Kurtis Killers

[Jjs Goodman]

Coming soon.

Plot: Bill Kurtis investigates the most deadly criminals around the world. Watch as he even exposes few known secrets of several!

Airdate: May 7th, 2011

Episode Guide

Season 1

1. The Freeway Phantom

2. The Doodler

3. The Beer Man

4. Jack the Stripper

5. The Phantom Killer

6. Genene Jones

7. Feb 9 Killer

8. Jerry Brudos

9. Joe Ball

10. Serial Shooter

11. Scott Erskine

12. Leonard Lake

13. Jane Toppan

[Jjs Goodman]

(Re-posting)

*Note: Originally aired May 7th on the cz.cc site*

Kurtis Killers Season 1

1. The Freeway Phantom (Pilot)

"Hello folks! My name is Bill Kurtis! I managed to get the rights to a new criminal documentary of mine. In it, I will expose the most secrets of known killers and some you may not know about. Today I will be reviewing The Freeway Phantom, an infamous killer whose identity still has not yet been solved. Will his identity finally be solved? We'll see. Now, let's get on with the show!"

Murders

Case 1: In the first ever case regarding The Phantom, on the evening of April 25, 1971, 13-year old Carol Spinks was sent by an older sister to buy groceries at a 7-Eleven located a half-mile away, just across the border in Maryland. On her way home from the store, Carol was abducted; her body was found six days later on a grassy embankment next to the northbound lanes of I-295, about 1,500 feet south of Suitland Parkway.

Case 2: About over a month later or so, on July 8, 1971, Darlenia Johnson, 16, was abducted while en route to her summer job at a recreation center. Eleven days later, her body was discovered a mere 15 feet from where Spinks was found. Something was going on.

Case 3: On July 27, 1971, 10-year old Brenda Crockett failed to return home after having been sent to the store by her mother. Three hours after Brenda was last seen, the phone rang and was answered by her 7-year old sister, who had waited at home while her family searched the neighborhood. Brenda was on the other line, crying. Our skilled cops managed to pick up a quote from the witness:

"A white man picked me up, and I'm heading home in a cab," Brenda told her sister, adding that she believed she was in Virginia before abruptly saying "Bye" and hanging up.

A short time later, the phone rang again and was this time answered by the boyfriend of Brenda's mother. It was Brenda again, and she merely repeated what she'd said in the last telephone call, indicating she was alone in a house with a white male. The boyfriend asked Brenda to have the man come to the phone. Heavy footsteps were heard in the background. Brenda said "I'll see you" and hung up. A few hours later, a hitchhiker discovered Brenda's body in a conspicuous location on Route 50, near I-295 in Prince George's County, Maryland. She had been raped and strangled, and a scarf was knotted around her neck.

Authorities quickly concluded that Brenda likely called her home at the behest of the killer, who fed her inaccurate information in order to buy the necessary time to perpetrate the crime, and to hamper investigation. Furthermore, one witness reported having seen one of the victims, Ms. Johnson, in an old black car, driven by an African-American male, shortly after her abduction.

"Well folks, this is sure a brutal scene. There is a few more case files to go of this horrifying killer," said Kurtis. "But all of these cases have a mystery hidden in them."

Case 4: 12-year old Nenomoshia Yates was walking home from a Safeway store in Northeast Washington, D.C. on October 1, 1971, when she was kidnapped, raped, and strangled. Her body was found within a few hours of her abduction, just off the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue in Prince George's County, Maryland. It is after this murder that the "Freeway Phantom" moniker was first used in city tabloid article describing the murders.

Case 5: In the most interesting one, after having dinner with a high school classmate on November 15, 1971, Brenda Woodward, 18, boarded a city bus to return to her Maryland Avenue home. Approximately six hours later, a police officer discovered her body, stabbed and strangled, in a grassy area near an access ramp to Route 202 from the Baltimore Washington Parkway. A coat had been placed over her chest, and one of its pockets contained a note from the killer:

This is tantamount to my insensititivity [sic] to people especially women.

I will admit the others when you catch me if you can!

-Free-way Phantom

It is interesting to note how the paper was from the victim's notebook and the Phantom had forced her to write it.

Case 6 (Final Case): The Phantom's final victim was claimed almost a year later, on September 5, 1972. 17-year old Ballou High School senior Diane Williams cooked dinner for her family and then visited her boyfriend's house. She was last seen alive boarding a bus. A short time later, her strangled body was discovered dumped alongside I-295, just south of the District line.

"Truly the most sickening bastard I have ever seen. 6 Case files on this guy and still no answer as to who he is," said Kurtis. "But now let's show some evidence."

Clues & Evidence

1. The Freeway Phantom case has seen numerous investigators and resurgences in interest over the years. At the time, more than 100 potential suspects were developed. Background checks were performed on teachers, convicted sex offenders, and persons of interest as disparate as an Air Force colonel and a real estate developer. All leads were ultimately fruitless.

2. The Watergate scandal sidetracked manpower and it wasn't until 1974 that investigators were able to resume focus. At this time, they scrutinized a gang known as the Green Vega Rapists, whose members were collectively responsible for a multitude of D.C.-area rapes and abductions. While both legal filings and media attention brought the Green Vega Rapists to the forefront of the investigation at the time, interest quickly faded and it is no longer believed that anyone associated with the gang was responsible.

3. A key piece of evidence consisted of green synthetic carpet fibers, which were found on the bodies of all but one of the victims. Additionally, DNA was extracted in 2006 from a semen sample recovered from the autopsy of one of the victims. However, a comparable profile could not be obtained.

"And here for our final section of the episode is who the killer may have possibly been."

