Archive for the ‘ Books ’ Category

Families of killers, forgotten victims.

“Moore is a part of an exclusive group, those who share blood relations with someone perceived by the public as a monster: a mass murderer. With that unenviable tie can come isolation, guilt, grief, fear, disbelief, even post-traumatic stress disorder, in addition to a very public stigma.
In the aftermath of a massacre, questions and criticism are frequently directed at the parents, spouses and children of the accused. The public sometimes sympathizes, often criticizes and even goes so far as to blame family members for the actions of their kin.”

 

Families of killers and what they go through.

So often forgotten victims.

Susan Klebold said in an essay:

“For the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused. I cannot look at a child in a grocery store or on the street without thinking about how my son’s schoolmates spent the last moments of their lives. Dylan changed everything I believed about my self, about God, about family, and about love. I think I believed that if I loved someone as deeply as I loved him, I would know if he were in trouble. My maternal instincts would keep him safe. But I didn’t know. And my instincts weren’t enough. And the fact that I never saw tragedy coming is still almost inconceivable to me. I only hope my story can help those who can still be helped. I hope that, by reading of my experience, someone will see what I missed.”

 

I can not even begin to imagine that, how she feels. It has to horrible.

 

Melissa worried that she might also be a killer, a bad person or have some kind of evil inside of her due to her father being a serial killer.

““When I was growing up, my dad had put so much pride in my last name, and he gave me lessons on how to be a good citizen,” Moore said. “My name was now known for these horrific murders, and it started to make me wonder if I was like my dad.”
Brown says it’s normal for the family members of killers to doubt their own moral integrity. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, right?”

 

Imagine for 1 second growing up with that fear inside of you. I can’t. It speaks of her courage, that she went on.

 

There is also often a survivor’s guilt for the families of the killers.

“Mildred Muhammad’s ex-husband and father of her three children, John Allen Muhammad, terrorized the Washington, D.C., area with random sniper attacks in 2002.
Soon, there were reports of shootings throughout the Washington metropolitan area. Once John Muhammad was captured, there were whispers that he had done it to get his ex-wife’s attention.
At first, Mildred Muhammad thought that if she’d only stayed with him, he would have killed her instead of killing 10 innocent strangers and wounding three. The guilt and disbelief were overwhelming.

It’s difficult to grasp the reality that a family member could cause nationwide sorrow, said forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison, who has profiled dozens of killers. Also hard is the realization that it’s not the family’s fault.
Morrison said it’s imperative to get the individual to talk about their experience — their feelings, their doubt, their anger, their distress — and try to put that in a perspective that finally leads them to say, “It’s not my fault.”

 

This poor woman blamed herself for not being killed.

 

I can hope that there will not be anymore murders, but I don’t think that is a hope I can really expect to come to being.

So, I hope that in the face of a tragic event people can remember that the killer is alone in their blame.

The families are victims as well, even if that is hard to process.

Shattered Silence from Melissa Moore here.

Susan Klebold’s essay here.

Far From the Tree here.

Another excellent book on this subject, We Need to Talk About Kevin. This is a fictional account but it still has a lot of insight into this subject.

Zodiac Killer Is Dead Now?

It happened so fast! The news that he was alive JUST came out and now it has been announced that he is dead….

*insert eye roll here*

The man fingered as the Zodiac serial killer by a retired California Highway Patrol officer in a new book has died – leaving the mystery as alive as ever, and adding yet another figure to the long list of deceased men associated with the case.

The man was a 92-year-old former real estate salesman who died in Fairfield in February. The Chronicle is not naming him because law enforcement agencies do not consider him a suspect, even if former CHP Officer Lyndon Lafferty does.

I feel so cheated! Lied to! 🙂

Lafferty, 79, wrote in his new book, “The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: AKA the Silenced Badge,” that he first encountered the man in 1970 while on patrol in Vallejo. He gave the man the pseudonym George Russell Tucker in his book, and went to check up on him at his home four months ago – spotting him in the driveway – before sending his book to press.

Sounds like Lafferty was stalking the guy. LOL

Lafferty wrote that he focused on “Tucker” while working with the late Solano County sheriff’s Sgt. Leslie Lundblad. He wrote that the man’s wife had been having an affair with a judge and that the affair had led officials to halt investigations of the man in the Zodiac killings.

So, because the guy’s wife was sleeping with a judge they just let the Zodiac Killer go? Yeah, makes perfect sense to me. I don’t doubt the story at all.

*insert head shake and face palm*

The judge and the wife are long dead, Lafferty said.

Of course all the other people who knew about this just keep on lying even though almost all the key people are dead. I am getting a headache and I did not even read the whole book! Not looking like I am going to either, even if it is free!

Lafferty learned this week that “Tucker” is also dead – as of Feb. 2. A Solano County sheriff’s investigator said he died of a heart attack.

“I can’t say my suspect is absolutely the Zodiac, but I am 98 percent sure we have the right man, and he’s been our suspect for 40 years,” Lafferty said. He researched his book with seven fellow sleuths, including other law enforcement officials who investigated the case at its height.

