Forensics: Name That Strangulation

Our server has been ringing off the hook from Blande-o-phile emails since we wrote our blog on strangulation biology. Okay okay. Calm down out there. Here’s the blog we promised you on strangulation forensics. We hope it matches all the hype. We once again recommend that you read Strack and McClane’s famous strangulation forensics article from 1999, available at this link. You may want to read the article before taking our “Name That Strangulation” quiz below.

Let’s imagine you’re a coroner in a potential homicide case. I know – if you’re even half as Crazy 4 Crazies as we are, it’s too exciting to even imagine. But let’s just say that you are for a moment. They wheel the corpse in on a stretcher and it’s all up to you to decide what happened. Luckily you will have taken our “Name That Strangulation” quiz. The first 10 people who email correct answers to this quiz plus our “Name That Weapon” quiz will win a Hillside Strangler Mug-Shot-Mug with their choice of cousins – Buono or Bianchi.

Name That Strangulation #1: The victim’s neck has a dark red circumferential mark shaped like a teardrop, darkest in the front. The mark is high up, has an extra wide bruise just behind the left ear, and is lined by a series of fingernail scratches along the upper border. The “whites” of the eyes have small red peppered appearance. There is no internal fracturing of the hyoid bone or thyroid cartilage. Is this a manual strangulation, a ligature strangulation, or a hanging?

Name That Strangulation #2: There are numerous claw marks of different sizes and directions along the neck. Two round bruises, each a centimeter in width, lie over the area of the Adam’s apple. Pockets of air crackle under the skin when pressure is applied. There are blood patches filling the “whites” of the left eye, and numerous red dots along the neck and face. Internal examination reveals that the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage are both fractured. Is this a manual strangulation, a ligature strangulation, or a hanging? Bonus question: was the assailant in front of or behind the victim?

Name That Strangulation #3: There is a dark horizontal mark around the neck just below the Adam’s apple. Numerous scratches and gouges are visible in the front of the neck and along the chin. There are many red dots along the “whites” of the eyes and just above the horizontal neck mark. On internal examination, the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage are both broken. Is this a manual strangulation, a ligature strangulation, or a hanging?

Name That Strangulation #4: This victim had a known strangulation event three weeks before death. There were never any external markings, including during your postmortem examination. All of the neck anatomy appears normal on internal examination. The lungs are heavy with accumulated fluid, and there is pneumonia in a pattern suggesting eroding gastric acid as the cause. Can this death be due to strangulation?

Blood red eyes. Claw marks. Broken neck bones. Gastric acid eroding lungs. Don’t you just love a good bedtime story? Of course you do, because you’re Crazy 4 Crazies.

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This is post #53 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).

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Strangulation Biology 101

By popular demand from all of you Blande-o-philes out there, here is the Crazy 4 Crazies version of strangulation biology 101. We happen to love this stuff too, so it’s from a whole library of articles and websites that we have set aside as bedside reading. One of our favorites is Strack and McClane’s famous strangulation forensics article from 1999, available at this link.

You don’t have to have an advanced science degree to enjoy this one, so check it out. Our readers need to be well versed in strangulations, since they account for about 10% of all violent deaths each year.

You can kill someone by cutting off the blood going to their brain through their carotid arteries, the ones that squirt across the room in slash-happy horror flicks. All you need is 11 pounds of pressure for 10 seconds to make someone unconscious, so this is the best bang for your buck.

If you go for the jugular instead, you can cut off the blood returning to their heart from their head, making their face swell like a ripe plum.

The third way to kill someone by strangulation is to cut off the airway, which is a little more manly since it takes 33 pounds of pressure. All that pressure can do more than cut off the airflow though. Sometimes the assailant breaks the victim’s larynx (voice box) or a neck bone called the hyoid.

The victim experiences severe pain and then goes unconscious. They can regain consciousness in 10 seconds if the pressure is released, though, so ignore what you see in the movies and hold tight for 4-5 minutes so brain death can kick in. [Disclaimer: this website does not promote murder. This information is for educational purposes only.]