Suspects

Robert Elwood Askins: In March, 1977, a 58-year old computer technician, Robert Elwood Askins, was charged with abducting and raping a 24-year old woman inside his Washington, D.C. home. Homicide detective Lloyd Davis proceeded to question Askins and learned that he had been charged with murder on several previous occasions. He was known for raping and strangling women, and there was a rumored connection between him and the Phantom. However, this was confirmed false when he died at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland at the age of 91, remained in prison for two D.C.-area abductions and rapes in the mid-70s, and had been contacted by both Davis and press regarding the Freeway Phantom slayings. He denied any role in them, adding that he did not have "the depravity of mind required to commit any of the crimes."

"That is the only ever known suspect," said Kurtis. "We still have no identity to this mad man, but whoever it was is probably dead, if anything. There are still many secrets of this man still not exposed and I will solve them one day. Bill Kurtis, signing off."

Notes/Trivia/Goofs

Criminal: Freeway Phantom

Case Resolution: Unsolved

The episodes will be divided like this:

1. Murders

2. Clues & Evidence

3. Suspect

Note that is all done by the point of view from Bill Kurtis himself.

Also note that this Lit will not update weekly unlike SBCPU.

[70s]

Ooh, very interesting.

[Jjs Goodman]

Kurtis Killers Season 1

1. The Freeway Phantom

2. The Doodler

"Hello folks! Welcome back to Kurtis Killers! Our first episode did great in ratings....so here is Episode 2! Today we will discuss...The Doodler. Note little is known about this criminal, so this will be a short episode." Kurtis said.

______________________

Murders

Case 1: Between January 1974 and September 1975, the faceless stalker who later to become known as "The Doodler" was responsible for seventeen attacks, with fourteen deaths, that baffled homicide investigators in the city by the bay. Initially, considering discrepancies in choice of victims, the police believed they had three manic killers on the prowl.

Case 2: The first five of the victims were Tenderloin drag queens, mutilated by The Doodler, who apparently despised transvestites.

Case 3: The next case of attacks involved six others who were selected from the sadomasochistic world of "leather bars" -- the dives with names like Ramrod, Fe-Be's, Folsom Poison -- and dispatched with hacking knife wounds. (One, attorney George Gilbert, was slaughtered at his home in San Francisco's poshest high-rise.) The authorities began to later realize they were dealing with one killer.

Case 4: The last six victims were middle-class businessmen, stabbed by The Doodler who picked them up in Castro Village bars, wooing his victims with cartoon portraits and pausing for sex before wielding his knife. Three of the latter victims survived their ordeal, providing police with descriptions of the killer, although they would ultimately refuse to testify in court. The slasher's taste for comic art provided newsmen with a handle on the case, and so the nickname "Black Doodler" was born.

Clues & Evidence

1. The only evidence we have is that after he would kill someone, he would draw paintings of him having sex with the victim and leave the paintings behind.

Suspects

Unnamed Suspect 1: In 1976, suspicion focused on a particular suspect, described by police as a mental patient with a history of treatment for sex-related problems. Questioned repeatedly, the suspect spoke freely with police, but always stopped short of a confession.

Unnamed Suspect 2: On July 8, 1977, frustrated authorities announced that an unnamed suspect had been linked with fourteen deaths and three assaults in San Francisco during 1974 and 1975. Indictment was impossible, they said, without cooperation from survivors of the "Doodler's" attacks. At this point, the case remains a stalemate, officially unsolved, with the suspect subject to continuing police surveillance.

________________________

"Well, there you have it folks. 2 unnamed suspects, 1 killer and 1 unsolved case. The Doodler has little known about him, so it is tough for us to decide who this sick man is. If you have any info regarding The Doodler, please contact me at kurtiskillers@comcast.net. Until next time, Bill Kurtis, signing off."

Notes/Trivia/Goofs

Criminal: The Doodler (AKA Black Doodler)

Case Resolution: Unsolved

[Jjs Goodman]

It's back.

Kurtis Killers Season 1

1. The Freeway Phantom

2. The Doodler

3. The Beer Man

"Welcome to another episode of Kurtis Killers! Today we'll be covering the Beer Man. This man murdered a few people in Mumbai, India, and attacked between October 2006 and January 2007. Note we have little info on this man, so this episode will be shorter than the others." Kurtis said in the opening.

Murders

There have been no cases found, but we do know that whenever he killed someone, he'd leave behind a beer bottle next to the dead corpse. We do know he had killed 7 people.

Clues & Evidence

1. As stated above, the only known evidence was the beer bottles left behind his killings at the dead corpses.

Interestingly, all sources relating back to the Beer Man have been removed - as if someone has deleted all ties relating to him, and on purpose.

Suspects

Ravindra Kantrole: In January 2008 Ravindra Kantrole was convicted of one of the murders, that of a homeless man. He was charged with two other Beer Man murders but cleared of any involvement, thus leaving the remaining six murders unsolved. In September 2009 The Bombay High Court acquitted Kantrole of any involvement in the murders due to lack of evidence. The forensic tests conducted on him were judged inadmissible, so was the eyewitness testimony of a person who said he/she had seen Kantrole for a few seconds and remembered his face 2 months later.

___________________________

"There is little info on this killer to give us a clear resolution to the case. If anybody can get any trails of his beer, please contact me at my official website. Thank you." Bill Kurtis said, as the screen faded black.

Notes/Trivia/Goofs

Criminal: Beer Man

Case Resolution: Unsolved

[Jjs Goodman]

THIS SHOW STILL EXISTS.

