Beware of serial killers

[Jim H]

I think I've referenced a few times on here I grew up in Michigan.  Specifically, Northville.  It's a small suburb of Detroit.  Well, while randomly browsing the internet I found this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_County_Child_Killer

I grew up in Oakland County (Northville, Novi and Livonia are the cities I spent the most time in, all in Oakland county..  Well, Livonia is in Wayne, but very close) - and I never had any idea a quite infamous serial killer of children had been active there.  This was before I was born, but my parents moved there just before the killings started, and my oldest sister was just a bit under the age range of the victims at the time.  The final victim was found about five miles from our house.  Must have been pretty uncomfortable.  Needless to say, when I brought it up with my mother, she knew exactly what I was talking about. 

The manhunt the police had going for this killer was the largest in US history at the time.  And they never found much of anything, apparently.  One serious suspect who was never even charged.  The killings just stopped, with no one ever found.  My mom tells me most people figured the killer died.

It's an eerie thought to think he may have been still tromping around in the area I grew up in.  Of course, thinking about it, just about anyone who lives in a highly populated area probably crosses paths with multiple murderers every so often and doesn't know it. 

I'm not sure what my point here is.  It's just something I was thinking about.

[Paquita]

Yikes!

I don't really think there were any notable serial killings in my neighborhood during my lifetime.  Lots of gang violence though.  My neighbor shot a guy in front of our house that he caught breaking into his car, but I heard that was gang related too.

[Raffine]

No serial killers in the tiny Alabama where I grew up, but they did find the local Catholic priest's beheaded body sitting in his van - which was parked in a notorious 'necking' area.

They never found the head! 

[Trekkie313]

No serial killers in the tiny Alabama where I grew up, but they did find the local Catholic priest's beheaded body sitting in his van - which was parked in a notorious 'necking' area.

They never found the head! 

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!! 

[BoyScoutKevin]

If there is any good news to come out of this sad story, the serial killer, since he was never caught, is most likely either dead or in jail for another crime he committed. As most serial killers cannot stop once they start killing till such time they are caught, die, or go to jail for another crime they committed.

One of the few serial killers to kill, then stop, then start killing again was the Green River Killer.  So called, because he dumped most of his victim's bodies along the Green River in Washington State.

While I had moved out of the area by the time the killings had started, I use to live near the area, where he picked up most of his victims.

All I can say is thank God for DNA evidence. The police had actually picked him up as a suspect, when he first started killing, but had to let him go, because of the lack of evidence. But when he started killing again, and they picked him up again, they had his DNA evidence from that first time as a suspect, which caused him to accept a plea of life in prision without chance of parole.

Unfortunately, this plea was not soon enough to prevent him from killing 48 women, mostly prostitutes and runaways, before he went to prision. And that number 48, that set the record for number of victims by an American serial killer.

[AndyC]

Not much in the way of killers where I'm from. The closest was looking through some old newspaper microfilms at the public library, maybe ten or fifteen years ago, and running across a case of multiple murder in the area. Something like five people murdered in a house back in the 40s. Can't remember the details, but it blew me away that it happened so close to home, in what was surely even more of a peaceful little town, and I couldn't believe I'd never heard of it. I was talking to the president of the local historical society shortly after, and mentioned finding it. Apparently, it was common knowledge to him. "Oh, the such-and-such family, yes..."

[RCMerchant]

Donald Leroy Evans.He lived in Watervielt...in Michigan as well! It's about a 20 minute drive from Lawton. He was convicted in 1993  for the murder of a 10 year old girl,and in '95 for the murder of another child. He is suspected in the killing of 12 more. He claims 60.
I remember it being all over the papers at the time. Spooky.
Coral Eugene Watts,killer of 13,was convicted in 2004. His first murder was in 1974.He lived in Kalamazoo.
Larry and Danny Raines. From Kalamazoo.This story is so weird....read the story.....http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/ranes_brothers/1_index.html
Not a serial murder,but my old girlfreind's parents were murdered in 2005. They weree beaten,stabbed,and their house burnt down.That was right here in Lawton.
Oddly enough, while I was typing this,Carrie Noble-my old girlfreind from the 80's,called! (But she does call me quite aften,as we have always been close freinds.) Heres a link...http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2005/06/suspect_says_couple_slain_for.html

[El Misfit]

not much about A serial killer, but a group of policemen!
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080215213556/starwars/images/thumb/b/bf/Chancellors_Suite.jpg/600px-Chancellors_Suite.jpg
Corruption never seems to be a good thing down here.

