Archive for January, 2011

Alcala indicted in 2 more murders

A grand jury in Manhattan has indicted Alcala on charges of killing Ellen Jane Hover and Cornelia Michel Crilley, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing law enforcement officials familiar with the case. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the indictment.

After Decades, Charges in 2 Manhattan Murders

By MOSI SECRET
Published: January 26, 2011

One victim, Cornelia Michel Crilley, was a Trans World Airlines flight attendant who was raped and strangled in her Upper East Side apartment in 1971; the other, Ellen Jane Hover, an aspiring orchestra conductor who disappeared one summer day in 1977 — and whose remains were found nearly a year later on the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County.

The two women, both 23 at the time of their deaths, most likely did not know each other. But according to law enforcement officials, they had at least one connection: both were killed by Rodney Alcala, a photographer and one-time contestant on “The Dating Game” who is on death row in California for killing a 12-year-old girl and four women in the late 1970s. He has been in prison there since 1980.

A grand jury in Manhattan has indicted Mr. Alcala, 67, on charges that he murdered Ms. Crilley and Ms. Hover, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The Manhattan district attorney’s office would not comment on the indictment. Mr. Alcala may also have been involved in other killings, officials say.

One of Ms. Hover’s relatives said she was gratified at the expected indictment.

“For the longest time, it was a foregone conclusion that he would never be charged for her murder,” said Sheila Weller, a cousin of Ms. Hover. “This is a terrific surprise.”

But Leon Borstein, who was Ms. Crilley’s boyfriend and said he was with the police when they discovered her body in her apartment, said he did not see the point of prosecuting a serial killer already on death row.

“All it does is entertain him, and it doesn’t do anything for us,” Mr. Borstein said. “He gets to fly out to New York, meet with his lawyers, sit in a courtroom for days on end. It certainly alleviates the boredom of sitting in a jail cell.”

For more than three decades, the killings of Ms. Crilley and Ms. Hover remained unsolved. It is unclear when detectives in New York became interested in Mr. Alcala — who lived in New York in the early 1970s, attended New York University under an alias and worked as a photographer — as a possible suspect. Law enforcement officials would not say. But a former boyfriend of Ms. Hover’s said in an interview that the police told him two weeks after her 1977 disappearance that a man with California connections might be involved.

In 2003, New York police detectives investigating the Crilley murder went to California with a warrant to interview Mr. Alcala and get a dental impression from him, said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman. Mr. Alcala, who was in prison for the murders in California, initially denied that he had ever visited New York. But after the police presented him with the warrant, he responded, “What took you so long?” Mr. Browne said.

A forensic dentist later issued an opinion that a bite mark on Ms. Crilley’s body was consistent with Mr. Alcala’s impression, a law enforcement official said.

While investigating Ms. Crilley’s murder, detectives with the Police Department’s Cold Case Squad learned that Mr. Alcala had used an alias, John Berger, when he was living in New York, Mr. Browne said. They later found that name in the file folder for Ms. Hover’s case, he said.

Ms. Weller said her cousin had an appointment with the man to take pictures before she disappeared.

Last year, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., opened a cold case unit to review thousands of unsolved murders, and the cases of Ms. Crilley and Ms. Hover were among those the office reviewed. The district attorney’s office would not discuss its role in the investigation, but, speaking generally, Mr. Vance said in a statement, “Cold cases are not forgotten cases.”

Later in 2010, after the police released dozens of photographs of young women that were found in a storage locker that Mr. Alcala kept in Seattle in 1979 to see if there were other victims, several women came forward claiming that a photographer named John Berger had taken their picture in New York in the 1970s.

The trove also included items from the victims in the California cases, who were killed from 1977 to 1979. They were all sexually assaulted and strangled or beaten to death. Their cases were solved largely with DNA evidence, and, after a lengthy legal process in which murder convictions against Mr. Alcala were overturned twice, he was convicted there on a retrial in February 2010. Prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Alcala would approach young women and ask to take their picture as a way to lure them.

Mr. Alcala’s violent offenses date back more than four decades, the authorities said. In 1968, he kidnapped, beat and molested an 8-year-old girl in Los Angeles County, and was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most-wanted list, the authorities said. He became a camp counselor in New Hampshire but was arrested after someone noticed his picture on a flier at the post office. He was turned over to the police in Los Angeles, and was convicted in 1972. He was paroled after 34 months.

