by R. J. Parker
While the detectives were there, they noted that the car in the driveway looked nothing like the Capri which witnesses had seen, but instead was a Nissan. Paul Bernardo, therefore, was not considered a suspect. Police were no further ahead and Bernardo continued his spree of rape and murder of teenage girls.
By February, 1993, Bernardo made a mistake that would put him in the limelight as a suspect. After he blackened both eyes of Homolka and knocked out several of her teeth, she called 911. The police in Niagara Falls took her to the hospital and began investigating the matter. Karla was admitted to hospital and her uncle came to visit her. She whispered to him that Bernardo had killed Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French and went on to tell her uncle that he was indeed the Scarborough Rapist. Author’s Note: she never mentioned about the death of her sister Tammy. Homolka hired lawyer, George Walker, and told him that she wanted immunity if she gave up Bernardo. Walker said he would see what he could do.
The next day, on February 11th, 1993, Homolka’s lawyer, George Walker, met with Director, Murray Segal, of the Crown Criminal Law Office. Walker told Segal that they had videotapes of the rapes, and Segal advised Walker that, considering Homolka's involvement in the crimes, full immunity was unlikely.
Paul was arrested and charged with the murders of Mahaffy and French and the rapes of several young girls. It was not until the 19th of February that police were granted a warrant to search Benardo’s and Homolka’s house. They did not, however, find any videotapes as Homolka had claimed. They did find a complete register in Bernardo’s handwriting of all the murders and rapes, as well as books on serial killers, and perverted sex magazines. The much-wanted videotapes were in the possession of Bernardo’s lawyer who surrendered them when he withdrew from the case.
Before the tapes were handed to the police, a plea bargain was arranged based on Homolka’s testimony. She would receive twelve years for each of the two victims (not her sister). The prosecutor said that it had to be done in order to nail Bernardo. Her earliest release date would be June, 2001. Once the videotapes were obtained from Bernardo’s lawyer, it clearly showed that Homolka was heavily involved in cruel sex acts with both of the girls. Her lawyer could see for himself that she was a willing and eager participant in the crimes. As this news broke, public outraged for her plea bargain grew. The media dubbed it the worst deal the Canadian government had ever made with a criminal witness.
Bernardo’s trial started in May of 1995. He was charged with two counts of murder in the 1st degree, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of forcible confinement, and one count of dismembering a body. He pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor, Ray Houlahan, first rolled a tape of Homolka, naked and masturbating with a flashlight inside her. The jury was disgusted. They knew there would be pornography, but they hadn’t thought it would be so explicit. The prosecutor’s intention, however, was to show the court how Bernardo forced women to do anything for him, even kill a sibling. A pin drop could be heard in court when Homolka testified, showing how they had drugged and raped her sister Tammy in order to demonstrate how terrified she was of Bernardo’s violence and control.
Homolka was asked why she committed these horrifying crimes. She explained “Paul was very upset when he discovered she was not a virgin the first time they had sex. It was therefore, her responsibility to make it possible for him to take the virginity of her pretty younger sister Tammy. It would have to be videotaped without Tammy's knowing anything about it so I decided to give her to Paul as a Christmas present.” This was the first time that the Homolka parents ever heard the details surrounding what had happened to their fifteen-year-old daughter, Tammy. They could not believe what they were hearing.
In the end, Bernardo got a life sentence and was classified as a dangerous offender, meaning he would never get out of prison. Bernardo is currently serving his term at the maximum-security prison at Kingston Penitentiary, in the segregation unit. He spends twenty-three hours every day in a four by eight-prison cell.
Homolka was released from prison in June of 2005. Since her release, she’s remarried and now goes by the name, Emily Bordelais, and is awaiting a pardon. There is a Cause set up petitioning to stop her from obtaining this pardon. The website is:
http://www.causes.com/causes/475014-stop-karla-homolka-from-getting-a-pardon
Dorothea Puente
Dorothea Puente was born on January 9th, 1929, in Bernardino County, California. In 1945, she married a soldier named Fred McFaul who had just returned from the war. Their marriage, though, only last three years. Puente became desperate for money and started forging checks which landed her in jail for six months.
Puente got pregnant just after being released, but gave the baby up for adoption. In 1952, she again married, and this time the marriage lasted for fourteen years. She had a few scrapes with the law in the 60s, operating a brothel and being arrested for vagrancy. She divorced her husband of fourteen years and married Robert Puente, who was nineteen years her junior. That marriage lasted but two years.
In 1981, Puente started renting a boarding home with her friend Ruth Monroe. There, the murdering began. They went into business together attending to the elderly and mentally handicapped people. After a short time in business together, Ruth Monroe died suddenly and her death was ruled a suicide by the police. Apparently, the cause was an overdose of Codeine and Tylenol.
