Sip of Sins Forensic Files

February 18, 1999

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (APBnews.com) -- Convicted killer Faryion Edward Wardrip, who served 11 years in prison for suffocating a 21-year-old waitress, has confessed to killing four other Texas women in the mid-1980s.

Wichita County District Attorney Barry Macha told APB News today that Wardrip admitted that he killed college student Terry Lee Sims in 1984 and three other women in 1985.

Wardrip, 39, was charged last week with capital murder in the stabbing death of Sims, and two more counts of capital murder were added Tuesday for the killings of Toni Gibbs and Ellen Blau. He was indicted by a grand jury in the Sims and Blau slayings Wednesday.

Wardrip will be arraigned on the Sims and Blau cases in the next few weeks, while the Gibbs case will go to trial in neighboring Archer County on March 5, Macha said.

10 unsolved killings

Macha said Wardrip has also admitted strangling 25-year-old Fort Worth homemaker Debra Taylor, whose body was found in a grove of trees on March 29, 1985, five days after she disappeared. Fort Worth investigators arrived at Wichita County jail Wednesday to question Wardrip about the Taylor case, and he has yet to be charged.

The Taylor homicide was one of 10 unsolved cases that occurred about the same period that Wardrip admitted he killed the other women.

Macha said he does not know if there will be any additional charges filed against Wardrip but said he is convinced a number of unsolved cases will get a fresh look.

"I do expect more re-examination of those files," said Macha.

It was a combination of "old-fashioned police work" and modern DNA analysis that connected Wardrip to the murders and helped crack cold cases that had stumped police, Macha said.

DNA clears two

"Police had been looking at different suspects in all the cases," he said. "After two suspects were cleared by DNA in the Sims and Gibbs cases all bets were off. I knew we had to start from scratch and see if these cases were related."

After discovering that the DNA from sperm found in the bodies of Sims and Gibbs matched, Macha brought in a new detective early this year to go through the files and see if any suspects' names matched.

Paroled in 1997, Wardrip had remarried, taken a job working for a screen and door factory and become a regular churchgoer, even teaching Sunday school to children at Hamilton Street Church of Christ in his hometown of Olney.

Saliva from a coffee cup

When Wardrip's name surfaced in the files, Macha sent a detective to the factory where Wardrip worked. The detective followed Wardrip until he saw him toss a used coffee cup in the waste basket, which the detective retrieved. The DNA from Wardrip's saliva on the cup matched the DNA found on Sims and Gibbs, said Macha.

The body of the first victim, Sims, a Midwestern State University education major and health care worker, was found in a friend's bathroom Dec. 20, 1984. Her hands were tied with an electrical cord. She had been stabbed 11 times and raped.

Wichita Falls terrorized

Sims' murder was one of four that occurred in Wichita Falls over an 18-month period, terrifying women residents who began buying guns and avoiding going out alone at night.

Gibbs's corpse was found on February 15, 1985, in a bus left in Archer County. Also it had been stabbed repeatedly and raped.

In the third case, Wardrip was indicted in the 1985 death of Blau, a 21-year-old Midwestern State University student whose rotting corpse was found Oct. 10, 1985, in a field north of Wichita Falls, Wichita County Assistant District Attorney Rick Mahler said.

Wardrip was considered guilty of asphyxiating 21-year-old Tina Kimbrew, in her apartment on May 6, 1986, and was condemned in December, 1986 to 35 years of prison.

The police officer and her family 48 hours

Mario Coleman is sentenced to life in prison and eight more life sentences for the other crimes. Sentencing was set Friday morning for this second man convicted in a brutal South St. Louis home invasion and murder. The crime left a nurse and mother of two dead and a community shaken.

Last month 24-year-old Mario Coleman was found guilty of 26 counts in the case including first degree murder for killing 34-year-old Gina Stallis.

The crimes happened in October of 2009 at the home of Gina Stallis' grandmother. Coleman and his teenaged accomplice, Ledale Nathan Jr, forced their way into the home and spent 20 minutes robbing the place and terrorizing everyone inside.

Several other people were at home including off duty city police officer Isabella Lovadina. She was visiting her friend, former city firefighter Nick Koenig, when Coleman and Nathan forced everyone into a hallway. Lovadina fought back and that's when Coleman started shooting. He killed Stallis and shot Lovadina five times and Koenig twice. Lovadina Keonig survived.

"It doesn't bring her back but at least maybe we have some justice for her." said Gina's mother Rose Whitrock.

Stallis' two children were upstairs when the horrifying crimes happened but they were not hurt. Coleman was convicted of the 12th birthday of Stallis' oldest son.

Circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce tweeted prosecutors will seek the maximum penalty for Coleman. His accomplice Nathan received multiple life sentences.

Insignificant others Forensic Files

Barton Corbin's admission of killing Dolly Hearn (shown) and Jennifer Corbin means he avoids a murder trial in Augusta.

House of secrets- 48 hours

12/3/2013

TOLEDO — After exhausting his appeals in state court, a former doctor convicted of aggravated murder in the 2006 death of his first wife has launched an appeal in federal court.

Mark Wangler filed an appeal in U.S. District Court challenging his 2011 conviction. A jury found him guilty of aggravated murder in the 2006 death of his wife, Kathy Wangler. He is serving a life sentence with the chance for parole after 25 years.

Prosecutors said years of living in a troubled and miserable marriage led Wangler to kill his wife.

In his federal appeal, Wangler argued various grounds that centered on the trial court allowing evidence before the jury he said should have been excluded.

The evidence included journals Wangler kept, writing his most intimate thoughts about the state of his marriage. The journals also included an entry about Satan attacking with car exhaust and Wangler asking the Lord to block the thoughts.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled the trial court should have excluded the journal because it was illegally seized with a search warrant essentially looking for computer records. The appellate court, however, ruled the error was harmless and did not overturn the conviction.