Kurtis Killers Season 1

1. The Freeway Phantom

2. The Doodler

3. The Beer Man

4. Jack the Stripper

"Welcome back to Kurtis Killers, folks. No, that is not Jack the Ripper we are talking about. This time we're talking about...Jack the Stripper. Jack the Stripper was the nickname given to an unknown serial killer responsible for what came to be known as the London "nude murders" between 1964 and 1965 (also known as the "Hammersmith murders" or "Hammersmith nudes" case). By the way folks, I am intentionally doing unsolved murders, but we could have a solved one in this episode. Read to find out."

Murders

Hannah Tailford: 30. Originally from a northwest mining family, Hannah Tailford was found dead on 2 February 1964 near the Hammersmith Bridge. She had been strangled and several of her teeth were missing; her underwear had also been forced down her throat.

Irene Lockwood: 26. Irene Lockwood was found dead on 8 April 1964 on the shore of the Thames, not far from where Hannah Tailford had been discovered; their two deaths, along with that of Elizabeth Figg, were linked and police realized that a killer was on the loose. 57-year-old caretaker Kenneth Archibald confessed to this murder almost three weeks later; this confession was dismissed due to inconsistencies in his version of events, and with the discovery of a third victim.

Helen Barthelemy: 22. Helen Barthelemy, originally from Blackpool, was found dead on 24 April 1964 in an alleyway in Brentford. Barthelemy's death gave investigators their first solid piece of evidence in the case: flecks of paint used in motorcar manufactories. Police felt that the paint had probably come from the killers workplace; they therefore focused on tracing it to a business nearby.

Mary Flemming: 30. Originally from Scotland, Flemming's body was found on 14 July 1964 in an open street in the district of Chiswick, where police presence was heaviest. Once again, paint spots were found on the body; many neighbours had also heard a car reversing down the street just before the body was discovered.

Frances Brown: 21. Edinburgh-native Frances Brown was last seen alive on 23 October 1964 by her friend, fellow prostitute Kim Taylor, before her body was found in an alleyway in Kensington a month later on 25 November. Taylor, who had been with Brown when she was picked up by the man believed to be her killer, was able to provide police with an identikit picture and a description of the man's car, thought either to be a Ford Zephyr or a Zodiac.

Bridget O'Hara: 28. Irish-born Bridget O' Hara, also known as Bridie, was found dead behind the Heron Trading Estate in a storage shed. Once again, O' Hara's body turned up flecks of industrial paint which, incredibly, were traced to a covered transformer just yards from where she'd been discovered. She also showed signs of having been stored in a warm environment; the transformer was a good fit for both the paint and the heating.

"Now, here were two possible victims, but they were never confirmed."

Elizabeth Figg: 21. Elizabeth Figg was found dead on 17 June 1959, a full five years before the Jack the Stripper murders started, near the River Thames in Chiswick. Her death was considered by some to bear many similarities to other victims, such as the location of the body (near the Thames and in Chiswick, where Mary Flemming's body would be found in 1964), and death by strangulation.

Gwynneth Rees: 22. Welsh-born Gwynneth Rees was found dead in a rubbish tip on 8 November 1963. Once again, investigators felt Rees may have been a Stripper victim due to her being found near the River Thames, and because she had been strangled with ligature; several of her teeth were also missing.

Clues & Evidence

1. Chief Superintendent John Du Rose of Scotland Yard, the detective put in charge of the case, interviewed almost 7,000 suspects. He then held a news conference, falsely announcing that the police had narrowed the suspect pool down to 20 men. After a short time, he announced that the suspect pool contained only 10 members, and then three. The Stripper did not kill any more after the initial news conference.

2. According to the writer Anthony Summers, two of his victims - Hannah Tailford and Frances Brown, the Stripper's third and seventh victims were peripherally connected to the 1963 Profumo Affair. Also, some victims were known to engage in an underground party and pornographic movie scene; several writers have postulated that the victims might have known each other, and that the killer may be connected to this scene as well.

Suspects

Mungo Ireland: Du Rose's favourite suspect who was a Scottish security guard. Du Rose first identified him in a BBC television interview in 1970 as a respectable married man in his forties whom he codenamed Big John. Ireland had apparently been identified as a suspect shortly after Bridget O' Hara's murder, when flecks of industrial paint were traced to the company where he worked as a security guard, Heron Trading Estate. Shortly after the trace was made, Ireland committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, leaving a note for his wife that read:

I can't stick it any longer. To save you and the police looking for me I'll be in the garage.

"Whilst seen by many as a strong suspect in the killings, recent research suggests that Ireland was in Scotland when O' Hara was murdered, and therefore could not have been the Stripper," Kurtis replied.

2. Freddie Mills: A recent book also named British light heavyweight boxing champion Freddie Mills as the killer, although this has not been substantiated.

__________

"Well everyone, we may have a resolution. Freddie Mills may or may not have been the killer behind "Jack the Stripper", but we are not so sure. We will leave this case as "Unconfirmed" for now, until someone has found this book telling us this information. This is Bill Kurtis, for great American justice."

Notes/Trivia/Goofs

Criminal: Jack the Stripper/Freddie Mills?

Resolution: Unconfirmed

[Jjs Goodman]

5. The Phantom Killer

“Hello my friends. Bill Kurtis here, and here is today’s killer: The Phantom Killer. Not to be confused with the Freeway Phantom that I previously showed in Episode 1, but this evil man was truly one killer. Let’s move onto the scenes.”

