to death by beheading.
Albert Fish, the famous cannibal, targeted children, mostly black or runaways. He killed an undetermined amount of victims during an undetermined amount of time. Had he stuck with the usual blacks or runaways there is no telling if he would ever have been caught or not. However he found the urge to kill a young girl named Grace Budd irresistible. Her case was the only case given a fair amount of detective work out of all his victims, and still her killer could not be found. A manhunt carried on for 6 years to no avail. No amount of detective work was going to solve this one. It would take the careless mistake of a foolish, sick, old man. While Albert sat at home one day he noticed a cockroach in a high corner. When he climbed up to kill it he found a stationery set up on a shelf and suddenly he got a wonderful, awful idea. He decided to write a note to Grace’s mother. Grace had indeed suffered a horrendous death. Then after death her body had been disgraced in many ways. Fish felt it necessary to quote every detail of the horror story in the letter to her mother. Satisfied with his despicable letter he scribbled out the return address on the envelope and sent it along. Once she received the letter, Grace’s horrified mother turned it over to the authorities. They were easily able to read the address that had been scribbled out and shortly thereafter Albert was arrested for Grace’s murder. He confessed to her murder and many more and then claimed that angels and God himself had been telling him to sacrifice children. He had been placed in an orphanage at the age of 5 where the typical punishment was to be stripped naked and beaten in front of the other orphans. He later said the only thing he learned there was to enjoy everything that hurt, a strange fact that was confirmed by the 27 sewing needles found jabbed in and around his crotch area. Fish said that he had jammed them in to help him climax. The jury did find him insane but regardless he was sentenced to death. They felt insane or not he deserved to die for what he’d done. On January 16, 1936 he sat in Sing Sings electric chair and was pronounced dead only minutes later.
Before Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy there was Arnold Karl Sodeman. Like Gacy he was married and had children. He worked and lived in South Yerra district of Melbourne, Australia. He was charismatic, well-known, and well-loved by friends and family. However, when left alone with his victim of choice he transformed into a hideous monster.
On November 9, 1930 Arnold spotted his first victim, 12 year old Mena Griffiths, with two friends playing on a swing set. He sent the two lucky girls off with some coins to buy sweets, keeping Mena behind for a “special errand”. A special errand he had for her indeed. Once alone he gagged the helpless little girl and strangled her to death. Her body was found two days later in an abandoned house. For one reason or another police suspicions took a wrong turn and an innocent man was arrested and convicted of Mena’s murder. Then in January of 1931, 16 year old Hazel Wilson was found murdered in the exact same manner as Mena had been. The innocent man was released. Arnold did not attack again until five years later in January of 1936. Ethal Belshaw’s body was found, her fate, the same as Mena’s and Hazel’s before her. In this case Arnold was questioned and found not to be a suspect. Again an innocent man was charged with the murder, but authorities realized their mistake sooner this time and not quite as much damage was caused. One year later Arnold took out a fourth girl, 6 year old June Rushmer. Witnesses said they’d last seen the girl with a man on a bike. Other than this witness account, there were not many leads. That was the case until one day a man came to the police with what he thought was suspicious behavior he’d observed in a co-worker named Arnold Karl Sodeman. While he and the guys were casually having a lunch break and discussing the current murder of 6 year old June one man said to Sodeman “Hey didn’t I see you walking your bike down the street that day?” In response Arnold turned bright red and answered angrily “No you bloody didn’t! I wasn’t there!” After his outburst he slammed his tea down and stormed off. Only two days later Arnold was in jail with a lynch mob nipping at his heels. Although Sodeman confessed police were a little apprehensive as they’d already falsely arrested and imprisoned two men before him. He proved himself guilty beyond all reasonable doubt when he showed authorities his special method of strangling his victims, explaining the previously unexplainable, unique bruising around the girl's necks. Also, seeing as he had lured his victims with sweets he was able to confirm what the victim's last meal had been. He pleaded insanity, but was convicted and hanged on January 1, 1936.
The Beast of the Black Forrest, otherwise known as Heinrick Pommerencke made the careless mistake of leaving his gun (a murder weapon) behind after leaving a tailor shop. The tailor reported it to police and they were able to trace it back to Heinrick.
Born in Bentwich, Heinrick claims as a child he had no friends. By the age of 15 he’d taken up the habit of hanging outside dance halls trying to pick up women. Those who rejected him were sometimes beaten and/or raped. In 1953 he was forced into voluntary exile to Switzerland where he was arrested anyhow on other charges. By 1957 he’d accumulated quite a criminal record. He was charged in countless rape cases, served a year in jail for robbery, and assaulted two young English women in Austria. In 1959 he attacked Dagmer Klinek who was asleep and alone in a railway carriage. When she resisted he shoved her off the train and then signaled a stop. He hopped off and ran down the track to find Dagmer unconscious lying on the ground. She was first raped then stabbed to death.
