The Serial Killer Compendium

by R. J. Parker

  Judy went to trial for the murder of husband James Goodyear. A week was devoted to the trial, with Judy denying any criminal activity. The jurors, however, weren’t buying into her act, and convicted her yet again of first-degree murder, sentencing her to die by electrocution on March 30th, 1998 at 7 a.m.

  Early Monday morning on March 30th, Judy showered and was dressed by female correctional officers. Her head was shaved to ensure a good electrical conduit – and so that her hair did not catch fire during the electrocution. She entered the execution chamber at 7 a.m. accompanied by several guards. She was strapped into the large oak chair at her wrists, waist, chest, and legs. When asked if she had a final comment, she replied "No sir," and kept her eyes shut tight. A leather mask was placed over her head, covering her face and, at the signal from the warden, the automatic electrocution cycle commenced at 7:08 a.m. She was pronounced dead at 7:13 a.m.

  Christine Falling

  Christine Falling was born to a poor family on March 12, 1963, in Perry, Florida. She was considered obese and slow. In order to control her epileptic seizures, she needed regular doses of medication. At a very early age, she was known to drop cats from deadly heights to "test their nine lives.” As a way of showing affection to the cats, she would strangle them. This was all before the age of nine, at which time Christine and her sister were placed in a children's shelter in Orlando, Florida, for a year.

  At the young age of only fourteen, Falling married a man who was in his twenties, and their marriage lasted just six weeks. The couple would fight violently, and Falling would often throw things at her husband, including, once, a twenty-five pound stereo. Upon splitting up, she visited the hospital constantly – upwards of 50 times – complaining of vaginal bleeding, snakebites, etc., and the doctors found nothing to treat. It was quite evident that she was going through a hypochondriac stage.

  Christine would babysit for family and neighbors in order to make money. On February 25th, she was babysitting Cassidy Johnson, aged two, who had to be taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with encephalitis, and died just three days later. The autopsy, however, revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. When asked, Christine said that the baby had passed out and fallen out of her crib, but the doctor did not believe her story and contacted the police to investigate. The note to the police, however, somehow got lost; the incident was not looked into, and the parents were not apprised of the coroner’s report.

  Shortly after that incident, Falling moved to Lakeland, Florida and another job babysitting when, all of a sudden, four-year-old Jeffrey Davis stopped breathing while in her care. The autopsy conducted showed symptoms of myocarditis, a heart problem which is seldom critical. While the family of little Jeffrey was attending his funeral, Christine was hired to babysit two year old Joseph Spring, Jeffrey Davis’s cousin. While at the funeral for Jeffrey, little Joseph died suddenly that afternoon in his crib, apparently while taking a nap. The physician’s indicated there was a viral infection that may have killed little Joseph, and noted that it was quite possible for the same virus to have killed Jeffrey too.

  “It’s hard to believe the connections were not made at this point in my opinion.”

  William Swindle, seventy-seven, died in his kitchen in July of 1981 on his caretaker’s first day on the job. You guessed it: Christine Falling had switched from babysitting to housekeeping.

  A short while after that, Christine and her stepsister took her eight-month-old niece for a standard vaccination. After leaving the doctor’s office, the stepsister ran into the store, leaving Christine alone with the baby. When she came back to the car, the little eight month old had stopped breathing.

  It was not until July 2nd, 1982, when little ten week old Travis Coleman was smothered that the police began to pay attention. The autopsy report on Coleman showed internal ruptures caused by suffocation. Immediately following the autopsy report, Falling was taken for questioning where she admitted to killing three babies by, in her words, “smotheration.”

  "The way I done it, I seen it done on TV show," she explained. "I had my own way, though, simple and easy. No one would hear them scream."

  Christine Falling was given a life sentence with no chance of parole possible for twenty-five years.

  Caril Ann Fugate and

  Charles Starkweather (Couple)

  Charles Starkweather, known as "Chuck" or "Charlie" to his friends and family, was born in 1938. Caril Ann Fugate was born in 1943. At the age of fourteen, in 1956, she was in love with Charlie who was five years her senior.

  Starkweather had a speech impediment and was often made fun of in school, getting into many fights. He did not do well in school, but excelled in gym where he released his pent-up rage and frustration. He dropped out of high school in his senior year and went to work in a newspaper warehouse, which he later quit to work as a garbage collector and used his route to plan robberies. His first robbery was at the Crest Service Station in Lincoln on December 1st, 1957, where he held Robert Colvert, twenty-one, at gunpoint, robbed him of $100, abducted him, and then took him to a secluded location where he shot him in the head.

  In 1958, the massacres commenced. It was on January 21st, 1958, that Caril Ann returned from school to her family’s one story house in the poor Belmont section of Lincoln, Nebraska. Apparently, after an argument with Starkweather, Marion Bartlett, fifty-seven, Caril’s father, and her mother, Velda Bartlett, thirty-six, were shot in the head. Betty Jean, Caril’s two and a half years old sister, was strangled and stabbed to death in her bed. Following the murders, the couple simply made sandwiches and had lunch together.

  Starkweather and Fugate hid the bodies in various locations behind the house and the young couple lived in the house for days. Twice, relatives came by to find out why nobody from the family had been seen. Caril sent them away at the door, telling them everyone was sick. She taped a note on the door reading, “Stay a Way Every Body is sick with the Flue.” Caril Ann's grandmother felt something was suspicious and contacted the police, but when they arrived on January 27th, the couple was gone.

  A search turned up the body of Marion wrapped in paper in the chicken house. Caril's mother, Velda, and baby Betty Jean were found in an outbuilding. The lovers were already driving across Nebraska killing and stealing. What the authorities did not know was that just four hours earlier the couple had driven to a Highway 77 service station to buy gas, a box of .410 shotgun shells, and two boxes of .225, before heading to the rural farmlands of Bennet, just sixteen miles southeast of Lincoln. Starkweather knew where they could hide out for a while in a farmhouse owned by seventy year-old August Meyer, who often invited the Starkweather family to hunt on his property.

  On their way to the Meyers farmhouse, their car became stuck in the mud. Robert Jensen, seventeen, and his date, Carol King, sixteen, were driving by at the time and offered to help. Starkweather instantly shot them in the head with his .22 rifle and made a failed attempt to rape King before stuffing their bodies into an abandoned storm cellar. They continued on to the Meyer's farm with the intention of obtaining more guns and ammunition. Upon arriving, Starkweather killed August Meyers with a .410-gauge shotgun and placed his body in a washhouse before heading back to Lincoln. After leaving the Meyer’s farm, Starkweather and Fugate drove to the house of industrialist C. Lauer Ward and his wife, Clara. After entering, Clara and their house cleaner, Lillian Fencl were fatally stabbed to death. Starkweather even snapped the neck of their family dog. When Mr. Ward returned home that evening, Starkweather shot and killed him. The killing sick duo filled the Ward's 1956 Packard with stolen jewelry from the house and fled to Nebraska.

  The murders of Mr. and Mrs. Ward, and Lillian Fencl, created an upheaval within Lancaster County. All law enforcement agencies in the county conducted a house-by-house search for the killers. Sheriff Merle Karnopp deputized and armed over one hundred men. Governor Victor Anderson contacted the Nebraska National Guard. Schools closed, kids stayed indoors, the Na
tional Bank was secured, and in total, over twelve hundred officers were searching for the killers.

  A traveling shoe salesperson named Merle Collison, thirty-seven, pulled his Buick off Highway 87 to take a nap. While he was asleep, Caril climbed into the back seat and opened the door for Charlie who shot Merle Collison nine times in the head. Joe Sprinkle, a geologist, saw something going on in a car, and stopped to see if someone needed help. Starkweather instantly pointed a gun at his head just as Deputy Sheriff William Romer came by. Sprinkle ran to the Deputy yelling, “it’s Starkweather, he’s going to kill me.” Charlie hopped into Sprinkle’s car and rammed a roadblock until a police bullet shattered his windshield.

