Crime Classification Manual

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Crime
Classification
Manual
A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING
AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES
SECOND EDITION
John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess,
Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler,
Editors
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Crime
Classification
Manual
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Crime
Classification
Manual
A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING
AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES
SECOND EDITION
John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess,
Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler,
Editors
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Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crime classification manual : a standard system for investigating and classifying violent crimes /
John E. Douglas . . . [et al.], editors. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7879-8501-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7879-8501-5 (alk. paper)
1. Crime—Classification—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Crime—United States—Classification—
Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Douglas, John E.
HV6253.C75 2006
364.01'2—dc22 2006016863
Printed in the United States of America
SECOND EDITION
PB Printing 10987654321
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Contents
Preface to the Second Edition ix
Introduction 1
Part I: Crime Analysis and Investigation
1. Modus Operandi and the Signature Aspects of Violent Crime 19
John E. Douglas and Lauren K. Douglas
2. The Detection of Staging, Undoing, and Personation
at the Crime Scene 31
John E. Douglas and Lauren K. Douglas
3. Prescriptive Interviewing: Interfacing the Interview
and Interrogation with Crime Classification 45
Gregory M. Cooper
4. Classifying Crimes by Severity: From Aggravators to Depravity 55
Michael Welner
5. VICAP: The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program Unit 73
Eric W. Witzig
Part II: Classifications
6. Homicide 93
7. Arson/Bombing 261
8. Rape and Sexual Assault 293
9. Nonlethal Crimes 353
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10. Computer Crimes 383
Allen G. Burgess
11. Cybercrimes 405
John E. Douglas and Lauren K. Douglas
12. Classifying Internet Child Sex Offenders 425
Eileen M. Alexy, Ann W. Burgess, and Timothy Baker
Part III: Methods of Killing
13. Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 437
Ann W. Burgess
14. Homicidal Poisoning 471
Arthur E. Westveer, John P. Jarvis, and Carl J. Jensen III
15. The Use of Biological Agents as Weapons 485
Anne M. Berger
Part IV: Issues in Crime
16. Wrongful Convictions: Causes, Solutions, and Case Studies 495
Peter Shellem
17. Criminal Confessions: Overcoming the Challenges 509
Michael P. Napier and Susan H. Adams
Bibliography 519
About the Editors 529
About the Contributors 533
Name Index 535
Subject Index 543
CONTENTS
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To the victims of violent crimes and the
men and women who work tirelessly seeking
justice for them. This book is dedicated to them
with respect, with humility, and with compassion.
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Preface to the
Second Edition
This is the second edition of the Crime Classification Manual (CCM-II).
The development of this manual over the years has received notice from
FBI investigative profilers, law enforcement officers, corrections and parole
staff, mental health staff, and students in forensic studies and criminal jus-
tice studies.
The purpose of this manual is fourfold:
1. To standardize terminology within the criminal justice field
2. To facilitate communication within the criminal justice field and be-
tween criminal justice and mental health
3. To educate the criminal justice system and the public at large to the
types of crimes being committed
4. To develop a database for investigative research
This book is about classifying crime. Professions develop and advance
their science as they are able to organize and classify their work. The nature
of science began when organisms began to generalize, to see similarities be-
tween themselves and members of their own species or to see differences
and other similarities between other species and themselves. Thus, the na-
ture of science requires that one first observe and then attempt to categorize,
compare, and classify observations. Classification is a process in data collec-
tion and analysis in which data are grouped according to previously deter-
mined characteristics.
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The past three decades have witnessed the major advancement in inves-
tigative science. A series of FBI studies conducted in the 1980s on sexual
murderers, rapists, child molesters and abductors, and arsonists described
and identified critical characteristics of these crimes. These characteristics
were initially used for profiling techniques. An additional use of the research
findings has now been compiled into a crime classification manual. The ad-
vances in technology and forensic science have also strengthened the inves-
tigative skills for solving crime.
In the development of this manual, a decision was made to base the clas-
sification on the primary intent of the criminal: (1) criminal enterprise,
(2) personal cause, (3) sexual intent, and (4) group cause.
TASK FORCE
Task force groups chaired by supervisory special agents at the FBI’s
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime worked on refining the
crime categories for the first edition. The preliminary draft of the manual
was presented to an advisory committee, which provided additional com-
ments and suggestions for refinement of the manual.
This second edition of the CCM contains three new classifications con-
tributed by experts in their field. Michael Welner contributed the classi-
fication of Religion-Extremist Murder and Neonaticide, Mark Safarik con-
tributed the Elder Female Sexual Homicide classification, and Allen G.
Burgess classified Computer Crimes. In addition to these classifications, we
have added chapters on nonlethal crimes and cybercrimes.
DEFINITIONS
For the purposes of this book, the crime definitions are as follows:
•Murder is the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by
another. The classification of this offense, as for all other Crime Index of-
fenses, is based solely on police investigation as opposed to the determina-
tion of a court, medical examiner, coroner, jury, or other judicial body. Not
included in this classification are deaths caused by negligence, suicide, or
accident; justifiable homicides; and attempts to murder or assaults to mur-
der, which are scored as aggravated assaults.
•Sexual assault includes forcible rape, as defined by the FBI’s Crime in
the United States: Uniform Crime Reports (UCR): the carnal knowledge of
a female forcibly and against her will. In addition, assaults and attempts to
commit rape by force or threat of force are included, as well as crimes of
noncontact, commonly called nuisance offenses. Crimes against children
such as fondling and molestation are included.
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Preface to the Second Edition xi
•Arson, as defined by UCR, is any willful or malicious burning or at-
tempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public
building, motor vehicle or aircraft, or personal property of another. Bomb-
ing has been added to the classification.
•Computer crimes include crimes whereby the computer is the target or
the mechanism for committing the crime or the computer user is the target.
It also includes crimes committed over the Internet or whereby the Internet
plays a role in the commission of the crime.
•Nonlethal crimes include crimes such as burglary, robbery, and assault
in which death does not occur. These crimes may be precursors to crimes of
rape and murder.
ORGANIZATION OF THE MANUAL
This second edition of the Crime Classification Manual is divided into four
major parts.
Part One focuses on crime analysis and practice and presents a review of
the study of crime and the key concepts in the decision process for classify-
ing a crime; modus operandi and the signature aspects of violent crime; the
detection of staging, undoing, and personation at the crime scene; prescrip-
tive interviewing; and classifying crimes by severity and the FBI Academy’s
Violent Criminal Apprehension Program to assist law enforcement in un-
solved crimes.
Part Two contains the classification categories of Homicide, Arson/
Bombing, Rape and Sexual Assault, Nonlethal Crimes, and Computer
Crimes. It also includes new chapters on cybercrimes and Internet child sex
offenders.
The chapters in Part Three address the topics of mass, spree, and serial
homicide; homicidal poisoning; and the use of biological agents as weapons.
Part Four contains chapters on wrongful convictions and criminal con-
fessions.
Our results have implications not only for law enforcement personnel
who are responsible for the investigation of a crime, but for professionals in
other disciplines who address the crime problem: criminal justice profes-
sionals directly involved with the legal aspects of crime; correction insti-
tution administrators and staff personnel, who not only have custody of
criminals but also are responsible for decisions regarding these individuals’
return to society; mental health professionals, both those involved with of-
fender treatment and those assisting victims and families affected by these
crimes; social service personnel working with juveniles, as they detect early
signs and characteristics of violent individuals and seek to divert these in-
dividuals from criminal activity; criminologists who study the problem of
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violent crime; and public policymakers who address the problem through
their decisions. It is our hope that this book will advance the knowledge base
of these professionals as they seek increased understanding of the nature of
crime and of the individuals who commit such crime.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge the people who assisted with this second edition: Dona
Petrozzi for her research of crime statistics, Sarah Gregorian for her assis-
tance with the preparation of the manuscript, and the contributors of cases
who are acknowledged with the case. The editors of the book, John E.
Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler have all
contributed to this edition. We also wish to thank the following persons who
contributed cases: Emily Dendinger, Danielle Esposito, Kevin Faherty,
Erin Lenahan, Emily Kitts, Emily Lilly, Kendall McLane, Kriten Moore,
Leonard I. Morgenbesser, Robert B. Norberg Jr., Kathryn A. Reboul,
Dan Ryan, Mark Safarik, and Michael Welner.
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Crime
Classification
Manual
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Introduction
Violent crime is of increasing concern in our society. Murder, arson, and
sexual assault represent serious interpersonal violent behaviors, and law
enforcement officials feel public pressure to apprehend the perpetrators as
quickly as possible.
THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
Murder
The total number of murders in the United States during 2003 was estimated
at 16,503, or 1.2 percent of the violent crimes reported. More persons were
murdered in July, 9.3 percent, of that year than during any other month,
while the fewest were killed during February, 6.9 percent.
Geographically, the South, the most populous region, accounted for 43.6
percent of the murders. The West reported 22.9 percent; the Midwest, 19.5 per-
cent; and the Northeast, 14 percent.
The murder volume increased 1.7 percent nationwide in 2003 over 2002.
The nation’s cities overall experienced an increase of 2.7 percent, with up-
ward trends recorded in all but two city population groupings. Of the cities,
those with populations of 250,000 or more registered the highest increase:
13.2 percent. Suburban counties recorded a rate of 4 murders per 100,000
inhabitants, and rural counties registered 3.4 murders.
With the exception of the Midwest, each of the U.S. regions experienced
more murders during 2003 than during 2002. The number of murders was up
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3 percent in the South, 4.6 percent in the Northeast, and 1.4 percent in
the West.
In terms of weapon choice, firearms accounted for the largest proportion
of weapons used during murder, at a reported rate of 70.9 percent of homi-
cides. In 13.4 percent of murders, a cutting instrument was used; 7 percent
involved personal weapons; 4.8 percent involved a blunt object; and other
weapons, including arson and poison, accounted for 4 percent.
The largest group of murder victims, 77.6 percent, were males, and 90.6
percent were persons eighteen years of age or older. Of victims, 45.7 percent
were between ages twenty and thirty-four. Of victims for whom race was
known, 48.7 percent were white, 48.5 percent were black, and 2.8 percent
were persons of other races.
In murder cases where there was a known offender, it is reported that 90.1
percent of murderers were males and 92.0 percent were over the age of eight-
een. In terms of race 51.3 percent were black, 41.9 percent were white, and
2.8 percent were of other races,
In 77.6 percent of these cases, the offender had a previous relationship
with the victim. Among these cases, 70.9 percent were acquainted with the
victim, and 29.1 percent were related to them. Husbands and boyfriends
accounted for 32.3 percent of murders against female victims.
The clearance rates for murder continued to be higher than for any other
crime index offense. Law enforcement agencies nationwide, as well as in the
cities, were successful in clearing 62.4 percent of the murders occurring in
their jurisdictions during 2003. Of all murder arrestees in 2003, 48.9 percent
were under twenty-five years of age. The eighteen-to-twenty-four-year age
group accounted for 27.2 percent of the total. Of those arrested, 89.7 percent
were males and 10.3 percent were females. Blacks constituted 48.5 percent
of the total arrestees for murder in 2003. Whites made up 49.1 percent, and
the remainder were of other races.
Arson
A total of 64,043 arson offenses were reported in 2003 by 12,776 law
enforcement agencies across the country. The number of arson offenses re-
ported nationally declined 6.3 percent in 2003 as compared to the 2002 total.
Counts for the nation’s cities and metropolitan counties dropped 9.1 percent
and 6.1 percent, respectively, and rural counties registered an 11.8 percent
drop, the largest decline.
The 2003 clearance rate was 16.7 percent. The estimated number of ar-
rests for arson during 2003 totaled 16,163. Of the estimated actual arson
arrests for 2003, 50.8 percent were under eighteen years of age, and 30.2
percent were under age fifteen. Males were 84.4 percent of all arson
2INTRODUCTION
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Introduction 3
arrestees. Of those arrested, 77.5 percent were white, 20.9 percent were
black, and the remainder were of other races.
Rape
During 2003 there were an estimated 93,433 forcible rapes of women in the
United States. Rape offenses made up 6.8 percent of the total violent crimes.
Geographically, the southern states, the region with the largest population,
accounted for 37.6 percent of the forcible rapes reported to law enforcement.
Following were the Midwest, with 25 percent; the West, with 24 percent; and
the Northeast, with 18.7 percent. Compared to the previous year, the 2003
forcible rape volume increased 1.9 percent nationwide.
Nationwide and in the cities, 44 percent of the forcible rapes reported to
law enforcement were cleared by arrest in 2003. Of the forcible rape ar-
restees in 2003, 45.9 percent were persons under the age of twenty-five, with
30.9 percent of the total being in the eighteen-to-twenty-four-year age
group. Of those arrested, 64.1 percent were white, 33.3 percent were black,
and the remainder was other races.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Understanding behavior and methodology has been a challenge to the civi-
lized world. The term dangerous classes has been used throughout history to
describe individuals who are deemed a threat to law and order. Initially the
term described the environment in which one lived or was found to be living
in versus the type of crime being committed. An example of this occurred in
England at the end of the Hundred Years’War with France. The demobiliza-
tion of thousands of soldiers, coupled with the changing economic trade
market, saw the homeless population increase nationwide with the displace-
ment of farmers (Rennie, 1977). During the reign of England’s Henry VIII,
seventy-two thousand major and minor thieves were hanged. Under his
daughter, Elizabeth I, vagabonds were strung up in rows, as many as three
and four hundred at a time (Rennie, 1977).
Categorizing these individuals began to change in 1838 when the win-
ning entry at the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, the
highly competitive academic society, was titled, “The Dangerous Classes of
the Population in the Great Cities, and the Means of Making Them Better”
(Rennie, 1977). The term dangerous class was then used to describe indi-
viduals who were criminals or had such potential. Initially these were the
poor, homeless, and unemployed in the large cities.
Classification of offenders began with the work of statistics. This early
work permitted a comparison of the incidence of crime with factors, such as
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race, age, sex, education, and geography (Rennie, 1977). Cesare Lombrosos,
the famed Italian physician, is generally credited with launching the scien-
tific era in criminology. In 1872 he differentiated five types of criminals—
the born criminal, the insane criminal, the criminal by passion, the habitual
criminal, and the occasional criminal (Lindesmith & Dunham 1941)—
based on Darwin’s theory of evolution. The operational definitions for the
five groups that were developed allowed subsequent investigators to test
Lombrosos’s formulations empirically. A majority of his hypotheses and
theories proved to be invalid, but the fact that they were testable was an ad-
vancement for the science (Megargee & Bohn, 1979).
Englishman Charles Goring refuted the Lombrosian theory of the degen-
erate “criminal man” in 1913, concluding, “The one vital mental constitu-
tional factor in the etiology of crime is defective intelligence” (p. 369). This
concept persisted for several decades. Henry Goodard, who did his early
work on feeblemindness in 1914, reported that 50 percent of all offenders
were defective (Goddard, 1914). V. V. Anderson reported 28 to 50 percent
defective in 1919.
As psychometric techniques improved, the finding of mental deficiency
changed. Murchison in 1928 concluded that those in “the criminal group are
superior in intelligence to the white draft group of WWI” (Bromberg, 1965).
As studies progressed, it became obvious that a disordered personality
organization (including psychoses, neuroses, and personality problems) was
a more significant factor in crime than feeblemindedness.
With increasing rapidity, from the late 1930s to the World War II years to
the present, interest has shifted away from insanity and mental defectiveness
to personality disturbances in analyzing the genesis of crime. In the decades
before the report of Bernard Glueck from Sing Sing Prison in New York
State (1918), the focus in crime study was on subnormal mentality.
In 1932 the Psychiatric Clinic of the Court of General Sessions in New
York began to classify each offender according to a personality evaluation,
thus combining the insights of psychoanalysis, descriptive psychiatry, and
behavioral phenomenology. Each convicted offender presented was ana-
lyzed in relation to four categories: (1) presence or absence of psychosis,
(2) intellectual level, (3) presence of psychopathic or neurotic features and/
or personality diagnosis, and (4) physical condition.
Typologies of crime traditionally have been developed addressing the
criminal offense. The psychiatric perspective to understanding crime has
used two approaches: scrutiny of the inner (mental and moral) world of the
criminal offender and examination of the external (social) world in which he
lives (Bromberg, 1965).
A project at the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in New York City, spanning
1932 to 1965 (Bromberg, 1965), found that the personality patterns of crim-
4INTRODUCTION
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Introduction 5
inals far outshadowed the significance of psychotic or defective diagnoses in
terms of analyzing criminal behavior and in assisting the court and probation
department in estimating the potential or deficits of the individual offender.
Fifteen personality diagnoses were established by this project.
The investigation of the psychological motivations and social stresses that
underlie crime has proved that the behavior patterns involved in criminal
acts are not far removed from those of normal behavior. Studies indicate that
criminal behavior, as is true of all other behavior, is responsive to inner and
outer stresses. The external realities of mental life—social pressures, cul-
tural emphases, physical needs, subcultural patterns of life—precipitate
criminal action. The inner realities of behavior—neurotic reactions, im-
pulses, unconscious motivations, preconscious striving, eruption of infantile
aggressions—represent a precondition to criminal acts. Criminal behavior is
suggested to derive from three behavioral areas: (1) the aggressive tendency,
both destructive and acquisitive; (2) passive, or subverted, aggression; and
(3) psychological needs (Bromberg, 1965).
Several research-based classification typologies for offenders have been
developed. Julian Roebuck in 1967 provided rules to classify offenders
based on the frequency and recency of their offenses during their criminal
career. According to this system, an offender can be classified into a single
offense pattern. The function of his typology was in terms of explanatory
theory rather than in terms of diagnostic systems used in treatment. Investi-
gation into the offender’s arrest history, regardless of length, was the primary
tool used in developing a classification system. The total of known arrests,
included with behavior, allowed for the observance of a pattern, if one ex-
isted. One basic assumption used was that the arrest pattern would indicate
a pattern of behavior or criminal career. The most frequent charge or charges
in the history was the basis for classification (Roebuck, 1967). An obvious
weakness is that not all criminals have accurate arrest histories.
Classification of criminal offenders has been and is an important compo-
nent in correctional facilities throughout the United States. In 1973 the
National Advisory Commission called for criminal classification programs
to be initiated throughout the criminal justice system (Megargee & Bohn,
1979). This has not been an easy task. The correctional system is a complex,
expanding, expensive operation that has accountability to society, individual
communities, correctional staff, and the inmates themselves. The current
trend within the correctional system has been growth of the inmate popula-
tion with a modest growth in facilities. As the population within the system
is faced with economic and now medical issues (such as AIDS), classifica-
tion is a cost-effective and efficient management and treatment tool. It pro-
vides common language for the various professional groups to communicate
among themselves.
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Megargee and Bohn (1979) found during their research project that a
comprehensive classification system must take into account many different
components of the criminal population. They stressed that an important ele-
ment in any such system is the personality and behavioral pattern of the indi-
vidual offender.
In the 1980s, a research team at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, began a research program to classify sexual of-
fenders (Knight, Rosenberg, & Schneider, 1985). Their application of a pro-
grammatic approach to typology construction and validation has produced
taxonomic systems for both child molesters and rapists. The classification for
child molesters has demonstrated reasonable reliability and consistent ties to
distinctive developmental antecedents. In addition, preliminary results of a
twenty-five-year recidivism study of child molesters indicate that aspects of
the model have important prognostic implications (Knight & Prentky, 1990).
Crime Characteristics and Crime Classification Today
The National Crime Survey (NCS) program is based on findings from a con-
tinuous survey of a representative sample of housing units across the United
States. Approximately forty-six thousand housing units, inhabited by about
ninety-three thousand individuals age twelve or older, take part in the sur-
vey. The participation rate for 1987 was 96 percent of all eligible housing
units (Criminal Victimization in the United States, 1988).
The NCS focuses on certain criminal offenses, completed or attempted,
that are of major concern to the general public and law enforcement author-
ities. These are the personal crimes of rape, robbery, assault, and larceny and
the household crimes of burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Defini-
tions of the measured crimes generally are compatible with conventional use
and with the definitions used by the FBI in its annual publication, Crime in
the United States: Uniform Crime Reports. The NCS reports on characteris-
tics of personal crime victims, victim-offender relationships, offender char-
acteristics in personal crimes of violence, and crime characteristics.
The work of investigative analysts at the FBI Academy with the large
number of cases seen weekly has led to an expansion of these traditional
crime categories. The Crime Classification Manual (CCM) makes explicit
crime categories that have been used informally.
CRIME CLASSIFICATION: THE DECISION PROCESS
To classify a crime using the CCM, an investigator needs to ask questions
about the victim, the crime scene, and the nature of the victim-offender
exchange. The answers to these questions will guide the investigator toward
6INTRODUCTION
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Introduction 7
making a decision on how best to classify the offense. However, the opti-
mum use of this manual depends on the quality of information the investiga-
tor has concerning the crime.
Defining Characteristics
The defining characteristics of each offense need to be as comprehensive and
complete as possible. Victimology is an essential step in arriving at a possi-
ble motive. An investigator who fails to obtain complete victim histories
may be overlooking information that could quickly direct the investigation
to a motive and suspects.
As one looks through the classification sections in this book, it becomes
apparent a blend of motivations inspires many violent crimes. This is espe-
cially true when multiple offenders are involved. There may be as many dif-
ferent reasons for the crime as there are offenders.
The approach taken in the CCM for multiple motives is to classify the
offense according to the predominant motive. Consider a case in which a
husband kills his wife for insurance money. He then attempts to cover the
murder with a fire. In addition, he was having an affair, and his wife would
not give him a divorce. This homicide has criminal enterprise (financial gain)
and personal cause (domestic) motives. It also can be classified as crime con-
cealment under the arson section. The financial considerations should be the
primary criteria for classifying this crime. The other applicable categories
would be subclassifications. So once classified, this homicide would appear
as follows. For example, the number 107 refers to the category “insurance-
related death”; the subcategory of 107.01 refers to “individual profit mo-
tive.” The number 122 refers to “domestic murder” and the 122.02 refers
to “staged domestic homicide.” The number 231 refers to the category
“crime concealment, murder.”
107.01 Individual profit motive
122.02 Staged domestic homicide
231.00 Crime concealment, murder
The investigator will now be able to consult the investigative considera-
tions and search warrant suggestions for each of these categories for possi-
ble guidance. Prosecutors will also benefit from having all aspects of the
crime detailed. Later, other investigators working cases with one or more
elements of this offense can use this case or any others with the applicable
heading for reference.
The main rule when several of the categories apply (for example, murder
and sexual assault, or sexual assault and arson) is to lead with the crime of
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highest lethality. Homicide takes precedence. Next comes arson/bombing
and then sexual assault, if applicable.
The following sections describe each of the key elements in categorizing
a crime: victimology, crime scene indicators frequently noted, staging, com-
mon forensic findings, and investigative considerations.
Victimology
Victimology is the complete history of the victim. (If the crime is arson, then
victimology includes targeted property.) It is often one of the most beneficial
investigative tools in classifying and solving a violent crime. It is also a cru-
cial part of crime analysis. Through it, the investigator tries to evaluate why
this particular person was targeted for a violent crime. Often, just answering
this question will lead the investigator to the motive, which will lead to the
offender.
Was the victim known to the offender? What were the victim’s chances of
becoming a target for violent crime? What risk did the offender take in per-
petrating this crime? These are some of the important questions investigators
should keep in mind as they analyze the crime.
One of the most important aspects of classifying an offense and determin-
ing the motive is a thorough understanding of all offender activity with the
victim (or targeted property). With sexual assault, this exchange between
the victim and offender includes verbal interchange as well as physical and
sexual activity.
The tone of the exchange between an offender and a victim of sexual as-
sault is extremely helpful in directing the investigator to an appropriate clas-
sification. Excessively vulgar or abusive language, scripting, or apologetic
language is common to a certain type of rapist.
A comprehensive victimology should include as much as possible of the
information on the victim listed in Exhibit I.1, the sample worksheet that
appears near the end of this Introduction.
Crime Scene Indicators
Of the many elements that constitute the crime scene, not all will be present
or recognizable with every offense. The following sections describe the ma-
jor points investigators should consider when looking at the crime scene,
especially as it pertains to crime classification. The modus operandi as it re-
lates to the crime scene and forensics is covered in Chapter One.
How Many Crime Scenes? How many crime scenes are involved with the
offense? There may be one site, as in group excitement homicide. In con-
8INTRODUCTION
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Introduction 9
trast, the product tamperer may taint the product at one location and then put
it on shelves in several stores. The victim may consume the product in one
location but die in another location. In this case, there are at least four crime
scenes.
The use of several locales during the commission of an offense frequently
gives the investigator significant insight into the nature of the offender. One
example is the disorganized sexual killer who may confront, assault, kill, and
leave the body all in the same location. In contrast, the organized killer may
abduct, assault, kill, and dispose of the victim using separate locations for
each event.
Environment, Place, and Time. The environment of a crime scene refers
to the conditions or circumstances in which the offense occurs. Is it indoors
or outside? Was it during daylight hours or in the middle of the night? Did it
happen on a busy street or a deserted country road? Answering these ques-
tions not only assists in defining the classification of an offense but also pro-
vides an assessment of the offender risk. Gauging these risk factors usually
offers insight into an offender’s motivations and behavioral patterns.
With some offenses, location may have more obvious bearing on the mo-
tive and classification than others. An example is street gang murder, in
which the homicide is commonly a so-called drive-by in an area of known
gang conflict. In other offenses, like arson for excitement, the investigator
may not know that the typical location of this crime scene is residential prop-
erty as opposed to vandalism arson, which usually involves educational
facilities. Adding this information to other characteristics of the arson will
often lead the investigator to the classification and, most important, possible
motives.
How long did the offender stay at the scene? Generally the amount of time
the offender spends at the scene is proportional to the degree of comfort he
feels committing the offense at that particular location. Evidence of a linger-
ing offender will often assist the investigation by directing it toward a sub-
ject who lives or works near the crime scene, knows the neighborhood, and
consequently feels at ease there.
How Many Offenders? The answer to this question will help the investiga-
tor determine whether to place the offense into the criminal enterprise cate-
gory or the group cause category. The motive in criminal enterprise murders
is for profit. The motive in group cause is based on ideology. The offenses
included in both groupings involve multiple offenders.
Organized or Disorganized, Physical Evidence, and Weapon. The gen-
eral condition of the crime scene is important in classifying a crime. Is it like
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a group excitement killing: spontaneous and disarrayed with a great deal of
physical evidence at the scene? Or does the crime scene reflect a methodi-
cal, well-organized subject who did not leave a single print or piece of phys-
ical evidence behind? The latter may be seen with an organized crime hit, as
in the criminal competition category.
The amount of organization or disorganization at the crime scene will
tell much about the offender’s level of criminal sophistication. It will also
demonstrate how well the offender was able to control the victim and how
much premeditation was involved with the crime. It should be emphasized
that the crime scene will rarely be completely organized or disorganized. It
is more likely to be somewhere on a continuum between the two extremes of
the orderly, neat crime scene and the disarrayed, sloppy one.
Another aspect of crime scene examination concerns the weapon. Ques-
tions the investigator needs to answer about the weapon include the follow-
ing: Was it a weapon of choice, brought to the crime scene by the offender?
Or was it a weapon of opportunity acquired at the scene? (With arson, did
the fire start from materials at hand, or did the offender bring accelerants to
the scene?) Is the weapon absent from the crime scene, or has it been left be-
hind? Was there evidence of multiple weapons and ammunition? Multiple
weaponry does not always signify multiple offenders. Authority killing and
nonspecific motive killing are examples of offenses that often involve the use
of multiple firearms and ammunition by a lone offender.
Body Disposition. Was the body openly displayed or otherwise placed in
a deliberate manner to ensure discovery? Or was the body concealed or
buried to prevent discovery? Did the offender seem to have no concern as to
whether the body would be discovered? These are some questions whose an-
swers will aid the classification of a homicide. Certain homicides (disorgan-
ized sexual homicide, for example) may involve the intentional arranging of
the body in an unnatural or unusual position. In some homicides, like cult
murder or drug murder, the body may be left in a degrading position or in a
location to convey a message.
Items Left or Missing. The addition or absence of items at the crime scene
often assists the investigator in classifying the offense. The presence of un-
usual artifacts, drawings, graffiti, or other items may be seen with offenses
such as extremist murder or street gang murder. Offender communication
(such as a ransom demand or extortion note) frequently is associated with
the crime scene of a kidnap murder or product tampering.
Items taken from the scene as a crime scene indicator is found in felony
murder, breaking and entering, arson for crime concealment, and felony sex-
ual assault. A victim’s personal belongings may be taken from the scene of
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Introduction 11
a sexual homicide. These so-called souvenirs (photos, a driver’s license, or
costume jewelry, for example, all belonging to victim) often may not be
monetarily valuable.
Other Crime Scene Indicators. There are other crime scene indicators
common to certain offenses that help investigators classify crimes and
motives. Examples are wounded victims, no escape plan, and the probabil-
ity of witnesses. The nature of the confrontation between the victim and of-
fender is also important in determining the motive and classification. How
did the offender control the victim? Are restraints present at the scene, or did
the offender immediately blitz and incapacitate the victim?
Staging
Staging is the purposeful alteration of a crime scene. For example, clothing
on a victim may be arranged to make it appear to be a sexual assault. The de-
tection and characteristics of staging are covered in Chapter Two.
Forensic Findings
Forensic findings are the analysis of physical evidence pertaining to a crime,
evidence that is used toward legal proof that a crime occurred. This evidence
is often called a silent witness, offering objective facts specific to the com-
mission of a crime. The primary sources of physical evidence are the victim,
the suspect, and the crime scene. Secondary sources include the home or
work environment of a suspect; however, search warrants are necessary for
the collection of such evidence (Moreau, 1987).
Medical reports provide important evidence. These reports include toxi-
cological results, X-ray films, and autopsy findings. In homicide cases, the
forensic pathologist identifies and documents the postmortem findings pres-
ent and interprets the findings within the context of the circumstances of
death (Luke, 1988).
Cause of Death. The mechanism of death is often a determining factor
when attempting to classify a homicide. The victim of a street gang murder
almost always dies from gunshot wounds. Explosive trauma is a frequent fo-
rensic finding with many criminal competition and extremist murders. Stran-
gulation is common to the more personal crimes such as domestic murder
and sexual homicide.
Trauma. The type, extent, and focus of injury sustained by the victim are
additional critical factors the investigator uses when classifying a crime.
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Overkill, facial battery, torture, bite marks, and mutilation are examples of
forensic findings that will often lead the investigator to a specific homicide
category and, thus, a possible motive for the offense.
Sexual Assault. Evidence of assault to the victim’s sexual organs or body
cavities has great bearing on motive and classification. The type and se-
quence of the assault is important as well as the timing of the assault (before,
during, or after death).
The investigator should remember that the apparent absence of penetra-
tion with the penis does not mean the victim was not sexually assaulted. Sex-
ual assault also includes insertion of foreign objects, regressive necrophilia,
and many activities that target the breasts, buttocks, and genitals.
Investigative Considerations and Search Warrant Suggestions
Once the investigator has classified the offense (and thus the motive), the
investigative considerations and search warrant suggestions can be used to
give direction and assistance to the investigation. It should be emphasized
that the considerations examined here are general suggestions and not ab-
solutes that apply in every case.
There are ten basic steps to a crime scene search:
1. Approach the scene.
2. Secure and protect the scene.
3. Conduct a preliminary survey.
4. Narratively describe the scene.
5. Photograph the scene.
6. Sketch the scene.
7. Evaluate latent fingerprint evidence and other forms of evidence.
8. Conduct a detailed search for evidence, and collect, preserve, docu-
ment the evidence.
9. Make the final survey.
10. Release the scene.
The forensic analysis of physical evidence of hair and fibers, blood, semen,
and saliva can provide the basis for critical testimony in court (Moreau,
1987).
CLASSIFICATION BY TYPE, STYLE, AND
NUMBER OF VICTIMS
Crimes may be classified by type, style, and number of victims. Using the
homicide classification as an example, a single homicide is one victim and
12 INTRODUCTION
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Introduction 13
one homicidal event. A double homicide is two victims, one event, and in
one location. A triple homicide has three victims in one location during one
event. Anything beyond three victims is classified as a mass murder—that is,
a homicide involving four or more victims in one location and within one
event.
Two additional types of multiple murders are spree murder and serial
murder. A spree murder involves killing at two or more locations with no
emotional cooling-off period between murders. The killings are all the result
of a single event, which can be of short or long duration. Serial murders are
involved in three or more separate events with an emotional cooling-off
period between homicides. At a 2005 FBI conference on serial murder, dis-
cussion focused on whether to classify a serial crime with two or more sep-
arate events.
Exhibit I.1 is a worksheet that outlines the defining characteristics of each
of the categories. Under each characteristic are some of the aspects that will
assist investigators in classifying the offense.
CRIME CLASSIFICATION NUMBERING SYSTEM
The numbering system for classifying crimes uses three digits, with the first
digit representing the major crime category. All possible codes are not cur-
rently assigned in anticipation of future editions. There are five major crime
categories in this edition: homicide, arson/bombing, rape and sexual as-
sault, nonlethal crimes, and computer crime, with the last two new to this
edition. The homicide category is identified by the number 1 (codes 100 to
199), arson/bombing by the number 2 (codes 200 to 299), rape and sexual
assault by the number 3 (codes 300 to 399), nonlethal crimes by the num-
ber 4 (400–499), and computer crimes by the number 5 (codes 500–599).
As other major crimes categories are classified, they will be assigned appro-
priate identification codes.
The second digit of the code represents further grouping of the major
crimes. Homicides are divided into four groups: criminal enterprise (100 to
109), personal cause (120 to 129), sexual (130 to 139), and group cause (140
to 149). There are unassigned numbers that allow for future editions within
specific categories and additional groups within a major category. The third
digit of the code represents specific classifications within these groups.
Individual classifications within these groups are further divided into
subgroups using two additional digits following a decimal point after the
code. The division into subgroups occurs when there are unique character-
istics within a factor that clearly identify a major difference with the group.
For example, domestic homicide (code 122) has two subgroups: sponta-
neous domestic homicide (122.01) and staged domestic homicide (122.02).
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Exhibit I.1. Crime Classification Worksheet
I. Victimology: Why did this person become the victim of a violent
crime?
A. About the victim
Lifestyle
Employment
Personality
Friends (type, number)
Income (amount, source)
Family
Alcohol/drug use or abuse
Normal dress
Handicaps
Transportation used
Reputation, habits, fears
Marital status
Dating habits
Leisure activities
Criminal history
Assertiveness
Likes and dislikes
Significant events prior to the crime
Activities prior to the crime
B. Sexual Assault: Verbal Interaction
Excessively vulgar or abusive
Scripting
Apologetic
C. Arson and bombing: targeted property
Residential
Commercial
Educational
Mobile, vehicle
Forest, fields
II. Crime Scene
How many?
Environment, time, place
How many offenders?
Organized, disorganized
Physical evidence
Weapon
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Introduction 15
Body disposition
Items left/missing
Other (for example, witnesses, escape plan, wounded victims)
III. Staging
Natural death
Accidental
Suicide
Criminal activity (i.e., robbery, rape/homicide)
IV. Forensic Findings
A. Forensic analysis
Hair/fibers
Blood
Semen
Saliva
Other
B. Autopsy results
Cause of death
Trauma (type, extent, location on body)
Overkill
Torture
Facial battery (depersonalization)
Bite marks
Mutilation
Sexual assault (when, sequence, to where, insertion,
insertional necrophilia)
Toxiological results
V. Investigative considerations
A. Search warrants
Home
Work
Car
Other
B. Locating and interviewing witnesses
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Additional codes are added after the subgroup to identify crimes by the type
of victim (child, adolescent, adult ages twenty to fifty-nine, and elder adults
ages sixty and over) if there are unique characteristics associated with the
age of victims.
16 INTRODUCTION
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PART ONE
Crime Analysis
and Investigation
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CHAPTER
1
Modus Operandi and
the Signature Aspects
of Violent Crime
JOHN E. DOUGLAS
LAUREN K. DOUGLAS
In September 1989, a Shreveport, Louisiana, man named Nathaniel
Code Jr. stood trial for murder. The jury determined Code had mur-
dered eight people between 1984 and 1987. These eight homicides took
place during three different events: one murder in 1984, four in 1985, and
three in 1987. There were several disparities in modus operandi (actions
taken by an offender during the perpetration of a crime in order to perpetrate
that crime) and victimology (characteristics of the victims) among the three
crime scenes.
Could one man be linked to the murders at all three scenes? With differ-
ences in modus operandi (MO) and victimology, what could link Code with
each of these eight homicides? MO and victimology are important factors in
an investigation, but they are often somewhat generalized and offer less
about the subtle details about personality and, ultimately, identity that are of-
ten necessary to track down an offender. However, personation, that is, the
offender’s signature, or his “calling card,” is an individualized set of indica-
tors that can point specifically to an offender’s personality. (See Chapter Two
for more information on personation.) In the case of multiple crimes com-
mitted by the same (or serial) offender, there is often repeated personation.
This was true in the case of Nathaniel Code. He left his signature—gags,
duct tape, and bodies with gunshot wounds and slashed throats—at each of
the three crime scenes. This linked Code with all eight murders.
19
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No one in contemporary law enforcement would dispute that our society
has far too many Nathaniel Codes. The increase of violent crime has com-
pelled law enforcement to develop new measures to address it. One important
step is the recognition of the serial offender who often crosses jurisdictional
boundaries. Any effective effort among local, state, and federal agencies
depends on early recognition of a serial offender as such; different jurisdic-
tions looking for the same offender need to recognize that they are after the
same person and cooperate with one another. But the common crossing of
multiple jurisdictional lines by offenders makes this a great challenge.
Comprehensive analysis of victimology, crime scene, and forensics, as well
as the careful interview and examination of any living victims to gather
information about the offender’s verbal and nonverbal behavior, can help an
agency discover a serial offender within its own jurisdiction or among sev-
eral others.
The MO has great significance when investigators attempt to link cases.
An appropriate step of crime analysis and correlation is to connect cases due
to similarities in MO. However, an investigator who rejects an offense as the
work of a serial offender solely on the basis of disparities in MO (as in the
Code cases) has made a mistake. What causes an offender to use a certain
MO? What influences shape it? Is it static or dynamic? The answers to these
questions help investigators avoid the error of attributing too much signifi-
cance to MO when linking crimes.
THE MODUS OPERANDI
Actions taken by an offender during the perpetration of a crime in order to
perpetrate that crime form the MO. MO is a learned set of behaviors that the
offender develops and sticks with it because it works, but it is dynamic and
malleable. In any criminal career, no matter what the circumstances, the MO
will evolve with the criminal. Every criminal makes mistakes, but most learn
from them and try to get better with time, as the following example shows.
Late one night, a novice prowler prepared to enter a house through a base-
ment window to burglarize it. The window was closed and locked, so the
prowler shattered the window to gain access to the house. He had to rush his
search for valuables because he feared the breaking window had awakened
the residents of the home. For his next late-night residential burglary, he
brought tools to force the lock and keep the noise to a minimum. This
allowed him more time to commit the crime and obtain a more profitable
haul. However, he was still nervous about the prospect of waking the resi-
dents of his target home, so he began targeting unoccupied homes and
switched to midmorning break-ins. This also allowed him better light by
which to see the valuables he was after, an added advantage.
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Modus Operandi and the Signature Aspects of Violent Crime 21
This offender’s original MO was to break and enter through the window
of a residence at night, then stealing valuables and escaping. Through expe-
rience, his MO evolved to forcing the lock on windows in unoccupied homes
during the day. He refined his breaking and entering techniques to lower his
risk of apprehension and increase his profit. This is very common among
offenders who repeatedly commit property crimes. He saw challenges to his
enterprise, figured out how to overcome them, and incorporated the tech-
niques into his MO. He might have found another way to avoid the noise of
a broken window; for example, he might have watched for the location of a
hidden door key and used that to gain entrance or begun targeting unguarded
and unoccupied offices at night instead of residences.
The offender learns from challenges that trip him up as well. Had that orig-
inal broken window resulted in his arrest and incarceration, he would have
tried not to repeat that mistake if he chose to return to burglary after his release.
In violent crimes, victims’ responses can significantly influence the evo-
lution of an offender’s MO. If a rapist has problems controlling a victim, he
will modify his MO to accommodate and overcome resistance. He may
bring duct tape or other ligatures, he may use a weapon, or he may blitz-
attack the victim and immediately incapacitate her. If such measures are
ineffective, he may resort to greater violence, including killing the victim.
THE SIGNATURE ASPECT
The violent serial offender often exhibits another element of criminal behav-
ior during an offense: his signature, or calling card. This criminal conduct
goes beyond the actions necessary to perpetrate the crime—the MO—and
points to the unique personality of the offender.
Unlike MO, a serial offender’s signature will never change at its core.
Certain details may be refined over time (for example, the lust murderer who
performs greater postmortem mutilation as he progresses from crime to
crime), but the basis of the signature will remain the same (performing post-
mortem mutilations, in this example).
What makes up this signature? Surviving victims or witnesses some-
times attest to the behavioral elements of the signature. For example, a
rapist may demonstrate part of his signature by engaging in acts of domina-
tion, manipulation, or control during the verbal, physical, or sexual phase
of the assault. Exceptionally vulgar or abusive language or scripting is a
verbal signature. When the offender scripts a victim, he demands a particu-
lar verbal response from her (for example, “Tell me how much you enjoy
sex with me” or “Tell me how good I am”). A rapist might also stick to his
own sort of script by engaging in phases or types of sexual activities in a set
order with different victims.
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The crime scene can include aspects of an offender’s signature in, for
instance, evidence of excessive force. A large amount of blood ranging
around the home in which a violent crime occurred might demonstrate that
the victim was moved or dragged around the area as the offender used more
force than necessary to subdue (in the case of rape) or kill (in the case of
murder).
The signature is not necessarily evident in each of a serial offender’s
crimes. Contingencies can arise, such as interruptions or unexpected victim
responses, that cause the offender to abandon these unnecessary steps. In
such instances, the offender will be much less satisfied or gratified by his
offense.
Why is this? Violent crimes often originate with offender fantasies. This is
particularly true for serial offenders. As they brood and daydream, they de-
velop a more and more compelling need to express their violent fantasies.
When they finally act out, some aspects of the crime will demonstrate their
unique personal expression based on these fantasies. This is personation. As
an offender acts out again (and again), this personation will be repeated and
is his signature. The elements that comprise signature are the most specific
manifestations of his fantasies; they are therefore the most meaningful to him.
Another reason for the absence of signature elements in some crimes
committed by serial offenders is that the investigator does not always have
a surviving victim or even a crime scene to work with. Violent offenses
often involve high-risk victims, which may mean no one reports them miss-
ing, so there is no search for them or their bodies. Many offenders dump
bodies outside, away from the scene of the crime and in an isolated spot.
This may result in a great deal of decomposition, which obscures signs of
signature on the victim’s body and clothing. And if the body has been
dumped, the actual crime scene is somewhere else, along with most of the
indicators of signature.
Nevertheless, although detecting a signature or calling card is a challenge,
it can be the biggest piece of the puzzle in identifying a serial offender. It is
an unfortunate truth that the more victims there are, the more indicators of
signature there are. Investigators want to stop violent serial offenders, but it
often takes evidence gathered from multiple victims, crime scenes, dump
sites, witnesses, and so on to identify signature elements that will link the
crimes to a serial offender.
MODUS OPERANDI OR SIGNATURE?
A rapist entered a residence and captured a woman and her husband. The
offender ordered the husband to lie on his stomach on the floor. He then
placed a cup and saucer on the husband’s back. “If I hear that cup move or
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Modus Operandi and the Signature Aspects of Violent Crime 23
hit the floor, your wife dies,” he told the husband. He forced the wife into the
next room and raped her. In another situation, a rapist entered a house and
ordered the woman to phone her husband and use some ploy to get him
home. Once the husband arrived, the offender tied him to a chair and forced
him to witness the rape of his wife.
The rapist who used the cup and saucer had developed an effective MO to
control the husband: he had dealt with the obstacle that stood between him
and his goal. The second rapist went beyond this. The full satisfaction of his
fantasies required not only raping the wife, but also finding, summoning
home, humiliating, and dominating the husband. The first rapist dealt with
the husband because he was there; he kept him from witnessing or interfer-
ing with the rape. The second rapist needed the husband to be there and, fur-
thermore, needed him to witness the rape. His personal needs compelled him
to perform this signature aspect of crime.
In Michigan, a bank robber made the tellers undress during a robbery. In
Texas, another bank robber also forced the bank employees to undress; in
addition, he made them pose in sexually provocative positions as he took
photographs. Do both crimes demonstrate a signature aspect?
The Michigan robber used a very effective means to increase the odds of
his escape. He probably guessed or knew that the tellers would get dressed
before calling the police. When interviewed, these employees offered vague,
meager descriptions because their embarrassment had prevented eye contact
with the perpetrator. This subject had developed a clever MO. The Texas rob-
ber, however, went beyond the required actions to perpetrate his crime. The
act of robbing the bank did not gratify his psychosexual needs. He felt com-
pelled to enact the ritual of posing the tellers and taking pictures, leaving his
signature on the crime.
LINKING CASES
When investigators attempt to link cases, MO plays an important role. How-
ever, MO should not be the only criterion used to connect crimes, especially
with repeat offenders who alter the MO through experience and learning.
The first offenses may differ considerably from later ones; nevertheless, the
signature aspect remains the same, whether it is the first offense or one com-
mitted ten years later. The ritual may evolve, but the theme persists.
The signature aspect also should usually receive greater consideration
than victimology (this should not be discounted, however) when investiga-
tors attempt to link cases to one another or to a specific serial offender. For
instance, physical similarities among victims may not be significant indica-
tors when crimes are motivated by anger; in such cases, the signature will
tell investigators much more about the offender than victimology will.
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CASES LINKED BY OFFENDER SIGNATURE
Ronnie Shelton: Serial Rapist
During the 1980s, Cleveland, Ohio, was terrorized by a man who became
known as the West Side Rapist. When he was finally caught, Ronnie Shelton
was found guilty of forty-nine rapes, twenty-nine aggravated burglaries,
eighteen felonious assaults, sixty counts of gross sexual imposition, twelve
kidnappings, nineteen counts of intimidation, three counts of cutting tele-
phone lines, two thefts, and twenty-seven aggravated robberies. He was con-
victed on 220 counts of the indictment. The judge gave him 3,198 years, the
longest sentence in Ohio history.
Shelton’s MO included entering the victim’s dwelling through a window
or patio facing a wooded area or bushes offering concealment. He wore a ski
mask, stocking, or scarf. He was initially violent, threatening the victim,
throwing the victim to the floor, or holding a knife to her throat. But he
would then calm her down by convincing her he was not there to rape but to
rob her, saying, “I just want money,” or something similar. When he had the
victim under control, he would return to the violent mode. Shelton would use
such phrases as, “Keep your eyes down,” “Cover your eyes,” or “Don’t look
at me and I won’t kill you [or hurt your kids].” Before he left, he would ver-
bally intimidate the victim with warnings such as, “Don’t call the police or
I’ll come back and kill you.”
It was in his verbal approach and the nature of his sexual assaults that
Shelton’s signature was evident. He was verbally degrading and exception-
ally vulgar. He also would say such things as, “I have seen you with your
boyfriend,” “I’ve seen you around,” or “You know who I am.” He would
rape the victim vaginally, withdraw, and ejaculate on the victim’s stomach
or breasts. He would then frequently masturbate over the victim or between
her breasts. He often used the victim’s clothing to wipe off his ejaculate.
Shelton forced many of his victims to perform oral sex on him and then in-
sisted they swallow the ejaculate. He would also force them to masturbate
him manually. A combination of these acts was Shelton’s signature.
One puzzling element of the assaults was that the rapist’s earlier victims
described a bump on the rapist’s penis, while later victims did not. Shelton’s
signature linked him with all the assaults, despite the difference in descrip-
tions. Had his signature not been recognized, he might not have been pun-
ished for many of his crimes.
As it turned out, there was a simple explanation for the difference in
physical descriptions: Shelton had undergone a procedure to remove geni-
tal warts, so the “bump” had been removed before the later victims were
assaulted.
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Modus Operandi and the Signature Aspects of Violent Crime 25
Serial Arson
Just as the serial killer or rapist develops an MO, so does the serial arsonist.
An arsonist’s MO may involve targeting structures of a certain type that offer
easy access and escape. The use of certain accelerants and incendiary de-
vices is a component of the MO, as is the selection of a specific site to set the
fire, for example, inside, outside, in a toolshed, or near a furnace.
The signature aspects of an arsonist may include evidence of bizarre
behavior at the crime scene. He may take certain items from the crime scene,
like women’s undergarments or cheap costume jewelry—items that are not
valuable monetarily but are meaningful to him. He may leave something at
the crime scene. One fire setter would draw pictures on the walls before set-
ting fires. He may defecate or urinate at the scene. In addition, specific incen-
diary mixtures and accelerants, such as the unusual combination of kerosene
and gasoline, may be indicative of a signature.
An investigator should apply the same principles used in detecting the
signature aspect of a sexual assault or homicide to arson. The crime scene
must be analyzed for any offender activity that appears unusual or unneces-
sary for the successful perpetration of the arson.
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber: Serial Bomber
In May 1998 Theodore J. “Ted” Kaczynski was found guilty and sentenced
to life in prison for a series of sixteen bombings that claimed three lives and
injured twenty-three other people, two of them seriously. Kaczynski either
mailed or hand-placed all of the bombs between May 1978 and April 1995.
He initially targeted individuals associated with universities and the airline
industry—thus, the FBI code “Unabom” and, later, “Unabomber.”
The Unabomber case is an excellent example of an MO that evolves with
repeated offenses and increased skill. Most of the earliest bombs were pipe
bombs constructed with such untraceable common materials as match heads
and batteries. The third bomb, which was planted in a package in the cargo
hold of American Airlines flight 444, featured a detonator controlled by an
altimeter. Despite the fact that the bomb only caught fire and failed to
explode, this detonation system indicated a new level of complexity in the
Unabomber’s MO. The sixth bomb, sent to Vanderbilt University, contained
smokeless powder. The eighth bomb, left in a computer lab at the University
of California-Berkeley, was the most powerful yet. It contained ammonium
nitrate and aluminum powder. On December 11, 1985, the Unabomber
planted a bomb outside a computer store in Sacramento, California. This
bomb, the eleventh, had a gravity trigger and a backup system, and it was
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filled with nails to make the blast more harmful. It exploded as soon as it was
touched and caused his first fatal bombing.
Kaczynski had a distinctive signature. From the beginning of the bomb-
ings, he showed a fascination with wood. One of his victims, president of
United Airlines at the time, was named Percy A. Wood. Wood received the
bomb hidden inside a book published by Arbor House. Another intended vic-
tim was named LeRoy Wood Bearnson. Perhaps most intriguing, in June
1995, Kaczynski sent a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle bearing the
return address of Frederick Benjamin Isaac (which, interestingly, would be
abbreviated FBI) Wood of 549 Wood Street in Woodlake, California. His
final target was the headquarters of the California Forestry Association.
His obsessions carried over into the ritualistic details found in the handi-
work of his bombs. He built many of the electrical and switching mecha-
nisms in them from scratch, even though these components are available at
most hardware stores for relatively little cost. He constructed elaborate
wooden housings for many of the bombs. By the time Kaczynski was appre-
hended on April 3, 1996, it was estimated that more than one hundred hours
of work would have gone into the construction of one of his bombs. It was
evidently a point of pride for him; in a letter to the Washington Post, Kaczyn-
ski boasted about the precision and care with which he assembled his bombs.
Some of his correspondence, which he signed as a member of the “Freedom
Club,” points to another (literally) signature element of his crimes: the let-
ters “F.C.” were found on the remnants of several of the bombs.
When investigators and prosecutors face a situation as convoluted and
confusing as the Unabomber case, the recognition of the offender’s signature
is of paramount importance. Broad geographical range and initially baffling
victim selection can make it very difficult to establish motive. In such an
information vacuum, the various facets of the signature become increasingly
important in linking an offender to his crimes.
SERIAL KILLERS AND SIGNATURE CRIME
Steven Pennel
Steven Pennel was a sexual sadist who murdered at least three victims. His
MO involved using duct tape and ligatures to control his victims while he
tortured them. He used hammer blows to kill them (Douglas, 1989).
Pennel’s signature could be seen in the nature of the wounds inflicted on
his victims. He targeted the buttocks and breasts, beating and pinching them
with tools, including a hammer and pliers. The victims were kept alive dur-
ing these assaults because Pennel derived sexual gratification from their
response to torture. Autopsy results confirmed that none of the victims had
been sexually assaulted.
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Modus Operandi and the Signature Aspects of Violent Crime 27
The victims also had ligature marks around their necks, although the
blunt-force trauma to the head was the cause of death. Pennel enjoyed tight-
ening the ligature to the point of near strangulation. Because he required his
victims to be alive and conscious during torture, he did not kill them this
way. Strangulation was part of his signature, not the MO. It was a method to
cause extreme suffering in order to fulfill his sadistic fantasy.
Body disposal was similar for the victims. Pennel left their bodies in full
view, dumped with cold indifference by roadsides. The absence of remorse
demonstrated by Pennel’s body disposal methods can be considered another
aspect of his calling card.
The violence escalated as Pennel’s ritual matured and his fantasies sea-
soned. The last victim suffered the greatest amount of antemortem trauma
and postmortem mutilation. Again Pennel targeted the breasts. But in this
victim’s case, there was postmortem mutilation to the breasts rather than
antemortem mutilation, as had been evident with his other victims. This
caused some to debate whether this victim bore Pennel’s signature and
whether she had in fact been killed by him.
There were two reasons that this case could be linked to Pennel. His sig-
nature was still evident with this victim. First, he had inflicted a great deal of
injury to the victim’s buttocks while she was alive. Therefore, the signature
aspect of torturing a live victim was present, but it was evolving. With each
victim, the torture became more brutal. As stated above, interference with
the ritual due to contingencies arising will alter an offender’s ritual. This vic-
tim probably died before Pennel completed his ritual mutilations, so the sig-
nature appeared to be somewhat different but actually was the same. Second,
victimology strengthened the connection between these victims and Pennel.
The victims were all high risk: they were prostitutes or had a history of drug
abuse, or both. They disappeared from the same area, a state highway, and
police recovered the bodies within a few miles of each other.
Nathaniel Code
Nathaniel Code, the offender referred to earlier in this chapter, killed eight
times on three separate occasions. The first homicide, a twenty-five-year-
old black female, occurred August 8, 1984. Code stabbed her nine times in
the chest and slashed her throat. Approximately one year later, on July 19,
1985, Code struck again, this time claiming four victims: a fifteen-year-old
girl, her mother, and two male friends. Code nearly severed the girl’s head
from her body. Her mother died from asphyxiation and was draped over the
side of the bathtub. Code shot one of the males in the head, leaving him in
a middle bedroom. The other male was found in the front bedroom, shot
twice in the chest and with his throat slashed. The last killing took place on
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August 5, 1987. The victims were Code’s grandfather and his two young
nephews, ages eight and twelve. The boys died of ligature strangulation. Code
stabbed his grandfather five times in the chest and seven times in the back.
All three cases involved single-family dwellings. The air conditioners or
TVs, or both, were on, drowning out the noise of the intruder as he entered
through a door or window. Code quickly gained and maintained control of
the multiple victims by separating them into different rooms.
But there were changes in Code’s MO exhibited from case to case, which
offer another excellent example of the refinement of an MO. With the first
murder, a gag had been fashioned from material at the scene. The next time,
Code had come prepared, bringing duct tape with him. It is evident that he
engaged in some type of surveillance activity to obtain information about the
victims, especially with the second homicides. He brought a gun to dispose
quickly of the greatest threats, the males. The last victims, an elderly man
and two children, posed little threat to someone of Code’s large physical
stature, so he did not use the gun.
Code had a very distinctive calling card. The overkill injuries suffered by
the victims demonstrated one aspect of his signature. Code employed a very
bloody method of attack and overkill. He could have simply murdered each
of these victims with a single gunshot wound, a clean kill involving very lit-
tle mess. Instead, he slaughtered his victims, slashing their throats with a
sawing motion, causing deep neck wounds. Although brutal, the attack did
not satisfy Code’s ritual; all the victims who sustained neck wounds, with
the exception of the fifteen-year-old girl, also suffered additional injury. One
male victim sustained gunshot wounds to the chest and another multiple stab
wounds to the chest. Code wounded nearly all of the victims far beyond what
was necessary to cause death.
This physical violence and bloody overkill satisfied Code’s need for dom-
ination, control, and manipulation. He positioned all of his victims face
down, more evidence of this theme of domination. Forensics revealed the
daughter’s blood on the mother’s dress, indicating that Code forced the
mother to witness her daughter’s death.
The last signature aspect of Code’s crimes probably best illustrated this
unique calling card: the ligature. Code used an unusual configuration and
material. In all three cases, the victims were bound with electrical appliance
or telephone cords acquired at the scene. Code could have brought rope or
used his duct tape, but the use of these cords satisfied some personal need.
He used a handcuff-style configuration, with a loop around each wrist. He
also bound the ankles handcuff style and connected them to the wrists by a
lead going through the legs.
The dissimilarities of these cases involve the MO, not the signature as-
pect. The use of a gun with threatening males revealed an adaptive offender.
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Modus Operandi and the Signature Aspects of Violent Crime 29
At the time of the grandfather’s homicide, additional financial stressors af-
fected Code, as evidenced by the theft of money from the grandfather’s res-
idence. Three years of living reshaped this offender’s behavior at each of the
crime scenes. The MO reflected this change, but the signature did not.
CONCLUSION
Understanding and recognizing the signature aspects of crime has obvious
importance. It is often vital to the recognition, apprehension, and prosecu-
tion of the serial offender.
In 1984 David Vasquez pleaded guilty to the murder of a thirty-two-year-
old Arlington, Virginia, woman. The woman had been sexually assaulted and
died of ligature strangulation. The killer left her lying face down with her
hands tied behind her back. He had used unique knots and excessive binding
with the ligatures, and a lead came from the wrists to the neck over the left
shoulder. The body was openly displayed so that discovery would offer sig-
nificant shock value.
The offender had spent an excessive amount of time at the crime scene.
He had made extensive preparations to bind the victim, allowing him to
control her easily. His needs dictated that he move her around the house,
exerting total domination of her. It appeared he had even taken her into the
bathroom and had made her brush her teeth. None of this behavior was nec-
essary to perpetrate the crime; the offender had felt compelled to act out this
ritual.
Vasquez had a very low IQ. His lawyers felt this would make it difficult
to prove his innocence, so they convinced him he would probably receive the
death sentence if he went to trial. Afraid for his life, Vasquez opted for life
imprisonment and pleaded guilty.
In 1987, police discovered the body of a forty-four-year-old woman, nude
and face down on her bed, with a rope binding her wrists behind her back. The
ligature strand tightly encircled the neck, with a slip knot at the back, contin-
ued over her left shoulder down her back, and then wrapped three times
around each wrist. Forensics revealed she had died of ligature strangulation
and had been sexually assaulted. The offender left the body exposed and
openly displayed. He appeared to have spent a considerable amount of time
at the scene. This homicide occurred four blocks from the 1984 murder.
Vasquez had been imprisoned for several years when the 1987 murder
occurred. The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime conducted
an exhaustive analysis of these homicides, a series of sexual assaults, and
several other killings that had happened between 1984 and 1987. Eventually
it linked these offenses, through analogous signature aspects, to an Arling-
ton, Virginia, subject. Physical evidence later corroborated this connection.
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Vasquez was exonerated and released.
This example illustrates the importance of recognizing the signature
aspects of a violent crime. These signature aspects can serve justice and soci-
ety not only by curtailing a serial criminal’s violent career, but also by pre-
venting the arrest or punishment of the wrong person.
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CHAPTER
2
The Detection of Staging,
Undoing, and Personation
at the Crime Scene
JOHN E. DOUGLAS
LAUREN K. DOUGLAS
Chuck and Carol Stuart were on their way home from a prenatal birthing
class when, according to Chuck, a five foot five inch black man weigh-
ing 150 to 165 pounds abducted the couple, forcing them to drive to Mission
Hill, a racially mixed Boston neighborhood where drug abuse and crime are
common. After robbing the couple, said Stuart, the perpetrator shot Carol in
the head and then shot Chuck in the stomach. Carol died that night in the
hospital; their infant, who was delivered by cesarean section, died seventeen
days later. The story was covered heavily by the media, with commentators
pronouncing how fortunate Chuck was to be alive.
As part of the investigation, police began to stop black men randomly on
the streets in the hope of eventually finding the killer. A few days after the
shooting, police arrested William Bennett for a video store robbery. Bennett
soon became the prime suspect in Carol Stuart’s murder. Chuck even identi-
fied Bennett as the perpetrator in a police line-up.
As investigators began to explore Chuck’s background, however, rumors
flew that he was having money troubles, had a girlfriend, and had taken out
a life insurance policy on his wife. Investigators became suspicious of
Chuck’s recount of the abduction and murder. Chuck had told the police that
the perpetrator had shot him and his wife from the back seat of his car. Inves-
tigators were curious how the offender was able to shoot Chuck in the stom-
ach from such an odd angle. The question was also raised as to why Chuck
chose to call 911 first before attempting to help his dying pregnant wife.
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Chuck’s brother would later identify Chuck as the actual killer. Chuck had
shot his pregnant wife and then himself, staging the crime scene to look as
though a third party was responsible. Chuck Stuart ended up committing sui-
cide, and William Bennett was a free man.
Behavior reflects personality. Everything observed at a crime scene tells
a story and reflects something about the unknown subject (UNSUB) who
committed the crime. The crime scene and forensic evidence contain mes-
sages that will lead to the answers the investigators need to solve the crime.
By studying crimes and talking to perpetrators who have committed violent
crimes, investigators can learn to apply and solve the equation of Why +
How =Who. During this process, investigators attempt to interpret clues left
by the UNSUB at the scene, similar to a doctor who evaluates symptoms to
diagnose a particular disease or condition. As a doctor begins forming a
diagnosis and treatment plan based on his or her experience, an investigator
correspondingly conducts crime analysis when he or she sees patterns
emerge. Based on the analysis, leads and tactics can be developed to help
investigators identify the UNSUB.
A major part of the process of crime scene analysis depends on the ana-
lyst’s insight into the dynamics of human behavior. Speech patterns, writing
styles, verbal and nonverbal gestures, and other traits and patterns compose
human behavior. This combination causes every individual to act, react,
function, or perform in a unique and specific way. This individualistic behav-
ior usually remains consistent, whether it concerns keeping house, selecting
a wardrobe, or raping and murdering.
The commission of a violent crime involves all the same dynamics of nor-
mal human behavior. The same forces that influence normal everyday con-
duct also influence the offender’s actions during an offense. The crime scene
usually reflects these behavior patterns or gestures. Learning to recognize
the crime scene manifestations of this behavior enables an investigator to
discover much about the offender. Due to the personalized nature of this be-
havior, the investigator also has a means to distinguish among different
offenders committing the same offense.
There are three manifestations of offender behavior at a crime scene: mo-
dus operandi (MO), personation (the signature), and staging. This chapter
discusses personation and staging and illustrates them by case example.
THE ASSESSMENT
One aspect of interpreting the behavior patterns of an offense depends on
attention to details. These details often escape notice during the initial phase
of protecting and preserving the crime scene. A violent crime may not only
emotionally detach the investigator from the offense, but it may also desen-
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Staging, Undoing, and Personation at the Crime Scene 33
sitize that investigator to minute clues offered by the crime scene. Another
pitfall that obscures these important details is the inability of the investiga-
tor to achieve a comfortable distance from the crime. Identification with the
victim, perhaps relating the victim to a family member, prevents detachment
from the crime, and judgment may become clouded by emotion. By taking
quality crime scene photographs, investigators will be in a better position to
detach themselves from a highly emotional situation.
The assessment phase of crime analysis attempts to answer several ques-
tions. What was the sequence of events? Was the victim sexually assaulted
before or after death? Was mutilation before or after death? Observations
like this can offer important insights into an offender’s personality. How did
the encounter between the offender and victim occur? Did the offender blitz-
attack the victim, or did he use verbal means (the con) to capture her? Did
the offender use ligatures to control the victim? Finally, any items added to
or taken from the crime scene require careful analysis.
As the investigator makes these assessments of the crime scene, puzzling
elements may arise that may obscure the underlying motive of the crime.
The crime scene also may contain peculiarities that serve no apparent pur-
pose in the perpetration of the crime. The latter of these crime scene charac-
teristics, personation, is discussed first.
PERSONATION
Most violent crime careers have a quiet, isolated beginning within the of-
fender’s imagination. The subject fantasizes about raping, torturing, killing,
building bombs, setting fires, or any combination of these violent acts. When
the offender translates these fantasies into action, his emotional needs com-
pel him to exhibit violent behavior during the commission of a crime.
One of the first cases brought to the National Center for the Analysis of
Violent Crime (NCAVC) was a 1979 homicide of a twenty-six-year-old
white female on the roof of her apartment in New York City. The cause of
death was ligature strangulation. The UNSUB left the victim’s body face up
and positioned her body to resemble a Jewish religious medal. He carefully
removed her earrings and placed them on either side of her head. He cut her
nipples off and placed them on her chest. The offender also inserted her um-
brella into the vagina and placed her comb into the pubic hair. He then placed
the victim’s nylons around her wrists and ankles. He scrawled a derogatory
message to police on her body using her pen. Finally, he left a pile of his
feces, covered with her clothing, a few feet from the body. The NCAVC
assessed all of this activity as being postmortem. A few inexpensive articles
of jewelry were missing, including the Jewish religious medal that resem-
bled the body’s positioning.
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This crime scene displayed some unusual input by this offender. The per-
petration of this crime did not require the positioning of the body, the post-
mortem mutilation, insertion and removal of items, and use of postmortem
ligatures. The significance of this behavior was not readily apparent to the
investigator. The act of sexual assault and murder had little to do with most
of this offender’s behavior at the crime scene. His behavior went far beyond
the actions necessary to carry out this offense (the MO) because assault and
murder alone would not satisfy his needs.
Personation is unusual behavior by an offender, beyond that necessary to
commit the crime. The offender invests intimate meaning into the crime
scene (for example, by posing the victim, mutilation, items removed or left,
or other symbolic gestures involving the crime scene). Only the offender
knows the meaning of these acts. Signature is when a serial offender demon-
strates repetitive ritualistic behavior from crime to crime. The signature as-
pect of a crime is simply repetitive personation.
Undoing represents a form of personation with more obvious meaning.
Undoing frequently occurs at the crime scene when there is a close associa-
tion between the offender and the victim or when the victim represents
someone of significance to the offender.
The following case exemplifies undoing. A son stabbed his mother to
death during a fierce argument. After calming down, the son realized the full
impact of his actions. First, he changed the victim’s bloodied shirt and then
placed her body on the couch with her head on a pillow. He covered her with
a blanket and folded her hands over her chest so she appeared to be sleeping
peacefully. This behavior indicated his remorse by attempting to emotion-
ally undo the murder. Other forms of undoing may include the offender’s
washing up, cleaning the body, covering the victim’s face, or completely
covering the body. The offender engages in these activities not because he is
attempting to hide the victim but because he may be feeling some degree of
remorse.
STAGING
Staging is when someone purposely alters the crime scene prior to the arrival
of police. There are two reasons that someone employs staging: to redirect
the investigation away from the most logical suspect or to protect the victim
or victim’s family.
When a crime is staged, the responsible person is not someone who just
happens upon the victim. It is usually someone who had some kind of asso-
ciation or relationship with the victim. This offender will further attempt to
steer the investigation away from him by his conduct when in contact with
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Staging, Undoing, and Personation at the Crime Scene 35
law enforcement. Thus, investigators should never eliminate a suspect solely
on the grounds of that person’s overly cooperative or distraught behavior.
A double homicide case that received national publicity involved Susan
Smith, the mother of Alex and Michael, who purposely let her car, with her
two small sons inside, roll into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina.
Smith first went to a nearby home where she banged on the door, screaming,
“He’s got my kids and he’s got my car. A black man has got my kids and my
car.” The home owners called 911. Smith told police that she was stopped at
a red light when a black man jumped in her car and told her to drive. Even-
tually Smith said the man told her to get out of the car and he proceeded to
drive off with her children.
Smith attempted to steer the investigation away from her by creating a
false scenario to detract police. She was interviewed on many occasions, and
police began to catch the inconsistencies in her story. In addition, the man-
ner in which she spoke of her children’s disappearances made police ques-
tion her as a potential suspect. During numerous interviews, Smith spoke
about her sons in the past tense; at one point she said, “No man would ever
make me hurt my children.” This statement told police that she believed her
children were not alive. Police began to focus the investigation on Smith,
who ultimately confessed during an interview with an investigator.
A landmark case for the NCAVC in the use of signature analysis was the
1991 trial of George Russell Jr., charged with the bludgeoning and strangu-
lation murder of three women in Seattle. Each victim was blitz-attacked,
with all three killings happening over a seven-week period. All three women
were left naked and posed provocatively and degradingly. The sexual con-
tent of the posed scene escalated from one victim to the next. The first vic-
tim was posed with hands clasped and legs crossed at the ankles and left near
a sewer grate and trash dumpster. The second victim was posed on a bed
with a pillow over her head, her legs bent out to each side, a rifle inserted into
her vagina, and red high heels on her feet. The final victim was posed on her
bed with her legs spread, with a dildo in her mouth, and a copy of The Joy of
Sex placed under her left arm.
The blitz attacks were necessary to kill these women; the degrading pos-
ing was not. One of the chapter authors (J.E.D.) would testify at the hearing
advising jurors of the fact that there are not many cases of posing, that is,
when the offender treats the victim like a prop to leave a specific message.
These crimes are usually crimes of anger and of power. It is the thrill of the
hunt, the thrill of the kill, and the thrill afterward of how the offender leaves
the victim that makes the offender feel as though he has beat the system.
Douglas, relying on the signature aspects of the crimes, believed that who-
ever killed one of these victims killed all three. A jury ultimately found
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Russell guilty of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggra-
vated first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without possi-
bility of parole.
Increasing numbers of anti-Semitic hate crimes show staging. In March
2004, Kerri Dunn, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, reported her
car had been vandalized in the campus parking lot. The police report con-
firmed her car windows had been broken, the tires slashed, and a swastika,
“Kike Whore,” and “Nigger Lover,” painted on the doors and hood of the
vehicle. The Jewish community was understandably upset by the incident
and demanded that the college administration take some action to prevent
this type of behavior from occurring in the future. The upheaval ended
when two students told investigators they witnessed Dunn vandalizing her
own car. It was known that Dunn was in the process of converting from
Catholicism to Judaism, which may be one of the reasons that she commit-
ted the act. There was also speculation that perhaps it was a mandatory ini-
tiation rite. A jury ultimately found Dunn guilty of staging the anti-Semitic
hate crime.
Another reason for staging is to protect the victim or victim’s family and
is employed most frequently with rape-murder crimes or autoerotic fatali-
ties. The offender of a sexual homicide frequently leaves the victim in a de-
grading position. One can hardly fault a family member’s protective staging
behavior, but the investigator needs to obtain an accurate description of
the body’s condition when found and exactly what that person did to alter the
crime scene.
This type of staging is also prevalent with autoerotic fatalities. The victim
may be removed from the apparatus that caused death (for example, cut
down from a noose or device suspending the body). In many cases, the vic-
tim wears a mask or costume. The costume often involves cross-dressing, so
not only does the person discovering the body have to endure the shock of
finding the victim dead, but also the shock of finding the victim in female
dress. To prevent further damage to the victim’s or family’s reputation or to
protect other family members, the person discovering the body may redress
the victim in men’s clothing or dress the nude body. He or she will often
stage the accident to look like a suicide, perhaps writing a suicide note. This
person may even go as far as staging the scene to appear as a homicide.
Nevertheless, scrutiny of forensics, crime scene dynamics, and victimology
probably will reveal the true circumstances surrounding death. Evidence of
previous autoerotic activities (bondage literature, adult “toys,” eyebolts in
the ceiling, worn spots from rope on beams) in the victim’s home also will
help determine if an autoerotic activity caused death.
Finally, the investigator should discern whether a crime scene is truly dis-
organized or whether the offender staged it to appear careless and haphaz-
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Staging, Undoing, and Personation at the Crime Scene 37
ard. This determination not only helps direct the analysis to the underlying
motive, but also helps to shape the offender profile. However, the recogni-
tion of staging, especially with a shrewd offender, can be difficult. The inves-
tigator must scrutinize all factors of the crime if there is reason to believe it
has been staged. Forensics, victimology, and minute crime scene details
become critical to the detection of staging.
Crime Scene Red Flags
An offender who stages a crime scene usually makes mistakes because he
stages it to look the way he thinks a crime scene should look. While doing
this, the offender experiences a great deal of stress and does not have time to
fit all the pieces together logically. Inconsistencies thus begin appearing at
the crime scene, the forensics, and with the overall picture of the offense.
These contradictions often serve as the red flags of staging and prevent mis-
guidance of the investigation.
These red flags often occur in the form of crime scene inconsistencies.
The investigator should scrutinize all crime scene indicators individually
and then view them in the context of the whole picture. Several important
questions need to be asked during crime scene analysis. First, did the subject
take inappropriate items from the crime scene if burglary appears to be the
motive?
In one case submitted to the NCVAC, a man returning home from work
interrupted a burglary in progress. The startled burglars killed the man as he
attempted to flee. A later inventory revealed the offenders had not stolen any-
thing, but it appeared they had begun taking apart a large stereo and TV unit
for removal. Analysis of the crime scene indicated the offenders passed over
smaller items, including jewelry and coin collections, of greater worth. With
further investigation, police discovered that the victim’s wife had paid the
offenders to stage the burglary and kill her husband. She was having an affair
with one of the offenders.
Second, did the point of entry make sense? For example, an offender
enters a house by a second-story window despite the presence of easier, less
conspicuous entry points.
Third, did the perpetration of this crime pose a high risk to the offender?
In other words, did it happen during daylight hours, in a populated area, with
obvious signs of occupation at the house (lights on, vehicles in the drive-
way), or involving highly visible entry points? The following case illustrates
some of these points.
In a small northeastern city, an unknown intruder attacked a man and his
wife one Saturday morning. The offender had placed a ladder against the
house, climbed up to a second-story window, and entered after removing
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the screen. This all occurred in a residential area during a time when the
neighbors were awake. The husband had peered outside his bedroom door
and saw a figure going downstairs; he then followed with a gun. He claimed
the offender struck him on the head after a struggle and then returned up-
stairs and killed his wife by manual strangulation. The victim’s body was
found with her nightgown pulled up around her waist, implying she had been
sexually assaulted.
As the detectives processed the crime scene, they noted that the offender’s
weight on the ladder had left no impressions in the ground. However, when
the police investigator placed one foot on the bottom rung, the ladder left an
impression. In addition, the offender had positioned the ladder backward,
with the rungs going in the wrong direction. Many of the rotted rungs could
never have supported even fifty pounds of weight. It was observed the of-
fender neither left foot impressions nor was debris transferred from the
rungs to the roof, where he supposedly gained entrance through a second
story window.
Why didn’t the offender choose an entrance through a first-story window?
This would have decreased the chance of detection from both the occupants
and the neighbor. Why burglarize on a Saturday morning in an area full of
potential witnesses? Why choose a house obviously occupied, with several
vehicles in the driveway? If the criminal intent was homicide, why didn’t the
intruder seek his intended victims immediately? Instead, he went downstairs
first. If he intended to murder, why didn’t he come equipped to kill? Why did
the person posing the greatest threat to the intruder receive only minor in-
juries? When an investigator analyzes a crime scene demonstrating a great
deal of offender activity and no clear motive for this activity, the statements
of the victim or witness should be questioned. In this case, the victim’s hus-
band was charged and convicted of homicide.
Another red flag apparent with many staged domestic murders is the fatal
assault of the wife or children, or both, by an intruder while the husband
escapes without injury or with nonfatal injury. This was seen in the Stuart
case at the beginning of the chapter. If the offender does not initially target
the person posing the greatest threat or if that person suffers the least amount
of injury, the police investigator should reexamine all other crime scene indi-
cators. In addition, the investigator should scrutinize forensics and victimol-
ogy (for example, were there any recent insurance policies on victim?) with
particular attention.
Forensic Red Flags
Do the injuries fit the crime? Forensic results that do not fit the crime should
cause the investigator to think about staging. The presence of a personal-type
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Staging, Undoing, and Personation at the Crime Scene 39
assault using a weapon of opportunity when the initial motive for the offense
appears to be for material gain should raise suspicion. This type of assault
also includes manual or ligature strangulation, facial beating (depersonaliza-
tion), and excessive trauma beyond that necessary to cause death (overkill).
Generally, the more evidence there is of overkill, the closer the relationship
is between the victim and the offender.
Sexual and domestic homicides demonstrate forensic findings of this
type: a close-range, personalized assault. The victim (not money or goods)
is the primary focus on the offender. This type of offender often attempts to
stage a sexual or domestic homicide to appear motivated by criminal enter-
prise. This does not imply that personal-type assaults never happen during
the commission of a property crime, but usually the criminal enterprise of-
fender prefers a quick, clean kill that reduces time at the scene. Any foren-
sic red flags should be placed in context with victimology and crime scene
information after careful analysis.
Other discrepancies may arise when the account of a witness or survivor
conflicts with forensic findings. In one case, an estranged wife found her hus-
band, a professional golfer, dead in the bathroom tub with the water running.
Initially it appeared as if the golfer had slipped in the tub, struck his head on
the bathroom fixture, and drowned. However, the autopsy began to raise sus-
picion. Toxicology reports revealed a high level of Valium in the victim’s
bloodstream at the time of death. The autopsy also revealed several concen-
trated areas of injury or impact points on the head, as if the victim had struck
his head more than once. Later, investigators learned the wife had been with
him the night of his death. The wife later confessed that she had made dinner
for her husband and had laced his salad with Valium. After her husband
passed out, she let three men she hired into the house to kill him and make the
death look accidental.
Investigators often find forensic discrepancies when a subject stages a
rape murder. The offender frequently positions the victim to imply sexual as-
sault has occurred. An offender who has a close relationship with the victim
will often only partially remove the victim’s clothing (for example, pants
pulled down, shirt or dress pulled up). He rarely leaves the victim totally
nude. Despite the body’s positioning and the partial removal of clothes, the
forensic examination demonstrates a lack of sexual assault. The investigator
should remember that sexual assault can take many forms, including ex-
ploratory probing, regressive necrophilia, and insertion of objects. With a
staged sexual assault, there is usually no evidence of any sexual activity and
an absence of seminal fluids in the body orifices.
An investigator who suspects a staged crime scene should look for other
signs of close offender association with the victim, such as washing up or
any other indications of undoing. In addition, when an offender stages a
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domestic homicide, he frequently plans and maneuvers a third-party discov-
ery of the victim. The case that involved the husband staging his wife’s mur-
der to appear as the work of an intruder illustrates this point. Instead of going
upstairs to check on his wife and daughter, he called his brother, who lived
across the street. The husband stayed downstairs in the kitchen while the
brother ran upstairs and discovered the victim. Offenders often manipulate
the victim’s discovery by a neighbor or family member or will be conve-
niently elsewhere when the victim is discovered.
Staging in Arson
Most of the same red flags of staging that apply to a staged homicide also
apply to a staged arson. Arson investigation warrants the same attention to
crime scene information, targeted property and/or victimology, and forensic
findings as a homicide investigation.
Crime Concealment. When it is suspected that arson has been used for
crime concealment, especially a murder, one of the first questions asked
should be, “Does the forensic evidence fit the crime?” One example, a
California case began when a passing motorist saw a mobile home engulfed
in flames. He honked his horn to get the neighbors’ attention as he pulled in
front of the burning home. Face down in the yard, apparently unconscious,
was a thirty-four-year-old white male, a resident of the burning home. Upon
hearing a female voice calling for help, the motorist and a neighbor at-
tempted to enter the structure, but the heat was too intense. When firefight-
ers and police arrived, the man who had been unconscious in the yard began
to cry out, “My wife is in there. She’s asleep in the bedroom!” He attempted
to enter the trailer but was held back by firefighters.
The husband told investigators he had fallen asleep in the living room
while watching TV when he was suddenly awakened by fire coming from
the bedroom where his wife was sleeping. He had no memory of anything
except jumping out the window to escape the burning trailer.
The first inconsistency of his story became evident after his wife’s au-
topsy. She had sustained numerous head wounds, including a skull fracture
running from the left cheek to the top of her head. One wound was described
as a large, gaping hole that seemed to have torn the scalp loose from the
skull. Physical evidence within the home could not account for these
injuries, the extent of which could have been fatal. The immediate cause of
death was asphyxiation and extensive thermal burns over 90 percent of the
body, with a secondary cause of compound head injuries.
The crime scene also offered many red flags. The victim’s body was found
in the living room, not the bedroom. A large amount of blood was found on
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Staging, Undoing, and Personation at the Crime Scene 41
the living room floor close to where the husband had been sitting. Blood-
stains also were observed on the husband’s shirt, pants, and shoes. The most
extensive damage by the fire occurred in the living room area, particularly
around the husband’s chair, and not in the back bedroom, where his wife
allegedly had been sleeping and the fire supposedly had originated. The hus-
band offered no explanation of his wife’s brutal beating. He denied hearing
or seeing anything related to the incident. Closer observation of the crime
scene made it apparent the fire had been set to conceal the struggle and homi-
cide that had occurred that night. The husband was subsequently convicted
of both arson and second-degree murder and was sentenced to fifteen years
to life.
Insurance Fraud. Arson is often employed for the purposes of insurance
fraud. The fire may be staged to appear accidental or committed by some
party unknown to the apparent victim. The detection of staging often de-
pends heavily on investigation beyond the crime scene indicators. The fol-
lowing example illustrates the investigative leads that uncovered the staging
of a crime made to appear as if the offenders were victims of arson.
A couple in their mid-sixties were summoned from a short shopping trip
with the news that there had been a fire in their $850,000 home. The fire had
done minimal damage to all but the second floor and a stairway leading
to the third floor, where a gasoline container was found. There were some
flammable-liquid burn patterns in the master bedroom, where the most ex-
tensive damage was done. The firefighters had noticed an unusual lack of
furniture and personal effects in the spacious home. The couple reported that
many items were missing from their home and filed a burglary report. It
appeared the arson was intended to cover the tracks of a burglar.
Three days later, firefighters were again summoned to the couple’s home.
This time, the house was unoccupied, and the fire was set in the living room.
The investigation began to focus on the couple, although they seemed
unlikely criminals. (The wife was active in community organizations, and
neither husband nor wife had any criminal record other than a few traffic vio-
lations.) However, the missing items were not typical articles targeted by
theft. The list included photographs, personal items, paintings of family
members, a dresser, and a three-foot safe.
Upon checking the furnishings and clothing still in the house, investiga-
tors noted the furniture appeared to be of poor quality, and much of the cloth-
ing looked secondhand. A real estate agent who had recently listed the house
told investigators that the residence previously had contained some nice fur-
nishings, including some expensive-looking china.
The case became more solid as investigators began checking local rental
truck and storage businesses. They found the suspects had rented a truck
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several times to move furniture from their home to a storage unit, a newly
rented house, and the out-of-state home of the suspects’ son. The storage
unit and the rented home were both rented under aliases. The house rent was
paid in cash, and the suspects unsuccessfully had tried to convince the land-
lord to turn on the utilities under his name. In addition, a phone call was
made by the suspects’ daughter at 11:38 A.M. on the morning of the fire to
inform a friend that some of his belongings had been destroyed in a fire at
her parents’ home. However, fire department records showed the first fire
call concerning that residence was made at 2:08 P.M. Finally, most of the
items reported missing or destroyed in the fire were found at either the stor-
age unit, the rented house, or the son’s home. The couple was charged and
convicted of arson and insurance fraud.
As these cases illustrate, the detection of staging at the arson crime scene
often depends on the careful investigation of factors outside the crime scene.
These factors include forensics and the alleged victim’s background (espe-
cially financial status).
COURTROOM IMPLICATIONS
It is imperative in any case analysis to remain objective and not be placed in
a position whereby one may be influenced by investigators working the case.
This is particularly important if the analysis may possibly be used not just as
an investigative tool in a case, but in courtroom testimony when an expert is
called on for an opinion. The only way to remain objective at the onset of the
analysis is with an UNSUB case. If investigators have already identified a
suspect, this fact should not be made available during crime scene analysis.
The only information furnished for crime scene analysis should be a synop-
sis of the crime and a description of the crime scene, including, if applicable,
weather conditions; political and social environment; a complete background
of the victim; forensic information to include autopsy and toxicology and
serology reports, autopsy photographs, and photographs of the cleansed
wounds; crime scene sketches showing distances, directions, and scale; and
maps of the area.
Until the analysis of the crime is complete, having suspect information
will directly prejudice the analyst’s conclusions and may even consciously
or subconsciously cause one to tailor an analysis that steers the investigation
toward the investigator’s primary suspect. Strict adherence to this procedural
rule must be followed. Crime analysis is not a substitute for a thorough and
well-planned investigation. Over the years, it has proven to be a viable inves-
tigative tool when the standards for analysis have been carefully followed
and the crime scene analyst’s opinions have not been contaminated by hav-
ing prejudicial information.
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Staging, Undoing, and Personation at the Crime Scene 43
CONCLUSION
Behavior reflects personality, and to understand the criminal, the investigator
must be able to detach himself or herself emotionally from the violent
offense. There is a fine line between being detached versus being observant
and sensitive to minute forensic details left by the UNSUB at the scene. Inves-
tigators should recognize offender behavioral patterns such as MO, person-
ation, undoing, and staging. If investigators approach each crime scene with
an awareness of these factors they will improve their abilities to solve the
equation, Why +How =Who, and win the war against violent crime.
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CHAPTER
3
Prescriptive Interviewing
Interfacing the Interview and Interrogation
with Crime Classification
GREGORY M. COOPER
The defendant’s own confession is probably the most
probative and damaging evidence that can be admitted against him.
Justice Byron White, Bruton v. United States (1968)
In determining and isolating the guilt of an offender, there is no evidence
more incriminating, damning, and conclusive than a voluntary confession.
Although the underlying thrust of an interrogation is to explore and resolve
issues, the successful interview of a culpable offender culminates when the
truth is surrendered in a confession.
All of the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony combined is never
worth as much as the criminal’s own self-incriminating words: “I did it.” The
admissible confession proves guilt independently. It requires no authentica-
tion, no chain of custody, no scientific examination, no opinion testimony,
no inferences, and no interpretation.
THE PROSECUTION’S ARSENAL
The Eyewitness
Eyewitness testimony is undeniably vital to a successful prosecution; how-
ever, it is often characterized by weakness. The witness may have problems
seeing or hearing and describing what occurred. In addition, the witness may
have a subtle reason to maliciously misrepresent the facts or alter them by
unintentional or even targeted prejudice. The witness may be afraid to get
involved and consequently becomes reluctant. Inconveniently before trial,
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witnesses may alter their account or become forgetful, or move out of the
state, or even die.
It is well known that two eyewitness accounts of the same incident can
differ significantly. Research has substantially illustrated this effect:
The data of experimental psychology now establishes quite securely
that no two individuals observe any complex occurrence in quite the
same manner; that the ability of different individuals to retain and
recall observations differ; that the elements which are retained and re-
called are influenced by past experience and attitudes; and that the abil-
ity of various individuals to express what they have observed, retained,
and recall vary greatly. There is no wholly reliable witness since the
observations of all witnesses are faulty in some degree and some situ-
ations [Loevinger, 1980].
Although an eyewitness account greatly authenticates an occurrence, it
should not be overestimated. The effects of time, the limits of human percep-
tion, and recollection, bias, prejudice, greed, and all human emotions influ-
ence perception.
Physical Evidence
Physical evidence is also imperfect. Questions can be raised about the
method of collection, preservation, analysis, and introduction of evidence.
All too often, strong cases have been jeopardized and lost due to evidentiary
error. Still an integral part of the effective prosecution, the strength of phys-
ical evidence is enhanced when combined with the complete prosecutorial
arsenal.
Plea Bargaining
In some cases, law enforcement officers may take offense even at the sug-
gestion of associating an efficiency and value factor to the application of jus-
tice. Nevertheless, plea bargaining must be unconditionally accepted as a
negotiable leverage, especially considering the monumental costs of the
American justice system and effective use of tax dollars.
At a seminar on trial advocacy, a distinguished federal judge stated, “Law
is not a search for truth. The whole objective is to achieve the highest qual-
ity of justice in the least amount of time at the lowest possible cost” (Kestler,
1982, p. 4). The following legal professional opinions support this philoso-
phy while stating that “the ultimate strategic objective of questioning tech-
niques is not to win at trial, rather it is to force an early settlement of the case
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Prescriptive Interviewing 47
on favorable terms.” Furthermore, “a favorable settlement is more desirable
than trial despite the strengths and righteousness of the cause, because it
eliminates the uncertainties and vicissitudes as well as the expense of litiga-
tion. In the vast majority of cases, the successful advocate is not the one who
ultimately prevails at the appellate level, or perhaps the Supreme Court of
the United States, but rather is the advocate who quickly demonstrates to an
opponent that further costly resistance is unreasonable and that a just result
for both parties can best be achieved at the settlement table” (p. 6).
Plea bargaining a settlement between first- or second-degree homicide,
for example, is an extremely difficult approach for the prosecution to accept.
Even worse is a descent to manslaughter, especially when the investigation
suggests a more serious charge. Some prosecutorial weakness effectively
targeted by the defense may release the offender from being prosecuted to
the full extent of the law; worse, he may escape any form of judicial justice
whatsoever. Nevertheless, a plea-bargaining agreement can and should be
sustained as an effective antidote when there is insufficient evidence to sup-
port the maximum charge and accompanying penalties.
The Confession: The Best Weapon
Admissions of guilt are essential to society’s compelling interest in finding,
convicting, and punishing those who violate the laws.—Moran v. Burbine
(1986)
Surpassing all other forms of evidence and reinforcing their support of the
truth, the confession remains unique. Unquestionably, the confession will
prompt immediate deliberation of both advantages and disadvantages of a
trial or plea-bargaining alternative. If a trial is warranted, a voluntary, admis-
sible confession is undeniably paramount in considering the totality of the
evidentiary presentation. The admissible confession will strengthen the in-
tegrity of both the eyewitness account and the physical evidence while fuel-
ing the synergistic effect of the prosecutorial arsenal.
A legal description of a confession is contained in the following case pro-
ceedings: “An accused person knowingly makes an acknowledgement that
he or she committed or participated in the commission of the criminal act.
This acknowledgement must be broad enough to comprehend every essen-
tial element necessary to make a case against the defendant” (James v. State,
1952). According to this legal description, a confession should consist of
(1) an acknowledgment of the commission of or participation in a criminal
act that (2) must be sufficiently comprehensive to include every element of
the criminal act as defined by statute.
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To fully understand and implement the confession as described earlier, a
review of burden of proof and the criminal act requirements and their impli-
cations is warranted.
Burden of Proof
Criminal investigators assume the prosecution’s responsibility to prove guilt
beyond a reasonable doubt. This includes the requirement of proving each
element of the offense for which the accused is charged. There is no prosecu-
tion without the presentation of proof. And the proof is initially discovered,
organized, assessed, and finally presented to the prosecution by the in-
vestigator. A successful prosecution, which secures a conviction, is the fruit
of a productive, meticulous, and intensive investigation. If the prosecution
fails to prove all of the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, the
verdict dictates the accused guilty of a lesser crime. Failure of the prosecu-
tion to gather and introduce sufficient evidence to meet this burden will
result in an acquittal or, at least, the reduction of a more serious crime to a
less serious one (Klotter, 1990).
Criminal Act Requirements
There are several factors that need to be addressed to determine whether in
fact what happened was a crime. These are termed criminal act requirements.
Actus Reus. Before a person may be convicted and punished for a crime, the
prosecution must present evidence that the person (acting as a principal,
accessory, or accomplice) committed a criminal act as defined by statute.
Each element of the crime prescribed by law must be present in the offender’s
actions to duly constitute a criminal offense. This principle is referred to as
actus reus. It is the first condition required to label an act a crime.
Mens Rea. The formula for committing a crime is incomplete without the
evidence of criminal intent. The actus reus must be combined with the crim-
inal state of mind (mens rea) to constitute a crime. If the defense can show
that the defendant’s mind was innocent, a crime has not been committed.
Criminal intent must accompany the criminal act except as otherwise pro-
vided by statute. Criminal intent can also be satisfied if the act is accompa-
nied by such negligent and reckless conduct as to be regarded by the law as
the equivalent to criminal intent (Klotter, 1990).
This concept may be expressed in the following formula:
Criminal act (actus reus) +criminal intent (mens rea) =
Criminal conviction
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Prescriptive Interviewing 49
Causation. The criminal conviction formula incorporates through logically
deductive reasoning the existence of a causal relationship between conduct
and results. In other words, for “one to be guilty of a crime, his act or omis-
sion must have been the proximate cause thereof” (Klotter, 1990). There is
usually little or no difficulty in showing causal relationship.
In summation, the prosecution must show the following:
• A specific party or parties participated.
• Criminal acts as constituted by law were committed.
• There was the presence of a criminal state of mind.
• The conduct was the proximate cause of the crime.
What does the criminal act requirement (actus reus, mens rea, and causa-
tion) have to do with the confession? What is the relationship between the
confession and the prosecution’s burden of proof responsibility?
Recall the previous legal description of the confession: that it requires
acknowledgment and comprehensive culpability of each required element to
constitute a crime.
Regretfully, interviews are concluded prematurely for many reasons,
sometimes unknowingly. While devoting a concentrated effort to the first
criterion (participation in the criminal act), the interviewer mistakenly over-
looks the pivotal third criteria (criminal intent). Although the offender’s
acknowledgments may satisfy the actus reus and causation provisions of the
criminal act requirements, the admission alone is insufficient to expose
every essential element necessary to make a case against the defendant.
The offender’s admission may reveal his participation in a criminal act
(actus reus) and that his conduct was the direct cause of the crime (causa-
tion). The act, although interrelated, is only a reflection of his character.
However, it does not fully reveal his character or criminal state of mind, and
it is imperative that this be displayed. The interview provides the investiga-
tor a chance to extract and unravel his thought process, and reveal his crim-
inal state of mind.
Criminal Intent
To comprehensively understand the act, the criminal mind must be unrav-
eled. This issue is especially significant when a crime is classified by vari-
ous degrees of seriousness depending on the defendant’s state of mind. Not
only must the confession reflect that the defendant did something “bad,” but
also it must show that he had a “bad” intent. This distinction is especially
useful for the prosecution when it is essential to determine the level of seri-
ousness of the crime and its associated degree of punishment. Moreover, it
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may also be considered when assessing the predictability of the defendant’s
propensity toward violence and potential for recidivism.
The confession provides the psychological environment for the offender to
reenact the crime. It sets the stage for him to relive his behavioral role (actus
reus) and display his psychological role (mens rea). The well-prepared inter-
viewer can write the script for the final scene as the offender recounts each
phase of the crime. The interviewer can preview the offense by allowing the
offender to escort him through every scene until the full panorama of events
is related. The interviewer assumes the role of a scribe while he urges the
offender to mentally return to the crime and dictate his every act, precipitat-
ing thoughts, emotions, and feelings. The defendant’s own explanation of his
mens rea (state of mind) will uncover his criminal intent.
Criminal intent can effectively be articulated and demonstrated by build-
ing the mens rea portion of the confession from the foundation of three basic
questions:
1. Did the offender premeditate?
2. Did the offender deliberate?
3. Did the offender harbor malice aforethought?
These three questions provide the framework to formulate queries that
solicit the defendant’s thoughts, behavior (including habits), and feelings he
experienced before, during, and after the crime. The interviewer should not
restrict his review of the defendant’s history but should probe as far back as
possible. Furthermore, if the content of the confession clearly illustrates the
defendant’s willful misconduct, it will reject an alleged impaired under-
standing of his criminal behavior. This renders the diminished capacity or
insanity defense implausible.
There is no short-cut approach to producing an all-inclusive confession.
But when considering the consequences of failing to solve a capital crime,
expediency should never be an issue.
Preparing for the Prescriptive Interview
I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to
suit facts.—Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia
Prescriptive interviewing is a tool to supplement law enforcement efforts in
achieving successful results during the interview. It will also serve to elevate
the interviewer’s awareness of steps that can be applied to increase interview
effectiveness. Enhanced interview skills and techniques are especially fitting
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Prescriptive Interviewing 51
in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case Minnick v. Missis-
sippi (1990),when it ruled six to two precluding law enforcement officials
from reengaging a suspect after the suspect had requested an attorney. The
Court stated that “when counsel is requested, interrogation must cease, and
officials may not re-initiate interrogation without counsel present, whether
or not the accused has consulted with his attorney.” Consequently, it is best
to assume that law enforcement has one opportunity to interview a defen-
dant. Therefore, the interviewer will serve the public’s best interest with an
exhaustive preparation. If the interview does not terminate with the confes-
sion, neither will it be unresolved with a burden of regrets.
The vital link to a successful interview is preparation, which establishes
the foundation to developing a successful approach in the interview setting.
Preparation has four steps:
1. Data collection. Comprehensive and meticulous data collection sys-
tem must be implemented to reconstruct each phase of a capital crime. Each
criminal offense consists of fundamental elements that must be present to
conform to specific criminal code requirements. Data collection is a princi-
pal factor in determining that those requirements have been met as pre-
scribed by law.
2. Assessment. Assessing the relevancy of the data to the crime is re-
quired. It is necessary to objectively judge the value of the data collected to
determine if they apply to the elements of the crime, that is, whether the
information contributes to the criminal act requirements.
3. Analysis. Analysis of the data is imperative to complete the prepara-
tory process. Law enforcement must do more than merely see that each crim-
inal element is intact. Professionalism requires organizing and dissecting the
information, thereby observing the complex web of interrelated components
of the crime. For example, I may “see” a set of stairs before me; however, I
“observe” that there are exactly sixteen steps covered with a distinctive color
and quality of carpet. In addition, the carpet is soiled and cluttered with spe-
cific toys and items of clothing, suggesting the presence of children of cor-
responding ages. The condition of the carpet and disarray of clothing and
toys may also suggest the house-cleaning habits of the owners and even
imply an economic and social stratum. It is during this phase of preparation
that meaning and substance are assigned to the (criminal) act and the actor.
Armed with this enhanced understanding, the fourth step is applied.
4. Theorizing. Theorizing assumes the challenges of identifying the mo-
tivation underlying the criminal thought process and reconstructing the
crime. It attempts to mentally crystallize the interwoven thread or current of
thought that the criminal mind uses to justify his crime and general behavior.
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This sometimes laborious preparatory process will elevate the inter-
viewer’s ability to empathize with the offender’s state of mind and prompt a
better understanding of his thoughts and rationalization.
The preparatory phase of the interview is preeminent in conducting a
successful interview. There is no substitute for this principle, and it should
never be sacrificed for convenience or expediency. Granted, depending on
the grievous nature of the crime, varying degrees of effort will be applied.
However, especially with capital crimes, success will be tantamount to
preparation.
CRIME CLASSIFICATION
Crime classification integrates all preparatory steps of the interview. It is the
precursor to humanizing the offender and revealing his thought process. It
includes the accumulation and assimilation of data compiled during the
investigative phase for the purpose of conducting a criminal investigative
analysis. To formulate a profile of the criminal personality, a criminal inves-
tigative analyst will review and analyze area photos, maps, sketches, crime
scene photos, victimology, and all incident-related reports. The analyst also
examines autopsy and forensic findings, initial and follow-up reports, and
newspaper clippings. A microscopic examination of this information will
begin to reveal behavioral characteristics of the offender, thereby exposing
major personality traits.
The process applied by a criminal investigative analyst in developing an
offender’s personality characteristics is similar to a forensic pathologist. The
forensic pathologist identifies the elements surrounding the cause and
method of death by closely examining the physical evidence through an
autopsy. The criminal investigative analyst examines all referred reports and
documents and conducts a behavioral autopsy. This process may suggest the
cause or motive of the crime and offer implications of the offender person-
ality as suggested by the method selected to commit the crime. An assess-
ment of the offender’s behavioral patterns can unmask an undercurrent of
emotional deficiencies and needs manifested by the offender. An improved
understanding of or insight into these emotional deficiencies and needs can
provide a solid foundation for the interviewer. This foundation will sup-
port the strategic construction of tailored approaches and appeals to pre-
vail upon the offender.
Consider, for example, the advantage an interviewer would have when he
has in his possession the following personality characteristics of the suspect
extracted from a criminal analysis generated from the analysis of a disorgan-
ized lust murder:
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Prescriptive Interviewing 53
• Of average intelligence and a high school or college dropout
• Probably unemployed or blue-collar, unskilled occupation
• Financially dependent on a domineering female
• A previous criminal record of assault-related offense
• Probable voyeuristic activities
• Probable pornography interest and collection
• Alcohol or drugs exhibited in his behavior
• Keen sense of fantasy
• Inability to carry out preplanned activities
• Difficulty in maintaining personal relationships with a female for an ex-
tended time
• A need to dominate and control relationships
• Sexually inexperienced
• Sexually inadequate
• Never married or a brief, combative marital relationship
• Sadistic tendencies
• Controlled aggression but rage or hatred
• Confused thought process
• Feels justified in his behavior while feeling no remorse or guilt
•Defiant of authority
• Low self-esteem
• Frustration from lack of direction of control of life
• Combustive temper
• Impulsive
• Deep anxiety
While considering these characteristics in concert with investigative ac-
tivities confirming some of the biographical and descriptive information pro-
vided, an interviewer can begin to observe this offender. The interviewer
may recognize and exploit certain personality characteristics and associated
emotional deficiencies. In pondering the offender’s behavior, thought pro-
cesses, and aligned emotions, the interviewer is now better prepared to
design various approaches to conform to the offender’s personality.
Although traditional and canned approaches have worked in the past, they
must not be overestimated. Abraham Maslow said, “He who is good with a
hammer tends to think everything is a nail.” Square pegs will not fit in round
holes. This process assists the interviewer in stepping out of his world and
into the foreign territory of his adversary. If the offender decides to cooper-
ate, it will be because he can justify his decision from his perspective. There
is only one frame of reference that is important in the offender decision-
making process: his own. And if the interviewer successfully influences the
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offender to conform, it is because an alliance was forged in the offender ter-
ritory. The offender must be able to visualize the personal advantage in com-
plying. The interviewer must develop the ability to speak the same language
to extract the best evidence: the confession.
The criminal investigative analysis process permits the diagnosis of
offender emotional strengths and weakness and general behavioral charac-
teristics. Having been briefed with this information, the interviewer is better
prepared to prescribe effective interview approaches that are customized to
the offender’s perspective. Such prescriptions may indicate
• Identifying who should conduct the interview
• Where the interview should take place
• What type of environment is best suited for the particular approach or
approaches used
• How the approach or appeal should be constructed
• What emotional appeals are most likely to be effective
Before a tracker begins a journey into unknown territory to apprehend an
enemy, he enlists all possible resources to familiarize himself with the known
terrain, climate, and environment. This permits him to identify the type of
survival tools and skills needed to accomplish the task. Remember that the
offender has been preparing his responses to conceal his guilt from the mo-
ment he committed the crime, and probably before. He will use every tactic
available to counter and dismantle every offensive attack. To know your
enemy is the best strategy. It takes time, commitment, and grueling effort.
Lord Byron stated the principle well: “Knowledge is power.”
Preceding the morning of his date of execution, the notorious serial killer
Ted Bundy told FBI special agent Bill Hagmaier of the NCAVC: “If you
want to catch the big fish you must be willing to go under and into the deep
water to catch them.” Bundy proceeded to tell Hagmaier that he would “take
him under with him.”
Although prescriptive interviewing is not a panacea for the challenges in
obtaining confessions, it is still one more precision instrument to be used
in swaying the balance of justice in society’s favor. A prescriptive interview
will enhance law enforcement’s efforts to persuade serious capital offenders
to escort us under the water into the caverns of their torrential minds, surren-
der their secrets, and expose their culpability. It is hoped that the successful
use of this method will both promote the cause of justice and deter effects of
recidivism.
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CHAPTER
4
Classifying Crimes by Severity
From Aggravators to Depravity
MICHAEL WELNER
Crime classification, indeed this manual, underlines the often overlooked
reality that each murder, rape, arson, and other criminal act distin-
guishes itself. Contract killing is quite obviously different from sexual homi-
cide, for example.
Crime-solving considerations force investigators to appreciate the differ-
ences between offenses according to the perpetrator’s background, crime
scene evidence, victimology, and forensic findings. Distinguishing subtypes
of crime enables various organs of law enforcement to effect justice.
To be involved in the justice system is to be humbled by one’s lilliputian
role in a process that extends well beyond a suspect’s arrest. Is justice served
merely when a suspect is taken into custody? What if a manslaughterer is
charged as a murderer? What if a cold-blooded killer is prosecuted as a bat-
tered woman? Is that justice? Obviously not.
Nor is it justice to presume that even among all types of offenders, each
is as blameworthy as the next. Each of us who imparts our experiences in
this book viscerally recognizes that crimes distinguish themselves for their
severity as well. Experience in murder, sexual assault, even property crimes
imbues one with an appreciation that some crimes separate themselves from
others as the worst of the worst.
The final leg of the justice system is punishment. Totalitarian societies
and fascist theocracies need not concern themselves with nuances of jus-
tice. They have the luxury of applying absolute state power and the word
55
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of “God” that has less to do with justice and more to do with who is decid-
ing another’s fate. Crime classification for them retains relevance only
long enough until an apprehended offender can be marched out to receive
his or her stoning. The insensitivity of such backward ideologies reflects
in the limitations of accountability for their police work. They do not value
life as precious and do not value individual liberties, so no one cares if
unsystematic and unscientific crime investigation leads to penalizing the
wrong person.
Likewise, court systems modeled on rehabilitating offenders need not
concern themselves with practical considerations like applying punishment
for its deterrent effect and therapeutic consolation to victims and their fam-
ilies. Those societies, typically afflicted with boundless rationalizations for
predatory elements, relegate those invested in prosocial and law-abiding
behavior in the pursuit of utopian visions of universal compassion. Justice
for them is closely linked to presumed forgiveness. Such court systems also
are inherently compromised. At the expense of stark accountability for war
criminals and other unthinkable offenders nevertheless nurtured in their
midst, the courts of such countries opt to cover their eyes so as to preserve
the delusions of their society’s pacifism.
While American justice and law enforcement are closely scrutinized for
their imperfections and criticized for them, their openness to growth and
evolution is the embodiment of justice. The utility of and need for punish-
ment carves out a coexistence with compassion and rehabilitative goals.
Numerous factors diminish punishment, or the severity of sentencing, in
American courts. An offender’s previous history, social disadvantage, pres-
ence of mental illness or possibility of coinciding intoxication, lesser role in
a crime, stature in the community, and negative impact of the punishment on
others are examples of qualities that mitigate punishment. When these fac-
tors distinguish an individual, American courts may choose to mete out a less
severe sentence to a convicted offender. Mitigating factors primarily relate
to context, such as who the offender is and why the crime was committed.
Factors that aggravate punishment in criminal courts have been distin-
guished as well. Some of these nearly sixty aggravating factors, like mitiga-
tors, relate to who an offender is. Many, however, focus attention on the
crime itself—what the person did.
Aggravators Relating to the Crime Itself
Of all the themes of aggravating factors, aggravators linked to what a person
did in the course of carrying out a crime most protect the justice system from
bias, prejudice, privilege, and other unintended inequalities in sentencing.
The subjectivity of assessment of future dangerousnessness, for example,
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Classifying Crimes by Severity 57
parallels the subjectivity of an assessment of future docility. Nothing speaks
for a crime like the crime itself.
Each state, along with the federal system, has its own criminal codes and
sentencing guidelines. These codes, enacted by legislative initiative and
interpreted by courts, contribute to distinct applications of justice. This
decentralization also means that identical crimes, prosecuted in different
jurisdictions, are punished based on different factors. Depending on the level
of judicial initiative in giving jury instructions, even more distinct outcomes
are possible for each case.
State and federal criminal sentencing guidelines enumerate a host of
aggravators relating to the specifics of a crime, as listed in Table 4.1. Aggra-
vators arise from the perpetrator’s intent, the perpetrator’s actions, and atti-
tudes about the crime, including behavior after the fact. Victimology also
provides a basis for aggravating factors.
While most aggravating factors are easy to define, one aggravator—that a
crime was “heinous, atrocious, and cruel”—means many things to many
people. What is a “horribly inhuman,” “vile,” “depraved” crime—basically,
the worst of the worst? The answer has bedeviled many courts.
Distinguishing Severity: Its Relationship to Constitutionality
Use of terms such as heinous, atrocious, cruel, wanton, and other analogues
of these has withstood repeated court challenge. In Gregg v. Georgia (1976),
the Court upheld the Georgia aggravator of “heinous, “atrocious,” and
“cruel” as constitutional, but noted that a jury would have difficulty decid-
ing this issue. Writing for the majority, Justice Potter Stewart noted:
Sentencing authorities are apprised of any information relevant to the
imposition of the sentence and provided with standards to guide the use
of the information. . . . [T]he problem of jury inexperience in sentenc-
ing is alleviated if the jury is given guidance regarding the factors
about the crime and the defendant that the state, representing organ-
ized society, deems particularly relevant to the sentencing decision
[emphasis added; p. 192].
In another relevant decision fourteen years later, the Court, in Walton v.
Arizona (1990),clarified that aggravating factors needed to be identified
through objective circumstances.
Despite those allowances, inconsistency in defining the worst of crimes
has afflicted numerous cases. The Supreme Court in Godfrey v. Georgia
(1980),for example, reversed a capital sentence, stating, “There is nothing in
these few words, standing alone, that implies any inherent restraint on the
arbitrary and capricious infliction of the death sentence.” Any sensible person
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Table 4.1. Criminal Sentencing Aggravators Categorized by Intents, Actions, Attitudes, and Victimology
Aggravator Intents Actions Attitudes Victimology
Created grave risk to others or many persons X
Capital crime in conjunction with rape, robbery,
kidnapping, and other crimes X
Preventing arrest or escaping custody X
Pecuniary gain or ransom X
Disrupt the government or enforcement of law X
Heinous, atrocious, cruel, depraved, wanton, vile, outrageous X X X X
Contract killing or hiring of a contract killer X
Age of victim—old, or young X
Vulnerable victim—non-age (for example, handicapped,
mentally ill) X
Death of multiple victims X
Use of deadly weapon or dangerous instrument X
Presence of an accomplice or defendant as leader X
Property damage X
Physical, emotional, or financial torture to victim or victim’s family X
Death of unborn child or victim was pregnant X
Hate crime: race, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, other X
Lying in wait for the victim; ambushing victim X
Act committed in presence of child or family member X
Retaliating against a former witness or judicial or
enforcement officer X X
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Killing a witness to obstruct testimony X X
Impersonating a peace officer X
Destructive device, bomb, explosive X
Victim was a peace officer, law enforcement/ judge, or other X
Murder by poison X
Murder by firearm out of motor vehicle X
Murder against someone used as shield or hostage X
Act required substantial planning, high sophistication X
Exploiting a position of trust to commit act X X
Inducing minor to commit criminal act X X
Act resulted in victim’s obtaining a sexually transmitted disease
or becoming pregnant X X
Committed in cold, calculating manner without moral justification X
Defendant demonstrated utter disregard for human life X X
Murder committed as result of hijacking of plane, bus, train,
or ship, for example X
Murder committed in conjunction with an act of terrorism X X X
Defendant dismembered body or caused permanent debilitation,
disfigurement X
Administered sedation drug to victim before act X X
Murder committed to avoid detection of crime X
Offense committed with intent to obstruct human
or animal health care or agricultural or forestry
research or commercial production X
Wearing a disguise during commission of crime X
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could “fairly characterize almost every murder as outrageously or wantonly
vile, horrible and inhuman.” Jury instructions in Godfrey, ruled the Court,
gave no guidance or explanation concerning the meaning of that aggravating
factor, leading to what the Court called “the standardless and unchanneled
imposition of the death sentences” (p. 429).
Heinous, Atrocious, and Cruel: Challenges
While courts have upheld the distinction of crimes for their severity, several
challenges confound justice in this endeavor.
Any killing, one might argue, is emotionally painful to the victim. Or con-
sider cases that reflect overkill; perhaps they involve an assailant naive to
how quickly lethal blows kill. Not a medical examiner, this killer may leave
a crime scene that by virtue of overkill suggests an “evil” crime, heinous
when compared to other killings.
In current approaches to labeling crimes as heinous, courts place heavy
emphasis on actions and victimology, and lesser consideration of actions and
attitudes. This reflects the paucity of evidence presented to courts to reflect
on intent and attitudes. Clearly, however, both of the latter qualities distin-
guish crimes from one another. Moreover, courts have upheld findings that a
given crime was evil when striking evidence relating to intent and attitude
was available to the court.
Furthermore, unless one can estimate the sequence leading to death, it is
especially challenging to presume the nature of the suffering of a victim. My
own review of court decisions upholding findings of heinous crimes also
found that killing using instruments other than guns was heavily represented
(Welner, 2003). But do such trials explore whether killers who use knives
and hammers choose them because there are no other weapons available?
Ambiguity is present even in some killings of children. Was the small vic-
tim nevertheless a witness to another crime and eliminated for crime conceal-
ment, as opposed to the handiwork of a predator victimizing a child by design?
A lack of clarification to law enforcement and defense investigators as to
what evidence is relevant to depravity means that much less factual informa-
tion about a crime is available to a jury. Without guidance, the jury may be
forced to make an uninformed decision, not only for lack of definition but
for lack of evidence demonstrating or refuting depraved intents, actions, vic-
timology, or attitudes. With no guidance, as the U.S. Supreme Court has
noted, distinguishing the worst of crimes is arbitrary. Arguments readily play
to the fact finder’s emotions, seducing them to unremarkable aspects of a
case and risking the overamplification of select detail or wholesale dismissal
of many pertinent pieces of factual evidence.
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Classifying Crimes by Severity 61
By now, we have all come to appreciate the role of the press in setting the
tone for a case through its coverage and interest. The theater of competitive
news coverage creates the risk of a person, not the person’s acts, as the issue.
