Tonight's bedtime story is about the Picasso of the serial killer community, Ted Bundy.
The Picasso of the serial killing community. Ted was handsome, charming, intelligent, self-assured, with a brilliant future, and deadlier than a rattlesnake. Using his good looks, he was able to invisibly abduct and kill his victims and continue with his seemingly charmed life. From early 1974 to early 1978, the stranger called "Ted" stalked young women on college campuses, at shopping malls, in apartment buildings and grade schools in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.
This law student and Young Republican liked to wear an arm sling to appear vulnerable and get women to help him with his groceries. Once he lured his victims to the door of his car he would bludgeon them and take them away to privately enjoy their death. He favored killing pretty, dark-haired cheerleader types. He would attack his prey with blunt objects and was fond of raping and biting them. The bite marks on one of his victims were used as evidence against him at his trial in Florida.
As a teen, Bundy was shy and sensitive. At a Seattle crisis center, he counseled the depressed, the alcoholic, and the suicidal. He graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Washington in 1972, designed a program for dealing with habitual criminals and wrote a pamphlet on rape for the King County crime commission.
Although no one knows for sure how many women Bundy killed, his first victim is believed to be Mary Adams, 18, whose battered body was found in her Seattle bedroom on January 4, 1974. In the next year and a half, police investigated several disappearances and killings of women in the West, some of them since linked to Bundy.
He was arrested in August 1975 and convicted in March 1976 of kidnapping Carol DaRonch in Utah. That fall, he was charged with killing a Michigan nurse in Aspen, Colorado. On December 30, 1977, after a previous failed attempt, Ted escaped from the Denver court house through a window while awaiting trial. He relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, near Florida State University where he perpetrated his blood-soaked "Guernica" of crime. In January 15, 1978, he set forth on a night of butchery and killed two girls, Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, and wounded two others, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, in and around the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee.
Two weeks later, on February 9, he stole a van and killed 12-year-old Kimberly Leach who she abducted outside her school in Lake City, Florida, for which, eventually, he was fried. Poor Kimberly's body was found in a pig trough next to a plaid jacket that was not Ted's. She was buried in a cemetery near a Purina plant under a heart-shaped tombstone with her picture on it. Two weeks later, on February 15, Ted was arrested after he was spotted by David Lee, a Pensacola policeman, in the stolen VW van.
Ted defended himself in trials in Utah, Colorado and Florida as the police tried to put together a trail of dead girls leading to him. During his various trials, a very self-possessed Ted Bundy defended himself garnishing praise and a legion of female admirers. After 11 years of trials and appeals, then-Florida Gov. Bob Martinez signed the final death warrant against Bundy on Jan. 17, 1989. Ted Bundy was electrocuted on January 24, 1989 at Florida State Prison.
On the night before his execution, Bundy talked of suicide, recalled Bill Hagmaier, chief of the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes. "We had some discussions about morality and the taking of another life and his concerns about trying to explain to God about his actions," Hagmaier added. For his last meal he had steak, eggs, hash browns and coffee.
On September 20. 1999, Ted Bundy's mom held a news conference to say her son didn't commit his first murder at age 14; but the mother 8-year-old Ann Marie Burr of Tacoma believes he did. "I resent the fact that everybody in Tacoma thinks just because he lived in Tacoma he did that one too, way back when he was 14," said his mother Louise Bundy. However, Burrs and several investigators believe young Bundy stole Ann Burr from her bed on Aug. 31, 1961, and killed her.
Bundy denied involvement in Ann's death up until his execution in Florida in 1989. In 1986, he wrote to the Burrs, saying, "I do not know what happened to your daughter Ann Marie. I had nothing to do with her disappearance. "You said she disappeared Aug. 31, 1961. At the time I was a normal 14-year-old boy. I did not wander the streets late at night. I did not steal cars. I had absolutely no desire to harm anyone. I was just an average kid."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Helene Jegado
Okay Satin Strangler fans, here's a bedtime story about a femail serial killer, Helene, Jegado.
Born in Brittany, France, in 1803, Helene once complained, "Wherever I go, people died." Sure they did. Because she enjoyed poisoning them. As a teenager, she started her career as a domestic and started experimenting with poison. Eventually she wiped out the family of seven for whom she was working. Most of her subsequent employers suffered the same fate. Curiously, no one suspected her of any wrongdoing because of her pious demeanor.
In 1831, after killing one too many families and fearing arrest, she joined a nunnery and took her vows. There she was suspected of offing several sisters before renouncing God and returning to her job as a domestic. As before, people started dying in her wake. Strangely she kept getting hired for new jobs.
She laid off the arsenic between 1841 to 1849 but then started dipping into it again. After two deaths in the household where she was working police started suspecting her after her overtly defensive manner during a routine questioning. Furthermore, traces of arsenic were found in the bodies of the most recent victims as well as many of her former employers. However, Helene never admitted her guilt, In 1851 she was guillotined just the same for her wave of terror.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Born in Brittany, France, in 1803, Helene once complained, "Wherever I go, people died." Sure they did. Because she enjoyed poisoning them. As a teenager, she started her career as a domestic and started experimenting with poison. Eventually she wiped out the family of seven for whom she was working. Most of her subsequent employers suffered the same fate. Curiously, no one suspected her of any wrongdoing because of her pious demeanor.
In 1831, after killing one too many families and fearing arrest, she joined a nunnery and took her vows. There she was suspected of offing several sisters before renouncing God and returning to her job as a domestic. As before, people started dying in her wake. Strangely she kept getting hired for new jobs.
She laid off the arsenic between 1841 to 1849 but then started dipping into it again. After two deaths in the household where she was working police started suspecting her after her overtly defensive manner during a routine questioning. Furthermore, traces of arsenic were found in the bodies of the most recent victims as well as many of her former employers. However, Helene never admitted her guilt, In 1851 she was guillotined just the same for her wave of terror.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Bela Kiss
Tonight's serial killer bedtime story comes complete with a Kiss.
A Hungarian serial killer, Bela's exploits were immortalized in a play by the surrealist poet Antonin Artaud called 23. In 1912, after Bela moved with his wife to the village of Czinkota, she started having an affair. Soon the lovers disappeared and Bela told neighbors that they had eloped. The deadly cuckold then started collecting 55-gallon metal drums. He told the village constable that they were filled with gasoline as a precaution for the coming war.
In 1914 Bela was drafted into the military and sent to the battlefield. By 1916 news had returned to the village that Bela died in combat. When soldiers passed through Czinkota looking for fuel, the constable remembered the drums of gasoline in the Kiss household. When the soldiers opened the drums they were startled by the discovery of 24 corpses preserved in alcohol. Apparently Bela, calling himself Hoffman, placed personal ads in newspapers describing himself as a "lonely widower seeking female companionship." Those who answered were promptly garroted and stuffed into 55-gallon drums. Not surprisingly, two of the corpses found were those of his wife and her lover.
After the gruesome discovery, authorities traveled to the hospital were Bela died. There they were told that the Bela that died there was a young man. Apparently Bela had switched identities with one of the dying on the battlefield and was able to escape. There have been subsequent sightings of him in Budapest and persistent rumors have placed him in New York working as a janitor. But in Hungary he is remembered as the one who got away.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
A Hungarian serial killer, Bela's exploits were immortalized in a play by the surrealist poet Antonin Artaud called 23. In 1912, after Bela moved with his wife to the village of Czinkota, she started having an affair. Soon the lovers disappeared and Bela told neighbors that they had eloped. The deadly cuckold then started collecting 55-gallon metal drums. He told the village constable that they were filled with gasoline as a precaution for the coming war.