Now that you know how much time to set aside for a strangulation, here are 3 options for how to do it: hanging, ligature, and manual. Hanging is generally too difficult for a serial killer acting alone, so let’s move right to the other two.

Ligature strangulation means you use an object like a cord or clothing. The Boston Strangler did his dirty work with the victim’s silk stockings in most cases. The Hillside Strangler duo, Angelo Buono, Jr. and Kenneth Bianchi, used sheets as ligatures to kill their victims. Telephone cords also used to be popular, but times have changed. Women’s stockings are again the latest rage, including nearly a dozen copy-cat crimes across the U.S. since Destiny Blande was arrested.

Manual strangulation is done with your bare hands and is sometimes called “throttling.” This might be a little butch for a sexy lady like Destiny Blande but is otherwise extremely popular. BTK Killer Dennis Rader testified that his first attempt at manual strangulation was unsuccessful, and he was surprised at how much time and effort was required. Of course he got better with practice.

This is a lead in to an upcoming blog about the forensics of strangulation. Please be patient. We know you’re Crazy 4 Crazies.

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This is post #51 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).

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What Motivates a Serial Killer?

Why did Destiny Blande kill all those men?  I know I know.  The jury said she didn’t do it.  As though any of us believes that.  In order to look at the motivations of the Satin Strangler, we have to start with some traditional but perhaps controversial types of serial killers.  Grab a snack, sit down with your computer, and look for some of your favorites in the information that follows.

Visionaries: Psychotic killers that hear voices often fit this mold.  David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, said that a demon speaking through his neighbor’s dog told him to kill.  Unfortunately David listened.

Missionaries: These killers are on a mission to change society in some way.  The Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is a good example.  In his Industrial Society and Its Future, later dubbed the Unabomber Manifesto, he declared that his bombs were to attract attention to the erosion of human freedoms caused by modern technology.

Lust Killers. They are motivated by sexual drive.  Kenneth Bianchi, aka the Hillside Strangler, and Jeffrey Dahmer, had some issues with this one, to say the least.

Power Seekers: They play power games with their victims, providing a feeling of control.  Ted Bundy, who confessed to more than 30 murders but is thought to have committed dozens more, might come to mind here.

Hedonistic/Thrill Killers. They just love what they do.  How many of you can say you love your job that much?  San Francisco’s Zodiac Killer and a long list of Hollywood characters found ways to make sport of it all.

Destiny Blande doesn’t fit any of these molds.

Dr. Steven Egger, Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Houston at Clear Lake in Texas, and Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Springfield, defines serial murder as having the following 6 traits

Minimum of two murders

The killer and victim are unrelated

Murders occur at different times

Murders occur at different locations

Victims may share characteristics with the killer

Murders are for fantasy gratification rather than financial gain

In Serial Murderers and Their Victims (2nd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1997), author Eric Hickey described the differences between male and female serial killers.  Female serial killers are more likely to kill husbands, relatives, or people in hospitals or nursing homes where they work; murder in one specific place; and poison the victims.  Most importantly, they have money as a motive, which means most female “serial killers” do not actually meet Dr. Egger’s criteria listed above.  Dorothea Puente, who had a terrible habit of killing her tenants for their social security checks, is a classic example of Hickey’s female serial killer but wouldn’t make Eggar’s cut.

If anything, Destiny Blande appears to be part Lust Seeker, part Power Seeker, and part Thrill Seeker.  Hey don’t knock the girl for having more than one source of inspiration.  She also behaves more like a male serial killer by taking strangers as victims and being geographically mobile.

Maybe these oddities are what make the Satin Strangler so frightening.  Maybe they’re why we’re so infatuated with her.  In any case, we just can’t get enough of her because we’re simply Crazy 4 Crazies.

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This is post #48 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).

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Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Vasili Komaroff

Tonight's serial killer bedtime story is about Vasili Komaroff.