Just four weeks later, Puente was arrested and subsequently sent to prison for five years after a seventy-four-year-old man claimed she was drugging and stealing from him. She served only a few years for good behavior. While she was in jail, she had a pen pal, Everson Gillmouth, seventy-seven, who picked her up after her release. They planned to marry, and rented an apartment on F Street in Sacramento, California.
Once they were settled in their new place, a repairperson named Ismael Florez was hired by Puente in November of 1985 to do some woodwork for her. For his efforts, she gave him Gillmouth’s 1980 Ford pickup as well as $800 cash. She hired Florez build her a box, allegedly to store papers and books, and instructed him to make it two feet by three feet by six feet long.
Once it was built and she had it filled and nailed shut, she asked her repairperson to help bring it to a storage depot. On the way, however, she told him to stop in Sutter County and dump the box on the riverbank in an unofficial household dumping site. Florez had assumed she wanted to keep the contents – that is why she had him build it – but Puente told him the contents of the box were just junk.
It was not until New Years Day, 1986 when the box and body within was discovered. The body of an elderly man was so decomposed that, according to the police, they could not identify him. It would be another three years before the body of Everson Gillmouth would be identified. Even in death, the pension checks would continue being cashed by Puente.
Puente continued looking after elderly residents, intercepting their mail, cashing their checks, and pocketing a good portion of them. In total, she took in another forty boarders after killing Gillmouth. She had her repairperson cover the basement with a cement slab and had the garage torn down and replaced with another cement slab. Shortly after he did all of this, he too disappeared.
When Alvaro Montoya was reported missing by his family on November 11th, 1988, the police went to the boarding house to have a look around. Upon searching the property, they found former tenant Leona Carpenter, seventy-eight, along with seven other bodies buried in the basement and even the flower garden.
Puente was charged and convicted of only three of the murders, as the prosecution could not produce enough evidence to secure convictions for all the murders. She was given two life sentences without parole for her crimes of murder.
On March 27th, 2011, Dorothea Puente, eighty-two, died in prison at the age from natural causes.
Marybeth Tinning
The Baby Killer
Marybeth Roe was born on September 11th, 1942 in Duanesburg, New York. She was a normal student d
uring school; however, on several occasions she attempted suicide as a cry for attention. After completing school, she worked menial jobs, but eventually became a nursing assistant at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York.
She met Joe Tinning in 1963 and the couple was married two years later. Together they had three children: Barbara, Joseph, and the youngest, Jennifer, who was sick at birth and died only a few weeks later of meningitis.
Three weeks later on January 20th, 1972, Marybeth took Joseph, aged two, to the Ellis Hospital emergency room after he’d had an apparent seizure. He was kept in the hospital for observation, but the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with him, and he was sent home. Only hours later, Joseph was back to the ER, but this time he died. Tinning told the doctors that she’d placed him in bed to sleep, and when she went back to check on him, he was blue, and tangled in the bed sheets. This was accepted by the hospital as accidental.
Not six weeks later, the mother was back in the E.R. with her four-year-old daughter, Barbara. The mother claimed the girl had gone into convulsions. She was checked out and advised to stay overnight. Tinning, however, wanted to take her home and, you guessed it, just hours later Tinning brought the girl back into the E.R.. Unconscious at the time, she later died. The medical doctor attributed Barbara’s death to Reyes Syndrome. Within three months of each other, all three of the Tinning children had died.
Authors Note: How can one mother have such rotten luck?
Break out the champagne. Marybeth Tinning got pregnant again and in 1973, on Thanksgiving Day, gave birth to a baby boy, Timothy. Three weeks later Timothy was found dead in his crib. The doctors listed it as S.I.D.S., or sudden infant death syndrome.
Nathan Tinning was born two years later on March, 30th, 1975, the fifth child born to the couple. When Nathan was only five months old, Marybeth arrived at the Hospital with him dead in her arms. She claimed that she was driving and noticed that the baby was not breathing and rushed to the E.R. Once again, no foul play was suspected and no explanation was given for the child’s death. The Tinnings decided to adopt in 1978, but before the adoption went through Tinning became pregnant again. So, in August, they adopted young Michael who was just a baby, and in October their 6th child, Mary Frances, was born.
When Mary Frances was only four months old, she supposedly had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, the doctors were unable to save her and she died on February 20th. Nothing suspect was reported by the hospital or anyone. Marybeth Tinning then got pregnant again, and on November 19th Jonathan was born.
Authors Note: Isn’t this getting repetitive?
Marybeth Tinning arrived at St. Clare's hospital with Jonathan on March 4th, 1980. Jonathan was unconscious, but was revived. Due to the family history of misfortune and babies dying, Jonathan was sent to Boston Hospital where he was thoroughly examined. The doctors could find no valid medical reason why the baby had simply stopped breathing. Jonathan returned home only to be brought back to the hospital three days later, dead, on March 24th.
The adopted child, Michael, was now two and a half years old, and on March 2nd of the following year, was carried into his pediatrician’s office wrapped in a blanket, unconscious. Tinning calmly claimed that she could not wake the child, and when the doctor examined him, discovered he was already dead. It was previously believed that there was a genetic origin for the deaths of all the infants, but when their adopted child died too, someone finally took notice.