When not incarcerated, Mr. Alcala, whom the authorities have described as highly intelligent, assumed the life of a freewheeling bachelor. In 1978, he was “Bachelor No. 1” on an episode of “The Dating Game,” and the host described him as “a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed,” according to a YouTube video of the show. “Between takes, you might find him sky-diving or motorcycling.”

Wearing a brown bell-bottom suit and a shirt with a butterfly collar, the long-haired Mr. Alcala won the contest, charming the bachelorette with sexual innuendo. The woman later decided not to go on the date with him because she found him disturbing, according to several news reports.

Complete N.Y. Times article

Orange County Register Article

2011
01/29
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LAPD detectives reveal two new Grim Sleeper cases

Short article. There does not seem to be much info released yet.

Detectives said Wednesday night that they are investigating two additional killings that may have been committed by  Lonnie Franklin Jr., the Grim Sleeper serial slaying suspect.

The revelation came during a meeting with about 100 residents at the Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles.

Franklin, 57, is charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder — crimes that occurred in South L.A. and spanned three decades, prosecutors have said. Franklin has pleaded not guilty.

Detectives have released about 180 photos of women whose pictures were found on Franklin’s property after investigators served a search warrant in July. As a result of those photos, 72 women were identified and ruled out as victims. Detectives still need to identify about 62 women, Kilcoyne said.

Scores of calls and tips from the photos resulted in the LAPD developing four missing-person cases.

L.A. Now article

Photos here, warning, some are disturbing.

2011
01/28
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New York bodies identified

Long Island authorities have identified the  female bodies dumped on Gilgo Beach last month.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich Conn.; Melissa Barthelemy, 24, of Erie County, N.Y.; Amber Lynn Costello, 27, of North Babylon,;  Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, all were  in their 20s.

“Both District Attorney Thomas Spota and myself have determined that this has all the marks of a serial killer,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told Metro. “Four bodies of women all engaged in the same occupation, bodies dumped in the same area, same age range and all missing women.”

Spota downplayed any correlation to the bodies of several missing Craiglist prostitutes that were discovered in Atlantic City in 2006. “There are similarities in the cases, but I don’t think there is a connection,” said Spota. “We’ve decided it is not the work of the same person.”

Source

I’d be interested to know what the differences are. I know that at least 3 of these women were in burlap bags but I had not heard of that in the N.J. case. I know that the women in N.J. were supposed to have been found looking in the same direction, I do not know of that happened here, or if it even was a fact in the N.J. cases.

If these cases are not connected then there are 2 serial killers in that area right now. Both are killing women that are working as escorts, adult entertainment dancers and or prostitutes and then dumping the bodies in ditches on beaches. There have been links to online services such Craigslist in the N.Y. case but I think that the women found in N.J. were known for working more on the streets. I am not 100% sure that there were no online connections in the N.J. case but I do not remember that and I have not seen any mention of it in the latest articles.

Her younger sister received  harassing calls after she vanished. Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was last seen alive July 12, 2009, and her sister in Buffalo received calls from her cellphone on July 16, 19 and 23, law enforcement sources told the New York Daily News.

“Do you know what your sister is doing? She’s a whore,” a man’s voiced taunted.

New York police traced the last two calls to Midtown Manhattan.

The New York Times, citing a law enforcement official, reported that Barthelemy’s telephone records were traced to the Budget Inn and the Best Western motels near Massapequa, about 15 miles from Gilgo Beach, where the bodies were found in December. Investigators checked video records at both motels and talked to staff but learned nothing, the official said. Barthelemy’s family called police in New York soon after she disappeared from her Bronx apartment.

Police subpoenaed phone records, scoured the neighborhood and gathered DNA evidence, including a toothbrush that was later used to identify the body. Barthelemy’s family will hold a press conference on Thursday to talk about the case.

Source

“I believe it is a serial killer. I think it fits within the definition of what a serial killer would be. The causes of death appear to be substantially similar, but we’re not going to go into any further aspect of that at this time.” Spota said

Authorities have said they may have some leads and are making rapid progress, but are keeping other information quiet.

I understand the police keeping details quiet but I wish they would release more information.

Many of the articles seem to be cold towards the women. The women worked in the sex trades, fine, but it is disturbing to see a new article calling them “hookers”. It just seems wrong.

I can not help but think of the woman’s families reading in the hopes of finding something out and seeing it put that way. I just don’t think that is necessary.

I hope this killer is found soon.