Wangler argues a scientist the prosecution called to testify about soot and evidence of car exhaust in the ductwork of his home should not have been allowed. Not only was the testing performed a few years after his wife’s death, but it had never been accepted or used at trial before.

Wangler tried to have his own expert testify the source of the biomarkers the prosecution’s expert identified as being linked to car exhaust was actually created by candles burning in the house. The trial judge limited that testimony.

His attorneys also argued testimony, including several witnesses who Wangler made statements to, should not have been allowed before the jury.

Wangler’s attorneys also raised an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, saying his trial attorneys did not do a good enough job challenging evidence.

Every picture tells a story 48 hours

GEORGIA — Former Enid attorney Alec McNaughton has been sentenced to life in prison after a Coweta County (Ga.) Superior Court jury found him guilty of murdering his wife, Cathy Mendenhall McNaughton, on Feb. 15, 2009.

McNaughton was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to life in prison on both murder counts and sentenced to 20 years for aggravated assault, according to reports from the Times-Herald newspaper in Coweta County, which has been covering the investigation and trial.

A jury deliberated McNaughton’s fate for most of the day Tuesday before returning with a guilty verdict around 8:30 p.m.

The trial featured some interesting twists, including testimony from McNaughton’s ex-wives. McNaughton also testified in his own defense. The trial also referenced McNaughton’s time in Enid through that testimony.

The trial went through testimony about McNaughton’s alleged violent past with his ex-wives and others. The prosecution had alleged McNaughton killed his wife “in a fit of rage” at the couple’s rural home, then cleaned up the murder scene before leaving for another town to visit his mother.

The prosecution also alleged McNaughton tried to cover up the crime by coming back to the home later and calling authorities, saying he had found his wife murdered.

Enid residents familiar with McNaughton may get the chance to see the trial and case portrayed on television in the future. A television crew from the CBS TV program “48 Hours” filmed the trial for use as a possible future broadcast.

The Oklahoma city Bombing Caution

#Viewer Discretion is advised

 Execution

McVeigh's death sentence was delayed pending an appeal. One of his appeals for certiorari, taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, was denied on March 8, 1999. McVeigh's request for a nationally televised execution was also denied. An internet company also sued for the rights to broadcast it.

McVeigh maintained an upbeat attitude, noting that even after his execution, the score would still be "168 to 1" and thus he was the victor. He also said: "I am sorry these people had to lose their lives. But that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be."

He said that if there turned out to be an afterlife, he would "improvise, adapt and overcome," noting that "If there is a hell, then I'll be in good company with a lot of fighter pilots who also had to bomb innocents to win the war."

He was executed by lethal injection at 7:14 a.m. on June 11, 2001, at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He had dropped his remaining appeals, giving no reason for doing so. He was 33 years old. McVeigh stated that his only regret was not completely leveling the federal building.

McVeigh invited California conductor/composer David Woodard to perform a pre-requiem (a Mass for those who are about to die), on the eve of his execution. He had also requested a Catholic chaplain. Ave Atque Vale was performed under Woodard's baton by a local brass choir at St. Margaret Mary Church, located near the Terre Haute penitentiary, at 7:00 p.m. on June 10, to an audience that included the entirety of the next morning's witnesses. McVeigh had two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream for his last meal. McVeigh chose William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus" as his final statement.

McVeigh was the first convicted criminal to be executed by the United States federal government since Victor Feguer in Iowa on March 15, 1963. Jay Sawyer, relative of one of the victims, noted, "Without saying a word, he got the final word." Larry Whicher, whose brother died in the attack, described McVeigh as having "A totally expressionless, blank stare. He had a look of defiance, and that if he could, he'd do it all over again."

His body was cremated at Mattox Ryan Funeral Home in Terre Haute. The cremated remains were given to his lawyer, who scattered them at an undisclosed location. McVeigh had earlier written that he considered having his ashes dropped at the site of the memorial where the Murrah building once stood, but decided that would be "too vengeful, too raw, cold." He had expressed willingness to donate organs, but was prohibited from doing so by prison regulations.

Psychiatrist John Smith concluded that McVeigh was a decent person who had allowed rage to build up inside him to the point that he had lashed out in one terrible, violent act.

Timothy McVeigh Biography

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and security guard who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was convicted of 11 United States federal offenses, and was sentenced to death and executed for his role in the April 19, 1995 bombing. His act, which killed 168 people, was the deadliest event of domestic terrorism in the United States, and the deadliest act of terrorism within United States borders until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Biography

McVeigh was born in Lockport, New York, and raised in nearby Pendleton, New York. He was the middle child of three, and the only male child. His family was Irish Catholic. He was picked on by bullies at school, and took refuge in a fantasy world in which he retaliated against them; he would later come to regard the U.S. Government as the ultimate bully. He earned his high school diploma from Starpoint Central High School.

His parents, Mildred Noreen ("Mickey") Hill and William McVeigh, divorced when he was in his teens. McVeigh was known throughout his life as a loner; his only known affiliations were voter registration with the Republican Party when he lived in New York, and a membership in the National Rifle Association while in the military. His grandfather introduced him to guns, with which he became fascinated. McVeigh told people he wanted to be a gun shop owner, and he sometimes took a gun to school to impress the other boys.

After graduating high school with honors, he became intensely interested in gun rights and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and devoured right-wing, pro-militia magazines such as Soldier of Fortune and Spotlight. He went to work for Burke Armored Car Service. McVeigh was shy and was said to have only had one girlfriend during his high school years. McVeigh would later tell journalists that he always said the wrong thing to women he was trying to impress.

Religious beliefs

After his parents' divorce, McVeigh lived with his father; his sisters moved to Florida with their mother. He and his father were devout Roman Catholics who often attended daily Mass. In a recorded interview with Time Magazine McVeigh professed his belief in "a God", although he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "never really picked it [back] up". The Guardianreported that McVeigh wrote a letter claiming to be an agnostic. He was given the Catholic sacrament of Viaticum before his execution.