The man he named is in the Napa County sheriff’s database of people of interest in the case, but was not considered a serious enough candidate to list as a suspect, said Napa police Detective Todd Schulman, who is on a cold case task force in the county.

“We get two or three tips a week,” he said.

Even that cop sounds as if he is saying “Yeah, we put this right up there with all the other Nopes we get.

Solano County and San Francisco investigators also said the man is not a suspect.

In the Fairfield neighborhood where the now-deceased man’s tidy blue house sits empty, residents said they couldn’t imagine their affable neighbor as a killer.

Nora Del Ross, who lives across the street, said the man moved in the same week she did about 40 years ago. She said he was kind to her children and brought gifts to newcomers.

“No, there’s no way he would have been the Zodiac killer – not the way I knew him,” she said. “I’m blown away. It’s utterly ridiculous.”

“He never seemed like a psycho killer or anything like that,” said Ana Braselton, 25, who moved in next door to the man two years ago. “He was a good man, at least from the outside.”

To be fair I can not take the neighbor’s words as proof for or against. It is all to often that a serial killer is described as a nice, quiet guy, family man, hard worker, good husband / father and ‘great guy’. I still give Lafferty NO credence. I do not think his theory is valid at all.

“Tucker” joins the pantheon of people named in the case over the years by amateur sleuths. New names still pop up every week on Internet forums, ranging from people’s uncles and fathers to some whom authorities have actually investigated.

Foremost among them in terms of police interest is Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted child molester from Vallejo who died in 1992 at age 58. He was named as the Zodiac in former Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith’s 2002 book, “Zodiac Unmasked.”

There was a DNA test that disqualified him as a suspect. Zodiac unmasked has quite a few errors and stretches of ‘truth’ in it.

Kevin Fagan and Demian Bulwa are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers.

Read more:

 

New Book Alleges Zodiac Killer Still Alive

and living in California

A new book claims that the infamous Zodiac killer is still alive and living in Northern California.

“The Zodiac Killer Cover Up” was written by a former California Highway Patrol officer, Lyndon Lafferty, and adds another theory to the much-discussed serial killer case in Northern California.

The  Zodiac killer is blamed for at least five slayings in 1968 and 1969. There was never an arrest in the case.

Three killings occurred in Vallejo. Teenagers David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen were shot to death in December 1968. Darlene Ferrin, 22, was shot and killed seven months later at Blue Rock Springs Golf Club. Her companion, Michael Mageau, 19, survived.

In “The Zodiac Killer Cover Up,” Lafferty claims the killer is now a 91-year-old man living in Solano County. The book uses aliases and does not identify the alleged killer by name. Lafferty claims he and other lawmen investigated the suspect in the early 1970s but were stymied by “power brokers” in Solano County.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the book has stirred new debate among those who have followed the famous killings.

The San Francisco police formally closed the case in 2004. The Zodiac killer got his name by taunting newspapers and the police with letters and puzzles.

Zodiackiller.com is a great place for information if you are interested. It is updated often and has information, files, clippings and more that you can not find elsewhere on the net. Also, note that LAPD did not actually ‘close’ the case, they just are placing it as inactive. If there is a new lead I am sure they’d jump on it. Even the article linked above states that it is inactive.

“The case is being placed inactive,” said San Francisco Police Lt. John Hennessey, head of the department’s homicide unit.

“Given the pressure of our existing caseload and the amount of cases that remain open at this time, we need to be most efficient at using our resources,” he said.

Link again.

“The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them,” he wrote in a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I enjoy needling the blue pigs,” he wrote. Detectives thought they might have had a break two years ago, when a partial DNA profile was taken from envelopes containing the letters.

The genetic evidence seemed to clear the only suspect ever named by police — Arthur Leigh Allen of Vallejo. Allen, who was never charged, died of a heart attack in 1992.

— Shelby Grad

There was a link up there that was supposed to go the book but it went to an “oops” page. This is the web site for the book. 

As the title suggests it is a conspiracy type book. I don’t think I am going to buy it but if I can down load it for free maybe. I have a hard time with most conspiracy theories, especially with this case. Too many people would have to be quiet for too long. They would risk their freedom, other people’s lives and on the other side there was reward money and other monies to be had.

Besides the Zodiackiller.com site you can also read the FBI files on the Zodiac if you want. Lots of real information on those 2 sites. Plus it is always ‘fun’ to look at the actual FBI files!

Dahmer’s Killer Looking for a Book Deal

According to TMZ a representive for Christopher Scarver has been contacting book publishers. He wants to write a tell all book! ?

Christopher Scarver

 Christopher Scarver is the prisoner that beat Jeff Dahmer and Jesse Anderson (killed his wife) to death in 1994 using a broom in the bathroom / locker room. Scarver was in prison at the time for killing a co-worker.