In 1914 Bela was drafted into the military and sent to the battlefield. By 1916 news had returned to the village that Bela died in combat. When soldiers passed through Czinkota looking for fuel, the constable remembered the drums of gasoline in the Kiss household. When the soldiers opened the drums they were startled by the discovery of 24 corpses preserved in alcohol. Apparently Bela, calling himself Hoffman, placed personal ads in newspapers describing himself as a "lonely widower seeking female companionship." Those who answered were promptly garroted and stuffed into 55-gallon drums. Not surprisingly, two of the corpses found were those of his wife and her lover.
After the gruesome discovery, authorities traveled to the hospital were Bela died. There they were told that the Bela that died there was a young man. Apparently Bela had switched identities with one of the dying on the battlefield and was able to escape. There have been subsequent sightings of him in Budapest and persistent rumors have placed him in New York working as a janitor. But in Hungary he is remembered as the one who got away.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Kenneth Bianchi Denied Parole
Kenneth Alessio Bianchi was denied parole by a state board in Sacramento, California, today.
Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono, Jr., together are known as the Hillside Stranglers. He is serving a term of life imprisonment in Washington. Bianchi is also a suspect in the Alphabet murders, three unsolved murders in his home city of Rochester.
At his trial, Bianchi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that another personality, one "Steve Walker", had committed the crimes. Bianchi even convinced a few expert psychiatrists that he indeed suffered from multiple personality disorder, but investigators brought in their own psychiatrists, mainly the psychiatrist Martin Orne. When Orne mentioned to Bianchi that in genuine cases of the disorder, there tends to be three or more personalities, Bianchi promptly created another alias, "Billy". Eventually, investigators discovered that the very name "Steven Walker" came from a student whose identity Bianchi had previously attempted to steal for the purpose of fraudulently practicing psychology. Police also found a small library of books in Bianchi's home on topics of modern psychology, further indicating his ability to fake the disorder.
Once his claims were subjected to this scrutiny, Bianchi eventually admitted that he had been faking the disorder. To acquire leniency, he agreed to testify against Buono. However, in actually giving his testimony, Bianchi made every effort to be as uncooperative and self-contradictory as possible, apparently hoping to avoid being the ultimate cause of Buono being convicted. In the end, Bianchi's efforts were unsuccessful, as Buono was in fact convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1980, Bianchi began a relationship with Veronica Compton, a woman he met while in prison. During his trial, she testified for the defense, telling the jury a false, vague tale about the crimes in an attempt to exculpate Bianchi and also admitting to wanting to buy a mortuary with another convicted murderer for the purpose of necrophilia. She was later convicted and imprisoned for attempting to strangle a woman she had lured to a motel in an attempt to have authorities believe that the Hillside Strangler was still on the loose and the wrong man was imprisoned. Bianchi had given her some smuggled semen to use to make it look like a rape/murder committed by the Hillside Strangler.
Bianchi is serving his sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.
Bianchi will be eligible to apply for parole again in 2025.
Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono, Jr., together are known as the Hillside Stranglers. He is serving a term of life imprisonment in Washington. Bianchi is also a suspect in the Alphabet murders, three unsolved murders in his home city of Rochester.
At his trial, Bianchi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that another personality, one "Steve Walker", had committed the crimes. Bianchi even convinced a few expert psychiatrists that he indeed suffered from multiple personality disorder, but investigators brought in their own psychiatrists, mainly the psychiatrist Martin Orne. When Orne mentioned to Bianchi that in genuine cases of the disorder, there tends to be three or more personalities, Bianchi promptly created another alias, "Billy". Eventually, investigators discovered that the very name "Steven Walker" came from a student whose identity Bianchi had previously attempted to steal for the purpose of fraudulently practicing psychology. Police also found a small library of books in Bianchi's home on topics of modern psychology, further indicating his ability to fake the disorder.
Once his claims were subjected to this scrutiny, Bianchi eventually admitted that he had been faking the disorder. To acquire leniency, he agreed to testify against Buono. However, in actually giving his testimony, Bianchi made every effort to be as uncooperative and self-contradictory as possible, apparently hoping to avoid being the ultimate cause of Buono being convicted. In the end, Bianchi's efforts were unsuccessful, as Buono was in fact convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1980, Bianchi began a relationship with Veronica Compton, a woman he met while in prison. During his trial, she testified for the defense, telling the jury a false, vague tale about the crimes in an attempt to exculpate Bianchi and also admitting to wanting to buy a mortuary with another convicted murderer for the purpose of necrophilia. She was later convicted and imprisoned for attempting to strangle a woman she had lured to a motel in an attempt to have authorities believe that the Hillside Strangler was still on the loose and the wrong man was imprisoned. Bianchi had given her some smuggled semen to use to make it look like a rape/murder committed by the Hillside Strangler.
Bianchi is serving his sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.
Bianchi will be eligible to apply for parole again in 2025.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Marcel Petiot
Going to sleep early to get ready for your doctor's appointment in the morning? Then you'll really love tonight's serial killer bedtime story about Marcel Petiot.
While in medical school Marcel was already considered a thief. As a young doctor he was no better. It is believed that he killed three of his patients in Villanueve, France. Forced to leave the area, he moved to Paris where he continued his career as a swindler and a crook. During WW2, Doctor Petiot saw a golden opportunity to make lots of money. He bought a house in Rue Lesueur and customized it to become a sound-proof killing machine. There he killed up to 63 people, mostly Jews and others trying to escape the Nazis. The crafty Doctor told his victims that he was a member of the French Resistance and was able to arrange for their safe passage to South America for a steep fee. After receiving the money the doctor gave his victims a lethal injection saying it was a "vaccination" against foreign diseases. He would then lead them to a sound-proof room where he told them to wait for their Resistance escort. By then the poison would take over, the good doctor enjoyed watching their deaths through specially built peep-holes.
A thorough annihilator, he would mutilate the corpses and drop them into a lime pit. Later he started incinerating his ever increasing pile of dead. In early 1944 he was arrested and held briefly when he choked the neighborhood with the fetid smell of burning corpses coming from his incinerator. Policemen called to the scene found 27 mutilated bodies in the basement which, he said, were Nazis killed by the Resistance. Claiming to merely be doing his patriotic duty he convinced the cops to let him go. Free again, Marcel promptly disappeared.
After the war Parisians still remembered the stacks of bodies found in the Doctor's home. A newspaper accused Petiot of being a Nazi sympathizer and that the dead were patriots killed for the Gestapo. Wanting to clear his name the doctor sent a letter to the papers claiming that the Nazis had set him up and planted the bodies in his basement.
He was arrested again in October 1944 and charged with 24 murders. During his trial he claimed to have killed up to 63 enemies of France. No one believed his ties to the Resistance. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death.