A horse-trader during the early days of Stalin, Vasili was known as "The Wolf of Moscow" for his unbridled reign of terror. A peasant, Vasili typically killed for money. His first victim was uncovered in 1921. Many others followed with frightful regularity. There were 21 in all: strangled, bound, doubled-over and dumped in vacant lots around the Shabolovki District. Authorities linked the killings to the horse-trading market un Moscow that happened every Wednesdays and Fridays. As authorities soon discovered, anyone who left with Vasili to see his horses was never seen or heard of again. When police went to his home to question him they found his latest victim stuffed in a sack in the stable. Panicked, "the Wolf" jumped out the window and escaped.

Several days later he was picked up and confessed to the tune of 33 killings, 11 of which were not under investigation. Over the next few days he uncovered five new corpses for the authorities. The other six victims he dumped in the river and their bodies were never recovered. Vasili implicated his wife Sofia as an accomplice. They were both found guilty of multiple homicides and sentenced to death. On June 18, 1923, they went to the "big horse-show in the sky" via firing squad.

Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.

Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: John Wayne Gacy

Tonight's serial killer bedtime story about John Wayne Gacy will help even the worst of insomniacs go into a deep sleep.

Straight out of the he's-such-a-nice-guy file, Johnny was the type of man who liked to dress in a homemade Pogo the Clown outfit to entertain kids. A lonely and sadistic contractor, Johnny also liked to entertain young boys privately in a very different fashion. The prototypical organized killer, he had all aspects of the murder worked out before each kill.
Once he entered his murderous fantasy, there was no turning back.

He enjoyed handcuffing his victims, anally raping them, beating them to a pulp, offering to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, reciting verses from the Bible and strangling them to death. In 1978 he was tracked down by the police in Chicago. Thirty bodies were found buried in the crawl space underneath his house, explaining his wife's complaints about the constant stench. As a prisoner, Johnny Boy started a new career as an artist, painting mostly colorful clown pictures, which have been shown in galleries nationwide. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.

On November 11, 1998, the Chicago Tribune reported that police, acting on a tip from a former detective, were searching for human remains in a parking lot behind Gacy's mother's house. Authorities believe there could be as many as four bodies buried 3 1/2 feet deep. Former Detective Bill Dorsch, now a private investigator, told prosecutors of a night in 1975 when he found Gacy holding a dirty shovel next to the alley where the new search is proposed. "I stopped and said, 'John, what are you doing out here at this time of night with a shovel?"' Dorsch said. Gacy replied: "Well, with all the kind of work I do, there just isn't enough time in the day. So here I am."

Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.

Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Fernando Hernandez Leyva

Tonight's serial killer bedtime story about Fernando Hernandez Leyva is no April Fool's joke.

Mexican police said a Cuernavaca man they arrested on charges of assault and kidnapping had confessed to killing more than 100 people. Jose Castillo, chief prosecutor of central Morelos state, told a news conference that police arrested Fernando Hernandez, alias "Pancho Lopez." Castillo said he was unaware of any criminal who had a more violent record in Mexican history.

Hernandez also appeared at the news conference, telling reporters: "I committed about 100 homicides and six kidnappings." Castillo said police in four different states had sought the man they knew as "Pancho Lopez" in connection with 38 slayings and dozens of violent assaults and kidnappings. "I killed them because I had to," Hernandez added. "I don't know how to do anything else."

On April 4, a criminal court judge in Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City, ordered Hernandez Leyva held over for trial along with three alleged accomplices on several murder, robbery and kidnapping counts. Hernandez Leyva is suspected in 137 killings, six kidnappings and several robberies in Mexico City and the states of Morelos, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato and Michoacan.

The 36-year-old suspect told reporters that he is innocent of most of the charges. He admitted to kidnapping a journalist in Jalisco and to killing of a police officer. Hernandez Leyva said judicial police officers had beat him and threatened to rape his wife and take away his children unless he confessed to the crimes. Authorities made no comment about his allegations.