Sean Vincent Gillis Killer Profile

Aug 1, 2008

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - 9NEWS has obtained a copy of convicted killer Sean Vincent Gillis's video-taped interview with FBI agents just four months after Donna Bennett Johnston's body was found. Gillis explains how he plotted his murders and played games with police.

FBI agents interviewed Gillis in May of 2004. Gillis told the agents he was playing a game of chess with them as they investigated each and every crime scene. He says he used television news to predict his next move and to judge whether he was winning. "I was the chess master, then. You're not going to beat me. My basic interest would be, 'Okay, did they find it? Where did they fine it? What was the condition of the body?'" Gillis said in the interview.

Gillis shared with agents how he used a combination of charm and money to lure his victims into his vehicle. "The hookers loved me. I treated them like women, like ladies." He says there wasn't a plan or a timetable for when or where he would murder his next victim. Gillis says it all depended on when the opportunity would arise. However, Gillis says he did pay close attention to where and when he would dump the bodies. "You're not gonna dump a body if it's gonna leave tracks. It's preferable to dump before it rains. It washes evidence off victim... and the evidence around the crime scene."

However, like most killers, Gillis left something behind - DNA. He says he thought he was winning the game he had going with detectives until one day when he got a phone call from the FBI. "I didn't know the game had just begun. I thought it had just begun at that point. I didn't know I was already check and it was going to be a little while before mate."

"What he is is a narcissistic, self-centered, ego-maniac serial killer." Frustrated prosecutor Prem Burns says she still stands firm on the case she presented and that she would not change a thing, only that the jury would have seen Gillis for the actor she says he was in the tape. "I am like, 'Damn it. It's first degree. He stole from her... serial killers take souvenirs.'"

The state could not enter the tape into evidence because Gillis asked for an attorney during his interview with agents, making it inadmissible during the trial. Burns believes this element would have been the final nail in Gillis's coffin. "I believe had we been able to play the tape for the jury, I think they would have come to the conclusion that death was the only sentence for this calculating, cunning killer whom I analogize to a Ted Bundy." Burns says this case was the strongest the state had against Gillis, and that it's unlikely he will be tried on the others.

By the way, WAFB News has learned that Prem Burns wasn't even close in getting a death penalty judgment in the case. We've talked with jurors, including the jury foreman, who say when the first vote was taken, four jurors voted no on the death penalty. That includes two jurors who said they absolutely would not vote for death for any reason and two who had admitted they were "wavering," finally voted against death. Several of the jurors who favored death call the final vote immensely disappointing.

 

The DC Sniper Case Final Report

The Beltway sniper attacks took place during three weeks in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Eleven people were killed and three others critically injured in various locations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia.

It was widely speculated that a single sniper was using the Capital Beltway for travel, possibly in a white van or truck. It was later learned that the rampage was perpetrated by one man, John Allen Muhammad and one minor Lee Boyd Malvo, driving a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan, and had apparently begun the month before with murders and robbery in Louisiana and Alabama, which had resulted in three deaths.

Snipers

Authorities initially attributed the attacks to a lone sniper, dubbed by journalists the "Beltway Sniper," the "D.C. Sniper," the "Washington Sniper," the "Serial Sniper" or the "Tarot Card Killer."

After their capture, there was much confusion about the names of the two males. The older of the pair, born John Allen Williams (age 41 at the time of capture), had joined the Black nationalist organization the Nation of Islam some years earlier, and in October 2001 had changed his name to John Allen Muhammad. The younger male was born Lee Boyd Malvo, but also calls himself John Lee Malvo and had posed as Muhammad's son (17 years old at the time of his arrest).

The two males practiced shooting at a tree stump in the backyard of the 3300 block of South Proctor Street in Tacoma, Washington State, according to investigators, and studied the film Savior, produced by Oliver Stone.

Preliminary shootings

On September 5, 2002, at 10:30 pm, Paul LaRuffa, a 55-year-old pizzeria owner, was shot six times at close range while locking up his Italian restaurant in Clinton, Maryland. LaRuffa survived the shooting and his laptop computer was found in John Muhammad's car when he and Malvo were arrested.

On September 21, 2002, an unidentified liquor store clerk in Montgomery, Alabama, was shot and killed during a robbery. Her co-worker, Kellie Adams, was injured, but survived. Evidence found at the crime scene eventually tied this killing to the Beltway attacks and allowed authorities to identify Muhammad and Malvo as suspects, although this connection was not made until October 17.

Beltway Sniper attacks

Montgomery County, Maryland

The main shootings associated with the Beltway Sniper incident began on October 2, 2002, with one victim killed that evening in Glenmont, Maryland. Four more victims were killed the next morning, and a sixth killed in the evening on October 3, 2002. All shootings happened within a few miles of each other. The killing spree increased the murder rate in this normally-safe area by 25% within a span of 20 hours.

At 5:20pm, a shot was fired through a window of a Michaels Craft Store in Aspen Hill. As no one was injured, no serious alarms were raised. About an hour later, at 6:30pm, James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at NOAA, was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store, located in Glenmont.

On the morning of October 3, four people were shot within a span of approximately 2 hours in Aspen Hill, and other nearby areas in Montgomery County. Another was killed that evening in the District of Columbia, just over the border from Silver Spring.

• At 7:41am, James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as "Sonny", was shot dead in Montgomery County near Rockville, Maryland. Buchanan was shot while mowing the grass at the Fitzgerald Auto Mall.
• At 8:12am, 54-year-old part-time taxi driver Premkumar Walekar was killed in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County, while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a Mobil station at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue.
• Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, was killed at 8:37am at the Leisure World Shopping Center in Aspen Hill. She had gotten off a bus, and was seated on a bench, reading a book.
• At 9:58am, in what was to be the last killing of the morning, 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was killed while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at the Shell station at the intersection of Connecticut & Knowles Avenues in Kensington, Maryland.
• The snipers then waited until 9:15pm before shooting Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter, while he was walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington, D.C. Charlot died less than an hour later.