  Starkweather, covered in blood from flying glass, immediately surrendered.

  Charlie and Caril were arrested and locked up in a Wyoming jail until their arraignment on March 26th, 1958. Starkweather pleaded not guilty so there would be a trial. Caril Fugate also pleaded that she was not guilty.

  Charlie Starkweather’s trial began on May 5th, 1958, in Lancaster District Court, and ended seventeen days later on May 23rd when a jury found him guilty and gave him the death penalty. He was executed by electrocution in the Nebraska State Prison on June 25th, 1959.

  In the meantime, Caril Fugate’s trial started on October 27th, 1958. Throughout her trial, Caril insisted she was held hostage and feared for her life. Before Starkweather was executed, he was brought to Caril’s trial from his death cell to testify that she was a keen participant and could have escaped when he left her alone with loaded guns. On November 21st, after only ten hours of deliberation, the five woman and seven man jury gave her a sentence of life in prison and she was sent to the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York.

  “An interesting note to make here is that Caril Fugate was allowed to complete her high school education at the Nebraska Center for Women. She read over 1,000 books, learned to sew, write, and ran a column in the prison paper. She was even allowed to partake in programs such as bowling, swimming, and shopping the town. “

  Further to this note, I will add that, on June 20th, 1976, killer Caril Fugate was released from prison as she was considered a model inmate. On September 28th, 1981, she was completed discharged by the parole board. She has never discussed her case in public since being released.

  Victims

  Robert Colvert, 21, gas station attendant

  Marion Bartlett, 57, Fugate's stepfather

  Velda Bartlett, 36, Fugate's mother

  Betty Jean Bartlett, 2, Velda and Marion Bartlett's daughter

  August Meyer, 70, Starkweather's family friend

  Robert Jensen, 17, Carol King's boyfriend

  Carol King, 16, Robert Jensen's girlfriend

  C. Lauer Ward, 47, wealthy industrialist

  Clara Ward, 46, C. Lauer Ward's wife

  Lillian Fencl, 51, Clara Ward's house cleaner

  Merle Collison, 37, traveling salesman

  Delfina and Maria

  de Jesus Gonzalez (Sisters)

  Delfina and Maria were two sisters from the Mexican City of Guanajuato who operated the Rancho El Angel, a brothel, from the mid 1950s to mid 1960s. They recruited prostitutes, got them addicted to drugs, and forced them to serve the wicked and humiliating needs of their clientele.

  When a girl became too ill, such as by being injured by repeat rape, or even as little as having lost their “prettiness,” they would be killed. They were known to kill any visitors who had large amounts of cash.

  On suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, the police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a procuress, and it is believed that she gave up the sisters. Upon searching the compound, police officers found the bodies of eleven males, eighty women and many fetuses, a total of ninety-one.

  Investigations exposed that they would recruit prostitutes through help-wanted ads and then force them to work. The Gonzalez sisters were each sentenced to forty years in prison in 1964.

  In prison, Delfina died due to an accident. Maria finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release. Although they are often cited as the killers, there were also two other sisters who helped in their crimes, Carmen and Maria Luisa. Carmen died in jail due to cancer. Maria Luisa went mad because she feared that she would be killed by angry protesters.

  “As this happened almost fifty years ago and in a foreign country, it is unbelievably hard to obtain information about the crimes, considering almost 100 people were killed.”

  Karla Homolka and

  Paul Bernardo (Husband and Wife)

  The Scarborough Rapists and

  School Girl Serial Killers

  Karla Homolka, the eldest of three daughters, was born on May 4th, 1970 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, to Karel and Dorothy Homolka. Paul Bernardo was born on August 27th, 1964 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Marilyn and Kenneth Bernardo. Paul and Karla met in 1987 and married in 1991. Shortly after they married, it was all downhill from there. Author Note: I am not proud to say that this lovely couple is from my country.