The deadly doctor was guillotined on May 26,1946. It is widely believed that Marcel killed many more and dumped corpses into the Seine. Authorities believe that Petiot was also responsible for several dismembered bodies found in Bois de Boulogne near Paris in 1942.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
While in medical school Marcel was already considered a thief. As a young doctor he was no better. It is believed that he killed three of his patients in Villanueve, France. Forced to leave the area, he moved to Paris where he continued his career as a swindler and a crook. During WW2, Doctor Petiot saw a golden opportunity to make lots of money. He bought a house in Rue Lesueur and customized it to become a sound-proof killing machine. There he killed up to 63 people, mostly Jews and others trying to escape the Nazis. The crafty Doctor told his victims that he was a member of the French Resistance and was able to arrange for their safe passage to South America for a steep fee. After receiving the money the doctor gave his victims a lethal injection saying it was a "vaccination" against foreign diseases. He would then lead them to a sound-proof room where he told them to wait for their Resistance escort. By then the poison would take over, the good doctor enjoyed watching their deaths through specially built peep-holes.
A thorough annihilator, he would mutilate the corpses and drop them into a lime pit. Later he started incinerating his ever increasing pile of dead. In early 1944 he was arrested and held briefly when he choked the neighborhood with the fetid smell of burning corpses coming from his incinerator. Policemen called to the scene found 27 mutilated bodies in the basement which, he said, were Nazis killed by the Resistance. Claiming to merely be doing his patriotic duty he convinced the cops to let him go. Free again, Marcel promptly disappeared.
After the war Parisians still remembered the stacks of bodies found in the Doctor's home. A newspaper accused Petiot of being a Nazi sympathizer and that the dead were patriots killed for the Gestapo. Wanting to clear his name the doctor sent a letter to the papers claiming that the Nazis had set him up and planted the bodies in his basement.
He was arrested again in October 1944 and charged with 24 murders. During his trial he claimed to have killed up to 63 enemies of France. No one believed his ties to the Resistance. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death.
The deadly doctor was guillotined on May 26,1946. It is widely believed that Marcel killed many more and dumped corpses into the Seine. Authorities believe that Petiot was also responsible for several dismembered bodies found in Bois de Boulogne near Paris in 1942.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Juan Corona
Tonight's bedtime story is about serial killer Juan Corona.
Born in 1934, Corona moved to Yuba City, California in the early 50's as a migrant worker. There the Mexican national established himself as a family man and labor contractor, that is, until he was charged with hacking twenty-five men to death. His handiwork was uncovered on May 19, 1971, by a Japanese farmer touring the peach orchard where Corona's labor crew was working. Most of the victims were drunken transients and migrant workers who no one missed. Corona, a burly father of four, was linked to the murders through a couple of receipts found in the clothing of two of the dead.
Most of the victims were stabbed or hacked to death, and bore signs of homosexual assaults, which lead people to believe that the killer could be Juan's openly gay brother. In 1970, a young Mexican's scalp was sliced open with a machete, in the cafe run by Natividad. The victim pressed charges against Natividad, trying to get $250,000.00 in damages. Natividad fled to Mexico, and the case was left unsolved.
During his trial the defense tried to place the blame on Natividad, however there was no evidence placing him in the area at the time of the rampage. The jury deliberated for 45 hours before convicting him on multiple counts of murder. A month later Juan was sentenced to 25 consecutive terms of life imprisonment. While in prison, Corona lost his eye when he was attacked by four inmates. Currently Juan resides at Corcoran State Prison, where he is said to pace the yard obsessively mumbling to himself. In March, 1999, Corona was attacked by prisoners when several inmates invaded the recreation yard of prison's protective unit. Corona, now 65, is said to be sick and suffering from dementia. During the security breach, the ransacking prisoners also smashed Charles Manson's acoustic guitar. Prison officials said Corona sustained minor injuries.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Born in 1934, Corona moved to Yuba City, California in the early 50's as a migrant worker. There the Mexican national established himself as a family man and labor contractor, that is, until he was charged with hacking twenty-five men to death. His handiwork was uncovered on May 19, 1971, by a Japanese farmer touring the peach orchard where Corona's labor crew was working. Most of the victims were drunken transients and migrant workers who no one missed. Corona, a burly father of four, was linked to the murders through a couple of receipts found in the clothing of two of the dead.
Most of the victims were stabbed or hacked to death, and bore signs of homosexual assaults, which lead people to believe that the killer could be Juan's openly gay brother. In 1970, a young Mexican's scalp was sliced open with a machete, in the cafe run by Natividad. The victim pressed charges against Natividad, trying to get $250,000.00 in damages. Natividad fled to Mexico, and the case was left unsolved.
During his trial the defense tried to place the blame on Natividad, however there was no evidence placing him in the area at the time of the rampage. The jury deliberated for 45 hours before convicting him on multiple counts of murder. A month later Juan was sentenced to 25 consecutive terms of life imprisonment. While in prison, Corona lost his eye when he was attacked by four inmates. Currently Juan resides at Corcoran State Prison, where he is said to pace the yard obsessively mumbling to himself. In March, 1999, Corona was attacked by prisoners when several inmates invaded the recreation yard of prison's protective unit. Corona, now 65, is said to be sick and suffering from dementia. During the security breach, the ransacking prisoners also smashed Charles Manson's acoustic guitar. Prison officials said Corona sustained minor injuries.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Leonard Lake & Charles Ng
Tonight's serial killer bedtime story is about the dynamic duo, Leonard Lake & Charles Ng.
This pair of survivalists from hell built a torture chamber and snuff film parlor in a remote Northern California ranch to fuel their perversity. Lake, who went underground in 1982 after skipping bail on a weapons charge, was fond of his survivalist doomsday plan called "Operation Miranda," which would be enacted immediately after the WWIII radioactive dust settled. He was building a system of underground bunkers around the cabin at Wilseyville, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where mindless female slaves would cater to every one of his needs. (It's reassuring to know that even sadists plan to survive the apocalypse.)
A pathological woman-hater who had been abandoned by his mother as a child, Lake preyed on men to use their money and their identification, and preyed on women for sex. In one of the seized videotapes Lake expounds on his views on women. "I guess the bottom line of my statement, the simple fact is, I'm a sexist slob," he says. "I enjoy using a woman ... but in the long term I don't want to bother." On one of the tapes Lake mentions "The Collector" -- a novel by John Fowles about an obscure little clerk with a penchant for butterfly collecting who nets a lovely, twenty-year-old woman -- as his inspiration.
In April 1985, Lake and Ng videotaped themselves mistreating two captive women at Lake's home in Wilseyville, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County. Kathy Allen, a San Francisco-area supermarket clerk, and Brenda O'Connor, Lake's neighbor, were never seen again. Lake on tape threatens the women with rape and death if they don't agree to cooperate as sex slaves. He repeatedly uses the plural "we" while Ng stands by, Calaveras County District Attorney Peter Smith pointed out as the prosecution finished its summation. Ng, naked, is seen on tape getting a massage from a nearly nude Allen; Ng cuts away O'Connor's shirt and bra as she pleads for her husband and baby, who are also among his alleged victims.
When captured in 1985 for a bungled shoplifting attempt, Lake committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill. When police reached Lake's ranch they uncovered a "truckload of bones," and a body stuffed into a sleeping bag. They also found videotapes and photos documenting their reign of terror.
Ng, the only known serial killer with no vowels in his last name, escaped to Canada where he was later arrested for another bungled shoplifting attempt. In 1991, after fighting extradition for six years, he was returned to California where he is charged with conspiring in the sadistic killings of 12 people: two infants, three women and seven men. Authorities say Ng and Lake imprisoned, raped and tortured the women while using the men's identities to take money from banks, credit accounts and even to collect a Super Bowl pool.