In each shooting, the victims were killed by a single bullet fired from some distance. The pattern was not detected until after the shootings occurred on October 3.

Fear quickly spread throughout the community as news of the shootings spread. Many parents went to pick up their children at school early, not allowing them to take a school bus or walk home alone. Montgomery County Public Schools, District of Columbia Public Schools, and private schools went into a lockdown, with no recess or outdoor gym classes. Other school districts in the area also took precautionary measures, keeping students indoors.

The Maurin Case Cold Case Files

Dec 4, 2013

CHEHALIS, Wash. — A man convicted of killing a Lewis County couple in their 80s during a 1985 robbery was sentenced to 103 years in prison.

Rick Riffe, 55, was sentenced Tuesday in Chehalis for the attack that killed Ed and Minnie Maurin.

Riffe did not speak at the sentencing but his lawyer said he felt no remorse and would make no apologies for something he did not do, The Chronicle reported .

Cold case detectives tracked down Riffe in July 2012 at his home in King Salmon, Alaska. His brother John also was accused in the crime and died earlier last year.

Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said Riffe abducted 81-year-old Ed Maurin and 83-year-old Minnie Maurin from their Ethel home, forced them to drive to a bank and withdraw $8,500, and then shot them.

Hazel Oberg and Dennis Hadaller, two of Minnie Maurin's surviving children, who are now about the age of their mother and stepfather at the time of their slayings, both read statements Tuesday to the nearly full courtroom.

"This will never be forgotten for generations to come,'' Hadaller said. "How could anyone be so cruel and act with such malice to shoot two elderly and trusting people in the back and dumped them in the forest?''

Oberg told the judge that her mother and stepfather gave their children a good upbringing and taught them how to work hard to earn a living.

"It's been very difficult for me to understand how someone could take their lives for the money,'' Oberg said.

Riffe's defense attorney John Crowley told Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey his client was innocent.

"Rick Riffe makes no apologies to anybody,'' Crowley said. "He feels no remorse for something he did not do.''

Crowley said his client will appeal the convictions and sentence. Riffe was convicted on Nov. 18 after a six-week jury trial resulted in guilty verdicts on seven felony counts, including murder, robbery, kidnapping and burglary.

Authorities said the brothers were primary suspects throughout the investigation, but probable cause for their arrest was not developed until evidence was later uncovered and witnesses came forward.

Andrew Cunanan biography

"We kill time; time buries us."

-- Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

The nation was asking, the FBI was asking, his family was asking, his friends were asking: What was motivating Andrew Cunanan? In San Francisco among the gay community they entertained the notions of either the green-eyed monster Jealousy or the possibility that he may have flipped out upon discovering he was HIV-positive. These were the two main suppositions that the law enforcement agencies, thence the press, picked up on -- both without supporting evidence but both the only logical guesses anyone had to go on.

Did he have anything personal against his victims? This was an even more untenable question. The FBI tried to propose a theory based on the individual murders as part of an ongoing killing spree. Perhaps, the experts pondered, Jeff Trail may have infected him with the AIDS virus. But, why slay Madson? Early suspicions that Madson was done away with because he was a witness to the Trail murder lost credence when Andrew began purposely leaving symbolic "calling cards" behind as if he wanted the police to know who he was. As for Miglin, he appeared to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Andrew decided to live out some warped fantasy encouraged by a sicko torture flick. Reese? Probably no more than someone with something an escaped fugitive desperately needed: a set of wheels.

Andrew's next murder seems to have been premeditated. Almost as if the others were "practice shots" to build up his nerve and refine his skills. This is concluded by the fact that he chose as his destination the spot of glitz and fun, of surf and sand, Miami Beach. Here his target was known to reside. Seaside, Andrew loitered as if in waiting. But he didn't linger in the shadows nor peer squinty-eyed through closed drapes. Strange as it seems, the Top Ten Wanted Killer made very little effort to conceal himself. More oddly, he roamed at will in the open air and among crowds night and day for more than two months undetected.

He shuffled through the sands of the beaches, hung around the trendy spas on the boardwalk, occasionally lunched in the well-lit salad bars, relaxed under the prism-splashed umbrella of a cafe table. Miami Beach, as described by writer Richard Lacayo in a Time magazine article "is a laboratory of instant gratification, full of clubs and in-line skaters and muscle guys with deltoids like the gas tanks on a Harley." Here Andrew came to play and gleefully watched the police cars drive casually by him.

He arrived in Miami Beach on May 10, 1997, parked Reese's stolen Chevy truck in a public parking garage and strolled to an inn he had spotted while cruising. Without luggage, he registered into the Normandy Plaza Hotel. At one time a beach front Xanadu for the movie stars of the 1940s, the Normandy had not aged well. It had by the 1970s become a discount lodging for truckers and transients, either nightly or long-term. Its rooms were clean and here Andrew stayed throughout most of his time in Miami. Opting for their monthly plan Andrew was assigned a third floor room, Room 322, at $690 per month. For dinner, he usually ate at a nearby Italian restaurant.

The manhunt didn't deter occasional visits to the gay strip, to places like The Twist, a dance hall for men of his sexual persuasion. He had heard the police were watching these places, but he braved the elements anyway and continued to pick up and go home with interested lovers. Almost as if on instinct, he would wear disguises.

Sometimes, he would shave his legs and wear women's clothing for the purpose of titillating some male who found transvestitism arousing. He shaved his head on a lark, even wore a mohawk for awhile.

In the daylight, he donned a pair of shades and a cap, and with white khakis or shorts, blended in amongst the sun worshippers. As the national media grew tired of asking where was Andrew Cunanan and news headlines focused on other things, Andrew grew bolder. He became a regular, sans makeup, at the tennis courts by day and the bistros by night.