  Before they started their team rape and killings in 1991, Bernardo already had quite the history of rape, although he was not known to the authorities at that time. Between May 1987 and July 1990, he had raped eighteen young girls between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two.

  His first murder victim was Tammy Homolka, Karla’s younger sister. Bernardo encouraged Karla to drug her sister. When she did, Bernardo raped her before she woke up. Several months later they drugged Tammy again and both of them raped her, but this time Tammy died after choking on her own vomit. The police ruled it an accidental death, not knowing that before they called 911, Bernardo and Homolka had redressed Tammy and removed any incriminating evidence. Tammy Homolka died at the tender age of fifteen on December 23rd, 1990.

  Meet Leslie Mahaffy, a young girl, only fifteen, born on July 5th, 1976, and murdered on June 16th, 1991. Two day before her death, Leslie went out for an evening with a few friends. Her curfew was 10 p.m. as the Scarborough rapist was active and like many parents, Leslie’s were afraid. Unfortunately, Leslie was having fun with the girls and ignored the ground rules set up by her parents. Her parents anticipated that she would break curfew and decided to teach her a lesson which they would forever regret. Leslie arrived home after 2 a.m. to find herself locked out of the house. She did not know what to do so she called a friend to see if she could stay over, but her friend’s mom told her to go home and face the consequences.

  Bernardo was crouched behind a car when Leslie came strolling by. Carrying a hunting knife, he forced her into his car and drove her to his house where he undressed her, blindfolded her, and videotaped her naked. He was going to have vaginal intercourse with Leslie but he ejaculated prematurely. When Karla woke up, he gave her instructions on how he wanted her to have sex with Leslie while he videotaped. This done, he instructed the submissive Karla to film him while he sodomized Leslie. The brute power of his anal penetration caused Leslie to cry hysterically. After twenty-four hours of disgusting rape and torture, the couple killed Leslie and, later that night, Bernardo used a circular saw to dismember her body and place her in cement.

  On June 29th, 1991, a couple enjoying canoeing trip on Lake Gibson spotted a concrete block in the water. The cement block had what looked like animal flesh coming out of the cracks. There were anglers on the bank; they were asked to help retrieve the cement block. After splitting it with a crowbar, they were devastated when they saw a foot and the calf of a human crawling with maggots.

  Enter Kristen French, born May 10th, 1976, a beautiful fifteen year old young girl. On April 16th, 1992, one month shy of her 16th birthday, she was walking home from school when Homolka lured her over to her car on the pretense of asking for directions. As Kristen was giving directions on the map, Bernardo, brandishing a knife, attacked her from behind and forced her into the car. This hostage-taking was observed by several witnesses. A BOLO was sent out to all units and a sketch was prepared of Bernardo by a
witness. Kristen was kept for three days, being raped and tortured while the couple videotaped it all, and was forced to drink large quantities of alcohol before she was killed by Bernardo and Homolka. She was found in a ditch on April 30th, but as she was not dismembered, the investigators did not believe it was the same person who had killed Leslie Mahaffy.

  The Green Ribbon Task Force was set up by the police with Superintendent Vincent Bevan taking the lead. The F.B.I. in the U.S. was consulted in an effort to profile the rapist. Citizens were concerned and kept their children at home. In the meantime, after the death of Kristen French, the newlywed-killing-duet moved to the Niagara Falls area.

  As the drawing sketch of the rapist was plastered on TV, in post offices, in stores, and sidewalks, the police received calls saying that the man they were looking for resembled a man named Paul Bernardo. The investigators went to Bernardo’s home where he claimed he was not the rapist/killer but admitted that, yes, the picture did resemble him, which he said was embarrassing.