The son of a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, Ng has proved to be an astute corruptor of the legal system. Using every ruse, the former ex-Marine has been able to postpone his trial for 13 and a half years. At one point, after having fired a series of defenders, Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan allowed Ng to act as his own attorney. After several months Judge Ryan reinstated a public defender to the case to stop any more postponements by the crafty alleged serial killer. Finally, on October 26, 1998, his trial -- considered by many legal experts the , most expensive trial in California legal history -- began in Orange County.
A man who was to play a pivotal role in the trial of accused serial killer Charles Ng has died in a car accident in Calgary, Canada. Ng, arrested in Calgary 13 years ago after a worldwide manhunt, allegedly confessed his crimes to fellow inmate Joseph Maurice Laberge. Laberge, 46, died May 19 in a car accident near Crossfield, 18 miles north of Calgary. Laberge -- whose name has not been revealed until now because he was under a witness protection program -- was alone. Foul play has been ruled out.
During his stint on the witness stand, Charles Ng denied that his videotaped threats were real, saying they were just "bluffs" to sexually excite his pal Leonard Lake. Throughout his trial in Orange County, Ng's lawyers claimed that the Hong Kong native was merely a patsy under the spell of Leonard Lake. In fact, on the witness stand Ng claimed that he knew nothing about the murders, even after helping his friend bury a couple of bodies. When he was questioned by prosecutor Sharlene Honnaka about the videotaped abuse on Kathy Allen, the shoplifting ex-marine testified that he had apparently it blocked out memory. The tape shows Allen giving Ng a massage. "It wasn't a pleasant memory I would try to remember," Ng said. "It didn't stick out in your mind that you had a woman that had been kidnapped?" Honnaka said. "My subconscious may be blocking it. That's my testimony," Ng said. He added that "nothing sexual" occurred with Allen, although he took a shower with her.
Other testimony revolving around graphic cartoons he made in a Canadian jail read like the script of an absurdist play. Ng blamed most of the content of cartoons on Maurice Laberge. When Honnaka showed a drawing depicting Lake whipping a woman while Ng stands by eating a bowl of rice, Ng said it was a satire of the allegations, "to show how ludicrous this sort of thing is." Another drawing depicted a man of Asian appearance cooking a baby in a wok and the phrase, "Daddy died, momma cried, baby fried." Ng admitted drawing "the majority of it," but said he had been goaded by Laberge.
Mr. Good Will himself, Ng said he drew the cartoons only for the amusement of Laberge. "Every time I send him a cartoon or we collaborate on a cartoon, he'd laugh." He added that the cartoon was a joke referring to rumors that Lake and him had microwaved a baby. Other "satiric" cartoons showed Ng smashing a baby in a pillowcase against something, Lake drowning a baby in a pillowcase and a man strangling a woman with pantyhose during sex.
Prosecutor Honnaka replayed segments of the videos, asking Ng what he meant by telling a shackled Brenda O'Connor: "You can cry and stuff like the rest of them, but it won't do you no good." "What do you mean by 'the rest of them?"' Honnaka asked. "There's no 'rest of them,"' Ng said. "I just try to project that seriousness ... so she wouldn't resist." Ng told the prosecutor he was acting tough -- like a character in a Death Wish movie -- when he cut away O'Connor's shirt and bra and told her: "You're totally ours."
"I don't want to act like a wimp, put it that way," Ng said. "You don't want to act like a wimp with a woman who's asking about her husband and her baby and her friend?" Honnaka countered. "At that time I didn't know who those people were," said Ng. O'Connor, a 19-year-old neighbor of Lake's, disappeared in April 1985 about the same time as Lonnie Bond, 27, their son Lonnie Bond Jr., 1, and friend Scott Stapley, 24, who lived in San Diego at the time. Ng said he helped Lake bury Bond and Stapley, and that was the first time he had seen a dead person so closely. That and the treatment of O'Connor, who was pregnant, left Ng "pretty disturbed about it afterward," he said.
In a jailhouse interview with the Sacramento Bee, convicted serial killer Charles Ng said he was shocked and angry for being sentence3d to death. "It's a strange experience," he said. "It's just like the doctor telling you that you have a terminal disease . . . You think you are psychologically prepared for it, but it's still like a big shock."
Three days before the jury's recommendation, juror Karen Barrett received a call from a man who said he was "Charles" and told her: "I just wanted to tell you, you are very nice." Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan allowed the juror to remain on the panel; she said she was "nervous" but would not be prejudiced by the incident. Ng refused to say whether he called the juror, but said Barrett was "the only one who gave me a smile and looked me in the eyes. I don't know whether she had something going on or not."
On February 24, 1999, a Santa Ana jury found Charlie guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder. To expedite the process, a deadlocked count was dropped by the judge. The jury also found special circumstances of multiple murders that makes Charlie eligible for the death penalty. Ng looked down at the defendants' table as the verdicts were read and showed no reaction.
Dr. Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, said Ng's severe personality problems developed early in life because of a strict upbringing in Hong Kong. "He was never encouraged as a child to be assertive," Grassian said. "He was always morbidly shy as a child and when teachers would say that he didn't speak in class, his father would beat him with a cane. He felt debased, devalued. He was told he was stupid."
Ng loved animals, Grassian said, and was devastated when one of his pet chickens was killed by a family member and wound up on the dinner table. Grassian said that once Ng came to the United States he sought guidance from authority figures because he was incapable of determining his own path in life.
Dr. Stuart Grassian described Ng, 38, as a classic "dependent personality" -- an abused child and someone who would latch onto authority figures and do their bidding in order to gain acceptance.
"Charles Ng was the type of person that would have ended up in South America drinking Kool-Aid," said Grassian, referring to a mass suicide by poison at Jonestown in Guyana. "I don't think he was predestined in terms of violence or sadism."
"He didn't know how to be assertive because they don't teach you that in Hong Kong," said his defense lawyer William Kelley. "He wanted to be told what to do." As a child in Hong Kong Ng was beaten with chains by his father and spent so much time being ordered around that he became dependent on others to tell him what to do. "He was just like any other kid," said Alice Shum, Ng's aunt, speaking through a Cantonese interpreter. "A regular kid. He was shy. He was quiet."
Ng came to the United States from his native Hong Kong in 1978 on a student visa to attend the College of Notre Dame near San Mateo. He was studying biology, but dropped out after the first year because of poor grades, he said. Ng then joined the Marines. He said he grew up watching American war movies and that he had always been fascinated by the military. In San Francisco, he met a recruiter who enlisted him even though he was not a citizen or a permanent resident.
He eventually ended up at the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station in Hawaii, where he ran afoul of the military authorities when he and three other soldiers raided a weapons depot. "It was just a chance for gun enthusiasts to get their hands on things that you couldn't get in the outside world," he said. Rather than face a court-martial, Ng fled.
He made his way back to Northern California, where he met Lake, a fellow Marine and a Vietnam veteran. "Part of me saw him as the father or big brother I always wanted," Ng said. Their friendship was interrupted in 1982, when federal authorities raided their mobile home and seized a large stash of weapons and explosives. Ng, still wanted by the military, was court-martialed. Lake jumped bail and became a fugitive. Ng served time at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., then rejoined Lake in 1984. That's when the killing started.