From Wikipedia:

On June 1, 1990, he (Scarver) went to the training program office, expecting to find only the site manager John P. Feyen there, but saw Steve Lohman, the supervisor who had replaced Patts. Scarver ordered Lohman at gunpoint to give him his money. When he received only $15, Scarver shot Lohman in the head. At the same time, he demanded money from Feyen. According to authorities, Scarver said, “Do you think I’m kidding, Mr. Hitler? I need more money.” Scarver shot Lohman twice more before Feyen was able to run away after giving a check for $3,000 to Scarver.

Scarver says that in his book he will:

  • explain why he beat Jeffrey Dahmer to death.
  • share information on all of the “sick, sadistic mind games and practical jokes” Dahmer supposedly played on prison officials and other prisoners during his time in prison.
  • will devulge Jeffery’s last words as he was beaten to death.
  • also wants to share all of the life lessons that he has learned.

This is the first that I have heard of Jeffrey Dahmer playing games or being sadistic after being arrested. I even did a bit of research to see if there were any other reports of that and I found nothing. Jeffrey did get baptised and supposedly became a good christian in prison so maybe that is what Scarver is talking about. (Scarver told officials that basically he killed them because he was on a mission from God. It would fit in with his insanity plea.)

Most people forget that Scarver beat two men to death that day. Also, very few remember (know) why he was in there in first place.

As to why he beat them to death he wanted to be famous is my guess. Here is what he originally told prison guards.

When he returned to his cell early, an officer asked him why he was not still working. He explained “God told me to do it. You will hear about it on the 6 o’clock news. Jesse Anderson and Jeffrey Dahmer are dead.”  -Wikipedia

Investigators at the prison said Scarver told them that, in killing Dahmer and Anderson, he “was simply submitting to the will of God and that he was simply a tool used by the spirit,” they wrote.

 

According to the New York Times, Scarver said the voices — a family, including a woman, a man, a little girl and a boy — had told him “everything was going to be all right and it was meant to happen like this.”

Read more

Personally I think he was trying for a psycho defense with all the fame and glory that comes from killing a serial killer.
 
Some people have tried to make Scarver into some kind of hero for killing Dahmer, Scarver is far from a ‘good guy’ or a hero of any sort.  I hope that this book does somehow glorify him.
 
 
 
 

What would you do?

Great-great-grandson of serial killer to speak, sign books

Jeff Mudgett is the great-great-grandson of serial killer Herman Mudgett.

Staff Report

Jeff Mudgett, the great-great-grandson of serial killer Herman Mudgett (a.k.a. Dr. H.H. Holmes) will give a short talk and sign books from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, March 31, in the Visitor Center of Rockford’s Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum.

Mudgett’s great-great-grandfather was made famous by Erik Larson’s book The Devil In The White City. Herman Mudgett created the famous “murder castle” during the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893 and may have killed more than 200 victims.

Jeff Mudgett discovered he was a direct descendant of the famous serial killer when he was 40 years old. His book, Bloodstains, is about his experience since the discovery of his family secret.

After the death of Jeff Mudgett’s grandfather, he discovered the diaries of the serial killer, Herman Mudgett. The diaries are quoted throughout Jeff’s book, Bloodstains.

According to the diaries, Jeff’s ancestor, Herman Mudgett, was in London during the “Jack the Ripper” murders. Jeff Mudgett sent writing samples and compared them to the famous “Ripper” letters, and they are a 97.75 percent match. Jeff Mudgett was recently on WGN to share the discovery.

The author will give a short talk and then be available to sign books in the museum library. Other true crime and paranormal authors will also be on site. The books will be sold individually by the authors. Ticket price to attend is $5.

Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum is at 411 Kent St., Rockford, and can be reached at (815) 964-2424 or online at www.tinkercottage.com.

How creepy would that be? To find out at 40 years old your great grandaddy was HH Holmes. ??? HH built a castle complete with:

soundproof sleeping chambers with peepholes, asbestos-padded walls, gas pipes, sliding walls, and vents that Holmes controlled from another room. Many of the rooms had low ceilings and trapdoors in the floors, with ladders leading to smaller rooms below. The building had secret passages, false floors, rooms with torture equipment, and a specially equipped surgery. There were also greased chutes that emptied into a two-level cellar, in which Holmes had installed a large furnace. There was even an asbestos-lined chamber with gas pipes and evidence of something having been burned inside. It was believed that Holmes placed his chosen victims into the special chambers into which he then pumped lethal gas, controlled from his own bedroom, and then watched them react.

Crime Library

I don’t know what I would do.

I have not read this book but it is only $2.99 on amazon so I might.
If anyone else has read it please let me know what you think.

Are Parents to Blame

I read an article / review on the movie We Need to Talk About Kevin and it got me wondering. How much blame should society and does society place on the parents of monsters?

Eva  has been emotionally made empty. Her teen son Kevin went on a well-planned and executed high school killing rampage. Forced to still live in the community shattered by the massacre so she can visit Kevin in jail, she is a pariah.

The question of guilt – are the parents guilty when their children turn into serial killers? Should we blame them? Six months after the Columbine Massacre, polls showed 85 percent of Americans held the parents responsible for the shooters’ acts.