Murders

James B. "Jimmy" Hollis (24) and Mary Jeanne Larey (19): The first attack happened on February 22, 1946, close to midnight. The Phantom attacked the two. Jimmy Hollis received three fractures to his skull after being hit twice with a heavy blunt object. Mary Jeanne Larey was sexually assaulted with the perpetrator's pistol. Jimmy made his way to Richmond road where he flagged down a passing motorist who then contacted help. Mary ran off to get help when the attacker saw headlights and was scared off. Jimmy stayed in the hospital for several months. Mary did not stay in the hospital but received stitches to her head. The attack happened somewhere near Stevenson street off Richmond.

Richard Griffin (29) and his girlfriend, Polly Ann Moore (17): A month later, on the evening of March 23, Richard and his girlfriend Polly were murdered. Both were found the next morning in Griffin’s car on a rural Bowie County road, outside Texarkana. Both had been shot in the back of the head, by a .32 revolver. A bloodstained patch of earth found 20 feet (6.1 m) away suggested that both victims were killed outside the car and put back in it.

Betty Jo Booker (15) and her friend Paul Martin (16): The third attack happened early Sunday morning, April 14, between 2:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., resulting as the second double murder. Paul's body was found first at 6 a.m. lying beside the north side of North Park Road. Blood was found on the other side of the road a short distance up the street from his body. His body was found somewhere around the 6700 block of North Park road. He was shot to death, receiving four shots. His car was found about a mile and a half away, about 400 yards from the entrance to Spring Lake Park. Betty's body was found later around 11:30 a.m. behind a tree a few yards off the north side of Morris Lane (now Moores Lane) about a mile away from Paul. She was also shot to death, having received two shots.

By this time, the citizens of Texarkana had entered a state of panic. Many residents bought firearms, barricaded their residences, and stayed in at night. The police, meanwhile, began patrolling Texarkana’s secluded streets and lovers lanes apparently prompting the Phantom to change tactics.

Virgil Starks (36) and Virgil’s wife, Katy (35): On May 3, a man attacked a farmhouse in Miller County, Arkansas, around 10 miles outside Texarkana. The prowler, standing outside the house, shot Virgil twice through a parlor window, killing him. Virgil’s wife, upon hearing breaking glass, left her bedroom and entered the parlor. The assailant, still outside the house, shot her twice, hitting her in the face and mouth, but Mrs. Starks managed to escape from the house and get help from a neighbor. While Mrs. Starks sought aid, the killer searched the house, leaving muddy footprints on the floor. By the time the police reached the house, the killer had gone. Although ballistics tests would later reveal that the bullets removed from the Starks had been fired from a .22 semi-automatic pistol, not a .32 revolver, the murder of Virgil Starks is generally believed to have been committed by the Phantom.

Earl McSpadden: Two days later, a man’s body was found on train tracks north of Texarkana. Some reporters speculated that the man, Earl McSpadden, was the Phantom and that he had committed suicide. However, following the coroner’s report of May 7 it was revealed that McSpadden had been stabbed to death before his body was put on the tracks, leading some to believe that McSpadden was another victim of the Phantom.

Clues & Evidence

The killer has only been described by the first two victims. Other victims never lived to give a description. The only other survivor was Kate Starks, but she never saw the killer. The first two victims, Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey, described him as being six feet tall with a white hood mask over his head with holes cut for his eyes and mouth. They can't agree whether he was a dark-toned white man or a light-skinned black man.

Bowie County Sheriff Bill Presley said "This killer is the luckiest person I have ever known. No one sees him, hears him in time, or can identify him in any way." The headlines on May 5, two days after the Starks' murder, read "SEX MANIAC HUNTED IN MURDERS." An unnamed officer once said "I believe that a sex pervert is responsible."

Suspects

Youell Lee Swinney (29): The prime suspect in the Phantom case was Youell, a 29-year-old car thief with a record of counterfeiting, burglary, and assault who was arrested in Texarkana in July 1946. Swinney’s wife, who was also arrested, told police that Swinney was the Phantom and that she had been with her husband when he committed the murders. Swinney’s wife kept changing the details about the killings, however, and police came to view her as an unreliable witness. After being questioned by the police in Texarkana, Swinney was questioned in Little Rock. Swinney was eventually convicted of car theft in Texas and, as a repeat offender, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947.

In 1970, Swinney petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that he should be released because he had not been represented by counsel in a 1941 felony conviction that was used to enhance his sentence in 1947. Swinney’s life sentence was overturned on appeal and he was set free in 1973. He died in 1994.

“Well everyone, you saw it all. The case of the Phantom has never been solved and remains open, although as of 2006 it is considered cold, and it is unlikely we will ever get a verdict. Despite the fact we will never know his identity, the Phantom Killer has been referenced in pop culture quite a bit. For example, Jan Buttram's play Phantom Killer, based on the Texarkana incidents, opened at the Abingdon Theatre in New York City in January 2010. William T. Rasmussen, author of Corroborating Evidence II, presented similarities between the Phantom Killer of Texarkana and the Zodiac Killer who terrorized California. Could they be connected? We’ll find out soon...”

Notes/Trivia/Goofs

Criminal: Phantom Killer

Case Resolution: Cold

This episode was available on the Classics Vol. 1 DVD first.

[Jjs Goodman]

6. Genene Jones

"Hello my dear children, here is another episode of Kurtis Killers - today we will be reviewing Genene Jones, one psycho nurse." Kurtis said.

Murders

She killed somewhere between 11 and 46 infants and children in her care. She used injections of digoxin, heparin and later succinylcholine to induce medical crises in her patients, with the intention of reviving them afterward in order to receive praise and attention. These medications are known to cause heart paralysis and other complications when given as an overdose. Many children however, did not survive the initial attack and could not be revived. The exact number of murders remain unknown, as hospital officials allegedly first misplaced then destroyed records of her activities to prevent further litigation after Jones' first conviction.