During the penalty phase of his trial "Ng the victim" told jurors with graphic descriptions of how he was trussed up and bodily carried to some of his court appearances even though he never resisted, and showed photographs of a cage that was built to hold Ng when he arrived in Calaveras County after being extradited from Canada.
Poor Charlie's lawyers then tried to depict him as a caring and loving man. According to the lawyer, the ever caring Ng offered consolation to his friends in times of grief and sent them gifts and artwork from prison.
One Betty Kirkendall of Cleveland, Oklahoma, testified she made friends with Ng after her son was murdered in 1983 and she decided to take up prison ministry. Mrs. Kirkendall said she was having problems with her husband, had been raped and had no one to communicate with when she began writing letters to Ng while he was imprisoned at Leavenworth, Kan., for weapons theft while serving in the Marine Corps.
When he was released from Leavenworth they decided to meet in person. She said she met Ng at the home of a friend in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and the next day picked him up in her car and drove to a motel. After they had sex, she said, she never saw him again and she felt later that it had been a mistake. Of the climactic meeting, she said, "It certainly wasn't for sex. It was my way of saying, I really care for you."
Chuck Farnham of San Jose, California, testified he wrote to Ng a year ago when he heard they had the common hobby of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. He said they began to talk by phone and Ng comforted him over the death of his father. "Of all the people I know I was surprised that with all his problems he had this genuine concern about what I was going through."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
This pair of survivalists from hell built a torture chamber and snuff film parlor in a remote Northern California ranch to fuel their perversity. Lake, who went underground in 1982 after skipping bail on a weapons charge, was fond of his survivalist doomsday plan called "Operation Miranda," which would be enacted immediately after the WWIII radioactive dust settled. He was building a system of underground bunkers around the cabin at Wilseyville, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where mindless female slaves would cater to every one of his needs. (It's reassuring to know that even sadists plan to survive the apocalypse.)
A pathological woman-hater who had been abandoned by his mother as a child, Lake preyed on men to use their money and their identification, and preyed on women for sex. In one of the seized videotapes Lake expounds on his views on women. "I guess the bottom line of my statement, the simple fact is, I'm a sexist slob," he says. "I enjoy using a woman ... but in the long term I don't want to bother." On one of the tapes Lake mentions "The Collector" -- a novel by John Fowles about an obscure little clerk with a penchant for butterfly collecting who nets a lovely, twenty-year-old woman -- as his inspiration.
In April 1985, Lake and Ng videotaped themselves mistreating two captive women at Lake's home in Wilseyville, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County. Kathy Allen, a San Francisco-area supermarket clerk, and Brenda O'Connor, Lake's neighbor, were never seen again. Lake on tape threatens the women with rape and death if they don't agree to cooperate as sex slaves. He repeatedly uses the plural "we" while Ng stands by, Calaveras County District Attorney Peter Smith pointed out as the prosecution finished its summation. Ng, naked, is seen on tape getting a massage from a nearly nude Allen; Ng cuts away O'Connor's shirt and bra as she pleads for her husband and baby, who are also among his alleged victims.
When captured in 1985 for a bungled shoplifting attempt, Lake committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill. When police reached Lake's ranch they uncovered a "truckload of bones," and a body stuffed into a sleeping bag. They also found videotapes and photos documenting their reign of terror.
Ng, the only known serial killer with no vowels in his last name, escaped to Canada where he was later arrested for another bungled shoplifting attempt. In 1991, after fighting extradition for six years, he was returned to California where he is charged with conspiring in the sadistic killings of 12 people: two infants, three women and seven men. Authorities say Ng and Lake imprisoned, raped and tortured the women while using the men's identities to take money from banks, credit accounts and even to collect a Super Bowl pool.
The son of a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, Ng has proved to be an astute corruptor of the legal system. Using every ruse, the former ex-Marine has been able to postpone his trial for 13 and a half years. At one point, after having fired a series of defenders, Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan allowed Ng to act as his own attorney. After several months Judge Ryan reinstated a public defender to the case to stop any more postponements by the crafty alleged serial killer. Finally, on October 26, 1998, his trial -- considered by many legal experts the , most expensive trial in California legal history -- began in Orange County.
A man who was to play a pivotal role in the trial of accused serial killer Charles Ng has died in a car accident in Calgary, Canada. Ng, arrested in Calgary 13 years ago after a worldwide manhunt, allegedly confessed his crimes to fellow inmate Joseph Maurice Laberge. Laberge, 46, died May 19 in a car accident near Crossfield, 18 miles north of Calgary. Laberge -- whose name has not been revealed until now because he was under a witness protection program -- was alone. Foul play has been ruled out.
During his stint on the witness stand, Charles Ng denied that his videotaped threats were real, saying they were just "bluffs" to sexually excite his pal Leonard Lake. Throughout his trial in Orange County, Ng's lawyers claimed that the Hong Kong native was merely a patsy under the spell of Leonard Lake. In fact, on the witness stand Ng claimed that he knew nothing about the murders, even after helping his friend bury a couple of bodies. When he was questioned by prosecutor Sharlene Honnaka about the videotaped abuse on Kathy Allen, the shoplifting ex-marine testified that he had apparently it blocked out memory. The tape shows Allen giving Ng a massage. "It wasn't a pleasant memory I would try to remember," Ng said. "It didn't stick out in your mind that you had a woman that had been kidnapped?" Honnaka said. "My subconscious may be blocking it. That's my testimony," Ng said. He added that "nothing sexual" occurred with Allen, although he took a shower with her.
Other testimony revolving around graphic cartoons he made in a Canadian jail read like the script of an absurdist play. Ng blamed most of the content of cartoons on Maurice Laberge. When Honnaka showed a drawing depicting Lake whipping a woman while Ng stands by eating a bowl of rice, Ng said it was a satire of the allegations, "to show how ludicrous this sort of thing is." Another drawing depicted a man of Asian appearance cooking a baby in a wok and the phrase, "Daddy died, momma cried, baby fried." Ng admitted drawing "the majority of it," but said he had been goaded by Laberge.
Mr. Good Will himself, Ng said he drew the cartoons only for the amusement of Laberge. "Every time I send him a cartoon or we collaborate on a cartoon, he'd laugh." He added that the cartoon was a joke referring to rumors that Lake and him had microwaved a baby. Other "satiric" cartoons showed Ng smashing a baby in a pillowcase against something, Lake drowning a baby in a pillowcase and a man strangling a woman with pantyhose during sex.
Prosecutor Honnaka replayed segments of the videos, asking Ng what he meant by telling a shackled Brenda O'Connor: "You can cry and stuff like the rest of them, but it won't do you no good." "What do you mean by 'the rest of them?"' Honnaka asked. "There's no 'rest of them,"' Ng said. "I just try to project that seriousness ... so she wouldn't resist." Ng told the prosecutor he was acting tough -- like a character in a Death Wish movie -- when he cut away O'Connor's shirt and bra and told her: "You're totally ours."
"I don't want to act like a wimp, put it that way," Ng said. "You don't want to act like a wimp with a woman who's asking about her husband and her baby and her friend?" Honnaka countered. "At that time I didn't know who those people were," said Ng. O'Connor, a 19-year-old neighbor of Lake's, disappeared in April 1985 about the same time as Lonnie Bond, 27, their son Lonnie Bond Jr., 1, and friend Scott Stapley, 24, who lived in San Diego at the time. Ng said he helped Lake bury Bond and Stapley, and that was the first time he had seen a dead person so closely. That and the treatment of O'Connor, who was pregnant, left Ng "pretty disturbed about it afterward," he said.