When Leyva was transferred to a state prison after crowds of victims' families in Cuernavaca called for his blood. "We want to lynch him," said Joel Uribe Landa, one of about 50 people gathered outside the Morelos state prosecutors' office, where Hernandez Leyva was taken for questioning before being transferred to the state prison. The unusually heavy police detail present during the transfer served a double purpose: to protect the suspect from angry protesters and to make sure he didn't escape, as he has done at least twice over the last 13 years.

Prosecutor Jose Leonardo Castillo Pombo said Hernandez Leyva is a suspect in kidnappings, robberies and as many as 135 murders in five southern Mexican states. Castillo Pombo said he opposed the death penalty, but added that "if the country is legally prepared to apply it, Mexicans should hold a referendum, so that public opinion can decide."

As evidence rolls in from prosecutors in outlying states, the number of potential murder charges against Hernandez Leyva continues to rise. Eleven more murder investigations forwarded by prosecutors in western Jalisco state name him as the prime suspect, bringing the caseload to 33 in four days. But under Mexican law -- in which sentences are served concurrently -- the most Hernandez Leyva is likely to face is a sentence of 50 years in prison, with time off for good behavior.

Hernandez Leyva was arrested in 1982 in Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City, on robbery charges but escaped from jail by tunneling through a wall. He was arrested again on suspicion of murder and robbery in 1986, but again escaped from Mexico City's Western penitentiary. Morelos state officials have applied to the federal government for him to be transferred to a maximum security federal prison.

On April 12 Leyva attempted to hang himself in his jail cell. The confessed serial killer, who weighs about 300 pounds, used a rope to try and hang himself from cell bars, but the rope broke and he suffered only abrasions on his neck. A police psychological exam of suspect released earlier concluded that Hernandez Leyva is a "psychopath" who murdered for "personal satisfaction."

Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.

Fun With "ME2"

Enjoy your own simulated “ME2” avatar character but have a fondness for killing the rest? Impressed by the Satin Strangler but think you can do better?  Here it is.  Exactly what you’ve been looking for.  The Satin Strangler ME2 challenge.

This is an extension of the perfectly twisted and therefore popular Serial Killer Challenge.  Refer to the ME2 website for details on getting started.  You will need the Education, Business Accessories, After Hours, and Spare Time plug-ins.

Start by creating your Satin Strangler ME2.  Will she be the stylish courtroom defendant, or the crazed serial killer from the original artist drawings?  It’s up to you.  Load up on satin stockings through your favorite wardrobe and accessories site, and she’s ready for action.

In this case the modified torture chamber room and isolation chamber will have most of the same characteristics but will now be called the ME2 Satin Suite.  You’ll need another room for your stockings and any other weapons of choice.  Always keep all doors set to “Lock . . . Allow ME2 Owner Only.”

Lure neighbors and other men into the Satin Suite, and then lock the door.  Until there is a better strangling option, your victims will have to die on their own in the Satin Suite.  Leaving your stockings in the suite with them will constitute a kill for the final tally.  Trapping multiple victims at once gets bonus points, but having victims escape will cost you.  The big points come for a “nookie-kill” combo.

Avoid suspicious activity, and don’t leave any clues.  Stay away from community lots, where the police are snooping around for clues to the murders and posting sketches of the suspect.  Leaving any stockings around the house or outside will surely alert the police to the trail, so be careful.

Scoring:

+2 for each general character killed

+5 for each neighbor killed

Bonuses:

+2 for each new victim if multiple victims are already trapped

+10 if the victim is a best friend

+15 if the victim was the killer’s crush

+25 if your ME2 can “nookie” with the victim before killing him

Deductions:

-2 for each neighbor who declines an invitation to come over

-5 for each victim you fail to trap

-5 for each victim that escapes

-5 if a romance flops

-20 if your killer has a baby

-25 if stockings are left outside where they can be found

-50 and out of the contest if your killer dies of anything other than old age

Good luck, may the best strangler win, and may you all forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.

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This is post #31 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).

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