Heinrick claimed he felt compelled to kill after watching a movie called the Ten Commandments. He was not stopped until he left his gun behind and there’s no telling how long the killing may have carried on had he not made that mistake. At the age of 23 Pommerencke was sentenced to 6 life terms and 140 years imprisonment.
When Ed Gein killed Bernice Worden he’d waited just long enough to attack. She had been in the process of writing out a receipt for Ed’s purchase when he lunged at her, but she’d had just enough time to get his name on the receipt which led authorities to his home and the discovery of his horror story. Before that day Ed Gein was perceived as just a quiet, if slightly strange sort of guy. Of a very strange sort Ed definitely was, his character molded and formed by the worlds most over-bearing mother. Even though he only killed twice he has become one of the most talked about serial killers. Originally the Gein family consisted of George and Augusta Gein and their two boys Henery and Edward. Edward was born in 1906. In 1940 his father died and in 1944 his brother died leaving 38 year old Ed alone with Augasta. It was the ideal lifestyle as far as Ed was concerned until death came a’knocking a third time, this time in search of his precious mommy. Despite the fact that she criticized him for everything he did, his mother probably was the only person who showed him any type of love. He missed her sorely. The bedrooms of his dead relatives were boarded up and Ed stayed home alone becoming what he is so well-known to be. He led a life of loneliness solved by grave robbing and little hobbies like making lampshades, chair covers, and vests out of human flesh. He had nine heads mounted on his wall, only one of which was one of his victims. The discovery of Ms. Worden’s body (or what remained of it) was by far the worst discovery to be had. It hung upside down, beheaded and gutted, handled much the same as a hunter might a deer. Her head was found under a bed half made ready to be hung on the wall with the others. Gein was for obvious reasons found insane and was institutionalized for the rest of his life. He died of natural causes at the age of 78 and was buried next to his mom.
As a patrolman you are taught to expect the unexpected, but when Randy Kraft (the Scorecard Killer) was pulled over for drunk driving, the officers on duty that night were in for quite a surprise. When they approached his car there was a strangled corpse in the passenger seat. It is all thanks to Krafts irrational driving, and the cops who noticed it, that Randy’s homosexual killing spree came to a halt.
By day Randy was a computer consultant, by night he was a crazed killer who sometimes castrated his victims before death as one of many cruel torture methods. One victim had his eyes burned out with a cigarette lighter. Often times foreign objects were found shoved in the rectum and more then once he had chewed the nipples off of his victims.
He began killing in 1972 and carried on until he was pulled over that night in 1983. He is suspect number one in 67 cases of murder however he was only charged with 16 counts of murder, 9 counts of sexual mutilation and 3 of sodomy. On November 29, 1989 he was sentenced to die in San Quentin’s gas chamber.
Arthur Shawcross (the Genesee River Killer) was caught not once but twice because he could not resist the urge to return to the scene of the crime to relive his heinous killings and relish how really horrible of a person he was.
He grew up in a home where incest ran rampant. His childhood upbringing practically guaranteed he would become a disturbing individual. According to his recollections he was molested by an aunt, sodomized by his mother, raped by a pedophile in grade school, participated in incest with his sister and cousin, forced to give oral sex to a girlfriends brother, and practiced bestiality on many types of animals, some as small as chickens others as large as horses. He’d been fairly nicknamed Oddie by his schoolmates, had problems with bed-wetting well into his teens, and enjoyed starting fires.
At 23 years of age Arthur was drafted and sent to Vietnam. During his time there he claims to have raped, slaughtered, and cannibalized two peasant women. Though likely, there is no evidence to collaborate his story. He also claims to have murdered many prostitutes in Saigon. He was discharged in 1969 after less then a year of service and suffering from a case of posttraumatic stress disorder. He returned to his home in New York where an army psychiatrist recommended he spend some time in a mental hospital. Unfortunately, Shawcross’ wife would hear of no such thing and refused her signature on the commitment papers. As a result Arthur’s bad habits resurfaced. He was back to lighting fires, one of which caused $280.000 worth of damage at a paper factory he used to work at. He was sentenced to five years for that mess, but was released after only two years when he saved the life of a prison guard caught in a sticky situation. Then on June 4, 1972, less then a year after his release Arthur killed for the first time (that he has proof of anyway). While strolling through the woods one day he came across Jack Blake, a ten year old neighbor boy who was stuck waste deep in a mud hole and crying for help. At first Arthur responded as any normal person would and helped Jack out of the pit. Once the boy was on dry land Arthur orders him to go home and clean up. Instead Jack follows Arthur deeper into the wood. When Jack becomes a nuisance Shawcross lashes out at him and throws a fatal blow into the boy's throat. Afterwards he was raped and strangled. Arthur cannibalized his penis, genitals, and heart. Yet Arthur, who never got enough, insisted on returning to the crime scene to relive the kill and commit necrophilia on the corpse. The boy was buried in a degradingly shallow grave.