Just like Joyce Flint, Jeffrey Dahmer’s mother, Eva is condemned as a “Monster Maker”.

Eva leads a solitary life in a small run-down house. Like Joyce Flint after Dahmer’s arrest, no one will hire Eva. Finally she lands a job in a travel agency, but her co-workers refuse to even look at her. As Eva relives everything that happened, we go back through her horrifying ordeal to the beginning.

Eva was a free spirit travelling around the world in a hippie idealistic way. She married Franklin  and they moved into a New York City downtown loft. In a foreshadowing of what will come, having a child does not look to be a joyous event for Eva. We see her in the hospital room immediately after the birth. She is frozen. She is empty of feeling.

Eva cannot bond with her baby. He cries constantly. Eva can offer the baby no comfort. Kevin exhausts her with his crying.

“Mommy was happy before Kevin came along.”

Eva and Franklin move to a large suburban house with Kevin. Eva stays home trying to teach the toddler, who refuses to speak.

Kevin does not wear pants, only a diaper. He refuses to be toilet trained as he becomes older. He delights in making his mother change his feces-soiled diapers. He is cruel and verbally abusive to Eva and destroys her “room of her own” that she has lovingly decorated. In a fury, she pushes him, injuring his arm. At the hospital, Kevin lies for his mother. Now, whenever he wants something, he strokes his arm. He’s got Eva guilt-ridden and frightened.

Kevin forms a loving bond with his father to spite his mother.

Eva and Franklin need to talk about Kevin. But they never do.

Much more here 

The Original Book

I have said before that a serial / spree killer has many more victims than most realize. The ripple effect of these crimes affects so many, including the killer’s family.

Imagine being Ted Bundy’s mom for a minute. Or Dennis Rader’s kid or wife. How many times have they been asked how did they not know, how does it feel to have lived with a monster, what was he really like? Accusations, insensitive comments and the fact that you now have to live knowing that you loved a “monster”.

That seems to be what this book and movie are about. I admit I have not read the book (I am going to Kindle it soon though) and I have not seen the movie but I plan on doing both. Even without seeing them the questions stir.

Do we hold the families to blame? Should we? How much blame should be placed on the families?

I am very sympathetic to most of the families of the monsters. There are a few cases that I think the parents dropped the ball but when you boil it down to the bones it is the killer who is to blame for their own actions, no one else.

I have met many people who came from horrid families and upbringings that grow into wonderful adults. I have known abused children who grow up to help others in many ways. Somewhere these people make the choice to be positive, good people.

I believe that the killers make the choice to kill. No matter how they were raised they are the only ones that can stop themselves. The killers are the only ones that can start killing.

Even if Johnny the Homicidal Maniac had gotten a few more hugs and cookies while growing up he’d still have went on to be a killer.

In the case of teens I do look towards the parents a little bit more. Not so much to blame for the killing but to see how much could have been prevented.

In the Columbine Massacre Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were building bombs and stockpiling weapons in their parent’s homes. Other people had come to the parents with concerns and the two had been in some trouble before. The parents ignored red flags. The parents were not abusive but they obviously did not pay much attention to what their kids did.

Do I think that the massacre could have been stopped?

 

Well, I do wonder if the parents had looked for and found the stashed weapons, separated the boys and got them some serious mental health care could it have been prevented? Possibly. Then again, it might have only delayed the action to a later date.

I can not say that the parents are to blame for the actual killing. Those 2 seemed determined to kill and there may have been nothing anyone could do to fully prevent it. I will admit that I think both sets of parents sucked at being parents (provide things but that is really it) but I can not blame them for the massacre. I do point at them for not noticing the small arsenal which included homemade bombs.

I say that on Tuesday, April 20, 1999 the only ones planting bombs and shooting at people were Dylan and Eric. They are to blame for the deaths. No matter what it was ultimately their decision to go on a killing spree rather than doing something or anything else.

I think that in most cases the family of the killer is another victim. I think it is a shame when socitety adds to their pain by pointing fingers. I know that people just want to make sense of things, they want to understand how and Why the killings happened. They want to blame someone for the killing and pointing at a monster carries only so much satisfaction once the monster is caged.

What are your thoughts?

 

Serial Killer Writes Children’s Book.

Here’s one book to leave off your Christmas list this year: Amazon is reportedly selling a children’s book that was penned by convicted serial killer Charles Kembo.

The 372-page book, The Trinity of Superkidds Book One: Quest for Water, was released by Publish America on Jan. 20, 2010, a publish date that coincided with Kembo’s trial on four counts of first-degree murder, according to British Columbia publication The Province. The trial ended in June 2010, with the accused being found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

The sale of the children’s book has sparked new discussions about the business practices of the online marketplace behemoth. In the past, Amazon has been blasted for selling The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct along with other distasteful, if not illegal, books and videogames, including RapeLay, a video game centered on a male protagonist who rapes a mother and her two daughters.