[AndyC]

Corruption never seems to be a good thing down here.

As opposed to everywhere else, where it's just terrific.

[RCMerchant]

Corruption never seems to be a good thing down here.

As opposed to everywhere else, where it's just terrific.

Insanity happens every day. But nobody is aware of it beyond their comfort zone. People kill their spouses,feed them to pigs,make stuff out of their skins,soup bowls out of their heads....God   is an illusion...Nyuk..nyuknyuk...

[Jim H]

As most serial killers cannot stop once they start killing till such time they are caught, die, or go to jail for another crime they committed.....One of the few serial killers to kill, then stop, then start killing again was the Green River Killer.  So called, because he dumped most of his victim's bodies along the Green River in Washington State.

It really seems to depend on the type of serial killer.  The stereotypical serial killer who has a large sexual basis and kills his victims brutally and personally is often like that (as opposed to serial killers, like most female serial killers, who use poison or suffocation)..  But not always.  Sometimes something happens in their life that stops them from killing.  Gary Ridgeway, the Green River killer, is thought to have reduced the amount of people he killed as he was happy in his third marriage.  On that note, while he was convicted of 48 killings, the actual number is considerably higher - possibly close to 100.  Watts, that RC mentions, is one of the few other American killers who may have killed that many.

The BTK killer stopped for LONG periods of time in between killings - in fact, while he has said he planned to start again, it had been 14 years since his last killing when he was caught.  There was also an 8 year gap, then a 5ish year gap in between some of them.  Robert Yates is similar.

The most eerie are the ones who stop entirely.  The Zodiac killer has never been caught, and nobody thinks he died before stopping - they received letters believed to be from him long after the final confirmed killings.  The Monster of Florence, a very messed up situation that may be the product of a conspiracy, one murderer, or multiple murderers working together, is somewhat similar in that it just stopped.  Or Jack the Stripper (much like Jack the Ripper), who simply stopped - and may have died, no one really knows.

BTW, one person who later came out as a major suspect in the Oakland County child killings committed suicide in 1978...  But there's no real way to prove or disprove him, as he was cremated and the SINGLE HAIR they have on record that *might* be from the killer can't be matched against him.

I think I've been reading too much about serial killers.  Blaaaah.  It's often pretty awful reading, as you'd guess.  I must say sometimes it makes the American judicial sentencing seem pretty good though - there's a kid in Estonia who murdered 6 people and is now free, someone in South America who murdered like 300 people and is now free (because of a lack of capital punishment, consecutive sentences or anything similar to life without parole), and so on.  Most of the people like that here get life with no possibility of parole or are killed.  It's harder to think of a more deserving case than serial killers - they're usually either so deranged it's like putting down a rabid dog, or so repellently evil the world as a whole is just improved by their absence.

[Jack]

Closest I've ever gotten to a serial killer was Ed Gein, who was born in LaCrosse Wisconsin, about 30 miles from here.  My wife works in the shopping mall there    Weirder still, I share a birthday with him, August 27.  He's was born about 60 years before me though.

That was one seriously, SERIOUSLY screwed up individual.

[akiratubo]

Only one I can think of is the Cahaba Lane Killer.  Raped, killed, and dumped four prostitutes in piles of trash on Cahaba Lane in Knoxville in the early '90s.

Thomas "Zoo Man" Husky was arrested for the crime.  However, his lawyers said he was insane and, last I heard, the case finally got thrown out in 2005 because most of the evidence was obtained with a bad search warrant.  Wonderful.

[El Misfit]

my best friend is a distant cousin to Charlie Manson! how's that for being close a serial killer?

[RCMerchant]

my best friend is a distant cousin to Charlie Manson! how's that for being close a serial killer?

Charlie Charlie! who the f**k is charlie? :question:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGYlcBfHFHY