Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century

by Sylvia Perrini

  To the community residents it reminded them of the 1969 Manson murders: a seemingly random, though bloody, attack.

  On February 28th, just two weeks later, sixty-six-year-old June Roberts was found murdered in her Canyon Lake property. It was her birthday. June was found lying on her back on the floor of the den. A heavy, crystal glass, wine decanter had been used to beat her and a telephone wire was used to strangle her. A large diamond ring remained on her finger. As in the case of Norma, there was no evidence of a break-in, neither woman had shown signs of a struggle, neither (as far as could be ascertained) had been significantly robbed, and both women lived alone. Both murders appeared to be motiveless. Detective Joseph Greco suspected that the Roberts’ and Davis’ cases were connected.

  The Canyon Lake community was terrified, especially the older women who lived alone. One of the most disturbing thoughts for women living on their own is the idea that someone might break into their homes and rob, hurt, or even kill them.

  Russell and Geri Armbrust were also shocked and terrified. They had known both the victims well. Russell, like many of the other residents of the community, kept a loaded gun by him 24 hours a day. Many of the older residents moved in with each other or with relatives. The nearby locksmiths’ trade increased ten-fold.

  The Canyon Lake City Council, in an emergency meeting, increased security and an additional police patrol car was added to the area.

  The police asked for help or information about anyone seen in the area. They did checks on gardeners, housekeepers, and service personnel working and having access to the community. The police were no nearer to finding a clue until June Roberts’s bank called her family to notify them of massive spending on her credit cards in the Temecula, California area.

  The police detectives then began visiting all the establishments where the cards had been used. These ranged from beauty parlors, spas, restaurants, and expensive clothes shops and jewelers. They quickly established that they were seeking a petite blond woman who had recently dyed her hair red and often had with her a five-year-old boy named Jason.

  On the 10th of March in 1994, Dorinda Hawkins at the age of fifty seven, was at work in a shop named The Main Street Trading Post in Lake Elsinore. It was a picture framing and antiques shop.

  The Main Street Trading Post

  In the afternoon, a small blonde woman about thirty-five-years-old entered the shop and began to browse around. As Dorinda stacked some frames away at the back end of the shop, she suddenly felt something around her throat and realized she was being strangled. She struggled and managed to turn around to see the blond woman with eyes of “penetrating, cold-blooded steel” tightening the yellow nylon rope around her neck. Dorinda continued struggling and kicking her attacker until she finally lost consciousness. When Dorinda came around, she called the police and was taken to the hospital for head and neck injuries. She realized that she was extremely lucky, as the attacker had obviously thought she was dead. About $25 was missing from the cash register as well as Dorinda's purse and credit cards.

  Dorinda gave the police a full description of the woman, and they made a composite sketch. The following day the story, sketch, and description were in the local newspaper.

  Geri Armbrust, the following morning as she drank her coffee and read the newspaper, nearly choked. The description she was reading, and the composite sketch of a woman who was suspected of a brutal assault and attempted murder, was of her step-daughter Dana. She phoned Detective Greco and told him of her suspicion. Dana, she told the detective, had recently dyed her hair red and had a boyfriend with a boy named Jason. She was well-known to Norma Davies and June Roberts.

  Composite sketch

  Detective Greco applied for a search warrant for Dana's home. He received it late on the morning of March 16th, 1994.

  Elsewhere on the morning of March 16th, Julia Whitcombe was worrying that her 87-year-old mother, Dora Beebe, was not answering her phone. It was the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Ernest Beebe, Julia’s father, from cancer; a day Dora always felt depressed. Julia’s mother lived in Sun City on her own in a condominium. Worried, Julia decided to drive round to see her with a friend, Louis Dormand. When they arrived later in the afternoon, they were disturbed to find Dora’s door unlocked. They eventually found Dora’s battered body lying in the fetal position on the floor of the bathroom. There was blood everywhere. She had been bludgeoned to death with a heavy iron and strangled. Her credit card was missing.