The police were called in to investigate and found that Tinning had been present every time a child had died. After interrogating her, she confessed to smothering them, and received twenty years to life in prison for the deaths of eight babies.
She is now living at the Bedford Hills Prison for Women in New York, serving out her twenty-year sentence. She had parole hearings in 2007, 2009, and 2011. Each time she was denied parole. Her next hearing is scheduled for January, 2013.
Rosemary and
Fred West (Couple)
Rosemary Letts was born on November 29th, 1953 in Devon, England. Frederick West was born on September 29th, 1941 in Herefordshire, England.
Rosemary and Fred were married on January 29th, 1972 and their daughter Mae was born on June 1st. To make money, Fred encouraged his wife to become a prostitute and she had seven children, three of mixed race. Both Rosemary and Fred came from families of incest and on many occasions, her father, Bill Letts, would visit their house to have sex with his daughter.
As they had many children, they hired Caroline Roberts, seventeen, as a nanny. Rosemary had set up a room in the house for her prostitution and called it “Rose’s Room.” To offset any suspicion about all the men coming and going, they told the nanny that she was a masseuse.
Caroline rejected sexual advances from both Rosemary and Fred. She left the house but was brought back, tied up, and raped by the couple. They threatened to lock her in the cellar and let black male customers have their way with her if she did not behave. Fred told her that they had killed hundreds of young girls and that their bodies had never been found.
Realizing they would kill her, Caroline gave in to them sexually without a fight. The next day, she reported the rape to the police, but withdrew her accusation when the case came to court; however, for a reduced charge and a fine of only fifty pounds, the Wetts’ pleaded guilty.
Fred began raping his daughters while Rosemary watched and little Anne Marie, eight, became pregnant. Luckily, the pregnancy was terminated, as it was ectopic. In later years, both Anne Marie and her sister Heather could not take it any longer and left home.
Fred West would film himself raping his daughters until one day his daughter told her friend about it and she in turn told her mother. Her friend’s mother went to the police and on August 6th, 1992, the authorities began their investigation which eventually led to the arrest of both Fred and Rosemary. The children were placed in foster care, but the daughter, Heather, could not be located. Social Workers talked with the children and learned that Heather was supposed to be buried under the patio. Based on this information, a search warrant was granted to excavate the garden in search of Heather. What they found was more than they were looking for. Eleven bodies were discovered in total.
On June 30th, 1994, Rosemary and Fred West were both formally charged with these murders. Before Fred could be sentenced, he hung himself in his jail cell on January 1st, 1995.
Rosemary was tried and convicted of ten murders in October of 1995, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Note: “While in prison, Fred West claimed he killed at least another twenty, including children he killed in a barn.”
Unsolved Serial Murder Cases
It is very frightening when serial murders are happening in a community. Just knowing there is someone stalking the neighborhood, looking for victims, is very frightening. Many of these killers hunt in the same area for years; others travel around spreading their fear in new regions and, luckily, many of them are captured. When the killer is not captured, however, the public is forced to envision when he or she will strike again.
There is sorrow in knowing that a serial killer was never brought to justice for the crimes they committed. There are several unsolved murder cases in the United States alone, not counting all around the globe, that are thought to have been the work of a serial killer. This book will depict several of them, as well as Serial Killers who were captured. Some of the unsolved cases in this book include The Axeman of New Orleans, The Capital City Killer, The Frankford Slasher, The Original Night Stalker, Highway of Tears Killer, The Servant Girl Annihilator, The Zodiac Killer and many more.
The Axeman of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana (11 Victims)
It all began in New Orleans in 1918 with The Axeman of New York. He would chop a hole in a door to get into his victim’s house. He would then axe the man or woman to death. In one case he slit the victim’s throat with a barber’s razor. Often leaving the axe behind, he would flee the house.
The killer often had a cooling down period and would go months between killings. When that happened, the common folk of New Orleans would let their guard down. That’s when he would strike again. In 1919, the killings unexpectedly stopped.
In total, there were eleven people victimized by the Axeman, including one baby. Of the eleven, five people survived their attacks, though none could say who attacked them.
The Capital City Killer
Madison, Wisconsin (8 Known Victims)
In Madison, Wisconsin, over a fourteen year period, women would suddenly disappear, until, in 1968, bodies began to turn up. Police theorized it was the work of a serial killer, but because the bodies were badly decomposed, identification was near impossible, as was the cause of their deaths.
In total, there were eight victims, each a female between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four who wore her hair long and parted in the same way. They were associated with the University of Wisconsin in one way or another, either living on residence, working there, or attending as a student. For those whom the autopsy could verify cause of death, it was discovered that the victim was stabbed, charred, or had suffered blunt force trauma. It was also believed that many of the bodies have never been found as there were many more young women missing.