But, his brain never idled. The germ that lay there burned and continued to grow. While always on guard -- for he knew better than to totally relax -- he continued to dream of his next conquest, one for which he knew the FBI wasn't prepared. The ultimate conquest. Afternoons he would stroll down 11th Street and pause a block from the ocean in front of the Renaissance facade of the Gianni Versace mansion, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man he intended to kill. A glimpse is all it would take.

Twisted minds Famous Psychopaths

First a bit of terminological history, to clear up any confusion about the meanings of “sociopath,” “psychopath,” and related terms. In the early 1800s, doctors who worked with mental patients began to notice that some of their patients who appeared outwardly normal had what they termed a “moral depravity” or “moral insanity,” in that they seemed to possess no sense of ethics or of the rights of other people. The term “psychopath” was first applied to these people around 1900. The term was changed to “sociopath” in the 1930s to emphasize the damage they do to society. Currently researchers have returned to using the term “psychopath.” Some of them use that term to refer to a more serious disorder, linked to genetic traits, producing more dangerous individuals, while continuing to use “sociopath” to refer to less dangerous people who are seen more as products of their environment, including their upbringing. Other researchers make a distinction between “primary psychopaths,” who are thought to be genetically caused, and “secondary psychopaths,” seen as more a product of their environments.

The current approach to defining sociopathy and the related concepts is to use a list of criteria. The first such list was developed by Hervey Cleckley (1941), who is known as the first person to describe the condition in detail. Anyone fitting enough of these criteria counts as a psychopath or sociopath. There are several such lists in use. The most commonly used is called the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), developed by Robert Hare and his colleagues. An alternative version was developed in 1996 by Lilienfeld and Andrews, called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). The book that psychologists and psychiatrists use to categorize and diagnose mental illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM IV) contains a category for something called “antisocial personality disorder” (APD), while the World HealthOrganization delineates a similar category it calls "dissocial personality disorder." These are much broader categories than that of psychopathy. The category of psychopath is seen as included within this category but considerably smaller so that only roughly 1 in 5 people with APD is a psychopath (Kiehl and Buckholtz, 2010).

Twisted minds Famous Psychopaths

First a bit of terminological history, to clear up any confusion about the meanings of “sociopath,” “psychopath,” and related terms. In the early 1800s, doctors who worked with mental patients began to notice that some of their patients who appeared outwardly normal had what they termed a “moral depravity” or “moral insanity,” in that they seemed to possess no sense of ethics or of the rights of other people. The term “psychopath” was first applied to these people around 1900. The term was changed to “sociopath” in the 1930s to emphasize the damage they do to society. Currently researchers have returned to using the term “psychopath.” Some of them use that term to refer to a more serious disorder, linked to genetic traits, producing more dangerous individuals, while continuing to use “sociopath” to refer to less dangerous people who are seen more as products of their environment, including their upbringing. Other researchers make a distinction between “primary psychopaths,” who are thought to be genetically caused, and “secondary psychopaths,” seen as more a product of their environments.

The current approach to defining sociopathy and the related concepts is to use a list of criteria. The first such list was developed by Hervey Cleckley (1941), who is known as the first person to describe the condition in detail. Anyone fitting enough of these criteria counts as a psychopath or sociopath. There are several such lists in use. The most commonly used is called the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), developed by Robert Hare and his colleagues. An alternative version was developed in 1996 by Lilienfeld and Andrews, called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). The book that psychologists and psychiatrists use to categorize and diagnose mental illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM IV) contains a category for something called “antisocial personality disorder” (APD), while the World HealthOrganization delineates a similar category it calls "dissocial personality disorder." These are much broader categories than that of psychopathy. The category of psychopath is seen as included within this category but considerably smaller so that only roughly 1 in 5 people with APD is a psychopath (Kiehl and Buckholtz, 2010).

Calculated coincidence Forensic Files

A North Carolina woman is raped and strangled in her apartment. Authorities are unable to link the prime suspect to the homicide, until they discover a connection to an unsolved Michigan murder that was committed a few years earlier.

Penchant for poison Forensic Files

Three seemingly unrelated deaths proved to be serial murders. The killer had been careful – he used poison which had no taste or odor. Fortunately for investigators, it also had a unique chemical signature. Originally aired as Season 10, Episode 33.

Dean Corll Crime Scene Caution

#TRIGGER#

"I killed a man!"

At 8:24 a.m. on August 8, 1973, Henley placed a call to the Pasadena Police. His call was answered by an operator named Velma Lines. In his call, Henley blurted to the operator: "Y'all better come here right now! I just killed a man!" Henley gave the address to the operator as 2020 Lamar Drive, Pasadena. As Kerley, Williams and Henley waited upon Corll's porch for the police to arrive, Henley mentioned to Kerley that he had "done that (killed by shooting) four or five times."

Minutes later, a Pasadena Police car arrived at 2020 Lamar Drive. The three teenagers were sitting on the porch outside the house, and the officer noted the .22 caliber pistol on the driveway near the trio. Henley informed the officer that he was the individual who had made the call and indicated that Corll was lying dead inside the house.

After confiscating the pistol and placing Henley, Williams and Kerley inside the patrol car, the officer entered the bungalow and discovered Corll's dead body inside the hallway. The officer returned to the car and read Henley his Miranda rights. In response, Henley shouted: " I don't care who knows about it. I have to get it off my chest!" Kerley later informed detectives that before the police officer had arrived at Lamar Drive, Henley had informed him: "I could have gotten $200 for you."

Dean Corll aka the Candyman

Indiana born, on Christmas Eve of 1939, Dean Corll grew up in a combative home, his parents quarreling constantly. They were divorced while Corll was still an infant, then remarried after World War II, but Dean's father provided no stabilizing influence, regarding his children with thinly-veiled distaste, resorting to harsh punishment for the smallest infractions.

The killing game Rodney Alcala

1st April 2010

Police have released more than 100 photographs of unidentified women and girls amid fears they could be the victims of America's worst ever serial killer.

