Wanted: A retired highway patrolman believes he has found the infamous Zodiac Killer, pictured here in a police poster from October 1969, the period when he was on the loose in the Bay Area
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2144527/Zodiac-killer-91-living-California-claims-Lyndon-Lafferty-book.html#ixzz1uwaKQzpq
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood are a rare case in which two women teamed up in a series of sexual murders. Wood was a recently divorced 450-pound supervisor in a nursing home when she entered into a lesbian relationship with Graham, a nurses aide. The dominant Graham told Wood that it would be a sexual thrill to murder six elderly patients in the home so that their last names would spell out the word murder. Their spelling game failed when some of the patients did not die as easily as the couple hoped. Nevertheless, using a wet washcloth to suffocate the patients, Graham killed five victims while Wood stood guard. After each murder, the couple immediately retired to a vacant room in the nursing home and had sex. In exchange for her testimony, Wood received a twenty-to-forty sentence, while Graham was given six life sentences.
Hoy en nuestro querido Serial Killer de Barrio: Edmund Kemper.
“I had fantasies about mass murder, whole groups of select women I could get together in one place, get them dead and then make mad passionate love to their dead corpses. Taking life away from them, a living human being, and then having possession of everything that used to be theirs. All that would be mine. Everything.”
-Edmund Kemper.
Some Facts about Female Serial Killers
- they are more efficient than their male counterparts, and often kill more people
- they are twice as likely to have killed someone close to them than the males
- in a study by Kelleher and Kelleher of 100 female serial killers, it took an average of 8 years to catch them - twice as long as the average to catch a man
The Motives of Female Serial Killers
- Money (74%)
- Control (13%)
- Enjoyment (11%)
- Sex (10%)
- Drugs, cult involvement, cover up, or feelings of inadequacy (24%)
The Weapons Female Serial Killers Choose
- Poison (80%)
- Shooting (20%)
- Bludgeoning (16%)
- Suffocation (16%)
- Stabbing (11%)
- Drowning (5%)
John Gacy’s Trial
On February 6, 1980, Gacy’s trial began in Chicago. During the trial, he made a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. However, this plea was rejected outright—his lawyer, Sam Amirante, made the claim that Gacy had moments of temporary insanity at the time of each individual murder, but before and afterwards, somehow regained his sanity to properly lure and dispose of victims.
While on trial Gacy joked that the only thing he was guilty of was “running a cemetery without a license.” At one point in the trial, Gacy’s defense also tried to claim that all 33 murders were accidental deaths as part of erotic asphyxia, but the Cook County Coroner countered this assertion with evidence that Gacy’s claim was impossible. Also, Gacy had made an earlier confession to police, and was unable to have this evidence suppressed. He was found guilty on March 13 and sentenced to death (Sullivan and Maiken, 1983).
On May 10, 1994, Gacy was executed at Stateville Penitentiary in Crest Hill, Illinois, by lethal injection, after finishing his last meal consisting of shrimp, fried chicken, fresh strawberries and french fries. His execution was a minor media sensation, and large crowds of people gathered for “execution parties” outside the penitentiary, with numerous arrests for public intoxication, open intoxicants, and disorderly conduct. In an unusual display of gallows humor, the so-called “Gacy’s Day Parade” (a parody of the “Macy’s Day Parade”) ensued. Vendors sold T-shirts and Gacy merchandise, and the people cheered at the moment when Gacy was pronounced dead.
According to reports, Gacy did not express remorse. His last words to his lawyer in his cell were to the effect that killing him would not bring anyone back, and it is reported his last words were “You can kiss my ass”, which he said to a guard while he was being sent to the execution chamber.
After the execution began, the lethal chemicals unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube that led into Gacy’s arm, and preventing any further passage. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube with a new one. Ten minutes later, the blinds were then reopened and the execution process resumed. It took 18 minutes to complete. 31 anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, saying that proper procedures taught in “IV 101” would have prevented the error. This also apparently, led to Illinois’ adoption of a different method of lethal injection.