The author of the book is listed as J. D. Bauer, a pseudonym used by convicted serial killer Kembo, according to the Province. The British Columbia publication cites an interview Kembo had with journalist Julie Burtinshaw, in which he allegedly admitted penning the book about three fun-loving teens in a post-apocalyptic world without water. Kembo allegedly told Burtinshaw the book sold 14,000 copies in the first two weeks and had been optioned for a movie by an American studio, the Province reported. The killer also allegedly told Burtinshaw that he prefers “to write in semi-darkness, alone in the nude.”

The book sells on Amazon.com, for $15.95, but whether it is a good read is up for debate. Reviews give the book only two stars. By comparison, Mein Kampf, also written by a murderer, rated three and a half stars. Regardless, it is unlikely Santa will be including this book on his rounds come Christmas morning.
Read more

So what are your thoughts? Should a convicted serial killer be allowed to write and publish books for children?  What do you think about the publishers and the places that sell the book? With a quick look I found it at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Charles Kembo also had a Facebook page that is getting a lot of attention positive and negative.

Peter Tobin Exposed in Book by Ex Wife

Cathy Wilson has written a book abut her life with serial killer Peter Tobin called Escape From Evil.

She was 16 when they met and 17 when they married. An excerpt has been released by The Sun and it looks like a horror movie come true.

I DON’T know if it was when Peter killed Daniel’s guinea pigs for nibbling the wallpaper that finally did it.

Or if it was the next time he body-checked me into the wall, or the time after that when he hit me across the dining room, then fell to his knees and begged forgiveness

All I know is that at some point I finally woke up.

I was depressed, I was bruised from his fists, I was lonely and, worst of all, I was scared to be in the same room as my own husband.

Following him into the bathroom, I said: “Peter, I’m not happy. I want a divorce.”

He smiled and nodded. Then his face changed. Without a word, he barged past me and ran across the landing to Daniel’s room.

He reappeared carrying our son. Holding a confused Daniel at arms’ length over the staircase, he said: “I’m only going to say this once. If you leave me, I will f***ing hunt you down and kill you. And then I’ll kill the kid.”

Screaming hysterically I said: “Okay, you win. I’ll stay. I promise.” He considered it for a second, nodded and swung Daniel over to me. Then he skipped downstairs as calmly as if he were being called for breakfast.

Everything got worse after that. I was under 24-hour surveillance. He confiscated my car and purse, so I couldn’t go out or do anything.

If he went out he locked every door and window and took my house keys, so I was a prisoner in my own home.

Daniel saw me thrown to the floor if Peter’s dinner was late, smacked across the mouth if I spoke out of turn and crushed under his weight against the wall if there was a single toy out of place.

One night I put Daniel to bed and did my usual thing of snuggling up next to him.

Usually I’d sleep through the night but this time I woke to hear voices downstairs, so I went to investigate. Peter was there with a slim, young blonde who he introduced as Lisa. I said: “What’s she doing here? It’s late.” Peter glared at me. “That’s none of your business. F*** off back to bed.”

I did as I was told, then heard the noises of Peter having sex — and a woman screaming.

A few nights later Lisa arrived before I’d put Daniel down. Peter told me to get rid of him and come back. When I came downstairs I froze in the doorway. They were already having sex. Peter saw me and said: “Come in and watch. You might learn something.”

She was squealing, begging him to stop, but he didn’t listen. I turned towards the stairs but Peter had other ideas. My gown and nightclothes were ripped off me and then it began. The more I cried and begged him to stop, the more he seemed to enjoy it. In the past Peter had always been quick to express his regrets, but a day or two after this latest attack I realized he hadn’t apologized.

Just 48 hours after raping me in my own lounge, it was as if he’d forgotten the whole episode.

Over the next weeks and months, there were several new faces in the house — sometimes Lisa, sometimes other girls my age or younger.

Sometimes I was forced to watch them, sometimes they were forced to watch me being subjected to Peter’s violent fantasies.

I began to plan my escape. I had my secret bag of 10ps, scrounged and found, and I had my plan. I just needed the opportunity.

Then one afternoon Peter told me: “I’m going to a car auction. I’ll be an hour and a half.”

And he forgot to lock the door. I flew round the house, grabbing clothes, toys, essentials — as much as I could stuff into a holdall.

Then I grabbed Daniel and ran as fast as I could to the bus stop. After a ride and a long walk we arrived at Glasgow’s coach station.

It was nine hours to London Victoria. Nine hours of staring out of the coach window, paranoid that every set of headlights overtaking us would be Peter’s van, dreading each pit stop in case he stepped on.

But Cathy’s escape succeeded, though Tobin soon contacted her via her grandparents in Portsmouth, Hants. Reluctantly she allowed him contact with his son — and he promptly abducted Daniel back to Bathgate. She flew north and had to agree to submit to Tobin’s perversions once more to lure him and Daniel back down south, where he set up home in Margate, Kent. Cathy continues:

At weekends Peter began to spend whole days with Daniel and me and when he offered to have him for sleepovers, I agreed. He even impressed me by making Daniel a sandpit in the garden.