The pictures were taken by Rodney Alcala, who was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the savage murders of a 12-year-old girl and four women.

However, the 66-year-old has admitted killing another 30 women in the 1970s and police believe there could be many more victims.

They have already linked him to the deaths of two Seattle teenagers aged 13 and 17, and a 19-year-old who vanished from the same area, as well as two women in New York and several more in Los Angeles.

The photos were discovered hidden in a storage locker in Seattle, Washington, where Alcala, an amateur photographer, kept his possessions before his arrest.

Although many of the 1,000 pictures were innocent poses in a park or on the beach, some women had stripped off for the camera.

Police believe that Alcala - who is known in the U.S. as the Dating Game Killer because he once appeared on America's version of Blind Date - kept the photographs as sick souvenirs of his victims.

The women in the photos range in age from schoolgirls to women in their 20s and 30s, and are believed to come from across the U.S. Two of the pictures may have been taken after the women were murdered.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy said: 'We'd like to locate the women in these pictures. Did they simply pose for a serial killer or did they become victims of his sadistic, murderous pattern?

'He committed unspeakable acts of horror. He gets off on the infliction of pain on other people. He's an evil monster who knows what he is doing is wrong and doesn't care.'

Detective Claiff Shepard said: 'He's right up somewhere below Hitler and right around Ted Bundy. It is not humane what he does to these victims. It is tortuous.'

Alcala - who defended himself during his trial - preyed on women and girls by offering to take their photographs.

He then raped his victims, strangled them until they were unconscious before reviving them and killing them.

The photographer, who is said to have a genius IQ of 160, often boasted of his winning an episode of the American version of Blind Date.

However, the woman who chose him later cancelled their date because she found him 'too creepy'.

Alcala appeared unconcerned about his fate on Tuesday, when he was given the death sentence for kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who disappeared after leaving home for ballet class on her bicycle in 1979.

He laughed and talked throughout the trial at Orange County Superior Court, even after also being convicted of murdering four Los Angeles women - Georgia Wixted, 27, Jill Barcomb, 18, Charlotte Lamb, 32, and Jill Parenteau, 21 - between 1977 and 1979.

It took nearly 30 years for the law to catch up with him. He was previously convicted twice of killing Robin, but the verdicts were overturned. An earring that belonged to the little girl was also found with the photo cache.

America's most prolific serial killer is often considered to be Henry Lee Lucas, who was convicted of four murders in the late 1970s although police believe he may have been responsible for more than 200.

After his imprisonment, Lucas confessed to 600 killings although he later claimed he had lied to become famous.

Ted Bundy is believed to have raped and murdered 35 women between 1973 and 1978, although police believe there are many more victims. He was executed in 1989 by electric chair for his last murder in Florida.

Gary Gilmore Destined for Death

The Execution of Gary Gilmore

Super70s.com

At eight minutes after 8:00 a.m on January 17, 1977, Gary Mark Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Draper, Utah. The execution ended the life of a man who had killed at least two people and who had spent 18 of his 36 years behind bars for various offenses. Two aspects of the case kept it on the front pages for months. First, the death penalty had been reinstated in the United States in 1976 (not without controversy) after a 10-year hiatus and Gilmore was to become the first prisoner to be executed. Second, he fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly.

In Cold Blood

Over the course of two nights in mid-July 1976, Gary Gilmore murdered a motel owner (Bennie Bushnell) in Provo, Utah and a gas station attendant (Max Jensen) in nearby Orem in an apparent attempt to get the attention of his estranged girlfriend Nichole Baker. Both men were forced to lie face down on the floor before he shot them in each in the head at point-blank range.

Capture

In the early morning hours of July 21, 1976 Gary Gilmore was arrested in Provo, Utah for the murders of the two men. At the time of his arrest Gilmore was on probation from a 12-year sentence for armed robbery and had been staying with relatives. He was turned in by his cousin Brenda Nicol, who later told him "You commit a murder Monday, and commit a murder Tuesday. I wasn't waiting for Wednesday to come around."

Speedy Trial

One of the most remarkable aspects of the case was the speed at which he went through the justice system. He was that he was arrested in July, then tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by October and the sentence was carried out in January. The pace was no accident.

Multiple Suicide Attempts

Not satisfied with the amount of time the state was taking to execute him, Gilmore tried to speed things up with repeated suicide attempts (by drug overdose) and became front page news for this, the attempts by others to stop the execution, and his own refusal to make any appeals. He had said "Death is the only inescapable, unavoidable, sure thing. We are sentenced to die the day that we are born." His girlfriend Nicole also tried to take her own life at the same time as him. She failed too and was placed in a mental hospital and was not allowed to see Gary again. The only contact she had with him until his execution was via letters.

Multiple Appeals

His original execution date was November 15, but the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) - both death penalty opponents - filed motions in the courts and multiple Stays were ordered. But the final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on the morning of January 17th, 1977 was denied and Gilmore's wish to be executed was granted. It had been only nine months since he had been paroled.

Firing Squad

When asked if he had any last words by the warden, he simply replied "Let's do this." As is the custom with a firing squad, four of the five rifles were loaded with real bullets and the fifth had a blank (None of the members knows which gun is which. This leaves a shadow of doubt in each member's mind about whether or not they really killed him.) He was shot at 8:08 a.m. and pronounced dead a minute later. His body was cremated and his ashes spread over three areas in Utah by a family member in accordance with his wishes.

Executioner's Song

The Executioner's Song , a book written by Norman Mailer in 1979, is a must read if you are interested in reading about the Gilmore case. The book, which won a 1980 Pulitzer Prize, was later turned into a made-for-TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, Eli Wallach and Rosanna Arquette. Jones won an Emmy for his portrayal of Gilmore.