High-profile cases particularly fuel such dynamics for distortion.
Finally, consideration of the worst of crimes most frequently attaches
itself to murder. Yet there are kidnappings that distinguish themselves as the
worst of their ilk, just as there are robberies or even property crimes that may
be particularly heinous relative to other property crimes.
Legislatures have thus codified that evil crimes exist. But without guid-
ance, jurors struggle to distinguish qualities of a heinous crime. The inspira-
tion for establishing standards for the worst of crimes, and guidance to jurors
therefore confronts the issues of what crimes are depraved and what it is
about those crimes that makes them depraved.
A Framework for Defining the Worst of Crimes
Many of the aggravators noted denote behavior that distinguishes a particu-
larly unusual criminal at work. As such, perpetrators who meet such aggrava-
tors earn membership in a narrowed class of defendants. Other aggravators,
however, speak more to the goals of society than the exceptional nature of
the crime. A police officer is armed, for example, and engages with crimi-
nals and in hazardous duty. Society has an interest in protecting law enforce-
ment. Yet when a perpetrator kills a police officer in attempting to escape,
that clearly does not reflect an unusual criminal mentality or ensure that such
a crime was anything more than a spontaneous, if dramatic, choice. In other
words, some aggravators, such as killing in the course of committing a
felony, attach themselves to deterrence issues, while others distinguish what
are truly unusual, and the worst of the worst crimes.
TOWARD A DEPRAVITY STANDARD FOR
CRIMINAL SENTENCING
The Depravity Standard research, which I initiated in 1998 (www.depravity
scale.org) and is supported by the Forensic Panel, has embarked on a series
of protocols designed to create a standardized methodology for distinguish-
ing the worst of crimes in any given category. The research aimed to identify
features that would distinguish crimes in which those items were present as
depraved, heinous, and the worst of the worst.
Given this challenge, the Depravity Standard methodology committed to
accomplish the following in order to establish a standard that would unfail-
ingly contribute to justice:
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• Can the Depravity Standard be inclusive, to be applicable to the range
of all possible crimes?
• Can the Standard emphasize evidence over impressionism?
• Can its items ensure that such determinations are color, diagnosis, race,
religion, nationality, and socioeconomically blind?
• Can its items control for cultural distinctions?
• Can the Standard be neither pro-prosecution nor pro-defense?
• Can its items incorporate the range of values of a free society?
• Can items bridge society’s judgments with psychiatry’s?
• Can the items incorporate established diagnostic understandings of the
worst of behavior?
• Can this be done in a way that does not disproportionally target those
labeled undesirable?
• Can the standard ensure fairness rather than arbitrariness?
• Can science contribute to the standard without stifling the law?
• Can the standard be measurable in order to enable comparison?
• Can it be applied in a way that is not cumbersome?
• Can it distinguish a narrow class of offenders within categories of
offenses?
• Can it be protected from abuse?
• Can it assist jurors without replacing their decision making?
• Can it be used in a way that ensures consistent application to justice?
The research began by identifying numerous examples of intent, actions,
and attitudes that appellate courts have upheld as reflecting heinous, atro-
cious, cruel, vile, inhuman, wanton, or horrible crimes (Welner, 1998). This
included a victimology of the worst of crimes as well.
In order to distinguish depraved features from those items earning aggra-
vator status to serve the aims of public policy—but that do not uniformly dis-
tinguish a heinous or evil act (examples include using a deadly weapon,
ambushing, killing a witness to disrupt testimony, and preventing arrest or
escaping custody)—the intents, actions, attitudes, and victimologies of those
upheld appellate cases were distilled and organized under headings shaped
by psychiatric diagnoses associated with the most pernicious behavior (see
Table 4.2).
Thus, a given fact pattern might relate very much to sadism and would be
condensed under the heading of “actions that cause a victim emotional suf-
fering.” Or a perpetrator who enlists followers into active criminality may be,
according to the construct of antisocial by proxy, represented well by “involv-
ing another person in the crime in order to maximize destructiveness.”
After expanding the list of potential intents, actions, and attitudes to en-
compass the range of imagination for potential crimes, the Depravity Stan-
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Classifying Crimes by Severity 63
Table 4.2. Diagnoses Associated with Criminally Depraved Acts
Diagnosis (source) Characteristics
Antisocial Personality Disorder History of Conduct Disorder in youth;
adult pattern of irresponsibility and rule
breaking; exploitativeness for money,
sex, and other primitive needs
Conduct Disorder Childhood/adolescence of truancy, lying,
fighting, destruction of property, fire set-
ting, impulsivity, and cruelty to animals
Narcissistic Personality Disorder Grandiosity, entitlement, haughtiness,
envy, intense anger
Psychopathy Brazenness, manipulative, callous,
self-centered, grandiose personality,
plus antisocial behavior
Sexual Sadism Sexual arousal through coercion and
control, including through the infliction
of pain
Sadism The desire to inflict pain regardless of
sexual satisfaction
Necrophilia Infatuation with death and decay
Malignant Narcissism Antisocial behavior, sadism, paranoia,
more ideological and more likely to
attach to groups; experience others as
threatening enemies rather than merely
objects to be exploited
Antisocial Personality by Proxy Predator; physically or materially unable
to carry out an antisocial impulse, so
manipulates a vulnerable and less
inhibited person to do so
dard research project identified twenty-six items for closer study by April
2001 (Welner, 2001). These items focus on the depravity of a crime: that is,
what is depraved. The items are event, history, and fact driven. Questions of
who is depraved, or evil, are more diagnostic and addressed through the psy-
chiatric diagnoses or theological sources. Questions of why, or context, are
well addressed in mitigation evidence and its rebuttal; the Depravity Stan-
dard does not replace these elements of a case, as it confines itself to the cir-
cumstances of the crime.
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In addition, the Depravity Standard items were developed in such a way
as to apply with equal relevance to murder as to robbery or other crimes.
“Intent to maximize damage,” for example, is as applicable to the planting
of a computer virus as it is to a mass casualty terror plot. Moreover, items
were worded in order to ensure the instrument would be blind to race, reli-
gion, politics, or socioeconomic status. At the same time, “intent to terror-
ize” works with defined terrorism, something many societies refuse to do for
fear of self-incrimination.
The Depravity Standard items were constructed in such a way as to dis-
tance themselves from anything that might suggest a perpetrator’s diagnosis
or prognosis, so as to avoid prejudices inspired by a particular individual.
These approaches aimed to develop a Depravity Standard that emphasizes
fairness over arbitrariness.
In order that the research yield results that reflect societal attitudes, in
keeping with U.S. Supreme Court directives, the next phases of the research
explored which of the twenty-six intents, victimologies, actions, and atti-
tudes would draw a consensus of support from the general public as repre-
sentative of a depraved crime, regardless of a person’s demographic or
background.
This phase of the research was set up on the World Wide Web in order to
survey the general public randomly in a secure, confidential, and identical
manner. The Depravity Scale research, as it was known at the time, was the
first systematic academic effort to engage citizen input to shape a future sen-
tencing instrument for legislatures and courts.
Data from this survey have contributed to establishing the intents, vic-
timology, actions, and attitudes to be included in the Depravity Standard.
Data collection at this Web site continues, for societal attitudes evolve. The
methodology enables the standard to reflect updated societal attitudes,
even many years after a valid scale began to be used as an instrument of
justice.
Almost all of the studied items, in research involving thousands of partic-
ipants to date, have drawn an overwhelming endorsement for being espe-
cially or somewhat representative of depravity. There is, notwithstanding
differences among the cultures of different states, remarkable consistency of
data across American states.
Some distinctions have emerged in data comparison between American
respondents and residents of Great Britain and other countries. Nevertheless,
this phase of the research has demonstrated that no matter what the differ-
ences are among us personally, ethnically, or spiritually, consensus can be
achieved as to what intents, victimology, actions, and attitudes distinguish a
heinous or depraved crime.
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Classifying Crimes by Severity 65
Defining the Depravity Standard Items: Implications for
Investigators
Items of the Depravity Standard have been carefully defined in order to in-
spire evidence-based determinations of whether an item is present. What
denotes, for example, “actions that cause grotesque suffering”? Given the
ramifications of a jury finding that such actions were a feature of the crime,
determination of this item must be evidence driven. In order to reduce risk
of arbitrariness in decision making, description of this and all other items
must ensure consistent examination in court cases everywhere. A description
of the item “actions that cause unusual quality of suffering” is seen in Ex-
hibit 4.1.
Detailed descriptions of items are important guidelines to law enforcement
and investigators. Those who investigate crimes have the greatest proximity
to evidence that reflects on the required evidence for items such as “disrespect
for the victim after the fact,” or evidence that such an item is not present.
Evidence for the depravity of the crime may be derived from numerous
sources of information available to the investigator. Examples of these
appear in Table 4.3.
Criminal profiling and even many forensic science methodologies do not
reliably guarantee that the same conclusions will be generated by qualified
professionals conducting a given examination. This lack of interrater relia-
bility, which has limited the potential for evidence’s admissibility, is care-
fully addressed in the definitions and thresholds of items of the Depravity
Standard. A qualified, trained professional who adheres to the guidelines of
the Depravity Standard is therefore likely to arrive at the same determination
about a crime (low, medium, or high depravity) as another colleague follow-
ing those same protocols (Welner, 2005).
The descriptions of items also aim to preserve a narrowed class of individ-
uals who truly meet criteria of a Depravity Standard item. These specific
parameters preserve the constitutionality of the Standard. One item was ulti-
mately dropped from consideration despite the overwhelming support of par-
ticipants that it was representative of depravity: our research team concluded
that evidence for this item would be too difficult to distinguish consistently
and scientifically.
The Depravity Standard in Court
Newman, Rayz, and Friedman (2004) coined the notion of “super-aggrava-
tors”: those aggravators that, when present, were more likely to result in a
death sentence in a capital-eligible case in Pennsylvania:
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Exhibit 4.1. Example of Item Description:
Actions That Cause Unusual Quality of Suffering
Unusual quality of suffering of the victim; victim demonstrated panic, terror,
and helplessness.
Key Distinctions: Victim terror
Description: The key ingredient of this item is the level of emotional suffering en-
dured by the victim during the crime. The presence of post-traumatic stress disor-
der or acute stress disorder validates the degree of suffering during the crime.
However, the absence of these diagnoses in the victim does not necessarily mean
that this item is not present.
Alternatively, if it is clear from the available evidence that the deceased victim
endured a realistic consideration that he or she would die, or threat to body
integrity amidst a period of helplessness, criteria for this item are met. The assess-
ment of this item is more reliant upon history if the aforementioned diagnoses are
not later present.
Eligible crimes: Assault, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Reckless Endangerment
Sources of information: Victim, perpetrator, and witness statements; victim med-
ical, psychological treatment, and autopsy records; witness psychological treatment
records; writings in diaries, e-mails, message boards, chats, and letters; weapon
choices, ligatures and other restraints; crime scene evidence; video or audiotapes.
Examples:
Qualifying Exemplars:
Rape and less frequently attempted rape traumatize victims and are particularly
likely to meet the criteria for this item. Assault victims may also experience indeli-
ble emotional impact, which is heightened when such attacks occur in places where
the experience of powerlessness and helplessness is more acute to the victim (e.g.
prison). Victims of assaults by multiple attackers may also experience a heightened
sense of helplessness, and such crimes may manifest this item.
Murders meet the criteria of this item if evidence demonstrates that the victim
was helpless and recognized death as destiny. Such cases arise more often in stab-
bings, where death is not instantaneous. However, there are gun homicides in which
the victim clearly experienced terror, helplessness, and anticipation of impending
death or serious injury. To that end, stranglings and drownings invariably meet cri-
teria for this item, as do deaths that follow periods of restraint or torture.
Attacks which occur in the course of a person being overwhelmed, restrained,
and forced to anticipate death meet criteria for this item.
Arson and terror attacks may expose many to carnage and their own vulnerabil-
ity to instant death. Such reactions in survivors, and in the dead who do not pass
away quickly, satisfy criteria for this item.
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Perverse cases inspire emotional trauma and terror and may also reflect this
item. An HIV-positive person who knowingly has unprotected sex with unsuspect-
ing partners causes significant emotional impact to those individuals when they
learn of their seroconversion. Whether seroconversion happens or not is irrelevant;
this item’s criteria are met. Additionally, a person left to die in a desert, begging for
his or her life, endures terror and emotional trauma in fearing that he or she will
starve. Even if the victim survives, the perpetrators meet criteria for this item.
Coerced victims reflect terror in their willingness to submit to even bizarre or
humiliating exercises in order to stave off their execution. Victims who are told to
dig their own graves (even if they survive the ordeal), to unwillingly take part in the
torture and beating of others, to engage in exercises that may later cause them con-
siderable torment, or to watch their loved ones being victimized are all crimes
where this item’s criteria are met.
Disqualifying Exemplars:
This item’s criteria are not met when individuals discover the bodies of their loved
ones. This unfortunately common occurrence cannot necessarily be attributed to the
crime itself, and does not reflect an exceptional event.
Killings where blunt trauma renders a person quickly unconscious do not meet
criteria for this item.
Property crimes may create tremendous stress, but do not directly traumatize to
the end of satisfying criteria for this item.
Table 4.3. Information Sources for Depravity Standard Items
Victim’s statements
Victim’s medical and psychiatric records
Autopsy records
Witness statements
Defendant’s statements
Marks on victim’s body
Wounds reflecting time of death
Sequence of infliction of wounds
Writings in diaries
Chatrooms and computer documents
E-mails, letters
Telephone records
Videotapes or audiotapes
Materials from crime scene
Blood spatter
Choice of weapons
Ligatures
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• The victim was a prosecution witness to a crime committed by the de-
fendant and was killed to prevent his or her testimony
• Torture
• Significant history of felony convictions for acts of violence
• Prior convictions for which sentences of life imprisonment or death
were imposable
• Prior murder convictions
The findings are consistent with our findings of relative severity of even
the most severe qualities of a crime. Still, Newman et al. were not able to
determine that other aggravators were not charged in some cases where their
super-aggravator factors were present. Moreover, because prosecutors may
have selected defendants for capital prosecution because of these aggrava-
tors, the findings may say more about prosecutors than jurors or a fair, unbi-
ased system.
Litigation very much uses tried and true experiences; it is also possible that
since prosecutors in Newman and colleagues’ sample found any of these fac-
tors to have been successful in capital prosecution, they chose future capital
prosecution solely because of the presence of any of these super-aggravators
in the case history. The research does not demonstrate, however, any aggra-
vators that prosecutors selected that were not often associated with a death
penalty. Without accounting for selection bias by prosecutors, therefore,
conclusions that can be made about jurors and the general public are there-
fore limited.
Findings that reflected particularly strong endorsement of some items as
“especially” depraved point to the conclusion that even among heinous qual-
ities of a crime, some elements are even more heinous than others.
The study is being followed up by another protocol, also located at
www.depravityscale.org, that aims to ascertain societal standards for how
individual items should be weighed when present in a crime (see Table 4.4).
Establishing weight of a given feature will enable any crime to be distin-
guished according to the evidence unique to it. Such distinctions will assist
courts to understand the level of depravity of any crime, relative to other
crimes, thus compensating the lack of juror exposure to crime.
Using the Depravity Standard
What an offender did can be notable for being unremarkable, just as a
crime can distinguish itself as unforgettable. Once formulas are calculated
to account for the weights of items, the Depravity Standard will be avail-
able for use in courts, parole, and tribunals engaging all crimes across the
spectrum.
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Classifying Crimes by Severity 69
Table 4.4. Items Under Study in the Depravity Standard
Aspect of the Disrespect for the Victim
Crime After-the-Fact
I
tem Reflected Diagnostic Correlate
Intent to emotionally traumatize the Intent Sadism
victim, maximizing terror, through
humiliation, or to create an indelible
emotional memory of the event
Intent to maximize damage or Intent Psychopathy, malignant
destruction, by numbers or amount narcissism, necrophilia
if more than one person is victimized,
or by suffering and degree if only one
person is victimized
Intent to cause permanent physical Intent Sadism
disfigurement
Intent to carry out a crime for excite- Intent Psychopathy
ment of the act alone
Carrying out crime in order to gain Intent Psychopathy
social acceptance or attention or to
show off
Carrying out a crime in order to Intent, Sadism
terrorize others victimology
Intentionally targeting victims based Victimology Malignant narcissism
on prejudice
Targeting victims who are not merely Victimology
physically vulnerable but helpless
Carrying out a crime in spite of a close Victimology Antisocial personality
and trusting relationship to the victim disorder, psychopathy
Extreme response to a trivial irritant; Actions Antisocial personality
actions disproportionate to the perceived disorder, psychopathy
provocation
Carrying out attack when in unneces- Actions
sarily close physical contact
Indulgence of actions, inconsistent Actions Psychopathy
with the social context
Unusual quality of suffering of the Actions Sadism
victim; victim demonstrated panic,
terror, and helplessness
Continued on next page
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Table 4.4. Items Under Study in the Depravity Standard, continued
Aspect of the Disrespect for the Victim
Crime After-the-Fact
I
tem Reflected Diagnostic Correlate
Prolonging the duration of a victim’s Actions Sadism
physical suffering
Unrelenting physical and emotional Actions Sadism, malignant
attack; amount of attacking narcissism
Exceptional degree of physical harm; Actions Sadism
amount of damage
Influencing criminality in others to Actions Antisocial personality
avoid prosecution or penalty by proxy
Influencing depravity in others in order Actions Antisocial personality
to destroy more by proxy
Falsely implicating others, knowingly Attitudes Psychopathy, antisocial
exposing them to wrongful penalty personality
and the stress of prosecution
Disregard for the victim’s feelings or Attitudes Psychopathy
consequences of the crime on the victim
Satisfaction or pleasure in response to Attitudes Sadism,
the actions and their impact necrophilia
Projecting responsibility onto the Attitudes Narcissistic personality
victim; feeling entitlement to carry out
the action
Disrespect for the victim after the fact Attitudes Sadism
Indifference to the actions and their Attitudes Psychopathy, antisocial
impact personality
70 CRIME CLASSIFICATION MANUAL
The Depravity Standard is meant only to guide, not to replace, a trier of
fact. In order to protect the responsibility of the jurors, crimes will, accord-
ing to the weights of items present, be classified relative to other such crimes
as “low depravity,” “medium depravity,” or “high depravity,” rather than pre-
senting to the court a numerical threshold of “depraved” or “not depraved.”
With a validated and reliable Depravity Standard, prosecuting authorities
will be required to distinguish a basis for charging a crime as depraved,
heinous, or evil. If the evidence collected by investigators points to “exploit-
ing an emotionally vulnerable or trusting relationship,” only then can de-
pravity be considered. The defense will have an opportunity to present its
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Classifying Crimes by Severity 71
own evidence that, for example, “exploiting an emotionally vulnerable or
trusting relationship” did not distinguish that crime and therefore depravity
is not present.
The availability of substantive evidence to be considered by a sentencing
authority weighing depravity is paramount. If no evidence is available with
which to assert the presence of an item of the Depravity Standard, then a
claim that a crime was evil, heinous, vile, or the like cannot be made in a just
system.
Investigators of the depravity of a crime must be mindful of a number of key
subtleties. Determination of intent has always been the most elusive aspect of
crime. Examination of possible depraved intent must rely on evidence, not pre-
sumption. This challenge compels the investigator to use evidence available
from diverse forensic sciences, from forensic pathology to forensic anthro-
pology, to forensic psychiatry. Forensic psychiatric interviewing of defen-
dants and other witnesses may provide particularly key evidence relating to
depraved, heinous, atrocious, or horribly inhuman intent items.
Furthermore, several areas of the Depravity Standard potentially overlap:
• Actions that cause physical damage and actions that cause grotesque
suffering
• Targeting victims who are physically or emotionally vulnerable
• Intent to terrorize and cause emotional pain
Evidence suggesting one such item must carefully be distinguished from
evidence for the other item, that the item is not present, or that both items are
present.
With respect to Depravity Standard actions, forensic pathology, emer-
gency medicine, radiology, anthropology, dentistry, and criminalistics are
particularly important contributors. Not surprisingly, analysis of actions in a
crime must control for a prolonged confrontation in which damage and in-
juries multiply while a struggle occurs, as opposed to an unopposed se-
quence of attack. These forensic sciences contribute to understanding what
weapon was used, how it was used, and how often it was used.
Typically crime investigation focuses least on the attitudes of a criminal
about his crime. Commonly, the absconding offender is not witnessed or
communicating his attitudes. Postcrime communications, which police and
forensic psychiatric investigation may elicit from interviewing skills, are
often the most useful evidence with which to consider attitude items.
Investigation of attitude about the crime focuses on the offense’s after-
math. The Depravity Standard investigation uses a model of the life cycle of
a crime (that is, before, during, and after the crime) to ascertain evidence
relating to intents, victimology, actions, and attitudes.
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The refinement of the Depravity Standard will merge the potentials for
evidence-based science with a fundamental need in justice. The higher scru-
tiny prompted by the standard’s use in sentencing enables a closer scrutiny
of crimes and further protects against key evidence being overlooked.
The more fairly courts distinguish the worst of crimes, the more readily
they balance the aims of punishment with sensitivity and understanding.
Once again, classification serves the interest of justice at every stage.
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CHAPTER
5
VICAP
The Violent Criminal Apprehension
Program Unit
ERIC W. WITZIG
May 29, 2005, was the twentieth anniversary of the Violent Criminal
Apprehension Program (VI CAP; Howlett, Hanfland, & Ressler,
1986). During its twenty-year lifetime, an entire generation of police officers
has been sworn in—and retired. Although VICAP is a much more common
term in the squad room now rather than then, the origins of VI CAP are less
well known.
ORIGINS OF VICAP
Although VI CAP is a program funded, staffed, and supported by the Criti-
cal Incident Response Group (CIRG) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), the initiating concept of VI CAP was the idea of a sworn officer in
local law enforcement: Detective Pierce Brooks, of the Los Angeles Police
Department’s Robbery-Homicide Squad (Keefer, 1998; Egger, 1990; Taylor,
1998; see this chapter’s Appendix).
Brooks conceived of VI CAP while working the case of serial killer
Harvey Glatman. In the early 1950s, Glatman moved to Los Angeles from
New York State, where he had served time for robbery (Newton, 1990). He
opened a television repair service and made a house call at the home of his
first murder victim, Judy Dull, then only nineteen years of age. Photography
was Glatman’s hobby, and he convinced Dull to come to his home for a
photo shoot. On August 1, 1957, after taking a few detective magazine–style
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photographs, he bound Dull and raped her. Later he took her to the desert
outside Los Angeles, where he took a few more pictures of her and then
strangled her to death. He left her in a shallow grave (Newton, 1990).
Glatman’s second victim was Shirley Bridgeford. He met her through a
lonely hearts club and convinced her to pose for a few photographs. In
March 1958 she too was taken to the desert, bound, photographed, raped,
and strangled to death (Newton, 1990).
The third victim was Ruth Mercado. On July 23, 1958, she came to Glat-
man’s apartment, where photographs were taken and she was raped. She was
taken to the desert and strangled.
Brooks became involved in the cases of Dull and Bridgeford (P. R.
Brooks, interview with the author, April 1992). He examined both cases and
observed that the victims were bound with excessive amounts of rope, far
more than would be needed to restrain them. Moreover, the bindings were
neatly arranged, with the coils of rope resting tightly against each other.
Brooks noted that the neatly applied, excessive bindings on the first two
victims suggested strongly that these were not the killer’s first victims or his
last. He thought that finding other victims of one killer would be easier if
information about all of the city’s homicides and homicides from other
jurisdictions could be stored in one place. Perhaps a new machine that the
federal government used to tally the 1950 census would be useful: a com-
puter. He investigated buying a computer for the city but found that it would
be half as large as city hall and cost half as much (Brooks interview, 1992;
Taylor, 1998).
Brooks employed an elementary form of VI CAP in order to solve his
problem. For a year and a half, he went to the central library in Los Angeles
on his days off and began to read out-of-town newspapers. He found a news-
paper reporting a homicide remarkably similar to the two he was investigat-
ing. Brooks contacted the police department handling the out-of-town case
and, combining their investigative information with the information gleaned
from his own cases, three murders were closed with the arrest of Harvey
Glatman (Witzig, 1995).
In 1981, Brooks wrote a plan for VI CAP that was submitted to the Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration:
VI-CAP [the hyphen was dropped in 1984], a product of ICAP (the
Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program), is a program designed to
integrate and analyze, on a nationwide basis, all aspects of the investi-
gation of a series of similar pattern deaths by violence, regardless of
the location or number of police agencies involved. The overall goal
of the VI-CAP is the expeditious identification and apprehension of the
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VICAP 75
criminal offender, or offenders, involved in multiple murders [cited in
Egger, 1990, p. 191].
In 1981 and 1982, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
(LEAA) funded a series of VI-CAP planning meetings. In 1983, a series of
meetings were held at the Sam Houston State University to plan for an entity
to be called the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC),
which would be located at the FBI’s Training Division in Quantico, Virginia.
Planning included VI-CAP as part of NCAVC (Egger, 1990). In 1983,
Brooks testified before Congress and presented his theory of VI CAP. Two
years later, in 1985, the director of the FBI, William Webster, credited
Brooks for his assistance in the creation of the NCAVC (Keefer, 1998; Tay-
lor, 1998).
VI CAP went online May 29, 1985, with Pierce Brooks at the keyboard of
a terminal linking the NCAVC to the FBI’s mainframe computer located in
the J. Edgar Hoover headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Brooks was
VI CAP’s first program manager. His presence ensured that VI CAP, as im-
plemented, matched his vision, now twenty-eight-years old.
VICAP’S MISSION
When VI CAP began in 1985, its purpose was to
collect data for analyses which will lead to the identification of patterns
of violent crime throughout the country. Although the completion of
the [VICAP] Report and the submission of cases is voluntary, the
importance of doing so cannot be over emphasized. A single report
received and analyzed by the VICAP staff could initiate a coordinated
effort among law enforcement agencies hundreds or even thousands of
miles apart and expedite the apprehension of a violent serial offender
[Brooks, Devine, Green, Hart, & Moore, 1988, p. 2].
Brooks wrote that VI CAP’s purpose was to serve as a “nationwide clear-
inghouse . . . to provide all law enforcement agencies reporting similar pat-
tern violent crimes with the information necessary to initiate a coordinated
multi-agency investigation” (quoted in Egger, 1990, p. 193).
In the mid-1990s the VI CAP mission statement was streamlined:
“VI CAP’s mission is to facilitate communication, cooperation, and coordi-
nation between law enforcement agencies and provide support in their
efforts to investigate, identify, track, apprehend, and prosecute violent serial
and repeat offenders” (VI CAP, 2002, p. 2).
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VICAP CASE TYPES
The types and kinds of cases accepted, and sought, by VI CAP since its
beginning have changed little. VI CAP works well for the following kinds of
cases:
• Solved or unsolved homicides or attempts, especially those that involve
an abduction; are apparently random, motiveless, or sexually oriented;
or are known or suspected to be part of a series
• Missing persons, where the circumstances indicate a strong possibility
of foul play and the victim is still missing
• Unidentified dead bodies where the manner of death is known or sus-
pected to be homicide (Howlett et al., 1986)
• Abductions of children or attempts
• Solved or unsolved sexual assaults or attempts
Homicide or Attempts
After twenty years of VI CAP operation, confusion remains in the law en-
forcement community about the types and kinds of cases that can, and
should, be forwarded to the national VI CAP database. There is a popular
misconception that VI CAP is interested only in unsolved, recent homicides.
Those cases should be entered, of course, but so too should older homicides
because the value of information in the case never diminishes.
For example, one eastern state police agency sent in the solved murder of
an eight-year-old girl. The defendant had been convicted and was incarcer-
ated. When the case was sent to the VI CAP database, almost forty-five years
had passed since the murder. Nonetheless, the case was entered. A year or
two later, a state police agency in the Midwest forwarded an unsolved mur-
der of a seven-year-old girl. A VI CAP crime analyst compared the two cases
in terms of victimology and offender modus operandi (MO). The analyst
noted that the two cases presented with similarities and notified investiga-
tors. Reopening their cold case, state investigators developed probable cause
to believe that the incarcerated offender had committed the murder in their
state. After forty-five years, the child’s parents, now in their sixties, could be
told that the police had solved their daughter’s murder. Clearly, older homi-
cides, those solved and those unsolved, should be included in the database.
Death investigators typically think that solved cases are of little interest to
their colleagues. In fact, in addition to providing object lessons for the solu-
tion of murder, solved cases provide information about offenders, victims,
and MO—all invaluable when contrasting and comparing cases in an effort
to seek possible matches between or among cases. Once an offender is iden-
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VICAP 77
tified and it is determined or believed that he killed more than once, a data-
base search for other, unsolved (or possibly cases where an arrest was made
or an indictment handed up, causing authorities to believe the case was
solved) cases can be accomplished with information about the offender, his
victim, and his MO.
Reporting of attempted homicides is important for two reasons. First, at-
tempted homicides can be instrumental to the solution of a series of murders,
and a record of the attempts should be forwarded to the VI CAP database.
Harris, Thomas, Fisher, and Hirsch (2002) noted that medicine is more suc-
cessful than ever before in treating victims of violent crime and saving their
lives. They wrote that between 1960 and 1999, the fraction of criminal as-
saults resulting in death dropped by 70 percent. In other words, it is not that
the offender did not try hard enough to kill the victim; it is simply that the
victim would not die or that medical attention saved him or her.
Second, the reporting of attempted homicides is important because not
everyone who comes into the sphere of control of a killer is killed. Survivors
of a serial killer can provide police with invaluable information that can be
used to cut short the killer’s violent career. For police, the difficulty comes
in associating the correct attempted murder, out of a set of many possible
attempted murders, with the correct series of homicides. In retrospect, con-
necting cases is not always easy; the art of analysis and case matching is in
knowing which facets of the case are to be connected, how to make those
facets pop out of the background noise of all of the facts, or even if all of the
facts are present.
For example, the late Theodore Bundy did not kill all potential victims.
Robert D. Keppel (1995) wrote that in mid-July 1974, Bundy was hunting
for victims around Lake Sammamish near Seattle, Washington. Bundy,
wearing a cast on his left arm, approached a young woman and asked her to
help him load something into his car. She walked with him to his car, but
declined to get in and walked away from Bundy. Later, witnesses placed
Bundy with another woman, Janice Ott, who was never again seen alive. Still
later in the day, Bundy was seen chatting with several women. In the end he
met young Denise Naslund. She too was never seen again alive.
Robert Yates of Spokane, Washington, is another example. He pleaded
guilty in October 2000 to the murders of thirteen women in and around
Spokane but was not always successful when he tried to kill a woman
(Fuhrman, 2001). Yates patronized prostitutes on Spokane’s East Sprague
Street and murdered some of them. In August 1998, he picked up Christine
Smith. Both were in the back of Yates’s van when she received a tremendous
blow to the head. She fled from Yates and the van and received medical atten-
tion. A year later, an X-ray taken of her head during the course of medical
treatment revealed that what Smith thought was a blow to the head from
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Yates was actually a gunshot wound. Subsequently, the police searched a van
that Yates owned and found a .25 caliber shell casing and an expended bul-
let (Fuhrman, 2001). Smith was able to provide authorities with information
concerning her assailant, who turned out to be Yates.
Subsequent to his guilty pleas in Spokane County, Pierce County, Wash-
ington, brought Yates to trial for two murders: Melinda Mercer, whose body
was found December 7, 1997, and Connie LaFontaine Ellis, whose body was
found October 13, 1998. Yates was found guilty of the murders, and the jury
sentenced him to death.
Missing Persons and Abductions
Among the difficult decisions that law enforcement officers and officials
face is the handling of missing persons matters. One of the many considera-
tions in these cases is the age and vulnerability of the missing person to be a
victim of abduction and become the target of sexual or homicidal assault.
The Child Abduction Response Plan makes this clear:
Often the most challenging task at hand upon receipt of a missing child
complaint is determining whether it is an actual abduction, runaway
child, lost child, thrown away child, or fictitious report to cover up the
death of the child or other family problem. This crucial assessment of
the initial facts will dictate what actions the responding law enforce-
ment agency will perform [U.S. Department of Justice, 1998, p. 1].
Once an assessment of the missing person is completed and the appropri-
ate law enforcement responses have been made, if the person, juvenile or
adult, has not been located, then a report should be forwarded to VI CAP for
inclusion in the database. In 1985, Detective David Reichert of the King
County, Washington, Sheriff’s Office and a member of the Green River Task
Force said that once the offender’s victim selection preferences were identi-
fied, the task force paid particular attention to other missing persons with the
same characteristics. The task force assembled as much information as pos-
sible about missing persons, including individual medical information, dental
charts, and X-rays. When victims of the Green River Killer were discovered,
their remains were typically little more than skeletons. However, task force
preparation paid off, and recovered remains were compared with missing
person reports, with identification achieved in only a day or two.
Jurisdictions experiencing a large number of missing person reports daily
will be reticent to enter all of the cases into a database. That reluctance will
be increased when agencies discover that many of their missing person
reports involve repeated teenage runaways who return home after a few
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VICAP 79
days. Nevertheless, it is better to err on the side of caution and enter into the
database more cases than thought necessary.
Unidentified Dead
Matters involving unidentified dead persons can be thought of as the mirror
image of missing person cases. It is very difficult to begin the homicide
investigation of an unidentified victim. The body recovery site of an uniden-
tified victim may suggest its connection to a multiple murderer. Fuhrman
(2001) wrote that during the Spokane series of murders, the bodies of
Laurie A. Wason and Shawn McClenahan were found on top of one another
in a vacant lot in Spokane. He also wrote that in the early 1970s, Ted Bundy
engaged in similar behavior: he kidnapped two women on one day and
killed both at the same location.
Failing the certainty of connection with an ongoing serial event, where to
begin in a murder investigation is far more easily determined if the victim is
identified. To that end, it makes investigative sense to enter the cases of
unidentified dead into the VI CAP database.
Sexual Assault
For a number of years, sexual assaults were not included in VI CAP. But in
2004, the VI CAP Crime Analysis Report was revised to include data collec-
tion fields suitable for these types of offenses. The questions were based on
the Behaviorally Oriented Interview of the Rape Victim proposed by Robert
Roy Hazelwood and were reviewed in July 2002 by a VI CAP working
group (Hazelwood and Burgess, 2001). In December 2002, the VI CAP
advisory board added their review and approval to the enhanced data collec-
tion variables.
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
In 1995, after ten years of operation, VI CAP’s program delivery was evalu-
ated with a business analysis. The examination revealed four points (Meis-
ter, 1998):
• Only 3 to 5 percent of the twenty-one thousand to almost twenty-five
thousand homicides committed each year were submitted to VI CAP.
• There was an “urban void” of submissions.
• Users reported that the VI CAP Crime Analysis Report was too compli-
cated.
• Users reported the perception of a “black hole.”
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Few Submissions
During VI CAP’s first ten years, case submissions ranged from a 150 (in
1985, the first half-year) to almost 1,400 per year in 1995. This was but a
fraction of the total number of homicides reported for those years (24,526
murders were recorded in 1991 alone). The fraction of cases submitted to the
database was larger when unsolved murders were considered, but it was still
only a fraction.
Urban Void
An analysis of VI CAP submissions revealed that the cities and urban areas
that were recording large numbers of homicides were not submitting the
cases to the national database. No one could explain why this was the case.
The assumption that VI CAP misconceptions were prevalent—for example,
only unsolved cases were wanted for the national database—did not provide
an adequate explanation. Case closure rates in large cities were less than 100
percent, suggesting that even if law enforcement agencies did not understand
which cases could be forwarded, many more cases should be arriving for the
national database.
Complicated Report Form
A common complaint from investigators was that the paper VI CAP report
form was too complicated, it had too many questions, and it took too long to
complete.
Complaints about the VI CAP paper report form have been central to the
project from the beginning. The first VI CAP paper report was a series of
three books, each with hundreds of questions. In late 1985, after six months
of operation, the VI CAP staff realized that
developing a good understanding or overview of individual cases from
information contained in the VICAP reports was difficult for the
VICAP staff. The Crime Report form was collecting information that
was too detailed for its intended purpose of providing crime analysts
with the information necessary to establish linkages among cases
[Howlett et al., 1986, p. 17].
Recognizing and prioritizing the function of VI CAP, Howlett wrote:
VICAP’s purpose was not to investigate cases but to analyze them. In
order to do so effectively, general patterns have to be discernible, and
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VICAP 81
that is better done by establishing the general parameters of events
rather than extremely specific reconstructions. Crime scenes are sel-
dom exactly replicated, but general MOs are. Crime analysis and crim-
inal investigation require different levels of specificity [Howlett et al.,
1986, p. 17].
In 1986, the VI CAP report form was reduced in size from three volumes
to a fifteen-page, 190-question, check-the-block, forced-choice instrument.
This was the report form that users in 1995 found too difficult.
Black Hole
VI CAP users had the perception that VI CAP was like an astronomical black
hole, where the force of gravity is so intense that nothing escapes, not even
light. The perception was that data went to VI CAP, and nothing was ever
heard about this information again. VI CAP did little to close the communi-
cation loop.
BUSINESS CHANGE
1994 Crime Legislation
The first and major stimulus for change of VI CAP was the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Title X—State and Local Law
Enforcement, Subtitle D—Improved Training and Technical Automation,
Paragraph (b), Training and Investigative Assistance, provided funding for
VI CAP to develop a pilot program. The goal was to create an intelligent
information system to collect, collate, organize, and analyze information
about violent serial crime. Congressional funding allowed VI CAP to em-
bark on the next change.
Department of Energy
Cooperation between the FBI and the Department of Energy (DOE) on other
projects suggested that the DOE’s computer expertise could be used to good
advantage by VI CAP. Systems analysts and programmers with Bechtel
Nevada, a contractor operating the Remote Sensing Laboratory for the DOE
in Las Vegas, Nevada, began to develop a new object-oriented, client-server
computer and software system for VI CAP.
Revised Form
VI CAP crime analysts began a detailed examination of the crime analysis
report. Their efforts resulted in a reduction of questions from 190 to only 95.
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Moreover, with the aid of color printing technology not available in 1986
and intelligent layout and design, the new VI CAP form looked less impos-
ing and more like an attractive, easy-to-use reporting instrument.
1998 Crimes Against Children Legislation
This legislation provided funding for additional crime analysts (CAs). In
1998 VI CAP hired thirteen CAs, and this brought the total number to
twenty. In 2004, VI CAP staffing levels provided for one unit chief, five
regional managers (typically supervisory special agents of the FBI), nine-
teen CAs, one squad operations assistant, and three major case specialists.
THE CHANGE
The Form
The easiest part of the change process involved the VI CAP data collection
instrument. The number of questions on the form was reduced to 95. For
more than two years, VI CAP personnel sifted through the database to learn
which data were most probative and offered the best possibility of suggest-
ing relationships between or among cases. Frequently reported attributes
were made part of the form, and infrequently used attributes were discarded.
The form revision was very much like that undertaken by the VI CAP staff
in 1986 when the variables and attributes of the comprehensive form that
Pierce Brooks had initiated were trimmed.
Computing Platform
In 1985, most automated systems resided in a huge mainframe computers.
Typically these machines were housed in special rooms with dedicated air
handling (air conditioning, mostly, as the machines produced a large amount
of heat) and raised floors to accommodate heavy cables providing power and
communication among machine components. The machines required fre-
quent maintenance. Programming the machines was a special function and
practiced by a small number of persons. Programming languages were diffi-
cult to master, with abstruse syntax.
Information retrieval from these machines was challenging. Information
retrieval was performed by VI CAP CAs, who had to master the Natural
programming language to access the database (written in Adabase) on the
mainframe computer (an Amdahl). With practice, the VI CAP CAs learned
to prepare discrete queries designed to elicit cases exhibiting characteristics
similar to the case under analysis. Their satisfaction with the query results
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VICAP 83
exceeded the accuracy of the Automated Modus Operandi System, used
until 1997.
By the mid-1990s, tremendous advances had been made in computing.
State-of-the-art operating systems for microcomputers, combined with chips
processing data at a faster pace, and hardware with greater storage capacity,
costing about two thousand dollars or less, brought a tremendous amount of
data processing capability into a desktop environment. Database software
advances produced a product capable of providing mainframe utility in a user-
friendly, client-server environment, accessed by powerful microcomputers.
Advances in hardware and software made possible the shift of VI CAP soft-
ware from a mainframe platform to a desktop platform. Data accessible only
by a few VI CAP CAs can now be accessed by anyone in law enforcement
equipped with VI CAP software written for the client-server environment.
The Network
VI CAP engaged contractors outside the FBI to write the client-server soft-
ware application for New VI CAP. (Use of the lowercase “i” in ViCAP
became the official choice in the late 1990s. A standard spelling, VI CAP, is
used in this chapter to reduce confusion.) VI CAP software is now distrib-
uted to participating agencies so that they can perform their own analyses
with direct access to all of the data they enter into the system. A networked
version of New VI CAP software allows the exchange of violent crime infor-
mation within a police department, a county, a state, or across the nation.
When an intranet is not available for data transmission, the utility of
another FBI-sponsored initiative is used: Law Enforcement Online (LEO).
LEO is accessible to members of law enforcement entities on application.
After an applicant’s law enforcement agency status is confirmed, LEO issues
software, a sign-on, and a password. The LEO e-mail tool provides an
encrypted conduit for information exchange. Through LEO, VI CAP users
ensure that their transmitted data will not be read by others.
THE NEW VICAP
The sea change in New VI CAP utility was the movement of the software
from a mainframe platform to a user-friendly, client-server environment that
can be delivered to any law enforcement entity. Briefly, New VI CAP soft-
ware permits users to
• Match violent crime cases
• Perform cold case analysis
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• Identify trends
• Learn the “how” and “why” of violence
• Provide agency administrators with a violent crime reporting system
Crime Case Matching
New VI CAP software provides state and local agencies with the same type
and kind of crime case matching capability enjoyed at the national level by
the VI CAP Unit. Any data that a user enters into the system are retrievable.
Much of the information is captured through the use of pull-down menus,
reducing the amount of typing necessary for data entry and the potential for
misspelled words (which make data retrieval difficult when correctly spelled
words are used in a computer retrieval statement). Dialogue boxes capture
hand-entered data. Provision was made for a narrative to be included as part
of the data. In an effort to avoid double data entry, the narrative portion
accepts text that can be applied in a cut-and-paste style from other word pro-
cessing programs.
These details of data entry are important because only the data entered
into a New VI CAP database can be extracted, but all of the data in the data-
base, forced choice or text, can be retrieved for crime case comparison. A
CA can select facts or behaviors from an offense and query the database for
cases exhibiting similar characteristics. This is the way that CAs in the FBI’s
VI CAP Unit check for two or more cases that may have been committed by
the same offender, or match open, unsolved cases to a known offender’s time
line of travels and activities.
Another feature of New VI CAP software is the ability to enter victim or
crime scene photographs into the database and have them associated with a
particular case. A written description cannot capture the details of bindings
applied to a victim, but a photograph can do so with great clarity. Moreover,
although case jackets and photographs can disappear over time, data entered
into the New VI CAP database are not lost and are available for later retrieval
and analysis.
Perform Cold Case Analysis
During the twenty years that VI CAP has been in operation, an entire gener-
ation of detectives has moved from the start of their careers to retirement.
Experience teaches us that when seasoned homicide detectives leave the
unit, all of their case knowledge goes with them. But a computer database
never forgets. Data entered (and properly backed up) are never lost. The
answer to the question, “What are the facts of the murder committed six
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years ago in the alley, the rear, of the 200 block of Tennessee Avenue, South-
east?” is always available.
Turner and Kosa (2003) offered that cold case squads are formed because
law enforcement agencies, regardless of size, are not immune to rising
crime rates, staff shortages, and budget restrictions. Rising crime rates
can tax the investigative and administrative resources of an agency.
More crime may mean that fewer cases are pursued vigorously, fewer
opportunities arise for followup, or individual caseloads increase for
already overworked detectives. Transfers, retirements, and other per-
sonnel changes may force departments to rely on younger, less experi-
enced investigators to work cases, often unsuccessfully [p. 1].
The VI CAP tool allows storage of old, cold cases for reassessment and
work at a later date. Moreover, the evidence-tracking capability of VI CAP
affords instant recall of evidence collected for examination by new and en-
hanced laboratory techniques available at some future date.
VICAP Tool Configuration
In the early 2000s, VI CAP had three different electronic schemes to serve
the varied needs of law enforcement agencies. The first of these is a stand-
alone version. In this configuration, the VI CAP software system operates on
one computer, with one sign-on and password. Opportunities for tracking
work and changes to the database are lost in this configuration, but it works
well in smaller agencies with only a few personnel.
The second configuration operates on one computer but with several sign-
ons and passwords available. This option provides individual, tracked access
to the database, but is more costly as licensing issues come into play.
The third configuration operates in a client-server environment. Here the
VI CAP software resides in the server and is accessible from as many client
computers as the law enforcement entity wishes—or can afford—to network
with the server. Although this is the most expensive option in terms of both
equipment (clients and servers) and licenses, this option provides individual
access to the database by multiple persons at the same instant in time.
National Database
In the future and with years of development behind it, VI CAP will be open-
ing a national database for law enforcement users. The database is designed
to contain all homicides, missing persons, unidentified dead, and sexual
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assault cases submitted by state and local law enforcement entities across
the United States. The database will be accessible through the Internet
using individual LEO accounts. With this tool, analysts and detectives can
query the database and obtain a possibilities set matching the variables in
the query and the facts of a case under investigation.
From a local and regional tool, VICAP will move to another level when
the national database comes online. Cold case squads will be united, and
investigators can track, for example, the spread of trucker-committed prosti-
tute murders across the United States. A question frequently asked by
knowledgeable investigators is: Is this murder linked to any others? That
question can be answered through VI CAP as MOs and photographs from
possible related cases can be compared and contrasted.
VICAP TODAY
Today’s VI CAP is still located within CIRG and is part of NCAVC, along
with the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) 1, which handles terrorism
threats; BAU-2, which handles crimes against adults; BAU-3, which han-
dles crimes against children; and the Behavioral Research Group, serving
as the center’s research component. The NCAVC provides assistance to law
enforcement entities at all levels and around the world in these types of
cases:
• Child abduction or mysterious disappearance of a child
• Serial murder
• Single murder
• Serial sexual assaults or rapes
• Extortion
• Threats
• Kidnapping
• Product tampering
• Arson and bombing
• Weapons of mass destruction
• Public corruption
• Domestic and international terrorism
Current VICAP Services
VI CAP’s supervisory special agent for administration, Gary L. Cramer (per-
sonal communication to the author, March 2006), wrote that the current
VI CAP program
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VICAP 87
consists of more than 18 FBI Crime Analysts, along with program
management personnel, IT Specialists, over 700 law enforcement
agency clients throughout the United States, and a decentralized data-
base management system, all working together to solve violent crimes.
Crime data is entered within the law enforcement organization’s
VICAP client workstation at the user end and is provided in electronic
format via Law Enforcement Online (LEO) connection to CIRG. Alter-
natively, a media disk or hardcopy of the data can be mailed to the
CIRG VICAP program for data entry. The Crime Analysts collect all
data and work to compare, analyze, link, and help solve crimes utiliz-
ing tools offered by the VICAP system.
More specifically, VI CAP’s unit chief, Thomas J. Donohue (personal
communication to the author, March 2006), wrote that VI CAP’s services to
law enforcement entities in the United States and abroad include
• Analytical support for “cold” case investigation, to include homicide
and sexual assault matters that may potentially involve transient or
serial offenders
• Mapping, trend analysis, training, and case coordination support and
analysis
• A full range of analytical services for all member agencies on sub-
mitted cases, as well as limited analysis for nonmember agencies
which submit criteria cases
• Written products prepared and disseminated in the Criminal Intelli-
gence Assessment Report (CIAR) format
• Offender time lines, matrices, and mapping products
• NCIC interface for off-line searches of suspects or vehicles
• National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS)
searches of messages dating back to 1986
• National crime analyst training in-services to include crime analysis,
behavioral analysis, and case management
• VICAP Alerts published in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin and
other publications; VICAP Alerts feature crime information notices
of general interest to law enforcement
Cases Suitable for VICAP
VI CAP collects case information on more than homicides or attempts, miss-
ing persons, and unidentified dead. Child abductions or attempts, kidnap-
pings, and sexual assaults or attempts and rapes cases are now accepted and
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sought. Including these additional offenses makes VI CAP a much more
desirable tool for law enforcement. (Information about VI CAP can be found
at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/isd/cirg/ncavc.htm.)
CONCLUSION
Detective Pierce Brooks’s idea for VI CAP is more than fifty years old. His
vision included computers that at the time were little more than glorified
card sorting machines. In those fifty years, computer speeds and memories
have gone up, as the prices for those capabilities have gone down. Today
Brooks’s vision and the needs of modern law enforcement are looked after
by the VI CAP Advisory Board made up of law enforcement executives and
investigators. The advisory board provides guidance and advice to VI CAP’s
management. After twenty years of experience and practice with Brooks’s
concept, VI CAP has fine-tuned the merger of people and machine to create
a data storage and retrieval system that adds immense value to criminal
investigations.
APPENDIX: PIERCE R. BROOKS
Pierce Brooks was born in Los Angeles in 1923. He lived there until World
War II, when he left to fly for the U.S. Navy. After the war, he returned to
Los Angeles and in 1948 joined the police department.
Brooks served in patrol, vice, and narcotics assignments before he moved
to homicide. His rise to the elite homicide unit was rather quick, because he
was there in 1957 to work on the case of Harvey Glatman, having joined the
department only nine years earlier. His promotions in the department contin-
ued until 1969, when he retired with the rank of captain.
Along the way in Los Angeles, he met Jack Webb, the Hollywood direc-
tor and actor. Webb performed both functions for the television series, Drag-
net, and played the part of Sergeant Joe Friday. Brooks was a perfectionist
in his work, and he saw in Webb the same characteristics. He once remarked
that Webb tightly “blocked his shots” on a scene, specifying exactly where
the actors were to stand, how the camera would be positioned, what lighting
was to be used, and other details.
The respect was mutual. From time to time during Sergeant Friday’s
opening monologue on Dragnet (“This is the city. Los Angeles, California.
I work here. I carry a badge.”), he announced the shift’s watch commander
as Lieutenant Pierce Brooks. Dragnet 1969, a movie, used the murders com-
mitted by Harvey Glatman as its theme.
After Los Angeles, Pierce Brooks became the chief of police in Lake-
wood, Colorado; Springfield, Oregon; and Eugene, Oregon. In later years, he
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VICAP 89
consulted on the Seattle, Washington, Green River murders; Chicago
Tylenol murders; and the Atlanta, Georgia, child murders. He wrote a cou-
ple of books, and Joseph Wambaugh’s The Onion Field (1979) is about one
of Brooks’s cases.
Brooks died in Springfield, Oregon, on February 28, 1998.
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PART TWO
Classifications
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CHAPTER
6
Homicide
100: Criminal enterprise
101: Contract murder (third party)
102: Gang-motivated murder
103: Criminal competition
104: Kidnap murder
105: Product tampering
106: Drug murder
107: Insurance-related death
107.01: Individual profit
107.02: Commercial profit
108: Felony murder
108.01: Indiscriminate murder
108.02: Situational murder
120: Personal cause homicide
121: Erotomania-motivated murder
122: Domestic homicide
122.01: Spontaneous domestic homicide
122.02: Staged domestic homicide
122.03: Neonaticide
123: Argument/conflict murder
123.01: Argument murder
123.02: Conflict murder
93
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124: Authority murder
125: Revenge
126: Nonspecific motive murder
127: Extremist homicide
127.01: Political
127.02: Religious
127.03: Socioeconomic
128: “Mercy/hero” homicide
128.01: “Mercy” homicide
128.02: “Hero” homicide
129: Hostage murder
130: Sexual homicide
131: Organized
132: Disorganized
133: Mixed
134: Sadistic murder
135: Elder female sexual homicide
140: Group cause homicide
141: Cult
142: Extremist homicide
142.01: Political
142.02: Religious
143: Group excitement
Murder is the unlawful taking of human life. It is a behavioral act that termi-
nates life in the context of power, personal gain, brutality, and sometimes sex-
uality. Murder is a subcategory of homicide, which also includes lawful taking
of human life, such as, manslaughter, deaths resulting from criminal and non-
criminal negligence, and unpremeditated vehicular deaths (Megargee, 1982).
Although a distinction is made in the literature among homicide, murder, and
killing, for the purpose of this book, the terms are used interchangeably.
THE UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING PROGRAM
The earliest system for classification of homicide is the Uniform Crime
Reports (UCR). The UCR, prepared by the FBI in conjunction with the U.S.
Department of Justice, presents statistics for crimes committed in the United
States within a given year. Recognizing a need for national crime statistics,
the International Association of Chiefs of Police formed the Committee on
Uniform Crime Records in the 1920s to develop a system of uniform police
statistics. Seven offenses were chosen to serve as an index for gauging fluc-
tuations in the overall volume and rate of crime. Known collectively as the
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Homicide 95
crime index, these offenses were the violent crimes of murder and nonneg-
ligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, and the
property crimes of burglary, larceny theft, and motor vehicle theft. By con-
gressional mandate, arson was added as the eighth index offense in 1979.
A survey of the figures reported in the UCR for all murders committed
between 1976 and 2003 shows that the number of murders in the United
States has fluctuated from 16,605 in 1976 to a peak of 21,860 in 1980, drop-
ping to 20,613 in 1986 and up to 21,500 in 1989 to a low of 16,503 in 2003
(U.S. Department of Justice, 1977, 1981, 1987, 1989, 2003). The UCR also
cites information about age, race, and sex of victims and offenders; types of
weapons used; and situations in which killings took place.
The current UCR classifies murders as follows:
• Felony murder (occurs during the commission of a felony)
• Suspected felony murder (elements of felony are present)
• Argument-motivated murder (noncriminally motivated)
• Miscellaneous or nonfelony types (any known motivation not included
in previous categories)
• Unknown motives (motive fits into none of the above categories)
Percentages for all categories of murder except the unknown motives cat-
egory have decreased. In 2003, there were 14,054 murders categorized. The
number of murders classified in the category, however, has risen dramati-
cally. In 2003, there were 4,476 murders categorized in the unknown cate-
gory out of the 14,054 murders. This trend is particularly noteworthy in that
it suggests both the heterogeneity of motives that give rise to murder and the
clear inadequacy of a system that partitions murder essentially into three cat-
egories: felony, noncriminal, and miscellaneous. The miscellaneous and
unknown motives categories represent wastebasket classifications. A classi-
fication system that fails to capture 40 to 50 percent of the cases (other and
unknown) clearly is suboptimal in its ability to explain the universe of
behavior.
HOMICIDE CLASSIFICATION BY VICTIMS, TYPE,
AND STYLE
The FBI Academy’s Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, Virginia, began
contributing to the literature on the classification of homicide with the
Hazelwood and Douglas (1980) publication on typing lust murderers. The
classifying of homicides by number of victims, type, and style was pub-
lished by Douglas, Ressler, Burgess, and Hartman in 1986. A single homi-
cide is defined as one victim and one homicidal event. A double homicide is
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defined as two victims who are killed at one time in one location. The Janu-
ary 27, 2001, murder of Dartmouth College professors Half and Suzanne
Zantop by teenage classmates James Parker and Robert Tulloch is an exam-
ple of a double homicide. This case was solved by investigators who traced
the knives to Parker, who bought them online. A triple homicide is defined
as three victims who are killed at one time in one location. Any single-event,
single-location homicide involving four or more victims is classified as mass
murder.
There are two subcategories of mass murder: classic mass murder and
family mass murder. A classic mass murder involves one person operating in
one location at one period of time, which could be minutes or hours or even
days. The prototype of a classic mass murder is a mentally disordered indi-
vidual whose problems have increased to the point that he acts out against
groups of people who are unrelated to him or his problems, unleashing his
hostility through shootings and stabbings. One classic mass murderer was
Charles Whitman, who in 1966 armed himself with boxes of ammunition,
weapons, ropes, a radio, and food; barricaded himself in a tower at the Uni-
versity of Texas at Austin; and opened fire for ninety minutes. (See Chapter
Thirteen.) The second type of mass murder is family mass murder. If four or
more family members are killed and the perpetrator takes his own life, it is
classified as a mass murder–suicide. Without the suicide and with four or
more victims, the murder is classified as family mass murder. An example is
John List, an insurance salesman who killed his entire family in 1972. List
disappeared after the crime, and his car was found at an airport parking lot.
He was located seventeen years later following a television program describ-
ing the murders.
A spree murder is defined as a single event with two or more locations and
no emotional cooling-off period between murders. The single event in a
spree murder can be of short or long duration. On September 6, 1949, spree
murderer Howard Unruh of Camden, New Jersey, took a loaded German
Lugar with extra ammunition and randomly fired the handgun while walk-
ing through his neighborhood, killing thirteen people and wounding three in
about twenty minutes. Although Unruh’s killing took a short length of time,
it was not classified as a mass murder because he moved to different loca-
tions (Ressler, Burgess, & Douglas, 1988).
Serial murder was initially defined as three or more separate events in
three or more separate locations with an emotional cooling-off period
between homicides. At a 2005 FBI conference on serial murder, discussion
focused on the number of events needed for classification as serial. There
was considerable support for reducing the number to two or more events to
qualify as serial in nature. The serial murder is hypothesized to be premedi-
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Homicide 97
tated, involving offense-related fantasy and detailed planning. When the
time is right for him and he has cooled off from his last homicide, the serial
killer selects his next victim and proceeds with his plan. The cooling-off
period can last for days, weeks, or months and is the key feature that distin-
guishes the serial killer from other multiple killers. Ted Bundy is an exam-
ple of a serial murderer. Bundy killed thirty or more times over a period of
many years in at least five different states.
There are other differences that are hypothesized to distinguish the mass,
spree, and serial murderers. In addition to the number of events and locations
and the presence or absence of a cooling-off period, the classic mass mur-
derer and the spree murderer are not concerned with who their victims are;
they will kill anyone who comes in contact with them. In contrast, the serial
murderer usually selects a type of victim. He thinks he will never be caught,
and sometimes he is right. A serial murderer carefully monitors his behavior
to avoid detection, whereas a spree murderer, who often has been identified
and is being closely pursued by law enforcement, is usually unable to con-
trol the course of events. The serial killer, by contrast, plans and chooses vic-
tim and location, sometimes stopping the act of murder if it is not meeting
his requirements. With a sexually motivated murderer, the offense may be
classified as any of the aforementioned types.
INVESTIGATIVE PROFILING
Crime classification assists investigative profiling, a step within investigative
considerations. Investigative profiling is best viewed as a strategy enabling
law enforcement to narrow the field of options and generate educated
guesses about the perpetrator. It has been described as a collection of leads
(Rossi, 1982), as an informed attempt to provide detailed information about
a certain type of criminal (Geberth, 1981), and as a biological sketch of be-
havioral patterns, trends, and tendencies (Vorpagel, 1982). Geberth (1981)
has noted that the investigative profile is particularly useful when the crimi-
nal has demonstrated some clearly identifiable form of psychopathology. In
such a case, the crime scene is presumed to reflect the murderer’s behavior
and personality in much the same way as furnishings reveal a home owner’s
character.
Profiling is, in fact, a form of retroclassification, or classification that
works backward. Typically we classify a known entity into a discrete cate-
gory, based on presenting characteristics that translate into criteria for
assignment to that category. In the case of homicide investigation, we have
neither the entity (for example, the offender) nor the victim. It is thus nec-
essary to rely on the only source of information that typically is available:
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the crime scene. This information is used to profile, or classify, an individ-
ual. In essence, we are forced to bootstrap, using crime-scene-related data,
to make classifications. This bootstrapping process is referred to as profil-
ing. There have been no systematic efforts to validate these profile-derived
classifications.
CCM: A MOTIVATIONAL MODEL FOR CLASSIFICATION
OF HOMICIDE
The first published FBI Behavioral Science Unit system for typing lust mur-
der (Hazelwood & Douglas, 1980), which Megargee (1982) properly
described as a syndrome rather than a typology, delineated two categories,
the organized nonsocial category and the disorganized asocial category, that
were not intended to embrace all cases of sexual homicides. This early work
on lust murder evolved into a programmatic effort to devise a classification
system for serial sexual murder (Ressler et al., 1988). In the late 1980s, the
agents from the Investigative Support Unit at the FBI Academy joined with
the Behavioral Science Unit to begin working on a crime classification man-
ual, using as a guide the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disor-
ders (DSM-IV-TR, 2006) of the American Psychiatric Association. Work
groups were assigned to the major crime categories of murder, arson, and
sexual assault. An advisory committee representing federal and private asso-
ciations was formed.
Although many of the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of this
model derive from earlier writings on the subject, the study of violent crime
has advanced and thus new crime classifications have been added.
In the CCM, classification of homicide by motive has four major cate-
gories. The criminal enterprise category has eight subcategories: contract
murder (third party), gang-motivated murder, criminal competition, kidnap
murder, product tampering, drug murder, insurance-related murder (indi-
vidual profit or commercial profit), and felony murder (indiscriminate or
situational). The personal cause category has eleven subcategories: eroto-
mania-motivated murder, domestic homicide (spontaneous, staged, or neo-
naticide), argument/conflict murder, authority murder, revenge, nonspecific
motive murder, extremist homicide (political, religious, or socioeconomic),
“mercy/hero” homicide, and hostage murder. The sexual homicide category
has five subcategories: organized crime-scene murder, disorganized crime-
scene murder, mixed crime-scene murder, sadistic murder, and elder female
sexual homicide. The group cause category has three subcategories: cult mur-
der, extremist homicide (political, religious, or socioeconomic murder [para-
military or hostage]), and group excitement.
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Homicide 99
100: CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Criminal enterprise homicide entails murder committed for material gain.
This material gain takes many forms (for example, money, goods, territory,
or favors).
101: CONTRACT MURDER (THIRD PARTY)
A contract killer is one who kills by secret assault or surprise. He is a mur-
derer who agrees to take the life of another person for profit; that is, he is a
hit man. There is usually an absence of relationship (personal, familial, or
business) between killer and victim.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of a contract killer is perceived by the person
hiring the killer as an obstruction or hindrance to the attainment of a goal.
This goal could be a financial one (collecting life insurance or controlling
a business) or it could be personal (an extramarital affair, a refusal of
divorce).
The victim’s risk is situational. It is the offender’s perception of the vic-
tim as an obstacle that puts the victim at risk. The risk for the offenders (con-
tractor and killer) is dependent on their relationship with each other and the
experience and expertise of the offender who is committing the murder.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The offender usually spends a
minimum of time at the scene. A quick, fast killing is usually opted for.
Several factors at the scene are indicative of offender sophistication. One
index of this professionalism is the weapon that is used. Customized sup-
pressors, handguns, or other instruments of death often indicate a specialist
who is comfortable with killing. The crime scene may reflect this in other
ways, including little or no physical evidence left at the scene, effective stag-
ing, elaborate body disposal, and a crime scene that shows a systematic,
orderly approach before, during, and after the crime.
The weapon may be chosen based on its availability, lack of traceability,
or inability of making a bullet match from it (.22 caliber). The offender often
will drop the weapon or leave it at the crime scene with the body to lessen
the possibility of being apprehended with it in his possession. Firearms used
for a contract killing are often stolen or not registered.
Arson is sometimes used to conceal the contract murder. (Refer to sec-
tion 231 for further information.)
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Staging. If staging is absent, there will be no other crime indicators: for
example, nothing will be missing, and there will be no sexual assault. Sec-
ondary criminal activity may mean that the offender is youthful, an amateur,
or of low intelligence.
The counter to this is a crime scene with complex staging, such as cut
brake lines or aircraft malfunction, to make the death look accidental. Sec-
ondary criminal activity to confuse the primary motive of murder may
include the appearance of a robbery or breaking and entering that went
wrong, or a kidnapping. The body may be positioned to imply that a sexu-
ally motivated homicide occurred. Actual sexual assault is a variable de-
pending primarily on offender professionalism.
Common Forensic Findings. Just as staging and other crime scene indica-
tors reflect the offender’s level of experience, forensic findings can also offer
distinguishing features. The veteran professional killer, for example, may
choose a weapon that is difficult to trace and focus the area of injury to the
victim’s vital organs, especially the head. Usually there are a minimal num-
ber of wounds; overkill is rare. A blitz or ambush style of attack is also com-
mon to this type of killing.
Investigative Considerations
Most contract killings have some evidence of premeditation. The killer may
stalk the victim. An individual with preexisting, intact criminal connections
will be able to contract a murder more easily and with less of a conspirator-
ial trail than an individual without established criminal connections. While
the latter individual’s conspiratorial trail may be more easily detected, the
nature of the crime ensures the existence of a conspiracy for all offenders.
Scrutiny of a suspect’s preoffense contacts, discussions, and communica-
tions may provide evidence of the conspiracy (telephone and financial
records should be reviewed for such evidence).
The contractor (the party engaging the killer) will have a history of per-
sonal conflict or business competition with the victim. However, he or she
may exhibit a preoffense behavior change that frequently includes an appar-
ent improvement in relationship with the victim. This improvement is often
deliberately made apparent to relatives, friends, and business associates. The
offender’s motivation for projecting an image of caring and concern toward
the victim is to lure the victim into a false sense of security while convinc-
ing those around him that he is above suspicion once the investigation has
begun. Interviews with those close to the offender and victim may reveal this
type of preoffense behavior. Additional preoffense behavior that others may
observe is a nervousness or preoccupation on the part of the contractor.
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Postoffense, the offender (contractor) will often demonstrate selective
recall. He or she will have an uncharacteristically detailed, precise, airtight
alibi for the period during which the homicide occurred. The investigator
will be able to specify the offender’s activities and the exact times these
occurred from receipts and other evidence; however, his actions before and
after the offense will be harder to pinpoint. The contractor will most likely
be highly visible during the time of the offense (at a public place or party, for
example).
Search Warrant Suggestions
Telephone records and other communications, financial records showing
transfers of money, travel records, receipts (for rental cars or motels, for
example), and weapons are all important search warrant suggestions.
CASE STUDY 101: CONTRACT MURDER
Victimology
U.S. District Court Judge John Wood was known as Maximum John to mem-
bers of the legal and law enforcement society in Texas. His reputation for
handing out the stiffest penalties possible for drug offenders had brought
him to the attention of the criminal community as well. Judge Wood had
made serious inroads into the organized drug trade of the southern and west-
ern areas of Texas where drug flow across the Mexican border into this
region had made trafficking a lucrative business.
Jamiel Charga (known as Jimmy) especially seemed to be benefiting from
the drug business, as evidenced by his lifestyle: he had lost $1.1 million dur-
ing one three-day Las Vegas gambling trip. Jimmy’s brother, Lee, who had
also been implicated in drug trafficking (and who was murdered on Decem-
ber 23, 1978), often expressed feelings of persecution at the hands of federal
representatives like Judge Wood and the assistant U.S. attorney, James Kerr
Jr. (Kerr was the object of an attempted assassination in November 1978.)
Jimmy Charga, who was already in prison, shared his brother’s animosity
of Judge Wood, imagining that he was the object of the judge’s personal
vendetta. He was also convinced that he would be given a life sentence by
Judge Wood if he was convicted of the five counts of drug trafficking he
faced in Wood’s court.
At approximately 8:40 A.M., on May 29, 1979, Judge Wood called good-
bye to his wife as he walked out the front door of their apartment. Ten to fif-
teen seconds later, as he walked from the brick condominium to his green
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Chevrolet, he was struck in the back by a single gunshot. Mrs. Wood came
out of the apartment after hearing the noise she had immediately identified
as a gunshot. She found her husband lying near his car and attempted to help
him. Wood was transported to Northeast Baptist Hospital, San Antonio,
where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 9:30 A.M.
Judge Wood was placed at a high risk because of the stance he took when
sentencing drug traffickers. Typically, he would not have been considered a
high-risk victim when considering other factors that rate a victim’s risk level
(lifestyle and income, for example). However, his occupation and intoler-
ance of drug offenders, in addition to his flippant attitude toward the threats
against his life (he had ended the protection given him by federal marshals
and had stopped carrying the gun they had given him), elevated his risk.
Relating Judge Wood to the victimology of a contract killing shows that
his risk was situational. He was viewed as an obstruction to Jimmy Charga’s
freedom and his drug enterprise. Judge Wood had ended U.S. marshal pro-
tective services and had stopped carrying the gun they had given him.
Crime Scene Indicators
Judge Wood’s body was lying three and a half feet from his car at a forty-
five-degree angle with the feet pointing northwest, the head southeast, and
the arms outstretched to the side.
The witnesses who saw the judge struck by the bullet and fall to the ground
never saw the gunman. There was no physical evidence (no shell casings or
fingerprints, for example). The exact location of the sniper was not known.
There were reports of several different strangers at the apartment around the
time of the murder, but none led to any substantial suspect information.
The fast method of killing meant a minimum of time at the crime scene
for the offender. The apparent ease of the killer to slip in, shoot the judge,
and escape undetected (especially with a police patrol within two blocks
responding at 8:41 A.M.) are all indicators of careful premeditation by an ex-
perienced hit man.
Forensic Findings
The bullet entry point was to the lower back, left of center, with a trajectory
through the body of less than fifteen degrees. It immediately hit the spine,
causing fragmentation of the bullet and disintegration. These bullet frag-
ments resulted in wounds throughout the abdomen and internal organs.
Ballistics revealed that the bullet was a .243 caliber or 6mm. Based on the
rifling marks, it was concluded that two kinds of common rifles could have
fired the bullet: the Browning Lever-Action and the Interarms Mark X.
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The ambush, sniper style of attack on Judge Wood, requiring only one
shot to kill almost instantly, is forensics information typical of the more ex-
perienced contract killer.
Investigation
The investigation of Judge Wood’s murder became the largest federal inves-
tigation since John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Due to the professionalism
of the killer (as evidenced by the lack of forensics and witnesses), the direc-
tion of the investigation depended greatly on the history of conflict between
Judge Wood and Jimmy Charga. In addition, the conspiratorial trail was less
visible due to Charga’s criminal contacts. This minimized the effort to seek
a hit man, therefore minimizing the number of conspirators who could later
become damaging witnesses.
The combination of extensive investigation with all of Charga’s business
associates, family, and friends, combined with intelligence derived from
informants, began to focus attention on Charles Voyde Harrelson. On June
24, 1979, Charga’s wife, Elizabeth, had paid $150,000 to Harrelson’s step-
daughter in Las Vegas for the completed contract killing. Harrelson ac-
knowledged receiving the money but said it was for a drug deal. The
conspiratorial trail finally began to emerge after examination of telephone
bills that linked Harrelson with Charga through family members.
Charga’s wife was audiotaped while visiting her husband in Leavenworth
Prison. “Yeah, go ahead and do it,” she said, when the couple discussed plans
to kill Judge Wood. They were repeating a previous conversation that had
taken place before Wood was murdered. Elizabeth Charga also wrote a let-
ter to Mrs. Wood in which she acknowledged making the payoff, but she
denied involvement in the conspiracy.
Mrs. Harrelson admitted buying the .240-caliber Weatherby Mark V, the
murder weapon, using a false name and giving it to her husband. The rifle
butt with the Weatherby trademark was the only partly recovered, making a
ballistic match impossible (another indicator of some criminal sophistica-
tion). Harrelson’s placement near the crime scene, in contrast to his claim of
being 250 miles away the day of the killing, was solidified when a series
of witnesses testified he was at motel in North San Antonio the night before
the murder.
Outcome
Charles Harrelson was convicted of the 1979 murder and conspiracy to mur-
der and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.
He appealed his case in 1998 to the Supreme Court. On March 29, 2004,
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Harrelson, father of actor Woody Harrelson, lost his Supreme Court appeal.
Jimmy Charga was convicted of obstructing justice in the Wood investiga-
tion. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in relation to
the attempt made on assistant U.S. attorney James Kerr. Kerr, who often tried
drug cases in Wood’s court, barely escaped injury from a barrage of bullets
by ducking under his car dashboard in November 1978. Charga was also
convicted of continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to import marijuana,
and tax fraud.
Elizabeth Charga was originally charged with murder conspiracy, con-
victed, and sentenced to thirty years. This was later overturned because the
judge had not instructed the jury that her guilt had to be based on joining the
conspiracy with malicious intent. She was also convicted of obstructing jus-
tice and tax fraud and received a five-year sentence.
Jo Ann Harrelson was convicted of perjury before the grand jury, during
her own trial, and to FBI agents. Also convicted for their part in the assassi-
nation were Joe Charga, Jimmy’s brother, and Theresa Jasper, Harrelson’s
stepdaughter.
102: GANG-MOTIVATED MURDER
A street gang is an organization, association, or group of three or more
people, whether formal or informal, that has as one of its primary activi-
ties the commission of antisocial behavior and criminal acts, including
homicide.
Gangs in one form or another have been around for hundreds of years,
with pirates probably some of the original gangs. The groups that tradition-
ally come to mind are the Crips and the Bloods from California, whose ori-
gins can be traced to the late 1960s. According to the Los Angeles Police
Department, as of 2006, Los Angeles is now home to 463 gangs, up from 300
in 1990. The city has an estimated 40,000 gang members. And as another
example, gang-related graffiti, robberies, shootings, and stabbings are on the
rise in Utah after a decade of decline.
Street gangs were first formed in response to territorial struggles with
rival neighborhoods. Fatalities that were associated with gang activity were
largely based on these territorial conflicts. Contemporary gangs are demon-
strating signs of evolution from loosely knit gangs to more established,
organized crime groups. The flourishing cocaine market has been the pro-
pelling force behind this evolutionary process. Because the drug enterprise
is now the heart of gang existence, drug-related homicide and street gang
murder are becoming synonymous.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims of street gang homicide are usually members or
associates of a gang. Gangs generally have a leader or group of leaders who
issue orders and reap the fruits of the gang’s activities. A gang may also wear
“colors,” that is, certain types of clothing, tattoos, and brands imprinted with
the gang’s name, logo, or other identifying marks. Many gangs also adopt
certain types of hairstyles and communicate through the use of hand signals
and graffiti on walls, streets, their own school work, and school property.
Innocent bystanders are peripheral victims in some drive-by shootings.
Local businessmen being extorted by gangs also become homicide victims,
but this is usually restricted to Asian gangs. Filipino gangs in Hawaii use
firearms as a currency in the drug trade; therefore, these gangs target victims
to obtain guns that include military and law enforcement personnel. Vio-
lence involving street gangs most often includes minority, male victims and
offenders.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The homicide scene is usually
an open, public place within gang territory. Frequently the site of the killing
is in front of or near the victim’s residence. Drive-by killings are the most
frequent tactic employed by gangs. This mobile, public clash has a much
greater prevalence over the one-on-one confrontation. Drive-by killings
often involve more than one car.
The crime scene is disarrayed, with no concern for the body. It is not con-
cealed and may even be displayed and positioned in a specific manner if a
message is intended by the killing. Symbolic items may be left, such as the
colors representing a gang or graffiti messages. Sometimes gang members
involved with the offense will yell another gang name at the scene to misdi-
rect law enforcement and focus retaliation on another gang.
The weapon is bought to the scene and is often concealed. Frequently
there are additional victims injured and associated offenses related to the
homicide.
Staging. Staging is generally absent.
Common Forensic Findings. Firearms are the weapons of choice with
most gangs. The typical gang arsenal includes assault rifles, fully automatic
weapons, semiautomatic handguns, and shotguns. Knife attacks are rare.
Multiple wounds from multiple-round weapons characterize a common
forensic finding of the gang homicide. The offender often empties the gun’s
magazine into the victim. Such wounds are usually manifested in two ways.
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For optimum lethality, the offender targets the victim’s head and chest. And
for a ritualistic attack (especially prevalent with a retaliatory killing), there is
methodical shooting of arms, knees, groin, and legs first, then chest and head.
An execution style of shooting is one other method employed with gang
murder. There are isolated incidents of torture, but these are rare and usually
occur only with an intragang conflict.
The victims who had gang involvement often have tattoos. Hispanic
gangs especially tend to have many intricate tattoos.
Investigative Considerations
“Intelligence is the basis for success of the entire investigation,” according
to Joe Hoolmes of the Sheriff Lynwood Gang Unit. Known gang conflicts
may also give direction to the investigation. Geographical considerations
quickly help classify a homicide: an area of concentrated activity will in-
crease the likelihood that the killing was gang motivated. Because gang
killings are usually public, there are frequently witnesses.
The type of homicide perpetrated by street gangs is reflecting their emer-
gence as more organized criminal operants. Some gangs are functioning as
contract killers. The largest percentage of gang killings are motivated by
drugs, with territory disputes and retaliatory killings the second and third
most common motives. One other motive for gang homicide is the intermin-
gling of a female from one gang or territory with the male of another.
Although many studies note the average gang is composed of males be-
tween the ages of twelve and twenty-one who reside in poor, central areas of
cities with populations of more than 200,000, girl membership in gangs has
been increasing. Surveys of gangs in large cities indicate a wide variance in
ethnicity, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Caucasians.
The law enforcement officer should attempt to keep a log of the addresses
of gang members frequently seen together. Gang members often exchange
stolen goods, guns, and clothing that may connect them to an offense. If pos-
sible the officer should keep Field Information Cards (FIC) and have gang
members sign the back of this information with their moniker (gang nick-
name) and logo. Usually gang members are proud of this and will volunteer
to do so. The investigator should also have the gang member initial, sign, and
draw his gang graffiti on the back of the rights card when being interviewed.
This can prove helpful during prosecution for establishing the subject’s
membership or involvement with a gang.
Known gang conflicts may also give the investigator direction. For exam-
ple, Bloods do not fight each other, but Crips will fight each other. Also,
black versus Hispanic conflict is becoming more prevalent. The two groups
used to coexist peacefully.
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Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions for gang-motivated murder include the following:
• Firearms, ammunition
• Graffiti: walls, garage, books, papers, anywhere in a house
• Pictures with guns and gang members, photo albums
• Other items of gang association: clothing with colors, insignias,
monikers, pagers, nice cars, jewelry (especially gold)
Multiple addresses should be listed on the search warrant, including gang
members recently seen with the offender, due to the exchange of stolen prop-
erty, guns, and clothing between gang members.
CASE STUDY: 102: GANG-MOTIVATED MURDER
Background
As a group of friends from a Los Angeles neighborhood were piling into
their cars to go to a movie, someone shouted, “Get down, get down!” Every-
one scrambled for safety as gunfire filled the air. The shots were being fired
from a car filled with black males. When the attack was over, two Hispanic
males aged seventeen and eighteen were dead. In addition, a four-year-old
child died several hours later at the hospital.
Victimology
Both teenage victims had an extensive history of gang involvement common
to the victims of street gang homicide. The eighteen year old had been jailed
several times as a juvenile for assault with a deadly weapon and drug pos-
session charges. The seventeen year old also was involved with the same
gang for over three years. He too was well known to the police for being
involved with gang conflicts. He had been implicated in a recent drive-by
shooting of a rival member, but no action had been taken.
The child victim was typical of many victims of street gang killings: he
was an innocent bystander who happened to be playing on his porch at the
wrong time.
Crime Scene Indicators
The area of the shooting had a reputation for being the location of many gang-
related conflicts. The crime scene was in an open public place, in front of the
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child’s house and next to the house of the eighteen year old. The killing
involved a drive-by assault in which the offenders brought their weapons with
them. The bodies were left where they fell until paramedics responded. There
were witnesses, but most were gang members who preferred to exact their
own form of justice, so they were not cooperative with the police.
Forensic Findings
All three victims sustained lethal wounds to the chest area and died of mas-
sive blood loss. The seventeen year old also had gunshot wounds to the left
arm and left side of his neck. Investigators determined from the forensics
that at least two weapons had been involved: a 9mm and a shotgun. The
eighteen year old was killed from a shotgun blast. The targeting of vital or-
gans and presence of multiple gunshot wounds are both common forensic
findings with gang murder.
Investigation
Through the use of informants, the investigator learned that the seventeen-
year-old victim had been involved in the earlier fatal attack on some rival
gang members. He had been recognized and targeted by that gang for retal-
iation. Investigators were able to come up with three suspects of the four or
five gang members believed to be involved. A search warrant produced one
of the murder weapons, a 9mm fully automatic MAC-10. Two subjects were
charged with murder, and a third was charged with his part in the killings,
driving the car.
Outcome
All have been convicted of their respective charges. All of the offenders were
sentenced to twenty years to life.
103: CRIMINAL COMPETITION
Death in this type of homicide is a result of organized crime conflict over
control of territory.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Generally the victim is a prominent or known organized crime
figure or member of the hierarchy. Both intragroup and intergroup conflicts
are prevalent prior to the homicide, with the victim generally reflecting this
conflict. Innocent bystanders may become unintentional victims.
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Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene represents a
well-planned crime and reflects the evidence consciousness of the offender.
The scene may appear to pose a high risk to the offender, but because there
are built-in safeguards (like an escape plan), the risk is considerably low-
ered. An example of this escape plan is the use of a decoy car that runs inter-
ference by blocking traffic, feigning car trouble, or causing an accident while
the offender escapes.
The killing is done expeditiously, which keeps the time spent at the scene
to a minimum. The offender usually is experienced and brings a weapon of
choice to the scene.
Body disposal tends to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. The offender
will either go to great lengths to conceal and dispose of the body or leave it
wantonly displayed at the murder scene.
Staging. Staging is usually not present.
Common Forensic Findings. Weaponry or the method of killing used
depends on the intent of the offender. If he is sending a message or making
a statement, bombing, a public killing, or an execution-style shooting (head
wounds) will be seen. If the murder is one of elimination, then a small-
caliber, untraceable weapon will be more prevalent. Vital organs are targeted
in both cases.
Investigative Considerations
The use of intelligence obtained from gangland informants is a fundamental
consideration that is especially appropriate with this classification of homi-
cide. Intelligence regarding such matters as rival groups and internal power
struggles should be explored.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions for the suspect’s residence include weapons,
guns, spent cartridges, clothing similar to that reported by witnesses, com-
munication records (telephone, letters, tapes), and financial records.
CASE STUDY: 103:
CRIMINAL COMPETITION
Background
John T. Scalish was the last great don of the Cleveland mafia. On May 26,
1976, at the age of sixty-three, he faced heart bypass surgery. The man who
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had possessed the power to decide others’ fate with the nod of his head was
now helpless to control his own. Despite the benefit of Cleveland’s best heart
specialists, Scalish died a few hours after surgery.
Scalish’s untimely death created a crucial hole in mob leadership because
he had not picked a successor. The battle that was ignited by those struggling
to fill that void became one of the bloodiest in fifty years of Cleveland’s
mafia history.
Victimology
One of the casualties of the mob’s leadership transition was Daniel Greene.
Born to Irish American parents in 1929, he was place in an orphanage as a
young child when his father either left or died. Greene was schooled in
a tough Italian neighborhood that spawned a lifelong hatred of the people
who would play a central role in his life.
Greene did a stint in the marines, where he boxed and became an expert
marksman. During the early 1960s, he worked on the Cleveland docks and
took over the leadership of the International Longshoreman’s Union. He
exercised his authority by skimming union funds, extorting money from
workers through beatings and threats, and attempted routine shakedowns of
employees.
Greene was forced out of the union and convicted in federal court of em-
bezzlement, which was overturned on appeal. He pleaded guilty to a lesser
charge of falsifying union records and was fined. He never paid the fine and
never saw any prison time for this offense.
Green started his own business, Emerald Industrial Relations, with which he
would have union friends stall or cause trouble on a construction site. He would
then offer to settle the dispute for a fee. In addition, he started a business of
waste removal by consolidating rubbish haulers, forcing any of the reluctant
to join through bombing, burning, and pouring acid on their equipment.
Newspaper exposure eventually forced him out of the Solid Waste Guild.
It was during this period that Greene began to make connections with
Cleveland’s organized crime scene. In 1971, he was implicated in what
became the first of a long line of bombings to eliminate threats and further
his delusions of a Cleveland-based Celtic crime organization.
At the time of Danny Greene’s death, he fit the victimology of being a
prominent organized crime figure and representative of one at odds with
those in power. He also had a history of being an FBI informant.
Crime Scene Indicators
After John Scalish died, James Licavoli (alias Jack White) reluctantly took
charge of the Cleveland mafia. Danny Greene began to methodically kill
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White’s associates in an attempt to overthrow him. Cleveland was in the
throes of a full-scale bombing war as a result of Greene’s ambitions and
White’s retaliations.
There were several unsuccessful attempts on Greene’s life; he walked
away from one bombing that demolished his apartment with only a few bro-
ken ribs. Because Scalish had bequeathed White a weak organization, he had
no single hit man who could eliminate Greene. To compensate for this
deficit, White contacted every thug he knew for the job.
On October 16, 1977, as Greene entered his car after a dentist appoint-
ment, Ronald Carabbia sat nervously clutching an airplane transmitter fifty
yards away as his accomplice, Ray Ferritto, slowing cruised toward the free-
way. The transmitter’s target was a platter directional bomb that was planted
in the passenger door of a Trojan horse. (Trojan horse is the name given to a
nondescript vehicle that has a bomb planted in it. It is parked next to the tar-
get’s car and is detonated by remote control when the intended victim comes
near it.) Once Greene was between his vehicle and the Trojan horse, Carab-
bia pushed the button that detonated the directional explosive device. The
explosion sent a red ball of fire into the air and blasted debris over the entire
parking lot.
Greene’s clothing was torn off, except his brown zip-up boots and black
socks. His left arm landed a hundred feet from the bomb site. A blue Adidas
duffel bag he was carrying containing a 9mm pistol, two magazines full of
bullets, notebooks, and a list of license plates driven by his enemies was
found nearly intact.
Traces of the bomb’s components (the explosives, the container, and the
detonator) were found at the crime scene but were not traceable to their
source. No latent prints were found on the Trojan horse.
By noting the fragment patterns and direction, and the intensity of dam-
age from the blast and the heat and fire, investigators were able to determine
where the bomb was (the seat of the blast is where the most damage is).
Forensic Findings
Greene’s back was torn apart by the blast. His left arm was severed from his
body, as previously mentioned. The cause of death was from massive inter-
nal destruction due to both blunt-force trauma and penetrating injury.
Investigation
A woman driving with her husband to an art gallery allowed a blue Plymouth
to turn in front of her. For an instant, she and the Plymouth’s driver, Ray Fer-
ritto, stared directly at each other. She also noticed a man in the car’s back
seat staring at the parking lot where Danny Greene was just climbing into his
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car. The next instant, pieces of Greene’s car were flying at the couple, who
followed the Plymouth onto the freeway, making note of driver, car, and
license plate. The female eyewitness was a commercial artist and was able
to sketch a picture of both suspects. In addition, both witnesses later identi-
fied Ferritto and Carabbia from photos.
The license plates of the Trojan horse played an important role in the
investigation. When agents went to the department of motor vehicles to
check registrations, they went to the original files rather than the computer.
Immediately before and after the Trojan horse plates were plates that were
registered to the same person. One name was a phony, but the other was the
true name. The clerk remembered the man who had filed the tags since he
acquired two sets of plates with different names. The car was also eventually
traced to a dealership that was known to be involved with the Cleveland
mafia.
Outcome
Ronald Carabbia was indicted and found guilty of murder. His original sen-
tence was the death penalty, but that was later commuted to life in prison
without parole when the state supreme court ruled the death penalty uncon-
stitutional.
Ferritto became a protected government witness and served a five-year
term. Another man, Butchy Cisternino, also was convicted for his part in
Greene’s death by making the bomb.
Jack White was found not guilty during the first state trial. Jury tampering
was strongly suspected. At the second state trial, all those involved were found
guilty. In federal court, White was convicted for murder among other charges
and given a forty-five-year prison sentence. He died in prison around 1986.
104: KIDNAP MURDER
Kidnap murder pertains to a person abducted for ransom and killed whether
the ransom is paid or not. It is important to know what designates a kidnap-
ping as opposed to a hostage/barricade situation. A kidnapping involves the
seizing and detainment or removal of a person by unlawful force or fraud,
often with a demand of ransom. The victim has been taken against his or her
will by a possibly unknown subject and is detained at a location unknown to
the authorities. Negotiations involving a kidnap situation may include the
victim’s family, government officials, business leaders, law enforcement
authorities, and the offender.
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A hostage/barricade situation is when a person is held and threatened by
an offender to force the fulfillment of substantive demands made on a third
party (see classification 129, which deals with hostage murder). The person
being held in a hostage situation is at a location known to the authorities.
This is the major difference between these two situations.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of a kidnap murder has an elevated level of risk
due to offender perception. A victim who would be considered low risk due
to lifestyle or occupation will have this risk elevated due to his or her socio-
economic background or availability of resources to meet possible ransom
demands. Resistance and control considerations are also a factor affecting
risk. The elderly and the very young are at higher risk due to their inability
to resist the offender as effectively as a healthy adult could.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. There may be multiple crime
scenes: the location of the abduction, the death scene, and the body disposal
site. The victim is usually alone when the abduction occurs. Furniture may
be upset, the victim’s belongings scattered in a way that indicates sudden
interruption of activities, and doors may be left open. The ransom note may
be left at the scene. Future communication from the offender, and possibly
the victim, is possible. There may be evidence of multiple offenders.
Staging. No staging is present.
Common Forensic Findings. Analysis of the ransom note or recording and
victim communication are the prime pieces of forensic evidence. Technical
enhancement of recordings should be used to amplify background noise and
recording techniques. This information may assist in locating where the re-
cording was made. The method of communication (computer, paper, tape,
writing) should be analyzed. The authenticity of both offender and victim
communication should be established. Gunshot wounds are often noted that
are contact or near contact to the head and other vital areas.
Investigative Considerations
Items that should be scrutinized when dealing with a kidnap murder are tele-
phone and financial records. Prior employees should be considered. The pos-
sibility that multiple offenders were involved also should be kept in mind. A
telephone trap and trace is usually indicated.
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The offender’s preoffense surveillance, efforts to trace the victim’s move-
ment, and routine may help produce witnesses who observed strangers or
suspicious persons in the victim’s neighborhood or other locations that were
part of their routine. Analysis of the offender and victim communication
using threat assessment may prove advantageous. Threat assessment is the
process of determining validity and potential source of threats received by
individuals, groups, or companies. If the threat is determined to be real,
countermeasures are developed to protect the potential victim. The analysis
of threat communication, based on the psychology and psychodynamics of
the threat, may denote personality traits of the suspect. Preoffense publicity
of the victim or other types of victim visibility may provide leads to victim
select and targeting.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions include communication records such as tele-
phone records. In addition, pictures of the victim, audio or video recordings
of the victim, and diaries, journals, and travel-related data such as airplane
tickets should be considered.
CASE STUDY: 104: KIDNAP MURDER
Background
At 9:50 P.M. on July 26, 1988, the Jackson Police Department, Jackson, Mis-
sissippi, received a phone call from Robert Hearin. His wife, Annie, was
missing. Hearin had arrived home late that afternoon to an empty house and
had become increasingly alarmed after calling friends in an attempt to locate
his wife. A search of the area by police produced a ransom note that had been
left in the foyer. The note demanded that Hearin pay twelve people who had
fought legal battles with School Pictures of Mississippi, which he owned.
Victimology
Annie Hearin was seventy-two-years old at the time of her abduction and
had been married to Robert for forty-nine years. She was an active part of
the Jackson community, patronizing the Jackson symphony and opera. She
had held executive positions in the Opera Guild and Junior League and had
cochaired the Mississippi Arts Festival.
The Hearins had a reputation for being a civic-minded, unpretentious
couple who had funded local colleges and universities in addition to con-
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tributing to the Jackson art museum. They lived in a posh neighborhood, but
their brick home was not considered lavish by Jackson standards.
Robert Hearin was a self-made millionaire who controlled an empire con-
sisting of Mississippi’s largest gas distribution company, its second largest
bank, and the second largest insurance company. Hearin also had run School
Pictures, the photo-processing operation that had employed the twelve men
named on the ransom note as franchisers.
“When corporations are bought and sold, you jerk people’s lives around
without even knowing it,” said one Jackson businessman. This statement
illustrates one of the factors that elevated Annie Hearin’s risk level as victim:
the nature of her husband’s business of making decisions that could be poten-
tially disastrous to some people. Another factor that increased Annie Hearin’s
risk level is that she was a frail, seventy-two-year-old woman who was not in
particularly good health. She would pose minimal resistance to the offender,
making her easier to control and minimizing any commotion that would
attract unwanted witnesses. Thus, Annie Hearin was an example of a victim
whose low risk level became slightly heightened by offender perception.
Crime Scene Indicators
The last person to see Annie Hearin was her maid, who left the Hearin resi-
dence around 3:30 P.M. the afternoon of July 26. Hearin had hosted a bridge
game with several friends that afternoon. When her husband arrived home at
4:30 P.M., he found his wife’s car in the driveway and her shoes placed beside
a living room chair. There were no signs of forced entry, and nothing was
missing from the home.
At 9:50 P.M., Hearin notified the police. They made a search of the area
and discovered a splattering of blood, possibly from nose or lips, on the front
door and door frame. A note was found in the foyer.
Forensic Findings
The following note was typewritten on a 1920 Vintage Royal manual type-
writer:
R bert Herrin
Put these people back in the shape they was in before they got mixed up
with School Pictures. Pay them whatever dama ges the y want ant tell
them all this so they cank now what your doing b ut dont tell them why.
you are doing it. Do this before ten days pass. Don’t c all police. [The
twelve franchisers were then listed.] If any is dead pay his children.
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On August 15, Hearin received a letter dated August 10 and postmarked
August 12 from Atlanta, Georgia. This letter was signed by Annie Hearin
and later analyzed to be authentic. Analysis of the letter revealed that she had
been directed verbally and mechanically to write it and was under great
duress. The note contained the following message:
Bob-
If you don’t do what these people want you to do, they are going to seal
me up in the cellar of this house with only a few jugs of water. Please,
save me, Annie Laurie.
Blood also was found on this note, but neither this sample nor the one
found at the crime scene could be definitely linked to her.
Investigation
An investigative consideration of great importance in this case was the list
of franchisers on the ransom note. A suspect in a kidnapping of this sort, one
that was more retaliatory than profit motivated (nonspecific demands in ran-
som note), would be someone who had been (in his perspective) mistreated
by the victim’s husband. Careful investigation of the financial status as well
as any history of problems precipitating the incident, either domestic or
occupational, would be helpful in narrowing down a list of possible suspects.
Another consideration that was of significance in terms of the suspect
who was finally charged with Annie Hearin’s kidnapping was scrutiny of
meetings and travel typical of his routine. His travels had made him familiar
with Jackson.
When considering the list of names on the ransom note for a possible sus-
pect who may have had a score to settle with Robert Hearins, investigators
found that N. Alfred Winn’s name was prominent. A St. Petersburg, Florida,
lawyer, Winn had been involved in a court battle with School Pictures in
1983. The company had sued him, alleging that he owed them money they
had advanced him. Winn countersued, alleging the company had misstated
his prospects for making money when it signed him up as a franchisee. In
1983, a district judge in Jackson ordered Winn to pay the company $90,000,
and in 1984 he was ordered to pay $153,883. School Pictures, having failed
to collect, seized Winn’s law office. Winn was quoted as saying he had lost
his life savings.
A neighbor of the Hearins identified Winn from a photo lineup as the man
she saw in a white van in the neighborhood a few days before the kidnap-
ping. In addition, a superintendent for a construction crew working at a
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neighborhood church two blocks from the Hearin residence recalled seeing
Winn looking around the neighborhood.
On August 5 or 6, 1988, sometime between 6:00 A.M. and 9:00 A.M. at the
Quality Inn in DeLand, Florida, Winn met with a woman and asked her to
mail the letter in Annie Hearin’s handwriting. At Bishop’s Planetarium and
South Museum Tampa in late August, Winn again met with this woman to
pay her the initial $250 of a $500 promised payment. The rest was paid on
February 18, 1989, about 7:15 A.M., again at the DeLand meeting spot. The
woman had agreed to dye her hair and disguise herself as part of the deal.
In a search of Winn’s law office and home, the FBI seized a map of Jack-
son with the Hearins’ home, businesses, and farm marked; six aerial maps of
Jackson; two handguns; and an old Royal typewriter.
Outcome
On February 8, 1990, Winn was convicted of extortion by mail, conspiracy
to kidnap, and perjury in connection with Annie Hearin’s disappearance. The
status of state charges of homicide are as yet uncertain. Annie Hearin’s body
has not yet been recovered. Winn was sentenced to 235 months in prison and
5 years probation.
105: PRODUCT TAMPERING
In this type of homicide, death results from contact with a commercial prod-
uct, sabotaged by the offender for the purpose of achieving financial gain.
There are three primary offender strategies used for achieving financial gain:
litigation on behalf of the victim (wrongful death), extortion, and business
operations. The last method includes damaging a competing business through
sabotage of its product or manipulating the stock market as a result of nega-
tive publicity.
Violation of the Federal Anti-Tampering Act occurs when any product has
been affected by the actions of the perpetrator. With a business attack, taint-
ing or switching labels may happen on a retail level. Elements of this crime
include the involvement of a consumer product such as a drug; the tainting
of that product or the switching of product labels to make them materially
false; and intent to cause serious injury to the business of a person.
The extortion method also can be tied into the business manipulation
approach. An example is a crime involving a protection racket, in which the
taint is tied to a demand for payments under threat of closing down the store
or causing grave damage to the reputation of the business.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of product tampering may be random or specific,
dependent on the product’s distribution, the product’s use, and the offender
strategy. Sabotaged baby food, brake lines, and soft drinks will involve a
particular age group or class of people. Some sabotaged products will be
distributed only on a local scale, so the victimology will be more confined.
The localization of victims can also help establish whether the product is
being tampered with at a retail stage or at the manufacturer’s level. Random
victimology is likely to be seen with extortion or with intent to damage a
competitor.
The more specific victim is seen when the offender employs litigation for
wrongful death. The victim will be a family member or one closely associ-
ated with the offender. Random victims are observed when this type of of-
fender wants to remove suspicion from himself or herself and stages the
crime to look like the work of an indiscriminate killer.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Multiple crime scenes usually
are involved with this homicide: the site where the product is altered, the
location where the product is procured by the victim, the place of use or con-
sumption, and the death scene. The location of alteration may offer evidence
of the tampering involved. If it is mechanical sabotage, tools particular to
that alteration will be present. Chemicals, poisons, and medicines may be
found if this type of tampering is employed.
Tampered-product locations and the proximity of victims to sites will aid
in deciding the scope and movement of the offender as well as origin of the
product. At the death scene, the proximity of the victim to the altered prod-
uct can aid the investigator in reconstructing the product’s path. In addi-
tion, communication from the offender may be found at any of the scenes
involved.
Staging. Staging is crucial if the offender is using the litigation strategy.
The offender must make it appear as if the family member or close associate
was a victim of either a random killer or a company’s faulty product. For the
first set of circumstances, there could be other random victims selected to
give the appearance of an indiscriminate saboteur at work. The other situa-
tion may require the death to look like an accident (for example, a defective
automotive part or short-circuited power tool that causes the fatal accident).
Fire started by apparently faulty wiring that burns a house down with the vic-
tim inside is another illustration of a staged product tampering. The initial
impression derived from the crime scene of a staged tampering homicide
ranges from violent death to a medical emergency of some kind, without any
obvious indicators of a homicide.
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Common Forensic Findings. Examination of the product is one of the fun-
damental considerations of product tampering. There may be visible signs of
tampering, such as clearly discolored capsules. The type of analysis done on
the product and victim will depend on the instrument of death.
Suspicion of poisoning requires toxicological and chemical analysis of
the product and victim to determine if products of the same lot were in-
volved. Because toxicological analysis is not routine in postmortem exami-
nation, exhumation of the victim may be necessary to detect poisoning. This,
along with the distribution of victims, will help decide if the source of tam-
pering is at the retail or manufacturer level. Type of poison and consistent or
varying levels of poison in each tainted product reflect the resources and
sophistication of the offender. The packaging of the product will also be
revealing of offender sophistication: this includes absence or presence of fin-
gerprints, repackaging, and the appearance of the tainted items.
The analysis of offender communication would be approached in the
same manner as in kidnap murders (see classification 104). If the communi-
cation is verbal, a verbatim set of the caller’s comments and information
about speech patterns and accent are vital to threat assessment.
Investigative Considerations
Threat assessment of offender communication may be helpful. If there is no
extortion demand associated with the death and civil litigation has been
initiated, the litigant should be scrutinized. The litigant’s financial status
(beneficiary to insurance claims or inheritance, along with problems such as
outstanding debts, for example), relationship with the victim (problems, extra-
marital affairs), and preoffense and postoffense behavior should be examined.
Although the primary motivation is financial gain, the offender who tar-
gets a family member for death often has concurrent secondary motivations
or goals that will be equally well served by the victim’s death. Avenues such
as domestic problems and extramarital affairs should be explored. Because
product tampering deaths are relatively rare, early allegations of such by
anyone who stands to benefit from the victim’s death should be viewed cau-
tiously and evaluated carefully.
Cyanide is often the poison of choice because it is easily available at chem-
ical and photographic supply houses and in college and high school laborato-
ries. It can also be ordered through the mail. One ounce can kill 250 people,
so its potency makes it a popular choice with product tampering offenders. An
important investigative tool in cases of an offender who has used cyanide is a
complex instrument in use at the Food and Drug Administration’s Cincinnati
district laboratory. It can track down the source of the cyanide and identify the
supplier, who can find the geographical customer list rather quickly. This may
help narrow the list of typical suspects (chemical firms, grocery clerks, the
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enemies of deceased victims, or a store’s terminated personnel file) and fur-
ther isolate the offender.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions for this type of crime include financial records,
materials specific to the tampering (for example, tools, electronic devices,
chemicals, drugs, literature pertaining to drugs, manuals), and any related
products (other analgesics, empty capsules). Evidence of tampering practice
and other tainted products should also be considered.
CASE STUDY: 105: PRODUCT TAMPERING
Background
Stella Maudine Nickell’s husband, Bruce, came home from work with a
headache. After he had given his wife of ten years a kiss, he went into their
kitchen and reached for a bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin. He swallowed
four capsules and sat down to watch television. Stella remembers that Bruce
then decided to go for a walk out on the patio. Suddenly she heard Bruce call
to her that he felt like he was going to pass out. Within the next minute, he
collapsed and was unable to speak. Stella called the paramedics, and Bruce
was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He died a few hours
later, never regaining consciousness.
Six days later, on June 11, 1986, Sue Snow started her day by taking two
Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules, as was her habit. The caffeine in the cap-
sules was like her morning cup of coffee. Fifteen minutes later, her daugh-
ter, Hayley, found her sprawled unconscious on the bathroom floor. By noon,
she was dead.
Victimology
At the time of his death, Bruce Nickell was fifty-two. When he married Stella,
he was a hard-drinking heavy-equipment operator, which suited Stella since
she had a fondness for bar hopping. Nickell had recently taken stock of his
life and decided to dry out by attending a rehabilitation program. Stella at-
tended a few sessions with him. Before his death, Bruce was often unem-
ployed, which had begun to get on Stella’s nerves.
Sue Snow was forty years old at the time of her death. She had dropped
out of high school to marry but had turned her life around through hard work.
She had become the assistant vice president at a branch of the Puget Sound
National Bank and was happily married to Paul Webking. They were rarely
apart and “madly in love,” according to Webking.
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Both victims were users of the product. Nickell and Snow had never met;
Snow was an example of the random victim that is common to many prod-
uct tampering murders.
Crime Scene Indicators
Five bottles of tainted Extra-Strength Excedrin came from Johnny’s Food
Center in Kent, a Seattle, Washington, suburb, and a Pay ’N’ Save store in
Auburn. Two contaminated containers were found in the Nickell household.
Seals on the containers were cut or missing, and the boxes, which had been
reglued, demonstrated obvious signs of tampering. The victims lived within
five miles of each other, a factor that was significant to investigators devis-
ing the area of offender operation.
Staging
Sue Snow became a victim because of staging. Stella Nickell was very dis-
appointed with the medical examiner’s initial decision that her husband had
died from emphysema and not cyanide poisoning. Her husband’s death
meant $105,000 to her in addition to the damages she expected to get from
Bristol-Myers when his death was declared by poisoning. Someone else had
to die to alert the authorities that a random cyanide killer was at work in King
County. So Stella Nickell poisoned the three bottles of Excedrin and slipped
them onto the shelves of area stores, one of which was bought by Snow. This
set the scene for Nickell to approach officials with her suspicions that her
husband had fallen to a cyanide murderer as well as giving her grounds to
sue Bristol-Myers.
Forensic Findings
The initial cause of death listed on Bruce Nickell’s death certificate was pul-
monary emphysema because the coroner had failed to detect the cyanide in
his body. It was not until after Snow’s death, when Stella Nickell came for-
ward with the hesitant suggestion that her husband also had been the victim
of a random cyanide killer, that the true cause of death was determined. At
that time, tissue samples demonstrated cyanide poisoning. Sue Snow had
levels of cyanide that were easily detected by medical examiners.
After analysis of the tampered bottles, it was established that a random
selection of pills had been poisoned. Some capsules contained more than
three times the lethal adult dose of potassium cyanide. Others were not con-
taminated; Paul Webking took two capsules from the same bottle that proved
fatal to Sue Snow twenty minutes later.
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The exterior carton and bottle tampering was artless. The boxes were
reglued in an amateur manner, exhibiting minimal sophistication on the part
of the offender.
Investigation
Stella Nickell had a restless yearning to buy the property the Nickell trailer
stood on and open a tropical fish store. Her ambitions were becoming insis-
tent. At the age of forty-four, she had an increasing awareness of the gap
between her dreams and reality. To her, the gap seemed to be widening faster
as each year passed. That her husband was frequently unemployed rein-
forced her belief that if she did not act soon, her dreams would slip away for
good. In addition, she felt her husband was not much fun since he had
stopped drinking.
In the fall of 1985, Nickell took out a $40,000 life insurance policy on her
husband, naming herself as sole beneficiary. Bruce Nickell also held a state
employee policy that paid $31,000, with an additional $107,000 awarded in
the event of an accidental death. To Nickell, $176,000 could easily make her
dreams into reality.
Nickell’s daughter, Cynthia, who was living with the Nickells at the time
of the murder, eventually came forward and told about the conversations she
had had with her mother during the five years leading to the offense. Bruce
Nickell’s death was a popular topic of conversation with Stella Nickell.
Cynthia testified in court that her mother had studied library books on poi-
sons and experimented with toxic seeds, either hemlock or foxglove. Bruce’s
only reaction was to become lethargic. When Stella learned that a recover-
ing alcoholic was susceptible to other addictive substances, she discussed
the idea of killing him with heroin, cocaine, or speed, so it would appear to
be just an accidental overdose.
According to Cynthia, her mother expressed great interest in the Tylenol
murders of Chicago in 1982. Using the same plan, she could not only collect
life insurance but file suit against the responsible company, Bristol-Myers
(which she did), for wrongful death. She felt this was a viable alternative to
get her fish store and live in the comfort she had always dreamed about.
These discussions between Cynthia and her mother show how scrutiny of
a suspect’s preoffense conversations may be helpful in establishing motive
and premeditation. There was not enough evidence to bring Stella in until
Cynthia decided to talk.
Outcome
Stella Maudine Nickell was convicted of five counts of product tampering
and two counts of causing the death of another by product tampering (the
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first conviction using a federal law enacted in 1983). On June 17, 1988, she
was sentenced to ninety years. She will not be eligible for parole until 2018.
106: DRUG MURDER
Drug murder is defined as the murder of an individual where the primary
cause is to remove an obstruction and facilitate the operation of the drug
business.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victimology of drug-related homicide is dependent on the
motive of the offender. The homicides are categorized into five motive
groups: discipline, informant, robbery, territory infringement, and antidrug
advocate.
The victim of a discipline-motivated homicide is being punished for break-
ing the rules of a drug distribution group by which he is employed. Exam-
ples of these infringements include skimming money or drugs, stealing
customers, or in some other way hindering, obstructing, or impeding the
operation. The informant supplies information on the criminal enterprise to
law enforcement or competing dealers. A robbery-motivated homicide usu-
ally deals with a rip-off of drugs, money, or other goods (especially gold jew-
elry) related to the sale of drugs from customers, traffickers, or dealers. A
drug trafficker who infringes on the territory of another drug dealer may
become the victim of a drug murder. Victims of these four types of murder
are commonly known to law enforcement as having a history of association
with the drug trade. They may have an arrest record, reflecting a history of
drug use, robberies, and assaultive behavior relating to this involvement, or
at least an association with known drug offenders.
The last type of victim can be anyone from the neighborhood antidrug
crusader to a law enforcement officer. These victims may be social workers
or clergy who are offering treatment to drug abusers and thus usurping cus-
tomers of the dealers. Judges who impose stiff penalties, politicians who
vigorously campaign against drugs, and witnesses testifying against drug of-
fenders are other examples of this victimology. All of these victim types are
individuals opposed to the drug trade and viewed as an obstruction, real or
symbolic, the offender wants removed.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Drug-related homicide often
occurs in a public place if the death of the victim is intended to be a mes-
sage. The body is usually not concealed but is left at the scene with a wanton
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indifference. Evidence such as drugs or money may be removed from the
scene. The weapon used is frequently one of choice that is brought to the scene
and taken from it by the offender. Drugs or drug proceeds removed from the
scene or missing from an obvious or known victim trafficker are another
indicator that might be apparent at the scene of a drug murder.
Staging. Staging is usually not present.
Common Forensic Findings. The weapon used is predominantly a fire-
arm, often large caliber and semiautomatic. Occasionally knife wounds or
blunt-force trauma will be present, but these injuries are not as prevalent. A
high lethality of injury will be seen in which vital organs (chest and head)
are targeted. Overkill involving multiple wounds can be seen.
A drug screen done on the victim may help establish possible victim use
and connections to the drug business. Sometimes the mode of death might
be an overdose, or so-called hotshot, especially if the victim is a user.
The investigator should make sure a latent print process is attempted on
the body. Physical contact commonly occurs between the offender and vic-
tim of a drug murder before death.
Investigative Considerations
The offender will almost always have a known association with the drug
trade as a user, manufacturer, or distributor. This subject commonly will be
associated with a street gang, since gangs are immersed in drug trafficking
(see classification 102).
This homicide appears opportunistic, with rip-offs, territory infringe-
ments, and some discipline-motivated killings. Informant and antidrug ad-
vocate hits usually are setups that demonstrate some degree of organization
and planning. Although informant use is a fundamental consideration with
many investigations, the use of intelligence information is especially valu-
able with drug-related murder. Use of prison informants might also prove
helpful with this type of homicide.
Offenders may exhibit displays of wealth even though they have no legit-
imate source of money. They have expensive clothing, vehicles, and jewelry
yet are unemployed or have a job that is inconsistent with their apparent
finances.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions include large amounts of money, clothing, elec-
tronic equipment, and so on reflective of a possible illegitimate money
source; drug paraphernalia, that is, items that link the offender to the drug
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trade; firearms; phone records; rental contracts; address books; financial
records and bank records; transaction records, computerized records, and
ledgers; packing materials (packaging from drug shipments, processing, lab
setups, distribution [dividing into smaller parcels for street sale]); and pho-
tos (of using, manicuring, and preparing drugs).
Two case examples are given. The first illustrates a scene where all per-
sons present were killed. The second case illustrates a dual drug murder.
CASE STUDY: 106: DRUG MURDER (A)
Background
On January 30, 1984, FBI agents surrounded a rooming house in Miami’s
Coconut Grove section. Within a few minutes, they had in custody George
Clarence Bridgette, one of the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives. When he
was arraigned before a federal magistrate, he continued to claim his name
was Odell Davis, the alias he had gone by since he had fled Long Beach, Cal-
ifornia. He was wanted for the drug-related murder of four people and at-
tempted murder of another.
Bridgette had two accomplices who had already been tried and convicted
for their part in the murders: Willie (“Chino”) Thomas and James Earl Cade.
Victimology
Two of the victims were thirty-year-old Pamela Cade, an ex-wife of James
Earl Cade’s uncle, and her three-year-old daughter, Chinue Cade. Another
daughter, fifteen-year-old Carolyn Ferguson, was shot, but she survived to
testify against Thomas and Cade. Larry Luther Evan, age thirty-seven, and
Crystal Baxter, age twenty-three, were the other two victims.
Crime Scene Indicators
At 10:30 P.M. on September 4, 1977, Cade, Bridgette, and Thomas entered
Pamela Cade’s Long Beach residence, pulled down the window shades, and
immediately killed Baxter. Bridgette carried a shotgun, Cade had a knife,
and Thomas had a .38-caliber revolver. Thomas then turned his gun on
Pamela Cade and shot her. Thomas was first thought to have killed Chinue,
but later it was later determined that Bridgette tore the child out of her dead
mother arms, held her upside down by the feet, and shot her in the neck. He
then tossed the dying child onto the sofa.
Thomas turned his gun on Ferguson. The fifteen year old struggled
fiercely for her life as Thomas tried to shoot her in the head. She received a
chest wound and feigned death, which enabled her to survive.
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Evans was the target of all three being stabbed and shot with both the
revolver and the shotgun.
The bodies were left at the scene with no attempt at concealment. The
weapons of choice, firearms and a knife, were brought to the scene and
removed with the offenders.
Forensic Findings
Crystal Baxter died of multiple head and back wounds caused by a shotgun.
Pamela Cade died of a .38-caliber gunshot wound to the head. Chinue died
of a gunshot wound to the neck. Larry Evans suffered seven stab wounds to
the chest, one of which penetrated his heart, causing death. He also was shot
in the chest with the revolver, and shotgun pellets were retrieved from his
legs.
The overkill present for Baxter and Evans is often found in a retaliatory
drug killing. Not only were the offenders retaliating against the victim they
felt had wronged them, but they were making a statement to anyone else who
might consider ripping them off. Vital areas (head and center chest) that
ensure lethality were targeted, another common finding in drug murder.
Investigation
The motive for a this multiple murder was a so-called burn on a forty dollar
drug deal between James Cade’s cousin and Pamela.
Outcome
Cade and Thomas were convicted on four counts of murder on November
22, 1978, and were sentenced to death. When the state supreme court
declared the death penalty unconstitutional, their sentences were commuted
to life imprisonment.