Source

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An interesting blog view

2011
01/27
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Killer’s daughter objects to docudrama

I am having a hard time writing this article. It is always hard to find a balance between intellectual ideas and emotional reactions, so often they clash.

The victims of crime are always forward in my mind when I write, and I believe that their voices should always be heard and counted when they speak an opinion or comment on the crimes and criminals.

In the case of Fred and Rosemary West their most susceptible victims were their own children. What they made these children see, hear, do and know was beyond horrible.

Fred raped the girls as Rosemary held them down. The one daughter who mentioned it to a friend was killed and her brother was forced to help bury her in the yard.

The children knew of the other murders, one of which was one of Fred’s daughters from a previous relationship. Rosemary murdered her while Fred was in jail.

The kids were constant victims and pretty much prisoners in their own home by the people who were supposed to love them the most and protect them from as much as possible.

In 1976, the Wests enticed a young woman, designated as Miss A by the courts, from a home for wayward girls. At Cromwell Street, Miss A was led into a room with two naked girls who were prisoners there. She witnessed the torture of the two girls and was raped by Fred and sexually assaulted by Rose.

One of the girls that Miss A saw was probably Anna Marie, Fred’s daughter who was a constant target of the couple’s sexual sadism. As if Fred’s rape and torture of his daughter was not enough, he brought home his friends to have sex with her.

In November of 1978, Rose and Fred had yet another daughter who they named Louise, making a total of six children in the bizarre and unwholesome household. Fred also impregnated his daughter Anna Marie, but the pregnancy occurred in her fallopian tube and had to be terminated.

The children were aware of some of the goings on in the home. They knew that Rose was a prostitute and that Anna Marie was being raped by her father. When Anna Marie moved out to live with her boyfriend, Fred focused his sexual advances on Heather and Mae. Heather resisted her father and was beaten for it.

In July of 1983, Rose gave birth to another daughter who they named Lucyanna. She was half-black, like Tara and Rosemary Junior. Rose became increasingly irrational and beat the children without provocation.

Source

West’s sexual interest in his own daughters didn’t wane either, and when Anne-Marie moved out to live with her boyfriend, he switched his attentions to younger siblings, Heather and Mae. Heather resisted his attentions and, in 1986, committed the cardinal sin of telling a friend about the goings on in the house. The Wests responded by murdering and dismembering her, and burying her in the back garden of No 25, where son Stephen was forced to assist with digging the hole.

Source

In England they are about to release a docudrama about Fred West and his relationship with Janet Leach, a social worked to whom he confessed. It is called Appropriate Adult.

Producers have spent three years painstakingly researching the ‘docu-drama’ that focuses on the period between monster West’s arrest and his suicide in 1995.

The two-part show, which is due to be aired next month, tells the ”untold story of how Fred and Rosemary West were brought to justice”.

It also shows the role of Janet Leach, played by Emily Watson, who was installed as an ”appropriate adult” – who represent the interests of accused during police interview – to extract information on the killings.

Mrs Leach was a voluntary worker who listened to the horrific confessions in spring 1994. During her time as appropriate adult she listened to over 40 interviews and West refused to talk to anyone else when she was not present.

Executive producer Jeff Pope said: ”Our intention is to produce a sober and thought-provoking drama based on a true story.

”We have developed the script over the past three years and it provides a unique insight into the police investigation which led to the conviction of Fred and Rose West and the crucial role Janet Leach played as the ‘appropriate adult’.”

Source

One of Fred West’s daughters has come forward with her objections about the show. She has not seen it but she does not want it aired.

Anne-Marie Davies said the ITV programme ‘Appropriate Adult’ would ”open old wounds” and affect those who had lost their ”loved ones”.

She was raped and beaten as a child by her dad and attempted suicide by drowning in 1999 by throwing herself from a bridge in Gloucester, but was rescued.

Anne-Marie’s partner, who asked not to be named, spoke out as she was ”too upset” over news of the programme, which is due to be aired next month.

He said: ”We feel sorry for all the family members and people who have lost loved ones who will be affected by such programmes.

”When this rears its ugly head again it just opens old wounds and prevents those who suffered from being able to put it to bed.

”Sadly these programmes are more about making money than making a point and it has a detrimental effect on us.”

Appropriate Adult executive producer Jeff Pope said: ”Our intention is to produce a sober and thought-provoking drama based on a true story.