Clues & Evidence

While working at the Bexar County Hospital (now The University Hospital of San Antonio) in the Pediatric Intensive care unit, it was determined that a statistically inordinate number of children Jones worked with were dying. Rather than pursue further investigation the hospital simply asked Jones to resign, which she did.

She then took a position at a pediatric physician's clinic in Kerrville, Texas, near San Antonio. It was here that she was charged with poisoning six children. The doctor in the office discovered puncture marks in a bottle of succinylcholine in the drug storage, where only she and Jones had access. Contents of the apparently full bottle were later found to be diluted. Jones claimed to have been acting in the best interests of her patients, as she was trying to justify the need for a pediatric intensive-care unit in Kerrville. This act was not a successful means of achieving her goal

Conclusion

In 1985, Jones was sentenced to 99 years in prison for killing 15 month-old Chelsea McClellan with succinylcholine. Later that year, she was sentenced to a concurrent term of 60 years in prison for nearly killing Rolando Jones with heparin. However, she will serve only one-third of her sentence because of a law in place at the time to deal with prison overcrowding. Jones will receive automatic parole in 2017. She is currently eligible for early parole every two to three years, but has been denied six times so far.

"As you can see, what a sick woman she was. My prayers go out to the dear children who died." Kurtis said.

[Jjs Goodman]

Wow, it has been ages since I updated this. Well, here is 2 new episodes:

7. Feb 9 Killer

"Hello folks, today we will be investigating the Feb 9 Killer. Not much is known about them, but here is what I have gathered.." Mr. Kurtis said.

Murders
Feb 9 Killer was believed to be responsible for the 2006 murder of Sonia Mejia and her unborn baby and 2008 murder of Damiana Castillo in Salt Lake Country, Utah. The murders were committed on the same day, February 9, hence the alias.

Clues & Evidence
In 2009, the unsolved murders of Sonia Mejia in Taylorsville and Damiana Castillo in West Valley City were linked through DNA analysis. The corresponding police departments concurrently released a description of the perpetrator as a Hispanic male in his late teens or early 20s. An eight man task force was then formed.

Conclusion
As of 2011, the case is classified as a cold case. We may never know who this person really was.

 

_______

 

8. Jerry Brudos

"Ah..Jerry Brudos. Also known as "The Lust Killer" and "The Show Fetish Slayer". Born in Webster, South Dakota, he would later grow up to be a notorious killer.."

Murders
Between 1968 and 1969, Brudos bludgeoned and strangled four young women. The only initial evidence were witness sightings of a large man dressed in women's clothing. In the garage of his Salem, Oregon home, Brudos kept trophies from his victims, expressly two pairs of amputated breasts that were used as paperweights and the left foot of a 19-year-old girl named Linda Slawson (his first murder victim) which he used to model the shoes he collected. After committing a murder, he would dress up in high heels and masturbate. Police investigation and interviews of local coeds led them to Brudos, who described the murders in detail. He had confessed to murdering Linda Slawson, Jan Whitney, Karen Sprinker and Linda Salee, and was sentenced to life in prison.

Clues & Evidence
He had a fetish for women's shoes from the age of five, after playing with spike-heeled shoes at a local junkyard. He also reportedly attempted to steal the shoes of his first grade teacher. He also had a fetish for women's underwear, and had claimed that he would steal underwear from female neighbors as a child. He spent his teen years in and out of psychotherapy and mental hospitals. He began to stalk local women as a teenager, knocking down or choking them unconscious, and fleeing with their shoes.

At age 17, he abducted and beat a young woman, threatening to stab her if she did not follow his sexual demands. Shortly after being arrested, he was taken to a psychiatric ward of Oregon State Hospital for nine months. There it was found his sexual fantasies revolved around his hatred and revenge against his mother and women in general. He also underwent a psychiatric evaluation, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Despite being institutionalized, he still graduated from high school with his class in 1957. Shortly after graduation, Brudos became an electronics technician.

Conclusion
While incarcerated, Brudos had piles of women's shoe catalogues in his cell — he wrote to major companies asking for them — and claimed they were his substitute for pornography. He lodged countless appeals, including one in which he alleged that a photograph taken of him with one of his victim's corpses cannot prove his guilt, because it is not the body of a person he was convicted of killing. Brudos died in prison on March 28, 2006 from liver cancer. At the time of his death, Brudos was the longest incarcerated inmate in the Oregon Department of Corrections.

[Jjs Goodman]

Time for another double episode block. After this, we only got 3 episodes left.

9. Joe Ball

"Hello folks, today we will be investigating Joe Ball, and not the footballer. Joe Ball was a serial killer sometimes also known as "The Alligator Man", the "Butcher of Elmendorf^" and the "Bluebeard of South Texas," Bill Kurtis explained.

Clues & Evidence

After serving on the front lines in Europe during World War I, Ball started his career as a bootlegger, providing illegal liquor to those who could pay. After the end of Prohibition, he opened a saloon called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas. He built a pond that contained five alligators because he misunderstood the term corpus delicti, believing that a murder conviction without a body would be impossible. He charged people to view them, especially during feeding time; the food consisted mostly of live cats and dogs.

Murders

After a while women in the area were reported missing, including barmaids, former girlfriends and his wife. When two Bexar County sheriff's deputies went to question him in 1938, Ball pulled a handgun from his cash register and killed himself with a bullet through the heart (some sources report that he shot himself in the head). He is said to have killed at least 20 women in the 1930s.