CASE STUDY: 106: DRUG MURDER (B)
Background
By the time he was twenty-three, Daniel A. Nicoll had a thriving drug trade
that required bimonthly trips to Florida in his 1978 Ford pickup. Although
Nicoll did not live in a mainstream drug trade city, he was important enough
to be the target of a unified task force consisting of Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), state, and local law enforcement.
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When he was not making Florida trips or selling the drugs he bought there,
Nicoll tended bar at the Club California in Buffalo, New York. It is there he
met Laura Osborn. As their personal relationship developed, Nicoll began
supplying her with cocaine and marijuana for personal use as well as dealing.
Victimology
Donald and Claire Nicoll referred to their son’s drug dealings as “dirty busi-
ness” and as the reason their son was no longer residing with them. Nicoll was
arrested by the police in Buffalo, New York, for possession of methadone,
unlawful possession of a controlled substance (PCP), and unlawful posses-
sion of marijuana. The case was not disposed of prior to the murder.
Nicoll had had some close calls before his death. He returned from one
Florida trip with an injury above his eye, attributing it to a drug rip-off. He
had also been threatened with a gun when he was suspected of a drug rip-off
on another occasion.
Nicoll demonstrated a fitting picture of the drug murder victim. His his-
tory of a drug-related arrest and the fact that his reputation in the drug busi-
ness had reached a federal level with DEA involvement offered further
illustration of this victimology. In addition, Nicoll had a history of previous
threatening drug-related confrontations.
Laura Osborn had met Nicoll while bar hopping in 1975, and they had
maintained a steady relationship for about four years. Osborn benefited from
Nicoll’s prosperous drug trade personally as well as financially by dealing
herself. She had no arrest record but was under the same DEA investigation
as Nicoll.
Osborn paid a price for her involvement with Nicoll. She was the victim
of his abuse, seen on occasion with bruises around her face. Another time,
Nicoll explained a head injury that Osborn suffered as a suicide attempt.
However, Osborn claimed that Nicoll had struck her on the head with a bot-
tle. Neighbors had witnessed the assault, but no legal action was ever taken.
Osborn epitomized the drug murder victim for the same reasons Nicoll
did: she was known to law enforcement as being associated indirectly (rela-
tionship with Nicoll) and directly (through her active dealings) with the drug
business.
Crime Scene Indicators
There were two crime scenes involved with these homicides. The first one
was on a back road where the victims were parked, waiting for the offender,
who was going to buy drugs from them. The offender, Larry Rendell, pulled
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his truck alongside Nicoll’s truck, facing the opposite direction, so that the
two drivers were facing each other. Larry then shot both Nicoll and Osborn
from his truck. Nicoll fell over unconscious into Osborn’s lap. Osborn was
still alert, having been shot in the arm while trying to protect herself.
Rendell climbed into the truck and drove it to another road. Osborn
pleaded for her life, assuring Rendell she would tell no one about what had
happened. She then asked Rendell for some cocaine. It was at this time
Nicoll stopped breathing.
Osborn got out of the truck and began to walk away, taking her shoes off
as she walked. Rendell felt he could not afford to let Osborn live, so he shot
her from the truck and then went over to complete the job.
Both bodies were dragged over an embankment and covered with leaves.
Rendell then drove Nicoll’s truck into a gully off a nearby road.
Forensic Findings
Later Rendell told his brother that he tore the truck apart to remove any shell
casings from the ten to twelve shots he fired at Osborn and Nicoll. Confis-
cated at his apartment were clogs and a green jacket with lettering that he
wore at the time of the murder. Both items were soiled with blood from each
victim.
Cause of death for Daniel Nicoll was multiple gunshot wounds to the
head, causing massive cerebral hemorrhage. Osborne also died of massive
cerebral hemorrhage from multiple gunshot wounds. She had been struck at
least six times by the .22-caliber rifle.
Investigation
Lawrence K. Rendell had several reasons for killing Nicoll and Osborn. He
claimed that Nicoll had shorted him on a previous marijuana deal and Nicoll
had ignored his protests. He also owed Nicoll anywhere from $450 to $1,000
for past drug deals and was constantly hassled by the victim to pay up. Ren-
dell had instructed Nicoll to bring his supply of cocaine the day of the mur-
ders because he claimed to have a buyer. Rendell had decided that killing
Nicoll served a threefold purpose of settling his debts, evening the score
from the previous rip-off, and providing him with drugs. In addition to the
other physical evidence linking Rendell to the crime, two speakers from
Nicoll’s truck were found in his apartment during the search.
Outcome
Larry Rendell was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder.
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107: INSURANCE-RELATED DEATH
A victim is murdered for insurance or inheritance purposes. There are two
subcategories for this type of homicide: individual profit murder and com-
mercial profit murder.
107.01: INDIVIDUAL PROFIT
The individual profit murder is defined as one in which the murderer expects
to gain financially by the victim’s death.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of an insurance or inheritance death for individual
profit has a close relationship with the offender. This includes family mem-
bers, business associates, and live-in partners.
Many victims of this category are not typically characterized as high-risk
targets. In fact, their lifestyles, occupation, and living circumstances often
classify them as very low risk. However, because of the offender’s perception
of them as an avenue to his or her financial goals, their risk is greatly elevated.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Usually the body is not con-
cealed but is left in the open or somewhere that discovery is probable. The
nature of the crime scene, or where it falls in the continuum between organ-
ized and disorganized, depends on the amount of the offender’s planning and
his or her capacity.
An example of one extreme of this continuum is the spontaneous offense
committed by a youthful, impulsive, or less intelligent subject. This crime
scene would contain more physical evidence, such as fingerprints or foot-
prints. The weapon would be one of opportunity acquired and left at the
scene. The crime scene would be chaotic, with evidence of sudden violence
to the victim (a blitz-style attack). The body would be left at the assault site
with little or no effort to conceal it.
The other extreme of this crime scene would be the offense committed
by the calculating, proficient offender who has mapped out all aspects of the
crime ahead of time. This methodical approach is represented by an orderly
crime scene in which there is minimal physical evidence present. The weapon
is one of choice, brought to and removed from the scene by the offender.
Staging. Staging is often employed with this type of homicide. Its complex-
ity can reflect offender capability, resources, and premeditation. The crime
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scene will most frequently be staged to give investigators the impression that
death resulted from natural or accidental causes or from criminal activity.
Suicide staging is also possible, especially in the light of the more liberal
standards of some insurance policies.
Common Forensic Findings. Asphyxial or chemical modalities are com-
mon because these deaths are often not considered untimely and therefore
not investigated within the medical-legal system. Toxicological studies of
the blood, liver, hair, and so on are essential to determine if poisoning was
used. Exhumation may be necessary.
The staging used will determine the forensic findings; for example, a
staged robbery-murder victim might have gunshot wounds, as opposed to
the seemingly accidental drowning victim who has pulmonary edema and
blood-streaked foam present in the nose and mouth. Therefore, the variance
of forensic findings is vast.
Investigative Considerations
The mechanism of money transfers, whether insurance document or wills,
should be checked to determine the authenticity of the victim’s signature.
Any recent beneficiary change or increase in insurance premiums or new
policy procurement justifies further probing into the victim-beneficiary rela-
tionship. Many of the components that are detailed in the discussion of
domestic homicide (see classification 122) are pertinent with this investiga-
tion, especially since multiple motives are often involved (extramarital
affairs, irreconcilable conflicts, and so forth).
Precipitating events may be seen as external stressors, such as financial
problems, marital discord, dissension with the victim due to job, or alcohol.
There may be a change in preoffense behavior toward the victim, often in the
form of apparent relationship improvement. Offender nervousness or preoc-
cupation may also be observed by others.
The offender often has an uncommonly detailed, steadfast alibi with
selective recall. The offender also may delay reporting the murder, espe-
cially if he or she desires a third party to discover the body. A comprehen-
sive examination of the physical and psychological records and history of
the victim should be done when the investigator suspects the offender has
employed suicide or death-from-natural-cause staging.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Financial records of the victim and offender should be scrutinized. If the
death was staged to appear natural, medications, poisons, or drugs of any
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kind should be looked for. Any indicators that would support the precipitat-
ing events (for example, offender in debt or extramarital affairs) should be
sought.
CASE STUDY: 107.01: INDIVIDUAL PROFIT
Background
John Dale Cavaness seemed to have the angel of death at his side when it
came to his family. In April 1977, his twenty-two-year-old son, Mark Dale
Cavaness, was found shot to death, an apparent victim of either a bizarre
accidental shooting or a homicide that had remained unsolved. Seven years
later, history repeated itself with the shooting death of another of John’s
sons, Sean Dale Cavaness, the apparent victim of an execution-style killing
and robbery. When St. Louis homicide detectives arrested Cavaness for
Sean’s murder, the people of the Little Egypt region in southern Illinois were
outraged.
Dr. Dale, as he was affectionately called, was akin to Mother Teresa to his
patients and friends. He often did not charge his patients and was not only a
tireless and devoted physician, but also a congenial, down-to-earth neighbor
who took time to talk with people despite his overburdened practice.
Cavaness’s family and closest office workers, however, knew he had a
darker side. His ex-wife, Marian, had spent some miserable years toward the
end of their marriage, the victim of physical and verbal abuse. His four sons
never had known much from their father besides castigation and torment.
The facts of Cavaness’s disastrous financial status, the mistreatment of his
family, and his history of problems with the law combined to form a disturb-
ing portrait of man who was capable of murdering his own sons for money.
Victimology: Victim 1
At the time of his death, Mark Dale Cavaness was an unsettled twenty-two-
year old with no direction to his life. His parents’ divorce and a move to
St. Louis had upset him to the point that he had failed his senior year of high
school. He had never received his general equivalency diploma (GED) and
had drifted around the Midwest, working odd jobs for short periods of time,
before returning to Little Egypt in 1977 to work on his father’s farm. Marian
Cavaness worried about the effect her ex-husband’s constant sarcasm and
persecution was having on her son. Phone conversations with her ex-husband
consisted primarily of his complaints about Mark: he was “amounting to
nothing” and was a “no-good pot smoker.” Mark’s voice often reflected self-
belittlement.
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Marian had decided it was time to persuade Mark to come back to
St. Louis, find a job, and get his GED. She and her three other sons were
spending the weekend in Little Egypt so the boys could be near their father
and Mark for Easter. She was determined not to return to St. Louis without
him. On Saturday, April 9, Marian, Sean, and Kevin, another son, set out to
find Mark. They were concerned because he had not shown up at the
Cavaness house, especially since it had been Mark’s idea for the Little Egypt
Easter reunion with his mother and brothers. They drove out to the trailer on
Dale’s farm where Mark was staying.
Fifteen-year-old Sean, walking through tall grass by Mark’s white Jeep
pickup truck, was the one to find the remains of his oldest brother. Kevin,
nineteen at the time, had to take control, calming his hysterical brother and
protecting his mother from the sight of Mark’s ravished corpse. Scavenger
animals had left little; Sean had known it was Mark only by recognizing his
belt buckle and his boots sticking out of the grass.
Crime Scene Indicators: Victim 1
Mark’s body was positioned on its back ten to twelve feet from the truck,
with the feet pointing toward the pickup. From the midthigh up, including
the arms and hands, was fresh skeletal remains with a few shreds of tissue
still intact. The skull was picked clean, with only the left eyeball and the
brown hair remaining. Only the lower legs, which were still encased in jeans
and laced-up work boots, were intact. Turkey vultures, wild dogs, possums,
and other scavenger animals were responsible for the condition of the body.
It was not possible to determine where Mark had been standing or sitting
when shot because the animals could have dragged the body into the grass.
A black leather wallet found in the grass near the body carried the identi-
fication of Mark Dale Cavaness. A plaid shirt was also found near the truck.
A package of Vantage cigarettes and a book of matches were in the left breast
pocket. There was a hole about two and a half by four inches surrounded by
dried blood between the left breast pocket and snap buttons.
Buckshot was found under the body site where the rib cage had rested, as
well as scattered on the floorboard inside the truck. Blood was on the driver’s
seat, floorboard, inside door panel, and outside, just behind the door opening.
The blood spatter pattern and the small, neat hole in Mark’s shirt indicated a
point-blank shot either while he was sitting behind the wheel (turned toward
the passenger side), getting in or out of the truck, or standing beside it.
The shotgun was a 12-gauge, three-inch magnum Browning automatic
goose gun. It belonged to John Dale Cavaness. One round was found in the
chamber and one in the magazine. The safety was off. It was lying on the
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passenger side of the truck with the barrel pointing toward the driver’s side.
The gun was inside its case, with the front barrel protruding several inches
as if the end of the case had been blown off when the gun was fired. The hook
end of a metal coat hanger had been wedged into the trigger guard through
another hole in the case. Hanging from the coat hanger was a camouflage
hunting vest with its lower edge shut in the passenger door. The shotgun had
been positioned across an ax handle that raised the shooting angle.
The shotgun had been rigged in such a way to make it look as if Mark had
reached across the driver’s side and grabbed the barrel, pulling it toward
himself. The coat hanger, hooked on the trigger and anchored on the other
side by the vest caught in the passenger door, had pulled the trigger. Mark
had taken the shot point-blank in the chest.
Staging: Victim 1
The shooting had been intended to look like an accident or a booby trap. A
suicide was unlikely because the gun would have been removed from the
case.
Kevin Cavaness was certain his brother, an experienced hunter, would
know better than to grab a gun by its barrel and pull on it. The detective as-
signed to the case also found this an unlikely sequence of events. The end of
the case could have been shot off, but the case also showed signs of wear
elsewhere.
The piece of evidence that discounted the attempt to stage an accident or
booby trap was the location of the cartridge. If the gun had been in the case
when fired by the coat hanger or the murderer’s finger, the spent cartridge
would be inside the case.
Only one spent shotgun cartridge was found, on the floorboard of the
driver’s side. It was reasoned that the offender had fired the gun inside
the truck and then returned it to its case. The killer then constructed the
phony scene, making the shooting look accidental or booby-trapped. No fin-
gerprints or footprints were obtainable from the crime scene because it had
been compromised by the initial personnel responding to the call.
Forensic Findings: Victim 1
Mark Dale Cavaness had died from a point-blank shotgun blast through the
heart. Time of death was estimated to be fourteen hours before discovery of
his remains (Good Friday evening or late afternoon), based on tissue sam-
ples taken from the lower legs and feet. He was positively identified through
dental records.
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Victimology: Victim 2
Sean Dale Cavaness had been through some troubled years as a teenager. He
was haunted by the vision of his brother’s corpse and healed slowly from the
trauma. Of all the Cavaness boys, Sean had hungered the most for his
father’s love and approval. Consequently, he was hurt the deepest by Dale’s
callousness and ridicule. In 1984, at age twenty-two, he was struggling to
find direction for his life. He had an alcohol problem that had required inpa-
tient treatment and was still having problems despite attending Alcoholics
Anonymous.
On December 14, Sean’s body was found early in the morning in a remote
part of the county near St. Louis. He had been shot twice in the back of the
head. For the second time in seven years, Kevin Cavaness was faced with the
appalling task of identifying a dead brother.
Crime Scene Indicators: Victim 2
The body had been discovered by a farmer at 7:45 A.M. on the way to feed
his horse. The crime scene was located off a back road that ran along the
town of Times Beach, which had been sealed off and evacuated due to dioxin
contamination, therefore offering a solitary location with little traffic.
Sean’s body was beside a gate framed by two stone pillars leading to a
pasture. He was lying on his back with his head pointing north, his feet
pointing south, and both arms parallel alongside the body. He was dressed in
brown corduroy pants, a cream-colored V-neck short-sleeved sweater, and
blue tennis shoes. A search of the pockets revealed no personal effects
and no means of identification.
There were two entrance wounds to the back of the head and one appar-
ent exit wound under the left eye. The body was still warm to touch. Liver
temperature was ninety-five degrees. Air temperature was thirty-eight to
forty degrees.
Sean was identified by fingerprints in the county file. He had been stopped
for a traffic misdemeanor a year earlier.
Staging: Victim 2
The staging that is so prevalent in insurance-related murders also was em-
ployed with this killing. The execution-style placement of the gun to the
back of the head was one element that was intended to give the appearance
of drug dealers or similar criminal society at work. The absence of the wal-
let and all personal effects made robbery look like a motive for the murder.
These circumstances imply a removed killer with no personal attachment to
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Homicide 135
the victim, motivated by monetary gain to pull the trigger. In actuality, all
these implications were true of Sean’s murderer.
Forensics Findings: Victim 2
Sean Cavaness had died between 5:00 A.M. and 7:00 A.M. that morning, pos-
sibly less than one hour before discovery of his body. The cause of death was
two .357-caliber magnum bullets to the head, either of which was lethal.
The shot to the back of the head just to the right of center had traveled up-
ward at angle through the brain and exited at the corner of the left eye. It had
been fired from a distance of one inch or less, but not in actual contact, as
evidenced by the powder stippling and searing of the flesh. Based on the
blood spatter pattern and flesh fragments found on the left shoulder and in
the crook of the left arm, it was evident that Sean had been standing with his
left arm slightly raised when he was hit by the first shot.
The second shot was fired from a distance of twelve to eighteen inches
from the head as Sean, already brain-dead from the first wound, lay on the
ground. It entered near the right ear and lodged in the brain.
Sean’s blood alcohol level had been .26. This meant he had consumed
twelve to thirteen drinks before he died.
Investigation
Although Dale Cavaness was a prime suspect to the detective who had han-
dled Mark’s murder, it remained an unsolved homicide. There was never
enough evidence to charge Cavaness.
Sean’s murder would be a different story. The night before his murder, his
father had been seen driving around the area near Sean’s St. Louis apartment
and parking when he spotted Sean walking down the street. The couple who
lived below Sean not only saw the car, but also wrote down the license plate
number on a paper bag because they were alarmed by Dale’s hovering
around the apartment. Their fears were calmed as they watched Dale em-
brace Sean under a streetlight. They had met him several weeks before and
recognized him as Sean’s father. The couple had heard the sounds of boister-
ous singing and laughing coming from upstairs until 3:00 A.M., when two
distinct sets of footsteps were heard leaving.
Dale’s first statement to the homicide detective was that the last time he
had seen Sean was nearly four weeks earlier. When he was arrested and
interviewed, he denied the encounter in St. Louis until confronted with the
paper bag with his license number written on it. Cavaness’s live-in girlfriend
had originally supported his alibi, but under pressure, she relented and stated
that Dale had not been home until late morning on the day of murder.
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Cavaness then came up with the story that he had indeed gone to see Sean
that night. They had gone out drinking until after 3:00 A.M. and then gone for
a ride. When they arrived at the crime scene, Cavaness claimed that Sean
asked for his gun while the two were standing by the car. “Tell Mom I’m
sorry,” he said, and then shot himself in the head. Dale claimed that after he
had determined Sean was dead, he fired another shot and took Sean’s be-
longings to make it appear a robbery-murder. His motive for this was to
spare Marian the sorrow and guilt of her son’s suicide.
The forensics did not support this version for two reasons. The first shot
could not have been the one to the right of the ear as Cavaness claimed, be-
cause of the blood and tissue splatter on the left arm. That shot had been fired
as Sean lay dead on the ground. Second, Sean’s greatly elevated blood alco-
hol level would have considerably impaired his dexterity, making it nearly
impossible for him to reach around behind his head and fire the gun.
The other detail that cast doubt on Dale’s veracity was his activity in the
evening of the day of the murder. He had gone to a big Christmas party
attended by most of the people in his town. A number of the partygoers were
questioned, including several who spent most the evening with Cavaness.
Despite their unwavering belief in Dr. Dale’s innocence, each agreed that he
had acted perfectly normal, drinking, laughing, and even staying late. His
actions were hardly appropriate for someone who supposedly had witnessed
the death of his son only hours before (not to mention having to shoot his
own son in the head as he lay dying).
Two months before Mark Cavaness was killed, Dale had taken out a
$40,000 life insurance policy on him, with Dale named the benefactor. Sev-
eral months before Sean’s murder, Dale had convinced Sean and Kevin to
join an investment program that would make them some money in the future.
Dale would pay $1,000 each month on each of the policies and claim a tax
deduction. The boys had agreed. At the time of Sean’s death, Dale claimed
that he had let the policies expire. However, the policies were not only paid
up, but there were two more policies that Dale had taken out on Sean
amounting to another $40,000. There was a total of $140,000 to be made by
Cavaness from Sean’s death.
Balanced against this was Dale’s own sorry financial state. He was in debt
for at least half a million dollars with assets of about $150,000. He had filed
a negative $200,000 income tax return for several years preceding 1984, nul-
lifying any need for the tax write-off he had claimed the investment policies
provided.
Outcome
On November 19, 1985, John Dale Cavaness was convicted of first-degree
murder and subsequently given the death penalty. On November 17, 1986, a
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prison guard doing rounds found Cavaness hanging from the door by three
extension cords tied together and looped at one end with a slip knot. After a
futile resuscitation attempt, he was pronounced dead.
107.02: COMMERCIAL PROFIT
Commercial profit homicide is murder to gain control of a business or to
profit from the business.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Victimology is the primary point that contrasts this type of
murder with individual profit murder (classification 107.01). The victim in
this type of murder is more likely to have a partner or professional relation-
ship with the offender; however, this does not exclude a familial or personal
relationship with the offender.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Crime scene indicators are the
same as those for individual profit murder: a continuum from the sponta-
neous and haphazard murder to the well-executed one.
Staging. Staging is the same as for individual profit murder. It depends on
the resources, sophistication, and degree of premeditation of offender.
Common Forensic Findings. Forensic findings range from violent to acci-
dental to natural death.
Investigative Considerations
In a commercially motivated homicide, the business relationship and corpo-
rate structure should be checked. As in individual profit murder, the offender’s
preoffense financial status should be examined. In addition, the victim’s pre-
offense status should be checked, because motive for the killing could be that
the victim was costing the company money (through faulty investments, inef-
fectual business decisions, or alcohol problems, for example).
The net worth of the victim, as well as the net worth solvency of the busi-
ness, is important. For example, a business having difficulties may be bailed
out by a business partner’s life insurance. This may be seen by a correlation
of impending business failure with purchase of the policy.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Business records and the suspect’s and victim’s financial records are search
warrant suggestions. Additional suggestions are those presented for individual
profit murder (see classification 107.01).
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CASE STUDY: 107.02: COMMERCIAL PROFIT
Background
On the morning of July 9, 1991, thirty-four-year-old Steven Benson sur-
prised everyone by showing up early at his mother’s home. He had made ar-
rangements the night before to accompany his family to look at some
property that morning. No one really expected him, as it was out of charac-
ter for him to be up early. Nevertheless, he appeared at his mother’s home at
7:30 A.M. Soon after he arrived, he took her Chevrolet Suburban to buy some
doughnuts and coffee but took almost an hour and half to return.
After his return, Benson convinced his mother and his brother, Scott, to
come along on the outing, despite his mother’s brief resistance to the idea.
Benson arranged the seating, placing Scott in the driver’s seat, the spot he
usually occupied. He placed his mother in the front passenger seat where his
sister, Carol Lynn, usually sat because she had a problem with carsickness.
He placed Carol Lynn in the back, behind Scott.
Just as Benson ran into the house to get something he had forgotten, the
Suburban was engulfed by a thunderous explosion and an orange fireball.
Benson ran out of the front door, only to immediately return and shut the
door behind as a second explosion rocked the house. Of the car’s occupants,
sixty-three-year-old tobacco heiress Margaret Benson and her twenty-one-
year-old adopted son, Scott, were killed instantly. Forty-one-year-old Carol
Lynn sustained serious injuries.
Victimology
After Margaret Benson’s husband, Edward, had died in 1980, her estate was
estimated to be around $9 million. This did not include the millions more she
would eventually inherit from her father, Harry Hitchcock. By July 1985
Margaret suspected that her son, Steven, had squandered at least $2.5 mil-
lion of her money on his many imprudent business deals. In addition to the
numerous times she had to bail Steven out of financial disasters, she sus-
pected he was now embezzling money to support his extravagant lifestyle.
In part, this extravagance was prompted by the demands of his domineering
wife, Debby. Steven lived in fear that if he denied her anything, she would
take their three children and leave him, as she had done once before.
By July 1985 Margaret had finally endured enough of Steven’s sapping
her money. In addition, she had suffered nothing but disrespect and cruelty
from both Steven and his wife. The day before her death, she had summoned
her lawyer from Pennsylvania to look at the company’s books and “finally
do something about Steven.” She discovered Steven had bought a luxurious
home by siphoning money from their joint business, which she had financed
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and managed. He had also opened up another office in nearby Fort Myers,
Florida, that was much more luxurious than the trailer office in Naples. With
just one glance at the books, the lawyer was able to tell that here were many
improprieties with Steven’s bookkeeping.
Once Steven realized what his mother was doing, Margaret’s victim risk
level skyrocketed. Her lifestyle and personality would normally have put her
at very low risk for becoming the victim of a violent crime, but because of
her situation, her risk was considerably elevated.
If Margaret discovered the extent of Steven’s embezzlement, she might
have eliminated his inheritance or severely reduced it. In addition, she was
already planning to put a lien on his new home and close down his Fort
Myers office. The benefits of killing his mother were obvious. By including
Scott and Carol Lynn in the fatal explosion, Steven hoped to secure the entire
inheritance and family business for himself. Scott and Carol Lynn’s inheri-
tance from Harry Hitchcock would be his. Margaret, Scott, and Carol Lynn
became high-risk victims because of their brother’s perception of them as
obstacles to his absolute control of the family business and money.
Crime Scene Indicators
The first blast blew the car windshield out and both doors open. It also peeled
back the top of the car toward the rear. The explosion blasted Margaret and
Scott out of the vehicle. Margaret’s body landed in the grass alongside the
driveway. Scott was thrown away from the house and landed on the drive-
way. Carol Lynn survived because her door had been open. She jumped out
of the car, which was engulfed in flames, and tried to get her shirt off. Both
her shirt end her hair were on fire.
When agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF)
examined the crime scene, they noted that debris was scattered a hundred
feet in all directions. There were two distinct blast areas in the vehicle, sig-
nifying there were probably two devices. Because the floor had been blasted
downward, the agents concluded that the devices had been placed inside the
vehicle. From the blast pattern, it appeared that one device had been between
the two front seats and the other was under the passenger seat directly behind
the driver, where Steven had placed Carol Lynn. The injuries on the bodies
were also consistent with this placement to the bombs. Fragments from the
scene revealed that the devices were pipe bombs.
Forensic Findings
Scott Benson had sustained massive injury to his entire right side. The right
side of his trunk was laid open from the waist to the shoulder, with most the
internal organs exposed. A knifelike piece of shrapnel had penetrated his skull.
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Margaret Benson’s right foot had been destroyed. It appeared she had been
resting her left hand on the console over one of the devices because that hand
had been completely blown off. Her face had been obliterated from the fore-
head down. In addition, the left side of her body had sustained heavy damage.
Carol Lynn lost most of her right ear. She sustained gaping shrapnel
wounds to the leg and smaller wounds to the arms and shoulder of her right
side. Her chin was gashed and the side of her face seared. Severe burns cov-
ered her right arm and parts of her body. In addition, a neighbor who was
running to the scene to help was hit by shrapnel from the second blast, which
severed the end of his nose.
Investigation
The investigation focused on Steven Benson as investigators learned from
Margaret Benson’s lawyer how upset she had been with Steven. Information
began surfacing very early in the investigation that strengthened the suspi-
cion of ATF agents and the Collier County sheriff’s department: Benson had
the motive end opportunity (being the last person to drive the vehicle) to
place the two pipe bombs in the vehicle.
Next, the investigative team needed to determine whether Benson had the
ability to make the bombs. Several people were able to answer this. Benson
had the reputation of being an electronics whiz. He owned a burglar alarm
company so was familiar with wiring electrical devices and circuits.
One damaging piece of evidence was in the form of two receipts from a
supply company located around the corner to Benson’s workplace. One was
for four end caps and one was for two four- by twelve-inch pipes, both com-
ponents of the two devices recovered from the scene. Both receipts were
made out to a construction company spelled differently on each one. Even
more damaging were the two palm prints lifted from the receipts that
matched Benson’s.
Outcome
Steven Benson was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one
count of attempted murder. He was sentenced to serve a minimum of fifty
years and will not be eligible for parole until the year 2036.
108: FELONY MURDER
Property crime (robbery, burglary) is the primary motivation for felony mur-
der, with murder the secondary motivation. During the commission of a vio-
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lent crime, a homicide occurs. There are two types of felony murder: indis-
criminate felony murder and situational felony murder.
108.01: INDISCRIMINATE MURDER
An indiscriminate felony murder is a homicide that is planned in advance of
committing the felony without a specific victim in mind.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of an indiscriminate felony murder is a potential
witness to the crime. The victim appears to be no apparent threat to the
offender. He or she offers no resistance to the offender but is killed anyway,
a victim of opportunity—for example, walking into the store or house at the
wrong time or having his or her shift coincide with the robbery.
There are occupations, shifts, and environments that elevate a victim’s
risk factor. Working the night shift alone at a twenty-four-hour gas station
or convenience store is one example. This situation elevates the chance of a
person becoming a victim of felony murder (indiscriminate or situational)
compared to the department store clerk who works days. Environmental
factors that elevate victim risk factor are locations within high crime areas,
working in establishments that enhance crime commission (views ob-
structed by advertising or product shelves, poorly lit, no alarms or intercom
systems linking them to local law enforcement stations, one clerk staffing,
especially at night), and establishments with cash readily available, such as
liquor stores.
It is also possible for a victim to elevate risk by attitude and behavior. A
careless, naive, or flippant approach to personal safety heightens the chance
of being targeted for robbery and, subsequently, felony murder, situational
or indiscriminate.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The location of the crime is
usually the source of the cash. The weapon is bought to the scene and is most
likely removed with the offender. The amount of physical evidence found at
the scene is dependent on the offender’s mastery and adeptness and the time
available.
This offender tends to spend more time at the crime scene, so there will
be signs of interaction between the offender and victim. There are generally
indications of a completed burglary or robbery. The crime scene commonly
is controlled and orderly: the offender is not surprised by the events that sur-
round and include the killing. In most cases, little or no effort is expended to
conceal the body.
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Staging. If staging is present, arson is frequently used to conceal the felony
murder. (See classification 230, which discusses crime concealment arson.)
If the motive seems to be monetary, investigators should require a sexual as-
sault examination of the victim.
Common Forensic Findings. Most often the manner of death involves the
use of firearms. There can be blunt trauma or battery present. There may also
be evidence of restraints used (handcuffs, gags, blindfolds, or something
else) evidenced by ligature marks. Sexual assault may also occur.
Investigative Considerations
It is important to work the case as a robbery and not a murder. Any known
robbery suspects with similar MOs should be scrutinized. The offender of an
indiscriminate felony murder is usually a youthful male with a criminal his-
tory (history of auto theft appears especially prevalent). This offender often
travels on foot to the crime scene because he lives in the area of the crime.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The victim possessions (wallets, watches, jewelry) should be included in any
search. Signs of the career criminal such as stereos and other expensive pos-
sessions that do not appear appropriate in the light of the offender’s finances
based on the legitimate sources are also important. Additional search war-
rant suggestions include possessions common to a burglar, such as burglary
tools, police scanners, or a ski mask or stocking mask, and drugs or evidence
of drug use.
CASE STUDY: 108.01: INDISCRIMINATE MURDER
Background
On April 22, 1974, airmen Dale Pierre and William Andrews decided to rob
a stereo shop in Ogden, Utah. They entered the store and forced the clerks
into the basement, tying them up. Over the next few hours, three more peo-
ple happened into the shop, only to become victims of Pierre and Andrews.
Victimology
The five victims involved in this incident were low-risk victims. The two
store clerks had a slightly higher chance of becoming victims of a violent
crime because of their job. But Ogden, Utah, did not have much violent
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crime, so this additional occupational risk was negligible. The other victims
fit the victimology of felony murder because they were potential witnesses
to the robbery.
None of the victims posed an apparent threat to the offenders since they
were immediately tied up and placed face down in the basement. Pierre and
Andrews maintained complete control of the victims throughout the entire
offense. None of them offered any resistance.
Crime Scene Indicators
Stan Walker and Michelle Ansley were the clerks working at the time of the
holdup. Pierre and Andrews tied up Walker and Ansley after forcing them
down into the basement. Just then, Cortney Naisbitt, age sixteen, entered the
store to thank Walker for allowing him to park by his store. He was also
taken to the basement and tied up.
Pierre and Andrews had been loading stereo equipment into their van for
about an hour when they heard footsteps approaching the back door. It was
Stan Walker’s father, Orren, who was worried because he knew the stereo
shop had been closed for two hours, yet his son had not come home or called.
Pierre and Andrews hid in the basement as the sound of the footsteps came
closer. As soon as he appeared at the basement door, Pierre brandished a gun
and forced him down the stairs. Stan moaned aloud and asked his father,
“Why did you come down here, Dad?” As soon as Stan spoke, the sound of
gunshots rang out. In a sudden frenzy, Pierre had fired two rounds into the
basement wall. With the explosion of gunfire, Michelle and Cortney began
to plead with their captors for their life. “I am just nineteen, I don’t want to
die,” Michelle cried out. Stan and Orren Walker kept telling Pierre and
Andrews to just take the merchandise and leave; they would not identify the
offenders.
At Pierre’s bidding, Andrews brought a bottle wrapped in a paper bag in
from their van. Pierre poured a thick blue liquid from the container into a
plastic green cup. He told Orren Walker to give it to the three young people
lying on the floor. When Walker refused, Pierre forced him onto his stomach
next to Michelle and Stan and bound his hands and feet.
At that moment, Cortney Naisbitt’s mother, Carol, entered the store in
search of her son. Carol was soon tied hand and foot and lying on the base-
ment floor next to Cortney. Next, Pierre propped Carol into the sitting posi-
tion and held the small green cup to her lips. When she questioned him about
the blue liquid, Pierre stated it was vodka and a German drug that would
make them sleep for a while.
One by one Pierre forced the victims to drink the blue liquid. Each victim
violently coughed and choked, spewing liquid from their nose and mouth.
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Orren Walker was the only one who did not drink the liquid. He feigned swal-
lowing and then imitated the other victims’ frantic choking. As Pierre filled
Cortney’s mouth to overflowing, the liquid spilled down his neck, immediately
burning his skin. As he swallowed, he felt the liquid scorching all the way into
his stomach. He began to retch and vomit, as were the others, who were now
being given their second dose of the liquid. Because of the damage it was
doing to the victims’ stomachs, they were all vomiting. Pierre tried to remedy
this situation by sealing the victims’ mouths with tape, but because of the blis-
tering around their mouths, the tape would not stick very well.
Next, Pierre went one by one to each victim with his gun. Cortney saw the
man lean over his mother and put the muzzle to the back of her head. He
heard the bullet enter his mother’s head and watched helplessly as her blood
spurted onto the carpet a few feet away. Next he felt the hot muzzle pressed
against his own skull. The air seem to explode around him as he went limp.
Pierre walked over to Orren Walker and fired a shot that missed his head
by inches. He then bent over Stan Walker and fired a bullet into his head.
Mr. Walker could hear his son say, “I’ve been shot,” in low but clear voice.
Pierre returned to Orren and aimed more carefully this time. Orren fought to
stay lucid as his head rang and his shoulder burned from where the caustic
liquid had dripped.
Orren Walker heard Pierre untie Michelle. She was still pleading for her
life as he led her to the far end of the basement, where he forced her to un-
dress and raped her for twenty minutes. When he was done, Pierre brought
Michelle back and forced her down on her stomach. All of this time, Orren
Walker had been pretending to be dead. Pierre returned with a flashlight to
check for a pulse on Orren Walker. After he had done this, he shot Michelle
in the head.
Before he left, Pierre returned to Orren Walker twice. Once he attempted
to strangle him. Orren Walker had expanded the muscles in his neck, giving
him enough room to breath once Pierre dropped his body back to floor. The
second time, Pierre inserted a pen into Orren’s ear and stomped on it until
Orren felt the tip poke through the inside of his throat. Finally satisfied,
Pierre left the basement and joined Andrews outside in the van.
As they were pulling out, Cortney began moving. Orren saw him begin
crawling toward the stairs in the darkness. He made it only to the foot of the
stairs before lapsing into unconsciousness.
Around 10:30 P.M. the police were summoned to the shop by Orren
Walker’s wife and his youngest son. They had begun to worry when Orren had
not shown up for dinner.
Pierre and Andrews came to this crime scene well prepared to murder.
They had brought the drain cleaner with the intent to kill the victims: they
had obtained the idea from a movie.
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Forensic Findings
All of the victims sustained gunshot wounds to the head. Stan, Michelle, and
Carol died from massive brain injury from these wounds. Carol lived barely
long enough to make it to the hospital, where she died. Michelle and Stan
were dead at the scene. Michelle had also been sexually assaulted.
The blue liquid was drain cleaner containing hydrochloric acid. The
mouths, esophagus, and stomach of each victim except Orren Walker had
been severely burned. Orren’s shoulder and chin were blistered and burned
from the drain cleaner. The pen that had been shoved into his ear had pene-
trated five inches and caused ear damage. Cortney Naisbitt required 266 days
of hospitalization due to the combination of brain damage from the gunshot
end reconstructive surgeries for the damage from the drain cleaner.
Investigation
The investigation of the robbery and murders was given direction almost
immediately by an informant. Several months before the murders, Andrews
had told another airman that he and Pierre were planning something big, like
a robbery. Andrews had then told the airman, “One of these days I’m going
to rob a hi-fishop, and if anybody gets in the way, I’m going to kill them.”
Within hours of the informant’s call, two young boys found purses and
wallets belonging to the victims in a dumpster just outside the barracks
where Pierre and Andrews lived. After their arrest, a search warrant pro-
duced flyers from the stereo shop and a rental agreement for a commercial
storage unit. The search of the storage unit produced stereo equipment worth
twenty-five-thousand dollars from the shop. In addition to the stolen mer-
chandise, police found a small green drinking cup and a half-full bottle of
drain killer.
Outcome
Dale Pierre and William Andrews were charged and subsequently convicted
for the murders. Both men received the death penalty. Despite efforts by the
NAACP and Amnesty International, Selby and Andrews were both put to
death by lethal injection—Selby on August 28, 1987, and Andrews five years
later, in 1992.
108.02: SITUATIONAL MURDER
A situational felony murder is unplanned prior to committing the felony. The
homicide is committed out of panic, confusion, or impulse.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is one of opportunity. All of the victimology fea-
tures detailed for indiscriminate felon murder apply to this category also.
The fundamental difference is that the offender perceives the victim as a
threat or an impediment to a successful robbery.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The victim is more often
attacked by a blitz-style or surprise assault than is the victim of an indiscrim-
inate felony murder. There are fewer signs of interaction between offender
and victim. The victim may have been surprised while going about his or her
normal routine. This would be manifested at the crime scene by a spilled
purse, car keys on the floor, or a body that is near a room entrance.
The offender may have made small attempts to conceal his identity, like
blindfolding the victim, but the sequence of events culminates with the trig-
gering event: the surprise or panic of the offender and the subsequent murder.
There are often paradoxical elements present at the crime scene. Entry
into the residence or business may be skillful and meticulous, in contrast
with a hasty, panicked retreat that leaves physical evidence such as finger-
prints and footprints, often depicting a running retreat. There would be
uncompleted acts—for example, stereos unhooked and pulled out from wall
units, jewelry, and money on the victim, all left behind.
The situational felony murder tends to offer more evidentiary items, but
this is dependent on the level of disorganization or organization of the
offender, as well as the nature of the triggering event.
Staging. If staging is present, arson may be used to conceal this situational
felony murder.
Common Forensic Findings. Nonspecific traumatic modalities may be
employed, ranging from blunt trauma to sharp instrument use. If firearms are
used, the wounds are often contact or near-contact wounds.
Investigative Considerations
The investigative considerations of this homicide are similar to indiscrimi-
nate felony murder, with a few exceptions. The perpetrators of this type of
crime are usually in the earlier stages of their criminal career. They are often
more youthful and inexperienced, with a history of alcohol or drug abuse
that increases their already volatile nature.
Some outside influence will often trigger the killing—an alarm sounds, a
spouse comes home, or a victim screams, for example. If several offenders
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are involved, there is a tremendous motivation for the nontrigger-puller par-
ticipant to confess if he is approached properly.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The victim possessions (wallets, watches, jewelry) should be included in any
search. Signs of the career criminal such as stereos and other expensive pos-
sessions that do not appear appropriate in the light of the offender’s finances
based on the legitimate sources are also important. Additional search war-
rant suggestions include possessions common to a burglar, such as burglary
tools, police scanners, or a ski mask or stocking mask, and drugs or evidence
of drug use.
CASE STUDY: 108.02: SITUATIONAL MURDER
Case Contributed by Kendall McLane
Background
In late March 1978, Willie Bosket brutally murdered two men and assaulted
multiple others during attempted robberies in New York City. Bosket, fifteen
years old at this time, had a long rap sheet and had been in and out of deten-
tion centers since he was nine years old. He was a troubled youth with a fam-
ily history of violence and crime.
On March 19, 1978, Willie encountered Noel Perez on a subway train.
Willie planned to rob Perez of his gold watch while he was sleeping until he
noticed Perez’s sunglasses, which reminded him of those worn by a coun-
selor at juvenile hall whom he particularly despised. Willie became enraged
and shot Perez in the right eye. When Perez woke up and started screaming,
Willie feared that he would not die, so he shot him again through the right
temple. He searched Perez and stole twenty dollars and a ring, along with the
originally intended watch. For Willie, the fatal encounter was his destiny. He
now knew what it was like to take a life and it was empowering. He had got-
ten away with murder and felt that it was no big thing to kill a man. Now he
was “bad”—as bad as he had told everyone he would be one day. This earned
him street credibility.
On March 23, Willie and his cousin Herman Spates spotted Anthony
Lamorte finishing up his shift in the train yard. Lamorte had a CB radio that
Willie suspected would sell on the street. When the pair approached Lam-
orte, he told the boys to get out of the train yard since they had no business
there. Willie ignored the warning and shot Lamorte in the shoulder; the
wounds proved nonfatal.
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Over the next three nights, the boys committed three more violent rob-
beries. After shooting one man, Matthew Connolly, Willie was grabbed and
searched by a Transit Authority police officer who missed the gun in his
pocket. Getting away with the crime made Willie felt even more invincible,
as if he was “smarter than the law.”
On March 27, Willie and Herman came across Moises Perez on the train.
They approached him for money, but when Perez said that he had no money,
Willie shot and killed him. They stole Perez’s wallet, took the two dollars it
contained, and discarded it in a nearby trash can. Willie was proud of get-
ting away with this murder, bragging about the newspaper clippings to his
little sister.
Willie Bosket and Herman Spates were linked to Moises Perez’s murder
when latent fingerprints were lifted off Perez’s wallet. Law enforcement offi-
cers ran the prints through the computers and found matches (both young
men had been fingerprinted during previous periods of incarceration in juve-
nile hall). When interviewed, Spates initially insisted that he was at the
movies asleep during the time of the murder. The questioning officer told
him that Willie had already implicated him in the crime; consequently,
Herman insisted that Willie had shot Perez. He also told them about the mur-
der of Noel Perez (no relation) and gave the whereabouts of the gun. Offi-
cers obtained a search warrant for Bosket’s house and found the gun.
Ballistics tests linked the gun to the Moises Perez murder.
Willie Bosket descends from a long line of violent men. His grandfather,
James, was reputed to be a violent man who was respected through fear.
Butch, Willie’s father, was frequently beaten by James and other members of
his family. After Butch was convicted of a series of petty crimes, the courts
decided that they could not handle him and sent him to the Wiltwych School
for Boys. His initial diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia was later changed
to conduct disorder. One report said that he was on his way to becoming a
psychopath. As an adult, Butch was diagnosed with antisocial personality dis-
order. Just before Willie’s birth, Butch was sent to jail for stabbing and killing
two men in a pawnshop. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Willie was born into a single-parent household with few adequate role
models; his mother brought in a rotating cast of boyfriends, one of whom
sold Willie the gun he used to murder two men for sixty-five dollars. He held
his father to hero status and aspired to be as “bad” as he was. When evalu-
ated at the age of eleven, Willie already displayed many behaviors that are
antecedent to violent crime. He was “an angry, hostile, homicidal boy whom
no one could reach. He showed grandiosity, narcissism, poor impulse con-
trol, infantile omnipotence, and a history of suicide attempts and daily
threats against others.” He was diagnosed with antisocial behavior, one step
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Homicide 149
below the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder that his father was
given. One counselor even predicted that he would commit murder some-
time in the future. Other predictors of his potentially violent behavior in-
clude family history of violence and abuse, including sexual abuse by his
grandfather at the age of nine, histories of childhood violence and torture of
animals, and an intense interest in and adoration of violent persons.
The first murder Willie Bosket committed would be classified as situa-
tional felony murder (108.02). The victim was one of opportunity, and the
murder was committed out of panic and impulse. The primary crime was
robbery, with a secondary crime of murder when Willie became agitated by
the victim’s response. The subsequent murder and attempted murder were
classified as indiscriminate felony murder (108.01). After his first murder,
Bosket knew that he could kill and actually enjoyed it because it made him
feel like a man. Although his primary motive was always to rob the victim,
he planned to kill them even though they were no threat to him personally.
When indicted, Willie Bosket was charged with two counts of murder and
one count of attempted murder. These three different charges necessitated
three separate trials. Although there were no witnesses to any of the crimes,
fingerprint evidence placed Bosket at the scene of the crime, and his cousin,
Herman Spates, implicated him during his interview. Bosket approached his
trial with an air of detachment. He seemed to think that he was untouchable
in court. Surprisingly, just before the trial began, he told his lawyer to plead
guilty to all three counts. Because he was a juvenile, he was sentenced to the
maximum sentence of five years at the Division of Youth. He would be freed
when he turned twenty-one-years old.
This sentence was met with great controversy and publicity because it was
an election year. Governor Hugh Carey, criticized for his laxness concerning
juvenile crime, came out publicly against the sentence, referring to it as “a
breakdown of the system.” The trial contributed directly to the passing of the
Juvenile Offender Act of 1978, which allowed adolescents as young as thir-
teen to be tried as adults for violent crimes like rape and murder.
Willie was freed from prison at the age of twenty-one. He succeeded in
following in his father’s footsteps and committed two subsequent felonies
and returned to prison, where he stabbed a guard in the heart. A few months
after he was sentenced for stabbing the guard, he bashed another guard in the
head and received an additional life sentence. Next he threw hot water in
the face of a guard. He soon came to be known as the most dangerous crim-
inal in the New York system and is now kept in a specially constructed iso-
lation cell. Guards are forbidden to speak to him. He has no electrical outlets,
no television, and no newspapers. Behind the bars of his cell is a sheath of
acrylic plastic sheets. Four video cameras keep him under surveillance at all
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times. Whenever he goes out, he is shackled with an automobile tow chain.
The Juvenile Offender Act is still frequently referred to as Willie Bosket’s
Law in New York State.
CASE STUDY: 108.02:
SITUATIONAL MURDER, ELDER
Victimology
Alfred Prochair, age eighty-two, lived and cared for wife of fifty-eight
years who had early dementia. On a Saturday morning, a woman came to
door claiming car trouble and asked to use the phone. Mr. Prochair said,
“Of course, come in.” Mrs. Prochair, who was in bed, saw the woman in
her room but was confused and went back to sleep. Later she entered the
living room and found her husband dead. She called 911 and the emergency
medical technicians received a confused message but did get an address.
They arrived to find the husband dead, but because of the wife’s confusion,
they dismissed her statement, “She was looking for something,” which had
been on the 911 tape.
Investigation
Alfred Prochair was pronounced dead with cause of death by natural causes.
An autopsy was waived, and cremation plans were made for Tuesday after-
noon in San Diego. On Tuesday morning, a Bank of America analyst in
Arizona was reviewing credit card transactions. She called the Prochairs be-
cause she noted that too many transactions had been made. She asked if
Alfred was making them but was told that Alfred had died on Saturday. Cre-
mation was immediately stopped and an autopsy ordered. The results indi-
cated that Alfred Prochair had been murdered by strangulation. Bruising and
defense wounds were noted on his hands, arms, and body.
Police began to check pawnshops and learned one shopkeeper took fin-
gerprints because of the suspicious woman pawning “old-looking” rings.
The fingerprints were tied to Yolanda Huff. A record check noted her to have
many prior arrests for robbery and burglary. However, Mrs. Prochair could
not identify her own rings. Family photographs were reviewed, and one was
enlarged to show her wearing the rings that had been pawned.
Outcome
Yolanda Huff was convicted of first-degree murder with special circum-
stances (robbery was part of the crime, and the victim was an elderly person).
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Homicide 151
120: PERSONAL CAUSE HOMICIDE
Homicide motivated by personal cause is an act ensuing from interpersonal
aggression and results in death to persons who may not be known to each
other. This homicide is not motivated by material gain or sex and is not sanc-
tioned by a group. It is the result of an underlying emotional conflict that
propels the offender to kill.
121: EROTOMANIA-MOTIVATED MURDER
In erotomania-motivated murder, the murder is motivated by an offender-
victim relationship based on the offender’s fixation. This fantasy is com-
monly expressed in such forms as fusion (the offender blends his personality
into victims) or erotomania (a fantasy based on idealized romantic love or
spiritual union of a person rather than sexual attraction). This preoccupation
with the victim becomes consuming and ultimately leads to his or her death.
The drive to kill arises from a variety of motives, ranging from rebuffed
advances to internal conflicts stemming from the offender’s fusion of iden-
tity with the victim.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The distinguishing characteristic of this type of murder is
found in the victimology. The victim targeted is often a person with high
media visibility of local, national, or international scope. Through this expo-
sure, the victim comes to the attention of the offender. Other victims include
superiors at work or even complete strangers. The victim almost always is
perceived by the offender as someone of higher status.
When erotomania is involved, the victim (usually someone unattainable
to the offender) becomes the imagined lover of the offender through hidden
messages known only to the offender. The offender builds an elaborate fan-
tasy revolving around this imagined love. Male erotomaniacs tend to act out
this fantasy with greater force. When this acting out is rebuffed, the eroto-
maniac decides to guarantee no one else will steal his or her imagined lover.
If this idealized person will not belong to him or her, the offender ensures
that the victim will not be given the chance to belong to anyone.
Fusion of identity occurs when an individual identifies so completely with
another person that his or her imitation of that person becomes excessive.
The person emulated is endangered when the imitator feels his own identity
is threatened by the existence of the person he has patterned his life after or
when the offender feels the person he has imitated no longer lives up to the
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offender’s ideals. The person this offender chooses to imitate usually is per-
ceived as someone of higher status just as with erotomania.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The greater the distance there
is between the offender and victim at the time of the killing, the more plan-
ning and less spontaneous the crime is. This will be manifested by lack of
fingerprints and footprints at the scene. A removed location from the victim
also signifies that the offender had to take the time to check out this vantage
point and must have been familiar with the victim’s routine.
The majority of these erotomania-motivated murders are close range and
confrontational. The offender may even remain at the scene. These close-
range assaults tend to be a more spontaneous killing, as reflected by a more
haphazard approach to the killing: evidence is left, and there are likely to be
witnesses. This does not mean the offender did not fantasize, premeditate,
and plan the killing; all of these elements characterize this homicide. It
means the actual act is usually an opportunistic one. The offender takes
advantage of the opportunity to kill as it is presented to him.
Staging. Staging is not usually present.
Common Forensic Findings. Firearms are the most common weapons
used, especially with a distance killing. Ballistics and the trajectory of pro-
jectiles recovered will be of importance. The sophistication and type of
weapon and whether it was left at the scene will help establish the degree of
offender sophistication.
The vital organs, especially the head and chest, are most frequently tar-
geted. Occasionally the offender will use a sharp-edged weapon such as a
knife.
Investigative Considerations
The offender almost always surveys or stalks the victim preceding the homi-
cide. Therefore, the availability of the victim’s itinerary and who may have
access to it is one investigative consideration. There is a likelihood of pre-
offense attempts by the offender to contact the victim through telephone
calls, letters, gifts, and visits to the victim’s home or place of employment.
There may even be an incident whereby law enforcement or security officers
had to remove the offender from the victim’s residence or workplace.
The offender’s conversation often will reflect this preoccupation or fan-
tasy life with the victim. When those associated with the offender are inter-
viewed, they will most likely recall that much of the offender’s conversation
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Homicide 153
focused on the victim. He or she may have claimed to have had a relation-
ship with the victim and may have invented stories to support this encounter.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The primary items to search for are pictures, literature (newspaper articles,
books, magazine articles), and recordings concerning the victim. Diaries or
journals detailing the offender’s preoccupation or fantasy life with the vic-
tim may also be found. Other items to look for are evidence of contact or at-
tempted contacts with the victim: telephone records, returned letters or gifts,
motel receipts, gas bills, rental agreements, or airline, bus, or train tickets
implying travel to locations where the victim has been. Credit card records
also may be helpful in this regard.
CASE STUDY: 121:
EROTOMANIA-MOTIVATED MURDER
Background
At 11:00 P.M. on December 8, 1980, John Lennon, lyricist, lead singer, and
composer for the Beatles, was returning home with his wife, Yoko Ono,
from a recording studio. As Lennon exited his car, Mark David Chapman,
for whom Lennon had autographed an album hours before, stepped out of
the darkness and said, “Mr. Lennon?” As Lennon turned, Chapman fired
his .38-caliber Charter Arms revolver five times at point-blank range.
Although four bullets hit Lennon in the chest, he was able to reach the
foyer of the apartment before collapsing. Lennon died soon after his arrival
at the hospital.
Victimology
In the late 1950s, John Lennon had started the group that was later to become
one of the most popular music groups of all times. He was a driving force in
the Beatles until it disbanded in 1970. Lennon became known as a social and
political activist and an especially outspoken proponent of the peace move-
ment. After the Beatles dissolved, he continued to write music until 1975,
when he went into retirement. His reentry into the music world was cut short
by his assassination. Throughout his career, even during his period or musi-
cal inactivity, Lennon’s fame and popularity barely waned, which con-
tributed to high media visibility.
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Crime Scene Indicators
Although it is appeared that Chapman had planned to assassinate Lennon as
early as September 1980, he chose to approach Lennon and kill at close
range probably because Lennon was not easily accessible for a long-range
assassination. Chapman chose the common weapon of assassins, a firearm.
The weapon remained at the scene, as did Chapman (calmly reading Catcher
in the Rye by J. D. Salinger). Chapman had been a security guard at a Hon-
olulu condominium development; therefore, his weapon of choice was one
with which he was comfortable: a .38-ca1iber revolver. Ballistics confirmed
his responsibility for Lennon’s death.
Forensic Findings
Lennon died from massive blood loss as a result of the chest wounds he
sustained.
Investigation
In September 1980 Chapman sold a Norman Rockwell lithograph for
seventy-five-hundred dollars. He paid off a number of debts and kept five
thousand dollars for a “job” he had to do. He contacted the Federal Aviation
Administration to inquire about transporting his gun by plane.
Because Chapman was advised that the change in air pressure that his
baggage would be subjected to could damage the bullets, he opted to pack
his gun without bullets. When Chapman left his security guard job for the
final time, he signed the log “John Lennon.”
On October 29, he flew to New York from Honolulu, only to return in
frustration on November 12 or 13. He had been unable to gain access to
Lennon, who lived in New York City. He made an appointment at the Makiki
Mental Health Clinic but failed to keep it.
On December 6, Chapman returned to New York. Two days later, he
waited outside the Dakota apartment building for Lennon. At 4:30 P.M.
Lennon and his wife exited the building and were approached by Chapman,
who had a copy of Lennon’s recent album, Double Fantasy. Lennon auto-
graphed it as Chapman held it out to him. Chapman then lingered at the
apartment entrance. When questioned by the doorman, he said he was wait-
ing to get Yoko Ono’s autograph. Chapman was well prepared for his wait in
weather much colder than he was accustomed to. He had on two pairs of long
underwear, a jacket, an overcoat, and a hat.
Chapman had apparently been building a fantasy life for several years
centered on John Lennon. He married a woman of Japanese descent
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(Lennon’s wife was Japanese). He collected Beatles albums and played in a
rock band. And he decided to retire at the age of twenty-five because Lennon
had retired then.
An explanation for his motive may be found in the testimony of a psychi-
atrist during his trial: the more that Chapman imitated Lennon, the more he
came to believe he was John Lennon. He eventually began to view Lennon
as a phony. The fusion of his identity with Lennon became so engulfing that
Chapman decided he too would become a phony if he did not stop the pro-
cess in Lennon.
Outcome
Chapman withdrew an original plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and
pleaded guilty to the murder of John Lennon. On August 24, 1981, he was
sentenced to twenty years to life, with a recommendation that he receive psy-
chiatric treatment. Chapman has twice been denied parole since he became
eligible for release in 2000. He is currently locked up in the Attica Correc-
tional Facility. When he was given the opportunity to offer a few words in his
defense, Chapman read a passage from The Catcher in the Rye. A year later
when he was visited in prison by a reporter, he still had the book in hand.
122: DOMESTIC HOMICIDE
Domestic murder occurs when a family or household member kills another
member of the household. This definition includes common law relation-
ships. There are two subcategories for this type of homicide: spontaneous
domestic homicide and staged domestic homicide.
122.01: SPONTANEOUS DOMESTIC HOMICIDE
A spontaneous domestic homicide is unstaged and is triggered by either a
recent stressful event or a cumulative buildup of stress.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim has a familial or common law relationship with
the offender. In addition, there is a history of prior abuse or conflict with the
offender.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Usually only one crime scene
is involved in spontaneous domestic murder, and it is commonly the victim
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or offender’s residence. The crime scene reflects disorder and the impetuous
nature of the killing. The weapon will be one of opportunity, often obtained
and left at the scene. There is no forced entry and no sign of theft. The crime
scene may also reflect an escalation of violence—for example, the con-
frontation starts as an argument, intensifies into hitting or throwing things,
and culminates in the victim’s death.
There are often indicators of undoing. This is the killer’s way of express-
ing remorse or the desire to undo the murder. Undoing is demonstrated by
the offender’s washing of the victim and the weapon. The body may be cov-
ered up, but it is not for concealment purposes. Washing or redressing the
body, moving the body from the death scene, and positioning it on a sofa or
bed with the head on a pillow are all expressions of undoing.
The attitude and emotional state of the family members present at the
crime scene can offer insight into the victim-offender relationship. The
offender is often at the scene when law enforcement or emergency medical
personnel arrive and often makes incriminating statements.
Staging. A spontaneous domestic murder will not involve staging. Person-
ation in the form of undoing is possible but is for the benefit of the offender
and is not intended to mislead law enforcement.
Common Forensic Findings. Alcohol or drugs may be involved. Finger-
prints are often present on the murder weapon. There usually are forensic
findings consistent with a personal type of assault.
Depersonalization, evidenced by facial battery, overkill, blunt-force
trauma, and a focused area of injury, is evidence of a personal assault. Man-
ual or ligature strangulation is a common cause of death with domestic
homicide. Gunshot wounds are also a forensic finding of this type of killing.
The victim may show signs of being washed up or wounds cleaned.
Investigative Considerations
If the crime occurs in the victim’s residence, domestic murder should be
considered. When other family members are contacted, they often describe
a history of domestic violence involving the victim and offender. This is of-
ten supported by police reports. A history of conflict due to external sources
(financial, vocational, or alcohol, for example) is a common element of
domestic homicide. The offender may have delayed reporting the murder,
often in order to change clothing and establish a legitimate alibi. Routinely,
a third party discovers the body. The offender may have demonstrated per-
sonalized aggression in the past, as well as a change in attitude after the trig-
gering event.
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Search Warrant Suggestions
Although most of the evidence will be left at the crime scene, financial and
medical records to verify the spontaneity of the crime should be requested.
CASE STUDY: 122.01:
SPONTANEOUS DOMESTIC HOMICIDE
Background
On May 5, 1990, Martha Ann Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder
for the smothering deaths of three of her four children. In a videotaped con-
fession, Johnson, who weighs close to 300 pounds, admitted smothering
Jenny Ann Wright and James Taylor by rolling on top of them as they slept.
Martha said her motive was to bring her estranged husband home. Each of
the homicides, which occurred between 1977 and 1982, was committed
within ten days of having an argument with her former husband, Earl
Bowen. She received the death penalty in 1990 and remains on death row.
The first victim was James William Taylor, twenty-three-months old. On
September 23, 1977, Johnson states that she went in to wake up James from
his nap. When she was unable to rouse him, she called for emergency med-
ical personnel, and the child was rushed to the hospital. Attempts to resusci-
tate James were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at 9:15 A.M. His
death was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Three years later, on November 30, 1980, Johnson bathed, fed, and put
three-month-old Tibitha Jenelle Bowen down for her nap. When she checked
on the child later, she found the baby had turned blue. Rescue personnel
were called and initiated resuscitative measures, which again proved futile.
Tibitha was pronounced dead on arrival. Her death was also attributed
to SIDS.
Earl Wayne Bowen was a thirty-one-month-old child who had been in
excellent health except for an occasional ear infection. On Friday afternoon
January 23, 1981, he was found with a package of rodent poison. Although
he had some on his hands and mouth, it was not clear if he had ingested any.
He was treated and released from the emergency room in satisfactory condi-
tion. However, according to his parents, he suffered seizures from that point
on, lasting from a few minutes to hours. None of these seizures appeared to
be witnessed by medical personnel. Despite the fact that the active ingredi-
ent in the poison did not cause seizures, the child was started on medication.
While being taken to the hospital on February 12 during a seizure episode,
he suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest. He was resuscitated after two hours
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and placed on life support. Subsequent therapy was ineffective; he was pro-
nounced brain-dead, and life support was removed on February 15.
According to Johnson, her eleven-year-old daughter, Jenny Ann Wright,
was complaining of chest pains. She took Jenny to the doctor who gave her
Tylenol and a rib belt. On February 21, 1982, rescue personnel were again
summoned to the Johnson residence. They found Jenny Ann face down on
her mother’s bed, with pink foam coming from her nose and mouth, and un-
responsive to revival attempts.
Victimology
The victims were all children of Johnson by her three husbands, and all re-
sided with her at the time of their death.
Crime Scene Indicators
In all cases, death was staged to appear from natural causes, the crime scene
was in the residence, and the weapon was one of opportunity. Johnson
weighs almost three hundred pounds, and this certainly was a factor in the
smothering death of eleven-year-old Jenny.
Forensic Findings
Autopsy findings when smothering is the suspected cause of death are min-
imal. Petechial hemorrhages, one of the forensic indicators of asphyxia, are
rarely seen in children, and practically never in infants. This proved to be
the case with the three youngest victims. None had evidence of petechial
hemorrhage; however, the autopsy of eleven-year-old Jenny Ann revealed
petechiae on the face around the eyes, face, and conjunctivae. There also
were linear abrasions over both cheeks, another forensic indicator of asphyx-
ial death. In three of the four cases, postmortem exams revealed congestion
in the lungs or airways, or both, evidenced by frothy or foamy liquid com-
ing from the mouth and nose, another finding common to asphyxiation. Earl
did not exhibit this congestion because he had been on life support, which
allowed for his airways to be suctioned.
Martha Ann Johnson demonstrated a consistent choice of “weapon” as
listed in the planned domestic murder. It was a method that allowed her
seven years of freedom before the cases were reopened after an Atlanta Con-
stitution article in December 1989 questioned Johnson’s family tragedies.
Investigation
The investigative consideration of greatest importance in this case is the
cycle of domestic conflict that surrounded every incident. Every death was
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Homicide 159
preceded one week to ten days by marital problems that culminated in a sep-
aration, the child’s death, and then reunion of Johnson and Earl Bowen, her
spouse during the years of her children’s deaths. Martha Ann Johnson was
reported to have been battered by several of her four husbands, and she was
completely dependent on her husband, Earl Bowen.
Martha Johnson was also highly influenced by her environment and had
difficulty dealing with internal impulses, as evidenced by her weight. She
sought life substance from her external environment through eating, her rela-
tionship with her children, and her husband. When this crucial crutch was
removed from her life, she used her children to draw Earl Bowen back into
an active relationship with her. Johnson experienced emotional crises due to
her separation from Bowen. Her children’s deaths served as a valve for the
building internal tensions, which she was ill equipped to handle, in addition
to providing the remedy: Bowen’s return. It worked every time.
Outcome
Martha Ann Johnson was sentenced to death and remains on death row.
122.02: STAGED DOMESTIC HOMICIDE
A staged domestic homicide is planned and may be due to the same stresses
as in an unstaged domestic homicide. The major difference between the two
homicides is seen in the crime scene.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victimology for staged domestic homicide is the same as
for spontaneous domestic homicide.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene of the well-
planned domestic murder reflects a controlled, organized crime. The weapon,
fingerprints, and other evidentiary items often are removed. The body is usu-
ally not concealed. It will still often involve the victim’s or offender’s resi-
dence, but locations of crime scenes outside the home also are possible.
Staging. Staging is frequently noted in the planned murder. Death may be
staged to look accidental (a car malfunction or drowning, for example).
Other deaths may appear due to secondary criminal activity, such as robbery
or rape. The offender who stages a domestic rape-murder rarely leaves the
victim nude; she is almost always partially clothed. Death may be staged to
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look like suicide, with a suicide note, guns rigged with string, or a drug over-
dose, for example. Natural causes—slow poisoning or overdose (insulin is a
prime example of an overdose that can mimic natural death)—are also ex-
amples of staging.
Common Forensic Findings. The forensic findings of a staged domestic
homicide are similar to those for spontaneous domestic murder. The excep-
tion is when the suspect includes himself as an apparent victim. If the per-
son posing the greatest threat (usually the male) to the alleged intruder
receives no or nonlethal injuries while others are killed who pose less of a
threat are killed, the investigator should become suspicious that the crime
has been staged.
Investigative Considerations
In addition to the considerations listed for spontaneous domestic homicide,
the offender will demonstrate a change in preoffense behavior toward the
victim. Frequently an improvement in the relationship is seen, and this ap-
parent change in heart will be demonstrated in a highly visible manner to
others. Postoffense interviews of close friends or family members often
reveal that the victim had expressed concerns or fears regarding the victim’s
safety or even a sense of foreboding. The medical and psychiatric history of
the victim becomes important if the investigator suspects the crime has been
staged to appear to be a suicide or death by natural causes.
CASE STUDY: 122.02: STAGED DOMESTIC HOMICIDE
Background
Torran Meier was born in 1972 to sixteen-year-old Shirley Meier. Shirley’s
mother, Joyce, described her daughter’s treatment of newborn Torran as “if
he were a piece of property.” Shirley did not want to hold her son, let alone
give him the care and love he needed. Torry’s father, Dennis, was driven
away by Shirley’s constant insults and belittlement. Dennis tried to maintain
contact with his son, but Shirley forbid him to come near them. She told Tor-
ran his father was dead.
Throughout the years of mistreatment Torran was to endure, his grandpar-
ents tried to intervene on his behalf. Because Shirley became jealous if she
saw Torran getting close to them, his grandparents were allowed to see him
only on his birthdays between his fourth and seventh years. On his sixth
birthday, when they showed up with gifts, Shirley flew into a rage and threat-
ened to call the police if they did not leave. Torran’s gifts were returned
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Homicide 161
unopened a few days later because Shirley had decided he was not going to
have a birthday party that year.
This incident was characteristic of Torran’s life with Shirley. One of his
first memories of his mother was climbing into a toy box during a game of
hide-and-seek. Shirley sat on the toy box, ignoring his pleas to be let out,
until the child had screamed and cried for a half an hour.
Besides being the object of Shirley’s cursing and screaming, Torran
often suffered public humiliation when she ridiculed him in front of his
friends. She would call him a faggot and tell him he would never be a real
man. Torran never seemed to do anything that satisfied Shirley, from his
playing high school football to the house cleaning and cooking she
demanded of him.
Shirley’s erratic and often violent behavior seemed to escalate as Torran
became older. She also began to direct it toward her younger child, Rory.
Torran was encouraged by his friends and grandparents to persist in his sit-
uation with Shirley until he graduated from high school, but the years of
abuse had burdened him past his endurance. After sixteen years of it, he
finally retaliated.
Victimology
Shirley Meier had always been outgoing and lively by her parents’ estima-
tion. It was evident at a young age that she was a talented manipulator. She
often fabricated elaborate stories for her parents and teachers in order to get
her own way.
As an adult, Shirley went through three marriages, none lasting more than
a few months because she abused her children. She became dependent on
Valium, attempted suicide twice, and seems to have allowed her sense of pro-
priety to slip away. She would often dress provocatively and go out to bars,
leaving the two children home alone. On one occasion, she woke Torran up
at 2:00 A.M. to pick her up at a bar twenty miles from their home. Torran was
about fifteen years old at the time and obviously troubled and unhappy.
Crime Scene Indicators
About 9:45 P.M. in October 1985, Torran Meier set in motion a plan that he
had been brooding over for months. Torran, a high school friend named Matt
Jay, and a twenty-three-year-old transient named Richard Parker whom Tor-
ran had befriended, finalized a murder scheme.
Torran rode home on his motorcycle, and the other two followed him in a
car, which they parked down the street from his house. Torran entered the
house alone and greeted his mother, who was sitting in the dining room. She
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began to yell at him for coming home so late. Torran offered the excuse of
mechanical troubles with his motorcycle. He walked into the kitchen to get
some dinner Shirley had left him and then went into his bedroom. He let Jay
and Parker into the house through his window and left them hiding in his
room with a noose he had made earlier.
Torran joined his mother, who began complaining about money. After he
had finished his meal, he asked her to come into his room so he could show
her something. She responded with her typical ire, stating that he was always
interrupting her TV programs. Torran told her to wait for a commercial, at
which time Shirley rose to follow him into his room.
Torran requested his mother to close her eyes or allow herself to be blind-
folded before entering his room, both of which she refused, but she agreed
to walk in backward. As she was backing through the door of Torran’s room,
she saw Jay coming at her from behind the door. Parker approached from the
other direction and dropped the noose around her neck before she could
react. Torran and Jay knocked her to the floor as Parker pulled on the noose.
The commotion caused by Shirley’s kicking and screaming woke eight-
year-old Rory and bought him to the doorway in time to witness his mother’s
death struggle. Torran intercepted Rory and led him to the family room,
where he attempted to calm the crying child by watching TV. Over the next
twenty minutes, Torran made a circuit between his room to help Jay and
Parker and the family room to calm Rory.
When it was apparent that Shirley was finally dead, the three eased off her
body. She was bleeding from the nose and mouth, so Jay held a rag under her
face to prevent bloodstains on the carpet. After Torran closed the garage door
to ensure privacy, Shirley’s body was stuffed in the trunk of her five-year-old
Thunderbird.
At this point, the three offenders discussed the fact that Rory knew what
had happened. They concluded that the little boy would be too damaging a
witness, so he would have to be killed.
The method of death they decided on was rat poison. Jay went to the store
and purchased rat and snail poison. Torran laced a peanut butter sandwich
and flavored milk with the poison, but Rory refused both after getting an ini-
tial bad taste. After a few minutes of thought, another course of action was
decided on.
Ironically, Shirley had helped Torran decide how to stage her death. She
had threatened her third husband many times that she was going to drive her
car off a cliff someday. Torran had also heard this suicide threat and had
made special note of it.
Malibu Canyon Highway contains some of the steepest canyon ledges in
Southern California, which became the ideal setting to stage Shirley’s sui-
cide. The road twists along the face of a sheer rocky cliff. Because there are
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no guardrails, it is a common sight to see a tow truck hoisting a car up that
had gone over the side.
After stopping to fill a gas can at a Shell station, Torran, Parker, and Rory
(sleeping peacefully in the back seat) drove out to the canyon and chose a
suitable spot. Next, they went back to the Meiers’ house and retrieved
Shirley’s purse. Once again they stopped at the Shell station and bought six
dollars worth of gas. They proceeded to Jay’s house, and he followed them
in his father’s vehicle.
When they arrived at the preselected spot in the canyon, Torran told Rory
he had to be blindfolded and have his hands tied because he did not want
Rory to know where Parker lived. Rory did not resist. At this point, Shirley’s
body was removed from the trunk and propped up in the driver’s seat. With
the engine running, a rag soaked with gasoline was stuffed in the gas tank
opening. Parker then lit the rag while Torran and Jay aimed the car for the
cliff and put into gear. It rolled across the road, over an embankment, and
down a hill. As flames spread through the car, it came to rest on a plateau
halfway down the gorge. Torran, Jay, and Parker drove away, heading north.
Jay dropped Parker and Torran Meier off at the initial crime scene so any
damning evidence could be removed. Signs of the struggle were cleaned up
or removed. The poisons and the towels used to clean the blood from the car-
pet were dumped in a trash bin. The gas can was dumped, and Meier put the
empty can back into the car. Satisfied that any traces of the murder had been
removed, Torran Meier headed back to the gas station where he worked with
Parker to pick up his bike.
Meanwhile, Rory had felt the car move, smelled the gasoline, and soon
after saw the flames through his blindfold. He took off his blindfold and saw
his mother’s body leaning against the steering wheel with blood all over her
face. He managed to free his hand, lower an electric window, and climb out.
As the car was enveloped in flames, he climbed a hill crying for help. A
young man driving by saw the flames and heard Rory’s cry for help. He
helped Rory up to the road and flagged down another car. The heat was too
intense for anyone to get close to the car, and by the time the fire depart-
ment and sheriff arrived, Shirley’s body had already been burned beyond
recognition.
Investigation
Rory told his story and gave a description of Torran’s car to the sheriff.
Meanwhile, Torran had suddenly felt like returning to the canyon. He and
Parker had driven just far enough to pass the ambulance and sheriff car com-
ing from the scene. Other sheriff units that had been dispatched to the scene
recognized his car from Rory’s description and pulled him over.
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The extensive brutalization that Torran Meier suffered at the hands of his
mother obviously fueled his decision to kill her. However, there seemed to
be one incident that burdened him beyond his capacity to endure. It was in
March 1985 when Shirley informed her mother that Torran no longer wanted
to live at home and was not welcome there anymore. She had told Torran that
going to live with his grandparents meant he could never return home.
Torran immediately moved in with his grandparents. The warmth and affec-
tion he experienced there made him feel hopeful that life could be free of the
constant harassment and abuse he had known for most his life. Two weeks
later, his hope was shattered when the police showed up at Shirley’s request.
She had sent them there to return her “runaway” son.
From this point on until the murder, everyone noticed the change in
Torran’s attitude. He began to miss school. His grandmother noticed he now
had a blank look in his eyes. The statement that seemed to best describe
Torran’s state of mind was found on the side of a cup holder his grandmother
saw him use: “Pardon me, but you’ve obviously mistaken me for someone
who gives a damn.”
Torran’s conversation reflected his plans. He spoke to classmates and
close friends about killing his mother and even showed one the noose that
he had made. Torran’s indiscretion concerning his crime is reflective of his
immaturity. Most offenders do not leave quite as obvious a conspiratory
trail.
Outcome
Torran made a complete confession and was found guilty of manslaughter
and attempted manslaughter. He was subsequently sentenced to a maximum
term of twelve years at the California Youth Authority in the psychiatric
facility. He was reunited with his father during his trial. Both his grandpar-
ents and father vowed to support him through his trial and incarceration.
Richard Parker and Matthew Jay were found guilty of second-degree
murder and sentenced to fifteen years to life.
122.03: NEONATICIDE
Neonaticide, or murder of an infant within the first twenty-four hours of
life, is the most common form of filicide, which is the killing of a child
of any age by a parent. Research shows that 46 percent of infants killed die
in their first hour of life. Compared to filicide, neonaticidal parents are
younger, more often unmarried, and the pregnancy was more frequently
unwanted.
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Although the vast majority of neonaticides are committed by parents of
the victim, overwhelmingly the mother, research has demonstrated no racial,
cultural, or socioeconomic association with neonaticide. Premeditation of
the crime is rare, with the more common scenario including a young, naive
mother, with restrained communication about sexuality in the home and tra-
ditional and socially isolated homes with disciplining, harsh parents with
whom she is close. Social isolation of a neonaticidal mother may be obvi-
ous, but it also may be subtle: she may be surrounded by friends and family,
and yet no one really knows her.
It is common for neonaticidal mothers to remain in denial about the exis-
tence of the fetus during the pregnancy. Physical symptoms are ignored or
explained away; weight gain is seen as a result of lack of exercise, and morn-
ing sickness becomes general nausea. Even if the pregnancy is confirmed by
a physician, denial persists vehemently. Baby clothes and toys or pregnancy
and name books are not purchased, and prenatal care is not sought out, for
example. This denial often extends to those around her: family and friends
are unaware of the pregnancy until discovery of the infant’s body or the
physical manifestations of birth make it known.
Denial can persist even through labor and delivery. Breaking water may
be thought of as urination, and labor pain may be experienced as bowel
movement or simple cramping, for which a hot bath may be sought for relief.
Delivery is nearly always in secret or isolation, often occurring in the bath-
tub or on the toilet.
Some neonaticidal mothers experience dissociative symptoms during
labor and after the birth; several neonaticidal mothers have reported amne-
sia about the events leading up to and surrounding the birth, the birth itself,
or events immediately after the birth. Psychosis and depression, however, are
relatively less frequent among neonaticidal mothers.
After the birth and disposal of the infant’s body, the mother also may
exhibit an unfazed or indifferent emotional stance, facilitated by her denial
of the existence of the infant—reinforced with the neonaticide but dissolved
with revelation of the crime.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The first hour of birth is particularly high risk for this type of
victim. Male infants are more often killed than female infants on the day of
birth, which is also the day children are most at risk of filicide. The typical
neonaticide victim is born to a mother who has concealed his in-utero exis-
tence, from herself as well as others in her life.
There is no human connection to the developing fetus. Ultimately the
mother denies the neonate’s victimhood.
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Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Typical methods of neonati-
cide are suffocation, strangulation, head trauma (usually from dropping into
a toilet), and drowning (in the receptacle where the birth occurs). Use of
weapons in neonaticide, such as knives, is more indicative of serious mental
illness in the mother. At the same time, involvement of an accomplice sup-
ports the likelihood of organized, premeditated calculation in effecting the
child’s death and concealing it.
The crime scene may reflect evidence of only the birth, not the death.
However, the scene of the birth may also reflect disorganized behavior, such
as incomplete attempts to clean blood from the scene. Disorganized behav-
ior may represent panic, particularly when birth and homicide transpire with
a relative or other responsible party nearby who might discover the baby and
intervene.
Disposal of the body, often in a trash receptacle, is not alone evidence of
murder. Reconstruction of the infant’s demise may be difficult under certain
circumstances of method of homicide. Autopsy remains the most important
means for identifying a murder.
Staging. The events may be staged so as to falsely suggest that the baby
was born dead or suffered accidental injuries during delivery. Forensic
pathology evidence is helpful to resolve this question. One of the most com-
mon types of physiological evidence of live birth is the appearance of in-
flated lungs and an air bubble in the digestive tract. Unexpected death to
the neonate in the context of evidence for denial of the pregnancy raises the
likelihood of foul play.
Common Forensic Findings. The forensic findings of a neonaticide will
include products of the birth such as the newborn, placenta blood, and
umbilical cord. The location of the birth needs to be carefully investigated
and samples of biological evidence taken for crime scene analysis. Cloth-
ing or bedding may contain forensics.
Investigative Considerations
A focal issue of investigation is whether the infant was born alive. The neo-
naticidal mother in denial often may repress or suppress her recollections of
circumstances of the birth or simply may deny that she remembers and be
withholding information. Physical evidence is often needed to prove that the
infant was killed, despite the risk of stillbirth being remarkably low barring
some congenital anomaly.
Many neonaticidal mothers exhibit a lack of emotion relating to the neo-
naticide. This response may reflect a detached, dehumanized relationship to
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the victim, or the “la belle indifference” of an unusual response to a signifi-
cant life event. Denial and unconscious loss of memory are correlated with
la belle indifference. Denial and intact memory are associated with a de-
tached, dehumanized relatedness to the neonate.
While the overwhelming number of neonaticides are committed by the
mother of the victim, there are cases in which the father is responsible or
involved. When the father is involved or the mother has confided to him that
she is pregnant, dissociation and denial are not part of the crime; premedita-
tion is implicated. In this light, a mother who does not prepare for the arrival
of a newborn may not be denying the pregnancy but planning to be without
the newborn.
Fathers who commit neonaticide may fear that the presence of a baby
might alter the romantic relationship or that presence of a baby out of wed-
lock may incur stigma. Other fathers may see the infant as a rival for the
attention of the mother or may seek concealment of alternative paternity.
Denial, however, is not associated with paternal neonaticide.
CASE STUDY: 122.03: NEONATICIDE
Classification and Case Contributed by Michael Welner
Background
Violetta Raines was an eighteen-year-old Mexican immigrant who con-
fessed to killing her newborn daughter.
Violetta lived in a small studio apartment with her father, Alfredo, her
brother, Miguel, age twenty-three, and her sister, Judith, age twenty-one.
She was afraid to tell her father of her pregnancy because she anticipated that
he would ask her to leave the apartment and feared that he would disown her.
She did not gain considerable weight and concealed her pregnancy with
loose clothes. The child’s father, Miguel Dilone, had returned to Mexico
early in her pregnancy, never knowing he was going to be a father.
In early December 1997, her family and employer noticed no changes in
Violetta’s behavior or emotions. No one anticipated her childbirth.
Victimology
As the pregnancy went on, Violetta “tried to pretend it wasn’t there,” did not
seek out prenatal care, and did not attend childbirth classes. Neither did she
consider a name for the child or purchase baby clothes. She did not calculate
a due date and did not consider giving the baby up for adoption.
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Crime Scene Indicators
Late on the evening of December 3, 1997, Miguel opened the bathroom
door, and his sister, holding a plastic bag and towels containing the deceased
infant, hugged him in a manner that suggested she need help with her bal-
ance. As Violetta emerged from the bathroom, she told her sister and Miguel
that she had experienced unusually heavy menstruation. They asked her if
they should take her to the hospital, but she refused, saying, “I’ll take care of
it in the morning.” Miguel helped her over to the bed. Violetta lay down to
go to sleep with the plastic bag placed at the foot of the bed.
Alfredo then went to use the bathroom. Inside, he noticed a large amount
of smeared blood on the black and white tiled floor and immediately sus-
pected his daughter had given birth. He emerged from the bathroom and de-
manded that she show him the bag. She refused, saying, “It’s going to give
me too much pain.” Alfredo snatched the bag from the foot of her bed and
walked into the bathroom with it. As he did, Violetta burst into tears and cried
out, “Please don’t beat me.”
Upon discovering the dead infant, Alfredo ordered the family to the hos-
pital at once. There was no effort at that time to resuscitate the baby. He
states that shortly after arriving at the hospital, his daughter dropped down
on her knees and begged for forgiveness.
Forensic Findings
The report of the medical examiner indicated that the approximately thirty-
five-week-old gestational-age baby was born alive. Forensic evidence indi-
cates that Violetta likely cut the umbilical cord.
The report noted no evidence for trauma from a crush injury. On the basis
of abrasions across her face, cause of death was listed as suffocation. Al-
though the baby was wrapped in towels in a bag and resuscitative efforts
could have caused the same abrasions, evidence of hasty cleansing of the
death scene, the defendant’s lack of sophistication for basic cardiac life sup-
port, and the defendant’s lack of motivation to resuscitate or seek help for the
baby on discovery reflect that this was not a credible explanation.
Investigation
Violetta had concealed a four-month relationship from her father and brother
for fear of disapproval and shame. She concealed her pregnancy for fear of
eviction from home or alienation from her emotional support network.
The birth caught her completely by surprise, and before the night her
child was born, she did not prepare for childbirth or a new arrival and did not
acknowledge the physical effects of pregnancy until the night she delivered.
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Isolated in her privacy, responsive to the expectations of her family, and pro-
foundly affected by shame, Violetta chose to try to forget she was pregnant.
On December 3, Violetta and her brother went to the movies, returning home
in the late afternoon. Upon their return, Violetta began experiencing back pain
and thought she might be coming down with the flu. She laid down to rest.
Violetta could not sleep and experienced continuous urinary urgency, ulti-
mately returning to the bathroom around midnight. While in the bathroom,
she rose from the toilet, was suddenly seized by excruciating pain, and fell
to the floor. She avoided crying out for fear of waking her family and “giv-
ing her father a heart attack.”
Lying on the floor, Violetta looked downward and saw her daughter’s
head emerging and decided to pull her out. She placed one hand across the
face, covering the nose, and one hand behind the head. She then held her
hand over the baby’s nose and mouth, despite knowing that if she did so, the
infant would stop breathing. When asked later why she did this, Violetta
responded that she was frightened and did not “know what I was thinking.”
Violetta stated that she fainted shortly after the birth, and upon waking,
realized the baby was not breathing. Her father was knocking at the door,
asking if she was all right. She cleaned up the blood, not wanting him to “be
worried.” An hour later, Miguel opened the bathroom door and founded his
sister in her weakened postbirth state.
Outcome
Violetta pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the judge on the case made it
clear that she did not want the defendant to serve considerable jail time. Vio-
letta expressed a wish to become pregnant again in the future.
123: ARGUMENT/CONFLICT MURDER
Argument/conflict murder is a death that results from a dispute between per-
sons, excluding family or household members.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. There is a high incidence of victims of this crime to be young
adult, blue-collar or unemployed, and with a low education level. The of-
fender is known to the victim. The victim commonly has a history of as-
saultive behavior and of using violence to resolve his problems.
An exception to this victimology is the person who has the misfortune to
cross paths and ignite the volatile, impulsive offender who is predisposed
to violent eruptions. The precipitating event is often a trivial incident, such
as pulling in front of someone on the freeway.
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Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene of an argument/
conflict murder is often spread out, demonstrating signs of offender and vic-
tim movement as well as signs of struggle. It is random and sloppy.
The weapon is bought to the scene due to the offender’s predisposition to
assaultive behavior. In this sense, it becomes a weapon of opportunity based
on its ready availability. It may be left at the scene in addition to fingerprints,
footprints, and other evidence. The victim is often unarmed. Generally the
body is also left at the scene and is not concealed.
Staging. Staging is not present.
Common Forensic Findings. Alcohol or drugs are often involved, and
there is no evidence of sexual assault. The mode of death is usually based on
the weapon availability: knife, blunt object, or firearm.
Investigative Considerations
The precipitating event of an argument or conflict is the cause of the dispute.
The killing can be a spontaneous or delayed reaction to this event. The of-
fender, like the victim, has a history of assaultive behavior and using violence
to resolve problems. Due to the spontaneous nature of the attack, there are
usually witnesses, however reluctant or inconspicuous. A point to consider is
that the suspect lives in the vicinity of the attack or victim, or both. Witnesses
may know the place of employment, hangouts, or residence of offender.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The investigator should search for articles in the location because the crime
erupted quickly. A search should also be made for receipts of firearm sales,
and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms registry should be checked.
123.01: ARGUMENT MURDER
In an argument murder, death is precipitated by a verbal dispute. The defin-
ing characteristics, investigative considerations, and search warrant sugges-
tions are discussed in classification 123.
CASE STUDY: 123.01: ARGUMENT MURDER
Background
On a hot July night in 1989, the police of a small East Coast city received a
“shots fired” call. As they arrived at the scene of the incident, they observed
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Homicide 171
a young white male sprawled out in the middle of the street. He had been
shot in the chest and was dead. The officers learned from several witnesses
that the victim had started arguing with another man over some money the
offender owed the victim. The dispute soon escalated, with the victim
punching the offender. The fight spilled out into the street and culminated
with the offender pulling a gun out and shooting the victim.
Victimology
The victim was a twenty-two-year-old construction worker who had a history
of being thrown out of bars for starting fights. He had a long history of
assaultive behavior that included several arrests for aggravated battery and as-
sault on a law enforcement officer. His reputation for solving problems with
physical violence was well established at work and after hours, in the bars.
The victim had had several confrontations with the offender before the night
of his death. According to witnesses familiar with both men, they seemed to
have a friendship of sorts that was periodically interrupted with brawls.
Crime Scene Indicators
The crime scene was in a tavern district that had a reputation for nightly brawls,
especially during the hot summer months. The crime scene was spread out, with
indicators of the struggle beginning in the bar. Bar stools and several tables
were overturned. There were several blood spatter patterns indicating that
both offender and victim had drawn each other’s blood before the shooting.
The crime scene was random and sloppy, typical of this type of conflict.
The body was left in the open, in the position that death had occurred. The
weapon was brought to the scene and found farther down the street in a
garbage can down an alley. There was an abundance of prints in the bar and
a few on the murder weapon, although the offender had hurriedly wiped off
the gun before discarding it.
Forensic Findings
The autopsy revealed that the victim had died from a single gunshot wound
to the chest that penetrated the heart through the left ventricle, causing
immediate death. A .38-caliber bullet was recovered from the body. The vic-
tim’s serum alcohol level was .21 percent, well over the .10 percent level of
intoxication.
Investigation
Because of the abundance of witnesses and physical evidence, an arrest was
made within hours of the shooting. The offender was arrested without incident
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at his home. His reputation mirrored that of the victim. He too had a history
of assaultive behavior reflected by an arrest record.
The precipitating event of the dispute was some money that the offender
had borrowed from the victim three weeks earlier. The offender had prom-
ised repayment several times but had failed to fulfill his promises. The
offender was also very drunk when the victim began yelling at him and
declaring his unreliability to the other bar patrons. The exchange became
physical and culminated with the shooting.
Outcome
The offender pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to fifteen
years.
123.02: CONFLICT MURDER
In a conflict murder, death results from personal conflict between the victim
and offender. The defining characteristics, investigative considerations, and
search warrant suggestions are discussed in classification 123.
CASE STUDY: 123.02: CONFLICT MURDER
Background
Life for Kristen Costas was satisfying and agreeable. The fifteen year old
was a member of her high school swimming team, soccer team, and commu-
nity swim team. She had been selected for the varsity cheerleading squad
and belonged to an exclusive volunteer group called the Bobbies. She was
very popular at school, having many friends. She seldom dated but was well
liked by the male students of her suburban California high school. Words
like pretty and vibrant were used when describing her. Her father was an
executive who could afford to give his only daughter the trendy clothes, ski
vacations, and cheerleading training camp trips important to a teenager try-
ing to find acceptance from other upper-middle-class peers.
For Bernadette Protti, adolescent life was not so pleasant. She was embar-
rassed by the modest living imposed by her father’s income as a retired pub-
lic utilities supervisor. This discomfort was accentuated daily as she went to
school, surrounded with the sons and daughters of executives like Costa’s
father. Spring 1984 had not done much to boost her faltering ego. She was
cut from the cheerleading squad, rejected from membership in an exclusive
club similar to the Bobbies, and denied a place on the yearbook staff. These
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Homicide 173
setbacks probably would have been nothing more than passing disappoint-
ments to the typical teenager, but to Protti, they confirmed her sense of fail-
ure and lack of self-worth. One friend described Protti as never believing she
was accepted by her peers, even though she apparently was. She depicted
Protti as having an obsession with being liked.
On June 22, 1984, Costas was at cheerleading camp when her mother
received a call from an unidentified female around 10:00 P.M. The caller told
Mrs. Costas that Kristen would be picked up for a secret Bobbies initiation
dinner the next night. On June 23, Mr. and Mrs. Costas and Kristen’s
twelve-year-old brother were attending a baseball banquet. At 8:20 P.M.,
Mrs. Costas phoned Kristen to wish her a good time at the Bobbies’ dinner.
Soon after, Kristen was picked up by a white female in an beat-up orange
Pinto. They drove to the Presbyterian church parking lot and parked. After
about thirty minutes, Costas became alarmed at the driver’s behavior and
exited the car.
Costas rang the doorbell of nearby friends, the Arnolds. When Mrs.
Arnold answered the door, Costas explained that she had been with a friend
at church who had “gone weird.” Mrs. Arnold described Kristen as being vis-
ibly upset but not terrified. She noticed a girl about fifteen with light brown
hair on the front sidewalk as she let Costas in to call her parents. When her
parents did not answer, Mr. Arnold offered to give Costas a ride home, which
she accepted. He noticed the Pinto was following them as he drove Costas
home, but Kristen reassured him it was okay.
When Mr. Arnold arrived at the Costas home, Kristen noted that her par-
ents were not in yet and told Mr. Arnold she was going to go next door. He
offered to wait until she was safely inside the house and watched as Costas
walked to the door.
As he prepared to leave, he saw a female figure pass by the right side of
his vehicle and enter the porch where Costas stood. At first Arnold thought
he was witnessing a fistfight. The form struck at Costas, and she fell to the
porch screaming. The assailant disappeared seconds later.
Costas staggered to her feet and ran across the street crying for help. A
neighbor who had come outside when he heard the scream went to her aid.
She collapsed in his arms still asking for help and then lost consciousness.
He began cardiopulmonary resuscitation while his wife called emergency
medical personnel.
Meanwhile, Mr. Arnold had started to pursue the Pinto as it squealed
away, but decided to return to see if Costas needed help. By this time, the
paramedics and police had arrived and were loading Kristen into the ambu-
lance. Mr. and Mrs. Costas arrived home from their son’s banquet just in
time to see their daughter lying in the ambulance. Kristen Costas was pro-
nounced dead at a nearby hospital at 11:02 P.M.
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Victimology
Kristen Costa’s chances of becoming a victim of a violent crime were re-
duced by her warm family relationship, minimal use of alcohol, and self-
imposed dating restrictions. Her lifestyle reinforced this low-risk status. She
lived at home, and because of her age and parental control, her socialization
was restricted to places that would be considered low-risk environments (the
church parking lot, which was the local hangout, and friends’ homes, for
example) as opposed to bars and nightclubs. She had reportedly experi-
mented once with cocaine and once with marijuana, but this isolated use was
not a factor when considering the attack.
The fact that Costas was well liked and popular would normally have
been additional reasons for considering her status low risk. But because of
the nature of the conflict that arose between Protti and Costas, this element
elevated her risk to be targeted for a violent crime.
Crime Scene Indicators
In front of the door where the attack took place were multidirectional blood-
splatter patterns. A few feet to the left of this area, a trail of blood splatter
began that went down the walkway, the driveway, across the street, the
neighbor’s driveway, sidewalk, and onto the porch.
A butter knife was found at the scene, but this was not the murder weapon.
A few latent prints remained unidentified, and one set from the porch post
next to the attack site had insufficient detail for evaluation. There was noth-
ing else to aid the investigation from the crime scene.
Forensic Findings
Kristen Costas had been stabbed five times. There was a defensive wound to
the right forearm. Two of the wounds were to the back, both 13 centimeters
long and puncturing the right lung and diaphragm and lacerating the liver. Of
the two wounds from a frontal assault, one was 15.5 centimeters long and
penetrated the left upper arm, chest, and left lung. The other was 4 centi-
meters and did minor damage. Any one of the three deeper wounds would
have caused death by itself. There was no evidence of any other type of
assault, physical or sexual.
Investigation
Over six months, 750 yellow or orange Ford Pintos, including the killer’s,
were checked by police, but no evidence was found associated with Costa’s
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murder. More than one thousand leads were investigated, and over three hun-
dred people were interviewed, including one hundred girls from Costa’s
high school. A list of suspects was narrowed down to several dozen people.
The investigators then submitted the victimology, crime scene informa-
tion, pictures, and autopsy records to the FBI Investigative Support Unit in
Quantico, Virginia, for a criminal personality profile. The FBI analysts came
up with a profile and sent it back to the sheriff’s department in late October.
With this profile, the investigators were able to narrow the list to one suspect:
Bernadette Protti.
Protti was called in for another extensive interview (she had been inter-
viewed at least four times previously) and another polygraph exam. She
failed parts of the polygraph, but other parts were inconclusive. Several days
later, Protti returned with her father to the sheriff’s department and requested
to speak with the FBI agent who had questioned her previously. She then
offered a full confession for the murder of Costas.
Protti stated she had killed Kristen because Costas had rebuffed Protti’s
attempts to make friends with her. Protti was afraid Costas would tell every-
one at school that she was a “weirdo.” It was this fear of rejection, Protti
claimed, that drove her to kill Costas.
Outcome
Bernadette Protti was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to
nine years. She was denied parole twice before the state Youthful Offender
Parole Board released her on June 10, 1992, in a two-to-one decision.
124: AUTHORITY MURDER
An authority murder involves an offender who kills persons who have an
authority relationship or symbolic authority relationship by which the killer
perceives he has been wronged. The target of the assault may be a person or
a building, structure, or institution symbolizing the authority. Random vic-
tims are often wounded or killed during the assault as a result of their actual
or perceived association with the authority figure or the institution being
attacked.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victimology of authority murder involves primary and
secondary targets. The primary targets are the principal people whom the of-
fender perceives as wronging him. The wrong may be actual, such as the
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offender’s being fired, or may be imagined, based on a psychotic or paranoid
delusion of a conspiracy. The secondary victims become random targets as
a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time because the offender
generalizes their immediate presence to symbolize the authority.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The offender is mission ori-
ented: he is on the scene with his mission having ultimate priority. He has
little or no intention to abort his plan and escape from the scene or from re-
sponsibility for the act. He may desire to die at the scene by suicide or by
police bullets and thereby attain martyrdom for his actions and cause. There is
always a direct and planned confrontation between the offender and victims.
Because of his obsession of being wronged over a period of time, the
offender gathers and collects weapons and usually brings multiple weaponry
to the scene of his confrontation. In addition, he often arms himself with an
abundance of ammunition and other gear to sustain and support his attack.
Weapons used are of optimal lethality (semiautomatic assault weapons, high
power, scope sights), and as a result, the assault often develops into a mass
or spree killing.
Staging. Staging is not usually present.
Common Forensic Findings. The forensic finding most prevalent in
authority murder is the use of more than one firearm; often the weapons
selected are semiautomatic, selected for quick firing; they may be of more
than one caliber. Therefore, various and numerous shell casings may be
found at the scene, which will help establish the number of rounds fired.
Wounds usually are severe and numerous. Multiple wounds on a victim may
suggest the primary target, and the killing of the primary target may prompt
the suicide of the offender. If the primary target is not taken, the offender
may commit suicide or surrender when he runs out of ammunition.
Investigative Considerations
The offender will have a history of paranoid behavior and openly voicing
dissatisfaction with general or specific circumstances in his life. There are
usually long-term precipitation and predisposing factors in the development
of this state, and a likely result is emotional or mental illness. The mental
disorders commonly found among authority killers are depressive reactions,
paranoia, or paranoid psychosis. Another result of this developmental situa-
tion is interpersonal failures and conflicts such as separation, divorce, job
loss, failure in school, or other such personal life traumatic events that will
precipitate the acting out against authority. Frustrations accompanied by the
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inability to handle or resolve such situations are often precipitating events.
Suicide attempts are common.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Investigating officials should be aware of the offender’s preparation period
for the final event by looking for specific reading material, collections of
weaponry, uniforms, paraphernalia, and other items of paramilitary interest.
Statements made by the offender just prior to, during, and immediately after
the assault should be carefully noted and documented by investigative per-
sonnel. The search should also look for diaries, scrapbooks, and computer
logs and prescribed medications to link the suspect to psychiatric conditions.
CASE STUDY: 124: AUTHORITY MURDER
Background
Joseph T. Wesbecker, a twice-divorced forty-seven-year-old white male, had
asked for a transfer from his job as a pressman. He had complained that the
job was too stressful, and as his emotional problems worsened during Feb-
ruary 1989, his employers responded by placing him on disability leave.
Wesbecker felt that his employers at Standard Gravure Corporation had
inflicted a gross injustice on him despite the fact that his behavior had inter-
fered with his duties and the duties of others in his workplace. Nearly every
day for seven months, he brooded over how he would repay those in author-
ity who were responsible for his alleged mistreatment.
On the morning of September 14, 1989, Wesbecker walked into the Stan-
dard Gravure Corporation plant, intent on seeking revenge on those who
caused his problems. Using an AK-47 automatic assault rifle and an assort-
ment of other firearms, he killed or wounded over twenty people.
Victimology
Wesbecker’s victims were all secondary targets since the primary targets of
his aggression were the company’s administrators, who were not in their of-
fices at the time of the assault. His victims were fellow employees, yet on
that particular day, Wesbecker considered them to be enemies because they
symbolized the corporation’s organizational structure.
Crime Scene Indicators
At 8:30 A.M. on September 14, Wesbecker arrived at the Standard Gravure
plant carrying a duffel bag containing an AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifle,
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two MAC-11 semiautomatic pistols, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, and a .38-
caliber revolver. He carried hundreds of rounds of ammunition. When en-
countering a friend, John Tingle, who tried to persuade Wesbecker not to
enter the plant, Wesbecker ordered Tingle to “get away,” stating, “I told them
that I’d be back.”
After he gained entry to the plant, Wesbecker took the elevator to the third
floor to the executive office complex. He opened fire as the elevator door
parted, killing the receptionist and wounding several other office staff. He
then proceed down the hallway to the bindery, spraying the area with gunfire
and killing and wounding more plant employees. He moved on to the
Courier-Journal building, where he shot another employee.
Wesbecker proceeded to the Standard Gravure pressroom, into the base-
ment, and back to the pressroom, firing his weapon all the way until he
dropped his AK-47, raised his 9mm pistol under his chin, and killed himself.
All events occurred in approximately nine minutes from the firing of the first
shot. The police arrived on the scene and found Wesbecker dead. It was
determined that he fired hundreds of shots during his random murder spree.
This crime is classified as a spree authority killing in that it was a con-
frontational type of assault spread throughout a large area (several buildings),
leaving many dead and wounded in the wake of the assailant. Wesbecker had
killed seven people and wounded twelve others. He obviously intended
to kill all who crossed his path and was intent on revenge, seeking out those
in authority in the company where he worked. The offender came to the
scene with multiple weapons and an abundance of ammunition. His shots
were intended to be lethal, as demonstrated by the death toll and the fact that
of the twelve surviving victims, five were critically wounded. Wesbecker
was very mission oriented, with no escape plan.
Forensic Findings
Seven dead and twelve wounded people were found at the scene by police
authorities. Another died three days later. Most of the victims died from mas-
sive blood loss due to gunshot wounds to the heart and chest area. Most of
the twelve wounded workers were in serious to critical condition.
Investigation
The investigation of the shootings revealed that Wesbecker had a long his-
tory of mental and emotional problems. Two marriages had ended in divorce.
He had been hospitalized on a voluntary basis at least three times between
1978 and 1987 for these problems. He was reported to be withdrawn and
troublesome in his workplace and experienced job-related stress problems.
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He had once declined a promotion and a raise because he could not face the
demands the job would place on him. He claimed that his exposure to an
industrial chemical had caused memory loss, dizziness, and blackouts. He
further attributed his exposure to the chemical for bouts of sleeplessness,
racing thoughts, anxiety, anger, and confusion.
Wesbecker’s feelings and acts of isolation, withdrawal, and depression
are prominent preoffense behavior dynamics of the mass and spree author-
ity killer. Furthermore, he was a single middle-aged white male who har-
bored a long-term grudge against the management of his employer and had
accompanying emotional problems relating to his personal and work-related
life. Wesbecker often spoke of his deep resentment toward his employer. Fel-
low employees recalled his conversations surrounding his fantasies of re-
venge against his company should he be mistreated.
Wesbecker had often articulated his feelings of worthlessness and had
attempted suicide on three occasions: once through an overdose, another by
breathing car exhaust fumes, and a third by hanging. He further articulated
a desire to harm others in addition to his suicide attempts. The investigation
failed to link Wesbecker to any of his victims to establish a personal cause
or motive for shooting or killing any one or all of the individuals. Therefore,
it must be assumed the shootings were random in nature rather than specific.
125: REVENGE
Revenge killing involves the killing of another in retaliation for a perceived
wrong, real or imagined, committed against the offender or a significant other.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. When revenge is the motive for a homicide, the victim may or
may not personally know the offender, but something in the victim’s life—a
significant event or interaction—is directly related to the actions of the
offender. The revenge motive generated by this event may be unknown to the
victim or the victim’s family or friends. Multiple victims may be involved
depending on the nature of the event that triggered the act of revenge.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. There are often several loca-
tions involved with the offense. For example, the precipitating event may
happen at one site at an earlier date, but the revenge is acted out later at
another location.
An offender who has brooded over the victim’s affront often demonstrates
a less spontaneous crime that is reflected by the well-ordered crime scene.
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However, the mission-oriented offender may not be experienced at criminal
activity. Some offenders are often in a highly charged emotional state from
extensive fantasizing about the act of vengeance. The crime scene may
reflect this inexperience, with a clear shift from an organized to a disorgan-
ized behavior. The offense is well planned up to the point of the killing. This
may be manifested by a skillful approach to the crime scene (leaving no
physical evidence) but a blitz style of attack, followed by a rapid exit, with
the offender leaving an abundance of physical evidence. The weapon may be
left at the scene. Since the act of vengeance was the priority and an end in
itself, there may be no escape plan.
The weapon is most often a weapon of choice that the offender brings to
the scene. It may be left there too, especially with the type of offender de-
scribed above.
The offense itself can be opportunistic and spontaneous. An example is
the distraught friend or family member who brings a gun to court and shoots
the alleged perpetrator of a crime committed against their loved one. A
revenge killing committed in front of the victim’s family is another example
of the more impulsive form of this killing.
Staging. Staging is not usually present.
Common Forensic Findings. The weapon is one of choice, mostly likely a
firearm or knife. The killing is close range and confrontational. The offender
derives satisfaction of witnessing “justice” rendered before him or her. Con-
tact wounds are prevalent. The presence of defensive wounds is possible and
related in part to the degree of the offender’s skill.
Investigative Considerations
Preoffense behavior by the offender will often follow a pattern in which he
or she is at first very verbal about the incident that involves the victim’s in-
justice. Interviews of those close to the offender often reveal that their con-
versations with the offender often pertained to this incident.
As the offender formulates a plan for vengeance, he or she may become
preoccupied and less vocal in general. The offender will seek a weapon, if
necessary, at this point.
After the offense, there is often a sense of relief on the part of the offender.
The mission has been accomplished. He or she may even stay at the scene to
savor this achievement and make no attempt to conceal his or her identity.
The death of the victim is justified in the eyes of the offender; it is restitu-
tion. If the offender has this attitude, there are often witnesses to the offense.
The precipitating event that links the victim and offender is the key point
of this investigation. However, this event may hold significance only to the
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offender and not be obvious to those associated with the offender or victim.
It may not be obvious to the investigator either. Also of importance is any
significant person in either the offender’s or the victim’s life who may have
direct or indirect involvement with the incident.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The offender may have kept the weapon and possibly bloodied clothing from
the offense as mementos from which renewed satisfaction is derived that
(his) justice has been served. There may be newspapers and other press relat-
ing to the significant or precipitating event. A record (written, audiotaped, or
videotaped) of the fantasy and feelings leading to the offense may also be
present at the offender’s residence. There may be mail or other communica-
tions with the victim in the offender’s possession.
CASE STUDY: 125: REVENGE
Background
On February 28, 2005, the husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Leftkow and
the judge’s mother were found shot twice at point-blank range in the fore-
head in the utility room of the Leftkow home.
Victimology
The intended target of the killer, Bart Ross, was Judge Leftkow herself, not
her mother and husband.
Crime Scene Indicators
This offense involved the judge’s husband and mother. The offender brought
his weapon of choice, a .22 caliber gun, to the scene with him. Ross broke
through a locked basement window and sat waiting for the judge to return
home. Mr. Leftkow discovered Ross in the basement and he was shot; the
mother heard the shot, and Ross said he had to shoot her as well. He followed
each single shot with a second “to minimize suffering.” Ross remained in the
house and finally left because he decided killing “was not fun.”
Forensic Findings
Shell casings were found at the crime scene. A fingerprint was found on the
broken window in the utility room, and a bloody footprint was found in
the house along with a mop used to clean up the blood spattered on the floor.
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Further evidence was found in the kitchen, including a cigarette butt in the
sink and a soda can.
Investigation
Although there was considerable physical and forensic evidence left at the
crime scene, suggesting a disorganized crime scene, no suspects were devel-
oped until a suicide note surfaced. On March 6, 2005, Ross killed himself
and left a suicide note and letter with explanations for his actions. Blood and
fingerprints matched the DNA samplings taken from the crime scene.
Outcome
The case was solved when Ross killed himself. In a four-page letter sent to
NBC5 in Chicago, Ross outlined his grievance and desire for revenge. In
1992, he had had surgery for mouth cancer, which left him with a facial dis-
figurement. In 1995 he filed a medical malpractice suit, but the suit was
dismissed because no violations had been noted in his medical records. Over
the next seven years, Ross regularly filed appeals, becoming more and more
frustrated by the system. He sent an angry letter to the governor and said he
was unfairly represented by his lawyers. In 2004, he filed a civil rights case
against the government, his lawyers, the doctors, and the hospital. Judge
Leftkow dismissed the case due to lack of presentation of new evidence, and
in October she denied a motion to reconsider.
126: NONSPECIFIC MOTIVE MURDER
A nonspecific motive murder pertains to a homicide that appears irrational
and is committed for an undetermined reason known only to the offender. It
subsequently may be defined and categorized with more extensive investiga-
tion into the offender’s background.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims of a nonspecific homicide are random, with no
direct relationship between victim and offender. Victims can be male, fe-
male, adults, or children and demonstrate a variety of characteristics and
lifestyle.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene is usually a
public place and poses a high risk to the offender. There is nothing missing
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from it, and it is disorganized, with no effort to conceal the victim. A firearm,
the weapon of choice for this type of offender, is bought to the crime. This
crime often becomes a massacre because it is the offender’s goal to kill as
many people as possible. This is reflected by the use of weapons that offer
optimal lethality, multiple weapons, and an abundance of ammunition.
Staging. Staging is not present.
Common Forensic Findings. Because nothing is removed from the
scene, an abundance of evidence is usually available, including shell cas-
ings, prints, and discarded weapons. High-powered, high-caliber, or high-
capacity firearm use will be evident and enables the offender to accomplish
his goal of mass killing. Wounds will be concentrated on vital areas: head,
neck, and chest.
Investigative Considerations
This crime is almost exclusively committed during daylight in public places
because the offender wants the highest death toll possible. Witnesses are
often available to identify the offender because he is unconcerned with being
identified. The offender has no escape plan and possibly intends to commit
suicide or be shot by police. Through a broad neighborhood investigation,
preoffense characteristics become evident: the offender usually has a dis-
heveled appearance, is withdrawn, demonstrates an isolated affect, and pos-
sibly exhibits erratic behavior.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The home of the suspect should be searched for weapons, receipts, and
records.
CASE STUDY: 126: NONSPECIFIC MOTIVE MURDER
Background
“Born on April 18, 1947, and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Herbert
Mullin had a relatively normal childhood. His father, a World War II vet-
eran, was stern but not overtly abusive. He frequently discussed his heroic
war activities and showed his son how to use a gun at an early age. Mullin
had numerous friends at school and was voted ‘most likely to succeed’ by
his classmates.” In 1965, “shortly after graduating from high school, one of
Mullin’s best friends, Dean, was killed in a car accident, and Mullin was
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devastated. He built a shrine to his deceased friend in his bedroom and later
expressed fears that he was gay, even though he had a long-term girlfriend
at the time.
“As he entered adulthood, Mullin’s behavior became increasingly unsta-
ble. He broke off his relationship with his girlfriend for no apparent reason,
started obsessing over impending earthquakes, and began asking his sister to
have sex with him” (from Wikipedia). It was believed that these unusual be-
haviors signaled the onset of schizophrenia.
In 1969 Mullin announced to his family he was going to India to study
religion. A month later, during a family meal, he began repeating all his
brother-in-law’s actions and words. His family convinced him to seek psy-
chiatric help, which he did for awhile. His paranoid schizophrenia became
full blown by October 1969, when he shaved his head and burned his penis
with a cigarette at the request of voices he claimed to have heard.
By September 1972, after being institutionalized and arrested several
times, Mullin allegedly began receiving telepathic messages ordering him to
kill. On October 13, 1972, he began to comply with these messages.
Victimology
On October 13, 1972, while driving in a deserted part of the Santa Cruz
Mountains in California, Mullin spotted Lawrence White, age fifty-five,
walking along the highway. White was an alcoholic transient who had spent
much of his time in and out of jails. Mullin pulled over and asked White to
look at his engine. As White accommodated him, Mullin produced a base-
ball bat and beat him to death. There was no apparent motive for the killing.
On October 24, Mullin picked up Mary Guilfoyle, a twenty-two-year-old
college student who was hitchhiking home. As they drove toward Santa
Cruz, Mullin thrust a hunting knife into her heart, killing her instantly. Her
skeletal remains were not found until February 11, 1973.
On November 23, Mullin entered a confessional booth at St. Mary’s
Church in Los Gatos, California. He stabbed Father Henri Tomei, age sixty-
five, to death.
The next five murders occurred on January 25, 1973. On this day, Mullin
had set to look for James Gianera, age twenty-five, who had introduced him
to marijuana years before. His search led him to the primitive cabin once
owned by Gianera. One of the cabin’s occupants at that time, Kathy Francis,
age twenty-nine, gave Mullin directions to Gianera’s new residence, four
miles away. Mullin drove there, argued with Gianera, and then shot him
three times. During the course of the struggle, Gianera ran up the stairs to his
twenty-one-year-old wife, Joan, who was taking a shower. Mullin followed
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Homicide 185
behind, finishing Gianera off in the bathroom, then turning on Joan Gianera,
shooting her five times and stabbing her once.
Mullin next returned to Francis’s cabin, where he shot and stabbed Kathy
and her two sons, Daemon, age four, and David, age nine, killing all three.
On February 6, Mullin went hiking in a Santa Cruz state park. He hap-
pened upon a makeshift one-room cabin occupied by four boys, ages fifteen
to nineteen, as they were preparing a meal. As Mullin stood in the doorway,
the only escape route, he emptied his .22-caliber pistol, reloaded, and fired
again into the victims as they attempted to flee or struggled to take cover.
A week later on February 13, seventy-two-year-old Fred Perez was out
working on his lawn. Suddenly he fell to the ground, struck by a bullet fired
from a station wagon approximately 123 feet away. A neighbor observed a
station wagon driving away at normal speed.