Even so, it was a relief when Peter found a two-bedroom council flat in Leigh Park in Havant, Hants. He and I then split childcare duties and for a year it was fine.

Then he began phoning me in the middle of the night, claiming he was having a heart attack and had called an ambulance, and that I needed to collect Daniel.

The morning after the fourth time it happened, in 1993, I had a call from Havant police. Peter Tobin, they said, had lured two 14-year-old girls back to his flat, where he had plied them with cider and vodka then violently raped them.

I later learned they had knocked on his door and he had invited them in while they waited for a neighbour to return. He even suggested they could play with Daniel, which put them at ease. And so began 16 hours of torture.

Peter had beaten them, tied them up then turned on the gas and left them to die. He’d jumped in his blue Metro and driven away, just after handing my son over to me.

Fortunately, one of the girls had got free and called for help. Peter was found and jailed for 14 years.

He was freed in 2004, then in 2006 he was arrested for the murder of a young Polish girl called Angelika Kluk in Glasgow.

In November 2007 police found a dismembered body, this time under the sandpit in the garden of Peter’s old home in Margate. Yet again, he had used his son to put his victim at her ease.

DNA tests established the body was that of a young girl from Scotland, Vicky Hamilton, who had gone missing in the Bathgate area in February 1991.

Perhaps she normally wouldn’t have accepted a lift from a stranger but it was snowing and seeing the man’s young son next to him must have reassured her. If it was Daniel in the van, it must have been the weekend Peter had abducted him.

The police were confident he did not see anything happen between Peter and Vicky, but he must have been in the house with the girl’s dead body. And when I flew up on my rescue mission, so must I.

When police in Margate dug up Peter’s sandpit, it was in the hunt for young hitchhiker Dinah McNicol who, they concluded, had been picked up by Peter on the A3 out of Hampshire in August 1991.

The child’s booster seat in the back of the car would have pushed any fears out of the 18-year-old’s mind but she was not seen again until her body was dug up 16 years later in the same Margate garden.

It made me sick that Daniel and I were the reason Peter had been on the A3 that day.

Adapted by MARTIN PHILLIPS from Escape From Evil by Cathy Wilson with Jeff Hudson, published by Pan Macmillan. To order a copy for £6.64, call 0845 271 2136 or go to thesunbookshop.co.uk.

Also available on kindle uk.

Even in this small excerpt you can see how he manipulated people and how important control is. This is common in serial killers not just Tobin. You can see how the people in his life are just there as tools, things to help him get what he wants.

I hope that Daniel is getting help, extensive counseling. I can only imagine the guilt, confusion and fear that has to have developed in him.

I have not read the book yet but I do plan on it.

A BBC interview with Ms. Wilson.

Victim of Serial Killer Outraged!

The man who cheated death at the hands of serial killer Dennis Nilsen has condemned a decision to give the murderer cash for a human rights claim.

Dennis Nilsen, who killed at least 17 men in the 1970s and 1980s has been awarded £55,000 to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights to try to publish his autobiography.

Carl David Stotter, 50, of Brighton, said he was enraged to hear Nilsen, who tried to suffocate and drown him, has been given aid – even though the victim has not received a penny in compensation for his ordeal.

Nilsen was refused permission to publish his manuscript by the highest courts in Britain so has taken his case to the European Court in Strasbourg.

That court makes the decision on whether to give him the money to argue his case, but the British government will end up footing the bill.

Mr Stotter said: “Why should he have his human rights when his victims haven’t any?

“It’s not justice.”

“This happened to be 29 years ago and I’ll never forgot it.”

“I feel really angry, but this is not just about me. It is about all the people he killed too.”

“I stopped Nilsen having his book published once before and we won, but no one told me he was going to try again.”

“This is not right. There is less help for victims than killers.”

“I have not received a penny of help from anyone.”

“I was the only one of his victims left to be able to seek compensation and I got nothing.”

**From me: There were others that survived Nilsen.  (Andrew Ho, Douglas Stewart, Paul Nobbs)  See below.

From here.

This is a travesty of justice. There is NO way Nilsen should get money to file this claim. he is prison and that should restrict his ‘rights’.

If he wants to sue he should have to come up with the money himself. Why are we rewarding him in any way?

I would actually read his book but I think and money should be given to the victims and their families.