A handyman who conspired with Ball, Clifford Wheeler, admitted to helping Ball dispose of the bodies of two of the women he had killed. Wheeler led them to the remains of Hazel Brown and Minnie Gotthard. Wheeler told authorities that Ball murdered at least 20 other women, but the alligators had disposed of any evidence. There has never been any concrete evidence that the alligators actually ate any of his victims.

There were few written sources from the era which could verify Ball's crimes. Newspaper editor Michael Hall investigated the story in depth in 2002, and wrote on his findings for Texas Monthly.

Conclusion

Overall, Joe Ball was an odd and mysterious man. His existence was long believed to be apocryphal, but he is a familiar figure in Texas folklore. The film Eaten Alive by Tobe Hooper was inspired by Joe Ball.

 

______

 

10. Serial Shooter

"Welcome to another edition of Kurtis Killers, with you know who by now. Today we will investigate the Serial Shooter - to what authorities now believe to be two men who committed multiple drive-by shootings targeting random pedestrians. The shootings occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, between May 2005 and August 2006," Kurtis said.

Murders

Investigators believe the Serial Shooter(s) were responsible for eight murders and at least 29 other shootings in the Phoenix area (some reports put the number as high as 38 incidents).

The Serial Shooters' most recent crime occurred July 30, 2006 in Mesa. According to police, Robin Blasnek, 22, was shot and killed at approximately 11:15 p.m. while walking from her parents' house to a friend's house after having an argument with her boyfriend. On August 3, Phoenix police released a statement linking Blasnek's murder to the Serial Shooter, citing forensic evidence and other similarities to the Serial Shooters' past crimes. Prior to that, they shot pedestrians, cyclists, dogs and horses. Phoenix police originally believed that the Serial Shooter was a single individual responsible for 4 murders and 25 shootings beginning in May 2005, and that a series of 13 shootings in the same area were the work of another offender. However, on July 11, 2006, investigators revealed that they believed the two series of shootings were related.

The Serial Shooter attacked from a vehicle without warning. The offender targeted victims who walked, biked or were otherwise alone outside, usually between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. Victims appear to have been targeted randomly.

Clues & Evidence

The two suspects were:

1. Dale S. Hausner, 33, had worked as a custodian at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport since 1999 as well as a boxing photojournalist for RingSports and Fightnews.com.

2. Samuel John Dieteman, 31, had a history of petty crimes such as shoplifting and drunk driving and had returned to Arizona a few years prior from Minnesota.

In an audio recording that was presented at trial, a police wiretap records Hausner and Dieteman discussing the shootings in graphic detail.

According to reports, police first identified Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman as suspects on July 31, 2006, through tips received from the community, mainly from Ron Horton who died before he could testify at trial. On August 3, 2006, police arrested both suspects outside of their apartment in Mesa, Arizona.

On the morning of August 4, 2006, Phoenix police announced two arrests had been made in connection with the Serial Shooter. The suspects have been identified as Dale S. Hausner and Samuel John Dieteman. Authorities said they have also linked Hausner and Dieteman to two arson fires at Wal-Mart stores on June 8, started 45 minutes apart from each other that caused approximately $7 to $10 million in damage.

Conclusion

Hausner was charged with 87 crimes attributed to the Serial Shooter investigation, including 8 murders, 19 attempted murders, numerous aggravated assaults, drive-by shootings, firearms charges, cruelty to animals, and arson. Hausner was convicted on 6 of 8 murders, and 80 out of 87 charges overall on March 13, 2009.

Hausner's former roommate, Samuel Dieteman, has pleaded guilty to two murders, plus conspiracy to commit some of the other related murders. Dieteman receives a sentence of life without parole.

On March 27, 2009, Dale Hausner was sentenced to six death penalties. Hausner had previously ordered his lawyers not to argue against persuading jurors to deliver the death sentences, saying the jurors should put him to death to help the victims' families heal. He fell short of confessing any guilt for the convicted crimes. Hausner is not expected to appeal.

During Hausner's 1/2-hour ramble to the jury right before sentencing, he apologized to several people including his family. He stated that he ruined the family name, as people would hear the Hausner name and think of Charles Manson. He even compared himself to Charles Manson. "When you think of Manson, 50 years from now you'll think of Hausner", he said.

[Jjs Goodman]

Time to finish up this bad boy with a 3 ep marathon!

11. Scott Erskine

Spoiler

"Hello folks, today we will discuss Scott Erskine, an American serial killer on California's death row, convicted for the murder of two California boys in 1993. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. What is the story behind this one? Let's see.." Bill Kurtis said.

Clues & Evidence

Erskine grew up in southern California. When he was five years old, Erskine darted into traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach and was hit by a station wagon. He remained in a coma for 60 hours. Although physically he appeared recovered, he frequently complained to his mother about headaches, and he experienced "black out" moments where he couldn't remember what he was last doing. At the age of 10, he started molesting his 6-year-old sister, forcing her to perform oral sex upon him. He soon began abusing her friends, threatening to kill them if they told anybody. Erskine attended Southwest Junior High School in San Diego, California and was placed in "special classes" for the emotionally disturbed. At 15, Erskine escaped from a juvenile detention facility, pulled a knife on a 13-year-old girl and raped her. The next morning, he assaulted a 27-year-old female jogger with a knife.

In 1980, while on his way to interview for a camp counselor's position, Erskine beat a 14-year-old boy unconscious during an attempted rape. He also raped another inmate while imprisoned. Erskine begged the San Diego judge at the time to spare him from adult prison. Despite his mother's pleas to send her son to a mental institution, Erskine was sentenced to four years in prison; he was paroled in 1984.