  Crime scene Dora’s bathroom

  Detective Greco, with search warrant in hand, went to the house Dana shared with her boyfriend in Wildomar. In her house, they found a wallet containing $2,000 stashed in the washing machine, along with jewelry, brand new clothing with the labels still on, June Roberts' bank book, credit cards, and keys to her home. They also found keys to the antiques shop where Dorinda was attacked, and Dora Beebe’s credit card was found in Dana’s lingerie drawer: a woman whose murder the detective had only learned about thirty minutes before entering Dana’s house.

  Detective Greco arrested Dana for forgery and possession of stolen property, cautioned her about her rights, and then took her in for questioning.

  The questioning lasted for several hours. During it, Dana admitted to the use of June Roberts’s credit cards, thereby implicating herself in the February 28th murder. Dana then said she had found the bankbook and credit cards belonging to Dora Beebe. She even admitted to having been in Beebe's house and seeing her body. Dana, however, denied having anything to do with her murder.

  When asked why she hadn’t handed the credit cards and bank books she apparently found over to the police, she replied, “I got desperate to buy things. Shopping puts me at rest. I'm lost without it”.

  Detective Greco then charged Dana with the murders of June Roberts and Dora Beebe and the attempted murder of Dorinda Hawkins. Dana was detained without bail in the Riverside County Jail. The following day, the police held a press conference announcing her arrest.

  Riverside County Jail.

  Friends and acquaintances of Dana’s were stunned and shocked; they could not believe Dana as the kind of person who had allegedly assaulted one woman and killed three others. “She was,” they said, “an extremely nice girl”. Others said that Dana had been a good, friendly neighbor while others said that when her life had started to fall apart, she’d become strange and withdrawn.

  Dana was not charged with Norma Davis’s death as the police had as yet no direct evidence connecting her to the crime. The newspapers speculated as to whether the DA would seek the death penalty.

  On April 8, 1994, Dana pled, through her public defender lawyer, Stuart Sachs, innocent to the charges. On June 23rd, Richard Bentley, the Deputy DA, announced he would be seeking the death penalty due to the brutality of the murders.

  Dana’s mug shot

  On the lead up to the trial, Dana’s defense lawyer Stuart Sachs employed several psychiatrists. Stuart Sachs believed that Dana, due to the circumstances of her life in 1994, had been acting in a position of decreasing mental function. He wanted to prove to the court that Dana, who had been a respected registered nurse and married to a man with whom she loved, had in a short period of time in 1993 undergone severe stress. Dana had lost her job; her marriage had broken down, she had entered into bankruptcy, she had lost her Canyon Lake house, and she had suffered a miscarriage. A doctor from whom she had sought help, as she had felt suicidal, had prescribed her anti-depressants.

  On March 10 1995, as Dana's trial was about to start in the Superior Court of Riverside, Stuart Sachs entered an insanity plea on Dana’s behalf. He told the court the psychological problems Dana had suffered from during the period of time the murders took place were now no longer an issue but at the time, they had caused her behavior.

  After Dana changed her plea to evaluate her claim, two psychiatrists were appointed. The defense psychiatrist found her insane and felt that the events that happened prior to the killing spree to be the ca
talysts for her insanity. Before the killing binge, the defense claimed, she had been abusing alcohol and had given up taking her anti-depressants. During examination by the psychiatrists, Dana admitted that when she had murdered June Roberts, she had left five-year-old Jason in her Cadillac while she went into June’s house. Following the murder, she took Jason out for lunch and on a shopping trip.

  The prosecution’s psychiatrist, Dr. Martha Rogers, claimed that Dana was well aware of her actions at the time of the murders. She said that despite being stressed, Dana had planned and prepared for the murders fully aware they were wrong.

  While these evaluations were going on, Detective Greco was still looking for evidence linking Dana with Norma Davies’s murder. A gardener in a house across the road from Norma’s condominium had seen Dana wandering around Norma Davis's condo on the day of her murder. However, Detective Greco did not think this statement on its own was sufficient evidence for charging her with murdering Norma. Nevertheless, he was determined he would find the evidence.

  Three and a half years later, Dana’s trial had still not begun and then just before the police charged her with Norma Davies’s murder, Dana changed her plea. She had accepted a prosecution plea agreement On Sept. 8, 1998. Dana, now at the age of forty, pleaded guilty to robbery and the murder of two women and attempted murder of another. In this way, Dana avoided any possibility of the death penalty and the charge of murdering Norma Davies.

  Over four years after Dana’s killing spree, on October 16th, 1998, Dana was sentenced. She elected this opportunity to make a statement to the court. The local newspaper reported her as saying, “My life and my career have been focused on healing. It has strayed so far from that purpose; it was so out of character. I'm sorry, and I know that these words will never be enough. I will live with this the rest of my life”. Dana continued by expressing her remorse to Judge Magers saying that she accepted responsibility but thought her judgment at the time of the offenses had been somewhat cloudy.

  Judge Magers, on delivering her sentence, said, “It's hard to find words to describe the atrocity in this case. The crimes were horrendous, callous, and despicable”.

  He sentenced Dana to life in prison without parole.

  Dana lives incarcerated in Chowchilla, in the California Women's Prison, where she will stay until she dies.

  California Women's Prison, Chowchilla

  The local newspaper, The Press Enterprise, covered the case in detail. One story wrote about Dana’s movements after killing June Roberts. While she was killing June, she had left Jason in the car, telling him that she wouldn’t be long. When she returned to the car, she first took Jason to lunch and then she’d had her hair done. Both her hair and lunch were paid for with June’s credit card. Following this, she bought $695 of clothes and jewelry. People who had encountered her that day described her as happy and cheerful. At the end of the day, she had spent $1,700 on June’s card.

  Dana Gray

  Just what was it that made this attractive young woman of thirty-six suddenly decide to brutally slaughter old ladies and then go on lavish shopping sprees using their credit cards?

  BEVERLY ALLITT

  THE CARING NURSE?

  Beverley Gail Allitt was born on the 4th of October in 1968, in England as one of four children. As a small child, she appeared happy but as she grew, she began to wear bandages and dressings over wounds she refused to allow anyone to examine. Her parents felt it was all due to attention seeking. As she entered puberty, she became overweight and increasingly sought attention. Beverly also began to show aggressive tendencies. Beverley also complained increasingly of physical pains that had her parents constantly taking her to the hospital with symptoms such as headaches, pains in the gall bladder, uncontrolled vomiting, urinary infections, blurred vision, appendicitis, back pains, and ulcers, to mention just a few. She faked her appendix symptoms so well, she ended up having a perfectly normal, healthy appendix removed. This ended up being extremely slow to heal as Beverly kept picking at the surgical wound. Doctor’s soon began to see her attention-seeking behavior.

  After Beverly left school, she began training to become a nurse. During her training, she was frequently sick due to claiming a variety of illnesses. Her fellow students suspected her of odd behavior, such as smearing feces on a wall and in a nursing establishment where she undertook her training, leaving excrement in the fridge. A boyfriend of hers at this time later reported that she was deceptive, manipulative, and violent. Before their relationship had ended, she had claimed a false pregnancy and rape. He thought he was well rid of her. Unsurprisingly, due to her poor attendance; she failed many of her nursing examinations. Despite this, she was given in early 1991, at the age of 23, a six-month contract at the critically understaffed NHS hospital of Grantham and Kesteven, in Lincolnshire. She began work in Ward 4, a children’s ward. When Beverly began working at the hospital, only two properly qualified trained nurses were on the day shift and only one on the night shift.