In a jailhouse interview with the Sacramento Bee, convicted serial killer Charles Ng said he was shocked and angry for being sentence3d to death. "It's a strange experience," he said. "It's just like the doctor telling you that you have a terminal disease . . . You think you are psychologically prepared for it, but it's still like a big shock."
Three days before the jury's recommendation, juror Karen Barrett received a call from a man who said he was "Charles" and told her: "I just wanted to tell you, you are very nice." Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan allowed the juror to remain on the panel; she said she was "nervous" but would not be prejudiced by the incident. Ng refused to say whether he called the juror, but said Barrett was "the only one who gave me a smile and looked me in the eyes. I don't know whether she had something going on or not."
On February 24, 1999, a Santa Ana jury found Charlie guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder. To expedite the process, a deadlocked count was dropped by the judge. The jury also found special circumstances of multiple murders that makes Charlie eligible for the death penalty. Ng looked down at the defendants' table as the verdicts were read and showed no reaction.
Dr. Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, said Ng's severe personality problems developed early in life because of a strict upbringing in Hong Kong. "He was never encouraged as a child to be assertive," Grassian said. "He was always morbidly shy as a child and when teachers would say that he didn't speak in class, his father would beat him with a cane. He felt debased, devalued. He was told he was stupid."
Ng loved animals, Grassian said, and was devastated when one of his pet chickens was killed by a family member and wound up on the dinner table. Grassian said that once Ng came to the United States he sought guidance from authority figures because he was incapable of determining his own path in life.
Dr. Stuart Grassian described Ng, 38, as a classic "dependent personality" -- an abused child and someone who would latch onto authority figures and do their bidding in order to gain acceptance.
"Charles Ng was the type of person that would have ended up in South America drinking Kool-Aid," said Grassian, referring to a mass suicide by poison at Jonestown in Guyana. "I don't think he was predestined in terms of violence or sadism."
"He didn't know how to be assertive because they don't teach you that in Hong Kong," said his defense lawyer William Kelley. "He wanted to be told what to do." As a child in Hong Kong Ng was beaten with chains by his father and spent so much time being ordered around that he became dependent on others to tell him what to do. "He was just like any other kid," said Alice Shum, Ng's aunt, speaking through a Cantonese interpreter. "A regular kid. He was shy. He was quiet."
Ng came to the United States from his native Hong Kong in 1978 on a student visa to attend the College of Notre Dame near San Mateo. He was studying biology, but dropped out after the first year because of poor grades, he said. Ng then joined the Marines. He said he grew up watching American war movies and that he had always been fascinated by the military. In San Francisco, he met a recruiter who enlisted him even though he was not a citizen or a permanent resident.
He eventually ended up at the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station in Hawaii, where he ran afoul of the military authorities when he and three other soldiers raided a weapons depot. "It was just a chance for gun enthusiasts to get their hands on things that you couldn't get in the outside world," he said. Rather than face a court-martial, Ng fled.
He made his way back to Northern California, where he met Lake, a fellow Marine and a Vietnam veteran. "Part of me saw him as the father or big brother I always wanted," Ng said. Their friendship was interrupted in 1982, when federal authorities raided their mobile home and seized a large stash of weapons and explosives. Ng, still wanted by the military, was court-martialed. Lake jumped bail and became a fugitive. Ng served time at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., then rejoined Lake in 1984. That's when the killing started.
During the penalty phase of his trial "Ng the victim" told jurors with graphic descriptions of how he was trussed up and bodily carried to some of his court appearances even though he never resisted, and showed photographs of a cage that was built to hold Ng when he arrived in Calaveras County after being extradited from Canada.
Poor Charlie's lawyers then tried to depict him as a caring and loving man. According to the lawyer, the ever caring Ng offered consolation to his friends in times of grief and sent them gifts and artwork from prison.
One Betty Kirkendall of Cleveland, Oklahoma, testified she made friends with Ng after her son was murdered in 1983 and she decided to take up prison ministry. Mrs. Kirkendall said she was having problems with her husband, had been raped and had no one to communicate with when she began writing letters to Ng while he was imprisoned at Leavenworth, Kan., for weapons theft while serving in the Marine Corps.
When he was released from Leavenworth they decided to meet in person. She said she met Ng at the home of a friend in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and the next day picked him up in her car and drove to a motel. After they had sex, she said, she never saw him again and she felt later that it had been a mistake. Of the climactic meeting, she said, "It certainly wasn't for sex. It was my way of saying, I really care for you."
Chuck Farnham of San Jose, California, testified he wrote to Ng a year ago when he heard they had the common hobby of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. He said they began to talk by phone and Ng comforted him over the death of his father. "Of all the people I know I was surprised that with all his problems he had this genuine concern about what I was going through."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Scripted Strangulations
Thank you all for submitting your selections for the best strangulations in movies and plays. The responses were overwhelming. Here are the results, just in time for the Broadway premiere of If She Did It.
There were loads of movie titles submitted. Horror flicks were in full force (Creepshow, The Fog, Halloween, etc.), and some monster favorites made the list (Frankenstein, The Mummy, etc.). Several James Bond scenes (The Spy Who Loved Me, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, A View to a Kill, End of Days, etc.) made the cuts, and similar action hero films such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard, Under Siege 2, and True Lies squeezed in.
Star Wars selections included Anakin strangling Padme in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Darth Vader’s telekinetic strangling of Admiral Kendal Ozzel in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
The opening scene for No Country for Old Men was high on the list, as was the scene from Dial M For Murder when the beautiful Grace Kelly gets out of a strangle hold by stabbing her assailant with a pair of scissors. Youch.
But the Crazy4Crazies Oscar winner, “hands down” of course, goes to . . . the murder of Luca Brasi in The Godfather. Luca is a personal enforcer for Don Corleone, but the rival Tattaglia family and their boys do a number on him. Luca’s hand is pinned down to the bar with a knife, and then he is strangled from behind with a cord. The Tattaglias throw Luca’s body into the sea and then deliver a fish wrapped in his bulletproof vest to the Corleone family as a message that Luca “sleeps with the fishes.” Subtle, yet effective.
Fewer of our readers submitted choices for the best strangulation in a play, reflecting either our demographic or just the limited options out there.
Several of you chose Sweeney Todd’s killing of Adolfo Pirelli, which does start with a strangulation but ends with a slashing. Others went with The Phantom of the Opera, when The Phantom strangles Ubaldo Piangi, sings "The Point of No Return" in his place, and then kidnaps Christine. Ah, anything for true love. And who wouldn’t love the scene in the musical Jekyll and Hyde when Hyde scolds Lady Beaconsfield for her vanity, tears off her jewels and hands them to a beggar, and then strangles her?
But the Crazy4Crazies Tony Award goes to . . . Othello’s murder of his wife, Desdemona. If we have any Shakespearean purist readers, they might argue this one, since the murder is more often depicted as a pillow smothering than as a strangulation. Fair enough. But this is one of the great murders in theater history.
The murder of Desdemona is popular not because of Othello, but because of his antagonist. Iago claims to hate Othello for passing him up for a promotion, but he is truly driven by only the purest evil. He succeeds in convincing Othello that Desdemona has been having an affair with his lieutenant, Cassio, and encourages him to kill her. It is the demonically brilliant Iago who brings about the death of Desdemona, but without getting his hands dirty.