Victims

  • Murder 1, Stephen Dean Holmes: Nilsen’s first murder took place on 30 December 1978. Nilsen claimed to have met his first victim in a gay bar. Nilsen strangled him with a necktie until he was unconscious and then drowned him in a bucket of water. On 12 January 2006, it was announced that the victim had been identified as Stephen Dean Holmes, who was born on 22 March 1964 and was therefore only 14 at the time; Holmes had been on his way home from a concert. On 9 November 2006, Nilsen finally confessed to the murder of Holmes in a letter sent from his prison cell to the Evening StandardNilsen was not charged for the murder as the Crown Prosecution Service decided that a prosecution would not be in the public interest.
  • Between the first and second murders, Nilsen attempted to murder Andrew Ho, a student from Hong Kong he had met in The Salisbury public house in St. Martin’s Lane. Although afterwards he confessed to the police about the incident no charges were brought and Nilsen was not arrested.
  • Murder 2, Kenneth Ockendon: The second next victim was 23-year-old Canadian student Kenneth Ockendon. Nilsen met the tourist in a pub on 3 December 1979 and escorted him on a tour of Central London, after which they went back to Nilsen’s flat for another drink. Nilsen strangled him with the cord of his headphones whilst Ockendon was listening to a record. Ockendon was one of the few murder victims who was reported as a missing person.
  • Murder 3, Martyn Duffey: Martyn Duffey was a 16-year-old runaway from Birkenhead. On 17 May 1980, he accepted Nilsen’s invitation to come over to his place. Nilsen strangled and subsequently drowned Duffey in the kitchen sink.
  • Murder 4, Billy Sutherland: Billy Sutherland was a 26-year-old father-of-one from Scotland who worked as a prostitute. Sutherland met Nilsen in a pub in August, 1980. Nilsen could not remember how he murdered Sutherland; however, it was later revealed that Sutherland had been strangled by bare hands.
  • Murder 5, Unidentified: The fifth next victim was another man who worked as a prostitute; however, this man was never identified. All that is known is that he was probably from the Philippines orThailand.
  • Murder 6, Unidentified: Nilsen could recall very little about this and the following two victims. All that Nilsen could remember about the sixth man was that he was a young Irish labourer that Nilsen had met in the Cricklewood Arms.
  • Murder 7, Unidentified: Nilsen described the seventh victim as a starving “hippy-type” whom Nilsen had found sleeping in a doorway in Charing Cross.
  • Murder 8, Unidentified: Nilsen could recall little about his eighth victim, except that he kept the man’s body under the floorboards of his flat, until he removed the corpse and cut it into three pieces then put it back again. He burned the corpse one year later.
  • At some point between murders 6 and 8, on 10 November 1980, Nilsen attacked a Scottish barman named Douglas Stewart, whom Nilsen met at the Golden Lion in Dean Street. Stewart woke up while being strangled, and was able to fend off his attacker. Although Stewart called the police almost immediately after the attack, the officers refused to take action; reportedly they considered the incident to be a domestic disagreement.
  • Murder 9, Unidentified: The ninth next victim was a young Scottish man who Nilsen met in the Golden Lion pub in Soho in January, 1981.
  • Murder 10, Unidentified: Another young Scottish man. Nilsen strangled him with a tie and placed the body under the floorboards.
  • Murder 11, Unidentified: Nilsen picked up his eleventh victim in Piccadilly Circus. The man was an English skinhead and had a tattoo around his neck reading “cut here”. The man had boasted to Nilsen about how tough he was and how he liked to fight. However, once he was drunk, he proved no match for Nilsen, who hung the man’s naked torso in his bedroom for a day, before burying the body under the floorboards.
  • Murder 12, Malcom Barlow: The 12th next victim was a 24-year-old named Malcolm Barlow. Nilsen murdered Barlow on 18 September 1981. Nilsen found Barlow in a doorway not far from his own home, took him in, and called an ambulance for him. When Barlow was released the next day, he returned to Nilsen’s home to thank him and was pleased to be invited in for a meal and a few drinks. Nilsen murdered Barlow that night. Barlow was the final victim to be murdered at Melrose Avenue.

In October 1981, Nilsen moved to a new house in Muswell Hill.