About three months later in September of 1972 he struck again. This time his victim was 8 year old Karen Ann Hill. The helpless little girl was raped and buried alive. Leaves and wet mud were crammed in her mouth and nose to suffocate her. Later that same day, true to character, Arthur returned to the scene and sat there happily licking an ice cream cone. He was spotted by more then one witness and indicated as a suspect as soon as Karen’s body was found. He confessed to the murder of Karen and Jack and was sentenced to 25 years. Amazingly enough, he was paroled in only 15 years. His parole officer wrote: the writer considers this man to be possibly the most dangerous individual to have been released to the community in many years. Yet, the system released him anyway. As a result 11 more people died at the hands of Arthur Shawcross. In January 1988 he picked up a 27 year old prostitute. She was strangled to death and her body flung into the Genesee River. He targeted hookers mostly, sometimes eating their sex organs and always returning for necrophilia. One of his victims was a slightly retarded woman of 30 he was casually acquainted with. Again his compulsion to return to the kill sight proved to be his demise. In June of 1990 he was spotted by a helicopter, masturbating over the same bridge he threw bodies over. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 consecutive 25 year terms.
The very infamous Son of Sam also damned himself with a stupid and careless mistake. His cowardly method of attack was to approach cars and shoot its occupants suddenly, and then run off like a thief (or murderer) in the night. His first shootings were on July 29, 1976. Donna Lauria was killed, her friend 19 year old Jody Valente was wounded, while they sat in a car outside Donna’s apartment. On October 23 he wounded Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan while they sat in a car outside a bar. On November 27 he wounded both Donna Demas and Joanne Lumino while they sat in a car outside Joanne’s home. All victims had been shot with a .44 Bulldog earning him his original nickname the .44 Killer. He struck again on January 30 of 1977. Christine Freund was killed, John Diel was unharmed. Again on March 8 this time the victim was randomly selected and shot dead while she walked along the street. April 14 Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau were both killed in a car. This time David left a letter in which he scuffed at the nickname the press came up with and suggested his own, Son of Sam. June 26 Salvator Lupo and Judith Plecido were wounded in a car. July 31, Stacy Moscowitz was killed and Robert Violante was blinded. When he returned to his car after this attack he found a parking ticket left on his car and in a fit of rage cursed and threw the ticket on the ground. A woman walking her dog just so happened to see the whole thing. She thought it rather odd and told police about it. A trace of tickets issued the night before in her area brought up the name David Berkowitz. When confronted he confessed willingly. On August 23, 1977 he was sentenced to 365 years in Attica prison, NY.
Dennis Nilsen was born November 23,1945. After a troubled childhood, an awkward time growing up, and years of military service, Dennis took to luring young men back to his apartment and murdering them. Afterwards he’d keep the bodies hidden under some floorboards, taking them out from time to time for company, bathing, or necrophilia. He began killing in1978 and was not caught until 1983 by a stupid yet huge mistake. He thought it might be a good idea to flush the dismembered remains of his victims down the toilet. Shortly thereafter the whole apartment building was having plumbing problems. Plumbers were called and upon inspection of the sewer drain they found what they felt sure were human remains. The plumbers phoned the manager who said he’d come and look at it in the morning. The plumber on duty spoke with Dennis and asked if he ever flushed dog food down his toilet. Dennis shrugged him off. Overnight Dennis went out to the manhole, climbed in, and began to collect, with his bare hands, the chunks of human flesh. He dumped them in bags which he then carried out and dumped them behind a garden hedge. Two of his neighbors had heard him moving about and tampering with the manhole. The next day when the plumber returned with his manager and once in the sewers again he was furious and flabbergasted to find the change. Determined to prove he was not crazy he plunged his hand in and fished through the feces and came up with a hand full of flesh and bone. The plumber questioned neighbors who told him about Dennis toying with the manhole the night before. Immediately police were called. They approached Dennis with their find and he tried to fake surprise and disgust. Then they asked him, “Where’s the rest of the body?” He answered by opening a closet with bags of human remains inside. He confessed to16 murders and was charged with 6 counts of murder and 2 counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to a mandatory life.
Some of the mistakes made were truly careless mistakes. More often then not, after one gets away with murder time and again they feel everything is under control, their control, and fate is on their side. Yet sometimes killers have claimed that they were careless on purpose because they wanted to be caught. Either way it’s a shame the mistakes could not have been made sooner.