”We have developed the script over the past three years and it provides a unique insight into the police investigation which led to the arrest of Fred and Rose West and the crucial role Janet Leach played as the ‘Appropriate adult’.”

A spokeswoman for Gloucestershire Police said they had been consulted with by ITV over Appropriate Adult.

She said: ”We are assured that the producers are sensitive to the continued distress experienced by those who were both directly and indirectly affected by the horrific crimes committed by the Wests.”

Film director Derek Jones, who made a Channel Five documentary on Fred West in added: ”Anything that rakes up the story is going to be upsetting to the family (of West) and to the families of the victims – I completely understand that.”

Source

I understand the wish and want to sweep the past under a carpet. I know that with every mention of the crimes the victims have to relive some of the pain. This has to be horrible for them.

I also know that even if no one ever mentioned the crimes again they would still suffer. The memories would not erased by society not speaking of what happened. The pain and emotional scars would still creep into the daily lives of the victims.

I think that is important for people to remember. I think we all need to know that the tidy house next door might not be so bright inside. We need to learn to look for clues, for hints that there things wrong. We need to open the eyes of some to the fact that humans wear masks and if they do not look close enough they could be missing a chance to save a life, perhaps even their own.

As a society we need to recognize the fact that monsters do not have green skin and bolts in their necks.

Think what could have been if someone, a neighbor, a postal worker or dog walker had noticed something was amiss. Perhaps some of the horrors could have been prevented if the somebody rallied for the children, and victims, that were unable to speak for themselves. If someone knew what to look for, if someone felt that they could trust their feelings and speak out to the authorities. I know that even when things are said the authorities do not always listen, but it still gives a better chance than ignorance does. The more people who know, that watch, that speak out, the more that there is a chance things like this can be stopped. Not only in this case, but in so many others.

I am also against censorship even though that bares very little weight in this case.

I do think that this show and others about serial killers need to be shown. I hate the exploitative ones but they have a touch of truth and education in them. I do not know how profitable they are but I guess profits are expected. It would be nice if the people profiting would give something back to victim’s groups but I do not think that should be forced, just hoped for.

I wish that there was some way to protect the victims from the advertising and viewing of shows that depict their pain but that is not really possible. I guess all we can do is hope that she does not watch. That someone close advises that she not watch. That she protects herself and spends the nights that the show is on taking a bath, having a glass of wine and being with a loved one.

I know that it is so much easier for me to say than for her to do.

I wish her well and my heart goes out to her.

Original article about the docudrama.

Article about daughter slamming show.

Wikipedia article on Fred West

Biography Of Fred West

2011
01/24
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Patricia Krenwinkel denied parole again

Kevin Roderick • January 20 2011 10:41 PM

krenwinkel-then.jpgkrenwinkel-2011.jpgKrenwinkel, now 64, is the longest-serving female prisoner in the California prison system — a distinction she gained when fellow Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins died in 2009. Known in the group as “Katie,” Krenwinkel took part in the August 1969Manson Family killings at the Benedict Canyon home of actress Sharon Tate and, the next night, at the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Krenwinkel is reportedly the participant who left a fork in the abdomen of Mr. LaBianca and wrote “DEATH TO PIGS” in blood on the wall, and “HeaLter SkeLTter” on the refrigerator. The killers then hitchhiked home through the Valley to the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, while Manson — who had been at the LaBianca home — drove with some followers to Sylmar for milk shakes at Denny’s.

Krenwinkel will be eligible to try for parole again in seven years.

Source

These people seem to think that their lives are more valuable than the lives that they denied, destroyed and brought pain to.

Stay in prison, you can not pay back society for the wide spread panic and pain that you caused.

You can not possibly do enough ‘good’ to somehow erase the lives you destroyed.

Rot in prison.

2011
01/23
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Winston Moseley, the murder you know; the killer you don’t

Winston Moseley

Many people have heard about the tragic murder of Kitty Genovese, but most do not seem to know much about her killer. The public outcry was about the fact that witnesses knew she was being killed and did not step in. It seems to have erased from the public consciousness who and what her killer was.

I did follow her murderer, although I admit that I let him slip into the back of my mind. I grew up in NJ and heard about him on the news. I would listen to my parents talk about him afterwards. My mom also used him the same way she did Bundy, Berkowitz and the Zodiac, as ‘cautionary tale’ figure.

Moseley was recently brought back to my mind by a comment on this blog. It was from someone who grew up in the same building he lived in. She wrote about her fear, about how it effected her and her family.