Will If She Did It outdo Othello for best on-stage strangulation? We can’t wait to find out. Since you’re Crazy 4 Crazies, check in afterwards to let us know what you think.
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This is post #91 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).
If you are enjoying this free and unique online reading experience, please tell your friends.
There were loads of movie titles submitted. Horror flicks were in full force (Creepshow, The Fog, Halloween, etc.), and some monster favorites made the list (Frankenstein, The Mummy, etc.). Several James Bond scenes (The Spy Who Loved Me, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, A View to a Kill, End of Days, etc.) made the cuts, and similar action hero films such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard, Under Siege 2, and True Lies squeezed in.
Star Wars selections included Anakin strangling Padme in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Darth Vader’s telekinetic strangling of Admiral Kendal Ozzel in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
The opening scene for No Country for Old Men was high on the list, as was the scene from Dial M For Murder when the beautiful Grace Kelly gets out of a strangle hold by stabbing her assailant with a pair of scissors. Youch.
But the Crazy4Crazies Oscar winner, “hands down” of course, goes to . . . the murder of Luca Brasi in The Godfather. Luca is a personal enforcer for Don Corleone, but the rival Tattaglia family and their boys do a number on him. Luca’s hand is pinned down to the bar with a knife, and then he is strangled from behind with a cord. The Tattaglias throw Luca’s body into the sea and then deliver a fish wrapped in his bulletproof vest to the Corleone family as a message that Luca “sleeps with the fishes.” Subtle, yet effective.
Fewer of our readers submitted choices for the best strangulation in a play, reflecting either our demographic or just the limited options out there.
Several of you chose Sweeney Todd’s killing of Adolfo Pirelli, which does start with a strangulation but ends with a slashing. Others went with The Phantom of the Opera, when The Phantom strangles Ubaldo Piangi, sings "The Point of No Return" in his place, and then kidnaps Christine. Ah, anything for true love. And who wouldn’t love the scene in the musical Jekyll and Hyde when Hyde scolds Lady Beaconsfield for her vanity, tears off her jewels and hands them to a beggar, and then strangles her?
But the Crazy4Crazies Tony Award goes to . . . Othello’s murder of his wife, Desdemona. If we have any Shakespearean purist readers, they might argue this one, since the murder is more often depicted as a pillow smothering than as a strangulation. Fair enough. But this is one of the great murders in theater history.
The murder of Desdemona is popular not because of Othello, but because of his antagonist. Iago claims to hate Othello for passing him up for a promotion, but he is truly driven by only the purest evil. He succeeds in convincing Othello that Desdemona has been having an affair with his lieutenant, Cassio, and encourages him to kill her. It is the demonically brilliant Iago who brings about the death of Desdemona, but without getting his hands dirty.
Will If She Did It outdo Othello for best on-stage strangulation? We can’t wait to find out. Since you’re Crazy 4 Crazies, check in afterwards to let us know what you think.
-----
This is post #91 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).
If you are enjoying this free and unique online reading experience, please tell your friends.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Bruce Lee
If you came here to read about the karate guy, you may be disappointed. Tonight's serial killer bedtime story is about a different Bruce Lee.
Not to be confused with the martial arts legend, but instead a deformed epileptic pyromaniac who legally changed his name in honor of his Kung-Fu-fighting hero. This British arsonist once torched an old man after arguing with him over what to feed the pigeons. He killed eleven more people when he set an old age home ablaze. In 1980 British police arrested him in a public bathroom frequented by gay men while he was looking for a blow job. He confessed to all his crimes and is now locked up in an insane asylum practicing his Kung-Fu kicks.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Not to be confused with the martial arts legend, but instead a deformed epileptic pyromaniac who legally changed his name in honor of his Kung-Fu-fighting hero. This British arsonist once torched an old man after arguing with him over what to feed the pigeons. He killed eleven more people when he set an old age home ablaze. In 1980 British police arrested him in a public bathroom frequented by gay men while he was looking for a blow job. He confessed to all his crimes and is now locked up in an insane asylum practicing his Kung-Fu kicks.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Juan Martin Cantu
Having trouble sleeping? You've come to the right place, and you're just in time for tonight's serial killer bedtime story about Juan Martin Cantu.
For more than a decade, Juan Martin Cantu lived with his wife in a ramshackle house near the Gulf Coast of Texas and worked odd jobs. On the side this model neighbor had a life as a hit man. The truth came out after Cantu was arrested on a charge of felony marijuana possession. During his interrogation, he admitted he had served time in Texas and Mexican prisons and that he also was responsible for 26 murders for which he had never been charged, precinct Deputy Constable George Gavito said. "I asked him, 'Do you get off on this, get a joy from it?' And he smiles and he tells me, 'You know, it gives me a thrill," Gavito said.
Cantu, jailed under the name Juan Martin Medrano, has a criminal record in Texas that dates to at least 1974, when he was convicted of burglary. After at least two more felony convictions for lesser offenses, he confessed in 1978 to six slayings, Gavito said. He was transferred to a Mexican prison under the terms of a 1970s treaty that allows foreign nationals to transfer to facilities in their home countries, but he was released four years later, police said. He had been living in Laguna Heights since at least 1991.
Cantu, 46, grew up the son of a poor rancher in the small Mexican state of Morelos. His first victim apparently had threatened his brother. By 17, he had become a contract killer, Gavito said. "He sat down with me and he told me that he started to kill people when he was 14," Gavito said.
Gavito said Cantu placed the unsolved murders in several Mexican cities: Vera Cruz, Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros. He also said he killed people in Brownsville, Houston and Dallas; in Naples and Jacksonville, Fla.; and in Alabama. Investigator Lt. Joe Garcia said Cantu had been a known hit man for drug kingpin Cacho Espinosa.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
For more than a decade, Juan Martin Cantu lived with his wife in a ramshackle house near the Gulf Coast of Texas and worked odd jobs. On the side this model neighbor had a life as a hit man. The truth came out after Cantu was arrested on a charge of felony marijuana possession. During his interrogation, he admitted he had served time in Texas and Mexican prisons and that he also was responsible for 26 murders for which he had never been charged, precinct Deputy Constable George Gavito said. "I asked him, 'Do you get off on this, get a joy from it?' And he smiles and he tells me, 'You know, it gives me a thrill," Gavito said.
Cantu, jailed under the name Juan Martin Medrano, has a criminal record in Texas that dates to at least 1974, when he was convicted of burglary. After at least two more felony convictions for lesser offenses, he confessed in 1978 to six slayings, Gavito said. He was transferred to a Mexican prison under the terms of a 1970s treaty that allows foreign nationals to transfer to facilities in their home countries, but he was released four years later, police said. He had been living in Laguna Heights since at least 1991.
Cantu, 46, grew up the son of a poor rancher in the small Mexican state of Morelos. His first victim apparently had threatened his brother. By 17, he had become a contract killer, Gavito said. "He sat down with me and he told me that he started to kill people when he was 14," Gavito said.
Gavito said Cantu placed the unsolved murders in several Mexican cities: Vera Cruz, Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros. He also said he killed people in Brownsville, Houston and Dallas; in Naples and Jacksonville, Fla.; and in Alabama. Investigator Lt. Joe Garcia said Cantu had been a known hit man for drug kingpin Cacho Espinosa.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Look Kids - It's Ted Bundy's Car
On Thursday the National Museum of Crime & Punishment held an unveiling ceremony for Ted Bundy's Beetle, the car into which he lured his victims and in which he killed many of them during a vintage serial killing spree in the 1970s.