In 1993, Erskine invited a woman, who was waiting for the bus, into his home and held her hostage for several days, repeatedly raping and sodomizing her before letting her go. He was quickly arrested. He was convicted of rape and kidnapping, declared a sex offender, and sentenced to 70 years in prison. As a convicted sex offender, Erskine had to submit his DNA to a database.

In March 2001, the San Diego Cold Case squad reopened the investigation of the unsolved murders of nine-year-old Jonathan Sellers and 13-year-old Charlie Keever. The police tested cotton swabs found in Charlie's mouth that contained semen. Since it was determined the boy was not physically mature enough to produce sperm, the semen could only have originated from the killer. The DNA sample was entered into CODIS, and was matched to Erskine.

Murders

While awaiting the start of his trial, Florida investigators matched Erskine's DNA in the unsolved case of 26-year-old Renee Baker, who was murdered on June 23, 1989. He was formally charged in 2003, but didn't get sentenced until August 2004. Erskine, who did indeed live in Palm Beach County, Florida, at the time, admitted to raping and killing Baker, and was sentenced to life without parole. Baker drowned when Erskine broke her neck and left her near the bank of the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach. Florida authorities suspect Erskine may be linked to other unsolved homicides.

Conclusion

In September 2003, Erskine went on trial for the two murders. The jurors were shown photos of the crime scene: Jonathan was at the entrance of the makeshift fort hanging from a castor bean tree branch. He was naked from the waist down, his legs and arms bound with rope, and his mouth gagged. His genitals showed obvious signs of sexual assault, and a noose was tied around his neck. On the ground laid Charlie, his head resting on a pile of his and Jonathan's clothes. He was also naked from the waist down, legs and arms bound, his mouth gagged, and his genitals were bleeding from extensive bite marks. He, too, had a rope around his neck. The pathologist determined Charlie was alive when the bite marks were inflicted. Erskine's DNA was also found on two cigarette butts found near the bodies.

Erskine's public defender never denied Erskine killed the boys, but instead focused on Erskine's car accident when he was 5 years old. The public defender stated that Erskine received serious brain injuries that diminished his capacity for right and wrong. They argued that life without the possibility of parole was a more appropriate punishment.

On October 1, 2003, the jury found Erskine guilty of murder; however, they could not agree on the sentence. Eleven jurors voted for the death penalty, while one juror insisted on giving Erskine life without parole. The judge declared a mistrial on the penalty phase.

In April 2004 Erskine went before a second jury to decide his punishment for the murder. This jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. On September 1, 2004, a California judge upheld the jury's recommendation and gave Erskine the death penalty. He was transported to San Quentin six days later.

12. Leonard Lake

Spoiler

"Welcome to another edition of Kurits Killers, with your host, Bill Kurtis. Today we will explore Leonard Lake. He often used the alias Leonard Hill. The crimes he committed with Charles Ng became known when Lake committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill shortly after being arrested for a firearms offense." Kurtis said, opening the show.

Lake was born in San Francisco, California. His parents separated when he was 6 years old, after which he and his siblings were sent to live with their grandparents. He was reportedly a bright child, but had an obsession with pornography that stemmed from taking nude photos of his sisters, apparently with the encouragement of his grandmother. It was also alleged that Lake extorted sexual favors from his sisters.

In 1965 at age 19, Lake joined the Marine Corps and served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a radar operator. Diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, Lake was eventually given a medical discharge in 1971 and underwent psychotherapy. Back in civilian life, he lived in San Jose. He briefly attended San Jose State University, but dropped out after one semester. It is believed that he settled in a hippie commune in the early 1970s. Lake married in 1975, but the marriage dissolved quickly because his wife found out that he was making and appearing in amateur pornographic movies, usually involving bondage or sadomasochism.

In 1980, Lake was released from prison and given a year's probation for car theft. He was married again in 1981 to Claralyn Balasz, a woman he had met while working at a renaissance fair in 1977. However, Balasz left Lake after she got tired of her husband's increasingly erratic behavior and his insistence that she star in pornographic films. Lake was arrested in 1982 for a firearms violation, but he skipped bail and holed up at Balasz's remote ranch near the Calaveras County town of Wilseyville. Lake met a man from Hong Kong named Charles Ng and the two struck up a friendship. They took residence at the ranch and began abducting, torturing, raping and killing people. Most of Lake and Ng's victims were people who knew them.

Murders

On June 2, 1985, an Asian man—later identified as Charles Ng—was seen shoplifting in South San Francisco. He fled by the time police arrived, but Lake, who was with him, was arrested when a .22 revolver with an illegally equipped silencer was found in his car. Lake identified himself as "Robin Stapley" and presented a driver's license in that name. Police were suspicious because, according to the driver's license, Stapley was 26 while the man they had in custody was clearly in his late-30's. While being interviewed at the police station, Lake asked for a glass of water and used it to swallow a hidden cyanide pill. Lake collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where he went into a coma. He survived on life support machines for four days before being pronounced dead.

By the time of Lake's death, police had confirmed his true identity and learned the man whose identity Lake had taken, Robin Stapley, had been missing for several weeks. The car Lake had been driving was found to belong to Paul Cosner, 39, another missing person. The police searched Lake's ranch in Wilseyville, which was fitted with a bunker and a stash of weapons. In a diary, Lake had written that he was convinced there was going to be a global nuclear war, and that he planned on surviving in his bunker and rebuilding the human race with a collection of female slaves; Lake named this plan "Operation Miranda", after a character in the book The Collector by John Fowles. The police also found videocassettes showing Lake and Ng torturing and raping women.