She inspired me to make this post.

Would it surprise you to know that Winston Moseley had killed 2 times before and had raped many others?

From Crime Library at TruTV:

Investigation

During the week after the murder, the 30 detectives who were assigned to the case sifted through the neighborhood of Kew Gardens and Forest Hills. They located a milkman who was able to furnish a description of a suspect. Others also had observed Catherine’s killer in the area prior to the murder and were able to add to the description. But it wasn’t until six days later, when a suspect was arrested stealing a television during a house burglary that cops had their man: Winston Moseley, 29.

Moseley had no criminal record. He was married, owned a home in Queens and had two kids. Slight of build, barely 5-foot-8, with thin features and a brooding appearance, Moseley was a machine operator who worked in Mt. Vernon in nearby Westchester County. His arrest report, dated March 19, 1964, lists his occupation as “Remington Rand tab operator.” He did not seem to be the type of person who committed street muggings or murder. But Moseley quickly confessed to the Genovese killing and two others. He told cops he had killed Barbara Kralik, 15, on July 20 in Springfield Gardens, Queens, and shot Annie Mae Johnson, 24, of South Ozone Park, Queens, on February 29. Both were savage killings and may have involved sexual assault. Trouble was, another man named Alvin “The Monster” Mitchell, 18, a local gang member, was already in custody for the Kralik killing. He had allegedly also confessed to the teenager’s murder. But Moseley was insistent. He had killed them all, he said.

In the murder of Annie Mae Johnson, Moseley insisted that he shot the victim several times. “I shot her in the stomach. I reloaded and shot her again in the stomach,” he told cops. But the autopsy on Johnson had listed the cause of death as puncture wounds from a sharp object such as a screwdriver or a file. Based on Moseley’s confession, the body was exhumed from a cemetery in Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, and a second autopsy was performed. Using X-ray equipment borrowed from a South Carolina Medical College in Charleston, the coroner found six bullets inside Johnson’s body. Four of these bullets were recovered. “The finding of these bullets adds a lot of credence to Winston Moseley’s other statements,” Queens District Attorney Frank O’Connor told the press.

In the murder of 15-year-old Barbara Kralik, there was blood evidence available, no test yet existed that could compare bodily fluids for conclusive DNA identification. Moseley, however, was able to supply details that conformed to the existing evidence. Cops were satisfied they had the right man. Even his own court-appointed attorney, Sydney G. Sparrow, believed Moseley. “I’m convinced Moseley did all three of these killings,” he told reporters after he met with his client for three hours in the Kings County Psych Ward. “There are too many things he knew that only the killer could know,” he added.

But there was more. Moseley confessed to other attacks during nighttime expeditions in which he would roam the streets searching for victims at random. He said he raped many women, frequently robbing them in the process. Moseley admitted to dozens of burglaries, including the one for which he was arrested when he was caught stealing a television. But it was the sexual assaults that had detectives interested. Particularly the failed attempts of rape which several women reported. Moseley, it seemed, preferred sex with the dead. Dr. Oscar Diamond, a psychiatrist from Manhattan State Hospital, performed a pretrial psychiatric examination of Moseley. “He told me he got no thrill with live women he raped,” he told the court later.

He was found guilty of Genovese’s murder and was sentenced to death. The judge, who did not support the death penalty, said of Moseley; “”I don’t believe in capital punishment, but when I see this monster, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull the switch myself!”.  The court appeals later changed his sentence stating “Moseley should have been able to argue that he was “medically insane” at the sentencing hearing when the trial court found that he had been legally sane….” I think the appeals court should have been found insane. Life in prison at this time in NY was NOT life in prison. Moseley was and is eligible for parole!

Are you wondering about his behavior after having his sentence reduced? Did he learn a lesson? Did he feel remorse? Did he become a better person? Give up his violent ways?

Well, he beat a guard, committed another rape, came to see himself as a victim and even spouted off about his crimes actually having positive aspects to them ! I wonder if they knew then what they know now would the appeals court have done the same?

In 1968, a year after the appeals court made his death sentence a life sentence Moseley was on his way to a hospital to get (tax payer funded) surgery. He overpowered a guard and proceeded to beat him to the point where the guard’s eyes were bleeding. He then stole guard’s gun.

He then took 5 people hostage. During his 2 day crime spree he also raped a woman while her husband watched .