The random selection of the nonspecific killer is well illustrated by
Mullin’s victims. Several of the victims were at high risk due to their habits
(they were hitchhiking or had a transient lifestyle). Gianera’s past associa-
tion with the drug trade may have been a factor if this was a drug murder and
he was still actively involved with the drug trade. But because the motive
was not drug related, his involvement with drugs, if it still existed, was not
consequential to his death. Most of the victims would not be considered
likely to become victims of violent crime based on their lifestyle, employ-
ment, and income.
Except for Gianera, none of the victims had any prior contact or relation-
ship with Mullin. They were completely random, selected and murdered for
no apparent reason other than to satisfy Mullin’s need to kill (and the alleged
voices commanding him to kill). The great disparity of ages (four to seventy-
four years), physical characteristics, gender, and lifestyles all represented
the victimology common to the nonspecific motive killing.
Crime Scene Indicators
Many of the crime scenes demonstrated little or no physical evidence. The
crime scene involving the priest and the last victim were public places that
placed Mullin at higher risk of being apprehended. He eliminated the only
damaging witness (Kathy Francis) in the Gianera case. The weapon was one
of choice, initially a knife, brought to the scene. Later, after he purchased a
gun, Mullin used that almost exclusively.
Mary Guilfoyle’s remains were found unclothed in a wooded area in the
foothills around Santa Cruz. Her clothing was never recovered. The body
was face up with the legs spread apart and bent under her as if pushed over
from a kneeling position.
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The crime scene involving Father Tomei had one partial palm print from
the confessional booth that was later confirmed to be Mullin’s. The Gianera
crime scene indicated that the confrontation had occurred in the kitchen, as
evidenced by blood splatter on the table and refrigerator. There was also
blood on the wall and stairs going up to the second floor. It appeared that
Gianera, after being shot three times, ran up the stairs to the bathroom, where
his wife was killed.
The crime scene of the February 10 homicides involving the four teen-
agers demonstrated signs of struggle and attempts to flee, but it is apparent
that Mullin blocked the entrance to the cabin. Eight bullets were fired from
the same gun. Some empty cartridges were found at the entrance to the
cabin. There was a .22-caliber rifle missing from the scene. None of the other
crime scenes demonstrated physical evidence.
Two of the incidents were the spree or mass killings common to this type
of offender: no effort was made to conceal any of the bodies, a weapon of
choice was brought to the scene, all of the killings were during daylight
hours, and several were in public places.
Forensic Findings
The cause of death for most the victims was from either stabbing or gunshot
wounds. Only the first victim died from blunt-force trauma. Because Guil-
foyle’s skeleton was unclothed, it was theorized she was raped either before
or after death.
Father Tomei was stabbed four times, with one thrust penetrating the heart.
Kathy Francis was stabbed in the chest and then shot in the head. She also had
a defensive gunshot wound to her left arm. Her two sons were each shot in the
head, and one was stabbed superficially in the back. Joan Gianera was shot
five times and stabbed once in the back. The four teenage boys were shot in
the body, with the cause of death being an additional head shot. Fred Perez
was killed by a bullet piercing his right arm and continuing through his
chest, piercing his aorta.
Nearly all of the victims sustained multiple wounds to areas containing
vital organs. This concentration of the attack to vital areas is common to this
type of killer. There was also an element of overkill, Mullin’s signature, with
many of the victims. (See Chapter One for more on signature crimes.) Shoot-
ing a victim multiple times was not enough; many were also stabbed.
Investigation
Mullin was apprehended ten minutes after the last shooting because of wit-
nesses’ giving police a description of his car. There were witnesses to two
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Homicide 187
of the more public murders, illustrative of Mullin’s nonchalance for being
identified.
When he was stopped, the .22-caliber rifle stolen from the previous mur-
der scene and the weapon responsible for Perez’s death were found leaning
against the front seat with a paper bag over the muzzle. In a satchel on the
front seat was the RG-14 revolver used on nine of the other victims.
Outcome
Mullin confessed to his crimes, saying he had been told by voices in his head
to kill people in order to prevent an earthquake (and he claimed the fact that
there had not been an earthquake recently was due to his handiwork). He was
eventually charged with 10 murders (he was not charged with the first three),
and his trial began on July 30, 1973. Mullin had admitted to all the crimes,
and therefore the trial focused on whether he was sane and culpable of his
actions. The fact that he had covered his tracks and shown premeditation in
some of his crimes was put forth by the prosecution, while the defense
argued that the defendant had a history of mental illness. On August 19,
1973, Mullin was declared guilty of first-degree murder in the cases of Jim
Gianera and Kathy Francis (because they were premeditated). For the other
eight murders, he was found guilty of second-degree murder (because they
were more impulsive). He was sentenced to life imprisonment and will be
eligible for parole in 2025, when he will be seventy-seven-years old.
127: EXTREMIST HOMICIDE
Extremist homicide is committed on behalf of a body of ideas based on a
particular political, economic, religious, or social system. Although the of-
fender’s beliefs may be associated with a particular group, the group does
not sanction the actions of the offender.
Extremist Typologies
Classifying an extremist murder poses difficulty whether it is motivated by
personal cause or group cause. Although this category deals with a lone of-
fender (someone not acting on behalf of the group), an extremist murder
motivated by personal cause often involves the same blending of multiple mo-
tives as a group cause killing.
The blending of political belief with religious dogma is found frequently
in the motivation of the extremist murder. Religious and socioeconomic
doctrines may also fuse and become a catalyst for extremist murder. The
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following typologies offer a general outline for the motives of an extremist
murder.
Political. This type of killing is motivated by doctrines or philosophies in
opposition to a current position of a government or its representatives.
Assassinations such as Robert Kennedy’s are included in this group. Politi-
cal extremist homicides are classified as 127.01.
Religious. This homicide is prompted by a fervent devotion to a cause,
principle, or system of beliefs based on supernatural or supernormal agen-
cies. Religious extremist homicides are classified as 127.02.
Socioeconomic. This offender kills due to an intense hostility and aversion
toward another individual or group that represents a certain ethnic, social, or
religious group. Socioeconomic extremist homicide is classified as 127.03.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of an extremist murder usually represents the
antithesis of the offender’s system of beliefs; therefore, victimology depends
heavily on the offender doctrine. This doctrine is not always readily appar-
ent, so the victim’s history becomes an essential step in discerning the mo-
tive. This history should include any social, political, or religious activities
of the victim, as well as a complete lifestyle description.
Although victimology often will direct the investigator toward possible
motives, extremist killings may involve secondary targets. These people
become victims through association with the primary target. They may have
had no political, social, or religious similarities with the primary target.
Determining who the primary target was will usually help prevent confusion
as to the offender’s motive.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene of an extrem-
ist murder usually occurs in a public place. The location of victim will often
offer an indication as to the motive—for example, a body left near a gay bar
or in a black neighborhood.
The crime scene often will help the investigator determine if the offender
is acting on his own or on behalf of a group. Group symbols or signs of the
offender’s attachment to the group left at the scene do not always mean
the group is involved. The offender may have demonstrated a knowledge of
group MO, but there are usually idiosyncrasies.
The usual signs of multiple offenders, such as numerous fibers, footprints,
and fingerprints, will be absent. The crime scene of a lone offender tends to
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Homicide 189
be less organized than one involving a group effort. The lone offender will
usually have more difficulty than multiple offenders controlling the victim.
A scene that spread beyond the site of confrontation, blood splatter patterns,
or defensive wounds on the victim are all indicators of the lone offender hav-
ing difficulty controlling the victim.
This offender often chooses an ambush or blitz style of attack because of
the possibility of a problem with victim control. He may choose a long-range
attack as a sniper (long-range attacks may also mean there is a conspiracy
involved).
Staging. Staging is not usually present.
Common Forensic Findings. The victims of an extremist attack often suffer
multiple wounds. The weapon of choice is usually a firearm or knife. However,
an offender who adopts the MO of a particular group will also adopt its meth-
ods of attack. This might mean the offender uses blunt-force trauma or an ex-
plosive to kill, methods modeled on the group he identifies with.
Investigative Considerations
Preoffense behavior of the extremist killer often entails surveillance and
stalking of the victim. His preoffense conversation will often reflect a preoc-
cupation with the intended target. He may generalize, for example, making
derogatory statements about all blacks or all gays. Or he may have already
selected an individual who represents the group he despises. Generally,
when those associated with him are interviewed, they will especially remem-
ber him for this frequently verbalized animosity.
Postoffense conversation may reflect an interest in the homicide. The
offender may even express satisfaction such as, “He got what he deserved.”
The offender will often follow media reports and even collect newspapers
clippings about the incident.
If the investigator receives any communiqués claiming responsibility,
especially from an alleged group, the communiqué should undergo a threat
assessment examination to determine authenticity. In some cases, the group
identified may make disclaimers.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The most prevalent sign of an extremist attitude is literature. The investiga-
tor should look for reading materials such as pamphlets, recordings, or
books pertaining to the offender’s belief system. Other items to look for
include
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• Physical trappings of the group or belief system, such as uniforms,
paramilitary paraphernalia, or jewelry such as rings or necklaces con-
taining symbols of the group
• Diaries, logs, diagrams, sketches, recordings, or newspaper clippings
concerning the homicide
• Travel records, motel receipts, or rental agreements
• Records of any firearm purchases
CASE STUDY: 127.01:
EXTREMIST HOMICIDE, POLITICAL
Background
Abuse and neglect during his childhood had conditioned Joseph Paul
Franklin to a life of failure and feelings of inadequacy. This inadequacy was
reinforced by an accident during early childhood that robbed his left eye of
sight. These early years of ridicule, punishment, and criticism shaped him
into a disruptive and delinquent teenager who never finished high school
despite being average to above average in intelligence.
Franklin initially found direction and acceptance with the Klu Klux Klan,
the American Nazi party, and finally, the fascist National State Rights party.
Soon, however, he formed a purpose for his life that was not sufficiently
serviced by these organizations. He felt they lacked the professionalism and
commitment required of his mission.
The first expression of hatred he harbored toward blacks was in 1976
when he wrote a threatening letter to President Jimmy Carter about blacks
and assaulted a racially mixed couple with Mace. This targeting of black
men accompanied by white women became a characteristic of the victimol-
ogy for later, more lethal attacks of which Franklin was suspected.
Victimology
On October 7, 1977, Alphonse Manning and Toni Schwenn, both twenty-
three-years old, had finished an afternoon of shopping at a Madison, Wis-
consin, mall. They were just pulling out of the parking lot when their car was
rammed from behind. The driver of the dark green car then jumped out his
car and began firing a handgun at Manning and Schwenn. Manning was
struck twice; Schwenn, four times. Both died as a result of their wounds.
Manning was black; Schwenn was white.
On July 22, 1979, in Doraville, Georgia, Harold McGiver age twenty-
nine, had finished work at the Taco Bell restaurant he managed. As he
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walked from the front door of the restaurant toward his car, two shots were
fired from a wooded area 150 feet away. McGiver was fatally wounded by
the sniper.
On August 8, 1979, at the Falls Church, Virginia, Burger King, twenty-
eight-year-old Raymond Taylor was sitting at a table, eating his dinner. At
9:50 P.M., the sound of breaking glass was heard as a high-velocity rifle bul-
let passed through a large plate glass window on the east side of the build-
ing. Taylor was pronounced dead at the Arlington County Hospital.
On October 21, 1979, Jesse Taylor and his common law wife, Marian
Bresette, were on the way home from a family outing with their three chil-
dren when they decided to stop by the supermarket for a few groceries. The
children stayed in the car while their parents went inside. A short time later,
the couple emerged from the store and walked across the parking lot toward
their car. As Taylor reached the car, a shot was fired from a clump of shrub-
bery, approximately 195 feet away. Taylor slumped against the car, moaning,
“No, no, no.” Two more shots struck him, driving him to the ground.
Bresette, who knelt screaming over her dead husband, was then struck once
in the chest by the same sniper, dying instantly.
On January 12, 1980, Lawrence Reese age twenty-two, had just finished
eating his meal at Church’s Fried Chicken in Indianapolis. It was 11:10 P.M.,
and he was standing with his back to the front window, waiting for the last
customers of the day to leave. Reese was a regular customer at the restau-
rant, usually coming there before closing to eat chicken in exchange for
sweeping up the place. Suddenly the window behind him was shattered.
Reese staggered four or five steps forward and collapsed. He was dead from
a sniper’s single bullet.
Two days later, around 10:50 P.M., Leo Watkins, nineteen, and his father
had just arrived at the Qwic Pic Market in a small shopping plaza in Indi-
anapolis. Watkins often assisted his father, who worked as an independent
exterminator. Watkins stood facing into the street by the front window while
his father mixed the chemicals they would be using that night. They were
waiting for the last customers to leave before starting. Watkins had been
standing there about five minutes when he was suddenly struck in the dead
center of the chest by a shot that exited his upper right back. The mortally
wounded man ran about thirty feet along the front of the store and into an
aisle before he fell.
On May 29, 1980, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vernon Jordan, the president
of the National Urban League, participated in an Urban League meeting at
the Marriott Hotel. The day’s activities were completed, and Jordan spent the
evening with one of the attendees, Martha Coleman. It was around 2:10 A.M.
when Coleman brought Jordan back to the hotel. As Jordan exited Coleman’s
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vehicle, he was struck once by a bullet fired from a grassy area approxi-
mately 143 feet away. Jordan was one of the few who survived the offender’s
attack.
Dante Brown, age thirteen, and Darrell Lane, age fourteen, of Cincinnati,
were not as lucky. On June 6, 1980, the two boys decided to walk to a local
convenience market. When they were about fifty feet from a railroad over-
pass, four shots were fired from the overpass. Each boy was struck twice.
Darrell died instantly; Dante lived a few hours longer.
On June 15, 1980, Kathleen Mikula, age sixteen, and Arthur Smothers,
age twenty-two, were out for a walk. At 12:14 P.M., they were crossing a
bridge on the outskirts of Johnstown, Ohio, when Smothers was struck down
by three shots. Mikula was hit twice by the same sniper from wooded hill-
side 152 feet away. Both died from their wounds.
David Martin, age eighteen, had just graduated from his Salt Lake City
high school at the beginning of the summer of 1980. He had worked full time
during the summer in building maintenance for Northwest Pipeline. Despite
his plans to begin studies at the University of Utah in several weeks, his
employer had offered him continuing employment. It would be part time to
accommodate his school schedule, a concession readily made because he
had proven to be such an dependable employee.
Martin had a history of being a hard-working, responsible young man,
giving up high school baseball for an after-school job. His friend, Ted Fields,
age twenty, also a Northwest Pipeline employee, had the same reputation of
being an excellent employee. He had started as a mailroom clerk after high
school graduation in 1978 and had already advanced to the position of data
operations clerk. The future looked bright for both these young men.
On August 20, they decided to go for an evening jog through Liberty Park
with two young women. At about 10:15 P.M., the joggers emerged from the
west side of park and were crossing the intersection of Fifth East and Ninth
South. As they approached the center of the intersection, they heard a loud
noise. Fields seemed to stumble and fell to the ground, calling out that he
was hit. The rest of the group thought he was joking and told him to quit
fooling around. Two more shots hit Fields as Martin and one of the women
tried to drag him across the street. They were almost at the curb when Mar-
tin was hit. Martin yelled to the two women to get help, that he had been hit
too. A man driving through the intersection at this time thought the gunfire
was coming from the east side of street and pulled his car around to try to
block further attempts by the sniper. More gunfire drove him back into his
car as he attempted to come to the aid of Fields and Martin. He observed sev-
eral more rounds hitting the men as they were lying in the street. Fields and
Martin were both dead on arrival to the hospital. One of the young women
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was struck on the elbow but not seriously injured. Fields was hit three times,
Martin five.
All the male victims of Franklin were black and predominantly young
adults. All the female victims were white and in the company of a black men.
Vernon Jordan, the only victim with known involvement with civil rights
activity, was, ironically, the only one who survived his injuries.
Each one of these victims became a target because of his or her race or
apparent interracial affiliations. The offender had a definite criterion in mind,
as demonstrated by victim similarities of age, race, and companionship. But
the victims were victims of opportunity—the person closest to the window or
the one who first crossed the scope of the sniper. Franklin chose areas that of-
fered an abundance of targets, black neighborhoods, and businesses that
were frequented by blacks.
Crime Scene Indicators
Several crime scene correlations were noted in most of the homicides. Six
of the ten shootings clustered between the two-hour span of 9:50 P.M. and
11:30 P.M. The other two episodes were between 6:40 P.M. and 7:00 P.M.,
and one was 2:10 A.M. The evening hours played an important role, allowing
the sniper, a white man, to slip nearly unnoticed into predominantly black
neighborhoods and position himself at a vantage point that allowed him to kill
with one shot, often from 100 to 150 yards. These vantage points were hills,
woods, knolls, and alleys that were often dark in contrast to where the victim
was. The shootings were all long distance except for one (the first one). They
ranged from 100 feet to 150 yards, with one mid-distance killing of 40 feet.
The shootings all involved public places that increased offender risk, but
this was negated by the distance of the shooting, the lack of pedestrian traf-
fic, and the darkness provided by evening hours and poor lighting. Most of
the victims were outside in a parking lot or street. The three victims who
were killed inside were sitting or standing next to large windows in well-lit
interiors.
The scarcity of physical evidence (one tire track, one foot print, and a
handful of cartridge casings out of ten crime scenes) was indicative of of-
fender sophistication. The lack of witnesses despite the public settings of the
homicides also indicated the offender’s composure and planning.
The general location of each incident near a major interstate, which
allowed a quick, easy escape from the crime scene, reflected the methodical
approach of an organized offender. Not only did this plan allow him to put
distance quickly between himself and the homicide, but it allowed him to
fade into the busy traffic of a major highway.
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Forensic Findings
The choice of murder weapon served a dual purpose: it allowed the offender
to distance himself from the victim, and it also provided optimized lethality
with minimal shots. The two murders that did not involve a .30-caliber or
.30–06-caliber bullet were the close and midrange murders. In this case, a
choice of large-caliber weapon, .357-caliber Magnum and .44-caliber Mag-
num, inflicted equally fatal injuries.
Most of the injuries were chest wounds that damaged the heart, lungs,
liver, and large thoracic blood vessels. Several of the victims were killed with
one shot. This precise targeting of the vital organs (which in some cases,
necessitated the use of scope) was another factor that revealed a proficient and
experienced offender. There were a few cases of multiple wounds, especially
when racially mixed victims were involved; Franklin kept shooting until
they did not move. The accuracy was faultless; thirty-two bullets were fired
at these victims without one miss.
Investigation
On September 25, 1980, a police officer was investigating a service station
robbery in Florence, Kentucky. He was walking by a brown Camaro parked
at the Scottish Inn Motel when he noticed a handgun on the front seat. A
license check revealed that a warrant had been issued by Salt Lake City,
Utah, for the owner of the vehicle, Joseph Paul Franklin. His car had been
placed by witnesses near the vacant lot in which the shells were found from
the Fields and Martin shootings.
Shortly after being taken into custody for questioning, Franklin escaped
through a window. He left behind a car full of weapons and paraphernalia
that tagged him as a suspect not only of the Utah murders but the series of
sniper attacks that had left fourteen dead and two injured. In addition, he was
suspected of as many as one dozen bank robberies.
Franklin fled first to Cincinnati but ended up being apprehended at a
blood bank in Lakeland, Florida. (He frequented blood banks as a means to
obtain money.) Franklin was interviewed by an FBI agent during the extra-
dition trip back to Utah. He never admitted to his guilt during this interview,
but within twenty-four hours admitted his guilt to his wife and a cellmate for
all the shootings except Vernon Jordon.
Franklin was connected to many of the cities within the time period that
the murders occurred by hotel receipts under aliases in his handwriting,
weapons being bought or sold, appearances of a car similar to his near the
crime scenes, or descriptions that fit him. In addition, he linked himself cir-
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cumstantially to several of the offenses through his own admission of famil-
iarity with the actual crime scenes.
The bigotry that gnawed at Franklin was evident during his teen years in
a photograph that showed him proudly giving the Nazi salute wearing a
swastika armband. His sister recalled that Franklin had always been a be-
liever in Nazism and separation of the races.
Franklin decided that as an adult, he would not be deprived of the need to
belong and to be special that his childhood had denied him. This lack of
attention and the feelings of insignificance it produced required that he take
special measures to give his life value and communicate the central theme of
his life: “cleaning up America.” Franklin decided his message would be
taken seriously if it was spelled in blood.
Outcome
Joseph Paul Franklin was convicted of four counts of violating the civil rights
of the victims and two counts of murder. He was sentenced to four life terms.
On August 21, 1990, Franklin was being interviewed by a Salt Lake radio
station. An hour into the interview, after refusing to comment about his guilt,
he was asked again if had committed the murders. He sighed and answered
yes. When prodded by the broadcaster he responded, “The answer is yes. I
won’t discuss it any further other than to say yes.”
127.02: RELIGION-INSPIRED HOMICIDE
Religious beliefs may inspire homicide. While most discussion on such
homicides centers on killings publicized as driven by identification with
Satan, others may commit murder in the practice of their personal religion.
Because spiritual practice is so personal, adherents of even widely recog-
nized religions may make homicidal choices. The more removed from the
mainstream such practices are, the more likely the killing is to be associated
with mental illness.
A number of major mental illnesses are associated with hyperreligiosity.
Native to schizophrenia is a peculiarity of thinking; for the religiously pre-
occupied schizophrenic, spirituality may drive violence. Command halluci-
nations can compel one to homicide. Those experiencing manic episodes,
when their grandiosity is religious, may express themselves violently.
In religions that encourage homicide, from violent cults to intolerant sects
of Islam, proscription for homicide can be found in writings or preaching of
spiritual leaders the assailant identifies with.
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While religious ritual homicide is fueled by ideology, part of motivation
may have nothing to do with religion, but with conflicts in the assailant’s life.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Victims of religious ritual may be strangers or acquaintances
of the offender. The more likely a victim is included in a delusion, the more
likely that victim is closer to the assailant.
One early basis for suspicion of religion as a motive is an absence of con-
flict between the victim and the assailant, even when the two are acquainted.
Given the relative spontaneity of many religious killings, victims are most
frequently opportunistic targets.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Religious influence on a crime
is reflected in religious symbols and messages at the crime scene. These may
include artifacts left behind, religious references in notes, even corpse de-
facement. Other ritualistic features may be present, from the use of the vic-
tim’s blood to the presence of other material unrelated to and unnecessary
for the commission of the crime.
Signs of ritual at a crime scene are often linked to sexual homicide. Sexual
homicide is more common, and therefore warrants first consideration when
the crime scene appearance conveys a sense that the killing was carried out in
a particular way. However, sexual homicides also commonly feature the pres-
ence of ejaculate or distinct placement of a body in a manner that visually reg-
isters for later masturbatory fantasy. Or postmortem examination in a sexual
homicide may reveal some activity involving the sex organs.
Sexual homicides may inspire the killer to remove keepsakes from the
scene as trophies or may occur in a setting of a concurrent robbery. By con-
trast, a religion-inspired killer adds his or her own sense of holiness to the
scene rather than removing items from it. When a killing appears to have a
ritualized quality without a sexualized aspect, religion motive needs to be
considered.
Weapons need not be of religious significance. However, weapon choice
is an important weapon consideration, to the end that part of a religious rit-
ual may mandate a specific weapon. Use of uncommon weapons, such as
swords, warrant special consideration as to their relationship to religious
symbolism.
The investigator must be careful not to confuse a hate crime with a crime
in the name of religion, although both may be present. When the crime scene
is of spiritual significance, the crime is more likely a hate crime targeting the
religion represented there.
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Staging. Religion-driven homicide aims in part to act in the name of a deity
and to communicate with that deity. Those who carry out religion-inspired
crimes concern themselves more with their deity than misleading law en-
forcement. Therefore, while homicides may be staged to look like religion-
inspired crime, religion-inspired crimes are not staged to appear like
something else.
Investigative Considerations
The disorganization of the crime scene reflects on the spontaneity of the
crime and the distress or the disorganization of the perpetrator. Evidence for
religious motive, and especially for mental illness, guides the search for the
perpetrator to closer in the neighborhood.
Investigators are helped by recognizing features of the crime and to what
religions they relate, and how. The perpetrator may not be outwardly devout;
however, evidence for traditional observance in the suspect’s home, particu-
larly of ritual and of the use of symbols, is consistent with a perpetrator who
expresses religious practice though killing. These include writings, tapes,
and other messages studied, which the perpetrator may collect at home.
Suspects under consideration may have experienced recent loss or loss of
self-esteem due to a rejection. Actions in the name of “God” are dramatic
ways to restore a sense of significance to those who have difficulty coping
with such experiences of marginalization. The victim may or may not relate
to that sense of marginalization. For some religion killers, the rejection
comes romantically, anger is displaced through a vehicle of religion, and
another victim is selected.
Search Warrant Suggestions
See search warrant suggestions under 127.
CASE STUDY: 127.02: RELIGION-INSPIRED HOMICIDE
Classification and Case Contributed by Michael Welner
Background
Police were called to the small, quiet, and modest Brooklyn apartment build-
ing where Rose, an eighty-one-year-old woman, was discovered dead by her
building manager. When the decedent had failed to meet her niece at an out-
ing scheduled earlier, the niece became concerned and visited the building.
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When the niece was canvassing the building, she learned little from the
neighbors; the niece sought out the building manager, who looked into
Rose’s apartment through a window accessible to the fire escape. There they
saw her lying on the floor, dead.
Police investigating the building knocked on the door of an upstairs
neighbor, Carmela Cintron. There was no answer when they knocked on
Carmela’s door; police then made their way up the fire escape to look into
her apartment. When an officer looked into Carmela’s back window, she ran
into the bathroom, and he called to detectives in the front stairwell, who
entered through an unlocked front door. Carmela subsequently confessed, in
a rambling and disjointed statement, and was charged with Rose’s killing.
Victimology
Rose lived alone for many years in the same apartment, a second-floor walk-
up. Carmela and Rose were initially friendly neighbors; Carmela would visit
Rose’s house frequently and sit and have coffee.
Earlier that year, Carmela had ransacked her own apartment during a fit
of rage, and a relative told Rose about this. Subsequently Rose grew uncom-
fortable about having Carmela in her apartment and told her not to come
around anymore. Despite this, Carmela would still occasionally walk down-
stairs to Rose’s apartment when other guests were there. A friend recalled,
“Carmela would ask her for money. . . . When Rose would say no, she would
act weird. . . . Rose would let her come into the apartment, because she was
a gentle woman . . . but she was scared of her.” To another friend, Rose
expressed her feelings that Carmela, “must think she had money because she
had sold her apartment.”
Crime Scene Indicators
There was no sign of forced entry, and indications were that the perpetrator
had entered the apartment through the back window, using the fire escape. A
number of potted plants lay smashed on the ground below.
Rose was found lying in a pool of what appeared to be blood, fully
clothed. Strewn about Rose’s body were a number of articles of food. In ad-
dition, coffee grounds were spread on and around Rose’s body. Coffee
grounds were streaked by the movement of the dying Rose’s leg over food
that had been thrown on the floor prior to her falling on it.
Blood spatter indicated that the door to the refrigerator was opened before
she died. This demonstrates that the assailant was attacking Rose after she
had already occupied herself in some way with the refrigerator. No weapon
was identified at the scene.
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While the location of her body, on the kitchen floor next to the refrigera-
tor, was quite messy, there was no sign of activity elsewhere in the one-
bedroom apartment and no evidence of robbery or items otherwise removed.
Forensic Findings
Rose suffered a variety of deep bruises and several rib fractures; the princi-
pal cause of death was listed as strangulation and a compound fracture of the
related hyoid bone. The bruise pattern on the body reflects that only some of
the blows came from Rose’s own cane. The rest resembled punches or kicks
or another blunt instrument. There was no sign of sexual trauma.
Investigation
Carmela, who worked as a nurse’s aide in a Manhattan hospital, took leave
in spring 1997 to undergo successive surgeries in the ensuing months. Also
around this time, she was brought to Beth Israel Medical Center by ambu-
lance after walking naked through her neighborhood.
Carmela had a history of destroying her own apartment, being “anxious,”
throwing things around her apartment, and episodes in which she halluci-
nated and spoke incoherently. She had no history of substance abuse.
Carmela had financial problems. She feared losing her disability benefits
because she remained out on leave. She continued to remain deeply attached
to an ex-husband, Luis, who was incarcerated. She provided Luis with many
gifts, hoping he would return to her. Luis would also call Carmela collect,
resulting in a several-hundred-dollar phone bill each time.
Carmela had a history of repeatedly assaulting her grandmother, particu-
larly when her grandmother would not give her money for Luis. In the most
serious attack, she broke five of her grandmother’s ribs on one side and seven
on another by stomping on her back.
Luis had remarried but nonetheless remained in contact with Carmela,
writing her letters that suggested a romantic interest. When Carmela found
out that the day after she had visited Luis in jail with a birthday gift that his
wife had visited him for a conjugal visit, she was devastated.
In early August, her priest noted that Carmela was more ritualistic and
more isolated during her prayer and attended mass more frequently.
The night before the killing, Carmela asked an acquaintance to assemble
an exercise bike for her. As Carmela recalled, “I was upset, I wanted to take
off weight. I was thinking about just being alone. . . . I was confused, and
couldn’t put all my thoughts together at one time. . . . I couldn’t calm myself
down.” The teenager became frightened when Carmela climbed aboard the
bike he had assembled and began pedaling it furiously. He ran all the way
home, telling his mother that Carmela was “possessed.”
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The next morning, Carmela went out onto her fire escape and began
dumping plants and soil to the ground below, then tossing the pots down as
well. She made her way down from the third floor to the second floor on the
fire escape.
She entered into Rose’s apartment through the window leading into the
kitchen. No one was there initially. After about fifteen minutes, Rose entered
her apartment and told Carmela, “You don’t belong here . . . get out of the
apartment.”
Carmela, feeling rejected, grabbed Rose by the head and struck her on the
corner of the wall, preventing her from exiting, and did not stop her assault
until Rose was dead.
Closer examination of Carmela’s apartment revealed icons, candles, and
other symbols of devout practice of Brujeria. This Afro-Caribbean church
was different from her own. Interviews with friends indicated that shortly
before the killing, Carmela sought out a Bruja, or priest of the religion, to
cast a spell on her behalf.
During the investigation, Carmela was very secretive about her Brujeria,
not unlike many other practitioners of the faith. Likewise, she remained tight-
lipped about her feelings for and reactions to Luis and what he would reveal
to her in their telephone conversations. Only input from friends and close
acquaintances revealed the extent of her engaging Brujeria to win Luis back.
When questioned about the dumped dirt, smashed pots, attack on Rose,
and spreading of coffee on the floor, Carmela offered rational explanations
and vehemently denied associations of any of these with Brujeria. Consulta-
tion with experts of this practice, however, revealed the spiritual significance
of the coffee grounds and smashed pots.
Outcome
Carmela was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and a brief psy-
chotic episode in the context of separation. Because she was capable of
appreciating the wrongfulness of her actions but was mentally impaired at
the time of the crime, prosecutors offered her the opportunity to plead guilty
to manslaughter, which she accepted.
128: MERCY/HERO HOMICIDE
Mercy and hero homicides usually are committed on victims who are criti-
cally ill. The mercy homicide offender believes inducing death is relieving
the victim’s suffering. The hero homicide offender is unsuccessful in
attempts to save the victim from death.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims of mercy/hero killers are similar. The mercy
killer targets most often the critically ill, elderly, or infirm. They are usually
patients in a hospital, nursing home, or other institutional setting. The vic-
tim is engaged in a client-caregiver relationship with the offender. The
victim is rarely a random victim but is known to the offender. The victim’s
environment and lifestyle are low risk, but his or her dependency or state of
health elevates risk. Offender risk varies with institutional setting, depend-
ing on amount of autonomy or supervision, shift, and quantity of staff. The
victims of the hero killer may include the critically ill patient since a med-
ical emergency, such as a cardiac arrest, would not appear suspicious. Infants
are also included as likely victims of the hero murderer because of their mute
vulnerability. When the crime scene is an institutional setting, the victim is
one of opportunity with an increased risk factor due to the vulnerability that
illness or age imposes. Outside the institutional setting, the hero killer’s vic-
tim is a random target who has become a victim of opportunity by being in
the building the arsonist torches or in the zone where the emergency medical
technician works.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. For the mercy killer, the
instrument of death is one of opportunity, often common to the institutional
setting (drugs, syringes for air injection, or toxic substances, for example).
Signs of struggle are minimal or absent. In an institutional setting, the hero
killer creates the crisis, usually with drugs. Syringes, medicine vials, and
similar items should be collected for analysis of medications or substances
peculiar to that patient’s case or condition. In cases involving an emergency,
the hero killer is conveniently present. If the suspicious death involves a fire,
elements of arson may be found.
Staging. In a sense, staging is the central element of this homicide. The
mercy killer arranges the body to represent a peaceful, natural death. The death
is most often staged to look like a natural death, but it is possible that acci-
dental or suicidal death is staged. For the hero killer, it is a miscarried at-
tempt to stage a scenario, a life-threatening crisis, in which the offender has
the starring role as the hero. The fireman or arsonist sets the fire, only to rush
back for the rescue. The nurse or emergency medical technician makes a
timely response to the person after inducing the state of crisis. The target is
made to look like a victim of a natural calamity (for example, a cardiac
arrest), an accident (faulty wiring that starts the fire), or perhaps criminal
activity (hit and run, mugging, arson).
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Common Forensic Findings. Since the case may not have been reported as
suspicious, detailed investigation is mandated. Exhumation may be required
with analytical toxicology. Many times an autopsy is not performed if the
death appears natural, but later scrutiny reveals poisoning, broken ribs, or
other signs of suspicious death.
Liver biopsy, thorough blood-chemistry analysis, complete drug screen of
blood and urine, and hair analysis for arsenic and drugs (especially digoxin,
lidocaine, and smooth-muscle-paralyzing drugs) should be performed.
Asphyxiation should be checked for by petechial hemorrhage, taking an
X-ray for broken ribs, and so on. In the case of the hero killer, the post-
mortem examination should look for toxic levels of injectable drugs such as
digoxin, lidocaine, and potassium hydrochloride.
Investigative Considerations
Suspected mercy murders can be indicated by a rise in the number of deaths,
especially if at all suspicious. Suspicious deaths should be checked for cor-
relation between the suspect’s shift and patient assignments. In nine cases of
mercy killers cited in an article in the American Journal of Nursing, the cor-
relation between suspect presence and a high number of suspicious deaths
was deemed sufficient to establish probable cause and to bring indictments
by grand juries.
In the medical realm, an unusually high rate of successful cardiopul-
monary resuscitation in conjunction with the unusually high death rate
should be examined. Multiple cardiac or respiratory arrests in the same
patient also should raise suspicion. Most unwitnessed cardiopulmonary
arrests or patients who have multiple arrests do not respond to resuscita-
tive measures. This could indicate that a hero killer happens to be among
the first to the scene as well as knowing the exact measures to remedy the
problem.
Inspection of a suspect’s employment history is important: the investiga-
tor should look for frequent job changes with a corresponding increase of
mortality associated with the suspect’s employment. Other consideration
include a significant rise in cardiopulmonary arrests or deaths in a particu-
lar patient population, cardiopulmonary arrests or deaths inconsistent with
the patient’s condition, cardiopulmonary deaths localized to a particular
shift, or postmortem examinations revealing toxic levels of an injectable
substance.
For the hero killer, interviews of coworkers may reveal that the offender
demonstrates an unusually high level of excitement or exhilaration while
participating in the rescue or resuscitation efforts. Conversations may often
involve the rescue or resuscitation incidents.
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Search Warrant Suggestions
Vials of medications at the residence of the offender and literature concern-
ing drugs beyond the scope of offender’s practice (for example, the Physi-
cian Desk Reference) are among search warrant suggestions. Other
suggestions include diaries, journals, and pictures. The mercy killer may
keep obituaries of victims. For the hero killer, search warrants should in-
clude newspaper articles commemorating previous rescue efforts and imple-
ments of arson. The investigator should scrutinize the literature found,
checking each page for underlining and modification.
128.01: MERCY HOMICIDE
Death at the hand of a mercy killer results from the offender’s claim or per-
ception of victim suffering and his or her duty to relieve it. Most often the
real motivation for mercy killing has little to do with the offender’s feelings
of compassion and pity for the victim. The sense of power and control the
offender derives from killing is usually the real motive. Case studies show
that these offenders frequently commit serial murder.
CASE STUDY: 128.01 MERCY HOMICIDE
Background
In early 1987 a Cincinnati medical examiner was performing an autopsy on
the victim of a motorcycle crash. As he was examining the stomach cavity,
he detected an odor that smelled like almonds. After further testing, the
pathologist concluded the victim had been poisoned with cyanide.
The ensuing investigation led to a thirty-five-year-old nurse’s aide,
Donald Harvey. After his arrest, Harvey began confessing to numerous other
murders, or mercy killings as he described them. Harvey enjoyed the lime-
light so much that he continued to add to the list of victims. The toll reached
as high as one hundred at one point, but Harvey could not supply details to
many of the alleged killings. The actual number of victims is still uncertain,
and Harvey’s later confessions have been held suspect.
Victimology
Harvey claimed his first killings began in the early 1970s in Marymount
Hospital, London, Kentucky. He confessed to murdering fifteen patients
between 1970 and 1971. He then moved on to Cincinnati and worked in a
factory for several years before returning to hospital work.
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From 1975 to 1985, Harvey worked in the Cincinnati Veterans Adminis-
tration (VA) Medical Center. He claimed responsibility for at least fifteen
deaths at the VA hospital. He next moved on to Drake Memorial Hospital in
Cincinnati in 1986, where he continued working as a nurse’s aide. Harvey
killed at least twenty-one patients at Drake Hospital. He was employed there
until his arrest in August 1987.
Harvey preyed on the elderly, infirm, or chronically ill, most of them in-
volved in a caregiver-client relationship with him. Most of the confirmed
deaths took place in an institutional setting, which would have been consid-
ered a low-risk environment for the victims. However, the victims’ debili-
tated condition that necessitated total dependence on a caregiver elevated
their risk of becoming the victim of a violent crime. A few of Harvey’s vic-
tims were outside the institutional setting, but he targeted them for revenge,
not mercy killing.
Crime Scene Indicators
Most of the crime scenes involved with the mercy killings were in the hospi-
tal. There were no signs of struggle or violent death with most of the murders,
which was one reason that Harvey was able to kill year after year without
being caught. Most the of time he used an instrument of death, one of oppor-
tunity, offered by the institutional setting where the offenses occurred. He
would use plastic bags and pillows, oxygen tubing, and syringes full of air.
When he decided to poison patients, he brought arsenic and cyanide to work
and mixed it with their food.
Forensic Findings
Harvey’s victims died from a variety of causes. He smothered some by put-
ting a plastic bag over the victim’s face and then using a pillow. He killed
several patients by cutting their oxygen supply off. One patient died of peri-
tonitis after Harvey punctured his abdomen. Another patient, Harvey placed
face down on his pillow. The patient was unable to move, so he suffocated.
The rest of the victims died of arsenic or cyanide poisoning. The poison-
ing cases were supported through exhumation, but most of the other cases
would have been difficult to prove without Harvey’s confession. He was able
to give details on these cases that collaborated his claims.
Investigation
During the initial stages of the investigation, Harvey claimed that he was
putting people out of their misery. He described many of the patients as on
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Homicide 205
their deathbed. Many never had any visitors, either because their families
had forgotten them or because they had no family. He felt he was releasing
these patients from a lonely, pain-filled existence. He hoped someone
would do the same for him if he was sick and full of tubes. “I felt I was
doing right.”
But after the trial and his convictions, interviews with Harvey began to
reveal the true motive for his mercy killings. A picture of Harvey very dif-
ferent from the compassionate angel of mercy began to emerge. He began to
describe the satisfaction he derived from fooling doctors who assumed their
patients had died of natural causes. He found murder to be a satisfying out-
let for the tensions that built up from personal problems, relationships end-
ing, and living alone. Sometimes he stated that he would kill just to relieve
the boredom of his job.
Harvey, a homosexual, claims that the killing started two weeks after he
was raped by a man from whom he was renting a room. He retaliated by
preying on a totally helpless patient who was restrained to his bed because
he was disoriented. He took a coat hanger, straightened it out, and rammed
it through the man’s abdomen, puncturing his intestines. The man lived for
two days before dying of peritonitis.
Psychologists described Harvey as a compulsive murderer who killed
because it gave him a feeling of power. Yet, Harvey claims, “I’ve been por-
trayed as a cold-blooded murder, but I do not see myself that way. I think I
am a very warm and loving person.”
Outcome
Donald Harvey pleaded guilty to twenty-six counts of aggravated murder.
His confession was part of a plea bargain that brought him three consecutive
life sentences instead of the death penalty. Part of the plea bargain was the
agreement that he would cooperate with the Kentucky authorities in
exchange for a jail term that would run concurrent with his Ohio terms.
128.02: HERO HOMICIDE
In hero homicide, the offender creates a life-threatening condition for the
victim and then unsuccessfully attempts to rescue or resuscitate the vic-
tim to appear valorous. Death is not intentional, but the bulk of cases
reviewed have demonstrated that failures do not avert the offender from
recidivism.
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CASE STUDY: 128.02: HERO HOMICIDE
Background
On September 21, 1981, two licensed nursing attendants, Susan Maldonado
and Pat Alberti, reported to work for their usual 11 P.M. to 7 A.M. shift at San
Antonio Medical Center’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). When they
were greeted with the news that two of the unit’s four young patients had
died that evening, it strengthened a growing suspicion that Maldonado and
Alberti had recently been trying to deny.
During their break, the two nurses sat down with the PICU logbook that
kept track of each patient’s name, age, admission diagnosis, admission date,
doctor, discharge status, and assigned nurse. The correlation they found
between the children who had died in the PICU during the prior months and
the one person whose presence was documented during virtually every one
of these codes (cardiac and/or respiratory arrest) presented the two nurses
with an appalling reality: either the nurse who had been on duty had incred-
ibly bad luck, or she was deliberately killing babies.
The nurse, Genene Jones, had been considered the backbone of her shift
at the medical center. She was experienced, cool-headed, and seemingly
dedicated to her patients. She was more comfortable with pediatric medi-
cine than many physicians. Her nursing skills were superior when caring
for the critically ill babies, but it was during a crisis that she seemed to
really shine.
Jones was a controversial figure. Her supporters described her as level-
headed, quick, knowledgeable, and extremely competent in a code situation.
She was so devoted to her patients that she insisted on carrying the tiny bod-
ies to the morgue herself after unsuccessful resuscitation attempts. It was
reported Jones would often cry and sing to the dead infants as she tenderly
cradled them. When the question was raised about the number of babies who
seemed to be dying under her care, the response was that she always took
care of most critically ill patients, so naturally she would have a lower recov-
ery rate.
Jones’s critics offered quite a different perspective. They said she bullied
her way into any crisis in PICU, becoming argumentative with even the
physicians who did not bow to her insistent recommendations. She threw
temper tantrums if her authority was challenged and publicly berated physi-
cians in front of staff and patient families. Jones seemed to crave and relish
the pinnacles of emotion that a PICU nurse could experience, working in
place where the stakes were so high. But the theatrics she indulged in were
an extreme and unprofessional emotionalism.
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When Jones’s advisories started noticing the rising death toll in PICU and
her connection with the dying babies, it did not take much to convince them
she was the perpetrator. But when Alberti and Maldonado brought their dis-
covery to the attention of several administrators including the head nurse,
they were told to stop backbiting and spreading rumors.
Victimology
The infants who died at the medical center while under the care of Genene
Jones ranged between the ages of three weeks and two years. The one excep-
tion was a ten-year-old child who was mentally retarded and had a develop-
mental age of an infant. At the clinic in Kerrville, Texas, where Jones worked
after leaving San Antonio, all of the children who experienced a life-threaten-
ing crisis in her presence were under age two, with the exception of a seven-
year-old severely retarded child. All of these children were involved in a
client-caregiver relationship with Jones, either directly, with her as their as-
signed nurse, or indirectly, with her responding to the code or present at the
time of death.
A general criterion for victim selection was the inability to talk and phys-
ical limitations due to age or developmental disability. Excepting this, these
children would have been considered victims of opportunity. Their chances
of becoming a mortality statistic increased significantly if Jones had the op-
portunity to care for them, however briefly.
Crime Scenes Indicators
The crime scenes involved two locations; the PICU and a pediatric clinic in
Kerrville, Texas, where Jones went after the policy was instituted at Medical
Center that licensed nursing attendants could no longer staff the PICU. One
case finally bought Jones to justice.
Chelsea McClellan was a bright, healthy child of fourteen months when
she was brought to Dr. Kathleen Holland’s office in Kerrville on August 24,
1982. Chelsea was the second child to be seen in the new clinic. She was
there because of Petti McClellan’s concern over the sniffles her daughter had
developed.
While pregnant with Chelsea, Petti McClellan had required an early cae-
sarean section. Chelsea had experienced respiratory problems due to this
premature birth. Other than one bout of pneumonia at six months from
which she fully recovered, Chelsea had been in excellent health.
While Petti was talking with Dr. Holland, her office nurse, Genene Jones,
took Chelsea from Petti. Chelsea was becoming impatient with sitting still,
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so Jones offered to entertain her. Within five minutes, Jones was calling with
urgency in her voice for Holland to come into the examining room where she
and Chelsea were. When Holland entered the room, she was confronted with
the shocking sight of the previously energetic, laughing child now draped
limply over the treatment table.
Jones claimed that Chelsea had suddenly begun convulsing and stopped
breathing. Once Dr. Holland provided Chelsea with oxygen, her blue coloring
started to fade. She was transported to the hospital nearby, where she seemed
to slowly respond, but her coordination was gone. Her arms would just flop
around when she tried to reach for her face and remove her oxygen mask.
Within thirty minutes of admission to the intensive care unit, Chelsea was
standing up in her crib, laughing and holding her arms out to the nurses who
passed by. She was subjected to exhaustive testing, which revealed no
abnormalities that may have caused the seizure episode. She was dis-
charged from the hospital on September 2. While hospitalized, Chelsea had
someone at her bedside constantly. Nothing besides the normal movements
of a sleeping child was noted by the family and friends who kept the ten-
day vigil. Chelsea had had no previous history of any seizure activity or
apnea (cessation of breathing) before her visit to the Kerrville clinic where
Jones worked.
On September 17, Petti McClellan brought Chelsea back to the clinic
with her brother, Cameron, who had the flu. While Dr. Holland was looking
at Cameron, Jones was to give Chelsea two routine infant immunizations.
Jones tried to get Petti to leave while she inoculated the child, but Petti
insisted it did not bother her to watch the children get shots. In addition,
Chelsea started acting upset when Jones reached for her.
Petti recalls that Jones became irritated but acquiesced. As Petti held her
daughter, Jones dabbed at her thigh with an alcohol swab and injected the
first needle into the child’s upper left thigh. Within seconds, Petti observed
that Chelsea was not acting right. Petti became extremely alarmed at this
point and pleaded with Jones to do something. Jones insisted nothing was
wrong, that Chelsea was just angry about getting the shots.
Despite Petti telling Jones to stop, that Chelsea was having another
seizure, Jones was intent on giving the child the other injection. As soon as
she injected the second shot, Chelsea quit breathing altogether and her pink
cheeks began to turn blue. Petti recalled that Chelsea appeared to try to say
“mama” and soon after went completely limp.
Again, Jones summoned Dr. Holland, and the scene repeated just as it had
less than a month ago. The ambulance responded at 10:58 A.M., speeding the
child, with Jones and an emergency medical technician administering aid, to
the hospital. Dr. Holland followed behind in her car. In the emergency room,
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within twenty-five minutes, Chelsea was again thrashing and upset at having
the tube in her throat that provided oxygen directly into her lungs.
Dr. Holland decided Chelsea needed to be transferred to San Antonio
where a neurologist could find out what was causing these episodes. Thirty-
five minutes later, Chelsea was wheeled from the emergency room to a wait-
ing ambulance. She was resting quietly, breathing with some assistance, and
very pink. Dr. Holland reassured the frightened McClellans that the emer-
gency had passed.
Jones climbed in the back of the ambulance with Chelsea for the ride to San
Antonio. Dr. Holland followed in one car and Chelsea’s parents in another.
Less than ten minutes out of Kerrville, the heart monitor attached to Chelsea
began to alarm. Jones yelled to the driver to pull over; Chelsea was suffering
a cardiac arrest. She pulled syringes out of her black bag and began adminis-
tering drugs to stimulate the little girl’s heart. By this time Dr. Holland was in
the ambulance and gave orders for the driver to get to the closest hospital.
Thirty-five minutes later, in the Comfort Community Hospital Emergency
Room, Chelsea McClellan was pronounced dead. All attempts to restart her
heart had failed, and she was beginning to show the inevitable signs of brain
damage. Dr. Holland stated on the death certificate that death was caused by
cardiopulmonary arrest due to seizures of undetermined origin.
After taking the dead child back from her stunned, weeping mother, Jones
carried the child back to Sid Peterson Hospital in Kerrville. After arrival, she
sobbed as she carried the body to hospital morgue.
Counting the two emergency situations that involved Chelsea, there were
six respiratory arrests during the Kerrville clinic’s approximately one month
of operation. The same day Chelsea died, five-month-old Jacob Evans was
brought to the clinic for an earache. He also experienced a respiratory arrest
as a result of seizure activity reported by Jones. He was hospitalized and re-
leased six days later, never demonstrating any sign of a seizure disorder. A
neurologist in San Antonio failed to uncover any possible source for the
seizures after extensively testing Jacob.
The recurrence of life-threatening crises had finally attracted attention
from the medical community. Dr. Holland began to entertain suspicions
after Jones mentioned some missing succinylcholine had been found. Hol-
land had never used this drug and wondered why it would even be out of its
storage place in the refrigerator. The next day she checked the two bottles
of succinylcholine in the refrigerator and discovered one had its plastic seal
removed and had two distinctive needle holes in the vial’s rubber stopper. It
also had a slight difference in volume compared to the sealed vial.
When Holland confronted Jones, she first explained it as being done dur-
ing one of the seizure episodes by another nurse who happened to be there
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when the emergency occurred. This nurse denied puncturing the stopper
when questioned. Jones suggested that Holland just throw it away and for-
get the incident.
Dr. Holland responded that disposing of the vial was legally, medically,
and ethically unacceptable to her. That afternoon, she submitted the vial to
the Department of Public Safety for analysis after meeting with several doc-
tors and the hospital administrator. While this was unfolding, Jones took a
drug overdose and was briefly hospitalized.
Jones had staged all of these incidents to appear as medical emergencies
arising from the natural course of a physical illness or disorder. If each of the
twenty-nine San Antonio PICU deaths that had been linked to Jones’s pres-
ence were analyzed, this type of staging would emerge. It would also be evi-
dent in the six Kerrville emergencies.
Forensic Findings
It was determined the rubber stopper of the capless vial had two puncture
sites that had been used multiple times. When the contents were analyzed, it
was discovered the succinylcholine was 80 percent dilute, probably with
saline.
On May 7, 1983, Chelsea McClellan’s body was exhumed, and tissue sam-
ples were removed for toxicology studies. Seven days later, the prosecuting
attorney received the call that succinylcholine had been found in the gall
bladder, urinary bladder, the kidneys, the liver, and both thighs.
Investigation
The correlation between infant mortality and Jones’s presence is best illus-
trated by the PICU logbook. This also demonstrates the localization of
deaths to a particular shift. Jones was often present at the moment of cardiac
arrest or among the first to respond.
Several witnesses to arrest situations involving Jones described her obvi-
ous state of excitement as beyond the usual level at a code situation. One
went so far as to depict it as orgasmic.
In a number of cardiac arrest situations that involved Jones, the patients
had died. In addition to the high number of codes, there were many patients
who experienced multiple cardiopulmonary arrests (among survivors of the
PICU epidemic as well as fatalities) as well as the fatalities. A significant
number of arrests and multiple arrests correlating to offender presence is a
characteristic particular to the hero killer. These factors provide the setting
that enables the offender to enact the role of rescuer, while being the center
of attention.
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From November 9, 1981, until December 7, Jones was out of work on sick
leave for minor surgery. The PICU chart reveals that during most of Novem-
ber and the first week of December, not a single baby died. In fact, there was
not a single code during the thirty-six-day period surrounding Jones’s absence.
Isolating some of the deaths into singular incidents allowed reasonable
medical explanations for the course of events. But many of the deaths posed
enigmas: excessive bleeding of unknown etiology, disruptions of the heart
rhythm, seizures in children with no previous history of any seizure activ-
ity, and sudden respiratory arrests. The administration of San Antonio Med-
ical Center never recognized this compilation of facts as worthy of criminal
investigation. The medical examiner was never notified for any of these
deaths, even when physicians began sharing the suspicion that nursing mis-
adventure was involved. So Jones moved on to Kerrville, to Chelsea
McClellan, with the hospital’s recommendation.
Evidence presented at the trial showed that Jones had ordered three more
bottles of succinylcholine from the Kerrville Pharmacy and had signed
Dr. Holland’s name to receipts. In addition, Chelsea’s babysitter testified that
she observed Jones injecting something into the intravenous line as the child
was being loaded into the ambulance for the trip to San Antonio. When she
questioned Jones about it, Jones replied it was simply something to relax
Chelsea. This struck the babysitter as odd, since Chelsea was already resting
quietly. This alleged relaxant had not been ordered by either Dr. Holland or
the emergency department physician.
Outcome
Genene Jones was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to
ninety-nine years on February 15, 1984. On October 23, 1984, she was con-
victed of felony injury to a child for an incident involving an overdose of
heparin (a blood thinner) she had given an infant in the PICU. Despite mas-
sive bleeding and several cardiac arrests, that child was one of the few who
survived the fatal touch of Genene Jones.
129: HOSTAGE MURDER
A hostage murder is a homicide that takes place within the context of a
hostage situation. A hostage is defined as a person held and threatened by an
offender to force the fulfillment of substantive demands made on a third
party. In such situations, the victim clearly is being threatened by the of-
fender and the threats are used to influence someone else, usually the police.
When this situation escalates and the victim is killed, it is hostage murder.
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It is important to define what would not constitute a hostage situation and
therefore a hostage murder. A homicide-to-be involves a situation where
clear threats or actual injuries are made to victims and no substantive de-
mands are made on a third party. These victims are primary targets of the
offender and are not being used as bargaining chips for money or freedom.
The offender who kills this type of victim is usually impelled by other moti-
vations, such as revenge or an authority conflict; therefore, this offense
would be categorized under another, more appropriate classification.
A pseudo-hostage situation is when a person is held but there are no
threats directed toward the victim and no substantive demands are made on
a third party. The following is an example of a pseudo-hostage situation: a
husband pulls a gun on his wife during a domestic quarrel. She then leaves
the house and summons the police. Upon their arrival, the police learn the
couple’s son is still in the house. When he is contacted, the husband tells the
police he is angry at his wife and they should leave him alone. Because he
makes no demands on the police and does not threaten the child, this is a
pseudo-hostage situation. The risk factors are low in this type of incident, so
the risk to the person held could be considered low. In the unusual event that
the victim is killed, the motive, as before, would be categorized under a more
suitable homicide classification.
Due to the lack of difficulty in identifying the offender in a hostage murder,
this manual includes this category for classification and definition purposes.
The defining characteristics used for other classifications are unnecessary, and
therefore omitted.
130: SEXUAL HOMICIDE
Sexual homicide involves a sexual element (activity) as the basis in the
sequence of acts leading to death. Performance and meaning of this sexual
element vary with offender. The act may range from actual rape involving
penetration (either pre- or postmortem) to a symbolic sexual assault such as
insertion of foreign objects into a victim’s body orifices.
131: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, ORGANIZED
The term organized when used to describe a sexual homicide offender is
based on assessment of the criminal act itself, comprehensive analysis of the
victim, crime scene (including any staging present), and evaluation of foren-
sic reports. These components combine to form traits common to an organ-
ized offender: one who appears to plan his murders, targets his victims, and
displays control at the crime scene. A methodical and ordered approach is re-
flected through all phases of the crime.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of a sexual homicide perpetrated by an organized
offender is often an intraracial female. A single, employed person who is liv-
ing alone is common to this victimology. Adolescent males are also targeted,
as demonstrated by the case of John Wayne Gacy.
The concept of victim risk is an important factor in assessing the victimol-
ogy. Risk is a twofold factor. Victim risk is determined by age, lifestyle,
occupation, and physical stature. Low-risk types include those whose daily
lifestyle and occupation do not enhance their chances of being targeted as a
victim. High-risk victims are ones who are targeted by a killer who knows
where to find them, for example, prostitutes or hitchhikers. Low-resistance
capabilities as found in the elderly and young elevate the level of victim risk.
Risk can also be elevated by locations where the victim becomes more vul-
nerable, such as isolated areas. A victim’s attitude toward safety is also a fac-
tor that can raise or lower his or her risk factor. A naive, overly trusting, or
careless stance concerning personal safety can increase one’s chance of be-
ing victimized.
The second facet of victim risk is in the level of gamble the offender takes
to commit the crime. Generally the victim is at a lower risk level if the crime
scene is indoors and at a higher risk level if it is outdoors. The time of day that
the crime occurs also contributes to the amount of risk the offender took: an
abduction at noon would pose more hazard to the offender than at midnight.
The victim is typically not known to the offender but is often chosen
because he or she meets the criteria. These criteria will especially be seen if
multiple victims are involved: they will share common characteristics such
as age, appearance, occupation, hair style, or lifestyle. The victim is targeted
at the location where the killer is staked out; therefore, he or she becomes a
victim of opportunity. Consequently, investigators may not observe similar-
ities in the victim characteristics.
Crime Scene Indicators Commonly Noted. There are often multiple crime
scenes involved with the organized killing: the locale of initial contact or
assault, the scene of death, and the body disposal site. If the victim is con-
fronted indoors, the first crime scene (confrontation) is commonly the first
or second floor of a building or a single-family dwelling. The offender may
then transport the victim or body from the site of confrontation, necessitat-
ing the use of the offender’s or victim’s vehicle.
Weapons are generally brought to the crime scene but are removed by the
offender after the completion of the crime. Use of restraints is often noted by
the presence of tape, blindfolds, chains, ropes, clothing, handcuffs, gags,
or chemicals. The use of restraints is reflected by the overall controlled,
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planned appearance of the crime scene. It reflects a methodical approach
with a semblance of order existing prior to, during, and after the offense. If
the offender has time, evidence, such as fingerprints or footprints, will be
removed.
Also missing from the crime scene may be trophies or souvenirs, which
include pictures, jewelry, clothing, or the victim’s driver’s license. These
items do not necessarily have much extrinsic value, but to the offender they
commemorate the successful endeavor and offer proof of his skill. They also
serve as a means to fuel the fantasy of the act by serving as a remembrance.
Finally, if the offender has time, the victim’s corpse will be concealed.
The location for disposal is generally an area familiar to the offender.
Staging. Staging may be present at the crime scene. The subject may stage
the crime to appear careless and disorganized to distract or mislead the
police. He may stage secondary criminal activity to cloud the basis for the
primary motive of rape-murder, for example, a robbery or kidnapping.
Common Forensic Findings. The forensic findings of an organized sexual
homicide may be bite marks and saliva recovery on the body, semen in body
orifices or on body pubic hair, and bruising or cutting of the sex organs.
Aggressive acts as well as sexual acts will usually take place prior to death.
Evidence of restraint devices may also be present.
The act of killing may be eroticized, meaning that death comes in a slow,
deliberate manner. An asphyxial modality is often noted. An example is
the deliberate tightening and loosening of a rope around the victim’s neck as
she slips in and out of a conscious state. Perimortem sexual activity may also
be found in which sexual acts are performed in conjunction with the act of
killing.
Investigative Considerations
Since the offender is usually socially adept, he often uses verbal means (the
con) to capture the victim. He may strike up a conversation or a pseudo-
relationship as a prelude to the attack. He may impersonate another role,
such as a police officer or security guard, to gain victim confidence. To gain
further access to the victim, the subject will typically be dressed neatly in
business or casual attire.
The methodical approach common to this offender is incorporated into
victim selection after staking out an area. When neighbors are questioned,
particular attention should be paid to any strangers noted lingering around
the neighborhood or anyone whose actions or appearance are as described
above.
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Homicide 215
The organized sexual murderer often returns for surveillance of any or all
of the crime scenes involved (point of abduction, assault, grave site). He may
go so far as to interject himself into the investigation in an overly coopera-
tive way or to offer bogus information. This serves the dual purpose of
checking on the status of the investigation or reliving the crime.
A possible suspect may have a history of prior offenses of lesser notice,
escalating to the homicide being investigated. His background should be
checked for precipitating situational stress such as financial, employment, or
marital or other relationship problems. He may have a history of recent res-
idence or employment change. He may have even left town after the murder.
If property is missing, local areas should be checked for burglaries.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Items that should be kept in mind when preparing a search warrant for a sus-
pect are diaries, calendars, or newspaper clippings that commemorate the
murder. Recordings may be found, either audio or audiovisual. Photographs
of victims are another possible finding. The souvenirs or trophies should be
kept in mind when formulating a search warrant. Any police or related para-
phernalia should also be looked for.
CASE STUDY: 131: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, ORGANIZED
Background
The local police department of Columbia, South Carolina, received a wor-
ried call from the parents of a seventeen-year-old girl. Their daughter had
taken her bike to the end of their driveway to get the mail and had never
returned. When the parents went looking for her, they found her bike by the
mailbox and alongside the curb.
After the abduction, the offender made several phone calls to the family
and conversed primarily with the victim’s older sister. He used an electronic
device to disguise his voice because, he indicated, he was known to the fam-
ily. These calls continued after the victim’s death. The offender would make
references to a letter—the victim’s last will and testament he had sent to
them. Although the victim died shortly after her abduction, he led the fam-
ily to believe the victim was still alive until they found the body, a week later.
Victimology
The first victim was abducted from the end of her driveway. A nine-year-old
white female, the next victim, was abducted from her yard a week following
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the discovery of the first victim’s body. The offender contacted the first vic-
tim’s sister and told her of the abduction and killing of the little girl, as well
as the location of the body. During the last telephone conversation, the
offender advised the first victim’s sister that she would be the next to die.
Investigation revealed that both girls were low-risk victims. However, the
fact that they were not likely to have the physical strength to fight or resist a
strong male assailant increased their risk factor slightly. In the case of the
first victim, it appeared the offender was taking pictures of her on her bike
as she arrived at the mailbox. She became a victim of opportunity because
she crossed the offender’s path when he was staked out in search of a victim.
The nine-year-old child was taken from her play area. This time the offender
may have been looking for a victim, or he may have just happened on her
and decided to act. This abduction was less sophisticated, so it probably was
more of an opportunistic incident.
Crime Scene Indicators
The offender communicated by telephone with the victim’s parents two days
after the abduction and then with the victim’s sister. With his voice dis-
guised, the offender asked for forgiveness and expressed remorse. He gave
the impression the victim was still alive. He told the victim’s family he had
taken her to a house where she was tied to the bed. Twelve hours later, the
offender gave her a choice as to the method of her death: strangulation, suf-
focation, or drowning. The victim chose suffocation, at which time the of-
fender placed duct tape over her nose and mouth.
The subject appeared to be following a written script. For example, when
interrupted by family members of the victim, he would become upset. This
suggested his obsessive-compulsive need to rigidly articulate details to the
family. He gave directions to the crime scene that were so detailed that it was
obvious that the offender had gone back to the crime scene to measure dis-
tances. The victim’s body was placed in an area where she was well concealed.
Indicators from the body disposal site suggested that the subject was
familiar with the area. There were three locations involved with each crime:
the abduction site, the death scene, and the gravesite. The offender interacted
with victims, so he had to have a place where he could comfortably spend an
extended period of time with them. This location, also the murder scene, was
discovered to be where the offender was housesitting. The grave sites were
also locations he was familiar with.
Forensic Findings
The forensic findings indicated both victims had been bound with ligatures
and duct tape. All bindings had been removed from the bodies before dis-
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Homicide 217
posal. Duct tape residue was found on both victims’ faces. The subject
claimed the victims had been smothered. The bodies were far too decom-
posed to determine if they had been sexually assaulted. Both victims were
fully clothed when their bodies were discovered.
Investigation
The crime was organized in terms of the abduction, murder, and disposal. A
reconstruction of the crime and death scene indicated some offender sophis-
tication with the telephone calls to the victims’ families, his fantasy, and his
degree of planning. He made the first victim write her last will and testament
on a legal pad. The will was actually a letter to her family stating that she was
ready to die and that she loved them. The offender mailed the letter to the
family.
This letter was sent to the state laboratory for analysis, which revealed in-
dented writing not visible to the naked eye. The writing was identified as a
telephone number with one digit obliterated. By a process of elimination,
people with similar telephone numbers were interviewed until a list of pos-
sible suspects was developed. One number belonged to a house in the abduc-
tion locale. When police contacted this person, he told them his parents were
not at home but had someone house-sitting for them. His parents had given
the house sitter their son’s number in case of any problems. The man’s name
was Larry Gene Bell.
While this investigation was going on, criminal investigative analysts
from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime Investigative
Support Unit (ISU) had been consulted. They had generated an offender pro-
file and some investigative techniques for the local police department. When
the offender was identified, he matched almost every offender characteristic
listed. Larry Gene Bell was a thirty-six-year-old white male who worked
doing electrical house wiring. At the time of the murders, he was living with
his mother and father. He had been married for a short time and had lived
away from home.
The ISU agents provided an interrogation strategy that would offer a
“face-saving” explanation for Bell. Bell confessed, claiming the “bad Larry
Gene Bell did it.”
Outcome
Larry Gene Bell was given two death sentences for the murders of the two
girls. He was executed on October 4, 1996.
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132: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, DISORGANIZED
The term disorganized when used in reference to a sexual homicide is based on
the same factors that defined organized: victim and crime scene analysis, foren-
sic evaluation, and assessment of the act itself. The unplanned, spontaneous
nature of the disorganized perpetrator’s crime is reflected in each of these fac-
tors. This “disorganization” may be the result of youthfulness of the offender,
lack of criminal sophistication, use of drugs and alcohol, or mental deficiency.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of a disorganized offender may be known to the
offender since he often selects a victim of opportunity near his residence or
employment. The victim is often from his own geographical area because this
offender acts impulsively under stress and also because he derives confidence
from familiar surroundings to bolster his feelings of social inadequacy.
If there are multiple victims of a disorganized offender, the age, sex, and
other characteristics will show greater variance due to the more random
nature of his selection process.
The risk factor of a disorganized sexual homicide victim is situational in
the sense that by crossing the path of the offender, her risk is greatly ele-
vated. The victim essentially becomes a casualty because he or she was in
the wrong place at the wrong time. The other considerations when assessing
victim and offender risk are as detailed in classification 131.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene of a disorgan-
ized sexual homicide reflects the spontaneous, and in some cases symbolic,
quality of the killing. It is random and sloppy with great disarray. The death
scene and the crime scene are often the same.
The victim location is known since it usually is where he or she was going
about usual daily activities when suddenly attacked by surprise. There is evi-
dence of sudden violence to the victim, a blitz style of attack. Depersonal-
ization may be present, as evidenced by the face being covered by a pillow
or towels or in a more subtle way, as with the body rolled on the stomach.
There is no set plan of action deterring detection. The weapon is one of
opportunity, obtained at the scene and left there. There is little or no effort to
remove evidence, such as fingerprints from the scene. The body is left at the
death scene, often in the position in which the victim was killed. There is no
attempt or minimal attempt to conceal the body.
Staging. Secondary criminal activity may be present, but usually it is more
indicative of less sophisticated offender (disorganized offenders are often
below average intelligence) than staging to confuse law enforcement.
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Homicide 219
The body may be positioned or deposited in a way that has special signif-
icance to the offender based on his sexually violent fantasies. It may be
intended to make a statement or to obscure certain facts about the crime, for
example, to disguise postmortem mutilation he is uncomfortable with. This
should not be confused with staging, since the offender is generating a per-
sonal expression (personation) rather than deliberating trying to confuse the
police.
Another example of the disorganized offender’s personation of his ritual-
ized sexual fantasies is the excessive mutilation of the breasts, genitals, or
other areas of sexual association, such as the thighs, abdomen, buttocks, and
neck. This overkill is the enactment of his fantasy.
Common Forensic Findings. The disorganized offender is often socially
inept and has strong feelings of inadequacy. These feelings of deficiency will
compel him to assault the victim in an ambush, blitz style, that will immedi-
ately incapacitate her or him. Injury effected in a disorganized sexual homi-
cide is usually done when the offender feels the least intimidated and the
most comfortable with the victim. This will be when the victim is uncon-
scious, dying, or postmortem. In addition, sexual assault will probably occur
at this time for the same reasons.
There may be depersonalization, which entails mutilation to the face and
overkill (excessive amount or severity of wounds or injury) to specific body
parts. The face, genitals, and breasts are most often targeted for overkill.
Body parts may be missing from the scene.
The blitz style of attack common to this homicide is often manifested by
focused blunt trauma to the head and face and lack of defensive wounds.
There is a prevalence of attack from behind. Since death is immediate to
establish control over the victim, there is minimal use of restraints.
Sexual acts are postmortem and often involve insertion of foreign objects
into body orifices (insertional necrophilia). This is often combined with acts
of mutilation—for example, slashing, stabbing, and biting of the buttocks
and breasts. Since these acts often do not coincide with completed acts of
sexual penetration, evidence of semen may be found in the victim’s clothing
or (less frequently) wounds.
Most frequently death results from asphyxia, strangulation, blunt force,
or the use of a pointed, sharp instrument.
Investigative Considerations
The disorganized offender usually lives alone or with a parental figure. He
lives or works within close proximity to the crime scene. He has a history of
inconsistent or poor work performance. He also has a past that demonstrates
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a lack of interpersonal skills, which may be manifested by involvement in
relationships with a partner much younger or much older than he.
Preoffense circumstances demonstrate minimal situational stress and
change in lifestyle. He will be considered odd by those who know him. This
offender usually is sloppy and disheveled, with nocturnal habits such as
walking aimlessly around his neighborhood.
Postoffense behavior exhibited may be a change in eating habits and
drinking habits (more alcohol consumption) and nervousness. He may also
have an inappropriate interest in the crime, for example, by frequently en-
gaging in conversation about it.
Disorganized behavior may be evident in victim selection, crime scene,
and forensics due to youthfulness, drug or alcohol impairment, external
stressors (for example, fear of discovery), or lack of criminal sophistication.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The disorganized offender does not concern himself with concealment of
bloody clothing, shoes, or other evidentiary items such as victim belongings
taken from the crime scene. In addition, souvenirs that serve as remem-
brances of the event and fuel the fantasy of the act may be found among
offender possessions.
CASE STUDY: 132: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, DISORGANIZED
Victimology
Jennifer Sidal, age twelve, and her sister, Elaine, age fourteen, had decided
to quit looking for Jenny’s bicycle, which had been stolen a few hours ear-
lier. It was eight o’clock and already quite dark out, so the two headed for
home, Jenny on foot and Elaine on her bike. As Elaine rounded the corner
of an electric supplies store, she glanced back and saw Jenny walking
slowly, still a block away. Jenny had a physical problem that often caused
her to lag behind the other children. Mentally, Jenny was very bright, with
straight A’s in school. Even though she was somewhat of a loner, she was
considered friendly and was always quick to help others. Jenny lived with
her mother and sister. Her parents had divorced twelve years previous, and
although her father lived about twelve blocks away, she had not seen him
for a year and a half.
Elaine arrived home a little after 8:00 P.M. Jenny never made it home. Her
risk for being targeted as a victim of violent crime was minimal due to her
lifestyle, social habits, and residence in a low-crime neighborhood. How-
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ever, her young age and physical limitations elevated this risk factor. Be-
cause she was slower than other children, it was easier for an offender to sin-
gle her out and separate her from a group. Her trusting attitude also may have
been a factor elevating her risk level.
Jenny fit the victimology common to the disorganized sexual offender.
She was a victim of opportunity, preyed on because her physical disability
made her vulnerable and easy to get alone. This factor, plus her age, made
her less of a threat to the inadequate type of person the disorganized offender
usually is. This type of offender does not want a victim who will jeopardize
his control of the situation. Her risk was situational: it was elevated because
she crossed the path of the offender, giving him the opportunity to satisfy his
need to rape and kill.
Crime Scene Indicators
The next day, Jenny’s body was discovered by her uncle who was searching
the area along with police and neighbors. The body was approximately
halfway down a steep creek bank behind the electrical store. The creek had
dense, high weeds and trees lining both banks. Although it was fenced off,
there was a hole in the fence near the electrical supply store that neighbor-
hood youths used when traveling to the adjacent residential area from local
businesses.
The body was found approximately ten feet down the creek bank path
from the fence opening and ten feet down the embankment. A small tree had
prevented it from falling completely down the embankment. The embank-
ment was quite steep, almost ninety degrees, and approximately thirty feet
from path to creek. Jenny’s shirt and bra were in place, but the body was nude
from the waist down except for the socks. Some of the clothing was scattered
along the creek bank, and her blue jeans and panties were found in the creek.
The blue jeans were slit by a sharp instrument from the bottom cuff to just
above both knees.
This crime scene was typical of the disorganized offender. The assault
site, death scene, and body recovery site were all the same location. The
weapon was one of opportunity: his fists to initially gain control and his arm
to strangle the victim. The attack was a blitz style in which the offender
struck Jenny with enough force to render her unconscious immediately. The
body was left at the scene with little or no effort to conceal it. The crime
scene portrayed the randomness and sloppiness characteristic of a disorgan-
ized offender. There was a high probability that footprints and other physi-
cal evidence had been left, but much of it was probably obliterated by a
heavy rainfall before the body was discovered.
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Forensic Findings
The autopsy revealed Jenny had died of strangulation. It was initially thought
to be ligature strangulation by something large, for example, her blue jeans.
The offender later described using his arm from behind to strangle her.
The focused blunt-force trauma, or depersonalization, often exhibited by
disorganized offenders was present in this case. Jenny’s face had been badly
beaten with numerous cuts, abrasions, and contusions about the mouth and
cheekbone areas. There was a lack of defensive wounds, another common
forensic finding of this type of offense, since the victim is most often blitzed,
with little chance to fight back. Restraints were not used, as is typical of the
disorganized offender, for the same reasons defensive wounds are usually
absent. A large amount of semen was found within the vaginal cavity; no
semen was found elsewhere.
A more bizarre forensic finding noted with this case (yet routinely ob-
served with the disorganized sexual killer) was the presence of deep post-
mortem cuts on the victim’s wrists and forearms. There were also several
“hesitation” cuts to these same areas—cuts that were almost exploratory in
nature reflecting the offender’s curiosity. They were not part of the sexual
assault.
Investigation
As a result of numerous interviews by the local police, a sketch was prepared
and placed on local television and newspapers. In conjunction with this, the
FBI Investigative Support Unit (ISU) at Quantico, Virginia, provided an
offender profile for the police to narrow the growing list of suspects. The
offender was profiled as living in the same area as the victim. He would be
known as a troublemaker who liked knives and had previous contact with the
police, although not necessarily any arrests.
Several neighbors of the victim (and suspect) called police to report that
a person who closely resembled the sketch lived in their neighborhood. Fur-
ther investigation revealed this subject exactly matched the profile. The
police again consulted the ISU for interrogation techniques to be used with
this subject. As a result, seventeen-year-old Joseph Rogers confessed and
then reenacted the crime for investigators. It was discovered he had previous
contacts with Jenny, talking to her several nights before the attack. He was
living a few blocks away from her, with a sixteen-year-old girlfriend. He had
left home to make it on his own. He had drifted around, was unemployed,
and a high school dropout. Roger pleaded guilty.
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133: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, MIXED
A crime scene may reflect aspects of both organized and disorganized char-
acteristics for the following reasons:
• More than one offender may be involved; therefore, differing behav-
ioral patterns will be manifested.
• The attack may begin as a well-ordered, planned assault, but it deterio-
rates as unanticipated events occur, for example, an inability to control the
victim.
• The primary motive for the attack may be solely rape, but victim resist-
ance or the offender’s emotional state of mind leads to an escalation. This is
especially seen with the hostile or retaliatory type of rapist. The victim selec-
tion may reflect an organized offender who carefully selects and stalks the
victim. But then the body is not concealed or is poorly concealed. The
weapon is one of opportunity (for example, a rock) that is left at the scene,
and the crime scene would show great disarray. Forensic findings would
show a blitz style of attack, overkill, blunt-force trauma, and often personal
weapon use (hands and feet).
• Inconsistencies in offender behavior manifested during the offense may
exhibit varying degrees of organized or disorganized behavior. The youthful-
ness of the offender and alcohol or drug involvement also contribute to a
mixed crime scene.
• External stressors may alter the behavior of an offender. Precipitating
factors that cause a buildup of tension may lead to an explosive, impetuous
assault by a person who would normally approach the crime with planning
and control. Ted Bundy is an example of this degeneration of an organized
killer into a disorganized one due to external stressors. With all of his
abduction-rape-murders previous to the Chi Omega murders, he carefully
selected, stalked, and abducted his victims and used meticulous body con-
cealment. His discomfort with the fugitive lifestyle, among other things,
led to the explosive homicidal spree in which he bludgeoned random vic-
tims of opportunity (although coeds, they were random compared to his
usual careful selection). Bundy used a weapon of opportunity obtained at
the crime scene and left near another. He left their bodies openly displayed
at the death scene, a marked departure from his usual attempts of body dis-
posal. All of these later actions describe the typical behavior of the disor-
ganized killer.
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CASE STUDY: 133: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, MIXED
Victimology
Donna Lynn Vetter was raised in a rural environment that did not seem to
equip her for life in San Antonio.
She used fresh air through open windows and doors instead of the air-
conditioner in order to save electricity: in her mind, frugality was more of an
issue where she had lived than rape or murder. It was this naive and unsus-
pecting attitude that became a contributing factor to her death.
Vetter worked as a stenographer for the FBI in San Antonio. She had left
home for the first time seven months earlier to move closer to her job. She
was described as a quiet and hard-working introvert who rarely initiated con-
versation with fellow employees. She would usually stand quietly on the
periphery and listen to the office chatter, almost never contributing her own
thoughts or ideas.
When considering the list of characteristics that identify a victim’s risk
level, Donna Vetter would have been considered one less likely to be targeted
as a victim, especially when compared to the other end of the spectrum (for
example, prostitutes). Her employment as an FBI stenographer; conservative
dress and lifestyle (she did not go to bars or nightclubs); total lack of alco-
hol or drug use and criminal history; a modest income; and a quiet, with-
drawn personality all contributed to this low-risk status. In addition, her age
and physical state (no handicaps) did not increase her vulnerability as in
some cases (elderly, children).
Nevertheless, two factors elevated her risk factor. One was the location of
her apartment: an industrialized and commercial area of a lower-income
blue-collar neighborhood. The second component was her trusting attitude
and lack of concern for personal safety. She came from an environment in
which rape and murder were distant concerns compared to the electric bill.
Donna cooled her apartment using fresh air from open windows and doors
just as she had done all her life in the country. She would simply smile at the
concerns that her fellow employees or apartment security would voice over
her lack of safety precautions.
On September 4, 1986, at approximately 9:10 P.M., Donna was observed
watching television and doing leg exercises by a neighbor walking by her
window (open as usual). At 10:30 P.M. as several other neighbors passed by
her apartment, one noticed that the front window screen had been pulled out
and notified security. Apartment security responded at 10:35 P.M. and found
the front door ajar. Upon entering the apartment, they discovered Donna’s
nude body lying on the floor covered with blood.
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Crime Scene Indicators
Donna was lying on her back on the living room floor. The fatal assault site
appeared to be the kitchen, where the greatest concentration of blood was found
in several large pools. A kitchen knife, a weapon of opportunity, was responsi-
ble for her wounds. It was found stuck between chair cushions. She had been
dragged from the kitchen through the dining room, leaving a pronounced trail
of blood. In the kitchen were her shorts, shirt, and underwear, apparently cut
and torn off her. Her glasses were under the dining room table. Her car keys
were on the table. There were no indications of ransacking in the apartment, and
nothing appeared missing. The point of entry had been the front window: the
screen was pulled out and a plant overturned just inside. There were footprints
and palm prints on the murder weapon and living room end table.
The primary motive for this attack was rape, but when Vetter offered re-
sistance, the offender responded with violence. Fighting back only height-
ened the anger and need for retaliation that he usually vented through raping.
His inflamed emotional state made the line between rape and murder an easy
one to cross.
Initial contact between Donna and the offender was a blitz style of attack.
She was coming out of the bathroom when he hit her in the face, knocking
her to the floor unconscious. Apparently Donna recovered enough to make it
to the kitchen and grab a knife. This final act of resistance was enough to
push the offender to the point of total retaliation. He grabbed the knife and
repeatedly stabbed Vetter, dragged her to living room, and sexually assaulted
her as she lay dying.
The death scene and crime scene were the same, with no attempt to con-
ceal the body. Palm prints, fingerprints, and footprints were left at the scene,
all components indicative of the offender’s disregard of physical evidence
due to the frenzied, unexpected escalation of violence.
Thus, elements of both organization and disorganization were apparent
with this offense because of the volatile nature of an anger retaliatory rapist
and the response of a conservative, naive girl. His inability to establish con-
trol over Vetter resulted in a deterioration of events that resulted in a more
disorganized crime scene.
Forensic Findings
Donna had sustained blunt-force trauma to the face. In addition, there were
three stab wounds to the chest, with one wound penetrating the heart, and
stab wounds to the right calf and left upper thigh. There were defensive
wounds to three fingers of the left hand and evidence of sexual assault.
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A blitz-style attack, common to the anger retaliatory rapist who wants
control of the victim as quickly as possible, was evident with this murder.
The facial injuries were evidence of the excessive level of force employed by
this type of rapist, especially when confronted with a resisting victim.
Palm prints, fingerprints, and footprints were subsequently linked to a
subject, who was arrested for rape less than a month after the murder.
Investigation
On September 24, 1986, the San Antonio Police Department arrested twenty-
two-year-old Karl Hammond for the rape of a thirty-year-old San Antonio
woman. He was later linked to Donna Vetter’s death when palm prints on the
outside living room window and living room end table, fingerprints on the
murder weapon, and footprints in the apartment proved to be his.
Hammond was a repeat offender; he had been convicted for the rape of a
seventeen-year-old girl five years earlier. He had struck her in the face when
she refused him sex and then raped her. He also was arrested for burglary
three days after his release on bond for the rape charge. After serving four
years, Hammond was released from the state prison in August 23, 1985,
under provisions of the mandatory release program. At the time of his arrest,
he was suspected of as many as fifteen other Northeast Side rapes.
Outcome
Shackled and gagged due to numerous outbursts, Hammond appeared before
a judge in March 1986. The jury found him guilty of capital murder. Before
his sentencing, he escaped through an unlocked door in the jail but was
recaptured within forty-eight hours in downtown San Antonio.
The case received a great amount of criticism, most notably from appeal
lawyer Jordan Steiker, who felt Hammond had not received a fair trial: he
was not allowed to testify, pertinent family background information was not
introduced (specifically, he witnessed his own father being murdered by his
brother), and he suffered audio and visual hallucinations. Denied clemency,
Karl Hammond was put to death by injection on June 22, 1995, when he was
thirty years old. When asked for a final statement, Hammond responded, “I
know it’s hard for people to lose someone they loved so much. . . . It’s best
for me to just say nothing at all.”
134: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, SADISTIC
A sexual sadist is one who has established an enduring pattern of sexual
arousal in response to sadistic imagery. Sexual gratification is obtained from
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Homicide 227
torture involving excessive mental and physical means. The offender derives
the greatest satisfaction from the victim’s response to torture. Sexually
sadistic fantasies in which sexual acts are paired with domination, degrada-
tion, and violence are translated into criminal action that results in death.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Sadistic murder victimology has some similarities to the vic-
timology described in classification 131.
Sexual sadists focus on victims who are white, female adults who are
strangers. The victimology of this crime may include males, and multiple
offenders have been known to prey on both women and men and may also tar-
get children, but exclusive victimization of children is less frequent. Blacks
are preyed on to a much lesser extent.
There is an occasional indication of resemblance between a victim and
someone of significance in the offender’s life.
The victims are chosen through systematic stalking and surveillance.
They are approached under a pretext such as requesting or offering assis-
tance, asking directions, or impersonation of a police officer. A ruse may be
employed: posing as a talent scout looking for perspective models or
actresses and promising them jobs, for example.
There are also documented cases of sexually sadistic torture and the death
of two victims involving the same event.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. There are often multiple crime
scenes involved with this type of sexual homicide: place of initial encounter,
torture and death scene, and body disposal site. The very nature of this
crime, sadism expressed through torture, necessitates a secluded or solitary
place for the prolonged period of time the offender spends with the victim.
This captivity may range from a few hours to as long as six weeks. The
offender’s residence may be used if it can provide the required seclusion.
The offender’s vehicle will be altered for use in abduction and torture, dis-
abling windows and doors, soundproofing, and installing police accessories.
Gloves are often worn to avoid fingerprints. Secluded sites are selected
well in advance. The offender undertakes his crime with methodical prepa-
ration, and the crime scene reflects this. Torture racks or specially equipped
torture rooms are constructed. Weapons and torture implements of choice
are bought to the scene and removed if it is outside.
Restraints are usually present at the crime scene since they are common
to this homicide. Sexual bondage, which is the elaborate and excessive use
of binding material, unnecessarily neat and symmetrical binding, or binding
that enables positioning the victim in a variety of positions that enhance the
offender’s sexual arousal is also noted.
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The use of customized modes of torture may be evident, especially at the
scene of torture and death, which include electrical appliances, vise grips,
pliers, foreign objects used for insertion, and whips. Sexual arousal occurs
most often with the victim’s expression of pain and is evidenced by sexual
fluids or possibly defecation at the scene.
The body is routinely concealed especially with the more organized
offender, who is prepared with shovels, lime, and remote burial sites. Bod-
ies have been burned also. Sometimes inconsistencies are noted, however, as
victims have been left where they will be seen by intimates, can be easily
found, or disposed of carelessly. Occasionally the body may be transported
to a location that increases the chance of discovery because the offender
wants the excitement derived from the publicity that the body’s discovery
generates.
Staging. It is possible that there are implications of overkill or depersonal-
ization for pragmatic reasons, for example, to obscure the victim’s identity.
The offender may also tamper with the crime scene by staging secondary
criminal activity (for example, rape-murder, robbery) to veil the primary
motive of sadistic murder.
Common Forensic Findings. The offender engages in sex prior to death.
“The Sexually Sadistic Criminal and His Offenses” (Dietz, Hazelwood, &
Warren, 1990) lists the most prevalent sexual acts forced on victims: anal
rape, forced fellatio, vaginal rape, and foreign object penetration (in decreas-
ing order). A majority of offenders forced their victims to engage in more
than three of these activities. The attack is antemortem since the primary
source of pleasure for the sadistic killer is in the pain caused the victim as
opposed to the actual sexual act.
The focus of battery is to the sex organs, genitals, and breasts. Sexually
sadistic acts may include biting or overkill to areas with sexual association:
thighs, buttocks, neck, and abdomen, in addition to the breasts and genitals.
However, injury can be anywhere that causes suffering, for example, the
elbow.
There is insertion of foreign objects into vaginal or anal cavities often
combined with the act of slashing, cutting, or biting the breasts and buttocks.
Evidence of sexual fluids is usually found in the body orifices and around the
body. If partners are involved, this may be evidenced by differing sexual flu-
ids and pubic hairs. Offenders may also urinate on the victim.
Ligature marks are common since restraints are frequently used, along
with blindfolds and gags. Sexual bondage is prevalent.
The fact that the offender usually spends a long time with the victim is
evidenced by varying wound and injury ages or varying stages of healing
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Homicide 229
present in injuries inflicted by the offender. Blunt-force trauma from beat-
ings; injuries from painful insertion, biting, whipping, and twisting breasts;
and burn marks from heat sources and electrical devices are all possible
forensic findings.
There are cases where victims were forced to drink or eat feces. Stomach
contents reveal this, as well as any variations of it.
The act of killing is often eroticized; death comes in a slow, deliberate man-
ner that the offender savors. But since an unconscious or dead victim does not
afford the offender the gratification he seeks, great care is taken not to prema-
turely end her or his life. This caution is demonstrated by several cases in
which subjects not only took special measures to keep their victim’s conscious
but actually revived near-dead victims in order to cause additional suffering.
The most common cause of death is by an asphyxial modality in the form
of ligature strangulation, manual strangulation, hanging, and suffocation.
Gunshot wounds, cutting and stabbing wounds, and blunt-force trauma are
less frequent forensic findings as to cause of death.
Investigative Considerations
The perpetrators of sexually sadistic homicides are predominantly white
males. Sometimes a partner is involved, either male or female. The subjects
can be married while committing these offense, as shown by the research
data of “The Sexually Sadistic Criminal and His Offenses” (Dietz et al.,
1990); 43 percent are married, and 50 percent have children.
The offender is often involved with an occupation that brings him into
contact with the public. He engages in antisocial behavior that may be man-
ifested in arrest records (not necessarily sex-related offenses) and a history
of drug abuse other than alcohol. He is often a police buff who possesses
paraphernalia, literature, and weapon collections. The offender is likely to
have a well-maintained vehicle since excessive driving is also characteristic
of the sexual sadist.
The offender may return to the scene to determine if the body has been
discovered or to check on the progress of the investigation.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The following are items common to sadistic offenders that should be in-
cluded in a search warrant:
• Collection of items related to sexual or violent themes or both: porno-
graphic literature, videos, bondage paraphernalia, detective magazines,
sexual devices, and women’s undergarments
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• Gun collections, police uniforms, badges, counterfeit ID, and books
detailing law enforcement procedures
• Vehicle modification to resemble police car; black wall tires; two-way
radios; a Bearcat scanner; whip antenna; flashing red lights; sirens for
abduction or torture; disabled door handles and windows; soundproof-
ing; restraining devices; shovels, lime, and other burial equipment; water
and food; and extra fuel
• Torture devices, cameras, and recording equipment
• Dealing with offenses: written records; manuscripts, diaries, threaten-
ing letters, calendars, sketches, drawings, audiotapes, videotapes, and
photographs; personal items belonging to victims: undergarments,
shoes, jewelry, wallet, driver’s license, other victim ID
CASE STUDY: 134: SEXUAL HOMICIDE, SADISTIC
Background
During the last year of his incarceration at California Men’s Colony at San
Luis Obispo, Roy Lewis Norris met Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker. Both in-
mates had an extensive history with the law that involved a substantial
amount of violent criminal activity. As the relationship developed, the two
discovered several topics of mutual interest: dominating, torturing, and rap-
ing women. They also shared the attitude that with any future sexual assaults
on women, they would leave no witnesses.
Bittaker was released in November 1978 and Norris in January 1979.
After their reunion, the duo decided to fulfill their prison ambitions. The
first thing they needed was the proper vehicle to ensure uncomplicated
abductions. Bittaker found a 1977 silver GMC cargo van with a sliding door
and no windows on the side, perfect for pulling up close and grabbing their
victims.
Bittaker and Norris felt well prepared after spending the first half of 1979
outfitting the van with a twin-size mattress supported by wood and plywood,
tools, clothes, and a cooler. They had carefully selected a remote area in the
San Gabriel Mountains above the city of Glendora. It was a gated fire road
that Bittaker secured with his own lock, added insurance that they would be
left undisturbed. In addition, they had picked up more than twenty hitchhik-
ers, not attacking any of them, but simply rehearsing for the right day.
The “right” day came on June 24, 1979, and at least four other times
between June and October 31, 1979, during which Bittaker and Norris were
responsible for at least five murders.
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Homicide 231
Victimology
Lucinda Schaeffer, age sixteen, lived with her grandmother in Torrance, Cal-
ifornia. She was an attractive girl who was active with her church, including
the senior high fellowship group. On June 24, 1979, she attended a fellow-
ship meeting at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Redondo Beach. She
had decided to leave early and walked home along Pacific Coast Highway
instead of calling her grandmother for a ride.
Bittaker spotted her, making the comment, “There’s a cute little blonde.”
The van pulled alongside her, and Norris asked her if she wanted to go for a
ride and smoke some grass. She refused and kept on walking, with Norris
and Bittaker following at a distance. When they reached a residential section
with little traffic, the two made their move. Bittaker pulled up ahead of her,
stopping the van in front of a driveway while Norris waited on the sidewalk
as Cindy approached. When she had reached him, the two exchanged a few
words. Norris then grabbed her and dragged her to the van, threw her inside,
and slammed the door. The van squealed out, and Bittaker turned the radio
up to mask Cindy’s screams. Norris taped her mouth and bound her hands
and feet as they drove to the fire road.
Once they arrived, Bittaker and Norris smoked some pot while asking
Cindy questions about her family and boyfriend in Wisconsin. After they
grew bored of that, Bittaker took a walk while Norris raped her and forced
her to perform fellatio. When Bittaker returned, he continued the sexual as-
sault until Norris came back for more.
After they were done, Norris attempted to strangle Cindy but lost his
nerve when he saw the anguished look in her eyes. Bittaker took over until
Cindy collapsed to the ground, convulsing and attempting to breathe. Bit-
taker remarked that it took more to strangle someone than television showed,
and Norris agreed. The two then tightened a coat hanger around her neck
with a pair of vise-grip pliers until she was finally still. They wrapped her
body with a blue shower curtain so the blood from the hanger cutting into
her neck would not get on the van’s carpet and dumped her body over the
side of a deep canyon.
On July 8 Bittaker and Norris were again stalking victims on the Pacific
Coast Highway when they spotted Andrea Joy Hall, age eighteen, hitchhik-
ing. Their first attempt to pick her up was unsuccessful because she got in a
white convertible, but thinking she would get out sooner or later, they fol-
lowed her. Around noon, she was let out and picked up by Bittaker while
Norris hid under the bed. At Bittaker’s urging, Andrea obtained a drink from
the cooler in the back of the van, at which point Norris made his move to sub-
due her. Andrea’s assault followed much like Cindy’s with the exception that
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she was photographed, providing souvenirs for her killers to recall the look
of terror on her face. At this point, Bittaker and Norris were becoming com-
fortable enough with their crime to experiment with torturing their victims,
verbally and then physically. Andrea had an ice pick jabbed into her brain,
first through one ear then the other. She was then strangled and thrown over
the cliff.
The next two victims were Jackie Doris Gilliam, age fifteen, and Jacque-
line Leah Lamp, age thirteen. The girls had been walking and hitchhiking
casually along the road and had stopped for a rest at a bus stop bench when
the van pulled up beside them. They entered the van voluntarily but became
uneasy when the van turned away from the beach and headed for the moun-
tains. As Leah attempted to open the van door, Norris struck her over the
head with a bat. Bittaker stopped to help Norris subdue the two girls and then
headed to the San Dimas.
Gilliam and Lamp were held for nearly forty-eight hours before they were
murdered. Both were tortured; Norris took approximately twenty-four in-
stant pictures of Gilliam and Bittaker engaged in various sexual acts. She
was then stabbed through the ear with an ice pick, manually strangled, and
finally struck on the head with a sledgehammer.
Norris claims that Lamp was not sexually assaulted. Before he savagely
battered her head with the sledgehammer, Bittaker remarked, “You wanted
to stay a virgin; now you can die a virgin.” With this torture session, as well
with the next one, Bittaker and Norris decided to preserve their exploits by
using a tape recorder.
Shirley Lynette Ledford was last seen hitchhiking on October 31, 1979,
around 10:45 P.M. along Sunland Boulevard and Tuxford Street in Sun Val-
ley. After Bittaker and Norris picked her up hitchhiking, they enacted the
assault differently; instead of heading for their spot in the mountains, they
opted to drive around the streets of San Fernando Valley as they tortured
Ledford. She was struck on the elbows repeatedly with a three-pound
sledgehammer. Bittaker decided Ledford was not screaming loud enough to
suit him, so he retrieved a pair of pliers and vise grips from his toolbox and
pinched her nipples and vagina with them. Bittaker later stated to one jail
informant that he tried to punch her “titties back into her chest.” Ledford was
also raped and sodomized.
Ledford’s torment finally ended with a coat hanger tightened by the vise
grips around her neck. Her nude body was dumped on the front lawn of a
Sunland residence, to see “what kind of press they would get.”
Review of the victimology in this case illustrates several points that are
common to sadistic murder committed by organized offenders. The victims
were targeted because they manifested some common characteristics that
suited the preferences of Bittaker and Norris: all of the victims were white
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females, within a narrow age range, unknown to the offenders, and consid-
ered high-risk victims because they were hitchhiking. (Schaeffer was not
hitchhiking, but walking along the highway elevated her risk as a victim.)
Crime Scene Indicators
Bittaker and Norris’s crime scenes typified organized sadistic murder. They
were carefully planned offenses that reflected overall control in conversation
and of the victims themselves by the use of restraints. Bittaker derived enjoy-
ment from engaging victims in conversation that he governed. He used the
conversation as a means of torture in itself; making victims plead for their
lives substantiated his sense of domination.
Their abductions were well planned, beginning with the customizing they
did on the van. The weapons, the tools of their assault, were never an issue
until capture since the actual crime scene was within the van. At the abduc-
tion sites, the only evidence left behind was Schaeffer’s shoe.
Bittaker and Norris transported the victims to remote sites that posed lit-
tle to no risk of interruption or discovery. This ensured the lengthy contact
with the victims that was required to fulfill the fantasies and drives that
fueled their acts of sadistic murder. Several bodies were transported to a dif-
ferent disposal site from the death scene. With Norris’s help, the broken
skeletal remains of Gilliam and Lamp were found scattered over an area hun-
dreds of feet along the canyon floor. No traces of Schaeffer or Hall’s body
were found due to the well-selected disposal sites. All of these indicators
common to Bittaker and Norris crime scenes are evidence of controlled,
organized offenders.
The setting of Ledford’s death and assault was still within the realm of the
organized, controlled scene, despite the body being left in view with no ef-
fort to conceal it. Bittaker’s craving for some press time, recognition of his
crime, was his incentive for this change in MO.
Forensic Findings
Lucinda Schaeffer and Andrea Hall’s remains were never found. Partial
remains of Gilliam and Lamp, including their battered skulls, were found in
the Glendora Mountains. Gilliam still had the ice pick inserted in her right ear.
Shirley Ledford’s autopsy revealed death was due to strangulation with a
wire ligature around the neck. There were a linear compression mark, soft
tissue, and petechial hemorrhage around the neck. There was evidence of
multiple blunt-force trauma to the face, head, and breasts. Her rectum, the
lining inside her rectum, and her vagina had been torn from being stretched
too far, in part due to the insertion of a pair of pliers by Bittaker. There were
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bruises on her left elbow, a cut to the right index finger, and a puncture
wound to the left hand. The wrists and ankles had ligature marks as well.
Ledford’s autopsy report presents the following indicators of an organ-
ized sadistic murder as mentioned in possible forensic findings: focused
blunt-force attack to the genital regions and the breasts, traumatic insertion
by foreign objects, sodomy, and evidence of torture (hammer and pliers).
There were sexual and aggressive acts prior to death, and restraints were
used. In addition, Norris and Bittaker spent extended periods of time with
the victims.
Investigation
Bittaker and Norris engaged in other crimes during this time beside sadistic
murder. There were at least three separate incidents: an attempted rape, rape-
kidnapping, and an assault with mace. Photos were also found after Bittaker
and Norris’s arrest that are indicative of another victim, an unknown white
female, who remains missing.
One of the victims who was raped and released identified Bittaker and
Norris as her assailants. They were arrested for charges other than the rape-
murder charges in hope that one or both would fold under interrogation and
confess. Norris eventually did, shifting the blame to Bittaker in an attempt to
save himself.
The motive for Bittaker and Norris’s brutal murders is perhaps best ex-
plained by Ronald Markman, a forensic psychiatrist who examined the
offenders. He describes them as sociopaths who knew right from wrong but
simply did not care. “They lack the internal prohibitions, or conscience, that
keep most of us from giving full expression to our most primitive, and some-
times violent, impulses.” Markman stated that by their union, Bittaker and
Norris helped each other “fulfill their most savage, primitive potential as
sociopaths” (Markman & Bosco, 1989).
Outcome
On March 18, 1980, Norris pleaded guilty on five counts of murder, turning
state’s evidence against his friend. In return for his cooperation, he received
a sentence of forty-five years to life, with parole possible after thirty years.
Bittaker denied everything. At his trial on February 5, 1981, he testified that
Norris first informed him of the murders after their arrest in 1979. A jury chose
to disbelieve him, returning a guilty verdict on February 17. On March 24,
in accordance with the jury’s recommendation, Bittaker was sentenced to
death. The judge imposed an alternate sentence of 199 years 4 months,
to take effect in the event that Bittaker’s death sentence is ever commuted to
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life imprisonment. Bittaker is still on death row at San Quentin Prison, while
Norris still sits at Pelican Bay Prison in California.
135: ELDER FEMALE SEXUAL HOMICIDE
Classification Contributed by Mark Safarik
This classification is used to refer to the homicide of a woman sixty years of
age or older where the primary motive of the offender is identified through
the sexual behavior at the crime scene. With the majority of these offenders,
there is often some form of sexual intercourse. Despite the sexual interac-
tion, there is often the absence of semen. In addition, many of these offend-
ers engage in other sexual acts to include foreign object insertion and oral
copulation (the offender both performing and receiving oral copulation on
and from the victim, respectively). The offender may use his mouth on other
sexualized areas of the victim, insert his fingers into her, and engage in other
types of physical contact that focus on the sexual areas of the body. Despite
the fact that the offenders in these cases are diverse in age and split relatively
evenly between black and white offenders (with a less significant contribu-
tion by Hispanic offenders), many collective demographic, lifestyle, and be-
havioral characteristics are found to be strikingly similar. These observations
are consistent with the experience of investigators who have anecdotally de-
scribed violent offenders of the elderly as younger offenders, assaulting the
victims at or close to the victims’ residences, living within close proximity to
the crime scene, and generally unknown to the victim.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Elderly women are inherently more vulnerable to crime than
younger women. First, they are more likely to live alone. Nearly 80 percent
of elderly persons who live alone are female due in large part to an increased
risk of widowhood and longer life expectancy (Taeuber & Allen, 1990). Sec-
ond, for the elder female, vulnerability is related to physical size and
strength. They are less capable of fleeing or resisting a physical attack than
a younger person (Nelson & Huff-Corzine, 1998). As women age, they ex-
perience skeletal, neuromuscular, and other systemic changes that restrict
mobility and reduce their abilities to escape or defend themselves. Elderly
women, perhaps because of widowhood, are more likely than younger
females to lack the guardianship common to children and younger women
and thus are more likely to be perceived by motivated offenders as suitable
targets. This vulnerability concept revealed that some rapists select elderly
victims because of their vulnerability. Safarik and Jarvis (2005) noted that
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the sexual assault of the elder female is often an exceptionally violent crime
that is motivated by the offender’s desire to punish, dominate, and control his
victim rather than the often assumed motive of sexual attraction or desire.
Safarik, Jarvis, and Nussbaum (2000), in a focused study of this type of
sexual homicide, found that the mean age was seventy-seven. The victims
were disproportionately white (86 percent). Blacks (9 percent) and Hispan-
ics (4 percent) were also victimized, but Asian victims were rare. Ninety-
four percent were killed in their own residences. Although elder females are
the predominant residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities
and the victims of sexual assault in those facilities, sexual homicides in that
setting are rare. The overwhelming majority of these women had lived in
their residences for at least ten years, and many had lived there substantially
longer. Unfortunately, this longevity may have produced unrecognized risk
to the victim. White victims of black and Hispanic offenders lived in neigh-
borhoods characterized as transitional. These transitional neighborhoods
were thought to have undergone a socioeconomic change from middle to
lower class. Often accompanying such a change are other demographic
transformations that result in social disorganization and increased criminal
activity.
Contributing to their vulnerability, the majority of these victims had no
home security beyond standard door and window locks. When examining
the cause of death, strangulation was found to be the most frequently identi-
fied cause of death followed by blunt-force trauma. Death by a firearm was
the least frequent.
Although the elderly in general are considered to be at low risk for be-
coming crime victims, elderly white females, particularly those living alone,
are at an elevated risk in this type of homicide. Because they live alone, their
risk level is situationally elevated, and they are thus perceived to be vulner-
able by their offenders. The offender also perceives his risk to be lower. Once
inside the residence, he is able to interact with the victim without interrup-
tion. The fact that she is elderly significantly reduces her ability to resist,
protect herself, and escape. The majority of these women are injured more
rather than less severely.
Offenders. Offender populations are represented evenly between white and
black offenders, with a much smaller contribution by Hispanic offenders.
Black males, though, are overrepresented when compared to U.S. popula-
tion demographics. Black males cross the racial barrier and offend against
both black and white victims, as do Hispanic offenders. Recognizing the
intraracial nature of these crimes appears to be applicable only if the victim
is black. If the victim is white, the intraracial aspect of violent offending
does not appear to be as germane. White offenders rarely offend interra-
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cially. The proximity of the offender’s residence to the crime scene is signif-
icantly influenced by the racial homogeneity of the neighborhood. Interra-
cial offending of blacks against whites occurs more in heterogeneous
communities. White against black offending was found to be virtually non-
existent in heterogeneous communities. Nearly 60 percent of offenders live
within six blocks of the victim, and with juveniles, half live on the same
block. Most travel to and depart the scene on foot.
Despite their age or race, the offenders were found to have many similar
attributes. For instance, 90 percent have criminal records, with burglary (59
percent) making up the highest proportion. Property and violent offenses
were found to be nearly equally represented among those with criminal his-
tories. Only a fifth of the offenders had a criminal history involving sexual of-
fenses. This is important to remember because investigators confronted with
investigating these crimes often spend precious initial time compiling lists of
registered sex offenders. It is recommended that consideration be given to the
fact that the overwhelming majority will not have such a criminal history.
Most are unskilled and unemployed and have less than a high school educa-
tion. Nearly all had a history of substance abuse, with alcohol, marijuana, and
cocaine as the drugs most often abused. Finally, nearly half of the offenders
confessed to the crime subsequent to their arrest, while another 19 percent
made some kind of an admission relative to the crime yet continued to deny
responsibility for the homicide. In terms of racial differences, whites were ob-
served to have confessed nearly twice as often as blacks.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Multiple crime scenes are
rare. The initial encounter, assault, homicide, and subsequent postmortem
activity usually occur at one location. Weapons are rarely brought to the
scene. If the offender uses a weapon, he usually obtains it from the scene.
Ligatures used to strangle, blunt-force objects, and knives are often found
near the victim and subsequently left at the scene. Most offenders gain ac-
cess to the victims through unlocked doors and windows or by using a ruse
or con. The balance use force to gain access.
The approach used by most of the offenders was a blitz attack: the imme-
diate and overwhelming use of injurious force to incapacitate the victim.
Because offenders use the blitz approach, the use of restraints is rarely noted.
Safarik and Jarvis (2005) developed the Homicide Injury Scale as a metric
to assess the level of injury and provide quantitative evidence to support the
differentiation of levels of homicidal injury. The severity of injury inflicted
by the offender has been found to be predictive of both age and how close
that offender lives to his victim. With respect to age, it is an inverse relation-
ship: the more injury related to the victim’s cause of death, the younger is
the offender. When assessing where the offender lives in relationship to the
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victim, empirical evidence supports the observation that the more severe the
injuries are, the closer the offender lives to the victim.
Nearly three-fourths of the offenders killed their victims between 8:00 P.M.
and 4:00 A.M., with most of those occurring after midnight. Offenders were
found to have sexually assaulted their victims both vaginally and anally, with
vaginal assault occurring three to four times as often. Overall, the offenders
inserted foreign objects into the victim’s body 22 percent of the time, with
white offenders responsible for more than half of those cases. In addition,
offenders younger than twenty-four years of age were responsible for more
than half of all foreign object insertion. Semen was identified in fewer than
half of the cases, with no differences noted for race or age. Sexual activity
without the presence of semen was noted in the remaining cases. This sex-
ual activity included fondling the sexual areas of the body, foreign object
insertion, and posing the victim to expose the sexual areas of the body. Tor-
ture, more commonly found in organized offenders, is rarely seen with these
offenders. Since the majority of offenders use a blitz approach, the sexual
assault and interaction with the victim often occur during or subsequent to
the victim’s death.
Offenders are neither acquaintances nor complete strangers to their vic-
tims, but instead fall somewhere in between. This does not imply that a prior
relationship existed between the offender and victim but rather that the
offender was aware of where the victim lived prior to the crime and per-
ceived her to be alone and vulnerable. These offenders generally have sim-
ple fantasies and can be described as concrete thinkers, rarely planning their
crimes but instead acting impulsively. Although the majority remove prop-
erty from the scene, the motive for their removal is financial gain. These
offenders are not removing items described by law enforcement as trophies
or souvenirs. They typically take cash and small items such as jewelry. These
items are generally taken from the immediate vicinity of the victim or are
located on the pathway out of the scene.
Common Forensic Findings. These offenders are not evidence conscious
and inadvertently tend to leave significant forensic evidence at their crime
scenes. Semen may be identified vaginally, anally, and orally, as well as on
the body and on clothing items near the body. The breasts should be swabbed
for saliva. Fingerprints and trace evidence, including hairs and fibers, are
commonly found on and around the victim. A number of offenders leave per-
sonal items at the scene—for example, hats, bandannas, underwear, and per-
sonal identification. Most activity engaged in by the offender, including the
sexual interaction, occurs postmortem. Strangulation either as a single cause
of death or in combination with blunt-force trauma or stabbing is the most
prevalent cause of death. The level of injury noted in these cases is excessive
and is an attribute believed to be distinct from other violent crimes.
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Homicide 239
Investigative Considerations
Hazelwood and Douglas’s work (1980), which offers a categorization of
sexual murderers on a continuum from organized to disorganized, may
have significance. Applying this typology, these offenders are found to be
overwhelmingly consistent with the disorganized typology. With that typol-
ogy as a base of personality and behavioral characteristics and the empirical
data revealing how close many of these offenders live to their victims, the
neighborhood investigation becomes the key to identifying the perpetrators.
Despite age and race considerations, the offenders are a homogeneous group
from a lifestyle and behavioral perspective. The neighborhood investigation
should be thorough and focus on persons in the area who evidence many of
the personality, lifestyle, and behavioral characteristics highlighted here.
Overall, they can be described as socially inadequate, undereducated, un-
employed, or if employed it is in unskilled physical labor. Most have a crim-
inal history, with burglary the most commonly observed. Their criminal
activities are populated by misdemeanor-type offenses rather than serious
felonies, including sexual offenses. This indicates that the offender is less
likely to reside in a registered sex offender database. The majority are drug
users and abusers. Because the majority are unemployed, they typically re-
side with someone on whom they are financially dependent. Nearly three-
quarters are unmarried, and nearly half live with family members. Their
average is twenty-seven.
Most take cash, jewelry, or other small items of value. The theft of these
items is for financial gain and is not taken to serve as mementos of the event
for later fantasy enhancement.
Studies have shown that as the degree of injury severity increases, the
offender age generally decreases, and he is likely to live closer to rather than
farther from the victim. Juvenile offenders are more likely to be violent, live
closer, engage in postmortem mutilation and foreign object insertion, and
target women seventy-five years of age and older. They are less likely to
leave semen.
Interviewing arrested offenders should focus on the financial gain aspect
of the crime and avoid (at least initially) the sexual assault component. The
interviews should be one-on-one, avoiding multiple interviewers. The inter-
viewer should take a soft and empathetic approach despite the heinous na-
ture of the homicide.
Search Warrant Considerations
See search warrant considerations under 130.
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CASE STUDY: 135: ELDER FEMALE SEXUAL HOMICIDE
Case Contributed by Kevin Faherty
Between June 14, 1962, and January 4, 1964, thirteen single women in the
Boston area were victims of a brutal death by strangulation. The question
lingers today as to whether it was the work of one serial killer or several
killers. At the time, it was determined that at least eleven of the homicides
were the work of one man. All of the women were killed in their apartment,
had been sexually assaulted, and were strangled with an article of their own
clothing. In each instance, there were no signs of forced entry, meaning the
perpetrator was either known to them or let in voluntarily. In 1965, Albert
DeSalvo confessed to all of the eleven Boston Strangler murders, in addition
to two more deaths. At the time, people who knew him contended he could
not be responsible of such crimes, and the argument for his innocence can
still be made today.
Victimology
Six of the eleven were between the ages of fifty-five and seventy-five, and
the other five ranged in age from nineteen to twenty-three. The other two
possibilities were aged sixty-nine and eighty-five. On June 14, 1962, fifty-
five-year-old Back Bay resident Anna Slesers was found by her son at about
7:00 P.M. She was lying nude on her bathroom floor, face up, with her legs
spread apart, and the chord from her bathrobe tied around her neck. She had
been sexually assaulted by an unknown object. Her apartment had been ran-
sacked, with objects and drawers everywhere in attempt to make it look like
a burglary, but nothing was missing.
Two weeks later Nina Nichols, age sixty-eight, of Brighton, was found
with her legs spread and her housecoat and slip pulled up to her waist. She
had been strangled by her two nylon stockings, which had been tied in a bow
around her neck. She too had been sexually abused, and her vagina and anus
were lacerated. Again her apartment was a mess, but nothing was missing.
That same day in Lynn, sixty-five-year-old Helen Blake was killed at
about 8:00 A.M. She was found face down nude on her bed with her legs
spread. She too had been strangled by a nylon, and there was also a brassiere
tied around her neck in a bow. Two diamond rings were removed from her
fingers, the first instance of robbery.
The police commissioner notified women to lock their doors and be wary
of all strangers. The police began to investigate sex offenders and violent for-
mer mental patients. They were on the lookout for a man who sought older
women in order to take out his hatred for his mother.
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In mid-August of that year, Ida Irga, age seventy-five, of Boston’s West
End was found on her back, nightdress torn, exposing her body. In a
grotesque parody of an obstetrical position, her legs were spread about five
feet, each raised on a separate chair, with a pillow under her buttocks, and the
pillowcase knotted tightly around her neck. She was facing the front door, so
that her body would be seen immediately when someone entered. The next
day, Jane Sullivan, a sixty-seven-year-old Dorchester resident, was found
after being dead for ten days. She was found face down, nude in her bathtub,
with her head under the faucet and her feet draped over the other end of the
tub. She had been strangled by her nylons in the kitchen or hallway, where her
blood was found. There may have been sexual assault, but her body had
decomposed too much to tell. This killing was followed by a three-month
break, where all detectives could do was rule out possible suspects.