  • In November 1981, Nilsen targeted Paul Nobbs, a student, at the Golden Lion in Soho, and invited Nobbs back to his new home. The student awoke the next morning with little recollection of the previous evening’s events, and later went to see his doctor because of some bruising that had appeared on his neck. The doctor revealed that it appeared as if the student had been strangled, and advised him to go to the police. However, Nobbs was concerned about what would happen if his sexual orientation were to be disclosed, and did not go to the police.
  • Following this, Nilsen targeted Carl Stotter *, a drag queen known as Khara Le Fox at The Black Cap, in Camden. After passing out from strangulation, Stotter became conscious while Nilsen was trying to drown him in a bath of cold water. Stotter managed to gasp air four times before losing consciousness. Nilsen’s dog then lapped Stotter’s face and uncovered signs of life.[citation neededNilsen then led Stotter to a railway station, through a forest and the two parted ways. Stotter, due to memory loss from the event and alcohol before, reportedly didn’t realise for several years that he had almost been killed.[citation needed]
  • Murder 13, John Howlett: Howlett had first met Nilsen in a West End pub in December 1981. In March, 1982, John Howlett was the first victim to be murdered in Nilsen’s Muswell Hill home. Howlett was one of the few who was able to fight back; however, Nilsen had taken a dislike to him and was determined that he should die. There was a tremendous struggle, in which at one point Howlett even tried to strangle Nilsen back. Eventually, Nilsen drowned Howlett, holding his head under water for five minutes. Nilsen dismembered Howlett’s body, hid some of Howlett’s body parts around the house and flushed others down the toilet.
  • Murder 14, Graham Allen: Graham Allen was another troubled man; a father, originally from Scotland, whom Nilsen met in Shaftesbury Avenue in September, 1982. Nilsen took Allen to his home and prepared an omelette for him. Nilsen crept up on Allen while he was eating and strangled him to death. After murdering Allen, Nilsen left Allen’s body in the bath, unsure how to dispose of it. After three days, Nilsen dismembered him, like his previous victim. Parts of Allens’ remains were what led to the drains being blocked at the flats where Nilsen lived.
  • Murder 15, Stephen Sinclair: Nilsen’s final victim was a 20-year-old man named Stephen Sinclair who was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Nilsen targeted Sinclair in Oxford Street and bought the youth a hamburger. Nilsen then suggested that they go back to his place. After Sinclair drank alcohol and used heroin at Nilsen’s house, Nilsen strangled Sinclair and dismembered Sinclair’s body. Nilsen recalled that the youth’s wrists were covered in slash marks from where Sinclair had recently tried to kill himself. This murder was on 26 January 1983, less than two weeks before Nilsen was arrested. It was Sinclair’s dismembered remains in the drain outside Nilsen’s home that first alerted the police to Nilsen’s murders.[citation needed]   

Serial Killer Robin Murphy Returned to Prison

The former leader of a Satanic cult, who admitted to murder for the death of Karen Marsden on Feb. 8, 1980, was ordered returned to prison after a parole officer determined Murphy violated the parole she won on May 3, 2004.

Murphy was charged with associating with a known criminal on July 19. State Police, working a stake-out as part of an unrelated investigation, stopped the car Murphy was in and found Murphy in the presence of a convicted felon.

As a condition of her parole, Murphy is prohibited from associating with known criminals. She is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole, so that prohibition will last for the rest of her life.

“She got a provisional revocation of parole by a hearing examiner,” said Caitlin Casey with the Massachusetts Parole Board. “The next step is a hearing with a board member.”

The parole board member will make a recommendation to the full board on Sept. 29. The board will then decide if it will revoke Murphy’s parole.

Murphy was 17 in 1980 when Fall River Police began investigating the murder of Karen Marsden, who died on Feb. 8, 1980.

Paul Carey, now retired, was a detective sergeant then. He tied that murder to two earlier killings, the murders of Doreen Levesque and Barbara Ann Raposa in 1979 and 1980. Both women had a history of working as prostitutes, police said.

The investigation led Carey’s team to Murphy. When they began to question her, Murphy made a deal with the district attorney and got moved to protective custody as a cooperating witness.

Murphy turned state’s evidence and testified for the prosecution, eventually helping convict her former friends, Carl Drew and Andre Maltais, of Marsden’s murder. The murder of Levesque was never officially resolved. Ronald Pina was district attorney at the time.

Murphy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for Marsden’s death and was given immunity for other crimes in return for her testimony. She recanted her testimony in 1984 in an unsuccessful bid for a new trial.

Carey said he never believed Murphy’s testimony that she had nothing to do with the murder of Levesque and Raposa and was merely a bystander when Marsden was killed.

“She was involved in all three murders,” Carey stated Friday. “Robin is smarter than most, and she can manipulate people, including the DA (district attorney).

“She testified for them and got a free walk on this. I felt badly that she was out on parole. I feel she is a danger to society, still. She shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets.”

Murphy was granted parole and subsequently was hired by Suzanne Bump, the state auditor.

She was working for the state in Quincy until her arrest, sources report.

Fall River Police began investigating a serial killing in early 1980 after Marsden’s body, which had been decapitated, was found in the woods.

The investigation lead detectives to Murphy, who told them of a Satanic cult, with the murders part of ritualistic sacrifice by the group.

Murphy testified against Drew, who still maintains his innocence in all of the murders. He is serving a life sentence. Maltais was convicted of two of the murders. He died in prison.

Wendy Alves, the sister of Karen Marsden, said she was notified by District Attorney Sam Sutter’s office when Murphy was arrested and ordered back into prison.

“I’m just glad, this time, no one else was hurt,” Alves said. “This time, she only hurt herself.”

Alves said she will be following the parole board’s actions. Carey, the detective, said the same.

He also suggested the case still had life.

There is no statute of limitations on murder, Carey noted.

“The Doreen Levesque case was never solved, and Robin recanted her testimony, so she no longer has immunity for that crime,” Carey said.

He said advances in forensic science, especially in the use of DNA, give him hope that the Levesque murder could be solved some day.

“If Doreen was exhumed, and they got DNA from that body, maybe we could go ahead with a new prosecution,” Carey said. “It is definitely something to think about.”

Read more

Short article on the crimes.

A forum thread dealing with the case. Lots of good links and articles.

A video report about Murphy working for the government.

Mortal Remains