He surrendered after a half hour-long standoff with a FBI detective. He had held his gun on the agent who had his gun on Moseley during the standoff.

Moseley was also involved in the famous Attica Prison Riot of 1971. In that riot 10 guards and 29 prisoners were killed and many more were injured.

After the riot and at about the time he started to think about the fact that he was going to eventually go up for parole he started to write to the local papers.  He blamed his parents for some of his actions. He also said that “The man who killed Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964 is no more,” and that “Another vastly different individual has emerged, a Winston Moseley intent and determined to do constructive, not destructive things.”

Of course he also said:

“The crime was tragic, but it did serve society, urging it as it did to come to the aid of its members in distress or danger (sic).”

He actually tried to turn the that he blood spilled into some kind of proverbial ‘lemonade’, all the while just ignoring the other murders and rapes! ‘Forgetting’ all the other lives he damaged in so many ways.

(I will say that the murder and rape of Catherine, while not his only rape or murder did point out human flaws hopefully encouraging some to improve themselves. He should not be rewarded for being such a horrible human and for committing a shocking crime, IF somehow something positive came from his brutality it is in no way a reflection onto him.)

He even said a parole hearing: “For a victim outside, it’s a one-time or one-hour or one-minute affair,” Moseley said. “But for the person who’s caught, it’s forever.”

Yes, he tries to place himself into the role of a victim! He seems to think the pain, suffering and torture of those he raped and murdered was a quick and easy experience, kind of like pulling off a band aide. I am damned sure they would not agree.

Vincent, Catherine’s brother heard the comment above and had this to say:

“That was the worst to me, when he said that,” Vincent Genovese, 69, told The News. “That still sticks in my craw.”

I guess his other victims, the family and friends of the people he raped and killed also disagree that it was easy for everyone besides Mr. Moseley.

The tax payers also paid for Mr. Moseley to go to school to earn his B.A. in Sociology, which I am sure he hoped would impress the parole board. It did not impress them enough to let him free. I still do not understand why the tax payers and the families of those he killed as well as those that he raped had to pay to educate him and to amuse him even though he is in prison for life.

Winston Moseley remains in prison after being denied parole thirteen times. His last hearing was on March 11, 2008.

Moseley’s next parole hearing is scheduled for November 2011.

Crime Library Atricle

Article from his 2008 parole hearing

A listing of stories from he NY Daily News on Moseley

2011
01/22
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A voice that needs to be heard.

Here are some more things people should know about Harvey Robinson, the Allentown serial killer who is fighting to have his remaining death sentence for a rape and murder changed to life in prison, as were two other death sentences.

I attended the hearing last month along with other victims, my family and friends because we want the judge to know we exist and whom the courts should be defending. Our system is spending a tremendous amount of money trying to get this serial killer off of death row. Why? So he can roam around in jail more freely? We want him on death row where the chances of him killing anyone else are reduced.

This last hearing we went through was a debate about Robinson’s mental capabilities. The serial killer had a team of eight, consisting of three lawyers, a psychologist and law clerks. They want him taken off of death row because he has frontal lobe brain damage. They brought in another man — who killed a woman by tying a rock around her stomach and throwing her in the river and also killed a police officer — to testify in Robinson’s behalf. The defense team members were really grasping at straws when they used this guy’s testimony. This other killer has to help Robinson with his legal briefs. It seems as though Robinson gets in trouble on death row and needs help to prepare his briefs because his brain is so damaged. A California psychologist was brought in by the defense to testify on behalf of Robinson’s brain functions. This is all paid for by our good, tax-paying citizens — you and me. I wonder if I can be reimbursed for the money I lost while sitting in this four-day hearing, three days before Christmas.

I can tell those defense lawyers that Robinson does not have any motor control or memory problems. When he sits in the courtroom sneering and snickering at my mother and me, he knows who he is looking at. When he motions to me that he is going to get me, he knows what he is talking about. When I motion back to him that he will soon die and he tries to jump out of his wheelchair, there is no evidence of motor damage. When he attacked me 18 years ago, he was fast, agile and strong, with no motor damage back then either. No memory problems when he returned to our home seven times before he had a shootout with an Allentown policeman in our home. He shows lots of calculation when he tries to blame the strangulation, near-death beating and my sliced face on my husband! The fact that this appeal was allowed to happen is shocking. We do not need doctors to testify that Harvey Robinson does not have memory and motor-control problems, not so long as I am alive.

