In the early 1960s, an individual, whom would later earn the title of the “Boston Strangler”, executed the brutal Nylon Stocking Murders, assassinating and sexually assaulting between eleven and thirteen women. The Boston strangler was an active psychopathic rapist and sexually motivated serial murderer in Boston, Massachusetts whose criminal actions later became the subject of various books and motion pictures, including The Boston Strangler (1968) by Richard Fleischer.
The rape and murder of Anna E. Slesers, a fifty-five-year-old seamstress, on June 14, 1962 marked the initial appearance of the Boston Strangler. An unidentified object was utilized to sexually assault the woman and the victim’s belt from her bathrobe was subsequently used to strangle her. The body of Slesers was discovered by her son in her third-floor apartment. Between the date of the murder of Slesers and August 30, 1962, five additional women between the ages of fifty-five and eighty-five were murdered in comparable circumstances. The second victim, an eighty-five-year-old woman, reportedly
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Three weeks later, a twenty-three-year old woman was strangled to death with a nylon stocking, becoming yet another victim of the psychopathic murderer. The subsequent attacks were aimed at women in their late teens and early twenties, shifting the target away from elderly women. By January 1965, thirteen women of a wide range of ages and different ethnicities were sexually assaulted and murdered by this unknown serial murderer. The body of Nineteen-year-old Mary Sullivan, the final victim of the Boston Strangler, was discovered by her roommates after the teen had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with a dark nylon stocking on January 4, 1964. A “Happy New Year” card was left on the crime scene by the murderer, propped up against Sullivan’s left
It started as any ordinary day at Fowler Middle School, kids laughing and learning. But, at 8:51 AM, a classroom of students walked into a horrifying scene. Marilyn Tokzulott’s second-period class found their teacher dead on the floor behind her desk, murdered. Despite the many suspects, one stands out above all. Billy Plummer, the boyfriend of the victim's daughter, committed this murder. It is clear that the murderer was Mr.Plummer because of involvement in previous conflicts with Mrs. Tokzullot, presence at the crime scene and access to the murder weapon.
Gail Miller was a 22-year-old nursing assistant living in Saskatoon. She was found in an alley way between 6:45 and 7:30am on January 31st 1969. She had been raped, stabbed twelve times and left for dead. The rape was found to have occurred after she died. The police had little evidence; few clues had been left behind. There had been other attacks in the same area. Authorities tried to suppress the information that linked the Miller rape and murder to the two other assaults.
Michael Kirk and Peter J. Boyer. (2000, January 18). The killer at Thurston High. May 5, 2010, by FrontLine: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/etc/script.html
One of three women, whose cases the documentary-markers followed for a year, from the moment emergency phone calls were placed was Sabrina. The second was Helen, who met Lawrence 10 years ago. For a brief period of time he was nice to her and her son, however when her son turned 12, he was having to run for help to stop Lawrence’s beatings. In between those years, there were assaults, promises to change, letters begging forgiveness. Police photographs show the imprint of his shoe on her face. Jemma was punched, dragged and strangled to unconsciousness by Dwayne, who would wait for her to come around each time before he started
Ricard, Suzanne, Thompson, Jennie. “Women’s Role in Serial Killing Teams: Reconstructing a Radical Feminist Perspective.” Critical Criminology 17(4): 261-275
Brooks, Rebecca B. "The Boston Massacre." History of Massachusetts. N.p., 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Females frequently use less obvious means of murder. The favorite choice amongst them happens to be poison, “59”out of the “184” cases or approximately 32%; these poisons include “arsenic” “potassium chloride” and “succinylcholine.” (Holmes and Holmes 38-41). In the case of Velma Barfield, several people around her died. After her last victim’s autopsy showed arsenic poisoning, she admitted to the other murders she had committed (Eddy). Different from their female equivalents, males preferred method is usually violent in nature. In fact, “male serial murderers have tended to inflict a great deal of victim damage in addition to causing death and to engage in torture of their victims prior to death” (qt. in Keeney 385). The well-known case of Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17 men, is an example of how brutal male serial killers can
Davies, K. (2008). The Murder Book: Examining Homicide. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Schechter, H. and Everitt, D. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Pocket Books. N.Y. 1996
Serial killing is rampant in the U.S. According to estimates in a recent study conducted by the FBI, there have been about 400 serial killers in the U.S. in the last century, with the total number of murder victims ranging from 2,525 to 3,860 . Various experts in the field have suggested that there may be anywhere from 50 to as many as 300 serial killers active at the same time, although there is no clear evidence supporting this . Certainly, an estimate of 300 active serial killers seems at odds with the FBI’s estimate of 400 over the entire previous century. But an estimated 80% of the serial killers in the past century have emerged since 1950. For whatever reason, serial killing is clearly on the rise, with the term itself coined only since the mid-1970’s, so perhaps 300 active serial killers at one time could be unfortunately possible. The number of serial killing in the U.S. is staggering.
Bardsley, Marilyn. "Murder!" Charles Manson and the Manson Family — — Crime Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
As if molded directly from the depths of nightmares, both fascinating and terrifying. Serial killers hide behind bland and normal existences. They are often able to escape being caught for years, decades and sometimes an eternity. These are America’s Serial Killers (America’s Serial Killers). “Even when some of them do get caught, we may not recognize what they are because they don’t [sic] match the distorted image we have of serial killers” (Brown). What is that distorted image? That killers live among everyday life, they are the ones who creep into someone’s life unknowingly to torture and kill them. The serial killers that are in the movies, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, and the evil master mind of SAW, these characters are just that characters. They have been made up as exaggerated fictional characters from the Hollywood imagination.
In the San Francisco Bay area, as well as in the rest of California, the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s was a time of terror and fear. What started out as a seemingly random, but brutal murder on the night of October 30th, 1966, turned out to be the start of a series of horrific murders that would span 2,500 suspects, 56 possible victims, and over 400 miles. On the calm, cool night of December 20th, 1968, a young seventeen year-old named David Arthur Faraday was getting ready to take a young sixteen year-old named Betty Lou Jensen on her first date.
Annie Chapman, “Dark Annie”, was a 47 year old homeless prostitute. Suffering from depression and an alcoholic, she mainly sold flowers. Eventually she turned to prostitution despite her basic features such as missing teeth and round figure. She was found murdered on Saturday, September 8, 1888. Her throat was severed and she was very mutilated. Her abdomens had been ripped open and the intestines had been detached and placed on...
The dark, ominous alleyways of London’s East End divulge a very gruesome history of women “ripped up like [pigs] in a market” (Grose). The area, once littered with the torn up remains of brutally murdered prostitutes, looms over the city as symbol for the story of one of the most notorious serial killers: Jack the Ripper. The case enthralls and captivates people’s minds even today, over 100 years later (BBC). This begs the question of how serial killers become part of history, an answer found in extensive media coverage. Time Magazine describes the phenomena Jack the Ripper left behind as a “rich legacy” and a “multi-million dollar industry,” eerily analogous to today’s coverage of serial killings (Grose). Jack the Ripper’s case provides an early example of the issues that arose with the advent of the serial killer—issues that still exist. The press has a unique role to play in serial killer investigations, but the line between helping and hurting society is often blurred. While the press has a responsibility to inform society of such serial killings in order to keep them informed and safe, publishing killer communiqués crosses ethical boundaries concerning the investigations and society.