"This was kind of like a death wagon," said Wyndell C. Watkins Sr., a retired D.C. police deputy chief, who was on hand to help introduce the latest iconic celebrity murder object joining Washington's museum collections.
The car has been stored in a private collection owned by New York-based Arthur Nash, who owns many of the most grisly objects on display in the museum's main exhibition. Also from the Nash collection: clown and serial killer John Wayne Gacy's painter's box, on display in a room dealing with other delightful "murderabilia."
Bundy's VW replaces the 1933 Essex-Terraplane car used as a getaway vehicle by John Dillinger. With Dillinger's car shipped off to the Southwest terminal of Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, where it will help present the capital region's best face to visitors, the crime museum needed a marquee object to grace its front lobby.
Of all of the notorious cars in the world -- the white Ford Bronco that O.J. Simpson rode in, the D.C. snipers' shabby Chevy Caprice retrofitted with gun placements -- Bundy's Bug may be the most notorious because it was so intimately connected to its owner's crimes. "Bundy killed in this car" is what you're supposed to feel when looking at something that was not just a tool, but a container for death. Yes, I have chills all over just thinking about it.
Compared with the D.C. snipers' car, on display at the Newseum, Bundy's VW has the edge of authenticity. The snipers' car is a mock-up, used at trial, not the actual vehicle from which John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo hunted their victims.
The Bundy car, with a brittle and faded 1976 Utah vehicle inspection sticker (No. 264924) still stuck to its dirty and cracked windshield, was not just the site of murder, but part of the strange, all-American charm and innocence that helped Bundy coerce women to get fatally close to him. It was advertising for a man who made himself an avatar of a free and unfettered age.
Maybe it's time for a visit to Washington. This stuff is the Holy Grail for those of us who are Crazy 4 Crazy.
"This was kind of like a death wagon," said Wyndell C. Watkins Sr., a retired D.C. police deputy chief, who was on hand to help introduce the latest iconic celebrity murder object joining Washington's museum collections.
The car has been stored in a private collection owned by New York-based Arthur Nash, who owns many of the most grisly objects on display in the museum's main exhibition. Also from the Nash collection: clown and serial killer John Wayne Gacy's painter's box, on display in a room dealing with other delightful "murderabilia."
Bundy's VW replaces the 1933 Essex-Terraplane car used as a getaway vehicle by John Dillinger. With Dillinger's car shipped off to the Southwest terminal of Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, where it will help present the capital region's best face to visitors, the crime museum needed a marquee object to grace its front lobby.
Of all of the notorious cars in the world -- the white Ford Bronco that O.J. Simpson rode in, the D.C. snipers' shabby Chevy Caprice retrofitted with gun placements -- Bundy's Bug may be the most notorious because it was so intimately connected to its owner's crimes. "Bundy killed in this car" is what you're supposed to feel when looking at something that was not just a tool, but a container for death. Yes, I have chills all over just thinking about it.
Compared with the D.C. snipers' car, on display at the Newseum, Bundy's VW has the edge of authenticity. The snipers' car is a mock-up, used at trial, not the actual vehicle from which John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo hunted their victims.
The Bundy car, with a brittle and faded 1976 Utah vehicle inspection sticker (No. 264924) still stuck to its dirty and cracked windshield, was not just the site of murder, but part of the strange, all-American charm and innocence that helped Bundy coerce women to get fatally close to him. It was advertising for a man who made himself an avatar of a free and unfettered age.
Maybe it's time for a visit to Washington. This stuff is the Holy Grail for those of us who are Crazy 4 Crazy.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Dean Corll
Tonight's bedtime story is about Dean Corll.
Born on Christmas Eve, 1939, this Texan maniac enjoyed killing young boys in the comfort of his own home. Friendly Dean would invite kids into his house to sniff glue and then, when they passed out, he would slip on the handcuffs and party in their butts all night long before snapping their life away. Not the shy type, Dean enjoyed biting his victim's dicks off and kept a collection of them in a bag. In August 1973, one of his teen-aged helpers, Elmer Wayne Henley, shot and killed the portly psychopath after saying he would help him snatch more youngsters. Police found seventeen bodies under the floor of a boat house Dean rented as well as the bag full of severed genitalia.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Born on Christmas Eve, 1939, this Texan maniac enjoyed killing young boys in the comfort of his own home. Friendly Dean would invite kids into his house to sniff glue and then, when they passed out, he would slip on the handcuffs and party in their butts all night long before snapping their life away. Not the shy type, Dean enjoyed biting his victim's dicks off and kept a collection of them in a bag. In August 1973, one of his teen-aged helpers, Elmer Wayne Henley, shot and killed the portly psychopath after saying he would help him snatch more youngsters. Police found seventeen bodies under the floor of a boat house Dean rented as well as the bag full of severed genitalia.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Roger Andermatt
Happy New Year!
There once was a serial killer named Roger Andermatt . . .
On September 11, 2001, 32-year-old Swiss nurse, claiming he acted out of compassion, confessed to killing 27 elderly and ailing patients over a six-year period. The nurse, identified as Roger Andermatt, was arrested at the end of June after a suspicious death in a nursing home. He subsequently admitted killing nine patients there. Suspecting the toll might be higher, police launched a full investigation into mysterious deaths in other homes where Andermatt worked. Under interrogation, Andermatt confessed to 18 other killings, including 12 in a home for invalids in the central Swiss town of Sarnen.
If the death toll is confirmed, Andermatt will become Switzerland's worst serial killer. Andermatt allegedly gave his victims an overdose of tranquilizers or smothered them with a folded plastic bag or a small piece of cloth over the mouth and nose. In some instances, the nurse claimed he first sedated the patients before suffocating them.
Andermatt insisted his motives were "sympathy, compassion and a desire to end the suffering of the patient." But he also confessed that in some cases he was simply overwhelmed by the stress of work. The government in Obwalden, the small state where Andermatt lived and where many of the murders took place, said it was in shock. "The government regards it as tragic that such a crime could happen in such well-known and trusted surroundings," it said.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
There once was a serial killer named Roger Andermatt . . .
On September 11, 2001, 32-year-old Swiss nurse, claiming he acted out of compassion, confessed to killing 27 elderly and ailing patients over a six-year period. The nurse, identified as Roger Andermatt, was arrested at the end of June after a suspicious death in a nursing home. He subsequently admitted killing nine patients there. Suspecting the toll might be higher, police launched a full investigation into mysterious deaths in other homes where Andermatt worked. Under interrogation, Andermatt confessed to 18 other killings, including 12 in a home for invalids in the central Swiss town of Sarnen.
If the death toll is confirmed, Andermatt will become Switzerland's worst serial killer. Andermatt allegedly gave his victims an overdose of tranquilizers or smothered them with a folded plastic bag or a small piece of cloth over the mouth and nose. In some instances, the nurse claimed he first sedated the patients before suffocating them.
Andermatt insisted his motives were "sympathy, compassion and a desire to end the suffering of the patient." But he also confessed that in some cases he was simply overwhelmed by the stress of work. The government in Obwalden, the small state where Andermatt lived and where many of the murders took place, said it was in shock. "The government regards it as tragic that such a crime could happen in such well-known and trusted surroundings," it said.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
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