The grounds of the ranch were dug up, and twelve bodies were uncovered in shallow graves. Among these victims were two families: Harvey Dubs and his wife, Deborah, and baby son, Sean; and Lonnie Bond and Brenda O'Connor and their baby son, Lonnie Bond Jr. The women had been sexually abused, and killed after their husbands and infants were disposed of. Five of the bodies were of men lured to the ranch to be robbed and killed — including Stapley and Cosner — and the twelfth was identified as 18-year-old Kathleen Allen, who knew Ng because her boyfriend had once been his cellmate in prison. Police also found charred fragments of human bones, but they were unable to determine the identity of the victims or their number. It has been postulated the number of unknown murdered persons could be as high as 25.

Conclusion

Lake's younger brother, Donald, had vanished in 1983 and was presumed dead, as had Charles Gunnar, a friend of Lake's from his military days; the latter's remains were discovered at the ranch in September 1992.

13. Jane Toppan

Spoiler

"Welcome to another episode of Kurtis Killers, eh, you know the drill by now," Bill Kurtis said. "Today we will discuss Jane Toppan".

Clues & Evidence

Though scant records survive of Toppan's early years, it is known that her parents were Irish immigrants, and her mother, Bridget Kelley, died of tuberculosis when she was very young. Her father, Peter Kelley, was well known as an alcoholic and eccentric, nicknamed by those who knew him "Kelley the Crack" (crack as in "crackpot"). In later years Kelley would become the source of many local rumors concerning his supposed insanity, the most popular of which being that his madness finally drove him to sew his own eyelids closed while working as a tailor. The story's authenticity is dubious, but it accurately reflects the prevailing opinion of Peter Kelley as an extremely unbalanced person.

In 1863, only a few years after his wife's death, Kelley brought his two youngest children, the eight-year-old Delia Josephine and six-year-old Honora, to the Boston Female Asylum, an orphanage for indigent female children founded in 1799 by Mrs. Hannah Stillman. Kelley surrendered the two young girls, never to see them again. Documents from the asylum note that the two girls were "rescued from a very miserable home".

No records of Delia and Honora's experiences during their time in the asylum exist, but in less than two years, in November 1864, Honora Kelley was placed as an indentured servant in the home of Mrs. Ann C. Toppan of Lowell, Massachusetts. Though never formally adopted by the Toppans, Honora took on the surname of her benefactors and eventually became known as Jane Toppan.

Delia remained in the institution until 1868 when she was placed as a servant in Athol, New York at the age of 12. Later she turned to prostitution, and eventually died a destitute alcoholic, in squalid conditions.

Murders

In 1885, Toppan began training to be a nurse at Cambridge Hospital. During her residency, she used her patients as guinea pigs in experiments with morphine and atropine; she would alter their prescribed dosages to see what it did to their nervous systems. However, she would spend a lot of time alone with those patients, making up fake charts and medicating them to drift in and out of consciousness and even get into bed with them. It is not known whether any sexual activity went on when her victims were in this state but when Jane Toppan was asked after her arrest, she answered that she derived a sexual thrill from patients being near death, coming back to life and then dying again.

Toppan would administer a drug mixture to patients she chose as her victims, lie in bed with them and hold them close to her as they died. This is quite rare for female serial killers, who usually murder for material gain and not sexual satisfaction. She was recommended for the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital in 1889; there, she claimed several more victims before being fired the following year. She briefly returned to Cambridge, but was soon dismissed for prescribing opiates recklessly. She then began a career as a private nurse, which flourished despite complaints of petty theft.

She began her poisoning spree in earnest in 1895 by killing her landlords. In 1899, she killed her foster sister Elizabeth with a dose of strychnine.

In 1901, Toppan moved in with the elderly Alden Davis and his family in Cataumet to take care of him after the death of his wife (whom Toppan herself had murdered). Within weeks, she killed Davis and two of his daughters. She then moved back to her hometown and began courting her late foster sister's husband, killing his sister and poisoning him so she could prove herself by nursing him back to health. She even poisoned herself to evoke his sympathy. The ruse did not work, however, and he cast her out of his house.

The surviving members of the Davis family ordered a toxicology exam on Alden Davis' youngest daughter. The report found that she had been poisoned, and local authorities put a police detail on Toppan. On October 26, 1901, she was arrested for murder.

Conclusion

By 1902, she had confessed to 31 murders. On June 23, in the Barnstable County Courthouse, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed for life in the Taunton Insane Hospital.

Soon after the trial, one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, the New York Journal, printed what was purported to be Toppan's confession to her lawyer that she had killed more than 31 people, and that she wanted the jury to find her insane so she could eventually have a chance at being released. Whether or not that was truly Toppan's intention is unknown. She remained at Taunton for the rest of her life.

Well that's all folks, I know nobody read this but oh well, just felt like finishing this up once and for all.

[FrostyLemon]

I wish that series aired in Australia because I've just read this and looked up the killers and it's all true! Wow those are some seriously sick people.

[Macseed]

I wish that series aired in Australia because I've just read this and looked up the killers and it's all true! Wow those are some seriously sick people.

These are true? DANG!

[FrostyLemon]

Is there going to be any more of these eps.

[ClassicNickelodeon Fan 1]

Well that's all folks, I know nobody read this but oh well, just felt like finishing this up once and for all.

I think this answers your question FrostyLemon

Oh btw, the Davy Jone's Locker area is for dead spin-offs and lits

[FrostyLemon]

I did notice the last bit but sometimes you never know, thanks anyway although.

[ClassicNickelodeon Fan 1]

No problemo senor.