Richard Chase aka The Vampire of Sacramento

The first murder

On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first victim in a drive-by shooting, in an apparent "warm up" for the crimes he planned on committing. The victim was Ambrose Griffin, a 51-year-old engineer and father of two, who was helping his wife bring groceries into their home. One of Griffin's sons reported seeing a neighbor walking around their East Sacramento neighborhood with a .22 rifle earlier that week; the neighbor's rifle was seized, but ballistics tests determined that it was not the murder weapon; however, it was determined that the .22 used to kill Ambrose Griffin was the same one used to fire the bullet into the kitchen of the Sacramento woman two days before.

The third murder/mass murder

On January 23, 1978, two days after killing Teresa Wallin, Chase purchased two puppies from a neighbor, which he then killed and drank the blood of, leaving the bodies on the neighbor's front lawn.

On January 27, Chase committed his final murder, which also qualifies as a mass murder. He entered the home of 38-year-old Evelyn Miroth, who was babysitting her 22-month-old nephew, David; also present in the home was Eveyln's six-year-old son Jason, and Dan Meredith, a neighbor who had come over to check on Evelyn. Evelyn was in the bath while Dan watched the children; he went into the front hallway when Chase entered the home, and was shot in the head at point-blank range with Chase's .22 handgun, killing him (again, this was the same gun used in the Griffin and Wallin murders).

Chase then turned the corpse over and stole Dan's wallet and car keys. Jason ran to his mother's bedroom, where Chase fatally shot him twice in the head at point-blank range; on the way to killing Jason, Chase also shot David in the head.

Chase then entered the bathroom and fatally shot Evelyn once in the head. He dragged her corpse onto the bed, where he simultaneously sodomized it and drank its blood from a series of slices to the back of the neck. Medical examiners reported an inordinate amount of semen in the corpse's rectum, indicating an "unusual amount" of ejaculations.

When Chase had finished, he stabbed her "at least half a dozen times" in the anus, the knife penetrating her uterus. He stabbed her in a series of vital points on the body, which caused blood from her internal organs to pool into her abdomen, which he then sliced open and drained into a bucket; he then consumed all of the blood. Chase then went to retrieve David's corpse; he took it to the bathroom and split its skull open in the bathtub, and consumed some of the brain matter.

Outside, a six-year-old girl with whom Jason Miroth had a playdate knocked on the door, startling Chase; he fled the residence, stealing Dan Meredith's car; the girl alerted a neighbor. The neighbor broke into the Miroth home where he discovered the bodies and contacted the authorities. Upon entering the home, police discovered that Chase had left perfect handprints and perfect imprints of the soles of his shoes in Evelyn's blood.

Chase, meanwhile, took David's corpse home with him, where he chopped off his penis and used it as a straw through which he sucked the blood out of the body. He then sliced the corpse open and consumed several internal organs and made smoothies out of others, finally disposing of the corpse at a nearby church.

The last call killer Richard Rogers

Serial Gay Killer Sentenced

Staten Is. man will serve at least 65 years in two New Jersey murders; suspect in others

February 2, 2006

A New Jersey judge sentenced Richard W. Rogers, a gay man from Staten Island, to what is effectively a life sentence after he was found guilty in the 1992 killing of Thomas R. Mulcahy and the 1993 slaying of Anthony E. Marrero.

“It’s the maximum sentence that is permitted under New Jersey law for the crime that he was found guilty of,” William J. Heisler, the executive assistant prosecutor in the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, who handled the case, told Gay City News.

The verdict had come on November 10 after a four-week trial, but sentencing happened only last week.

On January 27, James N. Citta, the New Jersey Superior Court judge who presided over the case, gave Rogers a 30-years-to-life sentence for murder with another two-and-a-half year minimum for hindering apprehension in the Mulcahy slaying. Citta gave Rogers the same penalty in the Marrero killing.

The judge required that Rogers serve all four sentences consecutively. Rogers, 55, will have to serve a minimum of 65 years before he is eligible for parole.

The Associated Press reported that Citta called Rogers “an evil human being” and expressed the hope that he die “in some hole in some prison without ever having freedom again.” Citta concluded by saying, “That’s the judgment of this court... We’re done. Take him out of here,” the AP reported

The remains of the 57-year-old Mulcahy, a businessman from Sudbury, Massachusetts known to visit gay bars when in New York, were found in two locations in New Jersey as were the remains of the 44-year-old Marrero, also known to be gay. Both men had been carefully dismembered and wrapped in plastic bags. Rogers’ fingerprints were found on the bags holding the remains of both men.

The murder cases went unsolved until 2000 when a 14-member task force that included investigators from the New Jersey State Police, Ocean County, and New York’s Rockland County re-opened the case. New technology was used to identify the fingerprints on the plastic trash bags and matched against fingerprints from Rogers taken when he was tried but acquitted in Maine of the 1973 murder of 22-year-old Frederic Spencer.

Citta allowed the prosecution to present evidence during the trial on two out-of-state murders that Rogers was not charged with but for which he is a suspect, based on key similarities between those killings and the Mulcahy and Marrero slayings. The jury saw evidence in the killings of Michael Sakara, 55, whose remains were found in New York in 1993, and Peter Anderson, 54, whose body was found in Pennsylvania in 1991.

Citta did not allow evidence of the 1982 murder of Matthew John Pierro, 25, in Florida, to be introduced. Pierro was found with ligature marks on his neck, indicating he had been strangled, and multiple stab wounds to his body. Rogers is considered a prime suspect.

Sakara, but not Anderson, had been dismembered in a way that matched the Marrero and Mulcahy dismemberments. Rogers’ fingerprints were found on the bags that held Anderson’s body, but not on the bags that held Sakara’s remains. A witness saw Sakara and Rogers together in a Greenwich Village bar hours before Sakara’s body was found.

Police never determined where the Mulcahy and Marrero killings took place and that will be an issue for Rogers’ appeal, David A. Ruhnke, Rogers’ attorney, told the AP. In order to convict Rogers, the jury was required to make a finding of fact that the murders took place in New Jersey.

Ruhnke told Gay City News in an earlier interview that the evidence on the Sakara and Anderson killings would also be an issue on appeal. That evidence tended to represent Rogers as a serial killer. The concern was that the jury would convict him on that basis and not on the Mulcahy and Marrero evidence.

“I think that’s exactly the message that the evidence sent and that the jury received, “ Ruhnke told Gay City News. “I think that was an enormously prejudicial decision by the judge and whether he was legally correct in making it is going to one of the primary appellate issues.”

Ruhnke has already filed notice of appeal in the case.

“We expect that in every case where there is a conviction,” Heisler said. “It’s routine.”

The New York City gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project welcomed the sentence.

“This is kind of a completion of a long struggle for two of the victim’s families,” said Clarence Patton, executive director of the gay victims group. “We don’t want to pile on, but what we would like to see is some of these additional cases get adjudicated so those families can get some measure of closure.”

Serial killer Pedro Alonso Lopez aka The Monster of the Andes

Pedro Alonso López

Ray and Faye Copeland

Faye Copeland, Missouri

Faye Copeland, White, sentenced to death on Apr 27, 1991 for the murder of four white males (ages 21, 27, 27, and unknown) in Livingston County from Oct. 1986 through May 1989.

She was sentenced to death in April 1991, along with her husband Ray Copeland. Together they were found guilty of murdering four men, in four separate incidents, during the late 1980s. Ray Copeland escaped the executioner - he died of natural causes in October 1993.

 

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Ray (1914 - 1993) and Faye Della Copeland (1921 - 30 December 2003) were convicted of killing five drifters (and likely killed at least seven more, though no bodies were recovered), and ultimately became the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States— Faye was 69 and Ray was 76 at the time of sentencing. Faye was the oldest woman on death row until her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999.

Prior to the murder convictions, Ray had a long history of crimes, ranging from petty theft to grand larceny. He was convicted of writing bad checks on a number of occasions. The Copelands were caught and charged with murder after a drifter spotted human remains on their land. Evidently, Ray had hit upon the scheme of hiring drifters, having them pay for cattle at auction with bad checks (which Ray by then was loath to do personally, given his prior convictions), then killing the drifters once they were no longer of any use, with a single bullet to the back of the head. It is unclear if Faye had any knowledge of this scheme, and her lawyers argued that she suffered from battered woman syndrome.

On November 1, 1990, 69-year-old Faye Copeland went to trial. According to articles in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Faye claimed she did not know her husband was a murderer. Although her marriage to Ray was fraught with abuse, the jury convicted her of four counts of murder and one of manslaughter. Faye had written a list of names that included the murdered drifters, each of whom had an X next to his name (as did 7 others, who remain missing).

As Faye was sentenced to death by lethal injection, she sobbed uncontrollably. When Ray Copeland was told about the verdict on his wife his reply reportedly was, "Well, those things happen to some you know"; he apparently never asked about Faye again. Ray is rumored to have been a spoiled child, often demanding things. Although he came from a poor family, if Ray wanted something, it was said to have been soon acquired for him by any means possible. He was strongly disliked by neighbors, who believed he beat Faye and their four children.

On August 10, 2002, Faye Copeland suffered a stroke, which left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. Weeks later, in September 2002, Governor Holden authorized a medical parole for Faye, fulfilling her one wish that she not die in prison. She was paroled to a nursing home in her hometown. The following year, on December 30, 2003, 82-year-old Faye Della Copeland died at the Morningside Center nursing home in Chillicothe, Missouri, from what Livingston County coroner Scott Lindley described as natural causes (disease). She left behind five children, seventeen grandchildren, and (at last count) twenty-five great-grandchildren.

Ray had died (1993) previously of natural causes while awaiting execution.

In other media

Their story has been fictionalized in a comic book, Family Bones, written by Faye Copeland's nephew, Shawn Granger. The case was also documented in a Forensic Files episode and more recently in an episode of Wicked Attraction titled "Murder at Twilight." The play "Temporary Help" by David Wiltse, which appeared off Broadway in 2004, was also based on this story.

References

• Book, The Copeland Killings, by Tom Miller
• Book, Family Bones, by Shawn Granger

Gary Hirte Unusual suspects

A former high school honors student and Eagle Scout was sentenced today to spend at least the next 32 years in prison for what authorities call a cold-blooded thrill killing. But shortly before he was sentenced, the 19-year-old said he "can't feel guilty" for killing a man in disgust after a homosexual encounter.

"There's no reason I should be held accountable for this. That's just the way I feel. I can't change that," Gary Hirte told ABC News' Cynthia McFadden in his first interview about the August 2003 slaying of Glenn Kopitske.

Hirte's arrest and subsequent murder trial made national headlines because he seemed like such an unlikely suspect. Just 17 years old at the time of the killing, Hirte was a straight-A student and a track, football and wrestling star at his high school in the small town of Weyauwaga, Wis. The victim was a 37-year-old substitute teacher who was found shot and stabbed to death in his own home.

Hirte eventually admitted he killed Kopitske, but asserted that he was out of his mind at the time -- driven into a murderous rage after having a homosexual encounter with the older man.

Prosecutors say Hirte committed murder just to see if he could get away with it.

"I really believe in my heart that Gary Hirte had seemingly accomplished everything and he thought he would do the most outrageous [thing], the event that would really make people go 'Wow, I don't believe it,'" said Winnebago County District Attorney Bill Lennon.

Hirte pleaded guilty in October to first-degree intentional homicide, but then claimed insanity, so the case went to a jury trial early this year. Hirte said a homosexual encounter with Kopitske sent him into a murderous rage that left him incapable of knowing right from wrong, but a jury rejected that defense.

He was sentenced today to a mandatory life prison term, but the judge said he could be eligible for parole after 32 years. With time served, Hirte will be at least 50 before can leave prison.

Hirte told McFadden he couldn't feel any remorse over the crime because the person who killed Kopitske was "another me."

"It wasn't this mind that's thinking right now that did that action. So I can't feel guilty for it," he said.