In December, again in the Back Bay, twenty-one-year-old, African Amer-
ican Sophie Clark was found by her roommates on the living room floor, legs
spread, with nylons and her slip tied around her neck. There was evidence of
assault, and for the first time, semen was found on the rug. This was the first
younger woman to be killed by the Strangler. Another woman in the build-
ing had seen a strange man there to check her paint, and when he compli-
mented her on her figure, she silenced him, which enraged him, but he left
hurriedly when she said her husband was sleeping in the next room. This
took place about ten minutes before Clark’s death, and she was able to de-
scribe him as a twenty-five to thirty-year-old man of average height and light
hair, with dark pants and jacket.
Later that month, twenty-three-year-old Patricia Bissette was found in her
Back Bay apartment, with several stockings interwoven with a blouse stran-
gling her. She lay under her covers up to her chin this time, she had signs of
recent intercourse, and there was damage to her rectum. In early March,
Mary Brown, age sixty-eight, was found in Lawrence beaten to death, stran-
gled, and raped. Two months later, Beverly Samans, age twenty-three, was
found on her couch, hands tied behind her back, legs spread, with nylons and
a handkerchief around her neck, and a cloth gagging her. She had died from
four stab wounds to the neck and had an additional eighteen stab wounds in
the shape of a bull’s eye on her left breast.
After a quiet summer, fifty-eight-year-old Evelyn Corbin was found
strangled in Salem with two nylons and underpants in her mouth as a gag.
Tissues with lipstick and semen on them were scattered about the bed, and
sperm was found in her mouth. In November 1963, Joann Graf was found
strangled with two stockings in an elaborate bow. Teeth marks were found on
her breast, and the outside of her vagina was bloody from lacerations. A
neighbor had been asked earlier if “Joan” Graf lived there and was directed
to her apartment, and was let in a few minutes later. The witness said he was
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a twenty-seven-year-old man wearing dark clothes. The last victim was
found on January 4, 1964, and was the most brutal and grotesque. She
was strangled with a stocking with two colorful scarves tied over it in bows.
She was sitting with her back against her bed headboard, a thick semen-like
liquid dripping from her mouth to her bare breasts. A broom handle had been
inserted three and a half inches into her vagina, and at her feet was a bright
Happy New Year card from the Boston Strangler.
Investigation
Attorney General Edward Brooke took over the investigation and instituted
the Strangler Bureau to work nonstop and make it the city’s highest priority.
Although forensic mental experts claimed that the killings were likely the
work of multiple killers due to the age differentials and slight inconsisten-
cies of the crime scene, the Boston Police were on the hunt for one man.
A couple of years before the murders, Cambridge had had a string of
strange sexual offenses with a man known as the “Measurement Man,” who
told woman he had been referred to them for a modeling career and needed
to take some measurements. Albert DeSalvo was arrested for breaking and
entering an apartment and confessed to being the offender. He was a twenty-
nine-year-old man with a wife and two children. He had a history of break-
ing and entering, assault and battery, as well as sexual offenses. In November
1964, a woman was tied spread-eagle and was fondled by a man whose de-
scription matched that of the “Measurement Man,” and DeSalvo was again
arrested. At the same time, Connecticut police were looking for the “Green
Man,” a sexual assailant who was aptly named for his tendency to wear green
trousers. Again it turned out to be DeSalvo, who claimed to have assaulted
hundreds of women in four states, which may not legitimate because of his
braggart character. After being committed to the Bridgewater State Hospital,
he became friends with another inmate, George Nassar, a manipulative ge-
nius. Together they realized that the financial rewards for being the Boston
Strangler would be great through books and the reward for his capture.
DeSalvo figured he would be locked up for life anyway, so he would try to
stay in a hospital and make money for his family.
Nassar’s attorney, F. Lee Bailey, contacted DeSalvo, and he confessed to
all thirteen murders. He was able to go into great depth regarding the man-
ner in which he killed his victims, the apartments’ layouts, and small details
regarding the placement and appearance of small items and evidence in each
case. But there were also arguments against his claims: the financial motiva-
tion, no physical evidence at all against him, no witness descriptions match-
ing his unique facial characteristics, and although Salem cigarettes were
found at multiple scenes, DeSalvo was not a smoker.
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Homicide 243
Psychiatrist Ames Robey, after examining DeSalvo, noticed two things
about him. One was that he had an incredible photographic memory. His
ability to remember word for word and every detail was astounding. Second,
because he always wanted to be a story, to be big, he wanted to have the noto-
riety attached with the Boston Strangler to be his own. Finally, two witnesses
went to the hospital to identify DeSalvo; both agreed that DeSalvo did not
look like the man they saw. But they were both reminded of the Boston
Strangler when they saw his friend, the manipulator, George Nassar.
Outcome
The debate goes on today regarding the mystery of the Boston Strangler. It
could have been Albert DeSalvo; it could have been his confidant in the hos-
pital, George Nassar; or it could have been a combination of multiple killers
all copying each other. Regardless of who was to blame or for how many of
the deaths, it was Albert DeSalvo who was sentenced to life in prison and
was killed there in 1973.
140: GROUP CAUSE HOMICIDE
Group cause homicide pertains to two or more people with a common ide-
ology that sanctions an act, committed by one or more of its members, that
result in death.
During the initial stages of compiling this manual, the group cause homi-
cide category included occult or satanic murder as one of its subcategories.
The defining characteristics of victimology, crime scene, and forensic find-
ings were written based on the abundance of material available on the sub-
ject of occult or satanic murder. However, as the committee involved with
writing the group cause section began to review the occult and satanic mur-
der category, several committee members raised questions regarding the
validity of including this category in the CCM.
The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime’s (NCAVC) defi-
nition of true occult or satanic murder is murder committed by two or more
individuals who rationally plan the crime and whose primary motivation is
to fulfill a prescribed satanic ritual calling for the murder. Committee mem-
bers raised the question of whether occult and satanic murder truly exists
aside from the media hype surrounding this subject.
The popularity of occultism or satanism with the mass media has only
served to cloud the issue and sometimes interfere with the objective investi-
gation of a crime. The religious beliefs of a law enforcement officer may com-
plicate the process of objectively investigating an alleged satanic murder.
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“The law enforcement perspective must focus on the crime and clearly rec-
ognize that just because an activity is ‘satanic’ does not necessarily mean it is
a crime or that it is not a legitimate religious practice protected by the First
Amendment. Within the personal religious belief system of a law enforce-
ment officer, Christianity may be good and satanism evil. Under the Consti-
tution, however, both are neutral” (Lanning 1989, p. 7).
The committee agreed with Lanning’s position that law enforcement offi-
cers need to know something about satanism and the occult to properly eval-
uate their possible connections to and motivations for criminal activity. They
must know when and how beliefs, symbols, and paraphernalia can be used
to corroborate criminal activity. The focus must be on the objective investi-
gation. They also agreed that although occult and satanic killings according
to the definition given above do occur, the burden of proof is on those who
claim that it has occurred (Lanning, 1989).
In regard to the occurrence of satanic murder, the NCAVC has attempted
to solicit cases from several sources that have made such claims. The analy-
sis of crime scene photos from the few cases the NCAVC did receive failed
to support the definition of occult and satanic murder or the defining char-
acteristics of crime scene indicators and forensics derived from satanic
crime conference material. Many of the cases exhibited indicators that
either the victim or offender had some involvement with the occult or
satanism. However, the primary motive in each case was found to be sex,
money, or interpersonal conflicts and not to satisfy the requirements of an
occult or satanic ritual. The actual involvement of satanism or the occult in
these cases turned out to be secondary, insignificant, or nonexistent. In ad-
dition, during legal proceedings, extraneous information about the sub-
ject’s involvement in satanic or occult activity was more likely to be
introduced by the defense to escape criminal responsibility or minimize
punishment. Based on this, we decided to exclude occult murder from this
manual. If any law enforcement agency feels it has a homicide case that
may meet the definition of satanic or occult murder, the NCAVC will wel-
come the chance to review the crime scene photographs and other case
materials.
141: GROUP CAUSE HOMICIDE, CULT
A body of adherents with excessive devotion or dedication to ideas, objects,
or persons, regarded as unorthodox or spurious and whose primary objec-
tives of sex, power, or money are unknown to the general membership, is
known as a cult. A cult murder pertains to the death of an individual commit-
ted by two or more members of the cult.
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Homicide 245
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Occasionally cult murder is the result of members preying on
a random victim, but the prevailing casualty of this type of murder tends to
be one who is a member of the cult or on the fringe of membership. Gener-
ally multiple victims are involved.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene may contain
items that are symbolic, in the form of unexplained artifacts or imagery.
The status of the body is dependent on the purpose of the killing. If it is
intended to be a widespread message, there generally will be little to no at-
tempt to conceal the body. A death that is intended to intimidate within the
smaller circle of the cult is often concealed through burial. A more organized
group usually demonstrates more elaborate body disposal or concealment.
There is a prevalence of mass grave sites on the grounds where a cult is
based, for example, a farm or rural residence.
The crime scene usually exhibits evidence of multiple offenders as well
as multiple victims by either a mass or spree killing.
Common Forensic Findings. The forensic findings most common to this
type of homicide involve wounds from firearms, blunt-force trauma, and
sharp, pointed objects. There may be mutilation of the body as well. Multi-
ple weapons may be seen with a single event.
Investigative Considerations
The leaders of destructive cults are often involved with scams and may have
a criminal history. However, this may not be the case if the cult is a splinter
group of a mainstream, conventional religion. In either case, the leadership
displays a masterful ability to attract and manipulate people, exploiting their
vulnerability.
The murder may not have any apparent religious overtones and ritualistic
qualities. There may be a message after the killing, especially it is intended
for the public.
The motive is often presented to the general assembly of the cult as part
of the group belief. The leader’s motivation, however, will be a controlling
factor: “a macho way” to justify the homicide, tighten his control of the
group, or eliminate troublemakers or less devoted followers who threatened
his authority.
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CASE STUDY: 141: GROUP CAUSE HOMICIDE, CULT
Background
On January 3, 1990, investigators acted on an anonymous tip they had re-
ceived and began to dig under a muddy barn floor on a farm twenty-five
miles east of Cleveland. The property once had been occupied by a religious
cult. Over the next two days, they unearthed five bodies; two appeared to be
adult, two were medium size, and one was a child.
The former tenants were known as the Lundgren Cult after their leader,
Jeffrey Lundgren. Lundgren, his wife, son, and ten members of his group
were subsequently charged and arrested over the next few days for the slay-
ings of the family of five.
Victimology
The victims were later found to be Dennis Avery, age forty-nine; his wife,
Cheryl, age forty-two; and their three daughters, Trina, age fifteen; Rebecca,
age thirteen; and Karen, age seven. They had moved to Kirtland around 1987
from Independence, Missouri. Dennis Avery was described as working at
various low-paying part-time jobs. “If it was not for some people, they
would not have had food on their plates,” said one Kirtland neighbor. The
Averys were described as a quiet, shy family that kept to themselves. They
attended services a few times at the local Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints before joining the radical splinter group of Lund-
gren’s followers.
Once the Averys joined Lundgren’s cult, they were further isolated, typi-
cal of cult practice. Before their disappearance in April, they moved from
Kirtland to a Madison Township home because they were behind in rent. It
is possible the Averys were attempting to recede from the Lundgren cult,
which contributed to their being targeted as the victims for a cult sacrifice.
A neighbor described the sudden disappearance of the Averys as well as the
rest of the commune as if “the earth opened up and swallowed them.”
Crime Scene Indicators
The grave site was an eight-foot-square area underneath the barn of the fifteen-
acre farm. The barn itself was filled with trash piled four feet high. Police
had to force their way through the rear of the barn because the only ground-
level entrance was blocked by trash as well as a 1978 Volvo. Lake County
Auto Title Bureau records showed a 1978 Volvo registered to Dennis and
Cheryl Avery.
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On top of the grave site, as detailed from the informant’s diagram, were
several photos of the Avery family. The bodies were found in a common
grave four feet deep. They had been sprinkled with lime and covered with
dirt, rocks, and clay. Dennis Avery’s body was in a plastic bag. All the bod-
ies were found fully clothed. All the victims were bound hand and foot with
duct tape. Their eyes and mouths were also covered with duct tape.
Forensic Findings
All the victims had been killed by gunshot wounds to the chest. Rebecca
Avery had also been shot in the head. The murder weapon was a .45 caliber
Colt semiautomatic handgun.
Investigative Considerations
The Avery family was killed by an execution-style method. This is evidenced
by the use of duct tape to bind their hands and feet and cover their eyes and
mouth. The number of victims also illustrates the investigative consideration
that cult homicides are often a spree or mass killing. The photographs of the
Avery family left on their grave most likely had a ritualistic significance to
Jeffrey Lundgren’s twisted interpretation of Mormon doctrine.
Investigation
To understand the motive for the Avery family murders requires a closer look
at the dynamics of the Lundgren cult, and especially its leader.
Jeffrey Lundgren was born in Independence, Missouri. He was a member
of the Slover Park Reorganized Church until officials transferred him to Kirt-
land to serve as a guide at the Kirtland Temple. He married Alice Keehler in
1970 and lived for a while in a rented home in Macks Creek, Missouri. The
beginnings of his deviation from the Reorganized Church doctrines began to
emerge at this time. After Lundgren moved out, the landlord found an entire
bedroom floor and closet littered with “heavy-duty” pornographic magazines.
It was also during this period (1986–1987) that Lundgren began to use his
position as tour guide for the Kirtland Temple to proclaim his interpretation
of church doctrine and recruit his followers. Lundgren’s supervisor began to
hear complaints from temple visitors that Lundgren was misrepresenting
teachings of the Reorganized Church. In addition to ethical improprieties at
the visitors’ center, Lundgren was suspected of stealing money. In 1987, he
was removed as a tour guide. In January 1988, he was defrocked as a lay
minister because his teachings deviated from church doctrine and were con-
sidered apostate. Lundgren resigned from the church and had to move from
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his rent-free home provided by the church. He relocated to the farm four
miles away.
Lundgren continued to make recruiting trips to Independence, Missouri,
persuading members of the Reorganized Church, including Dennis Avery, to
join his “Family.” Lundgren became the personable “Father” and “Prophet”
to emotionally troubled men and women made vulnerable by divorce, finan-
cial problems, or personal crises. He supported them, provided spiritual
guidance, and took them in, giving them a place to belong. He became the
guru who led his group to believe that he was the spokesman for God.
It was not long before Lundgren’s zeal and manipulations allowed him
absolute spiritual authority over the group. He matched couples in the com-
mune based on visions he claimed came from God. Paychecks were signed
over to him, phone calls were monitored, and when visitors came, he sat in
on their conversations.
As group members became accustomed to Lundgren’s control, the cult
began to evolve into something more ominous than a religious sect. Rumors
of paramilitary activity—shots being fired, use of code names such as Eagle-
2 and Talon-2, fatigues, and marching—began to reach the ears of area offi-
cials. An informant told Kirtland police that Lundgren was planning an
assault on the Kirtland Temple that included killing Reorganized Church
leaders and hundreds of people who lived near the church. He felt that the
massacre would cleanse the church and pave the way for the second coming
of Christ. Several appointed dates for the attack came and went because
Lundgren had a vision the time was not right.
Lundgren remained under the observation of the FBI and local police for
several years. Finally, on April 18, 1989, almost twenty FBI agents inter-
viewed Lundgren and eight followers for about three hours because agents
learned some of the group wanted to leave the cult. But no one left and no
arrests were made since a crime had not been committed. No one in the
group even had a police record.
That night, or early the next morning, Lundgren and his followers left
Kirtland. The police were getting too close to the grisly events of the preced-
ing day, April 17.
A cult member who lived with Lundgren until April 1988 made the obser-
vation that the Averys were different from the others on the farm. They did
not live there but visited a lot. They really were not “in”—half believing and
half not. “They were weak in mind and strength. Everybody was doing a
hundred or so push-ups and Dennis could only do five or ten.”
Surely this lack of commitment on Dennis Avery’s part was an affront to
the image of “divine prophet” Lundgren ascribed to himself. Lundgren’s
choice of the Avery family as a cult sacrifice stems from this threat to his dic-
tatorship. The precipitating factor for the murders arises from the tradition
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Homicide 249
contained in the Book of Mormon concerning the search for the Sword of
Laban. Lundgren was planning to lead his followers into the wilderness in
search for this sword, but first there had to be a cleansing sacrifice. Dennis
Avery and his family were that sacrifice. Lundgren probably used the story
of Laban who was killed by his own sword to justify killing the Averys.
Avery had bought a .45 for Lundgren two days before he was killed by a .45-
caliber handgun. Since the Averys were about to abandon the cult, their
death was justified by the Mormon “Doctrine of Blood Atonement” that
teaches the penalty for abandoning the faith is the shedding of the sinner’s
blood. Lundgren could simultaneously satisfy his doctrinal beliefs, soothe
his offended authority, and intimidate any other group members who may
have been slipping from his control.
On April 17, the Lundgren “Family,” including the Averys, gathered to-
gether at the Chardon Road farm for a “last” meal. When supper had ended,
the men excused themselves with the exception of Dennis Avery. While the
women entertained the rest of the Avery family, several men asked Dennis to
follow them outside to the barn. As Avery entered the barn, he was hit with
a stun gun. He promised his cooperation, probably still unaware of Lund-
gren’s plans for him and his family. His hands, mouth, and eyes were then
taped with duct tape, and he was led to the waiting grave. Once Avery was
standing inside the hole, Jeffrey Lundgren passed judgment on him for
allowing Cheryl to control their family and declared his heart impure. Lund-
gren then provided his remedy for this sin by shooting Avery in the chest
with the .45 point blank. Then Cheryl Avery was led to the barn, bound with
duct tape, and also shot in chest as she knelt next to her husband’s corpse.
One by one the children were carried to the open grave after being bound by
the tape and shot in the chest, with the exception of Rebecca, who was also
shot in the head.
Two days later, the group packed up and left. They traveled from West
Virginia to Missouri before finally splitting up around Thanksgiving.
On January 7, 1990, Jeffrey Lundgren, his wife, and his son were arrested
outside a motel in National City, California. It is believed they were attempt-
ing to place their younger children with relatives in order to flee across the
border to Mexico. Of the thirteen charged in the cult slayings, two, Danny
Kraft and Kathy Johnson, remained at large for a short time but were arrested
on January 10, 1990.
Outcome
Jeffrey Lundgren was sentenced to death on five counts of aggravated mur-
der and kidnapping. Damon Lundgren, his son, was found guilty of four
counts of aggravated murder and is on Ohio’s death row. Alice Lundgren
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received five consecutive life sentences for conspiracy, complicity, and kid-
napping convictions. Nine of their followers are in prisons scattered across
the state.
142: EXTREMIST HOMICIDE
Extremist homicide is killing motivated by ideas based on a particular polit-
ical, economic, religious, or social system. This category of homicide in-
cludes both the lone offender whose actions are endorsed by the group and
the offense involving multiple offenders.
It is difficult to classify a homicide involving an extremist group into a sin-
gle category. Group causes can rarely be isolated to a single typology. There
is often a blending of one or more of the motivations described in this section.
One example, Hezbollah, has political objectives that serve to further the
Islamic religion. Hezbollah, whose name means “party of God,” was founded
in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It is a Lebanese um-
brella organization of radical Islamic Shiite groups and organizations that
opposes the West, seeks to create a Muslim fundamentalist state modeled on
Iran, and is a bitter foe of Israel. A terrorist group, it is believed responsible
for nearly two hundred attacks since 1982 that have killed more than eight
hundred people. Experts say Hezbollah is also a significant force in
Lebanon’s politics and a major provider of social services, operating schools,
hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites. It oper-
ates the al-Manar satellite television channel and broadcast station.
Right-wing groups like the Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord com-
bine religious concepts with elements of extreme racism. Fatal attacks on
blacks, Hispanics, and Jews are justified by these hate groups’ interpretation
of biblical passages, which differ significantly from those of mainstream
religious groups.
Extremist groups fall into these typologies:
• Political murder. This type of homicide is motivated by doctrines or
philosophies that oppose a current position of government or its repre-
sentatives.
• Religious. This is homicide prompted by a fervent devotion or a system
of beliefs based on orthodox religious conventions. This type of offense
does not include cult killings. Some examples of the mainstream reli-
gious groups included in this category are the Islamic, Jewish, and
Christian religions.
• Socioeconomic. This murder results from an intense hostility and aver-
sion toward another individual or group who represents a certain ethnic,
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Homicide 251
social, economic, or religious group. This category includes hate
groups such as the neo-Nazi skinheads, the KKK, and groups that prey
on gays and lesbians.
Extremist group murder can rarely be isolated to a single typology. Clas-
sification is based on the predominant motive.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. There are several types of victims targeted by extremist mur-
der. Predominantly, the victim represents the antithesis of the offenders’sys-
tem of beliefs; therefore, victimology depends on this doctrine. If multiple
victims are involved, there will be similarities of race, religion, political be-
liefs, or social or economic status. Selectivity is apparent in varying degrees.
The victim may be a victim of opportunity or a random target who just hap-
pened across the path of the offender at the wrong time. Conversely, a vic-
tim may be targeted and die as the result of a premeditated, well-planned
attack.
Extremist murder victimology also includes the victims who come into
conflict with the group’s objectives. This type of fatality consists of the in-
formant, the straying member, or any other member who poses a threat to
either the leader’s control or group integrity.
A third type of victim is the one who is killed due to association with tar-
gets of the group. An example is the 1988 stabbing death of twenty-four-
year-old Scott Vollmer by a skinhead, Michael Elrod. Vollmer had brought a
black friend to a party when Elrod began shouting racial slurs. Elrod, nine-
teen years old, whose driver’s license lists “Skin” as his middle name,
stabbed Vollmer as he tried to intercede on behalf of his black friend
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. This type of offense often in-
cludes multiple crime scenes: confrontation site, death scene, and body dis-
posal or burial locale.
Crime scene indicators depend on the number of offenders: a lone of-
fender acting on behalf of the group or multiple offenders. Generally, multi-
ple offenders present the obvious crime scene indicators. There may be
evidence of different weapons and ammunition. The victim usually is well
controlled. An example of this at the crime scene would be minimal signs of
victim escape attempts: widespread blood splatter patterns and trails, over-
turned furniture, and other signs of struggle. A significant number of victims
may offer indication of multiple offenders as well.
If there are multiple offenders, the location of the crime scene may be one
that is convenient and low risk for the killers. Offender risk is lowered by
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preplanning and surveillance for both the assault and abduction and escape.
A group effort allows a more organized, methodical approach to the killing,
especially with an abduction and murder. Body disposal will often be more
elaborate and low risk when a group effort is involved. As in many of the in-
dividual homicides described in this manual, the crime scene is best repre-
sented by a continuum, from the disorganized, sloppy offense to the highly
professional, well-organized one. The amount of physical evidence left at
the scene and the ease of assault, abduction, and escape depend on the so-
phistication of the group.
A lone offender may also demonstrate control and organization at the
crime scene, depending on his or her level of professionalism. However,
the number of victims will most likely be limited and the overall offense usu-
ally is not committed with the ease of one involving multiple offenders.
The calling card of the group, such as symbols or communiqués, may be
left at the scene.
Staging. Staging is not present because the homicide is intended to commu-
nicate some message on behalf of the group.
Common Forensic Findings. The physical evidence of multiple offenders
(fibers, hairs, prints, shoe impressions) may be evident at the crime scene
depending on the level of group organization. There may be evidence of dif-
ferent weaponry, for example, different caliber firearms or combinations of
weapons such as firearms and knives.
The forensics often demonstrate the calling card or signature aspect of
the group. For example, the preferred method of attack for Yahwehs is dis-
memberment, especially decapitation; for the Irish Republican Army,
bombing; for many left-wing groups, firearms; and for skinheads, blunt-
force trauma from personal weapons such as hands and feet. Multiple
wounds or excessive trauma are other indicators of possible group involve-
ment. The lone offender will mostly likely lack the signs evident of multi-
ple offenders.
Investigative Considerations
Preoffense behavior may be evident in the planning, surveillance, and selec-
tion of the victim. In addition, the ease of escape will often demonstrate this
preplanning. An example is with bombings that use a transmitting device:
one person will trigger the bomb from a car, while the other is driving them
away from the scene, thus allowing for an escape masked by the confusion
of the explosion.
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Postincident analysis of any claims or communiqués is important to deter-
mine authenticity. An investigator should not conclude the communicating
party is the offender without careful examination through psycholinguistics
and other avenues.
A postoffense protection conspiracy by the group should be expected.
Great caution should always be used when approaching any group meeting
places or compounds. The use of booby traps is not an uncommon practice
of many extremist groups.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions include documentation of offense preplanning and
execution stages, such as computers, diaries, journals, recordings (audiovisual
or audio), maps, and photos of victim. Also useful are media materials per-
taining to group beliefs and activities and to the victim, especially if the mur-
der is a political assassination. Firearms, explosive devices related to group
signature, and evidence of stalking (travel tickets or receipts or photos)
should be considered.
142.01: EXTREMIST HOMICIDE, POLITICAL
Extremist groups often adopt a paramilitary organizational structure and
method of operation. Characteristics of a paramilitary extremist group in-
clude the wearing of uniforms, the use of training compounds, a hierarchy
of leadership based on rank, and an internal code of discipline and conduct.
They are highly organized groups and often have an abundance of written
materials pertaining to their beliefs and structure.
Defining Characteristics
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene of a paramilitary
extremist group is usually highly organized. The use of military tactics and MO
will be demonstrated. Knowledge of the group’s MO will be important in ex-
amining not only the crime scene but also all elements of the offense. There will
be no staging because the intent of the killing is to convey a message.
Common Forensic Findings. The forensics of a paramilitary attack gener-
ally do not demonstrate overkill. The assault is usually a clean kill, exhibit-
ing a military style of operation. Firearms and explosives are most frequently
the weapons of choice.
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Investigation
The offense will involve selection, surveillance, and even rehearsal. Sus-
pects involved in paramilitary operations often have criminal records. Booby
traps are especially a danger when approaching this type of extremist group
operation.
CASE STUDY: 142.01:
EXTREMIST HOMICIDE, POLITICAL
On November 6, 1973, Marcus Foster, a highly respected black superintend-
ent of the Oakland, California, school system, was leaving an education
committee meeting with his deputy, Robert Blackburn. As they exited the
building, two gunmen ambushed them, killing Foster and wounding Black-
burn. The autopsy on Foster revealed the killers had used bullets filled with
cyanide crystals.
A letter sent to a local radio station stated that the Symbionese Libera-
tion Army (SLA) was responsible for the ambush. The letter said that Fos-
ter and his deputy had been found guilty by a court of the people for “crimes
against the children and life of the people.” Some of these “crimes”
included the proposal to form a school police unit, identity cards for stu-
dents, and an effort to coordinate teachers, probation officers, and police to
help reduce juvenile crime.
The SLA was founded by a black escaped convict, Donald DeFreeze. Its
roots sprang from the black prison population in California. The most
famous incident involving the SLA was the kidnapping of heiress Patty
Hearst, who later joined the organization and assisted in a bank robbery per-
petrated by the SLA.
On January 10, 1974, police arrested Russell Jack Little, age twenty-four,
and Michael Remiro, age twenty-seven, near Concord, California. A ballis-
tics report linked a gun in Remiro’s possession to Foster’s murder. Shortly
afterward, a nearby house belonging to another SLA member was set on fire.
Police responding to the call found a cache of guns, ammunition, explosives,
cyanide, and SLA pamphlets. They also discovered a list of officials marked
for kidnapping and execution.
Outcome
On May 17, 1974, six members of the SLA were killed in shootout with the
police. The FBI arrested Patty Hearst after sixteen months as a fugitive on
September 18, 1975. Little and Remiro, both admitting their membership to
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Homicide 255
the SLA, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Marcus Fos-
ter and the attempted murder of deputy Blackburn.
CASE STUDY: 142.02:
EXTREMIST HOMICIDE, RELIGIOUS
Background
On January 11, 1983, Memphis Police officer R. S. “Bob” Hester, along with
two other patrolmen, responded to a bogus tip about a shoplifting warrant for
Lindberg Sanders who resided at 2239 Shannon Street. Upon entering the
residence, a group of individuals later described as religious fanatics at-
tacked the three officers in an apparent attempt to capture them. One officer
was shot in the face but managed to escape. The second officer was severely
beaten about the face and head but also managed to escape.
At 3:15 A.M. on January 13, members of the Memphis Police Department
TACT team swept into the house through a back door and found Officer
Hester dead. The seven offenders who had held him hostage were subse-
quently killed when they engaged police in a gun battle.
Victimology
Patrolman Hester, age thirty-four, was one month shy of his ten-year an-
niversary as a Memphis police officer when he was taken hostage. He had
worked the North Precinct most of his career. He was hurt once in the line of
duty in 1977 when he was attacked by a man in a pool hall.
Officer Hester had the reputation for making a great deal of quality felony
arrests. He had received several commendations as well. He also was active
with the police department athletics.
Crime Scene Indicators
The crime scene combined the last known hostage location and place of con-
frontation with police: both usually contain indicators crucial to any hostage-
murder. The incident involving Officer Hester never left the confines of the
Shannon Street house.
Forensic Findings
The autopsy report of Officer Hester stated he had suffered numerous in-
juries caused by blunt-force trauma. Most of the injury was focused on his
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face and head. His skull was fractured in at least one place along the hair-
line. There were numerous scrapes and lacerations on Hester’s head and
face in addition to bruises on his upper thigh and abdomen near the groin.
There were lacerations behind the elbows and below both knees. A blunt
instrument had produced two puncture wounds on his right leg. Cause of
death was summarized as “beaten to death.” Hester’s time of death was esti-
mated to be around twelve to fourteen hours before the house was stormed.
Investigation
Lindberg Sanders, the leader of the “Shannon Street Seven,” was described
by friends as once being an easy-going, dependable craftsman. He began to
undergo a change in 1973 when he was hospitalized for psychiatric prob-
lems. After several more hospitalizations and outpatient treatment, Lindberg
was diagnosed as a schizophrenic with religious delusions. He quit working
altogether in 1975 and devoted his time to reading the Bible and holding
meetings at his Shannon Street home. From this meetings, a small group of
followers emerged who adopted Sander’s beliefs and routinely gathered with
him to fast, smoke marijuana, and read the Bible. Lindberg believed that
pork and scavenger fish should not be eaten and water could be drunk only
if it was colored. His followers would put mustard, Kool-Aid, or ketchup in
their water so it was not clear.
At some point, Lindberg’s doctrine began to take an ominous direction, dic-
tating that police were agents of the devil, antireligious, and anti-Christian.
The precipitating factor of the Shannon Street siege may have been that
Sanders believed the world was due to end that week. His group had congre-
gated four days before the incident and began to fast and pray in preparation
for the end. Lindberg had expressed his belief that he was gifted with a spe-
cial immortality, so he expected to survive the end of the world as well as a
bullet from a policeman’s gun.
The incident actually started with an earlier call on January 11 when po-
lice were told a suspect wanted in a purse snatching was at the Sanders res-
idence. The police talked to Sanders and those gathered with him at his
home. The members of the group were very upset that the world had not
ended Monday, as Sanders had predicted. The responding officers left with-
out incident since there was nothing that could to lead to an arrest.
At 9:00 P.M. the call was placed for them to return. This is the one that
Patrolman Hester responded to. He and the other two officers were met with
a barrage of gunfire. The two other officers escaped, although both were
wounded. Negotiators tried for the next twenty-four hours to reason with
Sanders, without success. On January 12 at 11:11 P.M., all of the lights in the
house were turned out by its occupants. After a thirty-hour siege, the police
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stormed the house with automatic weapons and tear gas, killing Sanders and
the six other men. Hester had been beaten to death several hours earlier, the
police said.
143: GROUP EXCITEMENT
A death that results from group excitement—a group’s aggression escalates
in proportion to the actions committed to the victim—can be structured or
unstructured, with a contagious component.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim can start as a targeted individual and as the chaos
and excitement escalate, more random persons become involved. Another
variation of this is that the group chooses a victim randomly. There are often
multiple victims and possible surviving victims of the attack.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. There are often witnesses to
this type of attack, although they may be hesitant to come forward. The
attack usually occurs in an open, public place. The weapons used are typi-
cally those of opportunity, especially personal weapons such as the hands
and feet. The crime scene is disorganized with no cover-up; the body is left
in the open with minimal to no effort to conceal it. There are usually signs
of the multiple offender involved: fingerprints, footprints, fibers, semen,
and others.
Common Forensic Findings. There is usually overkill due to bludgeoning
and generalized blunt-force trauma. The victim shows multiple wounds
from a frenzied assault. There may sexual assault or insertion.
Investigative Considerations
Drugs and alcohol are often involved with the offenders. The attack is of
short duration, and there are often witnesses due to the openness of the
crime. Since a loosely structured group with no main leader is involved,
the weakness of the group may be exploited.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrant suggestions include documentation of offense preplanning and
execution stages, personal computers of the suspects, their diaries, journals,
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recordings (audiovisual or audio), maps, and photos of victim. Also useful are
media materials found in their apartments pertaining to group beliefs and
activities.
CASE STUDY: 143: GROUP EXCITEMENT
Background
Around dusk on October 1, 1984, Catherine Fuller was taking a shortcut
home from the grocery store. As she walked down the alley of 802 K Street,
NE, in Washington, D.C., she was confronted by a large group of young
adults ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-six, male and female. What
started as a robbery turned into a brutal melee in which the ninety-nine-
pound woman was savagely beaten to death.
Victimology
Catherine Fuller, age forty-eight, was described as a good samaritan who
helped the elderly of her neighborhood and always was smiling. She was a
petite woman, standing only five feet tall. David, her husband of fifteen
years, described her as strong and feisty despite her small stature. Catherine
had six children, three of whom still lived at home at the time of her death.
She was characterized as also being a “homie” who enjoyed staying at home
with her family more than going out.
Crime Scene Indicators
The crime scene of a group excitement murder reflects the disorganized,
spontaneous nature of the crime. The points detailed under frequent crime
scene indicators were evident in the assault on Fuller. The initial con-
frontation occurred in a public, open place: an alley less than two blocks
from Catherine’s home. She had been spotted from across the road by the
offenders. They had been smoking pot and decided it was time to get
“paid.” Just as they decided to rob someone, Fuller walked by. Her small
stature probably made her appear an easy target. Several offenders caught
up with her and boxed her in like a moving roadblock, driving her into the
alley. She was assaulted and killed in a vacant, litter-strewn garage, and her
body was left at the death scene, openly displayed with no attempt to con-
ceal it.
There were multiple offenders; the police believe as many as twenty-five
to thirty people were involved. There were many witnesses, but due to their
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Homicide 259
fear of the offenders, few would talk to the police. The weapons were those
of opportunity: a one-foot pole probably found in the alley and use of hands
and feet. The violence of the assault escalated as the group excitement
intensified.
Forensic Findings
Catherine Fuller had suffered extensive blunt-force trauma resulting in mas-
sive internal bleeding from being kicked and punched. A one-foot pole was
shoved up her rectum while the offenders held her legs. The pole was shoved
with such force that it tore through her intestines and ruptured her liver.
Either the beatings or the internal damage from the pole could have caused
death by itself.
Investigation
The group involved with the murder was not a structured gang at the time of
assault but more a gathering of bored young people. The attack was not
directed by distinctive leadership, but started with a suggestion from some-
one to rob somebody. Not long after the proposition was raised, Catherine
Fuller walked by.
It was not clear whether any of the offenders knew the victim. Her iden-
tity did not matter since victim selection was motivated by convenience:
Fuller was simply a victim of opportunity.
One offender stated that he did not think anyone had planned to do any of
things they did beyond robbing Fuller. But she fought back, arousing an
eruption of violence that fed on itself. The offenders were not going to let
this little woman make them lose face in front of their peers.
One witness described the attack as a carnival-like atmosphere with peo-
ple shouting, “Let me see,” and joining in. Some were shocked, but they did
not intervene or tell anyone, probably due to fear of becoming the focus of
the attack. One sociologist explained the group dynamics of the attack by
saying that everyone wanted to be part of the group; they were swept along
with the chaos and excitement, wanting their share of it. Put more simply in
the words of an offender, “Everyone was doing stuff. I wanted to show I
could do stuff, too.”
Outcome
Several of the offenders jogged past the garage to see if Fuller was still alive.
A vendor going into the alley to urinate found the body when he saw blood
coming from under the garage door.
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Ten people were convicted in the murder of Catherine Fuller. A jury con-
victed eight of them, and two others pleaded guilty to felony murder. Police
believe there are still many more who took part in the kicking and punching
that killed Mrs. Fuller, but will probably never be bought to justice because of
the confusion of the attack and the reluctance of witnesses to come forward.
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CHAPTER
7
Arson/Bombing
200: Vandalism-motivated arson
201: Willful and malicious mischief
201.01 Experimentation with fire/explosives
201.02 Reporting/causing false alarms
201.03 Hoax devices
202: Peer/group pressure
209: Other
210: Excitement-motivated arson
211: Thrill seeker
212: Attention seeker
213: Recognition (hero)
214: Sexual perversion
219: Other
220: Revenge-motivated arson
221: Personal revenge
221.01: Spite
221.02: Jealousy
222: Institutional retaliation
223: Intimidation
229: Other
261
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230: Crime concealment
231: Murder
232: Suicide
233: Breaking and entering
234: Embezzlement
235: Larceny
236: Destroying records
239: Other
240: Profit-motivated arson
241: Fraud
241.01: Insurance
241.02: Liquidate property
241.03: Dissolve business
241.04: Inventory
242: Employment
243: Parcel clearance
244: Competition
249: Other
250: Extremist-motivated arson
251: Terrorism
252: Discrimination
253: Riots/civil disturbance
259: Other
260: Serial arson
261: Spree arson
262: Mass arson
270: Serial bombing
Arson is the crime of setting a fire with intent to cause damage. A fire investi-
gation is an unenviable task. The devastation, charred debris, collapsed struc-
tures, and water-soaked ashes, together with the smoke and stench, make the
task uninviting and difficult.
The best investigation uses a team of trained personnel. It begins with fire
brigade staff. Police and insurance investigators are added for their skills in
determining motive and opportunities. An electrical engineer or electrician
is required to investigate electrical systems. Scientists have a valuable role
to play. They should be able to arrive at a fire scene without any predeter-
mined ideas. An analytical approach, using patient, thorough, and systematic
technique should reveal critical and vital information.
The basic role of an investigator at a fire scene is twofold: to determine
the origin of the fire (the site where the fire began) and then to examine the
site of origin closely to try to determine what caused a fire to start at or near
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Arson/Bombing 263
that location. An examination typically begins by trying to gain an overall im-
pression of the site and the fire damage; this could be done at ground level
or from an elevated position. From this the investigator might proceed to an
examination of the materials present, the fuel load, and the state of the debris
at various places. The search for the fire’s origin should be based on elemen-
tary rules:
• Fire tends to burn upward and outward, so investigators should look for
Vpatterns along walls.
• The presence of combustible materials will increase the intensity and
extent of the fire, and the fire will rise faster as it gets hotter. Investiga-
tors therefore look for different temperature conditions.
• The fire needs fuel and oxygen to continue.
•A fire’s spread will be influenced by factors such as air currents, walls,
and stairways. Falling burning debris and the effectiveness of firefight-
ers will also have an influence.
If a fire is not the result of an accident, it must be arson. The motives to
commit arson include vandalism, fraud, revenge, sabotage, and pyromania.
A major objective in any suspected case of arson is to locate, sample, and
analyze residual accelerants.
It is a primary mission of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent
Crime (NCAVC) to conduct arson offender research in order to provide inves-
tigative assistance to police and fire agencies in unsolved arson cases. Through
this research, the NCAVC has recognized that identifying the offender’s
motive is a key element in crime analysis. It then uses this method of analysis
to determine the recognizable personal traits and characteristics exhibited by
an unknown offender. Motive can be defined as an inner drive or impulse that
is the cause, reason, or incentive that induces or prompts a specific behavior
(Rider, 1980). The following motive classifications consistently appear and
have proven most effective in identifying offender characteristics:
• Revenge
• Excitement
• Vandalism
•Profit
• Crime concealment
ARSON: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Defining Characteristics
Victimology: Targeted Property
• The essential factor that often determines the motive
• Random, opportunistic versus specific
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Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted
• Organized arsonist
Elaborate incendiary devices (for example, electronic timing
mechanisms, initiators)
Less physical evidence; if forced entry, more skillful (for example,
footprints, fingerprints)
Methodical approach (for example, trailers, multiple sets, excessive
accelerant use)
• Disorganized arsonist
Materials on hand
Matches, cigarettes, more common accelerants (lighter fluid, gasoline)
More physical evidence left (handwriting, footprints, fingerprints)
Common Forensic Findings
• Incendiary devices: components (initiators, timing devices, candles,
electronic timers, tape, wires)
• Accelerants: gasoline, lighter fluid, mixtures (gasoline/kerosene)
• More sophisticated accelerants: diesel/kerosene, water soluble (alcohol)
• Molotov cocktail: glass fragments for fingerprints, cloth for fiber match
Search Warrant Suggestions
• Evidence of incendiary devices: packing, components, fireworks, fire-
crackers, tape for matching with crime scene evidence, how-to books
200: VANDALISM-MOTIVATED ARSON
Vandalism-motivated arson is due to malicious and mischievous motivation
that results in destruction or damage. The types of vandalism-motivated ar-
son in this category are willful and malicious mischief (201), peer/group
pressure (202), and other (209).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Educational facilities are a common target for arson moti-
vated by vandalism. Other properties targeted by the vandal arsonist are res-
idential areas and vegetation (which includes grass, brush, woodland. and
timber).
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Arson by vandalism fre-
quently involves multiple offenders who act spontaneously and impulsively.
If multiple offenders are involved, one personality tends to be the leader or
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Arson/Bombing 265
instigator of the group. The typical crime scene reflects the spontaneous na-
ture of the offense and is representative of a disorganized crime. The offend-
ers tend to use materials present at the site and leave physical evidence at the
scene such as footprints and fingerprints. Occasionally flammable liquids
are used. The offenders may gain entrance to a secured structure through
windows. Evidence will show a mechanical breaking of the glass as opposed
to heat breakage. Matchbooks, cigarettes, and spray-paint cans (used for
graffiti) often are present. Other signs suggesting vandalism may be present,
including writing on chalkboards, materials missing from the scene, and
general destruction of property.
Common Forensic Findings. Analysis of any flammable liquid used is the
main forensic finding. The occasional use of firecrackers or fireworks pro-
vides additional evidence for forensic analysis. If the offenders entered the
property by breaking a window, glass particles may be present in the cloth-
ing of the identified suspects.
Investigative Considerations
The typical offender is a juvenile male who has seven to nine years of for-
mal education. He tends to have a record of poor school performance and
does not work. He is single and lives with either one or both parents. Alco-
hol and drug use generally are not associated with the fire setting. The of-
fender may be already known to the police and may have an arrest record. It
also is probable that at least one of the offenders is known to school author-
ities as being disruptive and having a problem dealing with authority.
The majority of these offenders live less than one mile from the crime
scene. Most flee immediately from the scene and do not return. If they do
return, they view the fire from a safe and distant vantage point.
To narrow the scope of the investigation and limit the number of suspects,
the investigator should solicit the help of school, fire service, and police offi-
cials. These officials would be the most likely to come into contact with pre-
vious vandalism-motivated activities of the juvenile offender.
Search Warrant Suggestions
• Spray paint cans
• Items from the scene, especially if a school was the target
• Explosive devices; fireworks, firecrackers, packaging, or cartons
• Flammable liquids
• Clothing; evidence of flammable liquid; glass shards, for witness iden-
tification
• Shoes: footprints, flammable liquid traces
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CASE STUDY: 201:
WILLFUL AND MALICIOUS MISCHIEF
Background
At 10:37 P.M. on a clear, cool Saturday night in the fall of 1990, a fire was
discovered at a junior high school. The fire caused in excess of $250,000
damage to the school’s library and an adjacent all-purpose room. As insur-
ance costs were extremely high in the low-income area this school served,
coverage was minimal and included large deductibles. The financially
strapped school district was unable to repair all the structural damage, let
alone replace the books lost in the fire.
Victimology
The school, built in 1972 to serve grades 6 through 9, had a history of fires
over the years, but none were as large as this one. As with many other
schools, vandalism was a problem. There were occasional false fire alarms
and bomb threats, and graffiti was evident in many areas of the building.
Periodically, shop equipment and windows were broken deliberately with
rocks. There was also some theft.
Crime Scene Indicators
After interviewing firefighters, investigators examining the crime scene de-
termined that a library window facing an interior courtyard had been broken.
Glass had been removed from the lower edge of the frame, and a sweatshirt
was placed over the sill, apparently so that the burglars would not cut them-
selves. Inside the building, investigators found the origin of the fire in a
wastebasket against a wall, beside a photocopier. Hundreds of books had
been pulled from the shelves and lay in the aisles where they had fallen. By
noting the protected floor areas beneath the books, firefighters confirmed
that the books were in that position before the fire began. Smoke damage and
fire damage were too extensive to determine if other acts of vandalism took
place. The fire was ruled to be arson.
Forensic Findings
No evidence of flammable liquid was found at the scene. It appeared that
an open flame was applied to the available material in and around the waste-
basket. No footprints were found that could have belonged to the suspects,
and if there were any, they were obliterated during the firefighting efforts. A
fragment of basalt block was found on the floor inside the library, opposite
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Arson/Bombing 267
the broken window. The sweatshirt found was of medium size, dark blue in
color, and had no lettering. After the sweatshirt was dried and examined
carefully (it was soaking wet due to the firefighting efforts), black hairs were
found inside it.
Investigation
Because of the type of target, the manner of attack, and the evidence found
at the scene, investigators suspected that students might have been respon-
sible for setting the fire. They approached school authorities and asked a
vice principal for a list of students she thought capable of the crime. After
consulting student counselors, she supplied twenty-three names. Several
days later, as investigators were nearly through interviewing those listed,
they received a call from the mother of one of the students. She reported that
her son had told her that another student had boasted that he and another
youth had set the fire. These two students, whose names were on the list pro-
vided by school authorities, were interviewed and separately confessed to
the crime.
Outcome
The boys, both fourteen years old, were turned over to juvenile authorities.
Both had been in previous trouble involving minor violations, and one was
suspected of involvement in burglaries. They were adjudicated delinquent
and remanded to the state youth facility. Their parents could have been liable
for fire damage; however, neither had insurance or was able to pay.
210: EXCITEMENT-MOTIVATED ARSON
The excitement-motivated arsonist is prompted to set fires because he craves
excitement that is satisfied by fire setting. This offender rarely intends the
fire to harm people. The types of arsonists included in this category are thrill
seeker (211), attention seeker (212), recognition (hero) (213), sexual perver-
sion (214), and other (219).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The type of property targeted will help determine the motive.
Dumpsters, vegetation (grass, brush, woodland, and timber), lumber stacks,
construction sites, and residential property are common targets of the excite-
ment fire setter. The offender may select a location that offers a good vantage
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point from which to safely observe the fire suppression and investigation. In
some cases where fires occur inside unoccupied structures, volunteer fire-
fighters and fire buffs should not be eliminated as possible suspects. Both lone
and multiple offenders are common to this type of arson.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The targeted properties are
often adjacent to outdoor areas that have a reputation as a hangout or place
of frequent parties. The offender often will use materials on hand. If incen-
diary devices are used, they usually have a time-delay mechanism. Offend-
ers in the eighteen to thirty age group are more prone to use accelerants.
Matches and cigarettes are frequently used to ignite vegetation fires.
A small percentage of excitement fires are motivated by sexual perver-
sion. At these crime scenes, the investigator may find ejaculate, fecal
deposits, or pornographic material (magazines or pictures). In most cases,
this fire setter uses available material and starts small fires.
Common Forensic Findings. In addition to the standard examination of
fingerprints, vehicle and bicycle tire tracks, and so on, the forensic analysis
that is performed should look for the possible remnants of the components
of incendiary devices. If the arsonist is motivated by sexual perversion, ejac-
ulate or fecal material may offer forensic information of value.
Investigative Considerations
The typical excitement arsonist is a juvenile or young adult male with ten
or more years of formal education. This offender is generally unemployed,
single, and living with one or both parents. His family tends to be from the
middle-class to lower-middle-class bracket. In general, this offender is so-
cially inadequate, particularly in heterosexual relationships. Serial offenders
are common to this category of fire setters.
The use of drugs or alcohol usually is not found with the youngest of-
fenders but does occur with older ones. A history of police contact for nui-
sance offenses is prevalent with the excitement-motivated offender. The
older the offender is, the longer the record.
The distance that the offender lives from the crime scene can be fre-
quently determined by an analysis of the targets he or she burned. Through
target and cluster analysis, the investigator can determine if the offender is
mobile. Some excitement-motivated arsonists do not leave once the fire has
started. They prefer to mingle with the crowds who have gathered to watch
the fire. The offenders who do leave the scene usually return later and ob-
serve the damage and activity of their handiwork.
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Search Warrant Suggestions
Vehicle
• Material similar to incendiary devices used: fireworks, containers that
components were shipped in, packaging, wires
• Floor mats, trunk padding, carpeting: residue from accelerants (not
conclusive evidence but indicative)
• Beer cans, matchbooks, cigarettes: to match any brands found at the
scene
House
• Material similar to incendiary devices used: fireworks, containers that
components were shipped in, packaging, wires
• Clothing, shoes: accelerant and soil samples if vegetation fire
• Beer cans, matchbooks, cigarettes: to match any brands found at the
scene
• Cigarette lighter, especially if subject does not smoke
• Diaries, computers, journals, notes, logs, recordings, and maps docu-
menting fire
• Newspaper articles reporting fires
• Souvenirs from the crime scene
CASE STUDY: 212: ATTENTION SEEKER
Background
During the summer months, several junior volunteer firefighters sat in the
fire station of a small city, complaining that no one, least of all their chief,
took them seriously. These sixteen and seventeen year olds were thrilled at
the chance to ride on the fire engines they had always admired. Yet they
often were stung by the chief’s criticism of their performance. As the bored
youths sat and talked, they had an idea: if they could set a fire in a vacant
house, they would have a chance to show the chief how well they worked.
Although some of the young volunteers were reluctant, none of them chal-
lenged the idea.
Victimology
Over the span of one year, ten houses were set on fire. The houses were va-
cant and had been deemed uninhabitable before the fires occurred. Few of
these houses were insured.
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Crime Scene Indicators
Fire investigators noticed a pattern: all of the fires occurred in a jurisdiction
served by the volunteer fire department, were in vacant houses, and were set
during nighttime hours. All the houses had electricity and other utilities dis-
connected.
Forensic Findings
The fires were set with available material: paper products found at the scene,
such as newspapers, cardboard, and kindling of all sorts. These materials
were gathered, piled somewhere within the building, and then set on fire with
a match or cigarette lighter. No traces of flammable liquid were found. Any
footprints or tire tracks were obliterated when the youths returned with the
fire-suppression equipment. Forcible entry was rarely necessary and was not
apparent at the crime scenes.
Investigation
With so many youthful co-conspirators, the truth eventually reached the au-
thorities conducting the investigation. A search conducted during the course
of the investigation produced a diary in which one of the volunteers detailed
the times and locations of a few of the fires. The author of the diary impli-
cated himself and other volunteers, who in turn provided investigators with
additional names. Subsequently, eleven of the volunteer firefighters were
charged with arson. One defendant was quoted as saying, “It isn’t like we
wanted to go out and burn down houses to hurt people. The firehouse was
like our second home.”
Outcome
Since the defendants had no prior criminal records, they ultimately received
sentences ranging from probation to juvenile detention time, depending on
the extent of their involvement.
220: REVENGE-MOTIVATED ARSON
A revenge-motivated fire is set in retaliation for some injustice, real or imag-
ined, perceived by the offender. This offense may be a well-planned, one-
time event compared with the other categories of arson, or the offender may
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be a serial arsonist taking revenge against society, with little or no preplan-
ning. Many arson motivations have an element of revenge in addition to the
main motive. The types of revenge-motivated arson included in this category
are personal retaliation (221), societal retaliation (222), institutional retalia-
tion (for example, against the government) (222), group retaliation (for ex-
ample, against gangs) (222), intimidation (223), and other (229).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. As with most of the other arson categories, victimology be-
comes the key factor in determining the motive. This is especially true with
the revenge category. The victim of a revenge fire generally has a history of
interpersonal or professional conflict with the offender. Examples are con-
flicts developing from a lover’s triangle, a landlord-tenant relationship, or an
employer-employee association. Revenge-motivated arson also tends to be
an intraracial offense.
The targeted property often varies with the sex of the offender. Female
subjects usually target something of significance to the victim, such as a ve-
hicle or personal effects. The ex-lover revenge arsonist frequently burns
clothing, bedding, or other personal effects. For the revenge arsonist in gen-
eral, residential property and vehicles are the prime targets. Arsonists who
seek revenge against society may exhibit displaced aggression by choosing
targets at random. Other offenders retaliate against institutions such as
churches, government facilities, and universities or corporations.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The female offender usually
burns an area of personal significance, such as the living room sofa or the
bedroom. She often starts the fire by using the victim’s clothing or other per-
sonal effects. If she targets the victim’s vehicle, she usually sets fire to the
interior passenger compartment.
The male arsonist also may begin with an area of personal significance,
but his fire-setting episode is more wide ranging and destructive. He may use
an excessive amount of accelerant and sometimes Molotov cocktails.
Common Forensic Findings. The female arsonist’s accelerant of choice
tends to be flammables that are readily accessible, such as lighter fluid. The
male in this category is inclined to use excessive amounts of accelerants such
as gasoline. If he uses a Molotov cocktail, cloth for fiber comparisons, glass
for possible fingerprints, as well as accelerant residue are important forensic
evidence.
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Investigative Considerations
The revenge fire setter is predominantly an adult male with ten or more years
of formal education. If employed, this offender usually is a blue-collar
worker of lower socioeconomic status. A revenge arsonist typically resides
in rental property. Although this offender tends not to be a loner and has
close relationships, the relationships generally are not stable or long term.
An exception is the revenge-motivated serial arsonist, who is often a loner.
The revenge arsonist often has some type of prior law enforcement con-
tact for crimes such as burglary, theft, or vandalism. The use of alcohol with
this offense is common. The offender also may use drugs during the crime,
but alcohol use is more prevalent. The offender is rarely accompanied to the
crime scene and seldom returns once the fire is set. In fact, he wants as much
distance between himself and the fire as possible and concentrates on estab-
lishing an alibi. The offender usually lives within the affected community.
Mobility is a factor with him, so he often uses a vehicle to get to and from
the crime scene. This is in contrast to the revenge-motivated serial arsonist,
who frequently walks to the scene. After the fire, the offender may increase
alcohol consumption. He expresses a short-lived sense of relief and satisfac-
tion and an uncaring attitude toward the victim.
Since the revenge fire is a focused attack, the investigator needs to deter-
mine who has suffered the most from this fire. Does the victim have a his-
tory of conflict with someone? If the victim is a landlord, has he evicted
anyone recently? If the victim did have an evolving conflict with someone,
was an escalation of violence apparent?
The investigator is cautioned that documented studies show the events
that precipitate the revenge-motivated arson may take place months or even
years prior to the fire, a factor that is commonly overlooked. An investigator
should be prepared to expand the search if no suspects or viable leads are
apparent from the beginning.
Search Warrant Suggestions
• If accelerants are used: shoes, socks, clothing, glass particles in cloth-
ing (if there was a break-in)
• Discarded, concealed clothing
• Bottles, flammable liquids, matchbooks
• Cloth (fiber comparison), tape (if an explosive device was used)
• Objects taken from the scene
• Clothing, shoes if a liquid accelerant was used (or a homicide victim’s
blood; glass fragments if windows were broken during burglary attempt)
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CASE STUDY: 221: PERSONAL REVENGE
Background
A private residence located in a metropolitan suburb was the scene of personal-
revenge arson. The owner, a male who lived alone in the house, had been away
for a few days. When he returned, he found the interior of his house on fire. In
trying to extinguish it himself, he discovered that two fires had been set.
Victimology
One fire was set in the bedroom and another on the living room couch. A
closed bedroom door prevented the two fires from burning together. The liv-
ing room television set was missing.
The owner of the house often had male visitors, and recently before the
fire had a male friend living with him.
Crime Scene Indicators
The fire was suspicious to investigators from the outset. It was obvious that
two separate fires had occurred, with the closed bedroom door preventing the
fires from communicating. Investigators eliminated all possible accidental
causes of the fire, leaving arson as the only possibility. In the bedroom, a
large bed was completely consumed by fire, and the wall behind it was dam-
aged. In the living room, a couch had burned completely through the floor to
the ground below. Smoke damage was extreme throughout the home.
Forensic Findings
There was no evidence of forced entry. Doors to the house were locked when
the owner returned. The fires were accelerated by lighter fluid applied to
both the bed and the couch. An open flame, such as a match or cigarette
lighter, was used to ignite the flammable materials. The concentration of fire
destroyed both items of furniture. On closer examination of the surrounding
areas, the bed and couch were determined to be the points of origin.
Investigation
When the victim noticed his television set was missing, he mentioned to
police that a twenty-one-year-old male acquaintance who had recently
moved out of the house wanted that television set and previously had stolen
other property from him. The former roommate was located and, when
interviewed, confessed to setting the fires.
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The offender stated he had lived in the victim’s home for a few months
and moved out about one month before the fire. He complained that visitors
went through his belongings and spoke negatively about him to others. Fur-
thermore, on one occasion when all of the guests were drinking, one of them
took sexual advantage of him. Intent on revenge, the offender returned to the
house when he knew the owner was away and gained entry with a key he had
kept. While he was removing the television, he thought about the unpleasant
sexual incident and became angrier. He obtained some lighter fluid from a
nearby convenience store, returned, and set the fires. He had set the couch on
fire because that was where the sexual episode had taken place.
Outcome
The offender was convicted and sentenced to prison for an eight-year term.
230: CRIME CONCEALMENT ARSON
In this category, arson is a secondary or collateral criminal activity, perpe-
trated for the purpose of covering up a primary criminal activity of some
nature. The types of crime concealment–motivated arson in this category are
murder (231), suicide (232), breaking and entering (233), embezzlement
(234), larceny (235), destroying records (236), and other (239).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The targeted property is dependent on the nature of the con-
cealment. The target may be a business, a residence, or a vehicle.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted
•Murder concealment. The fire is an attempt to obliterate the fact that a
homicide has been committed, destroy forensic evidence of potential lead
value, or conceal the victim’s identity. The investigator should observe the
position and location of the victim to determine whether the victim was alive
when the fire started, and if so, why the victim could not escape. Victims
grouped together should lead one to suspect murder.
The offender commonly uses liquid accelerant. Although the origin of the
fire is usually on or near the victims, many of these fires are not adequate to
totally consume the body or the evidence. The offender tends to act toward
the disorganized end of the spectrum. Correspondingly, the investigator
should expect to find more physical evidence than with other arsons. An
attack that appears be personalized suggests a lone offender. There is also the
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“DNA torch,” an offender who, concerned about the detection of unique ge-
netic markers contained in anatomical fluids, uses fire to conceal a homicide
that involves a sexual assault.
•Burglary concealment. With an unsophisticated or less experienced
burglar, the crime scene often reflects the use of available materials to start
the fire and the presence of multiple offenders.
•Auto theft concealment. In the case of auto theft concealment, the
offender will use or strip and burn the vehicle to eliminate prints. The crime
frequently involves multiple offenders.
•Destruction of records. When arson is used to destroy records, the fire
is set in the area where they are contained. In arson-for-profit cases, records
are commonly one of several points of fire origin.
Common Forensic Findings. With the use of forensics, one should deter-
mine if the victim was alive when the fire began and why he or she did not
escape. If the victim sustained injuries, it should be determined whether they
were result of the fire or from a deliberate injury, which could have been suf-
ficient to have prevented escape. The victim of a DNA torch will demonstrate
a concentrated area of burns around the genitals. In this case, the investigator
should suspect that a sexual assault had occurred.
Investigative Considerations
Alcohol and recreational drug use is common to the crime concealment–
motivated arsonist. The offender can be expected to have a history of police
or fire department contacts or arrests.
The offender is most likely a young adult who lives within the surround-
ing community and is highly mobile—especially someone involved in auto
theft. The offender who uses arson to conceal burglary or auto theft is rou-
tinely accompanied to the scene by co-conspirators. Almost all offenders in
this category leave the crime scene immediately and do not return. Postof-
fense behavior may include an increase in alcohol or drug consumption.
Murder concealment is usually a one-time event and does not involve
serial arson. The investigator inquiring into an arson set to destroy records
should discover who would benefit from their concealment.
Search Warrant Suggestions
• Refer to the classification dealing with the primary motive
• Gasoline containers
• Clothing, shoes if liquid accelerant was used (or if there was a homicide
victim)
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• Glass fragments if windows were broken during a burglary attempt
• Burned paper documents
CASE STUDY: 231:
CRIME CONCEALMENT, MURDER
Background
During the early morning hours, a fire department responded to a fire in-
volving a seventy-year-old two-story residence. The fire soon became a
three-alarm blaze requiring over an hour and a half to suppress. As fire-
fighters sifted through the debris, they discovered a badly burned body in
what appeared to be a sitting position on a sofa in the living room. They
noted a hole approximately two inches in diameter in the left frontal area
of the skull. Suspecting foul play, they notified the police department’s
homicide team.
Victimology
The victim was identified as an eighty-six-year-old woman who had lived
alone at the residence for thirty-five years. According to one of her three sis-
ters, she had not allowed anyone into her home for six or seven years preced-
ing her death. One sister, who lived nearby, delivered the victim’s meals to
her but never was allowed farther than the front door.
The victim kept large amounts of money hidden away in the many boxes
she had stacked around the house. Her reputation of being a miser was com-
mon knowledge in her neighborhood. Her sisters told investigators that the
victim was afraid of fire and consequently never cooked or used candles, did
not smoke, and had the heat turned off.
The victim was a feisty woman who had confronted an intruder in the
house just two days before her death. She told her sister that during the night,
she had awakened to see the intruder and threatened to “poke him full of
holes” if he did not leave. She then struck him with a broom handle. She
never reported the burglary attempt to the police.
Crime Scene Indicators
The fire investigators quickly determined that arson was the cause of the
fire. Common combustibles and furniture upholstery had been ignited with
an open flame in the living room. The use of available materials to start a
fire is a typical crime scene indicator of the less sophisticated arsonist. The
origin of the fire was on or near the sofa, where the victim’s body had been
found.
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Most murder concealment fires are not adequate to destroy the corpse.
Even in this instance, in which the fire was aided by the large amount of
combustible materials in the house (cardboard boxes full of books, maga-
zines, clothing, and other items piled three to four feet deep in some rooms),
investigators found an intact body.
Several pieces of fabric and paper with red stains similar to blood were
found in the vicinity of the body. In addition, forcible entry had been made
through the rear door.
Forensic Findings
The autopsy revealed a concentration of burns around the victim’s head. Al-
though the corpse was badly burned, pathologists were able to locate and
accurately identify the multiple trauma injuries, unrelated to the fire, that had
caused her death. The trauma consisted of an irregularly edged hole in the
frontal temporal area of the skull and more than one hundred stab wounds
over the entire body. Two of these wounds were gaping holes approximately
four inches by three inches. It was obvious the fire began postmortem and
was intended to conceal the corpse.
Investigation
The police received several telephone calls that provided direction to the
investigation. In addition, immediately after the fire, a paperboy came for-
ward and told police he had seen two males counting money on a stairway
during the morning after the discovery of the fire. As he approached the men,
he was warned to keep walking and forget what he had seen. The boy had
observed dried blood on the back of one of the suspect’s hands.
Subsequently the police arrested three juvenile males. A female was dis-
covered to have picked them up at the scene in her car, but she was not di-
rectly involved with the break-in and murder. The suspects were single
males living with family members within the surrounding community of the
victim. Each had lengthy histories of disruptive behavior at school and
police records for arrests (including burglary). All three admitted to heavy
alcohol and drug use, with a marked postoffense increase in consumption.
They did not return to the scene after the fire was set.
Outcome
After the suspects were arrested and interviewed, each admitted his role as a
participant in the crime but shifted the major responsibility of the homicide
to one of the others. All three were found guilty of first-degree felony murder
and arson and were sentenced to a maximum of twenty-six years in prison.
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240: PROFIT-MOTIVATED ARSON
Arson for profit is a fire set for the purpose of achieving material gain, either
directly or indirectly. It is a commercial crime and exhibits the least passion
of any of the motivations that generate the crime of arson. The types of
profit-motivated arson found in this category are fraud (241)—including
fraud to collect insurance (241.01), fraud to liquidate property (241.02), fraud
to dissolve business (241.03), and fraud to conceal loss or liquidate inven-
tory (241.04)—employment (242), parcel clearance (243), competition
(244), and other (249).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The property targeted by arson for profit includes residential
property, businesses, and modes of transportation such as vehicles and boats.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. This type of arson usually in-
volves a well-planned and methodical approach. The crime scene demon-
strates a more organized style by containing less physical evidence that
would identify the offender and more sophisticated incendiary devices.
When a large business is burned, multiple offenders may be involved.
Because the complete destruction of the target is intended, an excessive
use of accelerant and multiple sets are evident. Accelerant trailers may also
be found at the crime scene.
A lack of forced entry is not infrequent in arson-for-profit cases. Use of
incendiary devices is more prevalent than the use of available materials.
Such devices are often elaborate—for example, constructed with timing de-
vices, electrical timers, initiators, and candles. The remnants of these devices
usually can be found at the crime scene.
Items of value are often removed, especially if a residence is the target.
For example, the removal of expensive paintings before the fire may be evi-
denced by the presence of studs to hold the paintings but no residue of
frames present after the fire. Investigators may observe substitution of lower-
quality furniture and clothing and lack of personal effects, such as family
pictures and photo albums. A suggestion for the investigator is to count the
clothes hangers, especially in the woman’s closet, to see if the subject’s
claims of lost belongings match what appears at the crime scene. The torch-
ing of select areas not consistent with the pattern of an accidental fire should
also raise suspicion.
The point of origin of the fire can be a determining factor. Because the in-
tent of the offender is usually to totally destroy the target of arson, the se-
lected point of origin is that which is most efficient to establish the desired
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loss—for example, in a structure fire, probable multiple points of origin, and
in an inventory fire, centered on or restricted to that portion of the inventory
effected.
Common Forensic Findings. A common forensic finding with arson for
profit is the use of sophisticated accelerants (water-soluble accelerants such
as alcohol) or mixtures (such as gasoline with diesel fuel or kerosene). Be-
cause the use of incendiary devices is common with this arson, components
of these devices, such as initiators, electrical timers, timing devices, and can-
dles, are additional findings that may assist the investigator.
Investigative Considerations
The typical primary offender in this category is an adult male with ten or
more years of formal education; this may vary, however. A secondary
offender is the “torch for hire,” who most frequently is a male, twenty-five
to forty years of age, and usually unemployed. The torch operates as an agent
for the primary offender, who contracts for the torch’s services and is the
dominant personality in the total offense.
The typical primary offender for commercial fires may have no police
record. The torch for hire will likely have a prior arrest record for offenses
such as burglary, assault, public intoxication, and possibly even a previous
arson.
The offender generally lives more than one mile from the crime scene.
Many arsonists for profit are accompanied to the crime scene, and most leave
the scene and do not return.
The offender’s preoffense conversations with others may offer indications
of premeditation; for example, a subject planning to burn his business might
tell workers to remove their personal effects the day before the fire breaks
out. A recent change of ownership or increase in insurance policy should
raise suspicion. The investigator should look for any of the following indi-
cators of financial difficulties if arson for profit is suspected:
Business
• Decreasing revenue
• Increasing production costs
• New technology making current processes or equipment inadequate
• Costly lease or rental agreements
• Unprofitable contracts, loss of key customer
• Failure to record depreciation
• Personal expenses paid with corporate funds
• Bounced checks
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• Hypothetical assets, liens on assets, overinsured assets
• Inventory levels: removal prior to fire, overstocking caused by overpro-
duction, exaggeration of loss
• Litigation against business or owners
• Bankruptcy proceedings
• Two sets of books maintained
• Prior year losses
• Prior insurance claims
• Duplicate sales invoices
• Alleged renovations
• Frequent change of ownership preceding fire
• Use of photocopies instead of original source documents
Personal
• Bounced checks
• Costly lease or rental agreements
• Large number of overdue bills
• Inability to pay current bills (such as utilities or telephone)
• Credit limits imposed by lenders
• Payment of bills by cashier’s check or money order
• Alleged renovations
• Sales between related parties
• Negative cash flow but with appearance of continued financial health
Search Warrant Suggestions
• Check financial records: worksheets, loan records, credit history, ac-
countant’s books, bank records, income tax forms, bank deposit tickets,
canceled checks, check stubs.
• If evidence of fuel or air explosion (gasoline vapor and ambient air mix-
ture at sufficient temperature) at the scene, check emergency rooms for
patients with burn injuries (this type of explosion does not occur in ac-
cidental fires).
• Determine condition of utilities (gas, electric) as soon as possible (elim-
inate gas, the common accidental cause of fires).
CASE STUDY: 241.01: INSURANCE FRAUD
Background
Early one summer morning, the owner of a rural residence drove to a neigh-
bor’s home and asked that the fire department be called. He told neighbors
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that he had discovered a fire in his house, but his telephone was out of serv-
ice, so he could not report it himself. He then drove back to his burning home.
Witnesses to the fire noticed that the owner was fully dressed at such an
early hour and that he appeared very calm, even after the fire had completely
destroyed his home. By the time fire units arrived, the fire had totally de-
stroyed his house; all that was left standing was the fireplace chimney.
Victimology
Although the property had been purchased only nine months before the fire,
there were four trust deeds. The total purchase price was $271,000. The
buyer had made a $5,000 cash down payment to the previous owner but
never made any further payments. The buyer had obtained a policy insuring
the dwelling for $171,000, the contents for $85,000, and $24,000 for addi-
tional living expenses in case of fire.
Crime Scene Indicators
When examining the fire scene, arson investigators found burn patterns that
indicated a flammable liquid had been used to accelerate the fire throughout
the house, patterns that were inconsistent with an accidental fire.
Forensic Findings
The carpeting that had been located under the washer and dryer was burned
in a manner indicating that flammable liquid had flowed underneath the ma-
chines. Furthermore, the investigators found burned studs showing that the
fire had been hottest near the floor. They concluded that flammable liquid
had been distributed in the kitchen, the living room, the two bedrooms, and
the den.
Investigation
Shortly after the fire, the owner of the home submitted a claim to the insur-
ance company. The insurance company subsequently paid the owner $12,000
in advance claims, over $51,000 to the mortgage holders, and nearly $7,000
to clean up the site.
Several of the items listed on the formal sworn claim submitted to the in-
surance company by the owner were subsequently found in two storage
lockers. In one of the storage lockers, deputies found an expensive automo-
bile that had been reported stolen.
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Outcome
The owner was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in state
prison. He was found to have an extensive criminal record, which included
previous arson-for-profit schemes, as well as mail fraud and a host of minor
offenses stretching throughout his adult life.
250: EXTREMIST-MOTIVATED ARSON
Extremist-motivated arson is committed to further a social, political, or reli-
gious cause. The types of arson in this category are terrorism (251), discrim-
ination (252), riots/civil disturbance (253), and other (259).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Analysis of the targeted property is essential in the determina-
tion of the specific motive for extremist arson. The target usually represents
the antithesis of the offender’s belief. Examples of targets are research labo-
ratories, slaughterhouses, and fur stores burned by animal rights groups;
abortion clinics targeted by extremist right-to-life groups; businesses tar-
geted by unions; religious institutions targeted by individuals holding con-
trasting beliefs; and groups or individuals targeted by political extremist
organizations who seek to intimidate or eradicate racial, religious, political,
or sexual-oriented opponents.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene reflects an
organized and focused attack by the offender. Multiple offenders are com-
mon to this arson. These offenders frequently employ incendiary devices,
such as Molotov cocktails, which offer both offender and forensic informa-
tion. Offenders may leave some form of message (for example, spray-painted
symbols or slogans or literature supporting their cause) at the crime scene.
Symbolic messages often indicate younger offenders. Communiqués are
sometimes delivered orally or in writing to the media claiming responsibil-
ity or attempting to justify the violent act.
When confronted with obvious overkill in setting the fire, investigators
should be aware of the possibility of extreme concentrations of flammable or
combustible materials used to set the fires. Unexploded incendiary devices
may be found at the scene.
Common Forensic Findings. The general arson outline at the beginning of
this chapter details more common forensic findings. Extremist arsonists of-
ten are more sophisticated offenders and may use incendiary devices.
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Investigative Considerations
The extremist offender is frequently readily identified with the cause or
group in question when friends, family, and other associates are interviewed.
The offender may have previous police contact or an arrest record for viola-
tions such as trespassing, criminal mischief, or civil rights violations. Post-
offense claims should undergo threat assessment examination to determine
authenticity.
Search Warrant Suggestions
• Literature, writings, paraphernalia pertaining to a group or cause; man-
uals and diagrams if an incendiary device was used (how-to books)
• Incendiary device components, travel records, sales receipts, credit card
statements, bank records indicating purchases
• Flammable materials, liquids, and containers used to transport the ac-
celerants to the scene
251: EXTREMIST-MOTIVATED ARSON, TERRORISM
The terrorist bomber is a criminal intent on frightening a community. This
class of crime is new to the twenty-first century and a result of the terrorist
attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. The case discussed,
however, is a classic from the 1950s, when Americans were not living with
terroristic threats.
Domestic terrorism is extremist activity within the borders of the United
States by an American. Other domestic terrorists in the United States have
been Timothy McVeigh, who was responsible for bombing a federal building
in Oklahoma City in 1995; Eric Rudolph, who was responsible for bombing
abortion clinics and the Olympics in Atlanta; Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber;
and those responsible for various school shootings at the end of the twentieth
century. Terror activity can be motivated by political, religious, or economic
ideas. It can be carried out by a lone offender or multiple offenders.
CASE STUDY: 251: EXTREMIST-MOTIVATED
ARSON, TERRORISM
Case Contributed by Kristen Moore
Background
George Metesky, a mild-mannered toolmaker, was dubbed the Mad Bomber
after terrorizing the citizens of New York City for sixteen years between
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1940 and 1956. During that time, he assembled, planted, and detonated
thirty-one pipe bombs in the city. He claimed that his motive was revenge
against the Consolidated Edison Company (Con Edison), the major energy
provider to the area. He claimed it was liable for a plant accident that oc-
curred in 1931, causing him to be disabled and a sufferer of tuberculosis.
This could never be proven, so his disability claim was denied.
Victimology
Metesky never killed anyone with his bombs, a fact that he referred to as “by
the hand of God.” However, he seriously injured fifteen people. An investi-
gation into the analysis of the crime scenes discloses how his bombings were
linked and how he was eventually brought to justice. One way this was ac-
complished was through his modus operandi (MO), the actions necessary to
carry out the offense. Although he planted bombs months or even years
apart, he always used a homemade pipe bomb that was created from untrace-
able items. As time passed, he began perfecting his MO by creating bombs
of greater sophistication.
Crime Scene Indicators
Included in the crime scene analysis, the investigators focused on the signa-
ture aspect, or the calling card of the bomber. This consisted of unusual
behavior beyond what was necessary to commit the crime. In letters placed
on various bombs and those that Metesky sent to the police and media, the
letters “F.P.,” later disclosed to represent “Fair Play,” were signed at the bot-
tom. In addition, his signature became the way in which he constructed the
bombs, allowing investigators to link them.
Another indicator was the presence of staging, that is, purposeful altering
of the crime scene prior to the arrival of the police. This was usually done to
redirect the investigation away from the most logical suspect or to protect the
victim. In these bombing incidents, there were no signs of staging; in fact,
the offender wanted to be known to the victim. Not only did he make it obvi-
ous that he was a disgruntled ex-employee of Con Edison, but he later dis-
closed to investigators the exact date and nature of his injury. For years, the
New York City Police Department searched to locate the Mad Bomber.
The Mad Bomber planted his first bomb at the Con Edison building on
West Sixty-Fourth Street on November 16, 1940. He left it in a wooden tool-
box on a windowsill in the building. Although this bomb never exploded, it
did bring a message to the management of the company. The bomb boasted
an ominous note: “Con Edison crooks, this is for you.” Ironically, this note
would have been destroyed if the bomb had detonated. After a brief investi-
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gation, both the company and the police disregarded the incident. Then, the
following September, a second homemade device was located a few blocks
from Con Edison offices. Focusing on the offender’s MO and signature, they
were able to link the incidents. Once again, the incident was widely ignored
by the media.
The United States entered World War II three months later. An unusually
patriotic and uncharacteristic letter was sent from this domestic terrorist to
police headquarters. It read: “I will make no more bomb units for the dura-
tion of the war—my patriotic feelings have made me think this. Later I will
bring the Con Edison to justice—they will pay for their dastardly deeds.”
Indeed, the Mad Bomber did not plant any bombs during the next nine years.
His presence was still felt, however, in the dozens of threatening letters he
sent to Con Edison, the police, movie theaters, and private individuals.
On March 29, 1950, a third unexploded bomb was discovered, this one in
Grand Central Station, a hub for New York travelers. Once again investiga-
tors quickly linked the construction of this bomb to the others found near
Con Edison. Not long after, a bomb exploded in a telephone booth inside the
New York Public Library and then one at Grand Central Station. It seemed
that the Mad Bomber used his nine-year hiatus to perfect his bomb-making
skills and his MO.
Investigation
The attack that ultimately led to Metesky’s arrest occurred on December 2,
1956, in the Paramount Movie Theatre in Brooklyn. At 7:55 that evening, a
bomb ripped through the theater, seriously injuring three people. Metesky
had slashed open the underside of a seat and inserted the bomb there before
slipping out of the theater unnoticed. After this attack, the police department
decided to try a new means of finding the perpetrator.
A psychiatrist from the New York Department of Mental Health, James A.
Brussel, was brought onto the case to create a criminal profile of the bomber.
His job was to decipher what kind of person would do this and what motivated
him to commit such acts. Brussel developed the modern science of criminal
profiling, making its use widespread in modern criminal investigations.
Brussel created the following profile for the Mad Bomber: a neat, metic-
ulous, skilled, middle-aged male, holding a grudge against Con Edison.
From his letters, it was determined that he was most likely a former em-
ployee who believed that he was permanently injured by the company and
was seeking revenge. Brussel determined that he suffered from the mental
disorder of paranoia. Sufferers of this disorder believe themselves to be per-
fect beings. They believe that they do not make mistakes, they are not crazy,
and if something goes wrong, there must be an external force causing the
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error. The bomber’s letters also revealed other characteristics of paranoia,
such as a sense of persecution, tenacity to hold a grudge, intense resentment
of criticism, and a feeling of superiority. From the nature of these notes,
Brussel determined he was Slav, thereby most likely Roman Catholic, and
lived in Connecticut. Based on the Freudian theory, Brussel determined that
the bomber suffered from oedipal complex, meaning he was probably un-
married and lived with single female relatives other than his mother. Brus-
sel’s final conclusion about the bomber was that “when you catch him, and
I have no doubt you will, he’ll be wearing a double-breasted suit. And it will
be buttoned.”
Once this profile was spread by the media, people stepped forward claim-
ing to be the bomber. Even citizens with only the highest intentions in mind
were incriminating friends and neighbors who fit the description. During this
part of the investigation, the bomber increased the frequency of his attacks
and wrote more letters to the media, wanting to make sure he got credit for
his work. In one incident, his arrogance almost got the best of him: he tele-
phoned and threatened Brussel at his home. During this time, an old em-
ployee file was found on George Metesky, a man who fit the criminal profile
created by Brussel perfectly.
Outcome
George Metesky was fifty-three-years old when he was caught, living in
Waterbury, Connecticut, with two unmarried elderly sisters. Neighbors said
he was a strange man who kept to himself and did not seem to have a job.
They often wondered what he did on his frequent trips to New York City and
what he making in his workshop at night. On the night of January 22, 1957,
he was finally arrested and quietly confessed to being the bomber, alhough
adding: “One thing I can’t understand is why the newspapers labeled me the
Mad Bomber. That was unkind.” The police asked him to change from his
night robe before he was taken in. Surprisingly, he walked out of the house
wearing a double-breasted suit, buttoned. He admitted that his motive was
revenge against Con Edison. When asked if he was sorry, he laughed and
said, “Yes. I’m sorry I injured people, but I’m glad I did it.”
During his trial and subsequent conviction, testimony and expert wit-
nesses were not necessary because Metesky confessed to the crime when
he was arrested. Toward a harsher sentence, the judge could consider that
Metesky had been terrorizing the public. In addition, he was exploding bombs
that seriously injured innocent people to get the attention of and seek
revenge on a major corporation in the city. Nevertheless, he did take a nine-
year hiatus from his terrorist activities as an act of patriotism and never killed
anyone in his attacks. He never showed any remorse for his actions.
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Metesky was found insane on April 18, 1957, and committed to the Mat-
teawan State Hospital for the criminally insane. Stemming from his acute
paranoia, he was unresponsive to treatment and truly believed that his psy-
chiatrists were conspiring against him. At times he was confused as to why
he was there and was quick to point out that he had purposely constructed
the bombs not to kill anyone. He was released in 1973.
CASE STUDY: 259: EXTREMIST-MOTIVATED ARSON
Extremist-motivated arson implies that the offender’s motive is ideologically
based. Violent protests, in the form of arson, firebombing, and vandalism,
started in the early 1970s in the United States. Then, as now, most of the vio-
lence appears to be the acts of religiously motivated criminals acting alone.
Background
On two separate mornings one summer, fires were set at the same office
building. The first fire was caused when someone stuffed paper and matches
through the mail slot of the door and ignited them. On this occasion, dam-
age was confined to charring on the door. Three months later, another fire
was set through the same mail slot. This time, gasoline was poured through
the opening and ignited. The rapidly spreading fire caused $150,000 in dam-
age before it was contained.
Victimology
The targeted building housed a medical clinic that performed abortions. The
clinic’s office manager stated that she had encountered a possible suspect
prior to the last fire. The suspect, a white female, was a religious, pro-life
advocate who had been dismissed from a pro-life group because of her rad-
ical views. She had threatened to kill the office manager and other office em-
ployees. On one occasion, she had followed the office manager to her car.
In addition to the fire damage, the victims (a partnership) lost over
$220,000 in business. The office manager feared the suspect was not only a
danger to the community but also a danger to clinic employees and their
families.
Crime Scene Indicators
The cause of the first fire was readily apparent due to the limited damage.
Fire department investigators were able to determine the cause of the second
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fire by using burn indicators that enabled them to trace the fire to its source
at the mail slot.
The fact that the targeted property was an abortion clinic that had received
threats and had suffered a previous fire made it a high risk for an attack by
an extremist. Studies show that once a commercial establishment is unsuc-
cessfully set on fire, additional arson attempts will be made (Icove, 1979).
Forensic Findings
Use of gasoline accelerant was determined through laboratory analysis of
samples of burned material.
Investigation
The police department spoke to the suspected offender immediately after the
first fire at the abortion clinic. She denied any involvement, and there was not
sufficient evidence to tie her to the arson. However, after the second fire and
another confrontation with the police, she confessed.
One year before the fires, the offender had taken her bicycle into another
abortion clinic and was subsequently arrested for trespassing. The charge
was later dismissed.
Outcome
The offender was convicted of arson and is serving a sentence in a state
prison. She was found to have a history of mental disorders.
260: SERIAL ARSON
Arsonists who set fires repeatedly are referred to as serial fire setters. The
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime classifies compulsive fire
setting as mass, spree, or serial.
The serial arsonist is involved in three or more separate fire-setting
episodes, with a characteristic emotional cooling-off period between fires.
This period may last days, weeks, or even years. Serial arson is the most seri-
ous type of arson due to the apparent random selection of victims and unpre-
dictable gaps between incidents. Furthermore, a serial arsonist may commit a
spree of arson during each fire-setting episode. Serial arson is not a separate
or distinct motive for setting fires; rather it is a pattern of fire setting fre-
quently encountered in revenge-, excitement-, or extremist-motivated arsons.
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Serial arsonists often create a climate of fear in entire communities. Com-
munity leaders tend to compound the problem by pressuring law enforce-
ment agencies to identify and quickly apprehend the fire setter. Often the
arsonist evades apprehension for months as investigators become increas-
ingly frustrated by a lack of experience in handling these baffling cases.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. This arsonist usually selects vulnerable targets such as unoc-
cupied or abandoned property, during nighttime hours. The choice of targets
is often specific.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. This type of arson usually in-
volves an organized crime scene with little, if any, physical evidence left at the
scene. The arsonist is intelligent and not easy to apprehend. He uses sophisti-
cated devices.
Common Forensic Findings. Forensic findings of materials found at the
crime scene may correspond to the underlying motivation. For example, a
large quantity of flammable liquid may indicate a revenge fire or arson for
profit. Spray paint samples from an aerosol can might point to vandalism as
a motive. A lack of forensic evidence may be indicative of the serial arson-
ist who uses available material to kindle his fires. Conversely, many wild-
land serial arsonists use cigarette and match devices.
Investigative Considerations
The typical offender in this category is usually male. He is generally older
than the single-event arsonist. He tends to be educated and an achiever. He
generally has good interpersonal relationships and is socially adequate. Of-
ten he is employed and skilled. Serial arsonists often have a history of sub-
stance abuse and a history of police contact or arrests for minor nuisance
offenses.
The offender walks to the scene of the fire and generally lives within one
mile of the crime scenes. He is very likely to be familiar with the crime
scenes and can justify his presence in the area.
It is important to analyze the cluster centers of fire activity. The tighter the
cluster is, the closer to the area of significance to the offender, such as his
residence or place of employment.
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CASE STUDY: 260: SERIAL ARSON
Background
During the summer and fall months, a series of arsons targeting unoccupied
dwellings plagued a medium-sized midwestern community. The arsonist’s
fires became increasingly destructive and life threatening, alarming local
residents and overtaxing the resources of law enforcement and fire officials.
Based on a request by local law enforcement for assistance, the National
Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) participated in the case.
Victimology
The targeted property consisted at first of abandoned dwellings in an area
marked for an urban renewal project. The arsonist escalated his fire setting
over time to include occupied dwellings when the owners were away. In one
later case, a fire was set to a house when the family was sleeping inside.
Crime Scene Indicators
The fires were set to the inside of the abandoned buildings using whatever
material was at hand to kindle the fire. Available materials were also used to
set fire to the outside porches of occupied dwellings. In more than one case,
kerosene or another flammable liquid was used when found at the scene by
the offender. On several occasions, footprints were found. With other fires,
where little damage was done, matches were found at the origin. Due to the
fairly limited geographical area in which the fires occurred, it was apparent
the arsonist walked to the scene of the fires, which all took place between
11:00 P.M. and 3:00 A.M.
Forensic Findings
Available material, particularly paper goods such as newsprint or cardboard
that survived fires that did little damage, was examined for identifying infor-
mation. Partial prints were recovered but may not have been those of the
offender. Photographs and plaster casts were made of footprints suspected of
belonging to the arsonist.
Investigation
Local investigators interviewed scores of potential witnesses and failed to
develop any good suspects. Unable to break the case, the police turned to the
NCAVC for assistance.
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Arson/Bombing 291
Arson specialists from the NCAVC examined all the case material sub-
mitted, which included a spot map, reports, and photographs. The analysis
consisted of a target, temporal, and geographical study of the incidents. The
conclusions of the analysis suggested the offender was a white male between
the ages of nineteen and twenty-five, an unemployed loner with an alcohol
problem. His apparent undetected movements to and from the crime scenes
suggested a familiarity with the neighborhood. The geographical cluster
analysis indicated the location of the “centroid” predicting the area in which
this offender lived. Psychologically the arsonist was predicted to be an under-
achiever who did poorly in school and was raised in a dysfunctional home in
which he still lived with one parent. It was predicted he would have an arrest
record with a variety of minor offenses. The police were directed to look for
an individual who was unkempt in appearance and behaved in a disorganized
fashion. The police were able to develop a suspect based on the NCAVC re-
port and investigative suggestions.
Outcome
The suspected arsonist confessed to the police during an initial interview and
was convicted of twelve of the twenty-three counts of arson. He was sen-
tenced to thirty years in prison.
270: SERIAL BOMBING
Serial bombing involves planning to launch bomb attacks usually in public
places like rail stations, bus stations, different key point installations, as well
as government offices at district levels in a geographic locale or country.
Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to the bombing of the 1996 Summer
Olympics and other bombings, citing a hatred of abortion, gay rights, and
the government as his motive. On April 7, 2005, Eric Rudolph entered the
guilty pleas in a plea agreement that gave him four life sentences and avoided
the death penalty.
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CHAPTER
8
Rape and Sexual Assault
300: Criminal enterprise rape
30l: Felony rape
301.01: Primary felony rape
301.02: Secondary felony rape
310: Personal cause sexual assault
311: Indirect offenses
311.01: Isolated/opportunistic offense
311.02: Preferential offense
311.03: Transition offense
311.04: Preliminary offense
312: Domestic sexual assault
312.01: Adult domestic sexual assault
312.02: Child domestic sexual abuse
312.03: Elder sexual assault
313: Opportunistic rape
313.01: Social acquaintance rape
313.01.01: Adult
313.01.02: Adolescent
313.01.03: Child
313.01.04: Elder
293
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313.02 Subordinate rape
313.02.01: Adult
313.02.02: Adolescent
313.02.03: Child
313.02.04: Elder
313.03: Power-reassurance rape
313.03.01: Adult
313.03.02: Adolescent
313.03.03: Child
313.03.04: Elder
313.04: Exploitative rape
313.04.01: Adult
313.04.02: Adolescent
313.04.03: Child
313.04.04: Elder
314: Anger rape
314.01: Gender
314.02: Age
314.02.01: Elderly victim
314.02.02: Child victim
314.03: Racial
314.04: Global
315: Sadistic rape
315.01: Adult
315.02: Adolescent
315.03: Child
315.04: Elder
316: Child/adolescent pornography
316.01: Closet collector
316.02: Isolated collector
316.03: Cottage collector
317: Child/adolescent sex rings
317.01: Solo child sex ring
317.02: Transitional child sex ring
317.03: Syndicated child sex ring
319: Abduction rape
319.01: Adult
319.02: Adolescent
319.03: Child
319.04: Elder
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Rape and Sexual Assault 295
330: Group cause sexual assault
331: Formal gang sexual assault
33l.01: Single victim
33l.02: Multiple victims
332: Informal gang sexual assault
332.01: Single victim
332.02: Multiple victims
390: Sexual assault not classified elsewhere
Rape and sexual assault include criminal offenses in which victims are
forced or coerced to participate in sexual activity. Physical violence may or
may not be involved. In many offenses involving children, the offender may
gain the cooperation of the victim using little or no force. This “seduction”
of child victims has no comparable offense when committed against adults.
The terms rape and sexual assault are used interchangeably in this manual
and are not to be construed as a legal definition. Each jurisdiction applies its
own legal definition to an offense.
Victims of rape and sexual assaults are generally divided into four cate-
gories:
•Adults, defined as individuals at least eighteen years of age who are al-
most always pubescent and usually considered capable of consent under
laws proscribing sexual conduct. Some exceptions may include persons
who are mentally retarded, brain impaired, or psychotic.
•Adolescents, defined as individuals thirteen to seventeen years of age
who are usually pubescent but whose legal status under laws proscrib-
ing sexual conduct varies from state to state and even statute to statute
within the same jurisdiction.
•Children, defined as individuals twelve years of age or younger who are
usually prepubescent and are considered minors incapable of consent
under almost all laws proscribing sexual conduct.
•Elders, who are usually defined as age sixty or older.
Every attempt should be made to evaluate whether a rape was committed
for situational or preferential sexual motives. Situationally motivated sexual
assaults are those committed to fulfill sexual and other needs without the ele-
ments of the offense being necessary for arousal or gratification (such as rap-
ing a woman because she is available and vulnerable). Preferentially motivated
sexual assaults are those committed to fulfill sexual and other needs with some
elements of the offense being necessary for arousal or gratification (for exam-
ple, raping a woman because the offender cannot feel aroused or gratified
without an unwilling partner).
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Preferentially motivated sexual offenses usually involve strong patterns
of behavior or sexual rituals that are difficult for the offender to change. Sex-
ual ritual involves repeatedly engaging in an act or series of acts in a certain
manner because of a sexual need. In other words, in order for a person to be-
come sexually aroused or gratified, he or she must engage in the act in a cer-
tain way. This sexual ritualism can include the physical characteristics, age,
or gender of the victim; the particular sequence of acts; the bringing or tak-
ing of specific objects; or the use of certain words or phrases.
Sexual ritual is more than the concept of method of operation, or modus
operandi (MO), known to most law enforcement officers. MO is something
done by an offender because it works. Sexual ritual is something done by an
offender because of a need. Therefore, it is much harder for an offender to
change, vary, or adjust the ritual than his MO. Both preferential and situa-
tional sex offenders may have an MO, but the preferential offender is more
likely to have a sexual ritual.
Attempting to identify both patterns of behavior (MO and ritual) and dis-
tinguishing between them is a difficult but worthwhile investigative effort.
From an investigative view, the preferential offense often has clear evidence
that the offender thought about, planned, and went searching for a particular
victim. In the situational offense, there is evidence of impulsive, opportunis-
tic, predatory behavior, such as the victim being present or a spur-of-the-
moment decision to offend.
It is especially important in child victim rape and sexual assaults to at-
tempt to determine if the child was the victim for preferential or situational
reasons. The corroborating evidence, whether there are additional child vic-
tims, how to interview a suspect, and so on depend on the type of child mo-
lester. Situational child molesters do not have a true sexual preference for
children but engage in sex with children for varied and sometimes complex
reasons, ranging from child availability to offender inadequacy.
The preferential child molesters have a definite sexual preference for chil-
dren. Their sexual fantasies and erotic imagery focus on children. Preferen-
tial child molesters almost always have access to children, molest multiple
victims, and collect child pornography or child erotica.
A preferential child molester (pedophile) might have other psychosexual
disorders, personality disorders, or psychosis or may be involved in other
types of criminal activity. A pedophile’s sexual interest in children might be
combined with other sexual deviations (paraphilias), which include indecent
exposure (exhibitionism), obscene phone calls (scatophilia), exploitation of
animals (zoophilia), urination (urophilia), defecation (coprophilia), binding
(bondage), baby role playing (infantilism), infliction of pain (sadism, maso-
chism), real or simulated death (necrophilia), and others. The preferential
child molester is interested in sex with children that might, in some cases,
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Rape and Sexual Assault 297
involve other sexual deviations. A preferential sex offender who is involved
in a variety of specific sexual deviations might become a situational child
molester by selecting a child victim who is available or vulnerable. The pref-
erential child molester must have high amount of victim contact and high
level of fixation.
Victim Contact
A preemptory distinction is made between offenders who have spent a sub-
stantial amount of their time in close proximity to victims (high contact) and
offenders who have spent little or no time with victims outside of rape and
sexual assaults (low contact). Amount of contact is a behavioral measure of
the time spent with victims. It includes both sexual and nonsexual situations
but excludes the contact that results from parental responsibilities. The con-
tact distinction must be distinguished from the fixation decision, which
attempts to assess the strength of an individual’s pedophilic interest.
Evidence for high contact includes structured and nonstructured involve-
ment with a victim through an occupation or through recreation—for ex-
ample, schoolteacher, bus driver, carnival worker, riding stable attendant,
newspaper delivery person, scout leader, sports coach, youth group volun-
teer, minister, priest, or babysitter. These occupational criteria are intended
only to help identify the level of contact for those already determined to be
child molesters. Other evidence for high contact may include regular visits
by the victim to the offender’s home or the offender acting as an adopted
father or big brother. In addition, we assume that repeated sexual (non-
incestual) encounters with a victim imply the development of a relationship
that goes beyond sexual involvement. For that reason, when there are three
or more sexual encounters with the same victim, the offender is coded as
having high contact.
Fixation
The level of fixation decision attempts to access the strength of an offender’s
pedophilic interest.
An offender is considered highly fixated if any of the following are present:
• There is evidence of three or more sexual encounters with a victim, and
the time period between the first and third encounter was greater than
six months. These encounters may be with a single victim over many
incidents and should not be limited to charged offenses.
• There is evidence that the offender has had enduring relationships
with the victim (excluding parental contact). This includes sexual and
nonsexual contact and professional and nonprofessional contact.
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• The offender has initiated contact with children in numerous situations
over his lifetime.
GENERAL FORENSIC EVIDENCE COLLECTIONS
There are many physical evidence recovery methods and procedures that can
be used in investigating rape and sexual assault. These methods and proce-
dures usually depend on the age and sex of the person on whom they are
used, as well as whether the individual is a victim or suspect. The following
is essentially a general description of forensic evidence. More detailed infor-
mation can be found in Hazelwood and Burgess (2001).
Most of the evidence will come from the victim and falls into the follow-
ing categories: clothing, bed linens, human hair (head and pubic), swabbing
(vaginal, penile, oral, and anal), vaginal aspirate, oral rinse, nasal mucus, fin-
gernail scrapings, blood, saliva, and miscellaneous debris. Each item must
be packaged separately to avoid transfer of evidence from one item to
another. Sections of manila-type wrapping paper or sturdy paper bags can be
supplied for packaging purposes. Unstained control samples of all the gath-
ering mediums are retained and packaged separately. Rape and sexual
assault evidence kits that contain the necessary equipment usually are used
by hospital examining staff.
All bed linens and clothing worn by the victim should be obtained and
packaged in a sealed, secure condition. The head hair region of the victim is
combed or brushed for evidence substances. This requires the use of an un-
contaminated comb or brush specifically for the head area. The comb or brush
and adhering materials are packaged and sealed. An appropriate amount of
hair to represent color, length, and area variation is obtained. Hairs should be
pulled whenever possible. Known hairs should be acquired after the head
hair combing and brushing procedure is completed.
The pubic region of the victim is combed or brushed for evidence mate-
rials. An appropriate amount of hair to represent color, length, and area vari-
ation is obtained. Hairs should be pulled whenever possible. Known pubic
hairs should be acquired after the pubic hair combing and brushing proce-
dure is completed.
In the event an individual is observed to have excessive body hair, a sep-
arate, uncontaminated comb or brush and appropriate packaging material
can be used to collect trace evidence, such as fibers from clothing that may
be present.
The vaginal, oral, and anal cavities are swabbed to detect the presence of
spermatozoa or seminal fluid. In addition to vaginal swabbing, aspiration
of the vaginal region is accomplished by irrigation with saline solution.
Spermatozoa not located through the swabbing procedure may be recovered
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Rape and Sexual Assault 299
in this manner. The mouth of the person examined can be rinsed in order to
remove spermatozoa not collected using the swabbing procedure. The rinse
is expectorated into a tube or vial. A control sample of rinse is retained and
packaged separately. Control samples of the irrigation and rinse fluids also
are retained and packaged separately.
For male victims, the penis is swabbed to detect the presence of blood or
other evidence.
Nasal mucus samples can be of use. Nasal mucus is acquired by having the
individual being examined blow his or her nose on cloth. The mucus may con-
tain spermatozoa that were deposited in the mouth or facial area. An unstained
portion of the cloth can function as a control sample.
Using appropriate materials, the area underneath the fingernails is scraped
for significant debris, such as hairs, fibers, blood, or tissue. The gathering
implement is retained. It is suggested that each hand be scraped individually
and the resulting debris packaged separately.
Blood is drawn into a sterile test tube for blood grouping purposes. A min-
imum of 5 milliliters is recommended, preferably without the inclusion of a
chemical anticoagulant or preservative.
Evidence materials that fall into the category of miscellaneous debris are
substances not included in the previous categories and can often be observed
during the forensic examination. These also should be collected and pack-
aged separately. A section of paper or cloth on which the person can stand
while undressing can be supplied. In addition, a separate piece of paper or
cloth can be used to cover the examining table to collect any evidence that is
dislodged during the examination.
300: CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE RAPE
Criminal enterprise rape involves sexual coercion, abuse, or assault that is
committed for material gain.
301: FELONY RAPE
Rape committed during the commission of a felony such as breaking and
entering or robbery is considered felony rape. The classification is made spe-
cific as to whether the rape was primary or secondary in intent.
301.01: PRIMARY FELONY RAPE
The intent of primary felony rape is a nonsexual felony such as robbery or
breaking and entering. The victim is at the scene of the primary felony and
is sexually assaulted as a second offense. If the victim were not present, the
felony would still occur.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is usually an adult female. Either the victim is em-
ployed at the crime scene or the felony occurred in the victim’s residence.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Evidence of a breaking and
entering, burglary, or robbery, such as missing property, is noted in a primary
felony rape.
Common Forensic Findings. See the general forensic evidence collection
for sexual assault as described at the start of this chapter.
Investigative Considerations
Investigators should look for similar felonies in the area of the crime. These
felonies usually have reported similar items stolen and a similar MO. The
sexual offense is situationally motivated.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Warrants should be requested for the suspect’s residence and car. Suggested
items should include but not be limited to clothing to test for blood hair and
fibers, ligatures, newspaper articles related to similar crimes, and any of the
victim’s possessions reported stolen.
CASE STUDY: 301.01: PRIMARY FELONY RAPE
Case Contributed by Leonard I. Morgenbesser
Background
Robert Griffin, an African American, was born on November 19, 1972. He
had two prior commitments to New York State’s prison system before stand-
ing trial for three sex crimes against victims who were four, ten, and sixty-
seven years of age.
Victimology
Griffin’s first crime, on July 31, 1997, was the abduction and sexual assault
of a four-year-old girl taken from her home and found several hours later in
a driveway in another town. The mother noted her daughter was in bed
asleep. She watched television and fell asleep on the couch. When she was
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Rape and Sexual Assault 301
awakened by her husband at about 1:10 A.M., they realized the child was
missing and searched the house unsuccessfully for her. They called police
after seeing an open rear window with the screen removed.
A doughnut deliveryman found the four year old at about 1:30 A.M. wear-
ing only a nightshirt and clutching her underwear in her hands. He thought
perhaps she was sleepwalking. He observed, “She was hiding. She was
scared that somebody was going to come and get her. That’s how I knew
something was wrong.” The young victim told police that the man who took
her smelled like a skunk, wore dark clothing, and had dirty white skin.
Griffin’s second rape victim, age ten, told police, “I heard a doorbell and
a lot of walking around. This man told me I had to go with him because my
mother was in trouble.” The man pushed her away from the telephone, pulled
off her pants, and sodomized and raped her, before striking her in the head
with a five-pound dumbbell. She said, “I was yelling a lot and he told me to
be quiet. He put a knife to my throat.” She called 911 when he left.
On September 1, 1999, Griffin’s third victim, age sixty-seven, was putting
groceries in her car in the parking lot of the same community in which he
had earlier sexually assaulted the four-year-old girl. She told police, “Some
person walked behind me and proceeded to grab my throat and held my
mouth closed. I was knocked to the ground and molested.”
At the time Griffin raped the ten-year-old girl, he was in prison, sentenced
of attempted burglary, second degree, a felony. However, due to rules in ef-
fect at that time, he was on work release from the prison system and was pro-
gram eligible since he was a nonviolent offender and had no history of
violent crime (the system did not know at the time of his work release of his
abduction and sexual assault on July 31, 1997, before he began his prison
sentence for burglary).
Forensic Findings
Forensics cleared this case. In 2000, Griffin was returned to state prison
while on parole from his original 1998 attempted burglary sentence. While
in custody, he was arrested after evidence taken from the victims in the three
sex crimes was allegedly matched with his DNA in the New York State DNA
database of convicted felons. This match, which occurred as part of a regu-
lar comparison of felon DNA with DNA left at the scenes of crimes, consti-
tuted the first cold DNA match in Monroe County since the state database
was vastly expanded during 1999.
Investigation
With the forensic evidence, police then went back to review the cases and
statements from victims.
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Eventually Griffin told police that he had entered the home of his first vic-
tim intending to burglarize it but was alarmed when he heard a barking dog.
He took the four-year-old girl from her bed because “I did not want to leave
empty-handed.” He placed her in sheets, put her in to his car, touched and
sodomized her after she awoke in the car, and then masturbated before leav-
ing her at a stranger’s house. Regarding his second victim, Griffin told police
he smoked cocaine before tossing a rock through the window, assaulted the
ten-year-old girl, and then struck her in the head with the dumbbell “so she
wouldn’t remember what I looked like.” He chose the home because it was
not well lighted. For his third victim, Griffin told police he raped the woman
“with the intention of robbing her for drugs” but that drugs made his desire
for sex reach “from the bottom of my feet to the crown of my head.”
Outcome
Griffin was sentenced to four to eight years for grand larceny and criminal
possession of stolen property. He reportedly rejected an offer of thirty-eight
years in state prison in exchange for a guilty plea prior to his triple-sex trial.
301.02: SECONDARY FELONY RAPE
The primary intent of the offender in secondary felony rape is rape with a
second felony also planned. The nonsexual assault felony would still occur
if an adult female were not present.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is usually an adult female.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Evidence of breaking and en-
tering or robbery is present.
Common Forensic Findings. In addition to the general forensic evidence,
the forensic report indicates that the offender’s primary focus while at the
crime scene was the rape, not the robbery. The secondary felony was planned
and committed knowing the victim would be present and was carried out
after the rape.
Investigative Considerations
In secondary felony rape, the offender targets the victim and crime scene and
has been in the area before. There will be a history of robberies and rapes in
the area. In addition, the sexual offense is preferentially motivated.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 303
Search Warrant Suggestions
Warrants should be requested for the suspect’s residence and car. Suggested
items should include but not be limited to clothing to test for blood hair and
fibers, ligatures, newspaper articles related to similar crimes, and any of the
victim’s possessions reported stolen.
CASE STUDY: 301.02:
SECONDARY FELONY RAPE
Victimology
A masked offender confronted a twenty-one-year-old white, single female in
her residence at 5:30 A.M. He had entered her apartment through an open
bathroom window. He put a razor to the victim’s throat, forcing her to the
ground and threatening her with the razor. He took off her pants and under-
wear and told her he would cut her if she did not comply. He removed a tam-
pon and threw it in her face. He forced oral sex and then raped her. He robbed
the victim and fled the scene.
Offender Characteristics
The offender is a thirty-five-year-old, single, black Muslim male who states
he lives in a racist white society. Although charged with multiple offenses, he
feels he did not commit the offenses and believes that the five women he was
accused of raping worked for him as prostitutes because he was their pimp.
He is the third oldest of seven children born to parents who divorced when
he was eight years old. His father is an engineer; his mother is a registered
pharmacist and dietitian; his siblings hold responsible jobs. The offender has
an eleventh-grade education and served one and one-half years in the army.
The offender could also be classified as an anger rapist. His victims in-
cluded white and black women who were social acquaintances, as well as
strangers. His assaults were violent, had a high level of aggression, and were
preferentially motivated.
Outcome
The offender was sentenced to fifteen to twenty years for assault with intent
to rape, with concurrent sentences for five counts of rape and for armed rob-
bery, assault and battery, assault with intent to murder, and indecent assault
and battery.
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310: PERSONAL CAUSE SEXUAL ASSAULT
Rape and sexual assault motivated by personal cause is an act ensuing from
interpersonal aggression that results in sexual victimization to persons who
may or may not be known to the offender. These assaults are not primarily
motivated by material gain and are not sanctioned by a group. Rather, an
underlying emotional conflict or psychological issue propels the offender to
commit rape and sexual assault. Although the case may be legally defined as
rape, the term sexual assault is used in this classification to encompass a
wide range of forced and pressured sexual activities.
311: INDIRECT OFFENSES
There are four categories for this group of indirect offenses that occurs for
sexual gratification. The defining characteristic is that the offense involves
no physical contact between victim and offender. Police need to investigate
and deal with these offenses given the amount of time and priority they have
available.
There are no unique crime scene indicators. Forensic evidence is not avail-
able because there is no physical contact between the offender and victim.
Search warrants are not useful until a suspect has been identified.
Offenders in these four categories may be viewed as undesirable individ-
uals, but when they are interviewed with empathy and understanding, the
police officer may find that the individuals already have committed serious
contact sexual offenses. Spending time with these offenders may have an
important payoff in solving other rape and sexual assault crimes.
One question to consider regarding these offenders is whether they are dan-
gerous. It is important to evaluate two points: focus and escalation.
Do these crimes have a focus? Is there a pattern occurring over and over?
Anything that indicates a pattern, such as the offender calling the same num-
ber repeatedly or exposing himself at the same location, should be evaluated
carefully. The most important aspect of focus to evaluate is victim focus. Are
victims being selected at random, or is a specific individual being targeted?
Is there escalation? Has this individual escalated his behavior from peep-
ing outside to burglarizing an indoor location? Is he progressing to more
serious invasive activity over time?
It is important to investigate the background of the nuisance offender.
What did the individual do as a teenager? Is this a sixty-year-old man who
has been doing this for years? What else is happening in the individual’s life?
Does he have a stable life? Did he go to school? Is he working? Is he func-
tioning? Such interview areas help to evaluate the offender.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 305
311.01: ISOLATED/OPPORTUNISTIC OFFENSE
Isolated/opportunistic offenses are isolated incidents of individuals who take
an opportunity or something presents itself; for example, they call someone
on the phone and get a wrong number and blurt out an obscenity, or when in
a public place after having had too much to drink, they urinate as a woman
walks by and turn and expose themselves. Another example is an offender
who walks down a street and takes advantage of an opportunity to look into
a window at something sexually stimulating.
311.02: PREFERENTIAL OFFENSE
Preferential offenses relate to the psychiatric diagnoses termed the paraphil-
ias. The acts are the individual’s preferred sexual act; examples are the true
voyeur and the exhibitionist. Sexual gratification is intended from the act.
These are the individuals for whom this has been a long-term pattern of com-
pulsive behavior. The individual may have regular routes for window peeping
or elaborate procedures covering such behavior, such as walking a dog. In
some cases, the offender carries a video camera to record his sexual interest.
The key to this type of case is having the time to discover the evidence, as
it is a highly solvable case. What makes this type of case easy to solve are these
rigid, ritual patterns of behavior. The offenders return to specific areas over and
over for peeping, or they expose themselves in certain places. They repeatedly
make obscene phone calls, which makes it easy to trace them. Thus, although
the preferential pattern is highly solvable, the demand for solving contact sex
offenses often takes a higher priority for police departments.
311.03: TRANSITION OFFENSE
The transition offender may be caught in a peeping act, but he is trying to
find out if the act is capable of producing sexual gratification. He is explor-
ing his arousal patterns, building confidence, and improving his ability to
commit crime. This offender is often a younger individual, such as a teen-
ager who is exploring his sexuality and starts out with peeping. However,
this is just an early step in his criminal sexual development. In one case, a
serial rapist described this type of early sexual interest. No one had stopped
or encountered him at this early point. Although not all nuisance sex offend-
ers progress to more serious offenses, some do.
311.04: PRELIMINARY OFFENSE
A preliminary offender is an individual whose nuisance offense is a prelim-
inary aspect to contact sexual offenses. He may be a fetish burglar who cases
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a home prior to returning to commit a rape and sexual assault. This noncon-
tact offense is a prelude to other serious sex offenses. For example, the rapist
may be a window peeper. The police officer encounters him window peep-
ing prior to his intended future rape at that location. The important point is
that any nuisance offense may be a prelude to a contact offense and needs to
be evaluated as such.
312: DOMESTIC SEXUAL ASSAULT
Domestic sexual assault occurs when a family, household member or former
household member sexually assaults another member of the household. This
definition includes common law relationships. The rape and sexual assault
may be spontaneous and situational and is triggered by a recent stressful
event, real or imagined, perceived by the offender as an injustice. It also may
be the result of a cumulative buildup of stress over time.
312.01: ADULT DOMESTIC SEXUAL ASSAULT
Domestic sexual assault of an adult includes assault of a spouse and sexual
assault on a nonmarital companion with whom the offender is living if it ap-
pears that he has been in a long-term relationship with the victim.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim has a familial or common law relationship with
the offender. There is usually a history of prior abuse or conflict with the
offender.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Usually only one crime scene
is involved, and it is commonly the victim’s or offender’s residence. The
crime scene reflects disorder and the impetuous nature of the assault. It may
also reflect the escalation of violence; for example, the confrontation starts
as an argument, intensifies into hitting or throwing things, and culminates in
the rape and sexual assault.
Common Forensic Findings. Alcohol or drugs may be involved. If the
rape and sexual assault is preceded by violence, trauma to the face and body
may be seen on the victim.
Investigative Considerations
If the crime occurred in the residence, domestic rape and sexual assault
should be a consideration. When other family members are contacted, they
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Rape and Sexual Assault 307
often describe a history of domestic conflict involving the victim and of-
fender. A history of conflict due to external sources (financial, vocational, or
alcohol, for example) is a common element of domestic rape and sexual
assault. The offense is usually situational. The offender may have demon-
strated aggression in the past, as well as a change in attitude after the trig-
gering event.
Search Warrant Suggestions
A search warrant is used to collect clothing or weapon at the offender’s res-
idence if different from the victim’s. Computers are also taken for informa-
tion regarding other possible victims.
CASE STUDY: 312.01:
ADULT DOMESTIC SEXUAL ASSAULT
Background and Victimology
On the evening of April 16, 1990, and again the following morning, Mrs. R
was raped and sexually assaulted by her estranged husband, Herb. The inci-
dent began when Herb called her at work asking to rotate her tires, which she
declined. She came home and walked her dog, and Herb appeared. Grabbing
her wrist, he ordered her into the house, shut and locked the door, and stated,
“This is the end.” She was terrified. She testified that he had clenched fists
and a menacing look on his face. He forced her into an upstairs bedroom and
made her undress. After standing naked for a long period of time, she sat
down, at which point Herb became angry, saying he had not told her she
could sit down. During this time, Mrs. R was cold and frightened, and she
tried to keep him talking, hoping to outthink him. Eventually he allowed her
to dress. Herb left to get sandwiches, but Mrs. R was too frightened to leave.
The offender returned and ate his sandwich, but Mrs. R was too scared to eat.
Herb then stated he wanted sex. Mrs. R said no and pleaded with him not
to force her. Herb raped and sexually assaulted her then and in the early
morning. Mrs. R was crying and rigid throughout the rape and sexual assault
and did not sleep the remainder of the night. After Herb left in the morning,
Mrs. R called her therapist and lawyer. She moved in with a relative who
accompanied her to work each morning and evening.
Offender Characteristics
Mrs. R and Herb were married in 1984. Since that time, Herb had a history of
several affairs. He had verbally threatened to kill Mrs. R on several occasions,
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pushing her around physically and threatening her with guns that he kept in
the home. His violence included ripping her clothes and tearing the telephone
off the wall. She obtained a restraining order against him, which he defied and
resulted in a legal separation.
Crime Scene Indicators
The victim’s residence was the crime scene.
Forensic Findings
This was a delayed report, and thus no forensic findings were able to be ob-
tained. Also, the forensic findings would be the estranged husband’s, and his
defense was consent. He was not disputing the sexual intercourse.
Investigation
Mrs. R obtained a restraining order against her husband, which he defied and
resulted in a legal separation. Despite the restraining order, he continued to
threaten her and waited for her at her residence. This behavior resulted in
Mrs. R’s moving six times in a four-month period, because he would dis-
cover where she had moved and continue to stalk her. The detective was
aware of all these moves and was able to corroborate them for the civil trial.
Outcome
As part of the divorce action, a civil suit was filed in which rape and sexual
assault was part of the extreme cruelty charges. Additional compensation was
obtained for the wife as a result of her suffering posttraumatic stress disorder.
312.02: CHILD DOMESTIC SEXUAL ABUSE
This classification refers to rape and sexual assault on any household mem-
ber under the age of majority in the state where the crime is committed.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The child victim has a familial relationship with the offender.
There is often a history of prior abuse or conflict with the offender. Other
children or adolescents in the family may also be sexually or physically
abused.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 309
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Usually only one crime scene
is involved, and it is commonly the victim’s or offender’s residence.
Common Forensic Findings. If the rape and sexual assault take place over
a period of time, there may be evidence of vaginal or anal scarring. However,
lack of medical corroboration does not mean the child was not victimized.
Investigative Considerations
Prior abuse of the victim or other members of the household may have pre-
viously been reported by other family members or third parties.
Search Warrant Suggestions
A search warrant is indicated for clothing and bed linens, especially if the
family member is in the residence with the child.
CASE STUDY: 312.02: CHILD DOMESTIC SEXUAL ABUSE
Background and Victimology
Two sisters, ages fifteen and fourteen, were sexually abused multiple times
by the live-in boyfriend of their mother. The abuse was reported to the natu-
ral father’s second wife (the stepmother of the two girls).
Each girl was forced to take naps and showers with the abuser. He would
rub the girl’s breasts and genitals and force oral and vaginal sex. The girls were
given beer and liquor and were threatened with physical violence if anyone
found out about the abuse. The abuse continued for eight to ten years. Food,
clothing, and medical attention were withheld from the children. One of the
victims was forced to touch a hot radiator, which caused severe burns to her
palms. When the girls reached puberty, the abuser would rip open or unfasten
their shirts, exposing their breasts to his male friends who were present.
The abuser had many previous offenses, such as armed robbery, conspir-
acy, and weapons possession. He also had been charged with arson, but the
charge was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
The offender first met the victims when he saw them panhandling on the
street; the girls were three or four years old at that time. He met their mother
shortly afterward, and the relationship began. When the girls visited their
natural father and stepmother at ages twelve and thirteen, suspicions were
raised that the girls were abused and neglected. After the girls moved in with
their natural father, they were able to disclose the abuse. The case was re-
ported to authorities.
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The mother denied any knowledge of the offenses. She stated she was
beaten severely many times as well, as subjected to severe mental cruelty by
the offender. The offender fathered her two sons, and it was suspected that
the boys were both physically and sexually abused by their father. He was
reported to have had a series of homosexual relationships. The mother was
concerned that the abuser would harm her if he found out that she was coop-
erating with the investigation.
Neighbors reported suspected child abuse when the girls were in third and
fourth grades. The girls were interviewed by a social worker but denied
abuse because of the abuser’s threats of harm if they told. The four children
were not allowed to take school physical examinations.
The abuser told the girls that their natural father had been abusive to them
when they were little children. One girl was told that the birthmark on her
back was from a bite from her father. Thus, the girls were frightened when
they would visit their father.
One of the girls, when refusing to comply with the sexual acts, had her
arm twisted by the offender. Later, she complained of her arm hurting. She
was taken to the hospital, where the arm was X-rayed and placed in a cast.
Another time a milk carton was thrown by the offender, which produced a
facial scar on one of the girls.
Crime Scene Indicators
The offenses occurred over an eight- to ten-year period, usually in the home
of the abuser. Sometimes he took the girls for a ride, and abuse was reported
to occur in his car. The abuse occurred about four times weekly.
Forensic Findings
Hospital and child protective service records were reviewed, and they revealed
that child abuse had been suspected several times. However, each time the
abuser had an explanation that was plausible enough to avoid being charged.
Outcome
Just prior to trial, the offender plea-bargained the charges. He received five
years probation.
313: OPPORTUNISTIC RAPE
The motive of the offender is important to determine for both the investiga-
tion of a case and treatment of the offender and victim. There is one classi-
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Rape and Sexual Assault 311
fication system for rapists that has been empirically tested: the Massachu-
setts Treatment Center: Rapist3 (MTC:R3; Knight & Prentky, 1990).
Opportunistic motive refers to an impulsive rapist type who shows
little planning or preparation. He usually has a history of unsocialized be-
havior, and the rape serves as an example of the degree to which he lacks
interpersonal awareness. These rapists show no concern for the welfare or
comfort of their victims. The rape is for immediate sexual gratification rather
than the enactment of a highly developed fantasy or sexualized ritual. The
rape is in the service of dominance and power.
Four age brackets are identified under each group: adult, adolescent,
child, and elder. One of each group will be described with a case study.
Classification of sexual assault and rape as opportunistic, sexualization
(power-reassurance or entitlement), pervasive anger, or sadistic uses, as the
determining criterion, the amount of aggression involved. Evidence for high
expressive aggression used to determine the correct classification includes
any combination of the following:
• Injuries greater than minor cuts, scratches, and abrasions
• Force in excess of that needed to attain victim compliance, such as slap-
ping, punching, or kicking when there is no evidence of victim resist-
ance
• Specific acts in the offense, for example, mutilation, burning, stabbing,
choking to unconsciousness, biting, kicking, anal penetration, or inser-
tion of foreign objects
• Desire or attempts to humiliate a victim through derogatory, demeaning
remarks, any use of feces or urine, any forcing a male to observe, or evi-
dence of forced fellatio after sodomy
The MTC:R3 classification of motivation follows.
Sexualization Motive
Sexualization motive is a component of all rape because the assault occurs
within a sexual situation. However, some sexual assaults have a higher degree
of sexualization than others. It essentially refers to a high degree of preoccu-
pation with gratifying one’s sexual needs. Sexual preoccupation is typically
evidenced by highly intrusive, recurrent sexual and rape fantasies, frequent
use of pornography, reports of frequent uncontrollable sexual urges, use of a
variety of alternative outlets for gratifying sexual needs (for example, mas-
sage parlors, X-rated movies, sex clubs, strip bars), and engaging in other de-
viant sexual behaviors (paraphilias), such as voyeurism, exhibitionism, or
fetishism. The sexual assaults of these offenders are often well planned, as
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evidenced by a clear, scripted sequence of events; possession of assault-
related paraphernalia; and an apparent plan to procure the victim and elude
apprehension after the assault.
Four rapist types are hypothesized to possess a high degree of sexual pre-
occupation. All four types have in common the presence of protracted sexual
and rape fantasies that motivate their sexual assaults and influence the way in
which their offenses occur. In MTC:R3, there are two major subgroups based
on the presence or absence of sadistic fantasies or behaviors: the sadistic and
nonsadistic groups. The sadistic group includes two subtypes (overt sadist
and muted sadist), and the nonsadistic group includes two subtypes (power-
reassurance and entitlement). Thus, these four types are differentiated prima-
rily by the content of the fantasies and the ways in which the fantasies are
expressed through behavior.
Sadistic Types
Both of the sadistic types show evidence of poor differentiation between sex-
ual and aggressive drives and a frequent co-occurrence of sexual and aggres-
sive thoughts and fantasies. For the overt sadistic type, the aggression is
manifested directly in physically injurious behavior in sexual assaults. For
the muted sadistic type, the aggression is expressed either symbolically or
through covert fantasy that is not acted out behaviorally.
An offender’s behavior must reflect his intention to inflict fear or pain on
the victim and to manifest a high level of aggression if he is to be classified
as an overt sadistic rapist. Moreover, since a feature of sadism is the syner-
gistic relationship between sexual arousal and feelings of anger, there must
be some evidence that the aggression either contributed to sexual arousal or
at least did not inhibit such arousal. Since the two feelings (sexual arousal
and anger) have equal ability to enhance or increase the other, the sexual acts
may precede aggression, or the aggression may precede the sexual acts. The
cardinal feature in either case is the intertwining or fusing of the two feel-
ings such that increases in one lead to increases in the other. As a group,
overt sadistic rapists appear to be angry, belligerent people who, except for
their sadism and the greater planning of their sexual assaults, look very sim-
ilar to the pervasively angry rapists.
To be classified as a muted sadistic rapist, there must be evidence that the
victim’s fear or discomfort, or the fantasy of violence, contributed to the of-
fender’s sexual arousal (or did not inhibit such arousal) and that the amount
of physical force in the sexual assault did not exceed what was necessary to
gain victim compliance. Symbolic expressions of sadistic fantasy character-
ize these offenders, who may employ various forms of bondage or restraints,
noninjurious insertion of foreign objects, and other sexual aids, such as Vase-
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Rape and Sexual Assault 313
line or shaving cream. What is absent is the high level of expressive aggres-
sion that is clearly manifest in overt sadism. As noted, the higher social com-
petence of muted sadistic offenders may explain the difference in aggression,
with the greater social sophistication of muted sadistic rapists attenuating or
muting the aggression. In general, muted sadistic offenders, except for their
sadistic fantasies and their slightly higher lifestyle impulsivity, resemble the
high social competence, nonsadistic rapist.
Nonsadistic Types
For the nonsadistic sexualized rapists, the thoughts and fantasies that are
associated with their sexual assaults are devoid of the synergistic relation of
sex and aggression that characterizes the sadistic types. Indeed, these two
rapist types are hypothesized to manifest less aggression than any of the
other rapist types. If confronted with victim resistance, these offenders may
flee rather than force the victim to comply. Their fantasies and behaviors are
hypothesized to reflect an amalgam of sexual arousal, distorted male cogni-
tions about women and sexuality, feelings of social and sexual inadequacy,
and masculine self-image concerns. Compared to the other rapist types,
these offenders have relatively few problems with impulse control in do-
mains outside sexual aggression.
Vindictive Motivation
The core feature and primary driving force for the vindictive type is anger at
women. Unlike the pervasively angry rapist, women are the central and ex-
clusive focus of the vindictive rapist’s anger. Their sexual assaults are marked
by behaviors that are physically injurious and appear to be intended to de-
grade, demean, and humiliate their victims. The misogynistic anger evident
in these assaults runs the gamut from verbal abuse to brutal murder. As
noted, these offenders differ from pervasively angry rapists in that they show
little or no evidence of anger at men (for example, by instigating fights with
or assaulting men).
Although there is a sexual component in their assaults, there is no evi-
dence that their aggression is eroticized as it is for the sadistic types and no
evidence that they are preoccupied with sadistic fantasies. Indeed, the ag-
gression in the sexual assault is often instrumental in achieving the primary
aim of demeaning or humiliating the victim (for example, forcing the victim
to fellate the offender). Vindictive rapists also differ from both the perva-
sively angry and overt sadistic offenders in their relatively lower level of
lifestyle impulsivity (they have relatively fewer problems with impulse con-
trol in other areas of their lives).
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313.01: SOCIAL ACQUAINTANCE RAPE
Subcategories of social acquaintance rape are adult, adolescent, child, and
elder. In this offense, there is a prior knowledge of or relationship between
the victim and offender. Often the relationship is social, and for adults and
adolescents, the assault usually occurs on a date. Other relationships include
student-teacher, athlete-coach, or priest–altar boy affiliations. For child cases,
the relationship might include a neighbor or family friend. For elder cases, the
relationship might include caregiver in the home.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. This type of offense involves low expressive aggression and
no severe physical injuries to the victim. It begins with a consenting inter-
personal encounter.
Offender Characteristics. It is likely that this offender has good social skills
and has not been involved in serious criminal activities. The offense is usually
situational for adult and elder victims and preferential for child victims.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene is usually the
victim or offender’s residence.
Common Forensic Findings. See the section on general forensic evidence
collection at the start of the chapter if the victim reports the rape shortly after
it occurred.
Investigative Considerations
Prior abuse of the victim or other members of the household may have pre-
viously been reported by other family members or third parties.
Search Warrant Suggestions
If the rape is reported immediately after it occurred, a search warrant should
be requested to obtain offender clothing to test for blood, hair, and fibers. If
there is a long delay between the rape and reporting, search warrants will
provide access to little evidence.
CASE STUDY: 313.01: SOCIAL ACQUAINTANCE RAPE
Background and Victimology
Rose had a brief, romantic involvement with Frank approximately two years
before the sexual assault, which occurred in 1979, but she had not seen him
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Rape and Sexual Assault 315
in the interim. Then, one evening while en route to a friend’s house for din-
ner, she found herself driving by Frank’s home and impulsively decided to
stop to say hello. Frank, who greeted Rose in his bathrobe at the downstairs
back door, sent Rose to a nearby liquor store to purchase liquor for him. They
had a drink together, and Frank continued to drink after Rose had finished. At
first, they talked and reminisced about old times. At some point, Frank rolled
and smoked a cigarette he made from substance that he kept in a jar.
As Frank became increasingly intoxicated, he started to become physi-
cally and sexually suggestive. Eventually he grabbed at Rose, threatened her
with an ornamental knife, and burned her with his cigarette, according to
Rose’s testimony. Frank became even more aggressive, and at various times,
he slapped, kicked, punched, and pulled Rose into the bedroom, where he
raped her three times, both vaginally and orally.
Eventually Frank fell asleep, and Rose managed to leave the apartment
and get to her car, only to discover she had left some of her belongings inside
the apartment. When she reentered the apartment, Frank was on the tele-
phone with his girlfriend with whom he had a date later that evening. The
girlfriend hung up, and an enraged Frank became angry and shouted at Rose.
As Rose headed toward the back stairs to leave, Frank kicked or pushed her
down the stairs, causing her to fall into the window in the door at the bottom
of the stairs, where the broken glass cut her deeply.
After some delay, Frank drove Rose to the hospital because she was
almost blinded by the blood in her eyes, but only after she promised not to
reveal how she was injured. At the hospital, she told the hospital personnel
that she had fallen down the stairs. After she was treated, Frank drove her
back to his apartment, where she stayed and slept until the next morning,
when she drove herself home.
It was not until two days later, under the prodding questions of close rel-
atives, that Rose revealed the true source of her injuries and the fact that
Frank had raped her. She returned to the hospital, where she was examined
for rape trauma.
Outcome
Rose pressed criminal charges against Frank immediately, and her attorney
filed a civil action within a few weeks of the incident in order to obtain a real
estate attachment against the defendant’s holdings, as there was a possibil-
ity that he would transfer his property to a relative.
Frank was acquitted of all criminal charges in March 1980. In the civil
suit, the trial court directed a verdict in favor of the third-party defendant,
Frank’s homeowner’s insurer. An appeals court overturned the directed ver-
dict in favor of Rose, the plaintiff.
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313.02: SUBORDINATE RAPE
The subcategories of subordinate rape are adult, adolescent, child, and elder.
The relationship between the victim of subordinate rape and the offender is
one of subordination and status imbalance. One person has power over
another by employment, education, or age. The offender uses this authority
relationship to take advantage of the victim.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is known to the offender. The offender must be in
some authoritative relationship to the victim (teacher, supervisor, manager
or employer, parole officer, therapist, or physician, for example). Typically
there is low expressive aggression, with no severe physical injuries to the
victim.
Offender Characteristics. The offender uses familiarity to gain access to or
trust of the victim. This is often a preferential offense.
Common Forensic Findings. The victim should be referred for a sexual
assault examination.
Investigation
The investigator should seek out other subordinates of the offender for pos-
sible victimization and check current and past affiliations of the offender.
Search Warrant Considerations
If the rape is reported immediately after it occurred, a search warrant should
be requested to obtain offender clothing to test for blood, hair, and fibers. If
there is a long delay between the rape and reporting, search warrants will
provide access to little evidence.
CASE STUDY: 313.02.01: SUBORDINATE RAPE, ADULT
Background and Victimology
Five patients, ranging in age from twenty-two to seventy-eight, accused their
physician of sexual assault and rape between fall 1983 and fall 1984. The
twenty-two-year-old victim described how the physician who was treating
her for what she believed was a cyst on her ovary questioned her about her
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sex life and molested her with an ungloved hand during a pelvic examina-
tion. He asked her if she had an orgasm when having sex and that if not, he
could show her how. The doctor then leaned against her and rubbed his
pelvis against her while examining her breasts. When asked why she waited
four months before telling a fellow worker about the assault, the woman tes-
tified, “I thought it was in my head that he was doing something wrong.”
Another woman, age twenty-three, testified that during three visits to the
doctor for stomach pain, the doctor asked her each time “how often I had sex
with my boyfriend, if I pleased my boyfriend.” On the last visit, the doctor
told her to get up from a chair, pressed his pelvis against her stomach, and
asked “if I could please him.”
A thirty-eight-year-old deaf woman being treated by the doctor for severe
stomach pain testified that during one visit, the doctor examined her with un-
gloved hands and asked if she enjoyed oral sex, how often she had sex, and
what positions she used. Then he asked, “Could we go somewhere where no-
body knew either of us and let it go from there?”
A seventy-nine-year-old woman, weeping and in a wheelchair, testified
that the doctor wanted to look at a rash on her back and lifted her onto an
examining table where he raped her. Her eighty-four-year-old husband tes-
tified that his wife appeared very shaky and upset when she returned home
and that he noted blood stains on her underclothes. Charges were entered
against the doctor after receiving the complaint from victims.
Offender Characteristics
This offender targeted a wide age range of victims.
Crime Scene Indicators
There was a subordinate patient-doctor relationship between the victim and
offender and an offender-controlled environment. He committed an offense
only when a nurse was not present and would be guaranteed of not being
interrupted.
Forensic Findings
There was too great a time period between the rape and the reporting of the
rape for meaningful forensic evidence.
Investigation
When the offender’s picture was carried by the local media, additional vic-
tims came forward. A search warrant was used for the victim’s medical re-
cords and other records for use during the trial.
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Outcome
The physician was convicted on all charged counts of sexual assault. His ap-
peal of the convictions was denied, and he was sentenced to prison for seven
to ten years.
313.02.03: SUBORDINATE RAPE, CHILD
The primary aim of an offender in this category is to have sex with a child.
Sexual activity with children may range from a few acts to a lifelong pattern.
These offenders tend to be self-centered, with little or no concern about the
comfort or welfare of the child. The sexual acts are typically phallic (the goal
is penetration and achieving orgasm, with the child used as a masturbatory
object), and the victims are usually strangers. The offenses are usually im-
pulsive, with little or no planning; physical injury is absent or minimal.
These offenders are usually promiscuous, with many different victims of
varying ages. Vulnerable individuals include the sick, the disabled, and the
handicapped as well as healthy children in day care settings.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is under the state’s age of majority. The child can
be either male or female.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. There is low expressive ag-
gression (that is, no more aggression than necessary to secure victim com-
pliance). There is no evidence that aggression or victim fear is an important
part of the offense or that it is needed to enhance sexual arousal. There is no
attempt to relate to the child or to engage the child in nonsexual activities.
These offenders tend to be predatory and exploitive. The offense is usually
preferential.
CASE STUDY: 313.02.03:
SUBORDINATE RAPE, CHILD
Background and Victimology
A parent became suspicious of her twelve-year-old son’s gradual withdrawal
from social and sports activities, his reluctance to go to school, and his in-
creasing physical complaints, such as headaches and stomachaches. Further
inquiry revealed he was being sexually abused by his seventh-grade teacher.
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Investigation
The district attorney’s office began investigation and learned of several addi-
tional possible victims of this teacher. Confrontation of the teacher led to a
confession.
Offender Characteristics
This forty-three-year-old teacher was married and had a ten-year-old daugh-
ter. He had been teaching at a prominent, coed, private school for sixteen years.
He was a popular teacher with the boys, but girls found him intimidating and
critical of them and their work. He clearly favored boys and frequently would
take boys individually to his home for tutoring and on vacations.
Outcome
School administrators had knowledge of suspicious sexual activity between
the teacher and students but had minimized and not reported it. The school
was held liable for failure to report suspected child abuse. The offender was
sentenced to five years in prison and required to pay therapy costs for the
boys he had victimized.
313.03: POWER-REASSURANCE RAPE
The subcategories of power-reassurance rape are adult, adolescent, child,
and elder. The rape usually occurs as a blitz or sudden, unexpected assault.
It is usually a situational assault unless the victim has been targeted. The
classification of power-reassurance implies the dynamics of the offender.
Most often, this offender is committing the rape as a test of his competence
and manhood. The rape is compensatory for his feelings of sexual inade-
quacy. Fueling the behavior is a fantasy that the woman will like the “sex”
and therefore want more. The reality, of course, is that the behavior is forced
penetration, without consent, and by threat—all elements of rape.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is usually unknown to the offender. If known, the
victim will be a casual acquaintance, such as someone living in the same
neighborhood or working in the same building. There is usually low expres-
sive aggression, with no severe physical injuries to the victim.
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Offender Characteristics. The offender often makes some attempt to relate
to the victim and assure the victim that he does not intend to injure him or
her. The offender generally has had problems as an adolescent or adult. The
offense often is planned, at least to the extent of the offender’s having
thought about the assault (such as a rehearsed fantasy). These offenders may
have other signs of sexual preoccupation and sexually deviant behavior. This
type of offender has been descriptively termed a compensatory rapist.
CASE STUDY: 313.03.01:
POWER-REASSURANCE RAPE, ADULT
Background and Victimology
Eugene’s sexual offense history began in his early twenties (during the time he
was married) with exhibitionism. Four years after he began exposing himself,
he assaulted two young women. When he grabbed one woman, with his geni-
tals exposed, the other woman slapped him in the face. He released his hold,
and the two women ran away.
Two years later, he committed his first rape. While walking along a river-
bank, he observed a jogger running toward him. He stopped her by asking a
question. After they had conversed for a while, he grabbed her, fondled her
breasts, and forced her to remove her clothes. He placed her clothes on the
ground and told her to lie on them. While raping her, he repeatedly asked her
sexual questions. After achieving orgasm, he left.
A second rape occurred about one year later. This offense was similar to
the first: he picked up a pedestrian, drove her to a park, and raped her, again
asking the victim for assurance that the assault was a pleasurable experience.
Offender Characteristics
Eugene is a thirty-year-old divorced male who came from a relatively large,
intact family. His father worked many hours away from home and returned
to the house only on weekends. When he was at home, he spent most of his
time drinking; however, there is no evidence that he was abusive toward
members of the family. Because his mother also worked and consequently
was gone much of the time, caretaking and child-rearing responsibilities
were assumed by the immigrant paternal grandmother, who spoke almost no
English.
Eugene got along poorly with his five brothers and sisters. He stated that
he was the black sheep. His school-related difficulties began as early as the
third grade; his earliest memories are of skipping school and vandalizing
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deserted buildings. Although clearly of average or above-average intelli-
gence, he repeated several grades and eventually dropped out of school
before finishing the tenth grade.
He enlisted in the army and remained in the service for several years, with
a record marked by disciplinary hearings. Shortly after discharge from the
service, he married.
The marriage lasted two years and produced one child, who died at birth.
Although the child allegedly died of natural causes, his wife and in-laws
blamed him for the death.
His employment history was as erratic as his school and military history.
He worked as a truck driver in construction, in warehouses, as a security
guard, for moving companies, and as a mechanic, quitting all jobs he held,
typically within two months.
Eugene’s childhood, juvenile, and young adult history of instability, low
frustration tolerance, acting out, and delinquent behavior underscores his
impulsive lifestyle. The compensatory nature of his offenses is amply illus-
trated by his exhibitionism, his attempts to confirm his sexual adequacy, and
his attempts to reassure the victim as well as himself.
Outcome
Eugene was convicted of two rape charges.
313.03.02:
POWER-REASSURANCE RAPE, ADOLESCENT
The primary aim of the offender in this rape is to develop a relationship with
an adolescent. The sexual activities are secondary to the interpersonal intent.
The victim is seen as an appropriate social and sexual companion; the
offender perceives that the relationship is mutually satisfying and that it ben-
efits the adolescent in some way. The sexual acts usually are limited to
fondling, caressing, kissing, frottage, or oral sex performed on the victim.
The victim may be known to the offender, and the relationship between the
victim and the offender is usually long term or there have been multiple
encounters with the victim. The offenses are usually planned and are not
characterized as impulsive. The offenses are not violent, and rarely is there
any physical injury to the victim.
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CASE STUDY: 313.03.02:
POWER-REASSURANCE RAPE, ADOLESCENT
Background and Victimology
Jim’s criminal record started in 1973 at the age of twenty-three. His first of-
fense was an attempted rape of an eighteen-year-old woman. The same year,
he committed a second, similar offense against a seventeen-year-old woman.
In neither case was there physical force, and in neither case did the assault
eventuate in rape. In 1974 he raped a nineteen-year-old woman, in 1975 a
twenty-three-year-old woman, and in 1976 a fifteen-year-old girl. This last
rape was the offense for which he was committed. In every case, his MO was
more or less the same: picking up a hitchhiker, brandishing a knife, and
threatening harm, but never applying more force than needed to gain submis-
sion. In fact, in the first two assaults, the victims talked him out of the rape.
The scripted or ritualized aspect of the pattern assaults suggests Jim’s
compensatory nature. The offender had no long-term history of conduct dis-
order. The acts themselves had an element of premeditation in that he set out
to locate victims on the occasions of the crimes. On several occasions he
expressed interest in dating the victims and was apprehended after the last
rape when he met his victim for a date the next evening. Jim represents the
pure compensatory rapist.
Offender Characteristics
Jim was the first of three sons. His early years were described as reasonably
happy ones. However, after being laid off from his job as a machine opera-
tor, his father started drinking heavily and became destructive during fits of
rage. Jim graduated from high school and worked as a general laborer before
joining the military. After a full term in the military, he was again employed
as a laborer. At the time of the last rape, he was working as a security guard.
He met his wife while in the military, and they were married a short time
later. They were divorced after about three years, and Jim was given custody
of their three-year-old child.
Investigation
Police investigated each victim report. On several occasions, Jim had ex-
pressed interest in dating the victims and was apprehended after the last rape
when he met his victim for a date the next evening. The police were waiting
for him after working with the victim to set up the pseudo-date.
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Outcome
Jim was sent to the Massachusetts Treatment Center, Bridgewater, Massa-
chusetts, for sex offender treatment in 1978 after having been convicted of
kidnapping and rape.
313.04: EXPLOITATIVE RAPE
The subcategories of exploitative rape are adult, adolescent, child, and elder.
In exploitative rape, expressed aggression is generally low and does not ex-
ceed what was necessary to force victim compliance. Callous indifference to
the victim is evident.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim may be an adult, adolescent, child, or elder. The
victim, either female or male, is usually unknown to the offender.
Offender Characteristics. The offender usually has limited formal school-
ing; a poor job record; and short-term, unstable relationships. He is usually
impulsive and has a long record of serious behavioral problems or of arrests
for criminal offenses, starting in adolescence and throughout most of his
adult life. Offenses tend to be highly impulsive, with little or no planning.
Alcohol or drug abuse is common.
CASE STUDY: 313.04.01: EXPLOITATIVE RAPE, ADULT
Background and Victimology
Richard is a thirty-two-year-old single male. His first rape was a twenty-five-
year-old woman. He grabbed her around the throat and placed a knife to her
neck, forcing her to the basement of a building. The victim was held prisoner
and repeatedly raped and sodomized. The offender stole a small amount of
money from her purse before allowing her to leave. His second victim,
twenty-seven-years old, was seized on the street and forced into a vacant
house, where she was raped and change removed from her purse. The third
victim, twenty-five-years old, was seized at knifepoint on the street, forced
to her apartment, and repeatedly raped and sodomized. The victims were
blindfolded, and the last one was bound with a rope. None of the victims
were injured by weapons.
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Offender Characteristics
Richard was the third of four brothers. His father was a cab driver who both
worked and drank regularly. He was described as a womanizer and was abu-
sive when intoxicated. His mother was a waitress and a maid. She attended
church regularly and appeared to have been devoted to her family. Shortly
after the death of a younger sister (age six months), Richard (then two years
old) began wandering away from home. By the age of three, he was killing
kittens by locking them in a refrigerator, and by age four, he was removed
from a day nursery for fighting. By age six, he was pulling up girls’ dresses
and exposing himself. He was placed in a home the same year and remained
in penal institutions, juvenile detention centers, and foster homes through-
out his life. He remained in the fourth grade until his sixteenth birthday. He
eventually earned his general equivalence diploma while in prison. Richard
had a long juvenile and adult criminal record that included numerous in-
stances of larceny, statutory burglary, breaking and entering, motor vehicle
offenses, armed robbery, assault and battery, and rape.
Richard’s profile is typical of an exploitative, high-impulse rapist. The as-
saults were all impulsive, predatory acts. Although there was little gratuitous
aggression (compared with the expressive rapist), there was no concern for
the victims’ fear or discomfort (compared with the compensatory rapist).
There is a long history of behavioral management problems going back to
early childhood, resulting in a low level of adult social, professional, and
interpersonal competence. It is this extensive history or acting out concomi-
tant with a low level of social competence that distinguishes this individual
from the power-reassurance rapist (see Case Study 313.03.01).
Investigation
Richard was well known to the police. After the victims reported the rapes,
the detective reviewed his files and developed a suspect list. Richard’s name
was high on the list. He had no alibi for the evenings in question. Moreover,
items taken from the victims were traced to him after a search warrant was
secured.
Outcome
Richard was sent to the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater for
sex offender treatment in 1975 after having been convicted of rape, sodomy,
armed robbery, breaking and entering, and assault and battery.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 325
314: ANGER RAPE
Sexual assault in the category of anger rape is characterized by high expres-
sive aggression; unprovoked physical and verbal aggression or physical
force in excess of that necessary to gain victim compliance must be present.
Rage is evident in this offender. He may have manifested behaviors listed for
sadistic sexual assault, but these must appear to be punishing actions done
in anger, not to increase sexual arousal. The primary motive for the offense
is anger, not sexual gratification. When the offender knows the victim, the
assault on that victim appears to be the result of the offender’s easy access
to that victim. These offenses are predominantly impulse driven (for exam-
ple, opportunity alone, possibly coupled with impaired judgment due to
drugs or alcohol). The degree of force used in this type of assault is exces-
sive and gratuitous. The violence is an integrated component of the behavior
even when the victim is compliant. Resistance from the victim is likely to
increase the aggression, and serious injury or death may occur. The rage is
not sexualized, suggesting that the assault is not fantasy driven. The violence
is a lifestyle characteristic that is directed toward males and females alike.
The rape is but one feature in a history of unsocialized aggressive behavior
noted across various social settings.
314.01: ANGER RAPE, GENDER
The category of gender anger rape is reserved for offenders who hate women
and express their rage through rape.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim must be a woman, and high expressive aggression
must be present. In addition, there must be clear evidence from the of-
fender’s behaviors or verbalizations that the primary intent of the rape is to
hurt, demean, humiliate, or punish the victim (for example, by calling the
victim names or forcing the victim to engage in acts that are seen by the
offender as demeaning or humiliating, such as fellatio).
CASE STUDY: 314.01: ANGER RAPE, GENDER
Background and Victimology
A twenty-six-year-old woman was awakened at 2:00 A.M. when the offender,
Randy, put his fist through the glass door of her apartment building. He
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reached in and unlocked the door as the victim came out into the hallway. He
grabbed her around the neck, put a knife to her throat, and dragged her into
his car. When in the car, he warned her that if she moved, he would “chop
her up” with the knife. When they arrived at an abandoned building, he
forced her to undress, dance in the nude, and utter obscenities about women
while dancing. He grabbed her breasts and buttocks and grabbed her hair and
slapped her face, all while ordering her to repeat more obscenities about
women over and over again. He then sodomized her, performed cunnilingus,
forced her to perform fellatio, and finally had intercourse with her. Through-
out the assault, he told her to keep swearing, saying he liked to hear it. Even-
tually he got back into his car and drove off, leaving the victim to walk five
miles to the nearest house.
Offender Characteristics
Randy’s father died in a car accident when he was two years old. His mother
was a cocktail waitress and heavy drinker who died of pneumonia at the age
of thirty. After his father died, Randy was raised by foster parents. He reports
not seeing his mother more than six times a year after that. His relationship
with his foster parents was apparently a good one. His foster father died
when Randy was thirteen. His foster mother alone was unable to provide the
supervision and guidance he needed, and before long he was getting into
trouble with the law.
At the age of seventeen, Randy left home and moved in with a male com-
panion. He never married, although at the time of arrest he was engaged. He
attended six different primary and secondary schools, eventually dropping
out in the eleventh grade at age seventeen. In the five years between leaving
high school and his arrest, he held many different jobs, primarily as dish-
washer, busboy, cook, and clerk. He had been drinking heavily since he was
sixteen and also used amphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana.
Although this was his first sexual offense, Randy had a long history of
delinquent behavior, including ten prior court appearances for motor vehicle
violations, larceny, writing bad checks, and drugs.
This is a typical case of a high-impulse, anger rapist. The primary aim of
the rape was the expression of rage through physically assaulting, degrading,
and humiliating the victim. A pattern of chronic acting out began in the
offender’s early adolescence, reflecting an impulsive lifestyle. Comments
from his psychiatric report suggested that his behavior was frequently un-
planned and guided by whim and that there was an exaggerated craving for
excitement. Although Randy’s impulsiveness did not appear until adoles-
cence, some offenders express an impulsive style as early as childhood.
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Investigation
After reporting the rape to the police, the victim took them back to the area
where she had been raped. The abandoned building was found, as well as
evidence that eventually tied Randy to the crime scene.
Outcome
Randy was a twenty-two-year-old single male when sent for sex offender
treatment to the Massachusetts Treatment Center, Bridgewater, in 1977. He
was convicted of rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a dangerous
weapon, and unnatural acts.
314.02: ANGER RAPE, AGE
The motive of the offender in age anger is to seek out victims of a specific
age group, usually elderly or young.
314.02.01: ANGER RAPE, ELDERLY VICTIM
The victim must be a woman sixty years of age or older. High expressive
aggression must be evident and the choice of an elderly victim must be inten-
tional on the part of the offender (that is, not strictly a victim of opportunity).
CASE STUDY: 314.02.01:
ANGER RAPE, ELDERLY VICTIM
Background and Victimology
A sixty-five-year-old widow returning from church entered her bedroom and
noted that several bureau drawers were open and that jewelry and money
were missing. Walking into the den, she was struck by a closed fist to her
face. A man grabbed her by the throat and threw her onto a couch. The in-
truder tore off her clothing, tried to strangle her, and said, “Die, damn you,
die.” He then sexually assaulted the woman.
Offender Characteristics
Dan, age twenty-five, came from a broken home and lived until age six with
a foster family. His natural mother abandoned the family when Dan was
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three. When his father remarried, Dan went to live with his father and step-
mother. The stepmother was a severe disciplinarian who burned Dan’s fin-
gers with a cigarette lighter when she caught him smoking.
Dan ran away from home as often as he could. There were frequent fam-
ily arguments and beatings because he was a slow learner in school. Dan
attended four grammar schools and four high schools. Part of his high school
experience was at a boys’ training center, where he was labeled an unruly
child. At ages fourteen and fifteen, he admitted to being obsessed with
thoughts of murdering his stepmother, and he continually thought of ways to
carry out the killing.
Dan enlisted in the army at age nineteen and served six years. He reports
receiving approximately twenty reprimands for misconduct during this time.
He claims to have become addicted to alcohol and drugs while in the service.
Dan married a woman whose husband had been killed in Vietnam, and the
agreement to marry was for the purpose of splitting the extra pay he would
receive if they married. They never lived together and were divorced ten
months later. Dan claimed to be tripping on LSD during his rape offense.
Investigation
After reporting the rape to police, the victim’s apartment was examined for
crime scene evidence. Dan’s fingerprints were found, and he subsequently
confessed to the rape.
Outcome
Dan pleaded guilty to the crime of rape and was sentenced to a five-year term.
314.02.02: ANGER RAPE, CHILD VICTIM
This category of anger rape is reserved for offenders who express extreme
anger at children, with no evidence that the aggression is eroticized (not
sadistic); the aggression is rooted in rage or anger at the victim as a child, the
world, people in general, or some specific individual. Any physical injury to
the child results by accident: due to the clumsiness or ineptness on the part
of the offender or because the victim may have been pushed in a struggle and
accidentally hit his or her head.
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CASE STUDY: 314.02.02: ANGER RAPE, CHILD VICTIM
Background and Victimology
The victim, a nine-year-old boy, lived at a church-operated home for boys.
According to Bruce, the sixteen-year-old offender, the two met, talked a bit,
and decided to hunt for snakes and fish at a nearby reservoir. As they sat on
a dock fishing, Bruce started fondling the boy, becoming sexually aroused.
He undid the boy’s pants and performed fellatio. He then began to try to take
the boy’s pants off. The boy resisted as Bruce turned him over on his stom-
ach, preparing to sodomize him. They fell into the water, and a struggle en-
sued. The boy slipped on a rock and hit his head, which rendered him
unconscious. Bruce tried to lift the boy but slipped, dropping the boy into the
water. “He was not dead the first time he hit his head, but I’m sure he was
dead the second time,” said Bruce.
Offender Characteristics
Bruce has a brother two years older than he is. His parents divorced when he
was a few months old. The brother, according to Bruce, beat him up daily
from the time he was three until he was ten or eleven. When he was five, the
mother and two boys moved to live with his maternal grandfather. This was
an important relationship for Bruce; however, the grandfather died four
years later. Bruce reports that soon after he turned eleven, he was fishing one
day when an eighteen-year-old youth approached him and told him about a
good fishing spot in the woods. As they proceeded into the forest, the youth
forced fellatio and sodomy on Bruce. He claimed he yelled, but that it did no
good. He felt helpless, and the act was painful.
Upon entering the seventh grade, Bruce tested in the high intelligence range
and was advanced two grades. He was socially immature and found it too
lonely to be with the older adolescents. He became rebellious and hostile and
spent most of the years between ages twelve and sixteen on his own, in youth
detention centers or psychiatric facilities. His juvenile criminal involvement
included sixteen court appearances on forty-three charges, including shoplift-
ing, assault and battery, use of a dangerous weapon, motor vehicle violations,
and four charges of sexual abuse of juveniles under fourteen. He maintained
that the victims were willing partners around his own age.
Bruce began homosexual activities in early adolescence and moved in
with a male partner. However, six months later, this adolescent was killed
in a car accident, and Bruce attempted suicide by consuming an overdose of
aspirin. The assault of the boy at the reservoir happened on the anniversary
of his friend’s death.
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Crime Scene Indicators
The victim’s body was found floating in the reservoir. The body wore no
trousers. A search of the area revealed shorts with the victim’s initials sewn
inside.
Forensic Findings
The coroner’s examination revealed a laceration one and a half inches in
length and a half-inch in width on the forehead, as well as multiple blows to
the head. The victim weighed forty-five pounds. Asphyxiation by drowning
was noted as possible cause of death.
Investigation
Crime scene evidence was found on the victim. When detectives began inter-
viewing persons at the boy’s home, they developed investigative leads link-
ing Bruce to the victim. Several people had seen him leave with the victim.
Outcome
Bruce was sentenced to eighteen to twenty years for manslaughter, eighteen
to twenty years concurrent for rape. He was committed to the Treatment
Center at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, under Massachusetts law as a sexu-
ally dangerous person.
314.03: ANGER RAPE, RACIAL
This category is reserved for what appears to be racially motivated rape.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Victims are of a different race from the offender.
CASE STUDY: 314.03: ANGER RAPE, RACIAL
Background and Victimology
Joe is a twenty-eight-year-old black man with two index offenses: one
against a twenty-two-year-old white female and the other against a twenty-
seven-year-old white female. Both offenses occurred in the presence of the
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Rape and Sexual Assault 331
victim’s boyfriend. In one instance, the offender approached a couple as they
were about to enter their apartment. He came up behind them and forced his
way into the apartment after them. He made the boyfriend stand in the cor-
ner of the room facing the wall while he raped the woman. The second
offense had a similar MO. During the rape, Joe made degrading racial com-
ments to both the victims and their boyfriends.
Offender Characteristics
Joe, bright and charming, had a long history of nonsexual crimes including
breaking and entering, larcenies, and motor vehicle offenses. He grew up
in the inner city. The rapes occurred in the suburbs and in the vicinity where
he worked. His work was low-skilled industrial park work. He dropped out
of high school in the tenth grade. He was never married but had a variety of
consenting sexual companions.
Investigation
Crime scene evidence was developed from the locations of the offenses.
Detectives took a careful history from both the victim and her boyfriend.
Fingerprints were obtained, and Joe became the lead suspect. A photo lineup
was used to identify Joe.
Outcome
The offender was convicted of all charges of rape and committed to the
Treatment Center at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, under the Massachusetts
Sexually Dangerous Predator Act. After serving a fifteen-year sentence, Joe
would remain at the treatment center until psychologists determined he was
no longer sexually dangerous.
314.04: ANGER RAPE, GLOBAL
This category is reserved for offenders who appear to be globally angry at
the world. This is a high-expressive-aggression assault with no evidence of
sadism and no evidence that the offender is focally angry with women.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Typically, the victim is unknown to the offender. Usually there
is moderate to severe physical aggression and injury to victim.
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Offender Characteristics. This offender is impulsive and has had behav-
ioral problems and encounters with the law beginning in adolescence and
into his adult life. Typically, the offender has few social skills. Often he has
a history of verbal and physical assaults on both males and females. Usually
the offenses are not planned.
CASE STUDY: 314.04: ANGER RAPE, GLOBAL
Background and Victimology
A seventeen-year-old woman was walking along a city road as the offender,
Steven, drove by. He stopped his car beside her, stepped out, and asked her
where she was going. He did not hear her answer and asked again in an angry
manner. She turned to walk away, which made Steven feel as though she was
rejecting him and trying to make a fool of him. He punched her in the stom-
ach, grabbed her under her chin, pulled her into his car, and drove away to a
secluded area. After he parked the car, he told her to get into the back seat.
When she refused, he climbed into the back and dragged her over the seat
beside him. He undressed her and violently penetrated her. He states that he
then withdrew, without having an orgasm, and let her out of the car, threat-
ening to kill her if she made mention of the attack. When he was arrested
shortly after, he immediately admitted his guilt.
Offender Characteristics
Steven came from a relatively normal, seemingly unremarkable family. He
had an older sister and a younger brother, both of whom appeared to be liv-
ing normal lives. His father was a strict disciplinarian. His mother was a pas-
sive, quiet, religious woman who rarely questioned her emotionally detached
husband. His father was a twenty-five-year veteran mechanic. Family life was
described as stable and uneventful. Steven remained in school through the
eighth grade, held a few part-time, unskilled jobs, and joined the military. He
received an honorable discharge after less than one year of service.
During the diagnostic interviews subsequent to his trial, he discussed the
incident, describing himself as enraged at the time, not sexually excited. He
had gone to visit his girlfriend, whom he had been seeing off and on since
early adolescence with no sexual activity throughout the courtship. He found
her necking on the porch with another man and drove from her house in a
blind rage. He was partially aware as he drove away that he was going to
look for somebody to attack sexually. His anger was global.
Steven had an active sexual life, but only with women whom he consid-
ered to be “bad.” These relationships were short-lived, ending when he was
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Rape and Sexual Assault 333
directly confronted with their promiscuity. Terminating the relationship
always occurred with violence, either in assaults on the women or on the
boyfriends who replaced him.
His late adolescence was marked by the repetitiveness of these experi-
ences. Over and over again, he became involved with promiscuous women
who would then prove to be unfaithful. On the one hand, he could permit
himself to have intercourse only with women he knew to be sexually indis-
criminate. On the other hand, he maintained the fantasy that they would be
faithful to him.
This is an exemplary case of a pervasively angry, low-impulse rapist. As
one diagnostic report stated, Steven’s attitude toward women was “tremen-
dously hostile and bordering on rage.” His pattern was to jockey for a posi-
tion in a relationship with a woman where he would feel ashamed, foolish,
and hurt. He would respond aggressively, at times explosively, typically at the
woman. He created an effective outlet for discharging—and displacing—his
rage. There was never any indication that this aggression was eroticized.
Finally, there was no evidence of the developmental turbulence, the behav-
ioral management problems, and the poor social and interpersonal compe-
tence characteristic of high impulsivity.
Investigation
The victim made an immediate report to police, who returned to the crime
scene and were able to develop leads as to the offender. Joe was arrested
shortly after the rape and immediately admitted his guilt.
Outcome
Steven at age twenty-four was committed to the Treatment Center in Bridge-
water, Massachusetts, in 1965 for sex offender treatment. He was convicted
of rape. Other than the commitment offense, he had no criminal history. He
was released after eighteen years when psychologists determined he was no
longer sexually dangerous.
315: SADISTIC RAPE
The level of violence in a sadistic offender’s rape must clearly exceed what
is necessary to force victim compliance; the offender’s sexual arousal is a
function of the victim’s pain, fear, or discomfort. Behavioral evidence may
include sham sadism (such as whipping, bondage), violence focused on the
erogenous parts of the victim’s body (such as burning, cutting, or otherwise
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mutilating the breasts, anus, buttocks, or genitals); insertion of foreign ob-
jects in the vagina or anus; intercourse after the victim is unconscious; and
the use of feces or urine within the offense.
315.01: SADISTIC RAPE, ADULT
Most often, there is high expressive aggression with moderate to severe
injury to the victim. Frequently the offender uses items to inflict pain or in-
jury, such as cigarettes, knives, sticks, or bottles. In some cases of “sham” or
muted sadism, there is clear evidence of eroticized aggression (insertion of
foreign objects, bondage, and whipping, for example) without extensive
physical injury.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Typically the victim is unknown to the offender; however, the
victim may be an acquaintance.
Offender Characteristics. Typically the offender has had behavioral prob-
lems, sometimes beginning in adolescence, that often worsen in adulthood.
As described by Dietz, Hazelwood, and Warren (1990), a sexual sadist is one
who has established “an enduring pattern of sexual arousal in response to
sadistic imagery.” Sexual gratification is obtained from torture involving ex-
cessive mental and physical means. Sexually sadistic fantasies, in which sex-
ual acts are paired with domination, degradation, and violence, are transmitted
into criminal action that results in rape. Usually the offense is at least partially
planned, sometimes in detail.
CASE STUDY: 315.01: SADISTIC RAPE, ADULT
Background and Victimology
On the occasion of the first rape, Martin, the offender, was at an after-school
party and assaulted a fourteen year old. When she refused his advances, he
choked her in and out of consciousness. He became aroused to her cries for
help. When she regained consciousness, he was still lying beside her. The
commitment offense occurred one year later when Martin, age nineteen,
sadistically killed a thirty-year-old woman by manual strangulation. Accord-
ing to Martin, he had met the victim in a bar, and they left together to go to
a secluded area to engage in sex. He described binding the victim and chok-
ing her until she did not respond. He left the woman and returned home.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 335
Offender Characteristics
Martin was the sixth oldest of nine siblings. He described his family life as
“horrible, with emotional and physical abuse.” He portrayed his father as the
ruler of the household, who made sure that “orders were carried out”; other-
wise, frequent physical abuse resulted. His mother was described as passive
and obedient and often colluded in the beatings by reporting incidents or
punishable behavior to her husband. At age thirteen, Martin was sent away
to a training school for being a habitual school offender. His early schooling
continued to be sporadic, and he was eventually expelled in the tenth grade.
All employment had been of a menial nature.
Martin did not have a long history of violent crime. Most of his transgres-
sions involved truancy, lying or cheating, and disruptiveness in school. His
criminal record contained mostly alcohol- and automobile-related offenses.
He had committed two violent crimes: the initial rape attempt, which was re-
duced to assault and battery, and murder.
Investigation
The victim’s body was found and the crime scene secured and examined for
evidence. Fingerprints and other evidence were found and linked to Martin.
This victim was then linked to the first victim and confirmed by Martin’s
confession.
Outcome
Martin was a twenty-five-year-old single male committed to the Treatment
Center at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1976 for sex offender treatment.
He was convicted of second-degree murder. In both offenses. the motive was
clearly primarily aggressive and sadistic. He was indiscriminate in terms of
the victim’s age. The first victim was a child and the second an adult woman.
It did not appear, however, that sex was used as a vehicle for venting anger,
but rather that the aggression was antecedent to or concurrent with sexual
arousal. His lifestyle throughout adolescence was characterized by impul-
sive acting out; indeed, none of his serious crimes had any semblance of pre-
meditation, compulsiveness, or ritualism.
315.02: SADISTIC RAPE, ADOLESCENT
The offender is sexually aroused or otherwise derives pleasure from placing
the victim in pain or fear; sadistic acts may include aggressive sodomy,
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insertion of foreign objects; and violence focused on the breasts, genitals, or
anus. The sexual acts often occur during or after the violence and aggression.
CASE STUDY: 315.02: SADISTIC RAPE, ADOLESCENT
Background and Victimology
Terry had no juvenile criminal record. His first offense occurred two years
after discharge from the service. The victim was a seventeen-year-old male
whom Terry picked up while “cruising.” Terry smacked, punched, and
kicked the victim for twenty minutes before forcing the victim to engage in
fellatio. When the victim refused to engage in intercourse, Terry pulled a
knife out and began stabbing him in the abdomen. Just prior to the stabbing,
Terry demanded that the victim masturbate while cutting himself with the
knife. Following the assault, Terry called an ambulance and the police. Terry
claimed the acts were consensual, and no charges were made against him.
The commitment offense took place about one year later.
Terry picked up a sixteen-year-old male hustler and drove toward his
home. Before reaching his house, they got into an argument. Apparently
Terry had paid the victim in advance for services that the victim decided he
did not wish to provide. Terry stabbed the victim fifteen times, penetrating
the thorax, heart, and aorta. He then mutilated the body by amputation of the
penis at the most proximal point. The penis was never found, and there is
some suggestion that it may have been ingested.
Offender Characteristics
Terry came from an upper-middle-class, professional home. He did not, how-
ever, experience a normal childhood. From early childhood into adoles-
cence, he was plagued by night terrors, nightmares, and sleep talking and
sleep walking. He bit his fingernails and sucked his thumb until age sixteen.
He had few, if any, friends and was convinced that peers did not like him. His
pathological shyness kept him in his room through much of his childhood.
His mother felt “very badly” that he was so lonely. When she failed to
coax him from his room, she resorted to purchasing expensive toys for him
to play with. Terry was sickly much of the time, often febrile, and described
as “glassy-eyed.” Although the parents described their sons as “very good
boys . . . always obedient,” Terry felt particularly alienated and withdrawn as
he became more and more aware of homosexual feelings. Upon graduating
from high school, he enlisted in the air force. He spent four years in the serv-
ice, compiling an excellent record that included five commendations for
meritorious action. During this time, he also attended college and earned a
degree. After discharge from the service, he began the first of a series of jobs
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Rape and Sexual Assault 337
in sales. He proved to be a highly successful salesman (“well spoken, polite,
quiet but firm”) and was said to be earning in excess of six thousand dollars
a month at the time of his arrest. Terry has a long psychiatric history, with
depression and alcoholism presenting as primary features.
Investigation
Witnesses heard the two men quarreling, and a description of Terry led to his
interrogation.
Outcome
Terry was twenty-five-years old and single when he was committed to the
Treatment Center at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1982 as a sexually dan-
gerous person after having been convicted of second-degree murder and
rape. As an adult, Terry had led an exemplary life. He had good interpersonal
skills and acquired a fair degree of academic and professional competence.
He was described as “pleasant” and “charming” by coworkers. He certainly
did not lead what could be called an impulsive lifestyle. He had no criminal
record up to the point of his first offense. His two assaults were ritualized,
compulsive, and highly sadistic, much along the lines of the classic Jack the
Ripper case.
316: CHILD/ADOLESCENT PORNOGRAPHY
Collectors are persons who collect, maintain, and prize child pornography
materials. They may be classified as to whether they are closet collectors,
isolated collectors, or cottage collectors.
316.01: CLOSET COLLECTOR
The closet collector keeps secret his interest in pornographic pictures of
nude children engaged in a range of behaviors and denies involvement with
children. There is no acknowledged communication with other collectors.
Materials are usually purchased discretely through commercial channels.
The belief system of the closet collector makes him consciously acknowl-
edge that children should not be used sexually by adults.
316.02: ISOLATED COLLECTOR
The isolated collector chooses to have sexual activity with one child at a time.
He may be involved with his own child, children of neighbors, nephews,
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nieces, friends’ children, or children in his care (such as students). He may
seek out children not known to him by traveling to another country.
The isolated collector’s organization and use of pornographic materials
varies from casual to meticulous. A prominent feature of these collectors is
their belief that they are not harming the child. They deny that fear, force, or
overpowering strategies demand the child’s participation, a denial they
maintain even when confronted with evidence that the children were fright-
ened, trapped, and forced.
Isolated collectors usually deny their involvement with children. Often
they say that the child encouraged their behavior and that they were kind to
the child (that is, they did not hurt the child physically). Physical assault is
held to be the main criterion by which a collector deems behavior toward a
child as abusive. The sexual activities and the photography sessions, no mat-
ter how degrading, are not viewed as harmful to the child. When very young
children are involved, this belief extends to such activities as inserting
wooden objects into the child’s vagina and anus. These actions are justified,
these collectors say, if they are done with patience, skill, and “love.”
The level of abuse does not register on a conscious level. On occasion
when the sexual activity is addressed, the collector may acknowledge that it
is abnormal and that a child may be frightened, but this awareness holds lit-
tle conscious emotional weight for the collector to stop these activities and
admit to harmful effects on the child.
316.03: COTTAGE COLLECTOR
The cottage collector is a pedophile who sexually exploits children in a
group. The financial component of the pornography is noncommercial; large
amounts of money are not involved. The intent of the pornography is for the
relationships it creates with other pedophile collectors—it is a method of
communication. This category represents the largest number of collectors.
The networking of cottage collectors is more pronounced than the first
two categories of collectors. In fact, they often team up to lead a group of
children. Although each collector uses the pornography to his own interest,
multiple collectors are active in its production. When confronted, it is not un-
usual for cottage collectors to represent themselves as concerned about the
children involved; it is only the involvement of the judicial system that
threatens the well-being of the children, they say. This belief is substantiated
by the trauma and anxiety surrounding the initial period of disclosure and is
compounded by the children’s finally venting emotions concerning the neg-
ative, frightening, and overwhelming aspects of what has happened.
These collectors also suggest they have done more for the child than the
child’s parents have. This is partially substantiated in the case of absent or
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Rape and Sexual Assault 339
neglectful parents. The collector holds the parents responsible for the child’s
participation, in part because he believes the parents know what is going on
by allowing their child to be with him.
317: CHILD/ADOLESCENT SEX RINGS
In this offense, children are used to create obscene materials such as photos,
movies, and videos, for private use or commercial activities.
317.01: SOLO CHILD SEX RING
A solo child sex ring involves several children in sexual activities with an
adult, usually a male, who capitalizes on his legitimate role in the lives of
these victims to recruit them into his illegal behavior.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The children know each other and are aware of one another’s
involvement in sexual acts with the adult offender. They are conditioned or
programmed by the adult to provide sexual services in exchange for a vari-
ety of psychological, social, monetary, and other rewards. The offender oc-
cupies a position of authority and familiarity with the victims.
The organizational structure of the ring includes an adult (and occasionally
a secondary partner) who gathers the children together, either from existing
formal groups or by creating a new group. In existing formal groups, such as
religious groups, sports teams, or scout troops, the children are already organ-
ized. An adult who has access to this existing group can recruit a subgroup.
Sometimes one child is targeted to bring the children together. (“Mary was the
ringleader, and she put pressure on her friends to go over to his house. . . .
She said he was her uncle”), or the adult may initiate action to gather the chil-
dren together (“He used to give the paperboys rides to make their work eas-
ier”). The adults gain access to children because their presence is not
questioned; that is, they hold some legitimate power with parents as well as
with other people. Sometimes the adult makes it a point to become extra legit-
imate with the parents (“He used to eat dinner with us. . . . I made lasagna
especially for him”). If the parents do not know the adult directly, they usu-
ally have enough legitimizing information not to question their child’s spend-
ing time with this adult (“He was supposed to be the best boy scout leader. He
was Jane’s grandfather, and all the girls were always there together”).
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene is usually the
offender’s residence, vehicle, or group meeting hall. There can be many
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locations. The pornographic material is usually hidden in the residence of
the offender. The most recent crime scene will usually have the camera and
other materials needed to create the pornography as well as props, collateral
material, and goods used to bribe the victims.
Common Forensic Findings. The victimization is usually reported by a
third party and little, if any, forensic evidence is immediately available. To ob-
tain forensic evidence, detailed medical and psychiatric examinations of the
victims are required. Medical evidence could include anal or vaginal scar-
ring and bruises.
Investigative Considerations
The investigator needs to obtain a search warrant for the offender’s residence
and check telephone and financial records for purchases of materials needed
to create the pornography as well as computers of the suspect. The investi-
gator should be aware of the various props and collateral used to bribe the
targeted age group. For example, video games are used for certain age
groups, and a puppy might be used to entice a very young child to the house.
Interviews with the victims should be carefully done by an investigator
trained for interviewing children.
CASE STUDY: 317.01: SOLO CHILD SEX RING
Victimology
A nine-year-o1d boy told a friend that a neighbor had invited him into his house
to see some new kittens, pulled the boy’s pants down, and touched his “pri-
vates.” The friend told his mother, who called other mothers in the neighbor-
hood. One of those mothers told her ex-husband, who called the police.
A twenty-nine-year-old nursing home employee was charged with the in-
decent assault on a child. The offender and his parents had recently moved
into a small community housing project in which all homes were single units
facing a common courtyard. It was learned that five boys, ages six to nine,
were involved with the adult; a sixth boy, medically handicapped and greatly
favored by the adult, was also suspected of being involved. Of the six fami-
lies, four children lived with their mothers, the fathers being absent from the
home; one boy came from a family with both parents present; one boy’s
father was dead. The sexual activity between the adult and the children be-
gan the day after the adult moved into the neighborhood and continued over
a six-month period until disclosure.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 341
Offender Characteristics
At the time of these charges, the adult was on probation for sexual offenses
involving two brothers, aged twelve and fourteen, who had been taking
music lessons from him. The relationship with the brothers became sexual
following wrestling matches and after viewing pornography. The adult
would show the brothers a picture hanging on his wall of two babies looking
into each other’s pants.
In addition to this offense being classified as a child solo sex ring, the
offense was classified as 313.03.03 (power-reassurance rape of a child). His
primary intent was to establish a relationship with the children and have sex
with them.
Outcome
The offender, after pleading guilty to the charges, was ordered to avail him-
self of psychiatric treatment, which he did. His psychiatric file noted his
progress in treatment; between the two offenses he was recommended for
volunteer work with the boy scouts. The offender was sentenced ten to
twelve years for the index offense.
317.02: TRANSITIONAL CHILD SEX RING
The transitional child sex ring involves multiple offenders and multiple vic-
tims. The offenders are known to each other and collect and share victims.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. In the transitional sex ring, multiple adults are involved sexu-
ally with children, and the victims are usually pubescent. The children are
tested for their role as prostitutes and thus are at high risk for advancing to
the syndicated level of ring, although the organizational aspects of the syn-
dicated ring are absent in transitional rings. It is speculated that children en-
ter these transitional rings by several routes:
• They may be initiated into solo sex rings by pedophiles who lose sex-
ual interest in the child as he or she approaches puberty and who may
try, through an underground network, to move the vulnerable child into
sexual activity with pederasts (those with sexual preferences for pubes-
cent youths).
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• They may be incest victims who have run away from home and need a
peer group for identity and economic support.
• They may be abused children who come from disorganized families in
which parental bonding has been absent and multiple neglect and abuse
are present.
• They may be missing children who have been abducted or kidnapped
and forced into prostitution.
It is difficult to identify clearly this type of ring because its boundaries are
blurred and because the child may be propelled quite quickly into prostitu-
tion. Typically the adults in these transition rings do not sexually interact with
each other, but instead have parallel sexual interests and involvements
with the adolescents who exchange sex with adults for money as well as for
attention or material goods.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The crime scene can be the of-
fenders’ residence, vehicle, group meeting hall, or a hotel or motel. There are
usually many locations. The pornographic material is usually hidden in the
residences of the offenders. The most recent crime scene will usually have
the camera needed to create the pornography as well as props, collateral ma-
terial, and goods used to bribe the victims.
Common Forensic Findings. The victimization is usually reported by a
third party, and little, if any, forensic evidence is immediately available. To
obtain forensic evidence, detailed medical and psychiatric examinations of
the victims are required. In addition to the general forensic findings de-
scribed at the start of the chapter, there could be anal or vaginal scarring or
bruises.
Investigative Considerations. The investigator should obtain a search war-
rant for the offenders’ residences and check telephone and financial records
for purchases of materials needed to create the pornography. The investiga-
tor should be sensitive to props and collateral used to bribe the targeted age
group. Interviews with the victims should be carefully done by an investiga-
tor trained in interviewing children.
CASE STUDY: 317.02: TRANSITIONAL CHILD SEX RING
Background and Victimology
From December 1977 to December 1978, Boston was in the spotlight re-
garding a male youth prostitution ring. Earlier that year, the investigation of
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Rape and Sexual Assault 343
a solo child sex ring had led an assistant district attorney and police to un-
cover a second generation of rings. In the apartment of a man who had an
extensive history of convictions for child molesting, investigators found
numerous photos of naked youths as well as pornographic films. Sixty-three
of the depicted youths were located and interviewed, and thirteen agreed to
testify before a grand jury. From this testimony, additional men (many with
professional and business credentials) were indicted on counts of rape and
abuse of a child, indecent assault, sodomy, and unnatural acts.
By December 1978 the trial of the first defendant, a physician, began. Tes-
timony from four prosecution witnesses revealed the linkages between the
two types of rings. According to news reports, the first witness, a man who
was serving a fifteen- to twenty-five-year term after pleading guilty to
charges derived from the child solo ring, admitted to having sexual relations
with boys as young as ten during the thirteen years he had rented the apart-
ment. He testified that he could be considered a “master male pimp” and that
he became involved in the sex-for-hire operation after meeting one of the
other defendants. He said that initially no money was involved, but after a
few months, expenses increased so the men were charged and the boys were
given five to ten dollars for sexual services.
Newspapers reported that another prosecution witness, an assistant head-
master at a private boys’ school, admitted visiting the apartment more than
forty to fifty times over a five-year period. He denied being a partner in a
scheme to provide boys for hire but admitted to taking friends to the apart-
ment with him and paying for having sex with the boys.
A prosecution witness, a seventeen year o1d, testified to being introduced
into homosexual acts by the first witness, who had told the boys they could
make all the money they wanted. “All we had to do was lay there and let
them do what they wanted to us,” he said.
Another victim testified that at age twelve, he had met the third witness
through friends. He received gifts of clothes and money for going to the
man’s apartment. While there, he would drink beer, smoke pot, and watch
stag movies. He brought his younger brother to the apartment, and both had
sex with the man. At age fourteen he was “turning tricks” and charging ten
dollars for oral sex and twenty dollars for anal sex. At that point he met the
defendant.
Offender Characteristics
The defendant, a pediatrician and psychiatrist, claimed in his defense that he
went to the apartment as part of a research study, which was submitted to
a journal after his indictment and subsequently published in a sex research
journal.
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Outcome
The jury, sequestered for the nineteen-day trial, deliberated two and one-half
days before reaching a verdict of guilty. The judge sentenced the physician
to five years’ probation on the condition he undergo psychiatric treatment.
Over a year later, the state’s board of medicine revoked his license. The other
defendants in the ring plea-bargained their charges, and there were no fur-
ther trials.
317.03: SYNDICATED CHILD SEX RING
Syndicated child sex rings have a well-structured organization that recruits
children, produces pornography, delivers sexual services, and establishes an
extensive network of customers.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The syndicated ring, a well-established commercial enter-
prise, involves multiple offenders as well as multiple victims.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. There can be many locations,
and there are many levels of material created. Information and details about
locations can be obtained from the pornography itself. Most recent locations
will have all the equipment necessary to create the material.
Common Forensic Findings. The victimization is usually reported by a
third party, and little, if any, forensic evidence is immediately available. To
obtain forensic evidence, detailed medical and psychiatric examinations of
the victims is required.
Investigative Considerations
Investigation requires an understanding of the typical operation of a syndi-
cated ring. The organizational components of the ring are the items of trade,
the circulation mechanisms, the supplier of the items, the self-regulating
mechanism, the system of trades, and the profit aspect.
•Items of trade. Items of trade refer to the children, photographs, films,
and tapes. The degree of sexual explicitness and activity may vary. For ex-
ample, photographs range from so-called innocent poses of children in brief
attire taken at public parks, swimming pools, arcades, or similar places
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Rape and Sexual Assault 345
where children congregate to carefully directed movies portraying child sub-
jects in graphic sexual activities. In the films, the child is often following cues
provided by someone standing off-camera. Also, in audiotapes, the children
may be heard conversing with age-appropriate laughter and noises, as well as
using language that is highly sexual and suggestive of explicit behaviors.
•Circulation mechanism. Various mechanisms for circulation include
the mail (photographs, coded letters), tape cassettes, CB radio, telephone,
and beepers. The mail is a major facilitator for circulation of child pornog-
raphy. Often a laundering process may be used. For example, buyers send
their responses to another country; the mail, received by the overseas for-
warding agent, is opened, and cash or checks are placed in a foreign bank
account; the order is remailed under a different cover back to the United
States. This procedure ensures that the subscriber does not know where the
operation originates and that law enforcement has difficulty tracing the oper-
ation. Law enforcement needs to be aware that child pornography is also
being distributed through computer programs, chatrooms, the Web, cell
phones, and PayPal.
•Suppliers. Suppliers of child pornography include pedophiles, profes-
sional distributors, and parental figures. Pedophiles with economic resources
and community status may organize their own group to have access to chil-
dren and cover their illegal intentions, or they may work within the frame-
work of existing youth organizations. The professional distributors include
the pornographer, who has access to an illegal photographer, who in turn
generally owns a clandestine photo laboratory and film processor. While
these photo laboratories can provide services to many illegal operations,
they also present some problems to professional pornographers, who may
find their photographs or films in magazines or adult bookstores without
their knowledge and prior to their own distribution. The professional procur-
ers who supply children also provide photographs and films through whole-
sale distributors and adult bookstores. Another source of professional
distribution is photographic processing facilities. A photographic develop-
ment laboratory often has a storefront business that handles photographic
orders such as holiday pictures, while its mail order business is advertised in
magazines. One such facility had a mail order division that promised,
through its advertisements in “adult” magazines, confidential photo finish-
ing. These advertisements were also found in periodicals catering to clien-
tele with special sexual interests.
Parental figures who supply children for pornographic and prostitution
purposes include natural parents, foster parents, and group home workers.
The supplier may operate a foster home as in the case of a self-acclaimed cler-
gyman, who by his own estimates sold approximately 200,000 photos each
year, with an income from this operation in excess of $60,000. The technique
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he used was to have older boys engage younger boys in sex acts. If a youth did
not submit, he was beaten and abused by an older youth. After the youth sub-
mitted, he was photographed in the sexual acts, and the man would then use
the boys for his own sexual purposes. In order to ensure secrecy, a pornogra-
pher often keeps a blackmail file on each boy.
•Self-regulating mechanism. Syndicated child pornography operations
do not have recourse to law enforcement or the civil process for settling dis-
putes that arise in matters of theft, unauthorized duplication of photographs,
or resources of supply. Thus, a self-regulating mechanism develops for
the elimination of members guilty of actions deemed unfair to or against the
syndicate through the grade of paper, number of letters, computer software,
as well as the sincerity and insistence of the correspondence. Letters are kept
as a security measure. Recriminations between the offender and guilty party
become extremely bitter, and support by fellow members in chastising the
guilty party is solicited through immediate correspondence. Members of
the syndicates are alert to law enforcement efforts against the group in gen-
eral or with respect to their syndicate in particular.
•System of trade. One rule for trading is that members of the syndicate
may assist each other in finding items of interest to other collectors. Through
a system of trades, photographs held by syndicate members are traded, and
those pictures chosen to be retained are kept by the receiving member.
•Profit. The financial profit of child pornography appears to be an indi-
vidual matter. Some collectors trade items for their personal use, and others
trade items for personal as well as commercial purposes. The financial lure of
pornography is seen in the actual cost of production and verified in the corre-
spondence of the pornographers. Frequently, collectors who sell photographs
are actually selling duplicate copies of items in their collection, thereby hav-
ing income to purchase additional photographs from other sources.
Identification of additional victims can be made from the pornography
obtained with a search warrant.
CASE STUDY: 317.03: SYNDICATED CHILD SEX RING
Background and Victimology
A child sex ring involved ten boys and one girl. In October 1977, informa-
tion regarding the offender, Paul, was brought to the attention of a West
Coast FBI office.
The children ranged in age from eight to sixteen. Paul had befriended a
family with two boys and one girl; both parents worked. The parents grew
to trust Paul and invited him to live in their house, renting out a bedroom to
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Rape and Sexual Assault 347
him. Paul kept the refrigerator supplied with food and bought toys and clothes
for the children. He drove a Cadillac equipped with a telephone, and he
handed out business cards advertising a twenty-four-hour limousine service
that he provided with his Cadillac. At one point, Paul made his child prosti-
tutes wear beepers so he could call the child he thought would best suit a par-
ticular customer. Paul was constantly trying to recruit more children, and
he would pick up runaways and use the children to recruit others. Paul would
charge a hundred dollars or more for an hour with one of his child prosti-
tutes, the price depending on the market, the child’s age, the length of time
with the child, or what the customer was going to do with this child.
Paul never gave any of his child prostitutes money, as he felt this would
ruin them. Instead he provided food and clothing, bought them toys and,
took them to amusement parks, sporting events, movie shows, or roller rinks.
Offender Characteristics
Paul kept an apartment in a complex with a swimming pool and tennis
courts. He used this apartment for many of his child prostitutes, and they
used the pool and tennis courts. The older boys were told by Paul to keep the
younger ones in line.
Paul was sexually involved with several of his child prostitutes and pro-
vided Quaaludes to all of the children. He also had a sizable collection of
child pornography, including 8-millimeter films and photographs.
Outcome
Because it was determined that no federal laws applied to Paul’s activities,
the case was turned over to local police. In November 1977, Paul was con-
victed on seven felony counts (nineteen felony counts were dismissed), and
in May 1978 he was sentenced to thirteen years’ imprisonment and declared
a mentally disturbed sex offender.
319: ABDUCTION RAPE
In this offense, a person is forcibly moved from one location to another. The
rape occurs at the second location.
Abduction by nonfamily members is defined in the National Incidence
Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrown-Away Children (1989)
as the coerced and unauthorized taking of a child into a building, a vehicle,
or a distance of more than twenty feet; the detention of a child for a period
of more than one hour; or the luring of a child for the purpose of committing
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a crime. Included in this category is stereotypical kidnapping, which
requires that the child be missing overnight, be killed, be transported a dis-
tance of fifty miles or more, be ransomed, or that the perpetrator evidences
an intent to keep the child permanently.
CASE STUDY: 319.01 AND 319.03:
ABDUCTION RAPE, ADULT AND CHILD
Background and Victimology
In September 1976, Jane was delivering Sunday papers on her paper route
accompanied by her mother. At approximately 6:20 A.M., Jane and her mother
observed a man, later identified as Simmons, walking down the street toward
them. A few moments later, as Jane was standing beside her mother’s car, the
man approached the car and placed a gun to the mother’s head. Simmons then
forced Jane to get into the car, and he got in as a passenger. Simmons told
the mother not to say or do anything or he would physically harm her. The
mother tried to grab the gun but was unable to do so. Simmons then blind-
folded the mother and required her to operate the brake, clutch, and acceler-
ator of the car while he steered the car to a high school parking lot. When
they arrived at the parking lot, Simmons forcibly removed the mother and
daughter from the car and placed them in his 1973 Plymouth, which was
parked there. The mother, still blindfolded, had trouble getting into the car.
Simmons forced her head against the side of the car, causing a severe injury.
After the mother and daughter were in the car, Simmons began driving
toward a rural area. After he stopped his car, he forced the mother to remove
her clothing. At this time, Simmons also began talking with the mother about
forcing the daughter to watch her perform fellatio on him and of forcing the
daughter to have intercourse with him. The mother pleaded with Simmons
not to force her daughter to watch the assault take place. Because of her
pleadings, Simmons allowed the daughter to get into the back seat of the car.
The mother was forced, at gunpoint, to perform fellatio on Simmons. After-
ward, Simmons attempted to rape the mother. He stopped because she was
having her period. The mother begged Simmons repeatedly to leave her
daughter alone. Throughout the assault, the mother was blindfolded with a
neckerchief. After the assault on the mother, Simmons put the mother’s
sweatshirt over her head to act as an additional blindfold and tied her hands
behind her back with her jeans. He then opened the car door and pushed the
mother from the car, telling her that he would not “hurt the little girl” as he
drove off. The mother ran to the nearest house and had the residents notify
the police.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 349
After the mother was forced from the car, Simmons drove a short distance
and again stopped the car. He forced the girl to get into the front seat and per-
form fellatio on him. He then forcibly raped her. Once finished, he drove
back toward town and dropped her off in a deserted area.
The girl was subsequently picked up by police and transported to a hos-
pital, where she underwent substantial emergency reconstructive surgery.
Outcome
Simmons was convicted of two counts of kidnapping, one count of attempted
rape, three counts of rape, and illegal weapons possession. In a civil suit
against the newspaper company, a settlement was negotiated. There had been
two reported rape and abductions of newspaper girls on Sundays, and the
crimes had not been reported to the other newspaper girls or their parents.
330: GROUP CAUSE SEXUAL ASSAULT
This category is used for multiple (three or more) offenders. When there are
two offenders, each should be classified under personal cause. Although
there clearly are group dynamics (contagion effects, defusing of responsibil-
ity) and social dynamics (highly developed gang cultures in particular com-
munities or cities) that foster gang rape, the factors that motivate each of the
offenders may well be different.
331: FORMAL GANG SEXUAL ASSAULT
A formal gang is characterized by some internal organizational structure, a
name and other identifying features (for example, colors, insignias, or pat-
tern of dress), and some evidence of group cohesiveness (for example, mem-
bers owe some allegiance to the gang and gather to participate in a variety of
activities). In sum, the gang must have some mission or purpose other than
assault.
CASE STUDY: 331.01:
FORMAL GANG SEXUAL ASSAULT, SINGLE VICTIM
Victimology
In 1981, four teenagers went to a rock concert held at a large amphitheater.
During intermission, a group of twelve men wearing shirts labeled “The
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Black Disciples” entered. The teenagers became frightened of the accumu-
lating noise and decided to leave. As they were exiting to the center aisle, sev-
eral of the men grabbed one of the couples and threw them to the aisle. The
young woman’s clothes were ripped off her. Five of the men circled her, pulled
her up by the hair, and forced oral sex on her. A sixth man then threw her back
on the floor and inserted a tire iron into her vagina. Several security guards
stopped the assault. The young woman was taken to a nearby hospital.
Offender Characteristics
The offenders were part of a group well known in the city. The six men were
arrested and charged with various counts of assault and rape.
Outcome
The six men plea-bargained to the offenses as charged. Nine years later, the
young woman was awarded a substantial settlement.
332: INFORMAL GANG SEXUAL ASSAULT
An informal gang is a loosely structured group that congregates, typically on
the spur of the moment, with a common purpose of marauding or otherwise
engaging in antisocial activity. Although the group may have one or more
leaders, there is no formal organizational structure. This category also in-
cludes all other instances of multiple offender assault in which there is no
evidence that the group constitutes a formal gang.
CASE STUDY: 332.01:
INFORMAL GANG SEXUAL ASSAULT, SINGLE VICTIM
Victimology
Damon and three companions were driving around when one of them sug-
gested that they “grab a girl and have some fun.” They picked up a hitch-
hiker, and while driving, took turns raping her. When it was Damon’s turn,
he engaged in frottage but did not actually rape her. The victim was raped
repeatedly over a period of two hours while in the car. Eventually they
arrived at an abandoned house, where all four men, including Damon, raped
the victim throughout the night, occasionally waving revolvers in her face to
subdue her. The following day, they drove back to the victim’s home and
dropped her off.
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Rape and Sexual Assault 351
Offender Characteristics
Damon was a twenty-one-year-old single male. His father was a self-
educated engineer who was gainfully employed until his premature death
from heart failure. Damon described his father as a chronic, heavy drinker
who suffered from bouts of deep depression and crying spells that lasted off
and on for days. Damon reported that his father was never abusive to anyone
in the family. His mother was a college-educated schoolteacher who was
“strict, puritanical, very religious, and a teetotaler.” Damon’s early years
seemed to be stable and reasonably happy. While in elementary school, he
was an above-average student with an above-average IQ. His academic per-
formance drifted into the average or satisfactory range during the last two
years of high school, coinciding with the death of his father when Damon
was fifteen.
After the death, the family seemed to fall apart. His mother became seri-
ously ill and eventually bedridden. His older brother was incarcerated for as-
sault and battery. Damon dropped out of school in his senior year and
enlisted in the service. He was honorably discharged after six months at the
discretion of the military. The primary difficulty was Damon’s intractable
behavior. Damon’s employment history after the service can best be de-
scribed as “good—when he was in the mood.” He was perceived by his em-
ployers as apathetic, unreliable, and diffident. Overall, Damon’s educational,
military, and professional track record reflects an evolving picture of social
maladjustment, poor interpersonal skills and a particular disaffection with
authority.
Two months after leaving the service, he was arrested for stealing hub-
caps; the charges were later dropped. This was the only known criminal of-
fense other than the rape, for which he was committed to the Treatment
Center at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, for sex offender treatment. The
commitment offense occurred exactly two years after discharge from the
service.
In this case, the offense was clearly exploitive. In fact, the expressed
intention “to grab a girl and have some fun” could not be stated in a more
predatory, exploitive way.
Outcome
Damon was committed to the Treatment Center in Bridgewater, Massachu-
setts, in 1967 for sex offender treatment after having been convicted of rape,
kidnapping, and assault with a dangerous weapon. The remaining defen-
dants were convicted on charges of rape.
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390: SEXUAL ASSAULT NOT CLASSIFIED ELSEWHERE
This category is reserved for assaults that cannot be classified elsewhere.
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CHAPTER
9
Nonlethal Crimes
400: Nonlethal crimes
401: Communication Threats
401.01: Direct threats
401.02: Indirect threats
401.03: Conditional threats
401.04: Nonspecific threats
402: Threat delivery
402.01: Visual communication
402.02: Verbal communication
402.03: Written communication
402.03.01: Letter
402.03.02: Symbolic
402.04: Physical communication threats
410: Stalking crimes
411: Domestic stalker
412: Nondomestic stalker
413: Erotomania stalker
420: Robbery
421: Bank robbery
430: Burglary
440: Assault
450: Battery/abuse
353
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There are criminal acts that begin as, and sometimes remain, nonlethal crimes.
In some of the crimes, such as burglary, threats, and stalking, there may be
no physical contact, and the victim is not physically injured. However, the
psychological trauma may be great and put the victim in fear for his or her
life. These nonlethal acts may precede direct physical acts and serious phys-
ical injury and may escalate to a lethal crime. These nonlethal acts need to
be addressed for prevention of escalation to lethal acts as well as investigated
for legal charges. This chapter classifies the following crimes: threats, stalk-
ing, robbery, burglary, assault, and battery/abuse crimes that involve chil-
dren, handicapped adults, domestic partners, and elders.
401: COMMUNICATION THREATS
A communication threat is defined as an attempt to inflict harm by a threat
subject. Communication threats do not involve physical contact. However,
the threat subject may escalate to physical contact, and such action would be
classified as assault.
Threat analysis seeks to assess the genuineness, viability, and potential im-
pending danger of the threat. As with all other investigations, the forensic ana-
lyst has priorities that are followed in concert with law enforcement as well as
institutional goals and objectives. Threat analysis has the following goals:
• To save lives by evaluating the level of danger for physical assault or harm
• To evaluate threat potential (hoax versus nonhoax) in order to reduce
unnecessary panic and to better use security resources
• To develop investigative techniques and strategies by advising on how
to communicate with the offender or how to cause him or her to surface
during the investigation
• To help identify and apprehend the offender by attempting to provide
general characteristics of the person or persons issuing the threat and
his other motive in order to focus the investigation
• To recover money or property if a ransom has been paid prior to police
involvement
Terrorist threats are when a person threatens to commit any offense in-
volving violence to any person or property with the intent to place a person
in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. Threats may be targeted to terrorize a particular person, a
building, a business, or an institution. The motivation for a threat might also
include a desire on the part of the subject to force an action, as when inmates
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Nonlethal Crimes 355
threaten a specific violent act if their demands for better conditions within a
correctional facility are not met.
The most critical classification is the level of victim risk. Risk level can
be categorized as low, moderate, high, or imminent danger. Assessment of
the threat is made as to whether the person making the threat has the knowl-
edge, ability, motivation, and access to weapons that would give him the op-
portunity to carry out the violent act.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Although there is usually no
specific crime scene involved in threats, the reason for the threat, or motive,
is critical to analyze. Threats are made for a variety of reasons and are driven
by an assortment of often complex motives. Some of the reasons that indi-
viduals threaten include these:
• To warn: “If you don’t stop what you are doing, you will regret it.”
• Harass: “You’ll never escape me.”
• Intimidate: “If you don’t do what I say, you’ll be sorry.”
• Manipulate: “If you don’t do what I say, your child will be hurt.”
• Frighten: “You’re a dead man.”
• Alarm: A heavy-breathing phone call late at night.
The motives that underlie various forms of threats are similar to other
types of criminal acts. The motivations may be conflict, sex, love, hate,
vengeance, or guilt. In addition, the need for excitement, recognition, or
attention or a wish to inflict punishment on another may be underlying mo-
tives. Another obvious and more frequent motive might be an offender
whose primary motive is criminal enterprise. This offender’s aim is for fi-
nancial gain through illegal means, such as extortion or kidnapping.
Staging. Staging is not usually noted.
Investigative Considerations
The intent of the threat is critical to analyze. Threats cover a wide variety of
criminal behavior. Ten categories have been developed for purposes of
assessing the intent of the threat communication.
1. Threats to physically assault or harm. These threats are directed
toward elected or appointed officials, judges, movie and rock stars, spouses,
ex-spouses, police officers, former employers, or hospital staff (for example,
to gain admission or certain prescription medication). For example, a men-
tal health patient arrived at an institution to see the on-call psychiatrist. The
patient was seeking admission and apparently believed that the small axe he
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brought with him would ensure the psychiatrist’s compliance with his de-
mand for admission.
2. Threats to extort money. These are often directed toward chief executive
officers, bank officials, prominent or wealthy individuals, or members of the
entertainment industry. In hospitals, threats may be directed toward staff, vis-
itors, or patients to extort money for food, transportation, or illicit substances.
3. Threats to kidnap. These are directed to elected or appointed officials,
members of their families, dignitaries, prominent individuals, and corporate
officials.
4. Threats to bomb. These are directed toward individuals at all levels,
schools, churches and synagogues, abortion clinics, courthouses, govern-
ment buildings, nuclear facilities, military bases, and casinos, among others.
5. Threats to deface or damage property. These are directed toward
schools, churches and synagogues, abortion clinics, animal research facili-
ties, utility plants, military bases, and nuclear facilities, among others.
6. Threats to disrupt events. These are made to disrupt municipal func-
tions, political rallies, parades, marches, ceremonies, public events, rock
shows, civil rights rallies, and others.
7. Threats to taunt, harass, and intimidate. These are made by agitated or
terminated employees, disgruntled consumers, competitors, ex-lovers, ex-
spouses, unfriendly neighbors, unknown enemies, substance abusers and
mentally unstable persons, or individuals intent on expressing unsolicited
attention or affection.
8. Threats to product tamper. These are related to poisoning or contami-
nation of foods, medicines, cosmetics, water or blood supplies, and hygienic
products; tampering with sensitive manufacturing equipment; and others.
9. Threats to sabotage. These are directed at military bases, ammunition
manufacturers and shippers, aircraft plants, nuclear facilities, manufacturers
of scientific equipment, research and development centers, product tech-
nologies, and marketing strategies, among others.
10. Hoaxes. These are a fabricated threat created by pseudo-victims alleg-
ing the receipt of obscene phone calls, or letters from nonexistent offenders.
Threats must be examined for both content and style. Content analysis in-
cludes an examination of words, syntax, semantics, structure, symbols,
phrases, essential meanings, and the overall substance of the threatening
message. Stylistic analysis includes an examination of the writing instru-
ment, paper type, envelope, writing style, margins, indentations, spacing,
punctuation, and overall grammatical ability.
The manner of expression also must be examined, such as the implied
emotional tone, the construction and design of the message, the way words
are used to express thoughts, and the author’s overall artistic expression. For
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Nonlethal Crimes 357
example, the verbal threat, “I’m going to get you back,” implies a prior
event, anger, and revenge.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Search warrants need to be obtained to search the residence, car, and other
areas for copies of written threats, photographs, diaries, and written materials.
Threats, actual or perceived, may be subdivided into types based in part
on the verbiage or content contained within the threat. The types are direct,
indirect, conditional, or nonspecific threat.
401.01: DIRECT THREATS
Direct threats leave no room for misinterpretation on the part of the recipi-
ent. The threats are aimed at a specific target (person or institution). Direct
threats offer no conditions, exemptions, or options. Often the wording is
blunt, straightforward, candid, and explicit. For example, on July 26, 1996,
an Atlanta 911 operator received a call saying, “There will be a bomb in Cen-
tennial Park. You have 30 minutes.” This telephonic threat to a crowded pub-
lic setting, which preceded by eighteen minutes a terrorist act of bombing,
triggered great fear for millions of Americans.
Offenders have taught that fear is a power tactic. They know that if they
can generate fear in some form of a threat, they can manipulate and achieve
whatever they want. Threat analysis is one strategy to identify and intervene
with a threat subject and counter terrorist fear.
401.02: INDIRECT THREATS
Indirect threats are either spoken or written in a vague manner. They usually
contain wordy language that is not forthright or candid. The message or in-
tended theme is often circuitous and may be buried within oblique wording
or symbolic passages.
In cases of threats against a hospital, for example, the motive can be an
angry family member or a disgruntled former employee. The person issuing
the threat is either an ex-employee or former patient. In a case where a father
died following surgery, two brothers wrote a letter saying, “Your butchers
killed him and we will get you.” An investigation revealed that both brothers
had criminal records for assault and battery.
401.03: CONDITIONAL THREATS
A threat that insists on the acquiescence of the targeted victim to the terms
being dictated is a conditional threat. Conditional threats imply that they are
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contingent, tentative, restrictive, or provisional depending on the victim’s
response to the demands being made. The threat generally outlines a set of
prescribed behaviors that must be met in order for the victim to avoid possi-
ble harm. It often includes words or phraseology such as “if you want to
avoid . . .” or “unless you follow my instructions . . .” For example, a walk-
in patient demanded of the on-call psychiatrist, “If you don’t give me a pre-
scription for Xanax, I’m going to tear this office apart.”
401.04: NONSPECIFIC THREATS
Nonspecific threats are aimed at a larger collective group or institution; that
is, they do not name a particular individual. Targets of nonspecific threats
included members of the federal judiciary, members of the medical profes-
sion, members of the U.S. Congress, and the White House.
402: THREAT DELIVERY
Valuable information can be derived about the person issuing the threat and
his and her motives by a consideration of how the threatening message was
delivered. This classification is by visual, verbal, written, symbolic, or phys-
ical mode.
402.01: THREAT DELIVERY, VISUAL COMMUNICATION
A visual threat may be a drawing, a gesture, or a body movement. One exam-
ple involved a nurse being greeted in the following manner by a known “be-
havior management problem” patient each time he saw her: he made eye
contact with her and then pretended to shoot her with a hand motion imitat-
ing the firing of a pistol; he never spoke a word to her.
402.02: THREAT DELIVERY, VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Verbal threats made during personal encounters with targeted individuals
often involve offenders who are suffering from some degree of mental ill-
ness or emotional instability. In these types of cases, the offender’s identity
is known, and certain intervention strategies are recommended in conjunc-
tion with a dangerousness assessment in order to prevent a potential violent
confrontation.
Often a verbal threat is delivered by telephone. The threat may be a short,
succinct message or a long, complex scheme. Occasionally the caller may
disguise his or her voice and demand to speak with only the targeted victim.
Some offenders use prerecorded tape messages over the telephone, and the
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Nonlethal Crimes 359
calls may be made locally, long distance, or collect. Other investigative con-
siderations include possible background noises, foreign accents, local dia-
lects, and a consideration of specific calling patterns.
The verbal threat may be tape-recorded. Tape-recorded threats may be
short and succinct or involve long, complex schemes. The other important
considerations include determining if the caller attempts to disguise his or
her voice, whether background noises are detectable, and whether the tape
was mailed or played over the telephone. Tape-recorded messages often re-
flect extensive criminal sophistication, especially in elaborate extortion, kid-
napping, or product tampering cases.
402.03: THREAT DELIVERY,
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Written threats are usually delivered by letter or e-mail. The great majority
of threat cases that are analyzed by a threat analyst are those in which the
identity of the subject is unknown. In seeking to identify the unknown per-
petrator, the method of delivery must be carefully assessed.
One woman wrote to a hospital that bad medicine she received as a pa-
tient caused her to get sicker at home. The hospital wrote back denying her
claim. When she retaliated by writing to a U.S. senator, he responded by sid-
ing with the hospital. She then wrote to the U.S. attorney general’s office,
charging there was a conspiracy between the hospital and the senator. In
another example, a patient wrote letters threatening to kill his wife, the
mayor, his doctor, and the president of the United States.
Threats to deface or damage property may be directed toward building
walls and grounds. In one case, the person who issued the threat wrote sex-
ual graffiti on the walls adjacent to his former partner’s office. In another
case, an employee’s name was written on a wall with the notation that she
was a drug dealer.
402.03.01: LETTER THREAT
Letter threats are often handwritten and may be in block print or an other-
wise disguised format; they also may be prepared on a computer. In some
instances, they are fabricated using the cut-and-paste method, and on rare
occasions may be printed by use of a template or constructed with an em-
bossing tool. In all instances, they must be evaluated for both content and
stylistic characteristics. An advantage of a letter threat is that it provides law
enforcement with valuable documentary evidence for further comparison to
other letters and for other forensic tests customarily conducted in the crime
lab. The Mad Bomber case (Chapter Seven) and the Unabomber case (Chap-
ter One) are illustrative of this type of threat.
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402.03.02: SYMBOLIC THREAT
Symbolic threats involve an item with a frightening connotation often posi-
tioned clearly in the threat subjects view. One example of a symbolic threat
involved an employee who reported arriving at his desk each morning for a
week to find a broken pencil placed visibly on his appointment book. In
another case, a patient sent his therapist of two years flowers, gifts, and
cards. He called her on several occasions and left messages using a pseudo-
nym on her answering machine. When she did not respond, he sent her a
bunch of dead flowers.
402.04: PHYSICAL COMMUNICATION THREATS
A physical threat may involve the person’s using his or her hand or a
weapon. One example involved an angry patient who was denied a week-
end pass. He broke a glass and held it to a staff member’s throat, demand-
ing his pass.
Physical threat delivery can compound when there is direct confrontation.
A forty-nine-year-old patient and two elderly women were waiting for a bus
at a hospital bus stop when they were threatened by a robber. The patient said
to the robber, “You are not going to ask for money?” The robber said he was
and opened his jacket to display a large knife in his pocket. The patient be-
came agitated and struck the robber, breaking his nose. The perpetrator
pressed charges; the patient was successful in arguing it was self-defense.
As an example, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office charged
National Basketball Association star Allen Iverson with multiple crimes,
including two counts of making “terrorist threats.” Under Pennsylvania law,
there are two kinds of terrorist threats. One is similar to mass-scale terror-
ism: it is essentially any threat made to force the evacuation of a movie the-
ater, apartment complex, or other public building. So any phoned bomb
threat is a terrorist threat, and threatening just one person with bodily harm
is also considered a terrorist threat. This is what Iverson was charged with.
According to press accounts, he forced his way into an apartment, bran-
dished a gun, and threatened the occupants. Iverson was apparently search-
ing for his wife.
410: STALKING CRIMES
Threats indicate anger and aggression toward a subject and are often visible
acts. In contrast, stalking tends to be more clandestine and secretive until a
subject acts toward his or her victim.
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Stalking is the act of following, viewing, communicating with, or moving
threateningly or menacingly toward another person. It may in result in threats
to injure, actual injuries, or homicide. Stalker crimes are primarily motivated
by interpersonal aggression rather than by material gain or sex. The purpose
of stalking resides in the mind of stalkers, who are compulsive individuals
with a misperceived fixation. Stalking is the result of an underlying emo-
tional conflict that propels the offender to stalk or harass a target. Targets of
stalkers often feel trapped in an environment filled with anxiety, stress, and
fear, which often results in their having to make drastic adjustments in how
they live.
Stalking can be viewed as occurring on a continuum from nondelusional
to delusional behavior. Delusional behavior indicates the presence of a men-
tal disorder (psychosis). Nondelusional behavior, although reflecting a gross
disturbance in a particular relationship, does not necessarily indicate a de-
tachment from reality. This distinction is significant because of the potential
legal implications. What most readily distinguishes the behavior of this
spectrum is the type and nature of the relationship an offender has had with
his target.
On the extreme delusional end of this spectrum, there is usually no actual
relationship; the relationship exists only in the mind of the offender. On the
nondelusional end of the spectrum is usually a historical relationship be-
tween the offender and victim. These tend to be multidimensional relation-
ships such as marriage or a common law relationship, replete with a history
of close interpersonal involvement. In between these two poles are relation-
ships of varied dimensions and stalkers who exhibit a mix of behavior. The
offender may have dated his target once, twice, or not at all. The target may
only have smiled and said hello in passing or may in some way be socially
or vocationally acquainted.
For the purpose of classification, we divide this spectrum of stalking be-
havior into three general types: domestic (nondelusional), nondomestic (a
mix of nondelusional and delusional behavior), and erotomania (delusional).
Of note, the terms target and victim are not necessarily interchangeable. The
term target is used to describe the primary recipient of the stalker’s attention.
However, in many cases, those people around a stalker’s target become vic-
tims of the stalker’s behavior.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. A stalking victim feels reasonable fear of bodily injury or
death to self or to a family or household member or damage to property.
Stalking can be perpetrated by the stalker or by someone acting on her or his
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behalf. It can take the form of verbal threats or threats conveyed by the
stalker’s conduct, threatening mail, property damage, surveillance of the vic-
tim, or following the victim.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The stalker may do some or all
of the following: follow the victim or victim’s family or household mem-
bers; vandalize the victim’s property; inflict damage to property—perhaps
by vandalizing the car, harming a pet, or breaking windows at the victim’s
home; make threatening calls or send threatening mail; or drive by or park
near the victim’s home, office, or other places familiar to the victim.
Common Forensic Findings. The stalker believes or knows that his or her
actions will instill fear of death or bodily injury to the victim or a member of
the victim’s family or household. Threats can be explicit (for example, stat-
ing that he is going to kill the victim) or implied (for example, veiled threats
or hurting the family pet). Threats have to be aimed at a specific person; they
cannot be general. Threats may be conveyed by the stalker or by someone
acting on behalf of the stalker.
Staging. Staging is not usually used in stalking crimes.
Investigative Considerations
A stalker tries to control the victim through behavior or threats intended to
intimidate and terrify. A stalker can be an unknown person, an acquaintance,
or a former intimate partner. A stalker’s state of mind can range from obses-
sive love to obsessive hatred. A stalker may follow a victim off and on for
days, weeks, or even years. The stalker may even have had contact with the
victim on more than one occasion.
This conduct has to occur on more than one occasion and be directed
toward the victim or the victim’s family or household members. More than
one police report is not required. The acts may include threatening contact
by mail or by phone or damaging the victim’s property.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Warrants to search should include the stalker’s residence, car, and other
known areas.
411: DOMESTIC STALKER
Domestic stalking occurs when a former boyfriend or girlfriend, family
member, or household member threatens or harasses another member of the
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household. This definition includes common law relationships as well as
long-term acquaintance relationships. The domestic stalker is initially moti-
vated by a desire to continue or reestablish a relationship, which can evolve
into an attitude of, “If I can’t have her, no one can.”
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The target knows the stalker as an acquaintance or may have a
familial or common law relationship that the target has attempted to termi-
nate. The target is aware of the stalking and may have requested a restrain-
ing order or assistance from law enforcement on prior occasions. In addition,
there is a history of prior abuse or conflict with the stalker. The target may
report a sense of being smothered in the prior relationship.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The domestic stalking case of-
ten culminates in a violent attack directed at the target. Usually the scene
of this attack involves only one crime scene, and it is commonly the target
or stalker’s residence or place of employment. The crime scene reflects dis-
order and the impetuous nature of the stalker. A weapon is usually brought
to the scene. There could be signs of little or no forced entry and no sign of
theft. The crime scene may also reflect an escalation of violence; for exam-
ple, the confrontation starts as an argument, intensifies into hitting or throw-
ing things, and could culminate in the target’s death and would then be
classified as domestic homicide (see classification 122). Others, such as fam-
ily members and boyfriends or girlfriends, may be involved in an assault. If
the target has taken steps to keep the stalker away (changed phone number,
changed residence, or a restraining order, for example), the only access the
stalker may have is at the target’s place of employment. In such cases, co-
workers, security personnel, customers, or others in the area may become
victims. In some instances, the stalker will abduct his target in an attempt to
convince her to stay with him.
The stalker may be at the scene when law enforcement or emergency
medical personnel arrive or may commit suicide. The stalker may make
incriminating statements.
Common Forensic Findings. Alcohol or drugs may be involved. There
usually are forensic findings consistent with a personal type of assault. De-
personalization, evidenced by facial battery and a focused area of injury in-
dicative of anger, is an example of a personal assault.
Investigative Considerations
If the crime occurs in the target’s residence, domestic stalking should be con-
sidered. When other family members are contacted, they often describe a
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history of domestic violence involving the target and stalker. This is often
supported by police reports. A history of conflict due to external stressors (fi-
nancial, vocational, or alcohol, for example) is a common element of domes-
tic stalking. The stalker may have demonstrated personalized aggression in
the past, as well as a change in attitude after the triggering event.
Search Warrant Suggestions
Although most of the evidence will be left at the crime scene, the investiga-
tor should request diaries and financial and medical records to verify any
premeditation of the crime.
CASE STUDY: 411: DOMESTIC STALKER
A forty-three-year-old woman who recently separated from her fifty-year-
old husband worked at the same casino as he did. About a month after she
began dating another man, she became aware that her husband was follow-
ing her into the parking garage and then, by car, to her home. Several weeks
later, after work one evening, the woman was forced at gunpoint into her car
by her husband and forced to drive to his house, where he raped and beat her.
She reported the domestic abuse to the police, was given a protective order,
and changed the hours she worked at the casino after telling her employer
the situation. A month later, her husband again abducted her from the garage,
forced her to drive to his house, and once inside raped and threatened to kill
her and then himself. During the beatings, the woman received a serious cut
to her forehead from the knife he held on her. She managed to convince
him to take her to the emergency department, where after seeing that she had
been admitted, he left. The woman told the staff of the murder-suicide at-
tempt, and the police were notified. When they arrived at the man’s house,
he refused to come out. Gunshots were heard, and when the police entered
the house, they found the husband had committed suicide by a gunshot
wound to the head.
412: NONDOMESTIC STALKER
The nondomestic stalker targets an individual and interacts with that target
through hang-up, obscene, or harassing telephone calls; unsigned letters;
and other anonymous communications or continuous physical appearance at
the target’s residence, place of employment, shopping mall, or school cam-
pus. The stalker is often unknown to the target. It is unlikely the target will
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become aware of being stalked until the stalker’s activity is well under way.
Only after the stalker has chosen to make personal or written contact will the
target realize the problem.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The target, usually a female, has often crossed paths with the
stalker, most likely without notice by the target. She will therefore have no
knowledge of the stalker’s identity. The relationship between the stalker and
target is one-way. The target will eventually become aware of the physically
present nuisance stalker.
Other potential victims are spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends, or anyone
viewed as an obstacle coming between the stalker and his target.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Stalking is an ongoing, usu-
ally long-term crime without a traditional crime scene. The stalking occurs
at the target’s residence, place of employment, shopping mall, school cam-
pus, or other public place. There will be a number of aborted or obscene
phone calls or anonymous letters addressed to the target professing love or
knowledge of the target’s movements. Written communications are often left
on vehicle windows or placed in mailboxes or under doors by the stalker.
The tone of communications may progress from protestations of adoration,
to love, to annoyance at not being able to make personal contact, to eventu-
ally threatening and menacing.
The stalker may place himself or herself in a position to make casual con-
tact with the target, at which time verbal communication may occur. A de-
scription of this contact may be used in a later communication to terrorize or
impress on the target that the stalker is capable of carrying out any threats.
Investigative Considerations
The investigator should trace telephone calls and perform threat analysis of
the written or phone communications. Careful analysis of early communica-
tions may provide leads for identifying the stalker. He or she as well should
observe the target’s places of employment, residence, mall, or campus for
stalker. Since communications are often left on or in the target’s vehicle, ob-
servation of vehicles can often lead to the identity of the stalker. The target
should be interviewed about any suspicious seemingly accidental contacts
she may have had in the recent past, such as being bumped into while shop-
ping, door-to-door salesmen, telephone solicitations, or a stranger asking to
use the telephone or asking for directions.
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Search Warrant Suggestions
The primary items to search for are photographs, literature (newspaper arti-
cles, books, magazine articles), and recordings concerning the target. Diaries,
journals, calendars, or surveillance logs detailing the stalker’s preoccupation
and fantasy life with the target may also be found. Recordings of telephone
calls to targets are often made and retained.
Other items to look for are evidence of contact or attempted contact with
the target: telephone records or returned letters, for example. Credit card
records, ticket stubs, and hotel receipts are often kept as souvenirs and may
be helpful in documenting travel in pursuit of a target. Computer equipment
should not be overlooked as a repository for information.
CASE STUDY: 412: NONDOMESTIC STALKER
Victimology
A man who stalked a woman was arrested outside her house carrying
weapons, a stocking mask, and other items. The woman told police she re-
cently found her bathing suit taped to the windshield of her car. On one other
occasion, she found some of her undergarments draped on the car’s mirror.
Police sources revealed that one week prior, the victim had found cartridge
casings from a handgun taped to the car’s window.
Investigation
On the night of the arrest of the stalker, the victim saw a man outside her
apartment and called the police. Minutes later, the police arrested the stalker,
who months prior to this incident had been acquitted of burglarizing the
woman’s home.
The stalker was found sitting in his vehicle less than a hundred yards from
the victim’s apartment. Officers searched the stalker and found a knife and a
key to the victim’s residence. In his vehicle they found a .22-caliber pistol
and ammunition, a stun gun, Mace, a camera and film, two sets of binocu-
lars, two tape recorders, two flashlights, pictures of the victim’s residence
and car, rubber gloves, cotton gloves, a stocking mask, a large nylon bag and
a bag with a change of clothes, several condoms, a book of nude pictures, a
gun cleaning kit, and a cooler filled with ice and beer.
Outcome
The offender was arrested and pleaded guilty to stalking. He was sentenced
to two years.
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413: EROTOMANIA STALKER
Erotomania-related stalking is motivated by an offender-target relationship
based on the stalker’s fixation. This fantasy is commonly expressed in such
forms as fusion (the stalker blends his personality into his target’s) or eroto-
mania (a fantasy-based idealized romantic love or spiritual union of a person
rather than sexual attraction). The stalker can be motivated by religious fan-
tasies or voices directing him to target a particular individual. This preoccu-
pation with the target becomes consuming and ultimately could lead to the
target’s death.
The drive to stalk arises from a variety of motives, ranging from rebuffed
advances to internal conflicts stemming from the stalker’s fusion of identity
with the target. In addition to a person with high media visibility, other vic-
tims include superiors at work or even complete strangers. The target almost
always is perceived by the stalker as someone of higher status. Targets often
include political figures, entertainers, and high-media-visibility individuals
but do not have to be public figures. Sometimes the victim becomes some-
one who is perceived by the stalker as an obstruction.
When erotomania is involved and the target is a highly visible media per-
sonality (usually someone unattainable to the stalker), the target becomes
the imagined lover of the stalker through hidden messages known only to the
stalker. The stalker builds an elaborate fantasy revolving around this imag-
ined love. Male erotomaniacs tend to act out this fantasy with greater force
than do female.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The target is aware of the stalker through many prior encoun-
ters or communications (letters or phone calls). The target often has high
media visibility. Many times the initial contact with a public figure will be
in the form of fan mail.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. As with other classifications
of stalking, the activity of the erotomania stalker is often long term, with
written and telephonic communications, surveillance, and attempts to ap-
proach the target. With the passage of time, the activity becomes more
intense, with the stalker’s attitude shifting to one of, “If I can’t have her, no
one can.”
The majority of erotomania-motivated attacks are close range and con-
frontational. The stalker may even remain at the scene. These encounters
tend to be spontaneous, as reflected by a haphazard approach to the target:
evidence is left, and there are likely to be witnesses. This does not mean the
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stalker did not fantasize, premeditate, and plan the stalking; all of these ele-
ments characterize this crime. Rather, the actual act is usually an opportunis-
tic one. The stalker takes advantage of an opportunity to interact with the
target as it is presented to him.
Common Forensic Findings. Firearms are the most common weapon car-
ried by stalkers, especially with a distance stalking. Occasionally they use a
sharp-edge weapon such as a knife. The sophistication and type of weapon
will help establish the degree of stalker sophistication. If the target of the
stalker is killed, the vital organs, especially the head and chest, are most fre-
quently targeted.
Investigative Considerations
The stalker almost always surveys or stalks the target preceding the en-
counter with the target. Therefore, the availability of the target’s itinerary
and who may have access to it is one investigative consideration. There is a
likelihood of preoffense attempts by the stalker to contact the target through
telephone calls, letters, gifts, or visits to the target’s home or workplace.
There may even be an incident involving law enforcement or security offi-
cers having to remove the stalker from the target’s residence or workplace.
The stalker’s conversation often will reflect this preoccupation or fantasy
life with the target. When those associated with the stalker are interviewed,
they typically recall that much of the stalker’s conversation focused on the
target. He or she may have claimed to have had a relationship with the tar-
get and may have invented stories to support this encounter.
Assistance should be requested from FBI’s Investigative Support Unit or
mental health professionals experienced with these complicated cases.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The primary items to search for are photographs, literature (newspaper arti-
cles, books, magazine articles), maps, letters from a celebrity target to a
stalker, surveillance photos of the target, and recordings concerning the tar-
get. Diaries and journals detailing the stalker’s preoccupation or fantasy life
with the target may be found.
Other items to look for are evidence of contact or attempted contacts with
the target: telephone records, returned letters or gifts, motel receipts, gas
bills, rental agreements, or airline, bus, or train tickets implying travel to
locations where the target has been. Credit card records also may be helpful
in this regard.
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CASE STUDY: 413: EROTOMANIA STALKER
Background
On the morning of March 15, 1982, Arthur Richard Jackson, age forty-
seven, was waiting near Theresa Saldana’s West Hollywood apartment
house. As Saldana rushed out to a music class at Los Angeles City College,
Jackson approached. When Saldana paused to unlock her car, Jackson asked,
“Excuse me. Are you Theresa Saldana?” Saldana replied, “Yes.”
Her identity confirmed, Jackson began stabbing Saldana with a hunting
knife. He stabbed and slashed her so hard and so often that the knife bent.
Hearing Saldana’s screams, a delivery man rushed to her aid and wrested the
weapon away from Jackson.
The intervention of the delivery man, heart-lung surgery, and twenty-six
pints of blood saved Saldana’s life.
Victimology
Theresa Saldana was a twenty-seven-year-old actress Jackson had identified
with through watching movies.
The Offender
Arthur Jackson was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1935 to an alcoholic fa-
ther and a mother whom investigators believe may have been schizophrenic.
He was an odd and fanatical child who often became lost in fantasy. In an
eighty-nine-page autobiographical letter addressed to Saldana written in
1982 shortly after his arrest, Jackson wrote that at age ten, he became fixated
on a neighbor girl called Fiona. At thirteen he described a sexual encounter
with an older boy.
It was also in this letter to Saldana that he expressed his “torturous love
sickness in my soul to you combined with a desperate desire to escape into
a beautiful world I have always dreamed of (the palaces of gardens of sweet
paradise), whereby the plan was for you, Theresa, to go ahead first, then I
would join you in a few months. . . . I swear on the ashes of my dead mother
and on the scars of Theresa Saldana that neither God nor I will rest in peace
until this special request and my solemn petition has been granted.”
At seventeen, he suffered his first nervous breakdown. It took a full year
before Jackson was released from the Scottish psychiatric hospital where he
sought treatment. After his release, he began a trip across two continents,
working in London as a kitchen porter, in Toronto as a zoo helper, and in
New York as a jack-of-all-menial-trades.
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In 1955 he joined the U.S. Army. While in the army, he fell in love with
a fellow soldier and suffered another nervous breakdown. He was sent to
Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., for psychiatric treatment. While
in the hospital, he was given a weekend pass in honor of his twenty-first
birthday in 1956. Jackson spent his birthday by going to New York, where
he attempted suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.
Discharged from the army, he continued to wander across the United States.
In 1961, the U.S. Secret Service arrested Jackson for threatening President
John F. Kennedy. Later that year, he was deported to Scotland, where he occa-
sionally lived with his widowed mother. During this period, he was a vagrant
on the dole and seldom stayed in one place for more than a few months.
In 1966, Jackson reentered the United States through Miami and was
given a six-month visitor’s visa. He was deported when he overstayed the six
months.
He first became aware of Saldana in 1979, when he sat in an Aberdeen
theater and watched I Want to Hold Your Hand, a film about Beatlemania.
Movies were Jackson’s only reality. Jackson conceived mad passions for
women in movies whom he thought of as stars.
Two years later he saw Saldana in Defiance, a movie in which she plays
a girl trying to make a life for herself in a crime-ridden slum. When costar
Jan-Michael Vincent was attacked in the movie by a street gang, the scene
provoked vivid memories of his own 1956 suicide attempt. Focusing his ex-
citement on Theresa, Jackson convinced himself he could win the actress by
“sending her into eternity.”
Investigation
Jackson began stalking Saldana in early 1982, the year he illegally returned
to the United States. He took several cross-country bus trips in this single-
minded quest.
He initially went to New York City, where he tried to contact Saldana’s rel-
atives and business associates, pretending to be an agent with a script for her.
He was unable to locate Saldana. A trip to Los Angeles also yielded nothing.
Only after he returned to New York from California did he manage to trick
one of Saldana’s relatives into telling him the actress lived in Hollywood.
While he stalked Saldana, he tried to purchase a gun in many different
states but was prevented by state laws requiring a minimum of a driver’s li-
cense for identification. The only weapon available to Jackson was a hunt-
ing knife.
After returning to Hollywood, he hired a private detective, who provided
Saldana’s address. During questioning by the police, he was asked why he
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had tried to kill Saldana. Jackson replied, “Read my diary. It’s all in there.”
Jackson had kept a dairy of his quest in his knapsack.
Outcome
Jackson, convicted of attempted murder and inflicting great bodily injury,
was given the maximum sentence of twelve years in prison. While in cus-
tody, he also confessed to the murder of two people during a robbery of a
London bank in 1962. Jackson continued to write to Saldana in prison as
well as reporters about his quest for Saldana.
420: ROBBERY
Robbery is a crime of seizing property through violence or intimidation. Be-
cause violence is an ingredient of most robberies, they sometimes result in
the harm or murder of their victims. Robbery is generally an urban crime. In
common with most legal terms, the precise definition of robbery varies by
jurisdiction.
The element of force differentiates robbery from embezzlement, larceny,
and other types of theft. Armed robbery involves the use of a weapon. High-
way robbery takes place outside and in a public place. Carjacking is the act
of stealing a car from a victim, usually at gunpoint. Bank robbery is the rob-
bing of banks and financial institutions.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of a robbery can be an individual or a group of peo-
ple. It can also be a home, bank, a store, and other places with cash or items
to be stolen. The goal is generally cash.
The victim’s risk is situational. It is the robber’s perception of the victim
that puts the victim at risk. The risk for the robber is dependent on his rela-
tionship with the victim and his or her expertise in the crime.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The robber usually spends a
minimum amount of time at the scene. Typically, he brings a weapon or
a threat of having one, such as a bomb. Sometimes the communication
between the robber and the victim is written or verbal. Communication is
minimal.
Staging. Staging is not typical.
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Common Forensic Findings. In bank robberies there is often a note left for
analysis. If the victim has been bound, there will be restraints available.
Investigative Considerations
Robberies are usually planned. Surveilance tapes should be secured for both
prior casing of the building and the robbery itself. Careful interviewing of
witnesses will assist in developing a sketch of the robber for media distrib-
tion or photos from the security cameras.
Search Warrant Suggestions
There should be a search for the stolen items. In bank robberies, there will
be marking dye on clothes and the surroundings.
421: BANK ROBBERY
Bank robbery is usually accomplished by a solitary criminal who brandishes
a firearm at a teller and demands money, either orally or through a written
note. The most dangerous type of bank robbery is a takeover robbery in
which several heavily armed (and armored) gang members threaten the lives
of everyone in the bank.
The first bank robbery in the United States took place on March 19, 1831,
and was committed by Edward Smith, who stole $245,000 from the City
Bank on Wall Street in New York City. He was caught, convicted, and sen-
tenced to five years in Sing Sing prison.
Due to modern security measures like security cameras, well-armed secu-
rity guards, silent alarms, exploding dye packs, and SWAT teams, bank rob-
beries are now rarely successful. Few criminals are able to make a successful
living out of bank robbery over the long run, since each attempt increases the
probability of being identified and caught. Today most organized crime
groups tend to make their money by other means, such as drug trafficking,
identity theft, or online scamming and phishing. However, bank robberies are
still fairly common and are sometimes successful, although eventually most
robbers are found and arrested. An FBI report states that the rate of clearance
by arrest for bank robbery in 2001 was second only to that of murder.
CASE STUDY: 421: BANK ROBBERY
Background
This study is an atypical bank robbery because it was committed by more
than one person and is a well-known case. Campbell Hearst, better known as
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Patty Hearst (born February 20, 1954), now as Patricia Hearst Shaw, is an
American newspaper heiress and socialite. She is the granddaughter of
William Randolph Hearst and was the victim of a 1974 kidnapping, but soon
afterward became a criminal herself: she robbed a bank and spent time in
prison (although she later received a presidential pardon).
Hearst was born in San Mateo, California, the third of five daughters of
Randolph Apperson Hearst. She grew up primarily in the wealthy San
Francisco suburb of Hillsborough, California, and attended Crystal Springs
Uplands School.
She was kidnapped on February 4, 1974, shortly before her twentieth
birthday, from the Berkeley, California, apartment that she shared with her
fiancé, Steven Weed, by an urban guerrilla terrorist group called the Sym-
bionese Liberation Army (SLA). When the attempt to prisoner-swap Hearst
for jailed SLA members failed, the SLA made ransom demands that resulted
in the donation by the Hearst family of $6 million worth of food to the poor
of the Bay Area. After the distribution of food, Hearst was still not released.
Victimology
The victim was the Sunset bank branch of the Hibernia Bank.
Crime Scene Indicators
On April 15, 1974, Patty Hearst was photographed wielding an assault rifle
while robbing the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank. Later communica-
tions from her were issued under the pseudonym Tania and revealed that she
was committed to the goals of the SLA. A warrant was issued for her arrest,
and in September 1975, she was arrested in an apartment with other SLA
members.
Forensic Findings
In her trial, which started on January 15, 1976, Hearst claimed she had been
locked blindfolded in a closet and physically and sexually abused, which
caused her to join the SLA. Her defense was largely based around the claim
that her actions could be attributed to a severe case of Stockholm syndrome,
in which captives become sympathetic with their captors. Hearst further
argued she was coerced or intimidated into her part in the bank robbery.
Outcome
Attorney F. Lee Bailey defended Patty Hearst, who was nevertheless con-
victed of bank robbery on March 20. Her sentence was eventually commuted
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by President Jimmy Carter, and Hearst was released from prison on Febru-
ary 1, 1979. She was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton on
January 20, 2001, the final day of his presidency.
After her release from prison, Hearst married her former bodyguard,
Bernard Shaw. Currently, she lives with her husband and two daughters in
Connecticut.
430: BURGLARY
Burglary is a nonconfrontational property crime that occurs when no one is
at home. Becoming a burglary victim can leave a family feeling vulnerable
and violated.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim is the property. The majority of home and apart-
ment burglaries occur during the daytime when most people are at work or
school. The summer months of July and August have the most burglaries,
with February having the fewest crimes.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Burglaries are committed
most often by young males under twenty-five years of age looking for items
that are small and expensive and can easily be converted to cash. Favorite
items are cash, jewelry, guns, watches, laptop computers, VCRs, video play-
ers, CDs, and other small electronic devices. Quick cash is needed for living
expenses and drugs.
Common Forensic Findings. Seventy percent of burglars use some force
to enter a dwelling, but their preference is to gain easy access through an
open door or window. Ordinary household tools like screwdrivers, channel-
lock pliers, small pry bars, and small hammers are most often used. Burglars
continue to flourish because police can clear only about 13 percent of all
reported burglaries and rarely catch the thief in the act.
Use of state DNA databases involving samples from felons convicted of
certain crimes has yielded some data on fetish burglars who go on to com-
mit sexual offenses. Any body fluids found should be subjected to analysis
and CODIS.
Investigation Considerations
Although home burglaries may seem random in occurrence, they actually
involve a selection process. The burglar’s selection process is simple: choose
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Nonlethal Crimes 375
an unoccupied home with the easiest access, the greatest amount of cover,
and the best escape routes.
Burglars enter residences illegally to steal merchandise or property that
someone else owns; however, motives may vary among thieves. For exam-
ple, the motive of a criminal enterprise burglar is profit, whereas the motive
of a fetish burglar is sexual. Sometimes both motives are operating. It is
important not to dismiss pantie thieves as nuisance offenders when their in-
tent is not a nuisance but represents a serious intention or motivation to harm
someone sexually. Fetish burglars’ motive consists of the sexually provoca-
tive images that the stolen items (such as lingerie or leather) convey and the
physiological arousal they may experience committing such an act. The mo-
tive of the fetish burglar is secret and has to do with the content or theme of
a specific (perhaps sexual) fantasy. Because of the sexual motive, a fetish
burglar (similar to sex offenders in general) is not likely to stop without
intervention by law enforcement. An arrest is necessary to interrupt the pat-
tern. Recognizing motivation is a key component to understanding the crime
and the criminal and to evaluating the danger to society.
Search Warrant Suggestions
There should be a search for the stolen items, including fetish items.
440: ASSAULT
Aggravated assault is usually differentiated from simple assault by the of-
fender’s intent (to murder or to rape, for example), the extent of the injury to
the victim, or the use of a deadly weapon, although legal definitions vary by
jurisdiction. Sentences for aggravated assault are generally more severe,
reflecting the greater degree of harm or malice intended by the perpetrator.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim can be a person, child, adult, or elder. There has
been an attempt by the offender to cause bodily injury. The offender causes
such injury purposely, knowingly, or recklessly in circumstances and shows
callous indifference to the victim.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. The offender may cause bod-
ily injury by use of a deadly weapon.
Common Forensic Findings. Aggravated assault offenders used personal
weapons (such as hands, fists, and feet) in 26.9 percent of offenses, firearms
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in 19.1 percent of offenses, and knives or cutting instruments in 18.2 percent
of offenses. Other types of weapons were used in 35.9 percent of aggravated
assaults.
Staging. Staging may be involved to make the assault look like an accident,
for example, stating a child fell when he was actually shaken.
Investigative Considerations
Careful interviewing of multiple witnesses is important to check for consis-
tency in statements. Assault and abuse cases by family members or care-
givers will need to be reviewed carefully.
Search Warrant Suggestions
A search warrant would help to identify patterned marks of assault on a vic-
tim if the weapon can be found—for example, a rope or belt used to bind a
victim or a belt used to strike a victim. The suspect’s home and car could be
searched for a specific weapon.
450: BATTERY/ABUSE
The crime of battery involves an injury or other contact on the person of
another in a manner likely to cause bodily harm. It is often broken down into
gradations for the purposes of determining the severity of punishment—for
example:
•Simple battery may include any form of nonconsensual, harmful, or
insulting contact, regardless of the injury caused.
•Sexual battery may be defined as nonconsensual touching of the inti-
mate parts of another.
•Family violence battery may be limited in its scope between persons
within a certain degree of relationship. Statutes with respect to this
offense have been enacted in response to an increasing awareness of the
problem of domestic violence.
•Aggravated battery is generally regarded as a serious offense of felony
grade, involving the loss of the victim’s limb or some other type of per-
manent disfigurement of the victim. As successor to the common law
crime of mayhem, this is sometimes subsumed in the definition of
aggravated assault.
In some jurisdictions, battery has recently been constructed to include di-
recting bodily secretions at another person without their permission. In some
jurisdictions, this automatically is considered aggravated battery.
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As a first approximation to the distinction between battery and assault, the
overt behavior of an assault might be A advancing on B by chasing after him
and swinging a fist at his head, while that of an act of battery might be A
actually striking B.
Within U.S. law in most jurisdictions, the charge of criminal battery re-
quires evidence of a mental state (mens rea).
CASE STUDY: 450: BATTERY/ABUSE
Background
Caleb’s father told the doctor that he and his wife, Crystal (Caleb’s mother),
had been separated for the past eight months and that since the separation,
Caleb had been with his father 90 percent of the time. He said Caleb’s
mother was now pregnant with a baby by a different father and had recently
wanted to see more of Caleb. The evening before, Caleb had been with his
mother. His father dropped him off at the mother’s around 6:00 P.M. and
picked him up that morning at 5:30 A.M. Caleb’s mother resides with her
mother, although her mother is gone a lot. When he dropped off Caleb, the
mother’s new boyfriend was there, but he was not seen in the morning when
the father picked up Caleb.
Victimology
Caleb was sixteen months old when he was brought to an emergency room
by his father for evaluation of alleged physical abuse.
Crime Scene Indicators
When the father picked up Caleb, he noted red spots on the child’s left cheek.
He thought it was food and tried to rub it off. Caleb’s mother said that Caleb
had an allergic reaction to the carpet. Caleb’s father took him to day care and
at that time noticed the marking on the face looked like a handprint. The
father called the pediatrician, who told him to bring the child to the hospital.
At the hospital, the father told the doctor that Caleb was walking and falling
a lot, but he had never noticed him to have bruises in the past.
Forensic Findings
An examination revealed an area of petechiae, five by ten centimeters, with
several red linear marks. The impression was physical abuse from a hand-
print. X-rays of the entire body did not reveal any other injury. Child Protec-
tive Services (CPS) was notified, and a report was sent to law enforcement.
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Investigation
The CPS social worker made many telephone attempts to contact Caleb’s
parents in an effort to determine who had abused Caleb. The social worker
was unsuccessful for four months. She gathered the parents and maternal
grandmother for a meeting in July. All parties said they did not believe his
mother had hit him, but they had no other explanation. Her report stated that
his mother was involved with a boyfriend and that both parents were respon-
sible for the child’s care when Caleb with them. The referral of child abuse
was substantiated, and the referral was closed.
On December 27, Caleb’s mother’s boyfriend called 911 and said that
Caleb was not breathing. The emergency medical technicians responded, but
Caleb could not be resuscitated. The boyfriend was charged with the homicide.
Outcome
Police interviews during the investigation revealed the following:
• Caleb’s mother was being abused by her boyfriend. She identified four
separate times he had shoved her around. The boyfriend admitted he
had roughed her up several times and that he had an anger problem.
• The boyfriend was a registered sex offender. He had failed to report his
address in November of that year and was put on probation. This infor-
mation was reported in the newspaper article on Caleb’s murder.
• The newspaper also reported the boyfriend’s criminal history of corrup-
tion of a minor, receiving stolen property, grand theft, preparation of
cocaine for sale, and forgery. He also was stopped for driving with a li-
cense plate that was not properly displayed.
• Caleb’s mother admitted that Caleb had seemed depressed for months
before his death. X-rays and autopsy indicated that Caleb had an old
head injury estimated to have occurred seven to ten days prior to his
death.
• Caleb’s mother permitted her boyfriend to stay with her because he said
he had no other place to live. She also said he was lazy and was not
working.
• The police were asked to search the home for an L-shaped weapon to
match the pattern of injury on Caleb’s skull. They found a loaded gun
belonging to the boyfriend.
This was a case that fell through the cracks. If there had been better coor-
dination and sharing of information between CPS and law enforcement, the
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Nonlethal Crimes 379
domestic abuse and child abuse would have been the basis for charging the
boyfriend and possibly preventing the fatal injury to Caleb.
CASE STUDY: 450: BATTERY/ABUSE
Background
The defendant was a fifty-year-old black male who was the registered do-
mestic partner of the victim, a thirty-nine-year-old white woman. There was
a history of abuse dating back to the birth of their daughter, ten years prior.
The mother never called the police or made reports of the abuse to authori-
ties. She was a schoolteacher. On at least two occasions, she missed work be-
cause of visible injuries sustained at the hands of her partner. Her work
associates, including her supervisor, were suspicious of the bruises but never
made any report.
Victimology
Ms. J was seriously attacked in July 2004 but did not go to the hospital until
five days later, primarily because the partner accused her of faking it and also
threatened it would “open Pandora’s box” because of his criminal record.
The defendant had a criminal record, which included at least one prior do-
mestic violence case (in which the victim was his “wife” and his prostitute).
The victim in that case had a daughter, not believed to be the defendant’s.
That case went to trial, but the defendant was convicted only of a misde-
meanor, not the numerous felonies he was indicted on.
Crime Scene Indicators
Testimony of Ms. J from a videotape made while she was hospitalized from
the assault provided the following information. Mr. B was verbally abusive,
said she messed up things, would hit her on the back of the head, berate her,
order her to stand still and keep her arms down, punch her in the stomach,
order her to lie down, spread her legs, hit her with an extension cord on her
legs and pubic area, and state he wanted to kill her. He said she would lose
her job when the school found out she was incompetent.
One time that he hit her in the face, she received two black eyes and
swollen gums. She lied to school authorities that she was visiting her grand-
mother for two weeks. She was hit for the way she cooked the rice, for not
washing his shirts well enough, and for “speaking like a wimp.” Ms. J did
tell her doctor about the bruises. He advised her to leave the partner, saying,
“They never change.”
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Ms. J rationalized her partner’s behavior and believed that he would
change. She did not want to “mess up his dream” of being successful. She
was staying with him because of the daughter and did not want the daughter
to know of the abuse.
The assaultive event in July started because she had not washed fruit par-
ticles sufficiently out of a container that was to be used to hold water for
their daughter. Mr. B hit his partner, saying she should have learned how to
clean a container by this time. He kicked her in the stomach as she lay on the
floor and slammed her head against the tiles. She went back to cleaning
the container but felt a great deal of physical pain, saw flashes, and felt very
hot. She went to the bathroom and vomited green liquid several times. He
made her get up, but she could not stand straight. He forced her to eat the
next day, and she kept vomiting. This continued for several days, to which
Mr. B said she was “milking this for attention.” He kept very close watch
on her and refused to let her leave the apartment. On the fifth day, he said
he was taking the daughter out. Ms. J wrote him a check and after he left,
she managed to get herself to the emergency room. She was in such critical
condition that the doctor called her mother in another state to say he did not
think she would live.
Forensic Findings
Diagnoses at the hospital included pancreatic traumatic injury and peritoni-
tis. Her pancreas had been severed in half, and the necrotic part of it was
removed. Her spleen was removed. She was treated for postsurgical hypo-
insulinemia and postoperative infection. Over her two-week hospital stay,
she told staff of the domestic violence.
Investigation
Child Protective Services had the daughter examined for possible child
abuse. No bruising or injuries were detected. Mr. B was arrested on at-
tempted murder charges. In the hospital, Ms. J agreed to press charges. Once
home, however, she hired a lawyer for her partner and one for herself and
refused to talk with the prosecutor.
Outcome
A Sirous hearing was held on the basis of an “unavailable witness” and to
determine if expert testimony could be provided to explain aspects of do-
mestic violence. To allow testimony at trial, the judge needed to have veri-
fied that there was an adequate research basis to the theories and dynamics
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Nonlethal Crimes 381
of domestic violence. At trial, Ms. J minimized her injuries and stated she
did not want to be a party to sending Mr. B to prison. Mr. B nevertheless was
convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.
CASE STUDY: 450: BATTERY/ABUSE
Case Contributed by Leonard Morgenbesser
Victimology
A seventy-three-year-old woman awoke in the early morning of July 10,
2004, to the sound of breaking glass. When she opened her door, a man
charged inside, grabbed her, muffled her mouth, and made her promise not
to call the police.
Crime Scene Indicators
The assailant spoke only Spanish, but the victim knew him from his land-
scaping her yard in April. After the man calmed down, the victim showed
him family pictures, shared stories, and offered him something to eat.
Forensic Findings
He ate a banana, drank some milk, and fell asleep. He awoke, used the bath-
room, got undressed, and exposed himself to the victim but fell back asleep.
Swabs of the milk glass were taken as well as fingerprints on broken glass
and his clothing.
Investigation
The victim barricaded herself in the bathroom with a telephone, which she
used to call her daughter, who called the police. The police arrived to find the
assailant’s clothes strewn around the house; he was wearing sweat pants and
had a condom in the pocket. He told police he intended to steal jewelry.
Outcome
The twenty-five-year-old intruder, Vasquez-Garcia, was found guilty of two
counts of residential burglary, one count of false imprisonment of an elder, and
one count of elder abuse. One of the two burglary charges arose from another
woman, a seventy-eight-year old, who contacted investigators after learning of
the other incident. She testified at trial that when he was landscaping her yard
in April 2004, he had used her bathroom and exposed himself to her.
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The jury’s foreman said the jury’s main challenge came when deciding
the count of elder abuse. The jury had to decide whether the intruder reason-
ably should have known the age of the victim. The defendant faced up to
eleven years and four months in prison.
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CHAPTER
10
Computer Crimes
ALLEN G. BURGESS
500: Computer crimes
510: Computers as the target
511: Malignant software
512: Computer data as the target
513: Denial of service
520: The computer user as the target
521: Identity theft
522: Invasion of privacy
523: Cyberstalking
530: Criminal enterprise
531: Money laundering
532: Child pornography
533: Internet fraud
533.01: Bank fraud
533.02: Fraudulent Internet transactions
540: Threats via the Internet
Crimes involving the computer have emerged as a new class of crimes. The
U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section
(CHIPS) was created to prosecute high-technology and intellectual property
offenses, including computer intrusions, denial of service attacks, virus and
worm proliferation, Internet fraud, and telecommunications fraud. U.S.
383
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attorney Michael J. Sullivan said about one case, “Today’s sentence is the re-
sult of the juvenile’s guilty plea to both the Massachusetts and Arkansas
charges. Computer hacking is not fun and games. Hackers cause real harm
to real victims. Would-be hackers, even juveniles when appropriate, should
be put on notice that such criminal activity will not be tolerated and that stiff
punishments await them if they are caught.”
The computer can be the target of the crime, the user of the computer can
be the victim of the crime, information in the computer can be the target. In
addition, criminal enterprises are using the computer, and computers are
used by criminals incidental to the crime.
Computer crimes are divided into four major classifications: the computer
as the target of the crime (510), the computer user as the target (520), crim-
inal enterprise (530), and threats via the Internet (540). Criminal enterprise
is where the computer is used as a weapon of the crime or the computer is
incidental to the crime. Threats via the Internet includes stalking as well as
extortion.
510: COMPUTERS AS THE TARGET
Computers as the target of the crime occurs when the computer itself is the
“victim” of the crime. The computer can also be a target when it or its com-
ponents (hard drives, monitor, software) are stolen, but these types of crimes
are classified under larceny or theft and are not included in the 510 classifi-
cation. Included in this classification are crimes that target the user of the
computer, the data stored on the computer, the software on the computer, or
the intellectual property or trade secrets on the computer. Software programs
have been developed to target computers. These programs go under many
names: virus, worms, Trojan horse, spyware, and malware, to name a few.
These types of programs fall under the heading of malignant software. Of-
fenders who create and proliferate viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are
known as hackers.
511: MALIGNANT SOFTWARE
Defining Characteristics
Malignant software such as viruses, worms, and Trojan horses targets the
computer or the software on the computer with the intent to do harm to
the computer.
Viruses are malicious code embedded in programs or e-mails that damage
the computer hardware or software.
The worm is code that can damage computer files and programs or slow
computer performance; it is delivered by another program or application,
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Computer Crimes 385
usually via e-mail. Viruses and worms were originally delivered by remov-
able media but now can be found in e-mails, e-mail attachments, and free
programs available over the Internet. Viruses and worms have also been
found embedded in pictures.
Trojan horses are programs placed on a computer to capture and send
information to a third party unbeknown to the computer user. They have
been used in cases of identity theft (see classification 521). Another type of
Trojan horse captures the user’s keystroke information and searches for per-
sonal and financial information. This type of program is called a “key log-
ger.” The key logger can be used to exploit a user’s financial accounts by
posing as the user. Another type of Trojan horse is a program that turns the
user system into a spam generator. When spam is sent to the infected com-
puter, it forwards that spam to all the addresses contained in the address
books resident on the computer.
Another harmful program is the logic bomb, a program that destroys data
or crashes systems when a certain event occurs. An early example was the
one labeled cookie monster. Cookie monster would appear on the screen and
say, “Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!” and if the user could not type the
word cookie into the keyboard fast enough, it would destroy or “eat” a file or
files on the computer system. Another example of a logic bomb is a program
that was written to search for a programmer’s social security number; if it
was not found, all payroll records would be destroyed on the computer.
Victimology. The victims are all computers, especially personal computers,
attached to the Internet. Malignant software can be transmitted over the
Internet, computer disks, CD-ROMs, flash cards, and any other form of com-
puter storage.
Common Forensic Findings. Targeted computers have missing files, slow
response and processing speeds, an inability to access antivirus software, or
fail to start. The offender’s computer will have malignant software creation
tools and copies of the software program. A Trojan horse offender’s com-
puter will also have the addresses of successful implants. The offender’s
computer data will be encrypted.
Investigative Considerations
The targeted computer should be serviced by another computer or Internet
service to scan for malignant software. The offender’s computer should be
unplugged (not turned on and not closed down if it is on) and taken to a qual-
ified facility where the hard drive will be removed and scanned with special
software using another computer. This special software reads the patterns of
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ones and zeros from the disk without executing programs on the disk. Of-
fenders typically build in programs during the boot cycle (computer start-up)
that require a special password or procedure. If the password or procedure is
not followed, the program will erase all files associated with the creation of
the malignant software.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant for the offender’s location should list all computers and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tapes,
external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks), flash
memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses (possible
sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer and all its
peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant should also in-
clude the offender’s Internet accounts.
512: COMPUTER DATA AS THE TARGET
Crimes with the computer data as the target are changing data, replacing
data, or creating new data on the computer. Data such as payroll information,
credit history, and stock information are typical targets for this crime. This
changing, replacing, or creating fraudulent data such as corporate informa-
tion for stock fraud or false tax returns is usually associated with securities
fraud or wire transfers. These types of computer crimes can also be consid-
ered under the criminal enterprise classification (530). Other crimes within
this classification are software piracy and the theft of intellectual property
from the computer. Software piracy or theft of intellectual property not on
the computer but on electronic media falls into the theft or larceny classifi-
cation or under criminal enterprise (530).
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims are computers and the data they contain, espe-
cially personal computers, attached to the Internet. Malignant software can
be transmitted using the Internet, e-mail and spam, computer disks, CD-
ROMs, flash cards, and any other form of computer storage.
Common Forensic Findings. Changes in computer data can be detected if
the data were backed up, that is, copies of the data were stored on another
computer, CD-ROM, computer disk, or magnetic tape. If backups are avail-
able, a computer program can be used to compare files to determine which
data were changed. The changes in data could provide clues to the offender.
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Computer Crimes 387
Investigative Considerations
The targeted computer should have its hard drive removed and analyzed by
special computer software to determine not only the changed data but search
for possible Trojan horse software that tests for data checks and then de-
stroys the corrupted data before they can be analyzed.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant for the offender’s location should list all computers and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tapes,
external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks), flash
memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses (possible
sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer and all its
peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant should also in-
clude the offender’s Internet accounts.
CASE STUDY: 512:
COMPUTER DATA AS THE TARGET
Background and Victimology
Oleg Zezev was accused of trying to steal confidential information belong-
ing to Bloomberg L.P. and its customers. Bloomberg L.P. is a multinational
financial data company that provides its customers in the international finan-
cial community with timely financial information and trading data through a
computer network. Zezev then used that information to threaten Bloom-
berg’s founder, Michael Bloomberg, that if he did not pay him $200,000, he
would disclose this information to Bloomberg’s customers and the media in
an effort to harm Bloomberg’s reputation. Zezev was the chief information
technology officer at Kazkommerts Securities (Kazkommerts) located in
Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Forensic Findings
The e-mail came from an e-mail account at a company called Hotmail that
Zezev had registered under a false name. The e-mail was traced back to
Kazkommerts Securities, where Zezev worked. After receiving the first e-
mail, Bloomberg computer specialists were able to piece together how
Zezev had broken in and rewrote the software on the Bloomberg system to
prevent him from accessing the system again.
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Investigation
In the spring of 1999, Bloomberg provided database services to Kazkom-
merts. As a result, Kazkommerts was provided with Bloomberg’s software
to gain access to Bloomberg’s services over the Internet. Bloomberg can-
celled those services in 1999 because Kazkommerts did not pay its bill.
In March 2000, Zezev manipulated Bloomberg’s software to bypass
Bloomberg’s security system in order to gain unauthorized access to Bloom-
berg’s computer system so that he could pose as different legitimate Bloom-
berg customers and employees. On eleven separate occasions during March
2000, Zezev illegally entered Bloomberg’s computer system and accessed
various accounts, including Michael Bloomberg’s personal account as well
as accounts for other Bloomberg employees and customers. Zezev copied in-
formation from these accounts, including e-mail in-box screens, Michael
Bloomberg’s credit card numbers, and screens relating to internal functions
of Bloomberg. He also copied internal information from Bloomberg that was
accessible only by Bloomberg employees.
According to the evidence at trial on March 24, 2000, Zezev sent Michael
Bloomberg an e-mail from Kazakhstan using the alias “Alex,” attaching var-
ious screens he had copied from Bloomberg’s computer system demonstrat-
ing his ability to enter the system as any user. He then asked for payment and
threatened: “There a lot [sic] of clever but mean heads in the world who will
use their chance to destroy your system to the detriment of your worldwide
reputation.”
Zezev sent an e-mail on April 17 to Bloomberg threatening that if he did
not send Zezev $200,000, he would disclose to the media and Bloomberg’s
customers that he was able to gain unauthorized access to Bloomberg’s com-
puter system.
Michael Bloomberg, acting in conjunction with FBI agents, sent Zezev
e-mails saying that if Zezev wanted the money, he would have to meet with
him and some of Bloomberg’s computer specialists in London and explain
to them how he was able to break into Bloomberg’s computer system.
Zezev traveled from London to meet with Bloomberg. On August 10,
2000, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Secunda, the head of technology at
Bloomberg, and a British undercover agent posing as Bloomberg’s body-
guard met with Zezev and Yarimaka, an associate of Zezev, in London. The
meeting was recorded by undercover videotape. At the meeting, Zezev
introduced himself as “Alex.” Michael Bloomberg told Zezev that he was
extorting his company. Zezev was arrested after the meeting and subse-
quently extradited from England to the United States to face the charges in
the indictment.
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Computer Crimes 389
Outcome
On February 26, 2003, Zezev was convicted, after a three-and-a half-week
jury trial in U.S. District Court, on all counts of a four-count indictment
charging him with crimes arising from his scheme to hack into Bloomberg
L.P.’s computer system: conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extor-
tion, sending extortionate threats, and computer intrusion. Zezev was sen-
tenced in Manhattan federal court to over four years in prison.
513: DENIAL OF SERVICE
This crime occurs when a computer service is the target of the offender.
Overwhelming an Internet site with many phony requests for service is an
example of this type of crime.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims of this type of crime are the computers used by
Internet service providers (ISP) (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others) and on-
line retail services (such as Wal-Mart and eBay).
Common Forensic Findings. Service denial is indicated when the targeted
site is unable to respond to normal service requests. Computer logs will
show many erroneous or trivial requests occurring at the same time from
many sites. The offender will have placed Trojan horse software on many
computers and triggered an attack at some specific time in the future. The
sites chosen for the Trojan horse software typically are college and univer-
sity computers, which have many users and can be easily hacked because
some legitimate users failed to use hard-to-break passwords. Additional
service request sites could be personal computers attached to the Internet
that have been compromised.
Investigative Considerations
The targeted computers’ logs should be analyzed in an attempt to determine
the Internet Protocol addresses of the sending computers.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant for the offender’s location should list all computers and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic
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tapes, external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks),
flash memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses
(possible sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer
and all its peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant
should also include the offender’s Internet accounts.
CASE STUDY: 513: DENIAL OF SERVICE
Background
The offender, Allan Eric Carlson, was a disgruntled Phillies fan (the Phillies
were losing games) and took revenge by hacking into computers around the
country, hijacking or “spoofing” the return addresses of e-mail accounts of
reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News and
e-mail accounts at the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team, and launching
spam e-mail attacks. The indictment charges that when launching the spam
e-mails, Carlson’s list of addressees included numerous bad addresses.
When those e-mails arrived at their destinations, the indictment charges that
they were “returned” or “bounced” back to the person who purportedly sent
them: the persons whose e-mail addresses had been “spoofed” or hijacked.
This caused floods of thousands of e-mails into these accounts in a very short
period of time.
Victimology
The victims included reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia
Daily News and e-mail accounts at the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team.
Investigation
Using the e-mail addresses of the Inquirer, Daily News, and the Phillies, the
FBI was able to enlist its offices throughout the nation and conduct a thor-
ough investigation. It used trace programs to determine the sources of the
denial of service messages to locate the true sender of the spoofed comput-
ers. Carlson was charged with seventy-nine counts of computer fraud and
identity theft (classification 521) for illegally using the e-mail addresses of
the reporters.
Outcome
Carlson was convicted of the seventy-nine counts of computer fraud and
identity fraud and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
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520: THE COMPUTER USER AS THE TARGET
The user can be a target of identity theft, fraud, or stalking. In the first two
crimes, the offender is seeking financial gain, and in stalking (sometimes
called cyberstalking), the offender is harassing the computer user using the
Internet (by e-mail, chatrooms, and instant messaging, for example).
CASE STUDY: 520:
THE COMPUTER USER AS THE TARGET
Background and Victimology
Jerome T. Heckenkamp, age twenty-four, of Los Angeles gained unautho-
rized access to eBay computers during February and March 1999. Using
this unauthorized access, he defaced an eBay Web page using the name
“MagicFX,” and installed a Trojan horse computer program (program con-
taining malicious code masked inside apparently harmless programs) on the
eBay computers. He then secretly captured user names and passwords that
he later used to gain unauthorized access into other eBay computers.
Heckenkamp had gained unauthorized access to Qualcomm computers in
San Diego in late 1999 using a computer from his dorm room at the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin–Madison. Once he gained this unauthorized access, he
installed multiple Trojan horse programs that captured user names and
passwords that he later used to gain unauthorized access into more Qual-
comm computers.
Outcome
Heckenkamp pleaded guilty in federal court to gaining unauthorized access
and recklessly damaging computer systems of several high-technology com-
panies. His guilty pleas resulted from felony charges filed against him in
both the Northern and Southern Districts of California. On March 13, 2002,
a grand jury in the Northern District of California returned a sixteen-count
indictment charging him with computer intrusions, unlawful interception of
electronic communications, and witness tampering. On September 5, a
grand jury in the Southern District of California returned a ten-count indict-
ment charging him with computer intrusions and unlawful interception of
electronic communications. The cases were consolidated in the U.S. District
Court for the Northern District of California in March 2003. Under the terms
of a plea agreement joined by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for both districts,
Heckenkamp pleaded guilty to one count from each of those indictments,
each charging unauthorized access into a computer and recklessly causing
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damage. Heckenkamp also agreed that the court could consider losses from
other indicted counts in determining his sentence, including unauthorized
access to computer systems of Exodus Communications, Juniper Networks,
Lycos, and Cygnus Solutions.
Heckenkamp was sentenced to eight months in prison and eight months
of electronic monitoring and home confinement; was ordered to pay restitu-
tion to the victim companies in the amount of $268,291; and was ordered to
serve a three-year term of supervised release, during which time he would
be prohibited from using a computer with Internet access absent approval
from a probation officer.
521: IDENTITY THEFT
This classification covers crimes where the information needed to accom-
plish identity theft, such as social security number, credit card, and bank
PINs, is obtained from a user’s computer using the Internet. This classifica-
tion does not include identity theft when the personal data are obtained by
other means, such as trash or loss of wallet and credit cards.
It is estimated that 25 percent of state, county, and city Web sites contain
social security numbers of property owners, government employees, taxpay-
ers, and others. At one time the Pentagon Web site contained the social secu-
rity numbers of high-ranking military officers. This practice was stopped
when many of these top-ranking military officers became victims of credit
card fraud.
A new type of identity theft by means of the computer is now referred to
as phishing. It is the stealing of personal information such as credit cards and
bank data from the Internet. This is done by sending an e-mail to a person
requesting his or her social security number, credit card, or bank account
information under the guise of being a legitimate vendor used by this com-
puter user. A good example is the use of bank logos and Web site layout to
appear to be a legitimate bank site requesting information to update its on-
line account. The request usually makes it appear to be an urgent matter by
stating that if the user does not update the information, his or her online
account will be canceled. The typical user responds by quickly providing the
information requested. It is estimated that in 2004, some 57 million people
were targets of phishing. In June 2004 alone, there were 1,422 phishing at-
tacks. The number of attacks in 2004 increased over those in 2003 by an esti-
mated 1,126 percent. About 19 percent of recipients open the e-mail and
click the link. About 3 to 5 percent of recipients divulge the personal finan-
cial information.
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Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims of this type of crime are those who use the com-
puter for online activities such as shopping, banking, and paying bills.
Common Forensic Findings. Common findings are unauthorized credit
card charges, credit card accounts unknown to the victim, unauthorized bank
account withdrawals, and addresses on the illegal accounts different from
the victim’s address.
Investigative Considerations
The victim should register with all credit services to report the possible iden-
tity theft. The investigator should trace addresses and the location of erro-
neous credit card charges and look for possible travel patterns of the
offender.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant for the offender’s location should list all computers and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tapes,
external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks), flash
memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses (possible
sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer and all its
peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant should also in-
clude the offender’s Internet accounts.
CASE STUDY: 521: IDENTITY THEFT
Background and Victimology
From June 18 through June 27, 2003, Van T. Dinh purchased approximately
9,120 put option contracts for the common stock of Cisco Systems at the strike
price of $15.00 per share through his online trading account at Cybertrader
.com. Each put contract Dinh purchased gave him the right to sell 100 shares
of Cisco common stock at $15.00 per share, if the share value fell to that price
or below, until the contract’s expiration, which was set for July 19, 2003. Dinh
paid $10.00 per contract, for a total purchase price of approximately $91,200.
If the value of Cisco shares had fallen relatively precipitously during the short
period of the life of the contracts, Dinh would have stood to make a large
profit—a highly speculative but potentially lucrative gamble.
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On July 7, 2003, a member of Stockcharts.com’s stock-charting forum,
who lived in Westborough, Massachusetts, received a message from an indi-
vidual named “Stanley Hirsch,” who turned out to be Dinh. He responded to
the e-mail, thus providing his personal e-mail address to Dinh. On July 8, he
received an e-mail sent to his personal e-mail address inviting him to partic-
ipate in a so-called beta test of a new stock-charting tool. The sender, iden-
tified as Tony T. Riechert, provided a link in the e-mail message to enable
this potential investor to download a computer program that purported to be
the stock-charting application. Tony Riechert was another name that Dinh
used in connection with this scheme.
The purported application sent to the potential investor was actually a
disguised Trojan horse that contained a series of keystroke-logging pro-
grams that enable one Internet user to remotely monitor the keystrokes of
another user.
Once the investor had installed the program on his computer, Dinh was
able to use the intrusion programs to identify this investor’s online TD
Waterhouse account and to extract password and log-in information for that
account.
By July 10, nine days before the expiration date of Dinh’s Cisco options,
Cisco’s stock was trading at approximately $19.00 per share, making it
likely that Dinh’s $15.00 Cisco put options would be worthless at the time
they expired and he would stand to lose the entire $91,200 he had paid to
purchase the options. On July 11, Dinh used the password and log-in infor-
mation for the investor’s online account to place a series of buy orders for
the Cisco options, depleting almost all of the account’s available cash—ap-
proximately $46,986. The buy orders for the investor’s account were filled
with 7,200 Cisco put options sold from Dinh’s account. As a result of the ex-
ecution of these buy orders, Dinh avoided at least $37,000 of losses (some
of the $46,986 in funds taken from the investor’s account went to commis-
sion costs).
Dinh had placed additional purchase orders from the investor’s account,
which went unfilled only because the investor’s account had already been
depleted of funds by Dinh.
Outcome
Van T. Dinh pleaded guilty on February 9, 2004, to an eight-count indict-
ment charging him with causing damage in connection with unauthorized
access to a protected computer, committing mail and wire fraud, and know-
ingly executing a scheme and artifice to defraud the investor and others in
connection with a security and to obtain by means of false and fraudulent
pretenses, money and property in connection with the purchase and sale of a
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Computer Crimes 395
security. He was sentenced to one year and one month in prison, to be fol-
lowed by three years of supervised release and a $3,000 fine for the unau-
thorized access to a protected computer and other crimes in connection with
his unlawfully accessing a computer belonging to the investor, and using
information gained through that intrusion to make unlawful trades with
funds in the investor’s online brokerage account. In addition, an $800 spe-
cial assessment was imposed. Prior to sentencing, Dinh paid full restitution
to the victim investor in the amount of $46,986, which represented the entire
amount of money taken from the investor’s account.
522: INVASION OF PRIVACY
This crime involves sending spam or unsolicited sexually explicit material
by computer user via the Internet.
Victimology. The victims of this type of crime are the users of the Internet.
Pornographic spam is sent to a large number of sites in an attempt to recruit
new customers.
Common Forensic Findings. Pornographic material will be found on the
user’s computer as well as the address of the sender. In most cases, this ad-
dress will not be real.
Investigative Considerations
The investigator should try to trace the path through the Internet or sign up
for the service and do an online trace.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The investigator can obtain a warrant to the Internet service provider (ISP)
to trace the path of the sender of pornographic data. When the location of the
sender is determined, the investigator should obtain a search warrant for
the offender’s location. This search warrant should list all forms of computer
storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tapes, external hard drives,
mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks), flash memory modules, pro-
gramming documentation, e-mail addresses (possible sources of malignant
software creation programs), the computer and all its peripherals, and all
program CD-ROMs. The search should look for the pornographic data as
well as addresses of customers. Pornographic material at the offender’s site
should be compared with the pornographic material at the victim’s site.
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523: CYBERSTALKING
Cyberstalking is the use of the computer to follow a target of the stalker.
Victimology. Cyberstalking is similar to physical stalking except contact
with the victim is with the Internet using e-mail, chatrooms, and instant mes-
saging. The victim is typically female.
Common Forensic Findings. The victim’s computer will have copies of
the transmitted messages as well as the address of the sender. The address of
the offender may not be his or her real address, and the investigator will have
to do online tracing when and if the offender sends additional messages.
Investigative Considerations
The investigator can try to hold the sender online to trace the sender’s location.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The investigator can obtain a warrant to trace the path of the sender of the
stalking messages. This warrant will be to the Internet service provider
(ISP). When the location of the sender is determined, the investigator should
obtain a search warrant for the offender’s location.
The search warrant should list all computers at the offender’s location and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic
tapes, external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks),
flash memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses
(possible sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer
and all its peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant
should also include the search for copies of the messages sent previously to
the victim.
530: CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Criminal enterprise is now performing money laundering with a computer,
wire fraud, child pornography, and other types of fraud using a computer.
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CASE STUDY: 530: CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Background
Alexey V. Ivanov, of Chelyabinsk, Russia, was indicted with eight counts of
wire fraud, two counts of extortion, four counts of unauthorized computer in-
trusions, and one count of possessing user names and passwords for an online
bank. The charges stemmed from the activities of Ivanov, age twenty-three,
and others who operated from Russia and hacked into dozens of computers
throughout the United States, stealing user names, passwords, credit card
information, and other financial data and then extorting the victims with the
threat of deleting their data and destroying their computer systems.
Investigation
All of the victim companies fully cooperated with the FBI during the inves-
tigation. Ivanov and his partner, twenty-five-year-old Vasili Gorchkov, were
arrested in Seattle after traveling to the United States during an investigation
by the FBI. Ivanov and Gorchkov, who is awaiting trial on similar charges in
Seattle, came to the United States for a what he thought was a job interview
with Seattle-based computer security company called Invita. In fact, Invita
was an undercover FBI company that allowed investigators to obtain the evi-
dence needed to charge the two Russians.
Outcome
Ivanov was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of forty-eight months, to be
followed by three years of supervised release. He had previously pleaded
guilty and admitted to numerous charges of conspiracy, computer intrusion,
computer fraud, credit card fraud, wire fraud, and extortion. In sentencing
Ivanov, the district judge described his participation as a “manager or super-
visor” in an “unprecedented, wide-ranging, organized criminal enterprise”
that “engaged in numerous acts of fraud, extortion, and intentional damage
to the property of others, involving the sophisticated manipulation of com-
puter data, financial information, and credit card numbers.” The district
judge found that Ivanov was responsible for an aggregate loss of approxi-
mately $25 million.
531: MONEY LAUNDERING
Money laundering is a crime used to make illegal funds appear to be legal.
An example was a programmer who was paid to modify code in banking
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programs to ignore banking regulations to alert the FBI for transactions
in excess of ten thousand dollars for organized crime accounts. Another
money-laundering scheme was creating programs to generate false revenues
for crime-controlled businesses.
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victims are public and government tax agencies.
Common Forensic Findings. In money laundering, false revenue will be
generated by computer programs or user entry. The actual revenue will also
be on the computer because the offenders need to know how much money
was laundered.
Investigative Considerations
The investigator needs to determine the amount of legitimate revenue; the
excess is laundered money. In one case where a restaurant was used to laun-
der money, the real revenue was determined by counting the linen napkins to
determine the number of meals served. This was then compared to the num-
ber of computer-generated meals.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant should include all computers, computer-related storage,
computer programs, and Internet accounts. The computers should be
searched for multiple sets of financial transactions, which will be encrypted.
Printed copies of the transactions should also be requested.
532: CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
The availability of child pornography over the Internet has turned into a
multibillion-dollar business. (See Chapter Twelve.)
533: INTERNET FRAUD
Criminals use the computer to create credit card fraud, bank account fraud,
and even counterfeit passports.
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CASE STUDY: 533: INTERNET FRAUD
Background and Victimology
The offenders attempted to steal more than $10 million in computer equipment
from Ingram Micro, a large electronics distributor in Santa Ana, California.
Forensic Findings
The offenders were a group of six men led by Calin Mateias who was located
in Romania; the others were located in the United States. Mateias began
hacking into Ingram Micro’s online ordering system in 1999. Using infor-
mation obtained from his illegal hacking activity, Mateias bypassed Ingram’s
online security safeguards, posed as a legitimate customer, and ordered com-
puter equipment to be sent to Romania. When Ingram Micro blocked all
shipments to Romania in early 1999, Mateias recruited Olufemi Tinubu,
Valeriu Crisovan, Jeremy Long, and Warren Bailey from Internet chatrooms
to provide him with U.S. addresses to use as mail drops for the fraudulently
ordered equipment. Crisovan, Tinubu, Finley, and Long recruited others, in-
cluding high school students, to provide additional addresses and to accept
the stolen merchandise. The defendants in the United States would either
sell the equipment and send the proceeds to Mateias, or they would repack-
age the equipment and send it to Romania.
Mateias and his co-conspirators allegedly fraudulently ordered more than
$10 million in computer equipment from Ingram Micro. However, Ingram
Micro was successful in intercepting nearly half the orders before the items
were shipped.
Investigation
Ingram Micro became suspicious of orders from clients that were not con-
sistent with their previous orders. The FBI, working with Romanian law en-
forcement, was able to trace the fraudulent orders to Mateias.
Outcome
All six defendants were charged with conspiring to commit mail fraud by
causing Ingram Micro to ship computer equipment based on the false pre-
tenses that the equipment was ordered by legitimate customers. In addition,
Mateias, Tinubu, Finley, Crisovan, and Long were charged with mail fraud.
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CASE STUDY: 533: INTERNET FRAUD
Background
Juju Jiang, operating from his home in Flushing, New York, and using a
computer program designed to record computer passwords and user names,
attempted to gain access to the computer accounts of approximately fifteen
subscribers of GoToMyPC, a company that offers individuals the ability to
remotely access their personal computers from any computer connected to
the Internet. Jiang obtained these users’ passwords and user names by in-
stalling computer software for this purpose at a Kinko’s in Manhattan. He
then used these passwords and user names in attempts to gain access to those
subscribers’ personal computers in order to obtain credit card and other in-
formation stored on those computers.
Victimology
Jiang’s alleged fraud came to the light after a subscriber of GoToMyPC, who
was at home, heard his personal computer turn on without any action on
the subscriber’s part and then observed the cursor of the PC move around the
screen and files on the PC being accessed and opened as if by remote
control. Afterward, he observed his computer access a Web site known as
www.neteller.com, an online payment transfer service, and observed an ac-
count in his name being opened at Neteller, without his authorization.
A short time later, the victim observed his computer accessing the Web
site for the American Express Corporate card and, using information stored
on his computer, saw his computer attempt to access his card account file.
The victim then manually regained control of his PC, terminated the com-
puter session, and contacted officials of Neteller in order to direct them to
close the unauthorized Neteller account that had been opened in his name.
Investigation
Federal authorities, with logs of GoToMyPC used on the victim’s computer,
traced the attacking computer by its Internet protocol address, first to the
company providing it cable modem service and then to a specific Queens
address. With GoToMyPC’s help, federal agents found that at least nine
other customer accounts had been used by the same suspicious computer.
The agents obtained a search warrant and went to Jiang’s home. Four
desktops and a laptop whirred in his bedroom, and according to court docu-
ments, telltale signs of digital subterfuge were scattered about the room:
sticky notes containing bank account numbers, Kinko’s credit card receipts,
and books and manuals on hacking.
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Computer Crimes 401
Outcome
Jiang was arrested on charges of computer fraud for attempting to gain ac-
cess to the accounts of numerous subscribers of GoToMyPC.com. He was
sentenced to twenty-seven months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised
release, and $201,620 in restitution.
533.01: BANK FRAUD
This crime occurs when money is illegally obtained from one bank account
and transferred electronically to another account that is usually in another
bank and typically another country. Access to the targeted bank is via the
Internet. Wireless connections to the Internet are used to commit crimes,
where it is difficult to identify the user.
Investigative Considerations
The targeted computer should have its hard drive removed and analyzed by
special computer software not only to determine the changed data but to
search for possible Trojan horse software that tests for data checks and then
destroys the corrupted data before they can be analyzed. All computer logs
should be analyzed for suspicious activities, and all Internet activity should
be searched for illegal access and messages.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant for the offender’s location should list all computers and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tapes,
external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks), flash
memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses (possible
sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer and all its
peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant should also in-
clude the offender’s Internet accounts.
533.02: FRAUDULENT INTERNET TRANSACTIONS
This crime occurs when a buyer purchases goods at an Internet auction and
sends money but never receives the goods purchased.
Another type of fraudulent Internet transaction is Web site fraud, also
called shopping cart fraud. This crime involves the creation of a URL simi-
lar to a legitimate site, and the unsuspecting user is apprised of large savings
on the purchase of hard-to-obtain products. Accessing any one of the erro-
neous Web sites can lead to fraud.
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540: THREATS VIA THE INTERNET
Defining Characteristics
This crime occurs when a computer user is threatened over the Internet.
Threats can be delivered by e-mail, instant messaging, and spam.
Victimology. The computer user can be threatened with bodily harm, fam-
ily and friends can be threatened with bodily harm, or the user’s business can
be threatened with destruction.
Common Forensic Findings. The computer of the targeted user will have
logs and copies of the threatening messages. The offender’s computer should
also have copies of the threats, as well as the user’s computer addresses,
e-mail, and Internet protocol.
Investigative Considerations
The targeted computers’ logs should be analyzed in an attempt to determine
the Internet protocol addresses of the sending computers.
Search Warrant Suggestions
The search warrant for the offender’s location should list all computers and
all forms of computer storage: disks, data CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tapes,
external hard drives, mini-drives (sometimes called memory sticks), flash
memory modules, programming documentation, e-mail addresses (possible
sources of malignant software creation programs), the computer and all its
peripherals, and all program CD-ROMs. The search warrant should also in-
clude the offender’s Internet accounts.
CASE STUDY:
540: THREATS VIA THE INTERNET
Background
A Massachusetts juvenile committed a series of hacking incidents into Inter-
net and telephone service providers; the theft of an individual’s personal
information and the posting of it on the Internet; and making bomb threats
to high schools in Florida and Massachusetts. All took place over a fifteen-
month period.
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Victimology
The victims were a Florida school, a major telephone service provider, a
school in Massachusetts, and local emergency services, requiring the re-
sponse of several emergency response units to the school. The victims suf-
fered approximately $1 million in damages.
Investigation
The offender’s criminal conduct began in March 2004 when he sent a bomb
threat to a Florida school. As a result of this threat, the school was closed for
two days, while a bomb squad, a canine team, the fire department, and emer-
gency medical services were called in.
In August, he logged into the Internet computer system of a major Inter-
net service provider (ISP) using a program he had installed on an employee’s
computer. This program allowed the juvenile to use the employee’s com-
puter remotely to access other computers on the internal network of the ISP
and gain access to portions of the ISP’s operational information.
In January 2005, the juvenile gained access to the internal computer sys-
tem of a major telephone service provider that allowed him to look up ac-
count information of the provider’s customers. He used this system to
discover key information about an individual who had an account with the
telephone service. He accessed the information stored on this individual’s
mobile telephone and posted the information on the Internet. During this
same period, the juvenile used his access to the telephone company’s com-
puter system to set up numerous telephone accounts for himself and his
friends, without having to pay for the accounts.
Also in January 2005, an associate of the juvenile set up accounts for the
juvenile at a company that stores identity information concerning millions of
individuals, allowing the juvenile to look at the identity information for nu-
merous individuals, some of which he used for the purpose of looking up the
account information for the victim whose personal information he posted on
the Internet.
In the spring of 2005, the juvenile, using a portable wireless Internet ac-
cess device, arranged with one or more associates to place a bomb threat to
a school in Massachusetts and local emergency services, requiring the re-
sponse of several emergency response units to the school on two occasions
and the school’s evacuation on one.
In June 2005, the juvenile called a second major telephone service pro-
vider because a phone that a friend had fraudulently activated had been shut
off. In a recorded telephone call, he threatened that if the provider did not
provide him access to its computer system, he would cause its Web service
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to collapse through a denial-of-service attack—that is, an attack designed to
ensure that a Web site is so flooded with requests for information that legit-
imate users cannot access it. The provider refused to provide the requested
access. Approximately ten minutes after the threat was made, the juvenile
and others initiated a denial of service attack (classification 513) that suc-
ceeded in shutting down a significant portion of the telephone service pro-
vider’s Web operations.
Investigation
The targeted computers’ logs were analyzed, and the Internet protocol ad-
dresses of the sending computers were identified. Once the real Internet
address was determined, agents went to the offender’s home, arrested him,
and executed the search warrant.
Outcome
In a sealed court proceeding, the Massachusetts teenager pleaded guilty in
U.S. District Court to an indictment charging him with nine counts of juve-
nile delinquency. The court imposed a sentence of eleven months’ detention
in a juvenile facility, to be followed by two years of supervised release. Dur-
ing his periods of detention and supervised release, the juvenile was barred
from possessing or using any computer, cell phone, or other electronic
equipment capable of accessing the Internet.
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CHAPTER
11
Cybercrimes
JOHN E. DOUGLAS
LAUREN K. DOUGLAS
The Internet has meant that old concepts of boundaries and borders and
limitations are gone. People are no longer doing things at the speed of
physically transmitting messages from one place to another, but trading their
thoughts, their emotions, their images, and their desires at the speed of light.
The human imagination seems to be freed from the constraints of the past.
When you go online, you can be anyone you wish to be.
The Net is both a vast research tool into every possible subject and a gate-
way to information. It provides services as varied as how to adopt a child
from the United States or another country, how to trade stocks or collect
coins, and how to stalk an unsuspecting person. It offers the greatest library
anywhere, yet it also provides the opportunity for frustrated couples to
“adopt” nonexistent children in scams that cost the couples thousands of dol-
lars and breaks their hearts. The Net features bomb-making techniques and
other information used by terrorists, both domestic and foreign. America’s
radical right has been linked by computer networks since the mid-1980s.
And international terrorists are linked to their followers worldwide by e-mail
and zip files.
The Net has organized cybergangs that roam the darkest recesses of the
Web—gangs so technically proficient that they can reach into another’s
computer and swipe his or her password, home address, and telephone
number. They can steal financial records and sabotage the files on anyone’s
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hard drive, destroying everything that has been created and stored. As soon
as these gangs were found to be operating in the online world, software
companies began building firewalls to keep them out. Each time one of
these firewalls—which shut down the computer portals that allow new
information—are cracked by a hacker, new barriers are generated to become
more impenetrable. It is a game of one set of technology masters taking on
the other, with the side of prevention sometimes winning and sometimes tak-
ing a loss. Everything about the Internet is a competition to expand the
boundaries of what is possible.
In decades past, the dark world of pornography and child pornography
could be found underground or in the seedier parts of town at adult book-
stores, bordellos, and other outlets. That era is gone. The Internet brings the
most taboo sexual subjects into the privacy of one’s home or workplace com-
puter. Everything from erotic photos of youngsters to sadomasochistic Web
sites to videos of rape and other forms of sexual violence are now only a key-
stroke away. When office workers became bored, they can downloaded ex-
tremely graphic images without anyone knowing. But in time, employers
became aware of this pastime and installed software that either blocked the
sites or allowed them to track which worker was going where in cyberspace
and how often.
The Net has opened new ways to do business, new ways to find or gener-
ate information, and new ways to meet potential mates or partners. Online
personal ads and chatrooms become contemporary bars and singles clubs,
but instead of having access to a few people in a physical setting, anyone can
now access potential partners worldwide. In years past, when people met,
interacted with, and assessed each other, eye contact, body language, and
appearance came into play. Our combined human and animal instincts were
the best gifts to protect us from danger. The fight-or-flight response is most
effective on a visual basis, and intuition is a valuable tool in selecting poten-
tial partners or mates. Both of these skills are dramatically reduced when
communicating on the Net.
What often started out online as an exciting way to meet new people
sometimes led to more serious consequences. Stories began to surface every-
where about relationships and marriages dissolving because of cyber-
romance. On the Net, personal interactions can quickly move from casual
e-mails to intimate e-mails to sensual and sexual communications to the
exchange of pictures to the decision to meet physically, to having an affair,
to planning on marriage—and then on to divorce and breaking up house-
holds. As soon as online love became popular, services popped up offering
to track spouses on the Net without ever being detected in order to see whom
he or she was meeting in cyberspace. Private investigation began to take on
a new meaning.
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Cybercrimes 407
Many times an abandoned husband or wife never realized that a spouse had
been going online and carrying out hidden adultery over the Net. Everything
had unfolded just a few feet away from the wounded party, and everything had
taken place in total silence, within the electronic confines of a computer.
People’s hearts and minds are now being tested in striking new ways. In-
stead of conducting just one illicit affair online, some users carry on four or
five at once, with women or men in countries around the globe. Surfing the
Net can easily become a hobby that evolves into an addiction nearly as con-
suming as a full-time job. Some of the experimenting taking place in cyber-
space has resulted in new couples getting married, but a few other ventures
have resulted in violence or death.
As the Net entered tens of millions of American homes, criminals began
using the new technology to commit fraud, theft, and many other violations
of the law. At the same time both law enforcement and private agencies were
beginning to study behavior—particularly sexual behavior—on the Internet
and developing statistics about their findings. The results revealed that huge
numbers of people used the Internet for some form of sexual exploration. The
Net seems to have freed something that had previously been repressed in
the human mind or the unconscious or in the body itself. Self-imposed restric-
tions or controls were fading, and people often did things in cyberspace they
might have never done anywhere else. The online world had become a new
fraudulent, sexual, and violent playground for countless Americans.
A radically altered reality had arrived at the end of the twentieth century.
It is most frequently compared to the Old West, where many people were
armed and dangerous and where lawmen struggled to maintain order and
protect the citizens of the new frontier. That era was sometimes wild and law-
less, but it was not driven by a rapidly growing, ever changing technology.
Horses dominated the western landscape, and both criminals and sheriffs
used the same animals in their chosen line of work. The outlaws and peace-
keepers were fairly evenly matched. When automobiles came along in the
early twentieth century, criminals quickly adapted them to fit their needs,
and once again law enforcement easily made the same adaptation. In the
online world, the old patterns do not apply. Technology was changing so fast
that the authorities simply could not keep up during the first few years in
which the Internet exploded. By the mid-1990s, when law enforcement be-
gan to realize how many different kinds of crime were being committed in
cyberspace and how insidious some of those crimes were, they had barely
started to train or employ enough experts to fight back. They needed money
for education and for more sophisticated equipment because the technology
turned over so fast, and they needed time to absorb what they were learning.
Whenever they made progress, the technology surged forward again and was
often being used for illegal activities.
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Never had those involved in finding and catching criminals been faced
with such a challenge. Never had they required more resources or knowl-
edge. They were playing catch-up against a foe that had infiltrated every cor-
ner of the Net.
VICTIMOLOGY, THE CRIME SCENE, AND
INVESTIGATIVE CONSIDERATIONS
Many crimes begin as fantasies. Murderers often start by using fantasy to es-
cape problems until they reach a point where the fantasy must be acted out.
The offenders carefully search for victims by employing their personal pro-
filing techniques and narrowing their search for prey. Who is most vulnera-
ble to being lured into the trap? Who can be controlled most easily? Who is
susceptible to flattery, manipulation, and domination? In the past, many
erotic fantasies were largely private matters. A sexual predator was likely to
hunt in small venues, like a pedophile stalking at a child’s playground or a
rapist hunting in a bar. But the Internet has expanded the realm of fantasy
from the limits and confines of physical reality to the worldwide stage of vir-
tual reality, and anyone can get caught up in online seduction.
Before the Internet, offenders would target and pursue high-risk victims
such as prostitutes and runaways, individuals who were out on the streets
and would not be missed. Now the Internet has expanded the type of victim
susceptible to crime—for example, housewives, blue-collar workers, and
white-collar workers. These individuals in the physical world would be cat-
egorized as having a low-risk potential for becoming a victim, but now the
Internet has created the potential for these persons to be placed in a high-risk
category. The moment individuals begin to tell others on the Net personal
and private information about themselves, they increase their risk of becom-
ing victims.
The Internet has broadened the potential for possible victims and has also
made law enforcement’s job increasingly difficult. Persons who engage with
strangers on the Internet are not likely to tell anyone about the communica-
tions for fear of embarrassment. Also, unlike a traditional crime where there
are eyewitnesses, no one can see a crime taking place on the Internet. Not
only does the Internet produce a larger pool of potential victims, it also at-
tracts individuals who would never think about committing a crime outside
cyberspace. These individuals feel they have anonymity on the Net and feel
an increased sense of security about committing a crime. These facts make
the investigative process more critical and complicated.
The cybercrime scene includes the victim’s computer and the potential
suspect’s computer. Evidence collection is exclusively court order based,
where forms must be submitted to a judge who approves the collection of
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Cybercrimes 409
evidence from an Internet service provider (ISP). The basis of a search war-
rant is for the purpose of obtaining documents that connect the victim to the
perpetrator. The success of the discovery process is dependent on the partic-
ular ISP’s record keeping, which includes how long it keeps individual cus-
tomers’ records. Information about the crime takes the form of bits and bytes
found on the involved parties’ computers. However, sophisticated cyber-
criminals can learn how to manipulate the bits and bytes, making it harder
for law enforcement to trace.
Research has revealed that offenders often like to keep some type of me-
mento reminding them of their crimes. With regard to cybercrime, there is
virtually no difference: offenders still want to keep information about their
crime for personal documentation. These items might include photographs,
Web sites, e-mails, storage disks, software, and folders. The documentation
could contain a list of the victims the perpetrator has assaulted and may have
coded descriptions of what was done to each of the victims. Most likely this
information is encrypted. Investigators need to take this information to a spe-
cialist who can break the code.
Crime that occurs on the Internet has made the job of prosecuting and
defending these cases extremely difficult. The Constitution considers crime
to be a local matter, reserved to individual states, not the federal government.
Congress has not yet added any statutes dealing with the Internet, which
means the defense can only challenge the issuance of warrants, usually the
last step of the investigation. In the light of this new type of crime, many
states are beginning to change laws and create statutes to include crimes car-
ried out through the use of the Net. Nevertheless, states are unsure about and
unfamiliar with how to settle jurisdiction issues of cybercrime. Traditionally,
when a crime is committed, it is prosecuted within the state where it oc-
curred. The type of crime decides whether that case will be handled by a
state or federal court. For example, if a perpetrator crosses state lines after
committing a crime, a federal court handles the case. Now the legal implica-
tions have changed, and dealing with cybercrime is not straightforward. Law
enforcement and the government must adapt to this new realm. Just as law en-
forcement caught up with the criminals who began using cars to aid in their
crimes in the early twentieth century, they now are catching up with the
criminals who are using the Internet.
POSSIBLE SCENARIOS
A July 2002 article in the Washington Times illustrated how individuals use
the Net to create a fantasy. Ex-convict Amy Fisher, who served seven years
in prison for shooting her lover’s wife, said about cyberdating, “I met my
fiancé through Match.com. I was using a fake name. He pretended he was a
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millionaire. After numerous online chats, we met and really hit it off. One
night, I said, ‘I have a confession to make before we go any further.’ He said,
‘What?’ I answered, ‘I’m really Amy Fisher.’ He responded, ‘I’m not really
a millionaire.’”
Cyberspace has allowed anyone to fabricate his or her age, looks, occu-
pation, race, gender, sexual orientation, personal history, and personality. A
shy person can be daring and flirtatious. An outrageously forward person can
come across as gentle and cautious. A fourteen year old can act much older
and far more sophisticated than his or her years. And a seventy-five-year old
can claim to be thirty-three. Nothing is off limits.
An ex-con in Kansas can present himself as a caring farmer and success-
ful entrepreneur willing to help those in need. A woman who never ventures
into erotic clubs or businesses in the physical world can now explore these
places alone and unembarrassed, where no one knows her or even that she is
female. Internet users are liberated from all the restrictions of the past and
are safe—or so it seems. They can stick a toe into this online pool and test
the waters without revealing much of themselves or their own desires.
A woman entering a chatroom can take this game to a different level, es-
pecially if she is willing to tell others in the room that she is female. Some
people perceive this as an open invitation to be sexually aggressive. She
might instantly be asked where she lives, her age, and the size of her breasts.
She will find that others are hungry for her picture. And if she says that she
is young and blond, a feeding frenzy may ensue, with the woman instantly
becoming the center of attention, regardless of what she really looks like. All
this can be fun and flattering, but it can also start to feel like an insult.
Everything is accelerated in cyberspace. Users meet new people immedi-
ately and get personal with them very fast; instant gratification is the com-
mon currency. It seems easy for users to get addicted to the rush of going
online and having secret relationships with those who pay attention to them
whenever they want this kind of attention. If they are not getting these feel-
ings inside their love affair or marriage, they can just log on and feel closer
to someone across town or in another country.
In an office in Ohio, a female state employee grows bored in the lull of
her afternoon workday and glances around to see if anyone is watching her.
Her boss is out, and no one else is looking her way. She turns on her com-
puter screen and punches a few keys that are reserved for situations like this
one. Within seconds, she has connected to a Web site that offers hard-core
pornography. She takes it in with her furtive eyes, constantly peeking over
her shoulder to make sure that no one is approaching her desk: she is both
fascinated and repelled by the images. If she is a bit ashamed of herself for
doing this on company time, she is also briefly entertained. A few minutes
later, she returns to work rejuvenated and ready to resume the tedious chores
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Cybercrimes 411
that make up her job. She has tried not to do this very often, but lately she
has been checking in with the site every day. Like many others, she can now
satisfy her curiosity in the privacy of her cubicle without the social judgment
of others who would never understand.
In Louisiana, a man shares his marital woes and extramarital fantasies with
cybergirlfriends in Sweden, Japan, and Spain. He long ago gave up on having
intimacy with his wife, but this kind of romance invigorates him and allows
him to be kinder to his spouse and children. Sometimes he is convinced it
makes him a better person. Initially he likes to meet women in chatrooms, but
then he breaks away from those settings and establishes one-on-one relation-
ships with them. He asks them to send pictures of themselves, which most
of them are willing to do, and he keeps an extensive file of their photos and
e-mail. His wife never uses the computer. He has made it very clear through
remarks and an attitude that he does not want her in his office space, so she
leaves him alone and never asks him what he is doing during those hours he
spends online. She really does not want to know.
In New Hampshire, a stressed-out police officer stays up all night with his
“backup” women in cyberspace. He has been fighting with his wife and with
his mistress, whom he met a few months earlier on the Internet. Now he is
searching for a new connection—someone fresh who does not know his past
and will not judge him; who will find him interesting, lively, and funny; and
who will make him feel connected to the world and good about himself. If
he hunts long enough in chatrooms and presents himself in a favorable
enough light, he knows he can find someone like that because he has done
it so many times before.
This man never tells anyone online that he is a cop, and he does not talk
about his looks either. He focuses on his own mind and the minds and emo-
tions of the women he is speaking to. He knows how to be caring and sym-
pathetic, a good listener. He uses some of these same techniques as a police
officer when trying to get suspects or witnesses to tell him what he wants to
know. He has been doing all this for years and knows how to hook people
by sharing his secrets with them.
“The Net is like a confessional,” he says:
You share things with people online that you wouldn’t tell your clos-
est friend. You have someone to talk to who doesn’t know you or your
family or your background. You feel incredibly free. Your Net connec-
tions quickly become very intimate because you can unburden your-
self of your deepest feelings without the idea that there will be any
consequences. But it still feels like cheating.
The guilt is still there because you’re talking to a stranger in-
stead of talking to the people you live with. It erodes relationships at
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home because more than anything else, you look forward to going on-
line and spilling your guts to someone out there. It goes very deeply to
that place that says somebody in the world can really understand and
appreciate and love me. I think that’s the deepest human fantasy of
all—that someone can know us in a way we want to be known and see
us the way we want to be seen. That possibility is what keeps some peo-
ple going. Without it, you feel very small and alone.
People online may want sex but they crave connectedness to oth-
ers. The Net provides that in a global way. It’s something totally new
and, like all new things, it generates hope. Even if that hope ultimately
proves to be false. It’s like a little vacation from your own life—and
everyone needs that once in a while.
TYPES OF CYBERCRIME
Interpersonal Violence
Subjects looking to commit a crime have recently begun using the Internet
in order to find unsuspecting victims. Cyberstalking, according to Wayne
Petherick, a criminal researcher, is a relatively new term, which is merely an
extension from the physical form of stalking. Electronic mediums such as
the Net are used to pursue, harass, or contact another person in an unsolicited
fashion. In certain instances, this pursuit can transform into the physical
world, where interpersonal violence occurs.
The Net has made the search for unsuspecting individuals easier than ever
before. With just a touch of a button, subjects can enter a special interest
chatroom, for example, a sadomasochistic chatroom, and have potential vic-
tims at their disposal. Most often subjects have used the Net to convince and
lure individuals to meet them in person. Those who step over from the imag-
inary world of the Net into the real world are putting themselves in a highly
risky situation. An August 2002 Washington Times article reports how one
jewelry dealer, Rick Chance, met a woman online and planned a meeting at
a hotel where he would present her and an interested friend an estimated $1
million worth of jewelry. He was found dead the next day with a bullet in his
chest and the jewelry and woman gone. In this case, the woman not only
used violence, but also there was a criminal enterprise aspect with regard to
the jewelry that was taken and the murder.
The following case illustrates how one man used the Net to fulfill his sex-
ual, monetary, and murderous desires.
In the spring of 2000, Vicki Neufield, a clinical psychologist from Texas,
came to Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, for an encounter with a
man she had met online. Vicki was there to seek employment in the Kansas
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City area and to explore a possible personal relationship with John Robin-
son. On the Net, he had presented himself as a successful businessman who
had local contacts that could further her career. When they were alone in the
motel room, he assaulted her and took nude photographs. After the attack, she
was horrified and anxious to notify police about Robinson, but she hesitated.
She was, after all, compromised by the photos and her sexual encounter with
the man. When she had threatened him with exposure, he threatened to reveal
the pictures. As she struggled with her options, another woman, Jeanna Mil-
liron, met Robinson in a different Kansas City motel. She too had come to
the Midwest after answering Robinson’s Web site for employment and look-
ing for a sexual relationship with him. Her encounter also ended badly, with
unwanted pictures and a beating. Milliron wanted to call the police, but she
was reluctant to reveal her own participation with Robinson. Both women
eventually contacted law enforcement.
On March 1, 2000, the Olathe, Kansas, animal control officers learned
about a pair of Pekingese dogs running loose at Robinson’s mobile home.
The dogs were traced to Suzette Trouten, a Michigan woman who had met
Robinson online and had moved to Olathe after he had promised her a job
taking care of his elderly father, traveling, and earning sixty thousand dol-
lars a year. Not long after coming to Olathe, Trouten was reported missing.
After the dogs were picked up, they were scheduled to be euthanized, but
that did not happen because they were now being viewed as potential evi-
dence in Trouten’s disappearance and possible death.
The investigation of John Robinson eventually led authorities to many
more women around the country whom he had met online. When making
contact with them in chatrooms, he called himself John or “JT” or “JR” or
“Jim Turner” and said he was a wealthy entrepreneur. Almost every woman
he encountered responded favorably to his financial condition as he pre-
sented it. To some, he hinted at an interest in the world of sadomasochism,
and a few of the women were not put off by this. But he usually presented a
wholesome image. He sent out pictures of himself dressed like a cowboy:
dark western hat cocked jauntily, shiny black cowboy boots, crisply pressed
blue jeans, denim shirt, and bolo tie. He wore a friendly grin and leaned
against a post on farmland he owned in Linn County, Kansas. He was soon
attracting women from all over. He met one named “Lauralei” from Ken-
tucky who had gone online looking for someone who was “over 45 and was
sure of himself and secure financially.” Her main concern was not becoming
involved with someone she would have to support. She and “JT” flirted and
did some sexual role playing online. He presented himself as divorced
(which was false) and as having an open and caring heart. When Lauralei’s
brother died, he expressed great sympathy and began phoning her regularly.
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He asked to meet her in Kansas City, but she was one of the fortunate ones
who declined. Several women who had come into contact with Robinson
could no longer be found in cyberspace—or anywhere else.
The Robinson investigation spread to his isolated farm on the Kansas-
Missouri border, holding a prefab structure surrounded by fields of corn,
beans, and alfalfa. His primary residence was in Olathe, where he had lived
with his wife of thirty-six years while raising four grown children, but lately
he needed another address to escape to where he could engage in his secret
Internet life. The countryside surrounding his farm looked as innocently pas-
toral as the photos that Robinson took of himself and sent to women online.
But his rural outpost held secrets of its own. As the combined task forces of
Missouri and Kansas investigators moved onto his property, they searched
the structure, dug into his land with shovels, and set loose dogs to sniff out
clues. The police soon found two eighty-five-gallon sealed barrels. Inside
each was the crumpled body of a woman who had suffered a severe blow to
the head.
Law enforcement quickly traced more missing women to Robinson.
Among them were a young mother; Robinson had talked the woman into
giving her five-month-old baby to him and he then sold the infant to his
brother for fifty-five hundred dollars. The mother was never found, and the
police would eventually charge Robinson with this murder and kidnapping.
Other women who vanished were a Polish college student from Purdue, a
woman and her disabled daughter from California, and a prison librarian
from Missouri.
In addition to being a sexual predator, Robinson had for years been run-
ning financial scams on women by collecting checks from their commercial
mailboxes. He had gained their confidence by offering them “exciting over-
seas jobs” and “education opportunities for unwed mothers.” Using an Inter-
net service that would postmark envelopes from anywhere in the world,
Robinson would send the victim’s relatives a letter signed by the victim ask-
ing them to send money to a stated address. Robinson would then cash the
checks the family sent. Concerned relatives of the missing simply assumed
their loved ones were employed or traveling abroad. One victim, Beverly
Bonner, a former prison librarian, had rented a storage locker in Cass
County, Missouri, in suburban Kansas City. Robinson himself used the stor-
age facility and sometimes joked with the proprietor that his “sister” Beverly
was having such a great time overseas she might never return.
By the late spring of 2000, investigators had learned that at least eleven
women who had been involved with Robinson had vanished. The police
search eventually led them to the storage locker John Robinson had rented
in Bonner’s name. When authorities opened it, they saw three more sealed
eighty-five-gallon barrels. Inside each was a dead woman who had been
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Cybercrimes 415
beaten and killed. The bodies had apparently been there for years. One was
Bonner. Five corpses had now been recovered, but six were unaccounted for.
Police were asking for the public’s help in linking Robinson to anyone asso-
ciated with his scams or sexual activities, but many people were reluctant to
come forward and share information about their involvement. The only thing
as powerful as the desires that drove sex in cyberspace was the desire to keep
this part of their life secret.
In June 2000 Robinson was arrested and held for sexual assault on the two
women he had recently taken to Kansas City motels. Using their information
and other leads, prosecutors built their case and soon charged Robinson with
five capital murders: two in Kansas and three in Missouri. Bond was set at
$5 million, and he was appointed three death penalty lawyers. Thirty task
force members, half in Kansas and half in Missouri, kept working the case,
which took them to Florida, California, and other venues. It was the largest
investigation ever done on an individual for computer-related crimes, and the
police put together eleven thousand pages of information detailing Robin-
son’s long criminal history, his numerous cyberrelationships, and his con-
nection with the dead women.
The case had the potential of becoming even bigger and more complicated.
“There’s a sex angle to this case,” said Johnson County, Kansas, district
attorney Paul Morrison, who would be prosecuting Robinson. “There’s an
Internet angle to this case. And there’s also a developing financial angle on
this case that ultimately will be a very large part of it.”
Robinson maintained his innocence, and so did his wife and children.
They released several public statements expressing their support for the de-
fendant and denying his involvement in the crimes. They claimed never to
have seen the side of Robinson that law enforcement said had killed at least
six females. The accused man’s neighbors told the media that he was a quiet
fellow who kept a statue of the Virgin Mary in his back yard and always put
up wonderful holiday decorations. A few women in the neighborhood said
that he had made suggestive remarks but they had warded off his advances.
The balding, pudgy, bespectacled Robinson looked as unthreatening as
the cornfields around his home country. When he first appeared in court fol-
lowing his arrest, he wore a tailored blue suit and seemed self-contained. He
appeared well mannered and bland.
“He cleans up well,” said a lawyer in the Johnson County courthouse that
morning, “but his appearance is totally deceiving. If he hadn’t done jail time
in the last decade, I think he would have killed a lot more women than he did.
He was a monster on the Net.”
As Robinson sat in jail in Olathe and his attorneys worked on a defense,
local, state, and federal investigators continued to pursue information from
across the nation as they hunted for more missing women and more bodies.
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The first trial for John Robinson began October 7, 2002, in Olathe. On
November 19, the jury found him guilty of capital murder for the deaths of
Suzette Trouten, age twenty-seven, and Izabela Lewicka, age twenty-one.
He was also convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Lisa Stasi, age
nineteen, whose body was never found, and of arranging the fraudulent
adoption of her four-month-old baby. The same jury that convicted Robin-
son recommended that he be put to death. District Judge John Anderson III
sentenced him January 21, 2003.
While Robinson was on death row in Kansas, Missouri continued pursu-
ing the three murders that were discovered across the state line. Robinson’s
attorneys negotiated with the Missouri prosecutor, Chris Koster, in an at-
tempt to get Robinson to lead them to the bodies of Lisa Stasi, Paula God-
frey, and Catherine Clampitt. Eventually Koster and his team became
convinced the women’s remains would not be found, and he and the vic-
tim’s families agreed to accept the guilty pleas in exchange for life without
parole sentences.
In mid-October 2003, Robinson acknowledged that Koster had enough
evidence to convict him of capital murder for the deaths of the three women.
He demanded the unusual plea agreement because an admission of guilt in
Missouri might have been used against him in Kansas. Kansas prosecutor
Morrison said he was not convinced the murders actually occurred in
Koster’s jurisdiction. Although Morrison said he supported Koster’s deal to
end the mystery of what happened to the women, he said John Robinson, the
Internet’s first serial killer, was a “gamesman to the end.” He gave no hint at
what prompted his homicidal acts.
Child Pornography
The Internet has made it possible for individuals to find just about every
imaginable taste and some that go beyond most people’s imagination. There
are listings for those with a special interest in various ethnic groups, in cow-
girls, in redheads, and in senior citizens. If they want to look at nude pictures
of celebrities, including TV stars, movie actresses, and supermodels, serv-
ices provide photos for a monthly fee. There are sites offering graphic pic-
tures of violence being done to women and virtual murders. As disturbing as
these things are, they are not as disturbing as the online images one can find
of small children.
There are pictures available of girls five or six years old who are naked,
with their hands tied in front of or behind them and being sexually assaulted.
There are pictures of girls with belts tied around their ankles and hanging
upside down from the ceiling, with adults doing unspeakable things to these
children in still photos and in online videos. By the mid-1990s, the Internet
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Cybercrimes 417
had an estimated five thousand worldwide child porn sites. Those who cre-
ate and transmit these images are clever in their ability to hide where the pic-
tures originated and how they were being sent to individuals around the
world. A digital photo being e-mailed from, say, Detroit to Los Angeles can
be routed through Sweden, Japan, and Turkey before reaching California.
Those who know their way around the Internet can make this kind of traf-
ficking in child pornography almost impossible to track.
The Net has created other problems as well. In the past, pedophilia was
viewed as perhaps the greatest taboo in modern society. People engaged in
it usually had to pursue this activity alone and had to keep it extremely se-
cret. The Net now offers support groups for those interested in molesting
children. These sites not only encourage such predators but also advise them
on how to lure children away from parents and on the best techniques to
seduce children without getting caught. An entirely new criminal realm has
exploded across the face of the globe and with no boundaries.
Inevitably scandals began to erupt. In 1996 in Belgium, several children
connected to a pornographic ring were murdered. The next year, another
scandal was uncovered in Spain, and that same year 250 people were arrested
in France for selling or possessing videotapes of small children being raped
and tortured. In 1998, the Dutch police found a group of child pornographers
in Zandvoort who were selling images of children on the Internet to buyers in
Europe, Great Britain, Russia, Israel, and the United States. These images
shocked even the most hardened investigators of child pornography.
“For some reasons,” an unnamed psychologist who worked as a police
consultant on the Zandvoort case told the New York Times, “I have seen a lot
of porn, but this left me speechless. It looks like the perpetrators are not deal-
ing with human beings but with objects.”
In the coming years, the people committing sex crimes on the Internet
would cut across all racial, religious, economic, and professional lines. Doc-
tors would be arrested for soliciting sex with youngsters, as well as teachers,
police detectives, and even a fifty-eight-year-old rabbi in Boca Raton,
Jerrold Levy, who pleaded guilty in federal court to using the Internet to
arrange a meeting with a fourteen-year-old boy in a parked car. Levy ar-
ranged a similar plea to three other counts of employing the Net to solicit sex
from minors and e-mailing child pornography videos.
In 1998, the police had identified five thousand child porn Web sites. In
1999, the FBI had opened up fifteen hundred new cases of child porn in the
United States, and many experts contended that this was the fastest-growing
criminal frontier in cyberspace. By 2000, the number of child porn Web
sites had grown to 23,000, and the next year it climbed to 100,000. Main-
stream magazines like Newsweek were running cover stories on the dangers
of letting youngsters explore certain corners of the Net, and Web sites were
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providing tips and clues for how parents could protect their children from
online predators.
By the end of the 1990s, nearly every week there were stings of people
(almost always men) who had gone on the Net looking for a pedophilic con-
nection and made contact instead with an FBI agent or a police officer pos-
ing as a young person. When the adult tried to hook up with the child in a
physical location, he was arrested. The authorities had become adept at set-
ting traps for these men and catching them as they pursued minors. Even
some citizens were playing a role in these stings. In 1997, Randy Sluder, a
Disney employee, snared a predator in Florida named Billy Charles Burgess
after Sluder had told Burgess that he was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, thirteen-
old girl named “Maggie284.”
In 1998, the U.S. Customs Service broke up the largest Internet child porn
ring yet uncovered. It was called “Wonderland” and involved buyers and
sellers in at least twelve countries and thirty-two American cities. Numerous
professional people were involved in the ring, and some of them could not
cope with the consequences of their actions. Within a few days of their ar-
rests, four men associated with Wonderland—a veterinarian and former mil-
itary officer among them—committed suicide.
In September 1999, an even larger bust occurred when a team of com-
puter specialists and U.S. postal inspectors entered the home of Thomas
and Janice Reedy of Fort Worth, Texas. The team soon determined that the
Reedys’ Internet business, Landslide Productions, provided access to three
hundred child porn sites around the globe and reached thousands of peo-
ple across the United States and 320,000 clients worldwide. The Reedys,
parents of a nine-year-old daughter, were earning $1.4 million a month
from Landslide. At the time of their arrest, they were living in a large sub-
urban home and driving a Mercedes-Benz. The uncovering of this business
caused postal inspectors to create Operation Avalanche, a much larger
investigation into online child pornography, and a year later the operation
led to one hundred more arrests of people allegedly in possession of child
pornography.
Thomas Reedy was the main focus of the allegations and was given the
opportunity to work with the FBI to catch other child pornographers in ex-
change for a twenty-year sentence. He declined the offer and went to trial.
He was convicted on eighty-nine counts and his wife on eighty-seven,
although she was viewed as an accomplice and received only a fourteen-year
sentence. He received 1,335 years in prison—the first life sentence ever
given in a federal child pornography case where the defendant was not ac-
cused of actual molestation. With the Reedy arrest and subsequent con-
viction, the government had made a huge statement to potential online
predators: they could be imprisoned for the rest of their life even without
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Cybercrimes 419
harming children physically; that could happen just by buying or selling pic-
tures on the Internet.
White-Collar Crime
Check-kiting scams were also growing on the Internet. A popular one
throughout the Midwest involved people going through the Yellow Pages
and scanning logos from well-known corporations. Then they added that
logo to a phony check they had created through the Net. Next, they wrote a
payroll check to themselves and cashed it at a local convenience store. A
group of con artists would do this quickly in one major city, cashing a lot of
checks at different locations, before leaving town. In one day, the criminals
could easily cash ten thousand dollars’ worth of checks. The method worked
well because most convenience store employees would not think of refusing
to cash a check with a logo from a Fortune 500 company.
Not all of the financial action on the Net was confined to local scams and
small players. In the spring of 2000, the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York
City filed charges against 120 persons, including several prominent mem-
bers of organized-crime families, who were charged with allegedly swin-
dling stock market investors out of more than $50 million. Among those
named were Anthony Stropoli and Frank Persico, reputed associates of the
Columbo crime family, and Robert Lino, an alleged capo in the Bonanno
crime family. According to the authorities, the suspects used phony press
releases to falsely hype certain stocks over the Internet in order to boost the
price of securities that they already owned. As soon as the stocks inflated,
the people generating the false information sold their securities and left other
investors with shares that were basically worthless.
Extremist Groups
The Internet has assisted extremist groups in carrying out their destructive
plans. The shootings that occurred April 21, 1999, at Columbine High
School in Littleton Colorado, illustrated how the Net aided two teenage
boys. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were members of the Trench Coat
Mafia, a group that consisted of a small clique of Columbine students. Har-
ris had his own Web site that described his plans to take down Columbine
High School, along with two others whose names were coded. In addition,
the site contained information about their experiments with making and det-
onating pipe bombs. It is believed that the two boys learned how to make
these pipe bombs from information they found on the Net.
Extremists commit their crimes on behalf of a body of ideas that they
strongly believe in, although the group to which they belong does not sanction
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the actions of the offenders. The acts of September 11, 2001, show how Mus-
lim extremists used the Net to help accomplish their plans.
In September 2001 the use of the Internet to create much larger crimes be-
came shockingly apparent. International terrorists flew planes into the twin
towers of New York City’s World Trade Center and drove another commer-
cial aircraft plane into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing thousands of
people. A third plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, killing all on board.
Investigators soon discovered that the terrorists had left footprints in cyber-
space, communicating with one another through the Internet and writing
cryptic messages behind pictures that had been posted online. The attackers
had employed the ancient Greek practice known as steganography—a
method of placing secrets on the back of images. Following the deadliest
attack ever on America, FBI agents secured records from Yahoo! and Amer-
ica Online, and confiscated computers that the terrorists had allegedly used
in Florida and Virginia. In response, the Bush administration created a high-
level, high-tech office to fight cyberterror.
After the events of September 11, criminal opportunists used the tragedy
and the Internet to scam innocent people. These opportunists would go on-
line and set up phony “charitable” Web sites. Thousands of dollars were
given by citizens wanting to provide financial aid, only to discover later that
the money went into the pockets of con men.
COMBATING CYBERCRIME
As crime spread across the Net, law enforcement began to catch up with
those using the Web for illicit purposes. In 1996, the Computer Crime and
Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice created the
Infotech Training Working Group to investigate online violations of the law.
This office evolved into the National Cybercrime Training Partnership
(NCTP). The NCTP worked with all levels of law enforcement to develop
long-range strategies, raise public awareness, and build momentum to com-
bat this problem on many fronts. The National White Collar Crime Center
(NW3C) based in Richmond, Virginia, offered operational support to the
NCTP and functioned as an information clearinghouse for cybercrime.
These agencies worked together to generate more funding to help law en-
forcement keep up with the ever changing computer world. Those in charge
of policing the Net looked on their mission as a battle that they could not
afford to lose.
“The technology revolution is here and it is not assisting law enforcement,
it is working for criminals,” said Richard L. Johnston, director of the NW3C.
“There is very little time to accomplish a lot with limited resources. We are
at a crossroad. The sense of urgency to focus on program coordination,
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Cybercrimes 421
deploying a plan quickly, and underwriting every initiative with a solid base
of training is real because the window of opportunity for law enforcement to
keep pace with cyber-crime is not only short—it’s closing.”
One problem for the authorities was the difficulty of police departments
to compete with private companies, when it came to paying those with com-
puter expertise. Trained technical personnel could usually earn far more
money in the private sector than working for public agencies. Near the end
of his second term as president, Bill Clinton took measures to alleviate the
situation by announcing plans for congressional funding that offered schol-
arships to those who studied computer security and then agreed to join the
“Federal Cyber Service” after graduation. The program was modeled after a
military program that had been successfully used by the Reserve Officers
Training Corps on college campuses.
In early 1999, the Training and Research Institute of NW3C conducted an
in-depth survey on white-collar violations of the law. It found that in part
because of the recent emergence of the Internet, one in three American
households were now the victims of white-collar crime. Traditional street
crimes were falling in many places around the nation, but high-tech crimes
were on the rise. The institute also found that only 7 percent of these online
victims contacted a law enforcement agency. In order to boost these figures,
in May 2000, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the NW3C announced
the creation of the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), established to
provide a vehicle for victims nationwide to report incidents of online fraud.
“The Internet Fraud Complaint Center allows consumers who suspect
Internet fraud to share that information with law enforcement quickly and
efficiently,” Attorney General Janet Reno said at the time the IFCC was cre-
ated. “Our ability to work with private citizens and industry is extremely im-
portant to our efforts to fight Internet crime, and the IFCC is a major step
forwarding that fight.”
“The Internet,” said former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, “provides a
boundless new medium for many traditional frauds investigated by the FBI.
That there are real victims suffering significant losses remains unchanged.
This center is another positive development as law enforcement responds to
yet another facet of cyber-crime.”
In early 2001, the IFCC issued its first study on Internet fraud: in the first
six months of operation, the IFCC received 20,014 fraud complaints, and
6,087 of those were referred to law enforcement agencies throughout the
nation. Of those, 5,273, or well over 80 percent, involved fraud that was per-
petrated in cyberspace. California ranked first in Internet fraud victims and
criminals, followed by Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York.
“E-business is no longer just a buzzword,” said Texas state securities com-
missioner and NW3C board member Denise Voigt Crawford in response to
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this report. “It’s here to stay and we must find ways to help consumers and
businesses have confidence in the transaction technology they choose. Part
of the commitment to our electronic commerce community rests in law en-
forcement’s ability to respond quickly to crime problems that arise. To do
that, enforcement professionals at all levels must have training and programs
in place to prepare them to meet new challenges.”
Later in 2001 the NCTP held a number of focus group meetings and found
that “electronic crime is having a profound effect on law enforcement and no
agency is escaping it.” After conducting a survey of thirty-one state and local
law enforcement agencies responsible for training more than eighty-four
thousand people to combat Internet crime, the NCTP called for more pro-
gram coordination, fast-track implementation, and skills training.
In May 2001, as a result of the growing sophistication on the part of law
enforcement, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the NW3C announced
that criminal charges were being brought against nearly ninety individuals
and companies accused of Internet fraud. The massive investigation, called
Operation Cyber Loss, was initiated by the IFCC and included charges of
online auction fraud, systemic nondelivery of merchandise purchased over
the Internet, credit and debit card fraud, bank fraud, investment fraud,
money laundering, multilevel marketing, Ponzi/pyramid schemes, and intel-
lectual property rights violation. Altogether these frauds victimized fifty-six
thousand people who lost in excess of $117 million.
“Just as neighborhood watch programs keep watch over their neighbor-
hoods and report suspicious activity to law enforcement,” said the new attor-
ney general, John Ashcroft, “Internet users now have a ‘cyber-community
watch program.’ When individual citizens, businesses, and consumer agen-
cies work with law enforcement at all levels, we help ensure the safety and
security of the Internet.”
Government groups were not the only ones sending out warning signals
about the Net. Two Virginia-based private organizations, the National Law
Center for Children and Enough Is Enough, provided information to parents,
teachers, and local, state, and federal employees about the dangers of child
pornography, while supporting legislative efforts to control or get rid of it.
Written material produced by Enough Is Enough described child porn as a
billion-dollar-a-year industry that was a threat to children “both morally and
physically. . . . Any child with a computer can simply ‘call up’ and . . . ‘print
out’ pictures that are unspeakably pornographic.” The literature described in
detail how child predators used the Internet to find victims before meeting
them in person and molesting them.
The Patriot Act, passed after the September 11, 2001, attacks, greatly in-
creased U.S. law enforcement’s authority to fight terrorism at home and
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Cybercrimes 423
abroad. Law enforcement officials were given expanded authority to gather
and share evidence especially relating to wire and electronic communications.
The Cyber Security Enhancement Act, part of the Homeland Security
Act, was passed in 2002. The law helps deter cybercrime by subjecting hack-
ers to harsher sentences based on the hacker’s intent, sophistication, viola-
tion of privacy rights, and actual loss sustained by the crime.
In October 2004, the Secret Service arrested thirty people and issued
thirty search warrants as part of Operation Firewall. The operation involved
eighteen Secret Service offices and eleven international law enforcement
organizations. In all, Operation Firewall involved two thousand terabytes of
data and was the first use of a wiretap on a computer network.
The FBI’s 2005 Cyber-Crime Survey was developed and analyzed with
the help of leading public and private authorities on cybersecurity. The sur-
vey is based on responses from a cross-section of more than two thousand
public and private organizations in four states. The results of the survey esti-
mated that $65 billion was lost to cybercrime in 2005 alone.
CONCLUSION
The Internet presents an endless opportunity to improve our lives and the way
in which we conduct business. Criminals have seized this moment and oppor-
tunity to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. Cybercriminals are not con-
fined by state borders. Equipped with just a computer, a cybercriminal can use
the Internet to commit a variety of crimes, from violent crimes to crimes
against e-commerce. Federal, state, and local law enforcement in the United
States and abroad must coordinate their efforts to fight cybercrime. Law
enforcement officials should be given the necessary procedural authority
through the development of uniform laws to act against this crime. In addi-
tion, law enforcement should create task forces whose primary task will be to
investigate and prosecute cybercrimes. Awareness and coordination of law
enforcement efforts can begin to prevent the abuses of the Internet.
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CHAPTER
12
Classifying Internet
Child Sex Offenders
EILEEN M. ALEXY
ANN W. BURGESS
TIMOTHY BAKER
With the proliferation of the Internet, the safety of children in cyber-
space has become a salient social issue. Newspapers, television net-
works, and electronic media have informed the public about the risk to
children of becoming victims of a sexual crime, yet crimes continue to be
perpetrated against children through the medium of cyberspace. In response
to the discovery of this new conduit for promoting illicit sexual activity with
children, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 1998
began to label online sexual crimes directed toward children as Internet
Crimes Against Children (ICAC). ICAC were defined as any computer-facil-
itated sexual exploitation of children, including online solicitation and child
pornography (Office for Victims of Crime, 2001).
The terms that law enforcement uses to describe Internet child sex offend-
ers are traders and travelers. Traders are child sex offenders who trade or
collect child pornography online (Armagh, Battaglia, & Lanning, 2000;
McLaughlin, 2000). Travelers are sex offenders who engage in discussion
with children online and use their skills at manipulation and coercion to meet
a child in person for sexual purposes (McLaughlin, 2000; Office for Victims
of Crime, 2001). Traveling includes having the offender travel to meet the
child or having the child travel to meet the offender. In an attempt to add to
the literature on traders and travelers, a descriptive analysis of 225 trader,
traveler, and combination trader and traveler data, culled from various news
425
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sources (both print and electronic) dating from 1996 to the present, is dis-
cussed by classification (Table 12.1). The offenders were classified into the
following six occupational categories : professional (64.0 percent), laborer
(11.2 percent), unemployed (8.8 percent), military (5.6 percent), student (7.2
percent), and clergy (3.2 percent). More than one-fifth of Internet child sex
offenders lived outside the United States. Using the U.S. Census Bureau cat-
egories, the region of origin for the majority of U.S. offenders was the North-
east (28 percent), followed by the South (22.2 percent) with 16.9 percent of
offenders originating in the West and 11.6 percent from the Midwest (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2000).
TRADERS
Traders are child sex offenders who trade or collect child pornography on-
line (Armagh et al., 2000; McLaughlin, 2000). They may be involved with
one or any combination of the following: production, possession, and distri-
bution of child pornography online. More than half of the cases in this sam-
ple involved traders (59.1 percent).
Possession of Child Pornography
Traders may be charged with possession of child pornography. The case of
Patrick Daniels, a thirty-four-year-old psychologist who worked almost ex-
clusively with children, was believed to be the first person in Canada to go
to trial on charges of importing and possessing child pornography acquired
through the Internet (“House Arrest,” 1997). He was found guilty after an
intensive investigation that began in the spring of 1995 and involved Cana-
dian, U.S., and Mexican authorities. He was sentenced to thirty days of house
arrest because the judge said he presented no danger to the public.
Sexual Acts with Children
Traders may be interested in a wide variety of sexual acts with children.
Sadistic acts with children were noted in several cases. Marvin Pearson, a
sixty-four-year-old retired engineer, was convicted of possessing child
pornography, which he collected from the Internet (“Engineer Starts,” 1997).
He was accused of 180 counts of receiving and possessing child pornogra-
phy over the Internet. In addition, he faced one count of receiving videotapes
of child pornography and one count of illegal possession of more than a
thousand photographs of children engaged in sex acts. It was reported that
he drew a harsher-than-usual sentence because some of the children depicted
in the images were shown posing in sadistic scenes. He was sentenced to
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Table 12.1. Frequencies of Trader, Traveler, and
Combination Trader-Traveler Characteristics (N =225)
Trader (n = 133) Traveler (n = 49) Combination (n = 43)
Characteristics Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage
Gender
Male 126 94.7 47 95.9 41 95.3
Female 7 5.3 2 4.1 2 4.7
Age range
Below 20 years 4 3.0
20 to 29 years 29 21.8 11 22.4 5 11.6
30 to 39 years 46 34.6 18 36.7 16 37.2
40 to 49 years 22 16.5 10 20.4 10 23.3
50 to 59 years 15 11.3 4 8.2 7 16.3
60 years and over 3 2.3 1 2.0
Missing information 14 10.5 5 10.2 5 11.6
Occupation
Professional 52 39.1 11 22.4 17 39.5
Laborer 11 8.3 2 4.1 1 2.3
Unemployed 7 5.3 1 2.0 3 7.0
Military 6 4.5 1 2.0
Student 8 6.0 1 2.0
Clergy 1 0.8 1 2.0 2 4.7
Missing information 48 36.1 32 65.3 20 46.5
Region of origin
Northeast 34 25.6 16 32.7 13 30.2
South 27 20.3 9 18.4 14 32.6
West 20 15.0 11 22.4 7 16.3
Midwest 17 12.8 5 10.2 4 9.3
International 35 26.3 8 16.3 5 11.6
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forty-five-months in jail, a six thousand dollar fine, and three years of super-
vised release after his discharge from prison.
Production of Child Pornography
Traders may produce Internet child pornography. Heidi Wischniwsky, age
thirty-two, a technical writer for an information technology company, was
charged with possessing and making child pornography (Bell, 1997). It is
believed that she was the first woman in Canada to be charged in connection
with child pornography on the Internet. Wischniwsky was fired from her
place of employment after a coworker discovered pornographic material on
an office computer. The company reported the incident to the police, who
confiscated the computer and numerous files stored on floppy disks. The
investigator in charge confirmed that some of the pictures featured children
as young as three or four years old.
Distribution of Child Pornography
Traders may try to distribute Internet child pornography.They often display
particular interest in children of a specific age, as in the case of a college stu-
dent who was charged with using the Internet to transmit photos of infants
having sex with adults. Nathaniel Levy, age twenty-one, a psychology major
who wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, was arrested at his dorm for pro-
moting sexual performance of a child, a felony punishable by seven years in
prison (“Student Arrested,” 1997). The student transmitted thirty-five sexu-
ally explicit photos of children, some of them as young as eighteen months,
over the Internet. Levy was caught after undercover investigators asked him
via the Internet to send them photos in exchange for a videotape. Once inves-
tigators received the photos, they agreed to meet Levy at his dorm room,
where he was arrested. Levy, whose computer name was “NateTSnake,”
pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child pornography and was sen-
tenced to five years (“Child Porn Seeker,” 1997).
Pornography Collections
Traders can amass a large collection. For example, Robert Stephen Keating,
age forty-three, a boilermaker, pleaded guilty to eight related child pornog-
raphy counts and received a sentence of four years in jail (“Internet Child
Porn King,” 2002). Keating possessed 226,500 pornography images on his
computer. Of those, more than 180,000 depicted children. The previous Aus-
tralian record for computerized child pornography was 140,000 images.
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Classifying Internet Child Sex Offenders 429
Keating operated an international pornography club that had 184 members.
The maximum sentence for his offenses in Australia was three years; how-
ever, the judge added an extra year because Keating was violating bail with
his activities.
The Profit Motive
Traders may operate as partners and/or for profit. The case of Thomas and
Janice Reedy illustrates the profit motive. The Reedys were charged with
operating a commercial child pornography ring from their home (Burke,
2000). The Reedys’ company, Landslide Productions, acted as the conduit
between one Russian and two Indonesian webmasters who supplied cus-
tomers with pornographic images of children in exchange for a $29.95 fee
per site. Landslide processed the credit card transactions and supplied the
password-protected access to the sites. It received as much as $1.4 million a
month from people seeking access to child pornography (Johnson, 2001).
Thomas and Janice Reedy were convicted on federal charges related to pos-
session and distribution of child pornography. Thomas Reedy received 1,335
years in prison. Janice Reedy is serving fourteen years on lesser charges.
Offender Explanation
Offenders often have (or try to have) an explanation for possessing child
pornography. In one case involving a unanimous decision, a federal jury
found Troy Upham guilty of four counts of transmitting sexually explicit
images of minors and one count of possession of sexually explicit images
of minors (“Upham Guilty,” 1997). The jury refused to accept Upham’s de-
fense that he was using pornographic images of children as research for a
book he was writing. Upham had testified that he was sexually abused as
a child. Evidence in the courtroom included approximately fourteen hun-
dred images of nude children, some engaged in sexual acts, that had been
downloaded from America Online into a computer he had used. Upham
denied transmitting pornography and insisted the images were kept for re-
search on his book. The book, submitted for jury evidence, consisted of
about twenty-one typewritten pages that Upham reportedly had compiled
over the past twelve years. Upham was emotional when he described how
the book was a type of therapy helping him to recover from years of sexual
abuse as a child. He proclaimed he wanted to help other child abuse victims
and alert the world to the power of the media in supporting a $40 billion
child sex abuse industry. Upham was sentenced to six and a half years in
prison (Blom, 1998).
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TRAVELERS
A new dynamic is introduced into the crime when the offender seeks to meet
the child in person. At that point, the classification changes to that of a trav-
eler. Travelers composed 21.8 percent of the cases in this analysis.
The Offenders
Traveler cases involve offenders with a wide range of sexual interests. Cases
can involve a male adult seeking a male youth. In one case, Anthony Gray,
age thirty-one, an Oxford University scholar, was found guilty of two counts
of sexual assault (McAuliffe, 2001b). The charges involved a fourteen-year-
old boy he had met in a gay Internet chatroom. The jury heard how the the-
ology graduate chatted with the schoolboy on Gay.com more than twenty
times after lying about his age. Gray then traveled to meet the fourteen year
old and persuaded the boy to spend the night with him at a hotel. The judge
ordered that Gray’s name be placed on the sex offenders register immedi-
ately. The jury took just over two hours to find him guilty. Gray was sen-
tenced to five years in jail for assaulting the boy (Roberts, 2001).
Women may be travelers. Adriane Ione Smith, age thirty, was charged
with a third-degree sexual offense and second-degree assault (Kalfrin,
1999a). Police said that Smith met a youth in an Internet chatroom and later
drove to meet the fifteen year old for a liaison at a hotel. The boy’s mother,
believing him missing, notified authorities after discovering e-mail mes-
sages on her child’s computer from Adriane. The mother thought that the
e-mail was from another teenager. At the bottom of the message was a phone
number, which she called. When a man answered and she asked to speak to
his daughter, Adriane, the man replied, “That’s not my daughter; that’s my
wife” (Kalfrin, 1999a, para. 8).
Sadistic Sexual Acts
Travelers may be interested in sadistic sexual acts and operate as partners.
James Warren, age forty-one, and Beth Loschin, age forty-six, lured a fifteen-
year-old Massachusetts girl over the Internet, kidnapped her, and sexually
abused her for a week (Baker, 2001). The girl was able to get free of her cap-
tors after using her cell phone to call the police. Officials charged that the
couple abducted the girl after she and Warren made contact in an Internet
chatroom, where he discussed sex with her. He and Loschin drove to pick the
girl up outside a mall where she worked. According to the police, the torture
began immediately; the couple handcuffed the girl in the back seat, and
Warren sexually abused her as Loschin drove. The same night, they stopped
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Classifying Internet Child Sex Offenders 431
at a motel, where they drugged and sexually assaulted the girl again before
driving her to their home. At the couple’s home, she was assaulted and sub-
jected to vile acts. The girl was able to call police in her hometown on her
cell phone, which supplied the police with a signal to trace. Detectives also
asked her to find some mail in the house to provide the address of her loca-
tion. The detectives then called the local authorities, who rescued the girl and
made the arrests.
Beth Loschin pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and sodomy to avoid facing
a statutory rape conviction. Warren was found guilty of sixty-three counts,
including endangering the welfare of a child; first-degree kidnapping, rape,
sodomy, and sexual abuse; and third-degree rape and assault (Lambert,
2002). Beth Loschin received a sentence of 4 years in prison in exchange for
testifying against James Warren. James Warren received a jail sentence of 150
years to life. Michael Montez, age thirty-five, a friend the couple “loaned” the
child to, received 9 years in prison.
Homicide
A thirteen-year-old parochial school cheerleader died in a sex crime made
possible by the Internet. Police said that a twenty-five-year-old restaurant
worker strangled the girl, whom he had met online. Her body was found in
a remote ravine. Saul Dos Reis Jr. was charged with using an interstate facil-
ity, the Internet, to entice a minor for sexual activity. However, a federal
grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Dos Reis, adding sev-
eral additional charges (“New Molest Charge,” 2002). The new indictment
alleged that Dos Reis used the Internet to entice a minor to have sex in the
summer of 1998, four years earlier. The new indictment, in addition to the
charge from 1998, added a further charge of enticing the thirteen-year-old
girl, as well as two charges of traveling in interstate commerce to have sex
with her. Dos Reis also faced one count of first-degree manslaughter, two
counts of second-degree risk of injury to a minor, and two counts of second-
degree sexual assault. Dos Reis, who pleaded guilty to first-degree man-
slaughter and second-degree sexual assault, was sentenced to thirty years, Of
note, he has been seeking pen pals over the Internet while in federal custody.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS
International travelers are very much a part of this crime and will involve the
FBI. In one case, a Scottish university lecturer was sentenced to seven years
on child sex charges after an FBI sting operation caught him traveling to the
United States to have sex with a boy he met over the Internet (McAuliffe,
2001a). David Steinheimer, age thirty-eight, used sexually explicit e-mails
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and pornographic images of himself to coerce a thirteen-year-old boy into
meeting him for the purposes of having sex. He pleaded guilty to six sepa-
rate charges, including using the Internet to entice an individual under age
eighteen into sexual activity. In the United States, federal law permits FBI
agents to enter chatrooms posing as children in order to identify and arrest
pedophiles before any physical assault has taken place. However, to prevent
police from entrapping an innocent bystander, officers must prove that the
suspect initiated the encounter. In the United Kingdom, “the Police and
Criminal Evidence Act prevents sting operations, stating that such methods
make police ‘agents provocateurs’ and evidence gathered in this way is inad-
missible” (McAuliffe, 2001a, para. 7).
Intervention may fail. In an international case, Franz Konstantin Baehring,
age thirty-five, lured a fourteen-year-old girl to Greece from her home in
Florida (Spencer, 2002). Baehring and the girl spoke on the telephone, sent
letters in the mail, and e-mailed each other, even after the girl’s mother
expressly forbid communication and pleaded with Baehring to stop commu-
nicating with her. One day the mother arrived home from work to find that
her daughter had disappeared. The mother shared her concerns and intuition
with law enforcement, who initially doubted a fourteen-year-old girl could
travel without a passport. Officers found the girl by tracing her messenger
screen name to Thessoloniki, Greece. The girl was discovered in Greece and
reunited with her mother. Baehring was taken into custody.
Baehring had managed to enlist the help of a cell phone employee by dup-
ing her into believing that the girl was a victim who had to be rescued from
emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. He also conned the employee into
taking the girl to the airport. By enlisting the aid of Robert Arnder, a fellow
child sexual predator whom Baehring had met online, he arranged to have
the appearance of the fourteen-year-old girl altered; she could then use a
passport belonging to Arnder’s eighteen-year-old daughter, which facilitated
her travel to Greece. U.S. authorities found e-mails between the fourteen-
year-old girl and Arnder’s daughter on the young girl’s computer and called
Ohio police. When police arrived, the girl had already traveled to Greece;
however, Arnder was arrested after police found child pornography, some
relating to the missing girl, from Kon Baehring on his computer. Arnder was
later sent to prison for eighty-five years for child rape in another case. It
was found that his daughter had also been a victim of abuse.
Baehring claimed that he helped abused children and that any suggestion
that he traded in child pornography was obscene (Spencer, 2002). He also
claimed to be a member of sixty-eight organizations that fight child pornog-
raphy, but a check of some of the groups he named revealed that none of
those organizations knew of Baehring. Initially, the fourteen-year-old girl’s
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Classifying Internet Child Sex Offenders 433
mother went to Greece to testify against Baehring; however, the court ruled
there could be no trial without the primary witness. Months later, the mother
returned to Greece with her daughter to testify during a three-day trial. The
girl explained in detail how Baehring sexually abused her, asking that he go
to jail for what he did; however, she also said that she still loved him. In his
defense, Baehring claimed that the mother had drugged and brainwashed the
girl into testifying against him. Baehring was found guilty, but received a
sentence of only eight years. Given parole and time off for good behavior, he
could be released from prison in three years.
COMBINATION TRADER-TRAVELERS
Combination trader-travelers are individuals who participate in trading child
pornography as well as traveling across state or national boundaries to en-
gage in sexual interaction with a child. Slightly more than 19 percent of the
analyzed cases involved offenders who had engaged in a combination of
trader and traveler activities.
In one case, Kenneth Lashway, a forty-eight-year-old assistant high school
principal and town council member, was charged with having sex with a
fifteen-year-old girl he met in an Internet chatroom. An officer found Lash-
way and the girl partially undressed in the front seat of a parked car. Lashway
lived approximately forty miles away. The girl and Lashway had become ac-
quainted over the Internet and had corresponded and participated in chat-
rooms for several months. Lashway was convicted of four counts of sodomy
and sexual abuse. He was later convicted of promoting a sexual performance
by a child after he admitted to downloading and distributing child pornogra-
phy over the Internet (Lynch, 2002).
Sadistic Sexual Acts
There are combination trader-travelers who prefer sadistic child sex and to
work as partners. In one case, Patrick Neal Champion, age thirty-five, and
Debra Kay Williams, age forty-six, were charged with the rape of a thirteen-
year-old girl they met in an Internet chatroom (“Police: Alleged Rapist,”
1998). Both were charged with one count of rape. The girl told police that
she met Champion in a chatroom, told him of problems at home, and he sug-
gested she stay with him for a while. She agreed to meet him around the cor-
ner from her Arizona home, where Champion picked her up. Police say the
man drove the girl fourteen hundred miles to Memphis. At a trailer park over
a three-day period, he raped her, snapped pornographic pictures of her, and
held her captive. The girl managed a call to her grandfather, who told her to
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call 911. Champion and Williams were arrested at their home after the girl
called police. The teenager was found with the couple and taken into protec-
tive custody. Champion is serving a twelve-year sentence in federal prison,
and Williams is serving a correctional sentence of seven years.
Using a Web Site
The offender may have established his own Web site. Although homeless,
Jack Hornbeck, age forty-five, managed to maintain a child pornography
Web site from the Los Angeles Central Library computers (Kalfrin, 1999b).
Detectives posed as “Molly,” a mother with several children under ten years
old, who “enjoyed getting together with other families for love and fun”
(Kalfrin, 1999b, par. 5). Through several e-mail messages, Hornbeck re-
vealed to detectives that he was a convicted child molester, that he was on
probation, and that he was communicating from one of the computers at the
public library’s central branch. Hornbeck sent messages to “Molly,” explic-
itly describing what he wanted to do to her children. He sent over two hun-
dred images to detectives and referred them to his own Web site “aclove,” the
Adult-Child Love Association. Hornbeck was arrested in a parking lot hold-
ing a hand-lettered sign for “Molly” and carrying condoms and KY Jelly he
had purchased for an encounter with her children. He pleaded “no contest”
and was sentenced to three years eight months in prison.
CONCLUSION
Out of technological progression, an evolutionary typology of child sex of-
fenders has emerged, described as traders, travelers, and combination trader-
travelers. To date, few studies in the psychiatric, criminology, and sociological
literature have examined cases of Internet child sex offenders. Internet child
sex offenders currently remain an open area for future investigation.
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PART THREE
Methods of Killing
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CHAPTER
13
Mass, Spree, and
Serial Homicide
ANN W. BURGESS
Multiple-victim homicides can be classified under the existing structure
without having their own unique group of codes. This chapter contains
cases of multiple motive homicides with multiple victims of mass murder,
sniper killings, spree murders, and serial murders. In many of these cases,
there can be spillover between the types of murders described. Mass murder
is defined as the killing of four or more victims at one location or crime
scene. A spree murder is defined as the killing of three or more victims at
more than one location without a cooling-off period between the murders.
Cooling-off period is defined as the state of returning to the murderer’s usual
way of life between killings. The spree killer kills at more than one location
and with multiple crime scenes. The serial murderer kills more than two vic-
tims with a cooling-off period between the killings and involves more than
one location or crime scene.
Mass Murder
A mass murderer kills his victims, four or more at one time, in one place with
one crime scene. The location of the murders may be on the open street,
inside a home or building, or at a school or post office. On March 26, 2006,
Aaron Kyle Huff, age twenty-eight, walked in on a house party carrying
three guns, more than three hundred rounds of ammunition, a baseball bat,
and a black machete. He began shooting and killed six people between the
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ages of fourteen and thirty-two. He told guests as he blazed away, “There’s
plenty for everyone.” Police said the victims, many of them dressed up as
zombies in black with white face paint, had met Huff earlier in the night at
a rave called Better Off Undead and invited him to a party at their rented
home. Huff left the party at about 7:00 A.M. and returned wearing bandoliers
of ammunition and carrying a twelve-gauge pistol-grip shotgun and a hand-
gun. He fired on the thirty young partygoers gathered in the house before
walking out. Huff committed suicide when confronted by an officer outside
the house early Saturday.
Mass murder can be combined with spree murder when the murderer goes
to more than one location to find and kill his victims. George Emil Banks,
the subject of the first case study in this chapter, was a spree mass murderer.
He killed multiple victims in multiple locations. The second case is about
mass murderer Charles Whitman, who killed his wife at one location and his
mother at another. The next morning he went to a third location, the Univer-
sity of Texas Tower, where he killed multiple people. Whitman can be clas-
sified as both a spree and a mass murderer. He used multiple methods of
killing: he strangled his mother, used a knife to kill his wife, and used a rifle
to kill people from the University of Texas Tower.
CASE STUDY: GEORGE EMIL BANKS
Case Contributed by Emilie Kitts
George Emil Banks’s murder spree in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1982
was the most shocking event that the city had experienced in its history. He
killed thirteen people within the span of just one hour.
Banks was born in 1942 in Wilkes-Barre to an unwed, racially mixed cou-
ple. Being half-black and half-white, Banks felt persecuted by people of
both races his entire life. Although his IQ was tested to be very high, he did
poorly in school. He turned to the military in an effort to escape racial ha-
rassment but was discharged two years later, in 1961, due to an inability to
get along with officers.
Directly following his discharge, Banks attempted to rob a bar with the
help of two other men. When the robbery turned sour, Banks shot the owner,
and the three men fled the scene empty-handed, only to be apprehended and
arrested shortly after. Banks served seven and a half years in prison and was
released in 1969.