Some more interesting facts: On death row, according to the Office of the Victim Advocate, prisoners can have food, beverages, toiletries, over-the-counter medicine (he gets a sleeping pill, a pain reliever and an anti-depressant every day), clothing, art and art supplies, office supplies (pens, pencils, scissors, paper and envelopes), laundry soap, television, radio, fans, typewriters, cassette players and headphones.

Death row prisoners may get out of their cells to work on the unit, access law offices and make phone calls. They are allowed to exercise in a fenced-in area large enough to hold two inmates. They can have one visitor per week for at least an hour or more if the staff approves. They can make three 15-minute phone calls per week. They can mail up to 10 one-ounce letters per month at no cost and as much as they want if they pay the expenses. They can talk to other inmates on the unit so long as they are not too loud. Isn’t that nice?

No wonder Robinson shows no wear and tear after all of these years on death row. He came to court with a haircut and no gray hair. One more thing I learned during this hearing is that Harvey Robinson is narcissistic and diagnosed with an anti-social personality. He is self-consumed and a hypochondriac. He certainly would hate to have anyone damage his body and especially his face. He lacks remorse and only cares about himself. Well we already knew this. What other kind of human being can kill so savagely?

Perhaps if we did not waste all of this money on proving the already proven, we could concentrate on educating our youth. I wonder how long America can waste its resources and remain competitive in the world? Let’s eliminate these nonsense appeals. Maybe we need to limit the amount of attorneys, ensuring enough real work and money for them so they do not have to look for money trying to get serial killers off of death row. I hope Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter is right, and our good citizens behind bars have the good common sense to do with Robinson what our legal system is too weak to do.

Denise Sam Cali lives in Allen Township.

Source

I applaud this woman for speaking out. Her strength and openness are admirable.

I hope that the people that can make the discussion listen and that they do not commute this sad accuse for a human‘s sentence.

He raped and killed three women. He was linked to the murders by DNA evidence and convicted in November 1994. He was sentenced to death in all three cases. The murdered victims were:

  • Joan Burghardt, a 29-year-old nurse’s aide (August 1992)
  • Charlotte Schmoyer, a 15-year-old newspaper carrier (June 1993)
  • Jessica Jean Fortney, a 47-year-old grandmother (July 1993)

He raped and brutalized a fourth victim, Denise Sam-Cali, but she escaped. Robinson returned to her home several nights later and attempted to break in. A police officer was posted at the home, and when Robinson attempted to break in again, the police officer shot him. Robinson was tracked to a local hospital, and was arrested.

Harvey also had a fifth victim, who was only 5 years old when Harvey broke into her house. He intended to rape (and possibly kill) the child’s mother, but changed his mind when he saw her in bed with a boyfriend. Instead, Harvey crept into a room shared by the 5 year old and her younger sister. There, he raped the 5 year old, choked her, and left her for dead. It is believed that Harvey had stalked the mother for several days beforehand, as he did his other victims.

Harvey was suspected of attempting to kill yet another girl, Leslie Gerhart, in 1990. She was 13 and had a friend staying over for the evening when an intruder removed the screen from the bedroom window and began beating her with a brick.

From Wikipedia link.

Crime Library article.

Why is Robinson still alive?

What reason is there for him to exist?

Why is he allowed to still torment his victims?

Why is anyone even considering allowing him to continue to live?

What could he possibly contribute to society?

We need to stop allowing this type of ‘person’ to hurt others.

2011
01/21
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Artist remembering victims; exhibit cancelled

An artist painted 69 oil paintings of some of the dead and missing women in Canada. Some of her paintings were of victims of Robert Pickton.  I have looked at as many as I can find online and the paintings that are available are not gore-filled. They are remembrances of these women, all of the women. They do not glorify the deaths or mystery, but rather seem to just represent them.

For some reason the exhibit has been pulled from a showing at the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Pamela Masik’s oil painting series The Forgotten was slated to open next month but was criticized by aboriginal women’s groups who found it hurtful or exploitive. I am not sure what they were actually objecting to.

Are we just to forget these woman? Forget that they existed, then were killed or just disappeared?

I also wonder what the families think. Some, at least, it seems support Ms. Masik.

Ernie Crey, brother of murder victim Dawn Crey, said he would “dearly like” to see the portrait of his sister and said he shares Masik’s disappointment and frustration.

“It seems some folks think they can speak for each and every family of the murdered and missing women.”

Source

Ms. Masik had this to say:

“It saddens me as I see this as society’s continuing refusal to acknowledge what happened to these women,” Masik said in a statement.

“I saw my role as an artist to bear witness to the 69 women who were marginalized, went missing and many, ultimately murdered, not by the hands of a serial killer but by our society viewing these women as inconsequential,” she said.

“How is not showing these paintings going to help us confront the real issues of these marginalized women who are still going missing to this day all across Canada?”

Source

I do not understand why people would not want this to go on, for these paintings to be seen by as many as possible. Maybe some of the missing women can be identified. People might learn something, become more aware, maybe a woman (alive or deceased) will be recognized and a family will know what happened to her,  maybe one less woman will go missing? Who knows what could come from this.

I say let the show go on!

Story

Another article

Article and video

Forgotten Project

The artist’s web page

The artist’s facebook

2011
01/20
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Yorkshire Ripper will only get out in a casket

Surprise!

Peter Sutcliffe aka the Yorkshire Ripper aka Peter Coonan appealed his life sentence. He said that he was crazy when he killed and attacked all those women so that means he should be given a possible release date.

Thankfully the judges did not agree.

But Lord Judge ruled that he should get no credit for any progress, saying: ‘We are not, of course, suggesting that the man who perpetrated these crimes was in any ordinary sense of the words “normal” or “average”.

‘The sheer abnormality of his actions themselves suggest some element of mental disorder.’

But he added: ‘There is, however, no reason to conclude that the appellant’s claim that he genuinely believed that he was acting under divine instruction to fulfil God’s will carries any greater conviction now than it did when it was rejected by the jury.’

Source

Lord Chief Justice dismissed Sutcliffe’s bid for freedom, saying his crimes were “at the extreme end of horror”.

Lord Judge added: “The interests of justice require nothing less than a whole life order. That is the only available punishment proportionate to these crimes.”

Source

His own brother does not want to see him get out.

The brother of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe backed a decision by some of the country’s most senior judges to dismiss his appeal against a ruling that he must spend the rest of his life behind bars.

He said: “It is the right decision. He knows he will never be coming out. For his own protection, he’s better off inside. He will have expected this decision.”

Source

This decision did not come cheap for the tax payers.

The serial killer hired a team of leading barristers costing taxpayers around £400,000 to appeal against his whole life tariff, arguing that his mental disorder justified a minimum jail term.

Source

I think that is insane! Think of it this way, the survivors and family members of those he killed paid part of that, they paid for him to try to get out! The courts have to find better ways to handle these things worldwide.

Peter could keep appealing and why shouldn’t he? It costs him nothing and gives him a hobby while serving his time.

At least he will not be getting out anytime soon.

An article about Sonia Newlands who was the daughter of a woman he killed. Sonia committed suicide.

Another article on this.

Wikipedia article on Peter Sutcliffe

2011
01/19
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The Right To Die?

Right to die?

 

Should a serial killer be given the right to decide any part of his future fate? If they get life in prison should they be allowed to choose death instead?

I am a firm supporter of the death penalty, especially in the cases of serial killers, serial rapists and pedophiles. These people are not fixable, they can not be ‘saved’ and they will never become contributing members of society.

I can see no reason to keep them alive.

In my opinion if a serial killer says “kill me”, do it. Hell, if they don’t say it, do it anyway so that they can not hurt / kill other prisoners, guards, medical staff, visitors, maintenance staff and so on.

I have heard the arguments against it and I can not agree.

No, life in prison could be horrible, I do not care. Even if they do not ‘adjust’ they are a risk as I stated above and the risk is worse if they ever escape.

I do not want to make them suffer or “pay”, even if we could it would not be worth it. They are not worth it. Making them suffer while risking others is stupid and really most do adapt to prison. Some, many, come to enjoy the routine, the fact that they live on and they use their vivid imaginations to find pleasure even in prison. It is much better to just let them go, if it makes you feel better think of the afterlife they could endure.

It does not make us “like them” anymore than killing a guy running at you with a knife does. They are a threat to whoever comes into contact with them. Killing them could save many.

Anyway. Here is a decent documentary on Ian Brady and his fight to be allowed to die in prison. The video quality is not the best and I do not agree with some of the ideas but it is still very interesting.

Please, share your thoughts if you want.

 

 

I would like to read Ian’s book, The Gates of Janus. If you have read it  please let me know what you think.

 

2011
01/18
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