Referred to as “the nicest boy” in his hometown of Wolcott, Kansas, by the local newspaper Lowell Lee Andrews did anything but live up to it when he attempted to fulfill his secret dream of becoming a hired gunman in Chicago. Andrews, at the age of eighteen, weighed 300 pounds, wore horn-rimmed glasses, never drank alcohol, never dated, regularly went to church, and was an honor student. But because he needed money for the trip to Chicago to see his dream through, Andrews decided to kill his sister and parents and sell the property owned by his well-off farming family. While his family watched television, he entered the parlor carrying an automatic rifle and revolver and shot his sister between the eyes, his mother three times, and his father twice, before reloading, since the first round failed to kill his parents. He confessed the killings to his pastor a few days later. He was found Guilty of murder, despite being diagnosed as schizophrenic, sentenced, and hanged at Leavenworth Prison.
(via your-average-serial-killer)
On August 22, 1982, 11-year-old Richard Stetson disappeared while jogging near his home, in Portland, Maine. A motorist found his body the next morning, lying beside a rural highway, and while he was initially believed to be the victim of a hit-and-run, autopsy results showed that Stetson was strangled, then stabbed several times in the chest. Bite marks on the body were inflicted by a set of human teeth. Investigators had no solid evidence to work with, and a year elapsed before a suspect, 24 years old, was booked for Stetson’s murder. Charges were dismissed in February 1984, by which time there were two more victims on the list, some 1,500 miles away. Danny Joe Eberle, age 13, was delivering newspapers in Bellevue, Nebraska, when he vanished on the morning of September 18, 1983. His bicycle and papers were found inside a gate, at the fourth house on his route, but Eberle remained missing until September 21, when searchers pulled his body from some roadside weeds. Partially stripped, he had been stabbed repeatedly, then dumped where he was found. Detectives noticed bite marks on the body, and his ankles had been bound before he died. On December 2, 12-year-old Christopher Walden disappeared while walking to school three miles from the scene of the Eberle murder. Stabbed repeatedly, his corpse was found by pheasant hunters two days later, hidden in a grove of trees outside of town. Six weeks later, on January 11, 1984, a suspicious young man was seen loitering around a Bellevue preschool. An attendant memorized his license number, and the rented vehicle was traced to 20-year-old John Joubert, an enlisted man at nearby Offutt Air Force Base. A search of Joubert’s quarters turned up rope identical to Danny Eberle’s bindings; more rope and a hunting knife were found in his car when Joubert was arrested that night.
In custody, the suspect confessed both local murders, warning detectives that he might kill again, if released. Charged with two counts of homicide on January 12, Joubert was held in lieu of $10 million bond pending trial. He pled guilty to both counts on July 3, 1984, and a panel of three judges fixed his sentence at death. As a native of Portland, Maine, Joubert had also been making headlines at home. Detectives noted similarities between the two Nebraska murders and the Stetson case, instantly bumping Joubert to the head of their short suspect list. Hair samples and tooth impressions were obtained from Joubert in February 1985, and he was indicted for Richard Stetson’s murder on January 10, 1986.
(via justbecausewedontfeelflesh)
A 6ft 9in, 20-stone giant, Edmund Kemper longed to be a he-man hero like his idol John Wayne. But he was a social misfit, emotionally crippled by a domineering mother. At 15, he blew his grandparents’ brains out, the he impressed psychiatrists so much that he was released five years later. But the demons still raged within him, and he planned a horrific revenge against the society that had rejected him.
(via ufo-club)
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Ruth Snyder being electrocuted; a news photographer smuggled a small camera into the death chamber strapped to his leg and took this sensational shot.
(via your-average-serial-killer)
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Edward Joseph Leonski (12 December 1917 - 9 November 1942) was a serial killer who committed his crimes in Australia, although Leonski himself was American.
Born in New York he was called up for the US Army in February 1941 and arrived in Melbourne on February 2, 1942.
On May 3, 1942, Ivy Violet McLeod, 40, was found dead in Albert Park, Melbourne. She had been beaten and strangled, and because she was found to be in possession of her purse it was evident that robbery was not the motive.
Just six days later, 31-year-old Pauline Thompson was strangled after a night out. She was last seen in the company of a young man who was described as having an American accent.
Gladys Hosking, 40, was the next victim, murdered on May 18 while walking home from work at the Chemistry Library at Melbourne University. A witness said that, on the night of the killing, a disheveled American man had approached him asking for directions, seemingly out of breath and covered with mud. This description matched the individual Pauline Thompson was seen with on the night of her murder, as well as the descriptions given by several women who had survived recent attacks.
These survivors and other witnesses were able to pick 24-year-old Edward Leonski out of a line-up of American servicemen who were stationed in the city during World War 2. A Private in the 52nd Signal Battalion, Leonski was arrested and charged with three murders.
Leonski confessed to the crimes and was convicted and sentenced to death at an American military court on November 4, 1942. He was hanged at Pentridge Prison five days later. People who knew him said Leonski was a laid-back and cheerful young man, but prone to heavy drinking.
(via true-crime-101)
“It’s nothing you’d understand, but I do have something to say. In fact, I have a lot to say, but now is not the time or place. I don’t know why I’m wasting my time or breath. But what the hell? As for what is said of my life, there have been lies in the past and there will be lies in the future. I don’t believe in the hypocritical, moralistic dogma of this so-called civilized society. I need not look beyond this room to see all the liars, haters, the killers, the crooks, the paranoid cowards—truly trematodes of the Earth, each one in his own legal profession. You maggots make me sick— hypocrites one and all. And no one knows that better than those who kill for policy, clandestinely or openly, as do the governments of the world, which kill in the name of God and country or for whatever reason they deem appropriate. I don’t need to hear all of society’s rationalizations, I’ve heard them all before and the fact remains that what is, is. You don’t understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil, Legions of the night—night breed—repeat not the errors of the Night Prowler and show no mercy. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells within us all. That’s it. „
-Richard Ramirez before he was sentenced
(via true-crime-101)
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