  On February 21st, 1991 Liam Taylor, a seven-month-old baby was placed in Ward Four with a suspected chest infection. Nurse Beverly Alitt reassured his distraught parents that their son was in the best possible place to recover. She persuaded the parents that the best thing they could do for their child was to return home and get some sleep. The following morning when Mr. and Mrs. Taylor returned, Beverly told them that, in the night, Liam had suffered a respiratory problem but was now fine. She told the anxious parents that she would do an extra night’s duty so she personally could keep an eye on their son. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor also decided to sleep that night in the hospital in a room kept for parents of small children.

  That night, baby Liam suffered another respiratory complication but came through it to the doctor’s satisfaction. Baby Liam was then alone with only Nurse Beverly Allitt in attendance. Another nurse appeared and noticed that Liam was deathly pale and then red patches surfaced on his little face. Beverly began yelling for an emergency team. The other nurses on duty were perplexed as to why the alarm monitors had not sounded when Liam had stopped breathing. Baby Liam Taylor suffered cardiac arrest. The attending doctors did all they could but even with all of their efforts, Liam suffered massive brain damage. The only thing now keeping the baby alive was the life-support machine that kept his lungs functioning. On the doctor’s advice, because of the severe brain damage, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor agreed to have the life support turned off. Liam’s death was attributed to heart failure. Beverley observed the whole drama before putting on her coat and going home. She returned to work later for her next night shift almost as if nothing had happened.

  On March 5th, 1991 Timothy Hardwick, an eleven-year-old boy who suffered from cerebral palsy, was admitted to Ward 4 having had an epileptic fit. Nurse Beverly Allitt was on duty and took over his care. Within a few moments of being left alone with Timothy, she began yelling for help that Timothy was suffering a cardiac arrest. Other hospital staff ran to her aid including the emergency resuscitation team, who on reaching him found he had no pulse and was turning blue. Despite strenuous efforts by the medical team, Timothy died. An autopsy was carried out but failed to provide a clear cause of death and so his death was attributed to epilepsy.

  On March 3rd, 1991, Kayley Desmond, a one-year-old little girl, was taken to Ward 4 suffering from an infection of the chest. She appeared to be responding well to treatment until five days later when she was left alone with Nurse Beverly Allitt. Kayley then suffered a cardiac arrest. The emergency team succeeded in reviving her, and she was moved to a Nottingham hospital. Here, during an extensive examination, a doctor found a needle mark under her armpit along with an air bubble close by. The doctor thought it was most likely caused by an accidental injection, and there was no investigation carried out.

  On March 20, 1991, Paul Crampton, a five-month-old boy, was admitted to Ward 4 with a bronchial infection that was not considered serious. Just before Paul was discharged, he was left alone with Nurse Beverly Allitt. Within minutes, Beverly
was calling for help as the baby boy appeared to be suffering from insulin shock. On three separate occasions, Paul sank into a near-coma. On each occasion, the doctors managed to revive him, but they were puzzled by the fluctuations in his insulin levels. He was sent by ambulance, accompanied by Nurse Beverly Allitt, to the Nottingham hospital where on admission he was again fond to have too high levels of insulin. Paul survived.

  The following day, Bradley Gibson, a 5-year-old boy who was in ward 4 suffering from pneumonia, suddenly experienced cardiac arrest. The emergency team of doctors saved him. They then ran some blood tests and were puzzled by his high levels of insulin. Later that night, when alone with Nurse Beverly Allitt, he suffered another cardiac arrest. Yet again, he was revived and then moved to the Nottingham hospital where he recovered. Extraordinarily, with all the unexplained and mystifying health events that all happened in Nurse Beverly Allitt’s presence, no suspicions were aroused.

  On March 22nd, 1991, a little two-year-old boy, Yik Hung Chan, who was on ward 4 after having fallen out of a window and fracturing his skull, was left alone with Nurse Beverly Allitt. He began to turn blue and appeared to be having some kind of attack. Beverly called for help, and the boy was revived with oxygen. A few hours later, Yik Hung Chan suffered another similar attack. After reviving him again, he was transferred to the bigger hospital in Nottingham. His symptoms were thought to be due to his fall.