After his release, Banks held a number of different jobs and married Doris
Jones, the mother of his two daughters. The abusive marriage lasted until
1976, when Jones moved to Ohio with the couple’s two daughters. Follow-
ing the divorce, Banks began to collect live-in girlfriends and fathered mul-
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 439
tiple children with these women, who were all at least ten years his junior,
white, and easily manipulated by Banks.
Banks lost his most prestigious job in 1979; the employer cited Banks’s
personal life as the cause of his increasingly unsatisfactory work perform-
ance. In 1980, although he had an arrest record, Banks procured a job as a
prison watchtower guard. The stress in Banks’s life accumulated as his fam-
ily continued to grow and one of his girlfriends moved out with her child. He
began stockpiling guns and collecting magazines and books about making
bombs and about his idols, who included mass murderers, cult leaders, and
serial killers. All the while he felt that his predominantly white neighbor-
hood was persecuting his girlfriends and children and insisted that he needed
to prepare his children for war.
In mid-1982, Banks began talking of mass killings, warfare, and suicide
to other prison watchtower guards. In September of that year, he was given
paid sick leave with the requirement that he obtain psychiatric help. The
accumulation of the stress Banks was dealing with, including being forced
from work and the recent custody battle with his ex-wife who had moved out
the year before, pushed the forty year old to the breaking point. Just a few
days before his psychiatric appointment, Bank lost control and went on the
murder spree in Wilkes-Barre.
Banks passed out after taking drugs and drinking alcohol late on the night
of September 24. He awoke early the next morning, finding himself in a
room with his three live-in girlfriends and two of his children. When one of
the women awoke, Banks calmly picked up the AR-15 semiautomatic riffle
next to him and shot her. He then proceeded to shoot the other women and
children in the room and then systematically walked through the rest of the
house, killing three other children.
Banks’s two neighbors, who heard the gunshots, attempted to flee, but
both men were shot before they could reach their car. They were in critical
condition when they arrived at the hospital later in the morning; only one
survived.
Leaving the house, Banks drove four miles to where his ex-girlfriend and
child lived with her mother and brothers. Banks immediately shot his ex-
girlfriend and child and then shot her mother. His ex-wife’s two young
brothers, who had hidden in the room and escaped Banks’s notice, wit-
nessed the murders. He also killed a young cousin of his ex-wife who was
present in the home.
Banks next fled to his mother’s house and confessed to the events of the
morning. His mother then called his house, hoping to find that his story was
a drug-induced illusion. When the police answered, Banks took the receiver
from his mother and asked the officer about his children. The officer, in an
attempt to keep Banks on the line, answered that they were alive, but Banks
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told the officer he had killed them himself. Next, Banks ordered his mother to
drive him to an abandoned house he knew of. When she returned to her own
house, she found the police there and reluctantly revealed where her son was.
Police surrounded the house in which the suicidal Banks was hiding and
attempted to entice him to come out by insisting that his children were alive
and needed him. When he did not believe the police, the police had a radio
station broadcast the false information to try to convince Banks. Banks nev-
ertheless remained inside and kept the police from entering by shouting out
their specific positions to show that he could see them and threatening to
shoot.
Finally, a former coworker of Banks, thirty-six-year-old Robert Brunson,
came to the scene after hearing the story on the news and petitioned the po-
lice to speak to Banks. Walking up to the house, Brunson spoke with Banks,
and at 11:17 A.M., four hours after his arrival, Banks threw down his rifle and
emerged. On entering, the police found three thirty-round clips in addition
to about three hundred rounds of ammunition. Banks had blocked the
entrances to the house using furniture and had also set up a mirror enabling
him to see both doors from the second floor.
Banks’s trial began on June 6, 1983. The prosecution had a strong case,
with numerous photographs and many witnesses. The defense’s case was de-
pendent on the plea of insanity, but Banks refused to comply with his lawyer’s
wishes to claim insanity. A psychiatrist who evaluated Banks testified that the
latter had described the murders as the result of a conspiracy and found that
Banks was suicidal, paranoid, and delusional due to his insistence that the
police were involved in the racial conspiracy as well.
Banks still maintained that he was perfectly sane and, against the advice
of his lawyers, took the stand in court. He insisted that some of his victims
were only wounded when he left them; they were actually killed by the po-
lice, he said, due to a racial conspiracy that the lawyers, judge, district attor-
neys, and others were involved in. The testimony greatly hurt the defense,
and the jury found Banks guilty of twelve counts of first-degree murder, one
count of third-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, one
count of robbery, one of theft, and one of endangering the life of another per-
son. The following day, the jury sentenced him to death.
After his sentencing in June 1983, Banks was confined to a maximum-
security unit of the State Correctional Institute at Huntington until late 1985,
when he was moved to the State Correctional Institute at Graterford. Multi-
ple times the case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for
the death penalty to be overturned, but Banks remained on death row. Banks
was moved to the Pennsylvania State Institution in Green years later in order
to receive medical treatment for reported liver cancer. Today he is impris-
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 441
oned in the State Correctional Institution Rockview, Centre County. He re-
mains there today, now sixty-two-years old, reportedly still imagining race
wars and conspiracies. His execution date has been repeatedly pushed back
with appeals to the Supreme Court.
This spree crime was motivated by an emotional conflict within Banks.
Banks quickly acted on that impulse using the rifle, a murder weapon that
was close at hand, never contemplating the possible consequences of his ac-
tions or establishing a plan of escape. The event was a family mass murder:
Banks killed eight of his family members immediately in his own home and
continued murdering other family members in a different location. The mur-
der of the neighbor is considered a situational felony murder. Banks did not
plan or expect to kill his neighbor, but did so out of panic that the man would
tell the police about the gunshots coming from Banks’s house.
The fact that Banks took the witness stand to testify against his lawyers’
advice, only to ramble to the court about the involvement of police in a racial
conspiracy against him, in addition to his insistence that it was the police
who had murdered some of the victims, called his mental state into question.
That he was dismissed from his job as a prison watchtower guard due to sus-
picion of psychological stress and required by his employers to seek psychi-
atric help suggests that Banks was showing severe signs of mental illness.
This leave of absence, which occurred before the events of September 25,
suggest the severity of his illness prior to the murders.
CASE STUDY: CHARLES WHITMAN
Case Contributed by Kathryn A. Reboul
In 1966 Charles Whitman did not feel respected. He felt that despite all his
hard work, he was not achieving success in almost all areas of his life. In
July, Whitman heard of the Speck killings: Richard Speck had killed eight
nurses in their Chicago school dormitory and had gotten a huge amount of
publicity. The notoriety Speck received from his murders may have seemed
appealing to Whitman. In fact, the same week as the publicity of the Speck
killings, he visited the Tower.
It would not have been hard for him to figure out how to get that notori-
ety for himself. He had already spoken of shooting people from the tower at
the University of Texas, and given his military training, it would have been
easy for him to figure out how to use the tower as a fortress from which to
kill other people. He was trained and certified as a sharpshooter in the U.S.
Marines. Using guns was something he had been good at since childhood. It
had brought him accolades in childhood and while in the military.
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Time Line to the Shootings
Months before the shooting, Whitman commented to friends about going up
to the tower to shoot people. But no one took him seriously and no one
seemed to think that this statement might be an indication that they needed
to reach out to him.
On his own Whitman requested some help. On March 29, 1966, he met
with Maurice D. Heatly, a University of Texas psychiatrist. Whitman let
Heatly know that his parents’ separation was upsetting him greatly and he
was overwhelmed. He also complained of “irrational thoughts” and that
“something was happening to him and he didn’t seem to be himself.” He
mentioned that he had twice assaulted his wife and that she was afraid of
him. He had also indicated to Heatly that he had been a marine and had been
court-martialed for fighting. Heatly stated in his report about Whitman’s
meeting with him that Whitman “readily admits having overwhelming peri-
ods of hostility with a very minimum of provocation.” During their meeting,
Whitman spoke sometimes with great hostility and then quickly could
become weepy. He also made “vivid reference” to “thinking about going up
on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people.”
Whitman had made a specific threat of violence that, given his military
background, he would have had the expertise to carry out. He had a problem
with hostility and irrational thoughts and mentioned that he had committed
violent acts in the past.
The Crimes
The last week of July 1966 had been very hot. On Thursday, July 28, and Fri-
day, July 29, many people noted that Whitman had appeared fine in his
classes and work. People who saw him on the evening of July 31 said he was
especially calm.
Whitman sat down on Friday night to write a letter to the world to explain
his actions. He wrote the letter as if he had already killed his wife and
mother, when in fact he had not yet killed either. He was interrupted by a
knock on the door by a couple he and Kathy were friends with. Charlie was
unusually calm. He talked quite normally about a number of topics, and at
one point the three of them went out for ice cream. After they left, he prob-
ably put his note where Kathy would not see it and then went to pick up his
wife from work.
There was nothing notable about the evening. Kathy had a conversation
with a friend, and Kathy and Charlie called her parents to talk. All seemed
normal. During a visit at a friend’s home, Margaret, Charlie’s mother, called
him to let him know where she was. Charlie asked if he and Kathy could
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 443
come over for a while to cool off before bed. Margaret rushed home. Kathy
may have been sleeping when her husband left.
Victimology
Whitman arrived at his mother’s a few minutes after midnight. Although no
autopsy was done, it is believed that he strangled her with a hose and then
gave her a fatal blow to the back of the head. After he killed her, he engaged
in undoing behavior: he placed her in bed and covered her up. When she was
found, she looked almost as if she was sleeping. He then wrote a note in
which he spoke of relieving her of “suffering here on earth” and then went
on a venomous tirade about his father.
Crime Scene Indicators
After the murder, Whitman returned home and quietly entered his bedroom.
He pulled back the covers to expose his wife’s body and stabbed her five
times in the chest. She died instantly, probably without waking up. He pulled
the sheets up to cover her body.
Before he left, he placed the note by her body and used rugs to cover the
blood on the floor. In a move that displayed premeditation of his upcoming
crimes, he left a note on her door that he wrote (but appeared to be from her)
asking the housekeeper not to disturb her in the morning. He was buying
himself more time.
In the lobby he asked the night watchman to let him back into his mother’s
apartment to get a prescription bottle. The night watchman let him in. Char-
lie reappeared in a moment with a pill bottle, then left the apartment and
headed home.
He retrieved the note he had been writing earlier in the evening when
friends had stopped by. He wrote, “friends interrupted 8–1–66 Mon 3:00A.M.
Both Dead,” and then continued with ramblings. He also wrote a note to
each of his brothers and to his father. (To this day Whitman’s letter to his
father has not been made public.) The notes to his brothers were short and
seemed to be an attempt to explain their mother’s feelings to them.
Whitman began to fill a large trunk with supplies. It took the Austin Police
five pages to inventory all the items. It was clear from the food, foot powder,
water, and various items that he thought he might be up in the tower for some
time. And it was clear from the guns, knives and massive amounts of ammu-
nition that he was prepared to kill a lot of people.
He called Kathy’s supervisor and told her that Kathy was sick and would
not be coming to work that day. Once again he was indicating he wanted to
have the time to follow through on his plan to commit mass murder.
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The trunk was heavy, so he rented a dolly for $2.04. He also cashed two
checks and bought more ammunition and another rifle at a hardware store.
He left and then soon came back to return a bent clip of ammunition. This
last act almost seems to indicate that to his very last moment, he planned on
being meticulous and that his plans of mass murder may have even calmed
him and helped him to focus enough to commit a complex and horrific act.
He then went to a gun shop, bought more ammunition and cleaning sol-
vent and bought an automatic shotgun. And finally he called his mother’s
workplace so her absence would not be questioned.
When he finished packing everything, he had three rifles, an automatic
shotgun, a revolver, and two pistols. The most accurate of these weapons was
the Remington 6MM with 4X scope. With the scope he could have shot ac-
curately at 800 feet. The automatic shotgun would have less accuracy for
the 231 feet he was trying to cover than any of the rifles. (The height of the
observation deck on the tower, where Whitman was shooting from, was 231
feet from the ground.) The revolver and pistols may have indicated he ex-
pected to be shooting at close range. And the amount of ammunition was
staggering. An inventory of his ammunition after he had stopped shooting
listed nine full boxes of ammunition and sixteen other types of ammunition.
An estimated total before his rampage was that he brought seven hundred
rounds of ammunition.
To get to the top of the tower with a trunk on a dolly without appearing
suspicious, he dressed like a workman and blended in. It was not until he
reached the twenty-eighth floor that anyone questioned him. There, the re-
ceptionist probably questioned what he was doing with the dolly. He shot
her. Two adults walked past the scene without noticing the murdered woman
and went down the tower. Then a family of tourists came up to the twenty-
eighth floor and tried to enter the door that he had blocked. He shot at them,
killing two instantly. He then barricaded the door again.
Sniper Shootings
Soon Whitman would begin to follow through on his plan. He began to shoot
people from his fortress on the observation deck of the University of Texas
Tower. His first victim was an unborn baby in its mother’s womb. He killed
the baby without killing the mother. And then he killed the baby’s father. He
continued his rampage until he had killed thirteen people and wounded
thirty-one. Five days later, another individual died. Another death years later
was also attributed to Whitman’s actions.
Whitman never shot any victim more than once. He maintained cover by
shooting through rainspouts so he was not an easy target, and he retreated
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 445
quickly after he made a shot. The police did not have the same type of high-
power long-range weapons that he had so they were at a disadvantage be-
cause they could not shoot accurately at such a distance. (This is why many
people credit Whitman as the reason SWAT teams were developed.) Ironi-
cally it was the citizens of Texas who had the best weapons. Many rushed to
the campus with their own high-power weapons and started trying to kill the
sniper whose identity was not yet known.
Whitman’s rampage finally ended when he was killed by two police offi-
cers. He had held the campus hostage for ninety-six minutes. His murders
finally ended approximately twelve hours from the time he had killed his
mother.
Types of Victims
Whitman had three types of victim. First, his mother and his wife were vic-
tims of domestic violence. His second victims were third-party victims,
killed because Whitman thought they would interfere with his plan of going
up on the tower and start shooting people. These victims were the reception-
ist in the tower and a family going up the tower.
Not everyone that Whitman encountered became a target for shooting.
Whitman let two people, Don Walden and Cheryl Botts, go past him to
leave the tower. They were not stopping him from his goal of shooting peo-
ple from the tower, so he may not have felt the need to shoot them. They also
engaged in activities that reduced their likelihood of victimization. They were
friendly, did not question Whitman’s behavior or the environment, and
quickly got out of Whitman’s way. Their demeanor, behavior, and speed
saved their lives in a situation where they were at high risk for being killed.
When they encountered Whitman, they smiled and said, “Hello.” They
did not comment on the two rifles he was holding and did not realize that a
stain on the floor was blood. (It was on a dark floor so it would not have been
obvious.) Cheryl warned Don not to step in the “stuff.” They were not upset
by a chair lying on its side. In these cases, acting innocent saved their life.
Or it may have been Whitman’s disguise that saved their lives. Because he
was wearing a janitor’s uniform, the stain and overturned chair did not seem
threatening. And because he was a clean-cut young man who appeared to
have a reason for being there, they did not feel threatened by his guns. Don
almost made a comment that Whitman “was going to shoot pigeons.”
Whitman’s third type of victim were the strangers he shot from the tower.
Like his third-party victims, they were simply in the wrong place at the
wrong time. There is nothing to indicate he knew any of the people he shot
from the tower.
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Risk Level of Victims
Of all the people killed on August 1, Kathy Whitman had the highest risk
level of being killed by Whitman in a domestic violence homicide. She had
disclosed to her parents that she was afraid that Charlie could kill her. She
was living with a violent man with a history of assaulting her who had an
arsenal of weapons that he was comfortable and skilled at using. His descrip-
tion of her as “My Most Precious Possession” was disturbing and indicated
that he thought of her more as a possession than an individual in her own
right. The fact that she left him and spoke of divorce may have increased her
risk of violence from him. Whitman’s mother’s leaving her husband in
March 1966 may have served as a reminder of Kathy’s “betrayal” of him.
Separation or threat of separation can increase a victim’s risk of homicide in
an abusive relationship.
Within Heatly’s March 29 report were statements Whitman made about
his wife’s having less fear of him than in the past because he had made a
more intense effort to avoid losing his temper with her. Today this would be
understood as a red flag where the abuser’s behavior suddenly changes prior
to his murder of her.
Margaret Whitman could be viewed as a moderate- to high-risk victim be-
cause her presence was adding stress to her overstressed, volatile, heavily
armed son who was using an excessive amount of stimulants. Before she was
murdered, she was also at risk from her husband, C. A. Whitman, because he
had previously assaulted her.
In his final notes to the “world,” Whitman reiterated his intense hatred of
his father. Whitman was desperate to stop the calls from his father to get his
mother to go back into an abusive relationship. Of all the people he killed,
he did not kill the one person he hated the most, suggesting great fear of his
father or a desire for him to suffer by not having his wife return.
Whitman’s third-party victims, the tower receptionist and the family of
tourists, were at the wrong place at the wrong time. They did not die because
they were in dangerous professions or engaged in dangerous behaviors. They
would be considered low-risk victims.
The strangers whom Whitman killed and wounded were mostly low-risk
victims engaged in low-risk behaviors. It was the middle of the day and on
a college campus. The victims were mostly students, college staff, and teach-
ers coming or going to class, lunch, or home. Most were in their teens, twen-
ties, and thirties.
Some individuals did increase their risk by attempting to shoot Whitman
or attempting to rescue the wounded. Billy Speed, a police officer, was in
Whitman’s line of fire because of his profession.
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 447
Whitman’s Death
It is clear that Whitman anticipated his own death. There are some state-
ments in notes he wrote before his death that sounded like a last will and tes-
tament. He requested an autopsy, asked to be cremated, and requested that
his dog be given to his wife’s parents.
He was settling his affairs. He asked to have his pictures developed. And
he stated that he was explaining his actions so this type of thing could be
avoided in the future. Everything indicated he did not expect to have the
opportunity to explain later. He wrote numerous letters. He left a note by his
mother’s body explaining her death, and he left a note by his wife’s body
explaining his recent deterioration of his state of mind. He also wrote to his
brother Patrick, his brother John, and his father. Whitman had an elaborate
plan, but there was no indication that he had planned any escape route.
Whitman chose to engage in activity that he could reasonably assume
would lead to his death. His actions indicated that he was suicidal. The fact
that his cause of death was gunfire by one or two police officers does not
change that he in effect set up his own death. Whitman’s death could be
termed “suicide by cop” or “suicide by proxy” order in which a suicidal per-
son sets the stage to be killed by law enforcement.
Autopsies
The autopsy on Charles Whitman was compromised because he was em-
balmed before he was autopsied. Whitman felt something physical was
wrong in his head. To many people’s surprise, he was right: Whitman had a
brain tumor. During the autopsy, it was identified as approximately the size
of a pecan and said to be located in the white matter below the gray center
thalamus. There is some disagreement about the effect this tumor had. Some
felt it could have caused extreme action. Others feel it would have no effect
at all. And others felt that it would have caused a lot of pain that could be a
partial explanation for his behavior and his headaches. It is also interesting
to note that Whitman’s skull was unusually thin, at 2 to 4 millimeters.
In addition to his having been embalmed before his autopsy, no toxicol-
ogy tests were done on his urine or blood.
Many people in law enforcement state that Whitman is the reason SWAT
teams were developed. It was clear that the police at this time did not have the
type of weapon they needed to shoot Whitman from the ground. It is also clear
that fewer people would have died if they had been able to get to him sooner.
If the events of August 1, 1966, happened again today, the police would react
more quickly, in a more organized fashion and with better weapons.
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Spree Murder
Spree murderers, like serial murderers, appear to select their victims at ran-
dom. The difference between spree and serial murderers is the cooling-off
period between victims, defined as the state of returning to the normal way
of life between killings.
Spree killers tend to do their damage within a short time span. There is
generally no cooling-off period. They are like killing machines up to the
point that they are caught or turn themselves in. The killer often commits sui-
cide or goes for what is known as “suicide by cop”: putting himself in a posi-
tion where police will have to kill him.
Spree killers usually select victims randomly, but go for those who will
meet their personal needs at the time. In other words, they kill for money,
sex, or simply because they are hungry. In cases involving spree killers, au-
thorities usually know who they are looking for: they have the killer’s iden-
tity. As a fugitive, he may go to an area where he feels comfortable, the way
alleged railroad killer Angel Maturino Resendez, also known as Rafael
Resendez-Ramirez, stuck to the tracks.
Sometimes there are spree serial killers, a sort of hybrid, where there is a
shorter time span between murders, perhaps days, and where the victims
may not have a common thread. It is similar to an extension of a mass mur-
der episode; however, the killer moves from one location to another during
his killing spree rather than barricading himself in one location, as does
the mass murderer. The duration of the spree can be brief as in the case of
Wesbecker (nine minutes) or can be much longer as in the case of Charles
Starkweather or Christopher Wilder (weeks and months). As a rule, the spree
is of shorter duration. This type of offender is usually mission oriented and
demonstrates no escape plan. He most often is killed by responding police
or kills himself in a final act of desperation. Occasionally he is captured to
stand trial. When this occurs, the offender often admits his crimes by plead-
ing guilty or pleads not guilty by reason of insanity.
CASE STUDY: ANDREW CUNANAN
Case Contributed by Danielle Esposito
Andrew Cunanan reached headline news in 1997 after shooting the famous
designer Gianni Versace on his doorstep in Florida in broad daylight. Before
killing Versace, the FBI had Cunanan on their Top Ten Most Wanted list for
four other murders over the previous two months across the country.
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 449
Victimology
Cunanan killed four men before he killed Versace. His first two murders
were two men he knew personally: his friend Jeffrey Trail, on April 27, 1997,
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and his “lover, architect David Madson, who
was found outside Minneapolis on April 29, 1997, with gunshot wounds to
the head. Police recognized a connection, as Trail’s body had been found in
Madson’s Minneapolis loft apartment, and started an intensive manhunt.
“Cunanan next drove to Chicago and killed prominent real estate devel-
oper Lee Miglin, age seventy-two, on May 4, 1997. Five days later, the inten-
sive manhunt for Cunanan, who escaped in Miglin’s car, culminated with the
fourth victim in Pennsville, New Jersey, at the Finn’s Point National Ceme-
tery, killing a caretaker named William Reese, age forty-five, on May 9,
1997. Cunanan apparently killed him for his pickup truck, leaving Miglin’s
car behind” (Wikipedia).
While the manhunt resumed for Reese’s truck, Cunanan remained in hid-
ing in Miami Beach, Florida, for months between his fourth and fifth mur-
ders. Finally, for his fifth murder, he chose fashion designer Gianni Versace.
On July 15, 1997, at around 8:30 A.M., Andrew Cunanan followed Gianni
Versace home from breakfast. He came up behind him while he was putting
the keys in his front door and shot him in the back of the head, point blank.
After Versace fell to the ground, he shot him twice more.
Crime Scene Indicators
Trail was beaten with a claw hammer over thirty times. In shock, Madson
rolled up the body with Cunanan, and the two of them headed out of Min-
neapolis in Madson’s Jeep. Cunanan was enjoying the sensation he felt from
the murder, and forty-five miles out of Minneapolis, he pulled over the Jeep
and shot Madson three times in the head. Less than a week later Cunanan
found his next victim, Lee Miglin, in Chicago. The two never knew each
other, and it is still unknown as to why he was targeted. Cunanan left his
passport and a weapon used in killing Miglin in the Mercedes, again leaving
evidence for the police to find.
Forensics
Cunanan bound and tortured Miglin by kicking him, driving a pair of prun-
ing shears through his chest, and cutting his neck with a hacksaw. Afterward
he ran over Miglin’s body with his own Mercedes.
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Investigation
Cunanan’s last murder, Gianni Versace, appears to have been premeditated
as he waited around before committing the murder. After shooting Versace,
Cunanan ran and was chased by a witness who could not catch him, but po-
lice found the truck in a nearby parking garage. In the truck, they found the
clothes Cunanan had just been wearing, another passport, and newspaper
clippings of his murders.
Cunanan was next sighted in a nearby Miami houseboat. The SWAT team
found Cunanan inside on the bed clad in only his boxer shorts and shot
through the mouth with the same gun he used to shoot all the others.
Outcome
Cunanan left no note to explain his murders. To try to understand his motive,
a look at his background and personality provides some understanding of the
killer and his motivation.
Andrew Philip Cunanan was born on August 31, 1969, to Modesto
Cunanan and Mary Anne Shilacci. Filipino-born Modesto served for the
Fleet Marines in Vietnam. While away from home, he came up with the idea
that his wife was being unfaithful, to the point where he questioned the legit-
imacy of his children. By the time Andrew was born, Mary Anne had
become so depressed she was unable to care properly for the infant. Modesto
selfishly and proudly proclaimed how he raised the children on his own.
Modesto and Mary Anne argued increasingly as the years went on, and
Cunanan learned with every experience. He saw his mother’s fear of his father
and grew up with a bitter view of families. But Cunanan tended to brag to his
friends about his family and how rich they were, until his stories were told so
often and were so unbelievable he became known as a pathological liar.
At age thirteen, Cunanan had his first gay experience and began to brag
about it, although he kept it from his parents. He was often recalled as being
self-absorbed, always wanting to be the center of attention, a trait often seen
in people who become violently antisocial. Cunanan also began to come up
with aliases for himself and would change his appearance, sometimes dras-
tically. He also began dating older men whom he could live off and would
buy him expensive things. Andrew Cunanan was good looking, intelligent,
suave, smooth, flamboyant, and an extroverted imposter.
Two months before killing Versace, Cunanan checked into a Miami hotel
under an alias and was active in the nightlife. He wore disguises, which he
did from the beginning of his rampage, almost on instinct. He enjoyed alter-
ing his appearance often, and during his rampage, the FBI sent pictures of
him in many different disguises. He made several risky appearances while in
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 451
Miami, knowing that the police were looking for him, including loitering
near Versace’s home. He was believed to have looked for Versace in high-
priced gay Miami bars.
No one knows Andrew Cunanan’s motivation for all the killings. Cunanan
had fallen in with the underground gay culture of San Francisco and was
involved with drugs and well known as a popular sex slave. He appeared in
many pornographic movies, got pleasure from sadomasochism, and truly en-
joyed his status in the underground. Fantasy had played a role in Cunanan’s
life from early on as an escape from his parents, and grew to involve his
imagined status with celebrities and the belief that the world revolved
around him.
Cunanan’s tendency toward jealousy seems to have played a large role in
some of his murders as well. Trail and Madson had become everything he
could not: they were professionals and still developing, while he was stag-
nant, and their families accepted their homosexuality, while his did not. This
envy also plays a large role in Versace’s murder. It is likely that Cunanan saw
Versace as a kind of icon for the gay community. Versace was a symbol of
everything Cunanan wanted to be—a successful homosexual and a rich
celebrity—and he lashed out at him. These were all traits that Cunanan des-
perately wanted. There is also a possibility that he targeted Versace because
he was seeking worldwide notoriety that he was not attaining from his pre-
vious murders. Cunanan seemed to be killing for one of two reasons: he
either needed something from the person he killed (such as a truck) or he
needed to be the person. Although his motivations may have revolved around
necessity and jealousy, there was something deeper in his psyche building up
to the killings.
The reports about and observations of Cunanan and his personality show
many, if not all, of the behavioral features of a psychopath. He is described
in one report as being glib and superficial. He felt a sense of superiority over
the police and over others in general. He was convinced the world revolved
around him. He began pathological lies at an early age revolving around his
family life and their superiority. He was a master of disguises and deception.
He portrayed numerous characters and had many aliases. He was a complete
chameleon. He has been described as an intelligent con man. He continually
showed a lack of remorse or guilt in each of his murders as well as in other
minor pains he reportedly caused along his climb up the underground ladder.
He consistently showed a lack of empathy and was unconcerned with oth-
ers’ feelings. People were expendable. He lived a parasitic lifestyle off the
wealthy men he dated, never having an apartment of his own, never holding
a steady job and lacking long-term goals. He was promiscuous from age thir-
teen, even gaining notoriety for it later on. He had no responsibility, and all
his money came from his parents, his boyfriends, or prostitution. Finally, he
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tended to put on a mask to those he met. People can recall him as soft-spo-
ken and unassuming, intellectual and worldly, or a flamboyant party boy. He
deceived and eluded everyone, continually causing people to ask questions
about him. He did this all the way to the end.
Type of Murderer: Spree or Serial?
Professionals speculated on everything about him, including the type of
murderer he was. He murdered all types of people. When he was on the run,
no one knew where he would strike next. There seemed to be no pattern to
whom he was killing and where. The signature and pattern were not promi-
nent. He differed in his methods of murder. Some were brutal, while others
were a bullet to the head.
Serial killers tend to go about their lives and murdering on the side, while
spree killers act in passion and without the emotional cooling-off period. In
this sense, Cunanan seemed to be more of a spree killer. He falls into this cat-
egory because of the victims who seemed to be a target of opportunity, ex-
cept for Versace, who appeared to be targeted.
CASE STUDY: CHRISTOPHER WILDER
Case Contributed by Erin Lenahan
Christopher Wilder, referred to as the Beauty Queen Killer, was a sexual
predator credited with killing eight victims. His notorious crimes began on
February 26, 2000, and ended with his death from an apparent suicide on
April 13. Wilder exhibited paraphilic behavior beginning in adolescence,
which continued throughout his criminal behavior. As time progressed, his
crimes became more sadistic and ultimately led to the deaths of many young,
beautiful women.
Background
Christopher Wilder was born in Australia on March 13, 1945, to an Ameri-
can naval officer and an Australian native. In early adolescence, Wilder ex-
hibited voyeuristic behavior when he began window peeking. At the age of
seventeen, Wilder pleaded guilty to the gang-rape of girl in Sydney. He re-
ceived a year of probation with counseling and electroshock therapy. How-
ever, it is suggested that the electroshock therapy gave Wilder ideas for the
sexually sadistic behavior he would later inflict on his victims. His fantasies
were now fueled with the images of shocking girls while having sex with
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 453
them. During the counseling, Wilder’s therapist noted his need to dominate
women and his desire to turn them into his slaves for pleasure.
Wilder moved to Florida in 1969. There he was able to earn a good living
in construction and real estate. While in Florida, he forced a high school stu-
dent to have oral sex. Wilder showed a severe lack of remorse when he told
the judge that he was masturbating twice a week to the mental image of rap-
ing a girl and he did not think that what he had done to the girl was wrong.
A psychiatric evaluation reported he was not safe in an unstructured environ-
ment and recommended supervised treatment. Wilder stood trial, and the
jury acquitted him.
Wilder’s next criminal act began to establish his modus operandi. He
adopted the name of “David Pierce” and approached two girls at a shopping
center, pretending to be a photographer who needed some models. He sub-
sequently drugged and raped one of the girls who went with him. Wilder
plea-bargained the charges brought against him down to probation with ther-
apy. He saw a sex therapist who over a few months believed he had made
progress.
Wilder returned to Australia in 1982 to visit his parents. There he forced
two girls to pose without their clothes for photographs, bound them into sub-
servient positions, and masturbated over them. Wilder’s parents paid bail,
and Wilder was allowed to return to Florida until his trial date. However, his
trial kept being postponed, and by the time it was set, Wilder could not be
found.
Victimology
Police were investigating the disappearance of Rosario Gonzales, age twenty,
and Elizabeth Kenyon, age twenty-three. Both were aspiring models with
long hair. Gonzalez had disappeared from the Miami Grand Prix racetrack on
February 26, 2000, and Kenyon disappeared the night of March 5. Wilder, a
former boyfriend of Kenyon, had proposed marriage after a few dates, but she
declined. Kenyon had told her father that he was a gentleman, and they had
remained friends. The night before her disappearance, Kenyon had visited her
parents and told them that Wilder had offered her a modeling job.
Wilder’s killing spree began with Terry Ferguson, age twenty-one, in
Florida. A witness claimed to have seen Terry talking to Wilder at the shop-
ping mall, and her body was later found in a canal. The next attack was of a
woman from Tallahassee, Florida, who managed to escape after being kid-
napped, raped, and tortured. Terry Diane Walden, age twenty-four, turned
down Wilder’s modeling proposition but disappeared two days later. Her car
was stolen, and she later was found in a canal, stabbed. Suzanne Logan, age
twenty-one, had been tortured and raped before she was stabbed to death and
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her body found in a reservoir. Her pubic region had been shaved and her long
hair snipped off. Sheryl Bonaventura, age eighteen, was Wilder’s next vic-
tim. She was kidnapped from a mall in Colorado and taken to Las Vegas,
where she was killed. Michelle Korfman, age seventeen, was in a fashion
show in Las Vegas and disappeared on April 1. Witnesses saw them leave to-
gether, and others claim Wilder had approached them that day about model-
ing for him. Tina Marie, age sixteen, agreed to pose for Wilder, but when she
told him she had to go home, he put a revolver in her mouth. It is believed
that he did not kill her because he thought he would be able to use her to lure
his next victim, sixteen-year-old Dawnette Wilt. Wilt had been filling out an
application for a modeling job when Tina Marie approached her and told her
to step outside and see the manager. Wilder was outside and used a gun to
force Wilt into the car, where he raped her while Tina Marie drove. They
drove from Indiana to New York, where Wilder tortured and raped her again.
He later took Wilt into the woods and tried to suffocate her and then stabbed
her. She survived by pretending to be dead, and Wilder drove away. Beth
Dodge, age thirty-three, was shot and killed by Wilder for her car. Wilder
then drove to Boston’s Logan Airport and gave Tina Marie money to fly
home. When she arrived in Los Angeles, her hair had been cut short.
Investigation
A gas station attendant claimed to have seen Kenyon and Wilder’s gray
Cadillac. When police questioned Wilder, he denied having seen Kenyon.
When Gonzalez was connected to Wilder, the newspaper reported Wilder as
a suspect and he left town. However, before he left, he kept his appointment
with the therapist who was treating him for sex crimes. This therapist knew
of his preference for girls with long hair and about his fantasy of holding a
girl captive. When the therapist asked if he knew anything about the disap-
pearance of the young women, Wilder denied it.
Wilder’s modus operandi was going to malls or shopping centers and ap-
proaching young women as a photographer interested in hiring them for
modeling. He would get them to approach his car, either trying to persuade
them to go to where they could photograph test shots or claiming he could
show the girls his work. He was well dressed in a suit. Once they were under
his control, he drove them to motels, where he could rape and torture them.
From one of his surviving victims, police learned he brought with him an
electrical contraption to which he hooked up his victims. If the victim did not
perform as he wished, he would shock her into obedience. He cut some of
his victims’ hair and shaved their pubic region. Wilder used different meth-
ods to kill his victim, including suffocation, shooting, and stabbing. The
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 455
bodies were then dumped in rivers or rest areas. Sometimes he stole the vic-
tim’s car and license plates and drove in erratic directions to avoid detection.
On Friday, April 13, 2000, troopers at a service station in New Hampshire
spotted Wilder. There was a scuffle, and two shots were fired. One of the
shots went into Wilder’s heart and killed him; his death was an apparent sui-
cide. Found in his possession were a revolver, ammunition, handcuffs, rolls
of duct tape, rope, a sleeping bag, his business partner’s credit card, the elec-
trical shocking device, and a copy of John Fowles’s novel The Collector.
This book described Wilder’s ultimate fantasy. It is about a man who cap-
tures and imprisons a student named Miranda in his basement. The man sees
nothing wrong with what he has done to Miranda and treats her well, giving
her everything she wants except her freedom in the hopes that she will love
him. Miranda belongs to this man, and this was Wilder’s ultimate fantasy.
There has been debate as to whether Christopher Wilder was a serial or a
spree killer. If he had killed Kenyon and Gonzalez and continued killing in
that same manner without running from the police, he would be a serial
killer. However, Wilder’s known killings happened rapidly and essentially
without a cooling-off period; therefore, he was considered a spree killer. It
may have been Kenyon’s rejection of a marriage proposal that set off what
had been in him since adolescence. Wilder experienced rejection with
Kenyon when he most wanted to dominate women.
Wilder could also be described as an organized offender. He used a ruse
to gain control of his victim, was intelligent and had good verbal skills,
adapted to the situation, brought weapons with him, and was mobile with his
car. He took personal items of the victim, incorporated fantasy, committed
crimes that were sexual and completed, and took steps to conceal the body.
There were also multiple crime scenes.
CASE STUDY: ALLEN MUHAMMAD
AND LEE BOYD MALVO
Case contributed by Robert B. Norberg Jr.
Allen Muhammad (born John Allen Williams on December 31, 1960) car-
ried out the Washington-Baltimore Beltway sniper attacks in an apparent at-
tempt to extort $10 million through terrorism. He and his younger partner,
Lee Boyd Malvo, “were arrested in connection with the attacks on October
24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens” (from Wikipedia).
The attacks began the first Wednesday in October 2002 in the suburbs sur-
rounding Washington, D.C. The heinous nature of these crimes stirred the
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emotions of people across the nation and ignited a fierce debate about capi-
tal punishment in the United States. The relationship between the two
assailants, John Allen Muhammad, age forty-two, and Lee Boyd Malvo, age
seventeen, was founded in persuasion and idolatry. It serves as a testament
to the power of parental figures as well as the influence that religious beliefs
can have on an individual’s ideology.
The chronology of events in this case spans approximately twenty-two
days. In the early evening of October 2, 2002, several front windows of
a Michael’s craft store in the prosperous Washington, D.C., suburb of
Wheaton, Maryland, were shot out at approximately 5:20 P.M. Although the
shots did not injure anyone inside, no shots taken over the next three weeks
by either Malvo or Muhammad would fail to strike their target. Less than an
hour later, at approximately 6:04 P.M., a single bullet struck James Martin, a
program analyst, while walking across a nearby grocery store parking lot.
He had stopped at Shoppers Food Warehouse to buy groceries for his church.
On the following day, five people were shot. The first victim was James
Buchanan, killed with a single bullet in the chest at 7:41 A.M. while mowing
the lawn of a car dealership in White Flint, Maryland. At 8:12 A.M., Kumar
Walekar, a taxi driver, was killed on the day of his twenty-fifth wedding
anniversary while pumping gas into his van in Aspen Hill, Maryland. At
8:37 A.M., Sarah Ramos was killed while relaxing and reading outside a post
office on a bench in Silver Spring, Maryland. At 9:58 A.M., Lori Ann Lewis-
Rivera was killed while getting ready to vacuum her van at a gas station in
Kensington, Maryland. The final attack of the day occurred nearly twelve
hours later, at 9:15 P.M., when Pascal Charlot was shot and killed while
crossing the street near the center of Washington, D.C.
Law enforcement became aware that the crimes were related by the evening
of October 3 as they began to pursue the first reports of two men in a white
van as probable suspects. The following day, the assailants attacked south of
Washington, D.C., in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A woman, whose identity is
still held private, was struck and wounded at 2:30 P.M. in the parking lot of
another Michael’s store. Although critically injured, she was treated and
later released.
After this series of attacks, police quickly tied the shootings together.
After verifying ballistics evidence, they established that the murders were
the work of a single shooter using a high-powered .223-caliber assault rifle.
The killings resumed the following Monday morning by wounding a
thirteen-year-old boy entering Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie,
Maryland. This act seemed to be a response to various news reports ques-
tioning the safety of area schools. The young boy survived only after doctors
spent hours removing his spleen and pancreas. Two days later, Dean Myers
was shot at 8:18 A.M. while pumping gas near Manassas, Virginia. A white
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 457
van was stopped in the area but did not produce any leads. On October 11,
Kenneth Bridges was shot and killed at a gas station outside Fredericksburg,
Virginia, directly off Interstate 95. On October 14, Linda Franklin, an FBI
analyst, was killed in the parking garage of a Home Depot in Falls Church,
Virginia. On Saturday, October 19, a thirty-seven-year-old man was killed
after being struck in the upper chest as he and his wife walked across a
restaurant parking lot in Ashland, Virginia. Conrad Johnson, the final victim,
was shot at 5:56 A.M. on Tuesday, October 22 in Silver Spring, Maryland,
while at a bus stop. He later died while being airlifted to Suburban Hospital
in Bethesda, Maryland.
Throughout the course of the shootings, several distinctive and crucial
forms of evidence arose near or at each of the scenes that led to the eventual
arrest of the two killers. The first piece of evidence beyond ballistics that
allowed investigators to begin developing a profile for the assailants was a
tarot card left near the scene of the Benjamin Tasker Middle School shoot-
ing in Bowie, Maryland. The “death” card had inscribed on it the phrase,
“Dear Policeman: I am God.” Other tarot cards would be found at other
crime scenes later in the investigations with similar phrases specifically ad-
dressing the police. It soon became apparent after the news of the first tarot
card reached the media that the killers were monitoring news reports care-
fully. The only school attack came directly after news reports the previous
weekend questioning the safety of children going to school. FBI profiler
Clint Van Zandt stated, “The killer’s pattern shows every indication that he
is toying with the police, using the media for information, and challenging
assumptions we are making about him.”
As the investigation progressed, Muhammad began not only attacking on
weekends, but also widening the geographical area in which he was attack-
ing. On the evening of October 19, shortly after his attack in Ashland, Vir-
ginia, he placed a phone call to a tip line from an area in Richmond. His
voice, altered by a voice-disguising machine, noted that a letter could be
found near the scene of the crime. Investigators found a note later that
evening wrapped in plastic and taped to a tree. The contents of the letter
included a critique of the police in their investigative capabilities as well as
numerous phrases boasting about his own intelligence.
Throughout the next week, he placed other calls to local and state police.
Disguising his voice, he consistently became temperamental with investiga-
tors and repeatedly asserted that he was “God” and that “no one is safe any-
where, at any time.” The investigation began to proceed rapidly once
Muhammad, in one of his contacts with police, mentioned a previously un-
solved murder in a “Montgomery” liquor store. Investigators believed the
reference to refer to a Montgomery, Alabama, murder a few weeks prior on
September 21. A fingerprint found at the scene was soon linked to Lee
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Malvo, a Jamaican citizen whose fingerprints were on file with the Immigra-
tion and Naturalization Service.
Through extensive background research, investigators were able to asso-
ciate Malvo with John Allen Muhammad, an expert marksman and a Gulf
War veteran who was the boyfriend of Malvo’s mother and a father figure to
Malvo. It was also soon discovered that police had approached Muhammad
on October 8 when a safety officer reprimanded him for sleeping in his car
on a side street. From this altercation came the automobile description. Soon
investigators were on the hunt not for a white van but for a 1990 Chevrolet
Caprice with a New Jersey license plate. Within hours of publicizing the new
lead, truck driver Ron Lantz recognized the car at a rest stop northwest of
Washington. Malvo and Muhammad were quietly arrested. In the car were a
Bushmaster rifle, a scope, a tripod, and a “sniper’s perch” inside the trunk,
allowing Muhammad to strike his target without ever leaving the car. The
bullets passed through holes drilled in the back of the trunk. The FBI linked
the one rifle found in the car to all but three of the shootings.
THE SNIPERS
Lee Boyd Malvo was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of Una James and
Leslie Samuel Malvo. After the relationship between Malvo’s parents dis-
solved, he and his mother immigrated to Antigua in 1998. Una James and
Muhammad, although never romantically involved, became strong friends.
Una left Lee with Muhammad when she moved to the United States, with
the intention that her son and Muhammad would soon follow. Shortly after
joining his mother, Lee moved in with Muhammad in Bellingham, Washing-
ton, and enrolled in school, claiming Muhammad as his father.
The facts previously set out here present an interesting dynamic in ana-
lyzing the psychodynamics of these offenders and in classifying their
crimes. Initially Muhammad had asked law enforcement for a specific sum
of money. He demanded that this would be the only route to stopping the vio-
lence. Certainly this series of violent crimes could be classified as a criminal
enterprise given Muhammad’s request for money. The $10 million requested
of the federal government by Muhammad was an attack on the free and dem-
ocratic ideologies of America in the name of radical Islam. The thirteen vic-
tims, ten dead and three wounded, qualify this crime as serial, given the
cooling-off period between each of the shootings. It could also be argued
that the crime was a group cause given that Malvo has been directly impli-
cated in at least two of the shootings and the actions were committed by two
individuals who arguably had similar ideologies. Regardless, these nonspe-
cific homicides held a region captive by attacking innocent victims no mat-
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 459
ter their age, gender, or ethnicity. The weapon of choice for this type of
offender is a firearm—a weapon that optimizes lethality and is used in tar-
geting vital areas of the body.
THE RELIGIOUS THEME
Muhammad, originally named John Allen Williams, converted to Islam after
being honorably discharged as a specialist metalworker and expert marks-
man in the U.S. Army. While in the military, he received a summary court-
martial for “various and numerous disciplinary reasons.” Although little is
known of Muhammad’s childhood, it has been documented by investigators
that he was a member of the Nation of Islam, a radical and fundamentalist
group denounced by the majority of Muslims. After his arrest, authorities
discovered that Muhammad admired al-Qaeda and approved of the Septem-
ber 11 attacks. He fathered numerous children with various women and was
married twice before meeting Malvo.
The psychodynamics of Muhammad are best viewed from the context of
his radical behavior and belief system relating to his Islamic conversion as
well as those acts he committed in cooperation with the shootings. Themes
of dominance and control are apparent in these crimes. Muhammad thrived
off his ability to paralyze society and hold the media captive based on what
his next move would be. His interactions with investigators and the evidence
he purposely left at crime scenes were riddled with statements referring to
himself as God. He would continually remind police, “No one is safe.” The
power he derived over the government and its citizens from the shootings
were the largest motivating factor for Muhammad. These actions gave him
an outlet to boast of his actions and revel in his “accomplishments.” His
hubris is seen in his leaking of the Montgomery murder the month prior to
the shootings, a break that eventually caused his capture.
Muhammad followed the classic pattern of a serial killer: he justified his
actions, learned from his mistakes, and discovered actions that would in-
crease his dominance and control. Muhammad is a classic organized of-
fender. His tripod and platform built in the trunk of the automobile minimized
his risk of detection and allowed him to adapt to almost any location, leav-
ing only the physical evidence he chose. The only piece of evidence he could
not control was the ballistics. Muhammad was intelligent with regard to the
use of firearms and adapted to each situation with his mobility and monitor-
ing of the media.
Lee Boyd Malvo, implicated in several of the shootings, aided Muham-
mad as the driver of the automobile throughout the killing spree. Malvo’s
childhood was characterized by instability, violence, and dysfunctional
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parental roles. After his abusive father left his mother, Malvo was often
placed in the care of friends and relatives for weeks on end. It is important
to note how easily influenced Malvo was by Muhammad, a man Malvo was
drawn to out of the need for a father figure and support as an immigrant. The
deviant parental roles in his childhood played a significant role in his attach-
ment to Muhammad despite his preaching of radical and socially unaccept-
able principles.
THE TRIAL
John Allen Muhammad was prosecuted in the fall of 2003. The prosecution
team called more than 130 witnesses and introduced over 400 pieces of evi-
dence linking Muhammad to the shootings. The strongest evidence included
the rifle found in Muhammad’s car, eyewitnesses placing Muhammad’s car
at various crime scenes, and a tape recording of the sniper’s voice demand-
ing money in exchange for halting the shootings. On November 17, 2003,
Muhammad was unanimously convicted in Virginia on all counts with which
he was charged: capital murder for the shooting of Dean Meyers; a second
charge of capital murder under Virginia’s antiterrorism statute for homicide
committed with the intent to terrorize the government or the public at large;
conspiracy to commit murder; and the illegal use of a firearm. On March 9,
2004, after two days of deliberation, a Virginia judge concurred with the jury
and sentenced Muhammad to death. He will be executed in the state of Vir-
ginia and is currently held at the maximum security Sussex I State Prison
near Waverly in Sussex County, Virginia.
Malvo was charged by the state of Virginia for two capital crimes: the
murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin “in the commission of an act of terror-
ism” and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. He was
also charged with the unlawful use of a firearm. Malvo pleaded not guilty on
grounds of insanity, claiming that Muhammad had acquired complete control
of him. On December 18, 2003, a jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, convicted him
of both charges and on December 23 sentenced him to life in prison without
parole. Although under the Eighth Amendment Malvo cannot be put to death
given that his actions were committed prior to the age of eighteen. Muham-
mad was convicted of six shootings in Maryland on May 30, 2006. Cur-
rently, Malvo is being held at Virginia’s maximum security Red Onion State
Prison in Wise County, Virginia.
“In 2003, Malvo and Muhammad were named in a major civil lawsuit by
the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on
behalf of two of their victims who were seriously wounded and the families
of some of those murdered. Although Malvo and Muhammad were each
believed to be indigent, codefendants Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply and Bush-
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 461
master Firearms contributed to a landmark $2.5 million out-of-court settle-
ment in late 2004” (from Wikipedia).
Serial Murder
Serial murder generally involves three or more victims. What sets this cate-
gory apart from the two others is a cooling-off period between murders. The
hiatus could be days, months, or years. In other words, the serial killer is not
killing with frequency. Part of the reason is that the organized type of killer
is not generally a risk taker. He wants to be sure that if he decides to commit
a crime, he will be in a win-win position. Second, he does not have to kill
often if he is taking mementos from the victim—some clothing or jewelry—
so he can relive the crime and extend the fantasy.
A serial killer usually goes after strangers, but the victims tend to share
similarities such as gender, age, or occupation. Although he prefers a certain
look or background, it does not mean he will not substitute another victim if
he cannot find his intended target. At any given time, there are between
thirty-five and fifty serial killers in the United States, and that is a conserva-
tive estimate. About a dozen serial killers are arrested each year.
Areas where there is prostitution, a drug culture, runaways, so-called
throwaways, street people, and children gravitating to bus depots are fertile
ground for serial killers. Compounding the problem, there are more than
seventeen thousand police agencies in the United States, some with limited
technology and the inability to share information. If there is an inability to
link cases, agencies may not even know they have a serial killer on their
hands. Throw into the mix the mobility of the offender—within a state or
across state lines—and he can get away with murder.
Among the most notorious serial killers are Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy,
and John Wayne Gacy, who collectively killed at least sixty-six people. The
cases here examine one of the earliest child serial murder cases (Albert Fish)
and cases that took decades to solve (Gary Ridgway).
CASE STUDY: ALBERT FISH
Case Contributed by Dan Ryan
Parents tell their small children that there is no bogeyman—that he is a ghost
story, a shadow cast by a childhood nightmare.
In 1927, when a small boy named Billy informed his father and policemen
that it was the bogeyman who took his four-year-old playmate Billy Gaffney
away from the hallway of their Manhattan apartment, no one listened. Days
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later, after the canal had been dredged and Gaffney was still nowhere to be
found, an investigator asked Billy for the bogeyman’s description. Billy told
them the bogeyman was a thin, gray, old man with a moustache.
No one at that time noticed that the description matched that of “the gray
man” reported in Staten Island three years before. Anna McDonnell saw the
gray man, an old “tramp” with a drooping moustache, from her porch; he
was watching her eight-year-old son, Francis, play. Neighborhood boys later
informed her that Francis had disappeared from a ball game with the gray
man. Francis’s father, a policeman, found his son’s nude body in the woods.
He had been beaten viciously and strangled with his suspenders.
No one had made the connection to Albert Fish when Gracie Budd, a ten
year old from an impoverished family in Manhattan, disappeared on June 3,
1928, with an elderly gentleman who introduced himself as Frank Howard.
Howard had arrived at the Budds’ West Fifteenth Street apartment a week
earlier with a job offer for Gracie’s elder brother, Edward, who had placed
an ad in the New York World looking for work. Howard promised to take
Edward back with him, but when he returned, he met Gracie. He gave Ed-
ward money for a movie and told him he had to attend his sister’s child’s
birthday on 137th Street and would pick up Edward later that evening. Then
he offered to take Gracie to the party. The Budds, who found Howard “cred-
ible and genteel,” thought the party might be fun for her. When Howard did
not return with their daughter later that night, they frantically reported her
disappearance. “Howard’s” photograph did not appear in the police’s collec-
tion of known child molesters; the police had few leads.
In fact, neither Frank Howard nor his sister on 137th Street existed.
Howard was Albert Fish: Billy’s bogeyman, the Gray Man, a pedophile, al-
leged cannibal, and ultimately murderer of fifteen people, mostly children.
That night Fish took Gracie by train to Wisteria Cottage in Westchester.
He carried a bundle containing a cleaver, a saw, and a butcher knife that he
had previously purchased. At the cottage, Gracie collected flowers while
Fish went upstairs, opened the bundle, and stripped. He called to Gracie and
then hid naked in a closet. When Gracie came up and saw Fish naked, she
screamed for her mother and tried to escape. Fish grabbed her and strangled
her. He then decapitated her over an empty paint bucket to catch the blood.
Fish cut the body in half, wrapped half of it in newspaper, and discarded the
weapons, blood, and various body parts on the property. He came back for
the other half later, he said.
Though Fish, previously convicted of larceny, writing obscene letters, and
theft, had been at least marginally connected to more than a dozen cases of
missing or murdered children, he might never have gotten caught. However,
in 1934, long after the cases of Benny Gaffney and Francis McDonnell were
discarded as unsolvable, a detective leaked false information to columnist
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 463
Walter Winchell, who wrote that the police were on the verge of capturing
Gracie’s kidnapper.
Fish responded with an anonymous letter to the Budds that described in
vicious detail how he had killed and eaten Gracie. It said, in part:
My dear Mrs. Budd . . .
On Sunday June the 3—1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St.
Brought you pot cheese—strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my
lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her.
On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said yes she could
go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked
out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wild-
flowers. I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did
not I would get her blood on them.
When all was ready I went to the window and called her. Then I
hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked
she began to cry and tried to run down the stairs. I grabbed her and she
said she would tell her mamma.
First I stripped her naked. How she did kick—bite and scratch. I
choked her to death, and then cut her in small pieces so I could take my
meat to my rooms. Cook and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass
was roasted in the oven. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did
not fuck her, though I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.”
The events described in the letter, as well as handwriting matches to
Fish’s previous note to the Budds, indicated that the writer was the man who
called himself Frank Howard. Police were able to trace the letter to a board-
inghouse and after so many years caught the gray man.
Fish confessed to killing Gracie and described how he had done it. While
on the property of Wisteria Cottage, investigators also discovered the re-
mains of Billy Gaffney. When confronted, Fish described in detail how he
had killed Gaffney and, in the manner of a chef describing meal preparation,
detailed how he had cooked and eaten the boy. He had stripped, bound, and
gagged Billy in a remote location, then left him there overnight. He returned
the next day with prepurchased tools and beat Billy until he was “tender.” He
sliced off Billy’s ears and nose, cut his mouth, and gouged out his eyes. At
some point during all this, Billy died; Fish said he drank Billy’s blood and
then cut the body into pieces. He placed most of it in a sack weighed down
with stones and threw it into the river. The rest, particularly the buttocks,
penis, and testicles, which Fish referred to as Billy’s “delicious monkey and
pee wees,” he took home and prepared with vegetables in spices.
Albert Fish was one of the early serial killers in U.S. criminal history. The
motivation and psychodynamics of his crime are difficult to pinpoint. Fish
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himself could not really explain why he killed Gracie or any of the other chil-
dren. He told investigators, “I never could account for it.” Nor could he
explain why he wrote the cruel letter to Delia Budd, except that he had
a “mania for writing.” He also told investigators that he regretted killing
Gracie almost immediately. “I would have given my life within a half-hour
after I had done it to restore her,” he said. Still, investigators, and later the
Budds themselves, commented on how completely emotionless he seemed
as he confessed to the murders of Gracie, Billy, and others. He did not react
when he saw his victims’ remains unearthed.
All Fish could say was that he was overcome with a “blood lust” in 1928.
When he saw Gracie, he immediately felt compelled to kill her. Fish told
psychiatrists that he heard God telling him to kill young children. The per-
sonation of the crime, it seemed, was a religious fantasy: Fish was taking
orders from God. Fish also admitted he was sexually aroused when he stran-
gled Gracie but adamantly denied raping her or desiring to.
The classification category of the murders weighs somewhat on the side
of personal cause, although elements of sexual homicide appear (Fish ate the
buttocks and genitals, castrated his male victims, and was aroused by the act
of killing Gracie).
Fish’s father died when he was five. His mother placed him in an orphan-
age, where he sang in the choir and was raised (and punished) by nuns. He
recalled being whipped and eventually liking it. His family also had a his-
tory of mental illness: aunts, uncles, and sisters were alcoholic, and a few
died in the asylum. His mother was said to be insane. Childhood trauma,
assumed mental illness, and his religious history evolved into a belief in
pain, torture, and absolution, a blood lust seemingly devised by heaven.
When his wife left him to raise his six children alone, he would often stick
pins into his body, sometimes losing track of them (an X-ray in prison re-
vealed twenty-nine pins or needles stuck in his pelvic region) while shout-
ing to the sky, “I am Christ!” He would self-flagellate and encouraged his
children to spank him with a brush or paint paddle in a game he devised. He
had a history of pedophilia and engaged in sexual acts that included eating
human feces.
Fish’s methodology was highly organized. He took personal items from
the victims (body parts), prevented their identification, incorporated sexual
aspects into the crime (nudity, arousal), and concealed the bodies well.
Gracie Budd’s case is particularly instructive. Fish’s antecedent behavior
indicates an extreme level of organization. The crime was premeditated; Fish
bought the weapons in advance, lied, and brought Gracie to a predetermined
spot. The commission of the crime was cold and exact. The staging and exit
strategy were scientific and well planned: Fish cut the body into “manage-
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 465
able” pieces and discarded or ate them. The crime remained completely hid-
den for years.
However, Fish confessed that he never intended to kill Gracie. The
planned crime involved her brother, Edward, whom Fish selected when he
saw his ad. Fish planned on bringing him to a remote spot, slicing off his
penis, and leaving him to bleed to death. He worried that Edward was too big
but planned on continuing. When he returned to the apartment and met Gra-
cie, he quickly changed his mind. Although the modus operandi was highly
organized, the targeted victim changed completely when he selected Gracie
instead, an easier victim than the teenaged Edward. Not only did the choice
indicate an impassioned decision, it also placed Fish in a higher risk level.
He could have easily disappeared with Edward for a few weeks without rais-
ing questions. With Gracie, her family became suspicious that night when
she was not returned home.
Ultimately the crime was premeditated. It was highly organized, and though
the victim changed, the selection—a child, preferably small and weak—
did not. The crime scene remained constant: Fish made first contact with the
victim in his or her home or neighborhood. The location of the crime and the
exit site were the same: a remote, hidden location where he could murder
and dismember the victim, then return to his home with chosen body parts.
The risk level for the victims seemed low, since they were in their neighbor-
hoods, often on their own property and, in Gracie’s case, in her own home
when meeting Fish. However, in all cases, there were either no adults pres-
ent or, as in the Budds’case, the adults allowed the victim to go off with Fish.
The risk level for Fish was relatively high: there was always a chance of
being seen as he stole children away, especially when he took them by train.
In Gracie’s case, the risk was high: he charmed his way into her home. But
he gave false information and was untraceable.
However unbalanced Fish appeared, the prosecution wanted the death
penalty. They argued that Fish knew the difference between right and wrong
when he killed Gracie Budd and that he understood the nature of his acts.
They argued that Fish’s penchant for sadomasochism and coprophagia was
“normal,” or at least acceptable by social standards. Their expert witnesses
labeled Fish a “psychopathic personality without psychosis,” despite ac-
knowledging his love for inflicting and enduring pain, his pedophilic and
cannibalistic tendencies, and his religious fantasy. The defense’s case
seemed simple: How could a jury not find a man who killed and ate chil-
dren insane? The case for insanity, though, rested on the fact that Fish had
eaten Gracie, something the defense could not prove. In questioning, the
prosecution’s psychiatric team argued that cannibalism did not necessarily
reflect a psychosis.
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After ten days of trial, the jury deliberated for an hour. Albert Fish was
found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death by electrocu-
tion. He was executed on January 16, 1936.
Was Albert Fish insane? His logic was dangerously unsound, he was
emotionless, and he could not explain his actions, though he said he felt
badly about them. It is understandable that the prosecution wanted a killer
of children executed, and they played on the emotions of the jury. At the
high point of the trial, the lead attorney for the state described the murder
in detail and then pulled Gracie’s skull from a box of evidence. In 1936, the
state did not care whether this man understood his actions or not. They
wanted him executed.
At one point during the trial, Fish chillingly told his lawyer that he wanted
to live: “God still has work for me to do.” The lawyer did not ask what his
client meant.
CASE STUDY: GARY RIDGWAY
Case Contributed by Emily Dendinger
In 1982, the bodies of three women were discovered in and around the Green
River near Seattle, Washington. The cause of death was determined to be
strangulation, and two of the three had triangular rocks inserted into their
vaginas. Over the next twenty years, the bodies of numerous other women
were discovered around the same area in eight clumps. Most were young
prostitutes or runaways who had been dumped in water, muddy areas, or
woodlands in a thirty-mile radius. A few were discovered in trash heaps and
dumpsters by the Sea-Tac Airport. All of the bodies found were naked and
left in degrading positions. The man responsible for these deaths and at least
forty-eight more was dubbed the Green River Killer.
The criminal investigation to track this killer was extensive and exhaust-
ing. Numerous suspects were questioned, but women kept disappearing and
more bodies in various degrees of composition kept being discovered. FBI
serial killer profilers and criminal investigators were called in to aid the
investigation. They were able to pinpoint that many of the victims had
known one another, and most had a history of prostitution. From these obser-
vations, they figured they were looking for a man who most likely hated
women and had a deep, fanatical religious sense.
The bodies that were found all had some things in common. All had been
strangled, most of them with clothing that belonged to the victim but some
with men’s socks or trouser legs. Forensic reports showed that the victims had
all recently engaged in oral, anal, and vaginal sex. Most of the victims were
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young, unusually short, and plump. There was also a wide range of races
present in the victims.
One of the first potential leads came in 1983. The boyfriend of Marie Mal-
var, who was a prostitute, saw her talking to a potential customer in a dark-
colored truck who solicited her on the street. Suspicious of the man, the
boyfriend followed them until he eventually lost them. He never saw Marie
again. A few weeks, later he spotted the truck and alerted police, who ques-
tioned the owner. The truck belonged to a middle-aged man named Gary
Ridgway who denied knowing anything about the missing girl, and police let
him off. Then the truck was later seen at the site of another missing prostitute.
As more women continued to go missing, things began to look desperate
for the investigation. At one point, serial killer Ted Bundy, who had been fol-
lowing the killings of the man he dubbed “the Riverman,” offered to help by
letting the investigators interview him to get a glimpse into the mind of a
serial killer. Although Bundy did little to aid this case, his interview led to
his confession of more murders that had not previously been connected
to him. It also helped profilers better understand the minds of serial killers.
In 1987 police returned to Ridgway as their chief suspect. He had previ-
ously been caught attempting to solicit an undercover officer in 1984 and had
attempted to choke a prostitute in 1980. Although he passed a lie detector test,
the chief investigator at the time continued to look at him as a suspect. It was
discovered that he had been questioned earlier in 1982 with one of the pros-
titutes who later turned up missing. Questioning of Ridgway’s ex-wife
revealed that Ridgway had knowledge of the dump site clumps and often fre-
quented the sites. He also drove past the strip where the prostitutes were usu-
ally taken from daily on his way to work. Although a warrant was obtained to
search his home, there was not yet enough evidence to link Ridgway to the
crimes, and he was released.
Over the next couple of years, more bodies continued to be found, alert-
ing investigators that the Green River Killer was still at work. In 1990, the
skull of one of the victims turned up in a wooded area different from the lo-
cation of the rest of her body. It appeared as if the killer was taunting the
police by moving bones around to purposely confuse them.
In 2001, new forensic technology helped get the evidence needed to link
Ridgway to the crimes. Semen samples taken from the first three victims
matched Ridgway’s DNA, and he was arrested in 2001. In 2003 he confessed
to the murder of at least forty-eight women. By agreeing to cooperate with
the authorities on closing these cases, Ridgway bargained with the prosecu-
tion to exchange the death penalty sentence, which was being sought, for life
in jail without parole.
Ridgeway can be typed as a serial killer and demonstrates many of the
characteristics associated with psychopaths. He told authorities that he did
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not recall the names or even faces of many of his victims, but knew exactly
where most of them were buried. He said that killing gave him a thrill, and
the women he had chosen were all disposable, used only to satisfy his pleas-
ure. He went out at night with the intent to kill, but did not pick the victim
until he got to the scene. He also said that he picked prostitutes because he
hated them, and they were easy targets because they were accessible and less
likely to be reported missing. He demonstrated another behavior typical of
serial killers in explaining that he liked to bury the bodies near one another
so he could drive past the area, remember his crime, and relive the pleasure
the experience gave him. One ex-wife said that Ridgway liked having sex
outdoors and had had sex with her at one of the dump sites.
During his confession, Ridgway proved to be proud of his crimes. He told
investigators that he considered killing prostitutes his “career” and the thing
he was good at. He hated women because he felt that they always had power
over him, and his actions were a compulsion to gain and maintain control.
He viewed women as objects and lacked any kind of caring or compassion.
Like many other psychopaths, Ridgway had an inability to demonstrate inti-
macy with anyone and had difficult performing sexually unless he was in a
dominating position. Even in death, Ridgway needed to be in control. He
confessed to necrophilia, sometimes up to several days after killing. His ob-
session with maintaining control even affected the way Ridgway viewed his
dump sites. He admitted that every time victims’ remains were discovered,
he felt as though something was being taken away from him.
Much of Ridgway’s mental health can be traced back to his roots. He
grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was described to be “normal,” although
not very bright and a poor student. His mother was reported to be domineer-
ing and dressed provocatively. Ridgway later told investigators that he was
torn between a sexual desire toward her and an intense, murderous hatred.
As a child, he had been a bed-wetter until relatively late, and his mother
humiliated and taunted him for this. These early emotions and thoughts ap-
pear to have contributed to Ridgway’s killing fantasies.
As an adult, Ridgway remained close to home, leaving only briefly for a
tour in the navy. He was married several times, had a son, and usually had a
steady girlfriend. He worked at a paint store, went to church, and appeared
to fit into the community. He believed that his first wife cheated on him while
he was oversees, and he later said she became a “whore.” His ex-lovers
claimed that Ridgway was preoccupied with sex, demanding it two or three
times a day, and he liked to have sex outdoors. He also demanded anal sex
and bondage from his partners on several occasions.
Over the next few years, Ridgway continued his obsession with sex and
bondage and frequently interacted with prostitutes. During his second mar-
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Mass, Spree, and Serial Homicide 469
riage, it appears that Ridgway was either already killing or making prepara-
tions to begin. His ex-wife said that Ridgway was getting odder: he would
practice walking noiselessly around the house and would jump out and put
her in a choke hold. He carried tarps and blankets in the back of the cars and
told her to stay away from the garage. During and after church services, he
would often cry, and at night he would sit with an open Bible in front of him.
Soon after their divorce, Ridgway’s first known victim was discovered.
Once Ridgway began killing, it consumed him. He claimed that at the
height of his killing spree, he was sleeping only a few hours a night and then
would go out “patroling” for his victim. He picked younger women because
they were the easiest to control, and he liked the way they tended to be more
vocal in pleading for their lives. Once he solicited the prostitute, he would
try to get her to come back with him to his house or to a wooded area where
he would have sex with her, kill her, and then deposit the body. As the
killings went on, his modus operandi became more advanced. He would
offer to give rides to two women and establish their trust so that later, if he
saw one alone, she would be more willing to come with him. Sometimes he
even used a picture of his son to put the women at ease. He also told inves-
tigators that he needed to be in the right mood to hunt, which was calm and
easy-going.
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CHAPTER
14
Homicidal Poisoning
ARTHUR E. WESTVEER
JOHN P. JARVIS
CARL J. JENSEN III
Poisoning, of course, differs considerably from many other crimes,
frequently committed in uncontrolled passion and in the heat of the
moment. The innate character of the crime of homicidal poisoning
demands subterfuge, cunning and, what is equally important, usually
a period of careful planning, and also not infrequently the repetition
of the act of administering poison. . . . Its characteristic being one of
premeditation, it is a method of murder which therefore cannot be the
subject of extenuation as some other forms of killing can.
J. Glaisiter (1954)
When examined as a group, do empirical data concerning homicidal
poisoners and their victims reveal relationships, patterns, and charac-
teristics that may prove helpful to investigators? Surprisingly, other than a
few published reviews of some famous historical poisoning cases, little has
been written on the characteristics of the poisoner and his or her victim (see
471
We thank the FBI/UCR program for providing the supplementary homicide reports
data relating to poisoning homicides. We also thank John Trestrail for his insights on
earlier drafts of this chapter and his contributions to earlier work in this area. Finally,
we acknowledge those Behavioral Science Unit members who assisted at all stages
of the process: intern Emily Noroski, who reworked initial drafts of this chapter, and
supervisory special agents Harry Kern and Sharon Smith, who reviewed the final
manuscript.
The cases in this chapter were contributed by Emily Lilly.
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Westveer, Trestrail, & Pinizzotto, 1996, and Trestrail, 2000, for excep-
tions).1A further review of the international forensic literature does not re-
veal any previously published epidemiological studies dealing with criminal
investigative analyses, or psychological profiles, of the homicidal poisoner.
Building on the few empirically based studies that do exist, this analysis
examines the most recently reported poisoning homicides.
In order to conduct this examination, the FBI Uniform Crime Reports
(UCR) information concerning supplementary homicide reports (SHR) was
drawn on to examine those incidents occurring in the United States between
1990 and 1999. These data were examined to isolate incidents involving
homicides where a poisoning agent was reported to be the cause of death.2
The time period was purposefully selected to permit comparisons to the ear-
lier work of Westveer et al. (1996), which examined similar data for the
decade 1980 to 1989. The factors that were examined included those that had
been previously shown to offer explanatory and probative value to investiga-
tions: victim demographics, offender attributes, geographical and temporal
features, and factors specific to particular incidents. The importance of coop-
eration between the medicolegal science community and law enforcement is
underscored, and such findings serve as a foundation for the continued ex-
amination of behavioral attributes of homicidal poisoners.
METHOD
The UCR program has traditionally been used to look for fluctuations in the
level of crime and to provide criminologists with statistics for research and
planning. From these data, the SHRs reveal much of what is known empiri-
cally about the nature and scope of homicidal behavior in the United States.
For this study, 186,971 SHR murders in the United States during the ten-
year period from 1990 to 1999 were available for analysis. This volume of
cases represents an 8 percent decline in reported murders when compared to
the 202,785 homicides reported in the 1980s. From these cases, those homi-
cides that involved a chemical (nondrug) poison or a drug or narcotic that
had been used by an offender for homicidal purposes were extracted. Re-
ports involving asphyxiation or fumes were excluded from the study,
because it was not possible to differentiate asphyxiation by smothering from
cases involving chemical fumes (such as carbon monoxide).
RESULTS
Of the 186,971 SHR reports in the United States for 1990 to 1999, 346 (0.19
percent), or 1.9 per 100,000 total homicides, were poisonings involving a
single victim and a single offender, or a single victim and an unknown num-
ber of offenders.3This compares with 292 similar homicidal poisonings
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Homicidal Poisoning 473
reported during the 1980s. Therefore, the 1990s saw an increase of 18 per-
cent in reported homicidal poisonings, which equates to a 35 percent in-
crease in the rate of these cases coming to the attention of law enforcement
during the 1990s. The effective investigation of homicides generally, and
poisoning cases in particular, often depends on a number of factors, includ-
ing such basic investigative data as victim demographics, possible offender
characteristics, geographical and temporal features of the case, and any par-
ticular incident attributes that may assist law enforcement. For these reasons,
the results are presented with these investigative categories in mind.
VICTIM DEMOGRAPHICS
The SHR data for the 1990s show that victims of homicidal poisonings were
found to be almost equally divided between males and female. The victims’
ages ranged from a single victim less than one week old to thirteen victims
seventy-five years or older. The age range for the greatest number of vic-
tims was from twenty-five to forty-four years, which constituted 91 (37.2
percent) of the victims. The age of the victim was unknown in 4 (1.2 percent)
of the homicides. By race, poison was used in 0.006 percent of all homicides
on black victims. By gender, black males poisoned victims almost twice as
often as black females did. White victims were almost equally divided be-
tween males and females in poisoning homicides. Victims of other races
were as likely to be males as females.
OFFENDER ATTRIBUTES
The data reveal that victim characteristics may dictate some contingency
related to offender characteristics. That is, when the victim was a female, the
offenders were found to be predominantly male. If the victim was a male,
the offenders were found to be almost equally divided between males and
females. Regardless of the sex of the victim, the poisoning offenders were
found to be predominantly white. It would appear that homicidal poisonings,
like other homicidal behavior, usually did not cross racial lines, with the
offender typically being of the same race as the victim. However, this infor-
mation also shows a slight increase from 1 percent to 3.5 percent among
other races as victims compared to the analysis for the 1980s (Westveer et
al., 1996). Additional findings show that whites were predominantly the vic-
tims of a male offender, blacks were almost equally the victims of male and
female offenders, and people of other racial backgrounds were equally likely
to be victims of female or unknown offenders.
By race, black poisoning offenders were males twice as often as females,
and white poisoning offenders were also more likely to be males. By gen-
der, the result that 168 (48.6 percent) of the poisoning offenders were male,
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compared to 115 (33.2 percent) female offenders, would seem to challenge
the perception that poisons are primarily used by female offenders. Of
course, it must be emphasized here that these cases represent only murders
that become known. It could be that females are the predominant gender for
poisoners but are more successful at getting away with the crime. Further-
more, this information reflects a 50 percent increase in the participation of
females in this criminal homicidal behavior compared to data from the
1980s (see Westveer et al., 1996). It must be noted that the gender of 63
(18.2 percent) of the offenders remained unknown. The offenders’ ages
ranged from one offender in the range ten to fourteen years, to four in the
seventy-five years or older group. The age category twenty to thirty-four ac-
counted for 111 (32.1 percent) of the offenders. The age of the offender was
unknown in 73 (21.1 percent) of the homicides. These patterns have re-
mained relatively stable in comparison to those of the 1980s.
However, a word of caution should be emphasized here: since the percent-
age of poisoning offenders with unknown characteristics was found to be
twenty to thirty times higher than those with unknown characteristics among
all homicide offenders, some of these demographic findings remain tenta-
tive. This problem is most likely due to a lack of witnesses to provide insight
into offender characteristics.
Relationship of Poisoning Victim to Offender
Homicides within families occur with some frequency and accounted for
125 (36.1 percent) of the poisonings in the 1990s. The four most frequent
relationships within the family were son (9.5 percent), daughter (7.2 per-
cent), wife (6.9 percent), and husband (5.2 percent). However, while it is
widely believed that poisoning is predominantly a household or domestic
crime, of the reports where the relationship of the offender to the victim was
known, more of the victims were outside the family (63.9 percent) than were
within the family (36.1 percent) of the offender. Victims found to be outside
the family of the offender accounted for 221 (or 63.9 percent) of the poison-
ing homicides. The five most frequent relationships outside the family were
acquaintance (69, or 19.9 percent), unknown (66, or 19.1 percent), other (31,
or 9 percent), friend (22, or 6.4 percent), and girlfriend (13, or 3.8 percent).
These results are in stark contrast to the Westveer et al. (1996) findings from
the 1980s, which showed just 39 percent of victims outside the family of the
offender. This analysis of Westveer et al. (1996) showed a more equitable
distribution of relationships, whereas this study shows substantially more
victimizations of individuals outside the family. Once again, 66 (19.1 per-
cent) homicide victims had an unknown relationship to the offender. So the
prevalence of unknown characteristics may dampen the significance of some
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Homicidal Poisoning 475
of the patterns noted here. In particular, the variance in the findings may be
due to fluctuations in missing data relative to these cases rather than true
compositional changes in homicidal poisoning behavior.
Type of Poison
Thirty (8.7 percent) of the female offenders and 38 (11 percent) of the male
offenders used a chemical (nondrug) poison. Eighty-five (25 percent) of the
female offenders and 130 (37.6 percent) of the male offenders used a drug or
narcotic as their homicidal agent. Although it was not possible from the SHR
to determine the exact identification of the poison used, chemical (nondrug)
poisons were used in a ratio of five-to-four by male offenders compared to
female offenders. A drug or narcotic was used in a ratio of almost three-to-
two by the male offender compared to the female offender. This represents a
33 percent increase in the use of drug or narcotic poisonings by women com-
pared to analyses of 1980s data (Westveer et al., 1996). The exact identifi-
cation of the poison used could not be made from the SHR report. This
important piece of information will have to be obtained from a more in-depth
analysis of the specific case reports on file in the various jurisdictions.
As to what could serve as a potential homicidal poison, one need only
refer to the early, but accurate, definition: “What is there that is not a poison,
all things are poison and nothing without poison. Solely the dose determines
that a thing is not a poison” (Deichman, Henschler, & Keil, 1986). Any
chemical substance has the potential of producing a poisoning homicide.
Clearly, the prime candidate for the most effective weapon in homicidal poi-
sonings is the chemical with the greatest lethality, the smallest dose, and the
least likelihood of being detected.
Geographical and Temporal Features
Forty-four (88 percent) of the fifty states reported poisoning homicides in
the 1990s. The seven states with the most reported cases, accounting for 178
(51.5 percent) of the reported homicides, were California (63, or 18.2 per-
cent), Washington (34, or 9.8 percent), Texas (23, or 6.6 percent), Pennsyl-
vania (22, or 6.4 percent), Arizona (12, or 3.5 percent), Michigan (12, or 3.5
percent), and New York (12, or 3.5 percent). When the 346 poisoning homi-
cide reports were analyzed by geographical region for the United States, the
following results were obtained: Northeast (52, or 15 percent), South (87, or
25 percent), Midwest (56, or 16 percent), and West (151, or 44 percent).
These findings are similar to the 1980s analyses of Westveer et al. (1996)
with the exception of an increase of 9 percent in reported cases from the
western United States.
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The fact that fewer SHR reports were received from one geographical
area over another, however, does not necessarily mean that there were lower
poisoning homicide rates. Factors that could affect the number of reports
received from a jurisdiction include legislation requiring autopsies or toxi-
cology screens on all deaths of unknown cause, the sophistication of analyt-
ical toxicology laboratories in the area, or the workload of the local law
enforcement or forensic pathology personnel.
Homicidal Poisonings by Year and Month
The number of homicide reports per year for the decade varied from a high
of 41 in 1995 to a low of 26 in 1999. The average number of poisoning homi-
cide reports per year was 34.6. Yet little year-to-year variation was found in
the data reported.
The incidence of poisoning homicide reports by month for the decade
varied from a high of 40 in December to a low of 16 in August. The average
rate of poisoning homicide reports by month was 28.8. (See this chapter’s
Appendix.)
INCIDENT CHARACTERISTICS
From the SHR reports, it is impossible to determine an exact motive in 220
(64 percent) of the reports, as they fall into such generalized categories as
“other—not specified,” “other,” or “unable to determine circumstances.”
This important information relating to motive will likely have to be obtained
from a more in-depth analysis of specific cases among local jurisdictions. It
is interesting to note that in only 2 (0.6 percent) of the reports was the cir-
cumstance reported to be related to a lover’s triangle, which seems to be con-
trary to the general perception that poisons are often used in domestic
situations to remove significant others.
Because of the large number of reports that fall into generalized unknown
categories, it is impossible to determine the exact motive as related to rela-
tionship of victim to offender. In addition, it is not possible from the SHR to
determine how the poison was administered. However, a summary of find-
ings provided in Table 14.1 shows the consistency of patterns in homicidal
poisonings and may provide an opportunity for investigators in developing
investigative leads that may reveal the methods used by these killers.
CONCLUSION
From this study, it can be concluded that the incidence of reported homicides
due to poisoning was only a small portion of the SHR data for the decade.
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Homicidal Poisoning 477
Table 14.1. Demographics of Homicidal Poisonings,
1990–1999 (N =346)
Attribute Victim Offender
Age 25–44 20–34a
Sex Male or femalebMalec
Race Whited,e,f Whiteg
Circumstances ?h?
Relationship 63 percent outside family;
37 percent insidei
Weapon 75 percent drug/narcotic;j
25 percent nondrug
Unknown 20–30 percent higher than
that of all homicides
aAge and/or gender unknown in approximately 20 percent of the cases.
bWith a male victim, the offender was no more frequently male or female; with a
female victim, the offender was more frequently male.
cMore frequent than female, but 50 percent increase in female offending com-
pared to 1980s analyses.
dWith a white victim, the offender was more frequently male; with a black victim,
the offender was no more frequently male or female.
eBlack male victims occur two times more often than black female victims,
whereas white/other males occur with about the same frequency as white/other
females.
fOther race victims increased from 1 percent to 3.5 percent compared to the analy-
ses from the 1980s.
gBoth white and black offenders were more frequently male.
hCircumstances were not informative in 64 percent of cases reported as unknown,
other, or missing. Yet three times more husbands than wives were reported as vic-
tims in a lover’s triangle. Some acquaintance victims were in this circumstance
as well.
iThe relationship was reported to be 39 percent outside family in the analyses in
the 1980s.
jDrug/narcotic type poisoning involving female offenders increased 33 percent
compared to 1980s analyses.
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One can only wonder if more of these types of homicides remain unde-
tected, as there are many holes in the investigative net through which homi-
cidal poisoners can slip. It should also be highlighted that many of the
demographics of poisoning offenders remain largely unknown, at least
when compared to that of overall homicides during the decade. This would
seem to indicate that homicide investigators may have been presented with
a poisoned victim but were unable to identify the offender. An old and wise
adage related to homicide detection is that “all deaths are homicides until
facts prove otherwise.” As evident from the cases identified at the outset of
this research and the statistical analysis offered here, perhaps this adage
could be more relevant to poisoning cases if it were rephrased as follows:
“All deaths, with no visible signs of trauma, may be considered poisonings
until facts prove otherwise.”
What other factors may be important to the identification of a poisoning
homicide offender? Among the many factors that need to be identified are
the offender’s socioeconomic level, IQ, level of education, professional
training, personality (introversion/extroversion), ethnicity, prior criminal
history, marital harmony, and psychological status. These factors of homici-
dal poisoners cannot be elucidated from the SHR reports. This information
can be generated only by in-depth research into actual circumstances sur-
rounding such poisoning cases.
The research offered here, coupled with investigative experience, pro-
vides the basis for extending criminal investigative analysis. Such analyses
may assist law enforcement personnel in their investigations by arming them
with a clearer picture of the poisoner. Finally, while this work has focused
on individual incidents of homicidal poisoning behavior, the importance of
these patterns may be even more significant now. That is, the potential for
toxic substances being used as a weapon of mass destruction may prove to
be more of a substantial threat than in the past. In addition, the expanding
elderly population may provide additional victims for those who wish to
commit a homicide that appears to be death by natural causes. Understand-
ing some of the attributes of homicidal poisoners as examined here may
enhance the ability of the law enforcement and forensic communities when
they are called on to assist in the prevention and investigation of homicides.
APPENDIX: HOMICIDAL POISONINGS
Homicidal poisonings remain one of the most difficult crimes to detect and
prosecute. Because there are often few visible signs of a homicidal poison-
ing, all too often the victim’s death may be certified as being due to a natu-
ral or unknown cause, and important evidence of the crime is often buried
with the victim. Therefore, a great number of homicides by poisoning are de-
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Homicidal Poisoning 479
tected only when specific toxicological analyses are carried out after the ex-
humation of the victim’s remains.
The following cases, selected from FBI and police files, as well as public
source court documents, identify incidents in which the nature of the initial
poisoning was either not detected or was misdiagnosed by criminal or med-
ical investigators. In most of these cases, the initial causes of death were
thought to be accidental or due to natural causes, but were later determined
(through considerable legal and investigative effort) to be deaths due to
homicide where poison was the weapon of choice.
Case 1
In a small country town, a white male became suddenly very ill with what
his family claimed was pneumonia. Upon admission to the local hospital, he
was treated with antibiotics and painkillers. Ten days after the onset of his
symptoms, he died from his illness. Unbeknown to the authorities, the vic-
tim’s wife was involved in an adulterous affair and wished to marry her lover.
When she returned some highly toxic herbicide to a fruit grower, he became
suspicious and contacted the police. Investigation revealed that the victim’s
wife had collected on a fifty-five thousand dollar insurance policy and was
pressuring her paramour into marriage. The police had the husband’s body
exhumed and discovered the highly toxic chemical paraquat in his body.
Disposition: As a result of these findings and other evidence, the wife was
arrested and charged with the death of her husband. She was later convicted
and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and treatment in a mental hospital.
Case 2
In 1999, officers were called to a residence at 3:30 A.M. to treat an eight-
month-old baby who had been reported to have stopped breathing. The boy
was transported to the local hospital and died later that morning. It was pre-
sumed that the infant had suffered from sudden infant death syndrome.
Autopsy revealed the child to have had a blood ethanol level of 0.12 (120
mg/dL). Upon further investigation, the father was found to have given the
child a toxic dose of peppermint schnapps.
Disposition: The father was arrested and charged with negligent homicide
for the alcohol poisoning of his son.
Case 3
A thirty-three-year-old woman was found dead in her waterbed. A black sub-
stance was discovered around her mouth and nose. The investigating officer,
recalling similar evidence from a case twelve years earlier, suspected possible
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cyanide poisoning. During the autopsy, the distinctive bitter-almond-like odor
common to cyanide poisonings was detected.4Laboratory tests confirmed the
presence of cyanide in the victim’s blood but not in her stomach contents. Due
to this finding, it was thought that the victim was somehow forced to inhale
hydrogen cyanide gas. Police later discovered that her husband worked at an
exterminating company where hydrogen cyanide was readily available.
Disposition: Investigators combined this information with evidence of
both marital and financial problems and arrested the husband. Prosecutors
have sought a first-degree murder conviction and a possible life sentence.
Case 4
Dorothea Puente was born Dorothea Helen Grey on January 9, 1929, in Cal-
ifornia and led a tumultuous life that ended in a murder conviction in 1993
at age sixty-four. Until her arrest in 1988, Puente had committed several
crimes of various sorts and spent years running from probation.
Puente was convicted of five types of crimes: forgery, living in a brothel,
vagrancy, robbery, and eventually murder. Her first criminal conviction was
in 1948 when she stole checks from a friend to buy a few clothing items.
After serving time, she violated her probation and left town. Twelve years
later, she was convicted of residing in a brothel and spent sixty days in a
Sacramento jail, only to be released and convicted on vagrancy charges that
brought her another sixty days in jail. She managed to stay away from the
law until 1978, when she was caught again forging thirty-four checks from
tenants living at her halfway house in Sacramento.
Puente committed what is believed to be her first murder in spring 1982
when a sixty-one-year-old acquaintance, Ruth Munroe, died of a drug over-
dose just after moving into Puente’s house in Sacramento at 1426 F Street.
Munroe overdosed on Tylenol and codeine, leading the coroner to dismiss it
as a suicide. Despite Puente’s questionable record to date, no one considered
her greed a strong enough motive to warrant murder. Within a few months,
Puente was charged with drugging four elderly people and robbing them
while they were sedated. She served only three years of a five-year sentence
and was released with orders to stay away from the elderly and not to han-
dle government checks of any sort. These instructions would lead to part of
her murder defense years down the road. In just three years from her release,
Puente managed to lure at least seven people into her home under the patron-
age of a halfway house, murder them, and steal their social security checks
that they gave her permission to cash.
The crimes for which Puente is best known occurred in the house at 1426
F Street, which was used as a boarding house for the elderly, with her per-
sonal residence on the second floor. It was not until November 1988 when
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Homicidal Poisoning 481
neighbors began complaining of a foul stench coming from her garden that
she was discovered by two Sacramento detectives in search of a missing
mentally retarded man, Alvaro “Bert” Montoya, who had been a tenant of
Puente and was reported missing by his social worker.
Puente was calculating as she searched dive bars in the area for victims
who had little or no family who would report them missing and investigated
their social security benefits before offering them a room. She charged them
$350 a month for two meals a day and a room, and so as not to ignite neigh-
bors’ suspicions, she always planted a story before they disappeared saying
they did not feel well or were going away. Puente did not let the tenants go
in the kitchen, make phone calls, or touch the mail, and she made all of them
sign over rights to cash their social security checks so she could distribute
the money after she siphoned some off for herself. Despite having a full bar
to herself in her second-story residence, she did not allow tenants any alco-
hol. When she found an opportunity, she would overdose her victims with
the prescription-strength sleeping pill Dalmane, which was found in all
seven bodies in her back yard. She let them die before burying them.
Puente was even able to obtain unwilling help from friends and neigh-
bors. She had a close acquaintance, fifty-four-year-old Patty Casey, who
drove a cab and later admitted to driving Puente to pick up fertilizer and ce-
ment, sometimes several times a week. Homer Meyers, a tenant who refused
to sign over endorsement rights to Puente, was evicted but not until he unwit-
tingly dug Montoya’s grave after Puente asked him to dig a four-foot hole
for a new apricot tree, which she planted over Montoya’s body.
The seven victims, four female and three male, found in her yard were all
at least fifty-five-years old, and the oldest two were both seventy-eight. Sev-
eral were discovered underneath cement slabs, and most were so severely dete-
riorated that the cause of death could not be discovered. Vera Faye Martin, age
sixty-four, wore a still-ticking watch when she was unearthed. Leona Carpen-
ter, age seventy-eight, whose leg bone was mistaken for a tree root by detec-
tives searching Puente’s yard, was one of the three victims for whose murder
Puente was convicted. Betty Palmer, also age seventy-eight, was buried under
a statue of St. Francis of Assisi in the front yard; she was wearing a night-
gown but missing her head, hands, and lower legs. Dorothy Miller, age sixty-
four, one of two known alcoholics among the seven victims, was buried with
her arms duct-taped to her chest, and Benjamin Fink, age fifty-five, also an
alcoholic, was buried in his boxer shorts. The victims’ attire led the court to
believe most were killed at night and their murders were planned, although
it also supported Puente’s defense that all the deaths were the result of natu-
ral causes or suicide.
Puente was also associated with two other murders: those of Monroe and
of her one-time boyfriend Everson Gillmouth, whom she wrote to while she
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was in prison serving a robbery sentence from 1982 to 1985. He picked her
up from jail in a 1980 red pickup truck, which she gave to her handyman,
Ismael Florez, in November 1985. She had hired him to help her around the
house, completing tasks such as building a wooden box six feet three inches
by two feet that she filled with “junk” and had him drop into the river. A box
fitting the description was found less than three months later, in January
1986, by two fishermen; the remains of an elderly man inside were uniden-
tifiable, so Puente could never be charged with his murder.
Puente’s Background. Puente survived a tumultuous childhood as the off-
spring of two alcoholics. She was the sixth child and lost her father to tuber-
culosis at age eight and her mother a year later to a motorcycle accident. By
the age of seventeen, she had moved out on her own to Washington, where
she began a life of pathological lying that led directly to crime. Puente con-
stantly lied about her age and her background, confessing only to her cabby
friend Casey. She had an obsession with expensive items and clothes. She
married several times, usually to much younger or much older men whom
she could control, and at least one, her fourteen-year marriage to Axel John-
son, is known to have been a violence-filled relationship.
She was an organized killer, targeting her victims in bars and those who
were close to death, which made their slip from unconsciousness to death
simpler. She hid behind her “granny” image and fooled neighbors with lies
to cover up missing individuals or the stench from her yard. She would claim
there was a sewer problem and that she had dead rats in the basement. She
covered up most of the murders by burying the bodies in solid earth so they
would decay.
Classification. Puente was a serial killer, and her motivation for the homi-
cides was financial profit. Everyone who knew her attested to her obsession
with expensive things. Puente collected about five thousand dollars from the
seven tenants buried in her yard, and she was still collecting Gillmouth’s
pension well after his disappearance.
Puente’s crimes would be classified as criminal enterprise homicide
whereby the weapon was poison. Detectives found expensive bottles of per-
fume in Puente’s room, as well as a huge closet filled with designer clothing.
The crime scene was organized. Her home was familiar territory to her, and
she had absolute control to protect the crime scene. She was a veteran crim-
inal who was adept at talking her way into and out of things and had easily
controlled here victims.
Could Puente have been stopped prior to the murders? Before her sus-
pected first murder in 1982, Puente was in prison for nine years serving two
separate forgery convictions, 180 days serving prostitution and vagrancy
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Homicidal Poisoning 483
charges, and at the end of these was let go early from a five-year sentence for
robbery after just three years in prison.
Notes
1. Some earlier attempts to identify characteristics of poisoners include Rowland
(1960), who found that poisoners are likely to have had an unfortunate married
life, have failed to make an impression on life, may be connected with the med-
ical world, are vain, possess a mind without sympathy or imagination, and are
likely to have been spoiled by their parents. Alternatively, Wilson (1988) de-
scribed poisoners as weak-willed, prone to daydreaming and fantasy, possess-
ing an artistic temperament, cowardly, and avaricious. While these depictions
may have been anecdotally accurate when offered, the question of whether cur-
rent law enforcement perceptions and medicolegal statements about poisoners’
characteristics are still valid and reliable remains.
2. UCR data are believed to be the most reliable source of information concern-
ing incidents that come to the attention of the police. They form the basis for
all analyses presented.
3. For the purposes of this study, in reports where with an unknown number of
offenders, it was assumed that at least one offender was involved. Therefore, all
these cases are included even though the exact number of offenders remains un-
known. While this may overcount some cases involving multiple offenders, two
factors mitigate this problem. First, previous analyses in this area suggest that
these offenses are more likely committed by lone offenders. Second, separate
analyses of FBI NIBRS data confirm this by showing that when the number of
offenders is known, approximately 90 to 95 percent of these involve a single of-
fender.
4. It is estimated that only about 50 percent of the human population is able to de-
tect the odor of cyanide. Therefore, the possibility exists that the use of this poi-
sonous substance may often go undetected.
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CHAPTER
15
The Use of Biological Agents
as Weapons
ANNE M. BERGER
The use of biological weapons in warfare is not new. It has been docu-
mented throughout history. Long before the nature of microorganisms
was understood, an association between corpses and disease was made.
Ancient Romans contaminated the wells of their enemies with dead animals.
In the fourteenth century, the Tatar army hurled the remains of bubonic
plague victims over the city walls of Kaffa (now Feodossia, Ukraine), a
strategic seaport on the Crimean coast. In the fifteenth century, Pizarro gave
clothing contaminated with the smallpox virus to South American natives,
and during the French and Indian War (1754–1767), Lord Jeffrey Amherst
gave blankets from smallpox hospitals to Native Americans who were loyal
to the French (Lewis, 2002). In 1932, the Japanese began experimenting on
human beings at Biological Weapons Unit 731 outside Harbin, Manchuria,
China. At least eleven Chinese cities were attacked with anthrax, cholera,
shigellosis, salmonella, and plague, and at least ten thousand died.
The mode of transmission has varied, but the intent has been the same: to
deliberately disseminate disease-producing organisms among the enemy.
While early perpetrators often took advantage of natural epidemics, scien-
tific advances and the development of Internet technology have made access
to biological pathogens relatively convenient for today’s biowarriors. The
World Health Association in 2001 concluded that the development of biolog-
ical agents as weapons has kept pace with world advancements in the field
of biotechnology. History proves that every major new technology of the
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past has come to be exploited intensively not only for peaceful purposes, but
also for hostile ones. Once predominantly a concern of the military, the use
of biological agents as weapons against civilians is now a reality.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2001) defines bioterrorism as
the intentional release of viruses, bacteria, fungi, or toxins from living or-
ganisms to produce death or disease in humans, animals, or plants. Biolog-
ical weapons are devices that are intended to deliberately disseminate
disease-producing organisms or toxins.
There are a number of reasons that biological agents are appealing as
weapons. Frequently referred to as the poor man’s atom bomb, they can be
produced with an economic outlay that is significantly less than conven-
tional weapons. There is the ability to cause large numbers of casualties with
minimal logistical requirements. Since biological weapons are made up
from living organisms, they are often considered more dangerous than
chemical weapons because they are hard to control and it is difficult to pre-
dict how the organism will react, mutate, and spread. Hurlbert (1997) re-
ported that biological toxins are among the most toxic agents known. For
example, the quantity of botulinum toxin contained in the dot of an “i,” when
delivered properly, is enough to kill ten people. With the exception of the
smallpox virus, the microbial agents used to make some of the most lethal
biological agents occur naturally and can be cultivated in unsophisticated
labs by individuals with little scientific training.
Weaponizing the agents is a bit more of a challenge but not insurmount-
able. Technical expertise is required to produce high-quality, military-grade
biological weapons and a reliable means of dissemination. Terrorist applica-
tions are less demanding. Easily concealed and silently released, perpetra-
tors can work from a distance or escape before detection of the event. There
is separation between the act and the outcome. In contrast to chemical agents
that result in illness fairly quickly after being released, the effects of biolog-
ical agents may not be seen for several days to weeks later because of the
incubation period. Cases are more likely to be dispersed throughout multi-
ple areas with individuals seeking medical care from different providers.
Early recognition is likely to require a high index of suspicion.
When evaluating the numerous biological agents that could be used as
weapons, the CDC (2000) used a risk matrix based on the possible public
health impact, the delivery potential, the stability of the agent, the special
preparation requirements, and the ability to generate fear. Category A agents
are those that are of the most concern. This is because they can be easily dis-
seminated or transmitted from person to person, can cause a high number of
mortalities with the potential for major public health impact, can cause pub-
lic panic and social disruption, and require special action for public health
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The Use of Biological Agents as Weapons 487
preparedness. This chapter discusses the top four Category A biological
agents: anthrax, smallpox, botulism, and plague.
ANTHRAX
Anthrax may be one of the oldest known biological weapons. The name is
derived from the Greek word for coal (anthrakis), because the disease
causes black coal-like skin lesions. Gorner (2001) reported that anthrax was
well known to the Greeks and Romans and widespread in Europe for thou-
sands of years. The disease may have made its literary debut in the Old Tes-
tament (Exodus 9:1–7) as the fifth of ten plagues. Moses took ashes from a
fire and produced the symptoms of cutaneous anthrax among pharaoh’s sol-
diers and livestock. We know today that the incineration of livestock is not
sufficient to kill anthrax spores. Cieslak and Eitzen (1999) identified an-
thrax as the single greatest biological warfare threat. Research on anthrax
as a biological weapon began more than eighty years ago. Today, at least
seventeen nations are believed to have offensive biological weapons pro-
grams (Inglesby et al., 1999).
Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, a
spore-forming bacterium. It is naturally occurring in the soil and is widely
distributed on almost all continents, although it is more frequently seen in
developing countries or those without veterinary public health programs.
Anthrax is a zoonotic disease, which means that it can be passed from ani-
mals to humans. All mammals appear to be susceptible to anthrax, but it is
more frequently seen in those that graze on grass, such as cattle, sheep, and
goats. Because it is a spore, it can survive for many years in suboptimal con-
ditions. It has been known to survive in the soil for up to sixty years. Areas
with rich organic soil (pH below 6.0) and dramatic changes in climate such
as prolonged drought or abundant rainfall appear to produce zones where the
soil is more heavily contaminated with anthrax spores. In the United States,
these zones closely parallel the cattle drive trails of the 1800s (Cieslak &
Eitzen, 1999).
In humans, anthrax presents as three distinct clinical forms of the disease:
cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. The symptoms of the dis-
ease vary depending on how it is contracted. Naturally occurring anthrax is
usually acquired following contact with an infected animal or contaminated
animal products such as hides, wool, bone, or meal. The most common route
of infection is through the skin, but the most serious form is caused by
inhalation of the spores. Historically it has been related to work in agricul-
ture or industry. Once called wool sorter’s disease, it was most frequently as-
sociated with tannery, wool, and goat hair mill workers. The largest recorded
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outbreak of inhalational anthrax in the United States during the twentieth cen-
tury occurred in the late fall of 1957 among workers at the Arms Textile Mill
in Manchester, New Hampshire. Over a ten-week period, five cases of inhala-
tion anthrax and four cases of cutaneous anthrax developed among men
working in different areas of the mill. Four of the individuals with inhalation
anthrax died. Coincidently, the anthrax vaccine was being tested at the mill at
the same time. No one who received the vaccine developed the disease (Bel-
luck, 2001). Naturally acquired anthrax is usually susceptible to antibiotic
treatment. The mortality rate for occupationally acquired cases in the United
States is 89 percent, but many of these cases occurred before the development
of critical care units and, in some cases, antibiotics (Inglesby et al., 1999).
In the United States there were 224 cases of cutaneous anthrax reported
between 1944 and 1994. It is estimated that there are approximately two
thousand cases reported globally each year (Inglesby et al., 1999). Once the
anthrax spore enters the skin, it begins to germinate. Exposed areas of skin,
such as the arms, hands, face, and neck, are the most frequently affected, par-
ticularly if there are abrasions or previous cuts present. After an incubation
period of approximately seven days (the range is one to twelve days), an
itchy red raised rash begins to appear. Initially it may resemble a spider bite
or even acne (Altman, 2001). Within one to two days, it develops into a pain-
less fluid-filled vesicle with swelling of the surrounding area. The fact that it
is painless is important in differentiating between cutaneous anthrax and the
bite of the brown recluse spider. On day five to seven, the vesicle dries and
forms a depressed black scab that eventually falls off within a week or two.
Fever, malaise, headache, swollen lymph nodes, and severe swelling may
accompany the ulcers. It can take up to six weeks to fully recover, and there
is usually no permanent scarring. Diagnosis is made by culture or smear.
Without antibiotic treatment, the mortality rate for cutaneous anthrax can be
as high as 20 percent. Although antibiotic therapy does not appear to change
the course of the ulcer formation and healing, it decreases the chance of pro-
gression to a systemic infection (Inglesby et al., 1999).
Gastrointestinal anthrax is uncommon and generally follows the consump-
tion of undercooked contaminated meat. Symptoms can occur from one to
seven days after ingestion and result in two distinct patterns. If the spores are
deposited in the upper gastrointestinal tract, ulcers may appear at the base of
the tongue, along with a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. If the spores
are deposited in the lower intestinal tract, an individual may present with nau-
sea, vomiting, and malaise, followed by bloody diarrhea. As with cutaneous
anthrax, sepsis can follow advanced infection (Inglesby et al., 1999).
Inhalational anthrax is the most serious form of the disease. The mortal-
ity rate is 90 to 100 percent without antibiotic treatment and 75 percent with
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The Use of Biological Agents as Weapons 489
treatment. Until the 2001 cases, there had been only eighteen cases of inhala-
tional anthrax reported in the United States in the past one hundred years.
The onset of symptoms generally occurs one to five days after inhaling a suf-
ficient number of aerosolized spores into the lungs. Some cases have been as
long as sixty days after exposure. The immune system responds by destroy-
ing some spores, but others are carried to the lymph nodes in the chest and
begin to multiply there. As the bacteria germinate, a toxin is produced and re-
leased into the bloodstream. The disease then progresses rapidly as the toxin
causes fluid collection, hemorrhaging, and necrosis.
There is generally a two-stage clinical presentation of the disease. During
the brief early stage, which can last from hours to a few days, individuals
may present with a variety of nonspecific symptoms such a headache, fever,
fatigue, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, chills, or muscle aches. These are the
symptoms that are difficult to diagnose without a high index of suspicion.
Early diagnosis improves the outcome because antibiotics can destroy the
bacteria, but not the toxin that is abundantly produced. The second, or acute,
phase of the disease follows rapidly with acute respiratory distress, cyanosis,
fever, and shock, with about half of the cases developing hemorrhagic
meningitis. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute reported that almost
all inhalational cases in which treatment was initiated after patients were sig-
nificantly symptomatic have been fatal, regardless of the treatment. Many
new technologies are being explored to facilitate a timely diagnosis of an-
thrax. Black (2001) reported that advanced diagnostic methods, from ge-
netic analysis to breath analysis, are being examined. Progress is being made
in developing new, faster techniques that would allow earlier diagnosis and
treatment.
SMALLPOX
Smallpox is thought to have first appeared in northeastern Africa or the
Indus Valley of south central Asia nearly twelve thousand years ago.
Throughout history, smallpox outbreaks occurred globally until it was erad-
icated through a worldwide vaccination program. It is a highly contagious
disease caused by the variola virus and most commonly presents in two
clinical forms: variola major and the milder variola minor. Because it is a
virus, there is no specific treatment, and the only prevention is vaccination.
This disease affected millions of people each year. Survivors often re-
mained blinded or disfigured. The last case seen in the United States was in
1949 (CDC, 2001). The United States discontinued smallpox vaccinations
in 1972 because the vaccine had potential risks, and the disease was no
longer seen in the country.
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More than five hundred specimens of the smallpox virus were kept, mainly
for research purposes, at the CDC in the United States and the Russian State
Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Novosibirsk.
Due to dwindling financial support for laboratories in Russia, some bioter-
ror experts are concerned that smallpox samples, as well as technical expert-
ise, may have fallen into the wrong hands (Hagman, 2001).
The disease is spread from person to person or through contaminated
clothing or bed linens. After a two-week incubation period, the prodromal
symptoms appear, including a high fever, headache, and body aches and ab-
dominal pain. This is followed by a rash of small, red spots, which appear
first in the mouth and throat and the face and forearms, spreading to the trunk
and legs. The spots develop into sores within the mouth, and the fever gen-
erally falls. Within a day or two, the rash becomes raised, and deeply embed-
ded vesicles filled with thick opaque fluid appear. They have a characteristic
depression in the center. Unlike the superficial chickenpox lesions, which
appear in crops at various stages, these lesions are all at the same stage and
also appear on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Individuals
are contagious from the time that the rash develops until the last scab disap-
pears (Henderson et al., 1999). Historically, about one-third of those infected
died. Vaccination can be done preventatively and as postexposure infection
control. Antiviral research is ongoing.
BOTULISM
Botulinum toxin is the most poisonous substance known. Development of
it as a possible biological weapon began more than sixty years ago. It is a
spore-forming anaerobe that is naturally found in the soil and marine envi-
ronments, although no cases of waterborne botulism have ever been re-
ported (Arnon et al., 2001). There are seven distinct types of botulinum
toxins that have been classified by the letters A through G. When absorbed
into the body through the gastrointestinal system, inhalation, or a wound,
the toxins block acetylcholine release and stop the conduction of stimulus
across nerve synapses. All of the toxin types produce the same symptoms of
bilateral descending flaccid paralysis. This includes cranial nerve palsies such
as drooping eyelids, blurred or double vision, difficulty swallowing, and dif-
ficulty breathing. The onset of the symptoms is dose and route dependent.
Early recognition depends on a high index of suspicion. Confirmation is
obtained by laboratory test that may take several days; therefore, clinical
diagnosis is important. Administration of an equine antitoxin may minimize
the severity of the disease (Arnon et al., 2001). The paralysis of botulism can
persist for weeks, with the need for supportive therapies such as a ventilator
and nutritional support.
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The Use of Biological Agents as Weapons 491
PLAGUE
The plague has had a significant impact on world history. Multiple outbreaks
have swept over the population, resulting in population losses of 50 to 60
percent (Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, 2000). It is caused by the
gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis and is transmitted by infected fleas
or direct contact with animal tissue or droplet infection. Depending on the
route of infection, it can present as bubonic (75 to 90 percent of cases), septi-
cemic, or pneumonic. Plague is found in rodents and their fleas on every
populated continent except Australia (Inglesby et al., 2000). In the United
States, 390 cases of plague were reported from 1947 to 1996. Eighty-four
percent of those cases were bubonic plague and were concentrated in Cali-
fornia, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. The last case of human trans-
mission was in Los Angeles in 1924.
Naturally occurring plague is usually acquired through the bite of an in-
fected flea. After a two- to ten-day incubation period, painful regional lymph
nodes swell (buboes) along with fever, chills, and weakness. This is called
bubonic plague. It can progress to septicemia if untreated, with a mortality
rate of 40 to 60 percent. A small number of individuals may develop primary
septicemic plague without having had buboes when bacteria are deposited
directly into the bloodstream. Petechiae and ecchymoses mimic menin-
gococcemia.
If the bacteria are inhaled, pneumonic plague may develop. Two to three
days after exposure, individuals may present with a fever, cough, severe
chest pain, bronchospasm, cyanosis, and hemoptysis. Chest X-rays would
show extensive, progressive consolidation. This is rarely seen in the United
States. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential. Once again, a high index
of suspicion is required.
The plague is one of three quarantinable diseases subject to international
health regulations. The other two are cholera and yellow fever. It is a disease
that must be reported to the World Health Organization. There are approxi-
mately one thousand to three thousand cases of the plague reported globally
each year.
MOVING FORWARD
In the light of the anthrax mailings, the World Health Organization rushed to
revise its 1970 technical guidelines on the health aspects of biological and
chemical weapons as a call for action for governments to be ready for possi-
ble biological and chemical terrorism. It also launched a global outbreak and
response network: a cross-linked system of existing networks to continuously
monitor reports and disease outbreaks worldwide. Glass and Schoch-Spana
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(2002) emphasized the importance of extending these networks and enlisting
the general public as a capable partner when planning response strategies.
Bioterrorism policy discussions and response planning efforts have tended to
discount the capacity of the public to participate in the response to an act of
bioterrorism. They pointed out that the general public is an interconnected
matrix of networks and subnetworks organized around social institutions and
relationships that should be enlisted as capable partners. Resources, commu-
nications, and leadership structures can be used to facilitate a better and more
coordinated response. Resourceful, adaptive behavior should be the rule and
not the exception. Providing information will be as important as providing
medication.
Increased knowledge and awareness of biological agents and their poten-
tial use as weapons build a strong first line of defense in facing future chal-
lenges. Maintaining a high index of suspicion, understanding the risks, and
providing accurate information can help to decrease fear and improve effec-
tive responses. Microbiology is currently discussing the emerging science of
bioterrorism forensics: using molecular epidemiology techniques to establish
a chain of evidence rather than identifying the source of the outbreak. It raises
the question of what will be legally binding types of evidence (Evans, 2002).
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PART FOUR
Issues in Crime
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CHAPTER
16
Wrongful Convictions
Causes, Solutions, and Case Studies
PETER SHELLEM
No study of violent crime would be complete without a look at the rising
tide of proven false convictions that began in the late 1980s with the
advent of advanced DNA testing and continues to this day. It should be of
special concern to investigators, whose job is to determine the truth. Each
time a convicted murderer or rapist is released from prison, exonerated by
DNA or other evidence, it represents a breakdown of the system and a black
eye to law enforcement. More important, in most cases, the real perpetrator
escaped apprehension and prosecution and likely will never be brought to
justice.
The exposure of these cases is having an impact throughout what most
agree is the best justice system in the world. Juries are becoming more skep-
tical and want more solid evidence in serious criminal cases. Government
and law enforcement agencies also are responding to the problem.
One of the most dramatic repercussions came in January 2003, when out-
going Illinois governor George Ryan cleared that state’s death row of all 171
prisoners, commuting their terms to life in prison, while pardoning four
death-sentenced inmates who were challenging their convictions. Ryan,
once a staunch supporter of the death penalty, made the decision in the wake
of thirteen exonerations of death row prisoners. He said statistics showing
more than half of the death sentences in his state were reversed on appeal
also played a part in his decision to stop executions until reforms were made.
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The Illinois legislature is currently working on reform bills that would dra-
matically change the way law enforcement agencies do business, and Ryan’s
successor has extended his death penalty moratorium.
In 2004, Congress passed the Justice for All Act, which gives federal con-
victs access to DNA testing and provides for improved defense for capital
defendants. It also increased the maximum compensation the federal gov-
ernment can be required to pay wrongfully convicted defendants from a flat
fee of $5,000 to $100,000 per year of imprisonment in capital cases and
$50,000 per year in noncapital cases.1States across the country have or are
in the process of enacting legislation to give convicts access to DNA testing
if it can prove their innocence, which will likely lead to more exonerations.
Multimillion-dollar lawsuits have led some states to enact reparations legis-
lation to pay unjustly convicted inmates for the time they spent in prison.
Several states and countries have also created commissions to study the
problem and cases that are being challenged. In 2002, the Supreme Court of
North Carolina created an innocence commission in the wake of several
highly publicized exonerations. A year later, Connecticut became the first
state in the United States to create an innocence commission by statute.
Leaders in other states are considering proposals for similar commissions.
Meanwhile, more innocence projects are popping up at law schools and jour-
nalism schools across the country.
The holy grail for many death penalty opponents is an innocent defendant
who has already been executed. They believe once that can be demonstrated,
it will lead to the abolition of the death penalty. In 2005, that quest was
focusing on Larry Griffin, who was executed by the state of Missouri on June
21, 1995, for killing a nineteen-year-old drug dealer in a drive-by shooting
on June 26, 1980, in a crime-plagued neighborhood. The victim was widely
believed to have murdered Griffin’s brother about six months earlier. He had
been charged but released because of a lack of evidence. A year-long inves-
tigation by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
found that a man injured in the same shooting, who was never called as a wit-
ness, says Griffin was not involved. The key witness in the case was a police
informant with an extensive criminal history who later said police showed
him a photo of Griffin and said they knew he did it.2
According to a study by University of Michigan Law School professor
Samuel R. Gross, there were 340 exonerations nationally between when
DNA testing became widely available in 1989 through 2003. The study
found that half of the 327 men and 13 women spent ten years or more in
prison, and 80 percent had served at least five years. The study also showed
that the number of exonerations was dramatically increasing from an aver-
age of twelve a year from 1989 through 1994 to an average of forty-two a
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Wrongful Convictions 497
year since 2000. The highest yearly total in Gross’s study was forty-four in
2002 and again in 2003.3
Most innocence projects consider only murder or rape convictions with
lengthy prison terms and will take cases only when biological evidence is
available for testing. Experts agree that similar percentages of wrongful
convictions would likely be found among other populations of convicts.
Furthermore, they consider only cases in which DNA cleared the defendant
as an exoneration. Under that standard, several of the cases cited in this
chapter would not qualify, although the defendants were freed by courts.
The Death Penalty Information Center, which lists only capital convictions
in which the defendants were freed by courts, pardoned because of evidence
of innocence or acquitted at retrial, counted 121 exonerations since 1973
as of 2005.4
Ninety-six percent of the exonerations in Gross’s study were in murder
and rape cases. An earlier study by Gross found that eyewitness misidentifi-
cation occurred twice as often in robbery cases as in rape cases, leading him
to conclude that if there was a way to identify false convictions in robbery
cases like DNA in rape cases, there would be more exonerations in robbery
convictions than in rape cases.
Indeed, the authors of this book, in writing a new edition, had to delete
one of the case studies because it turned out that police had planted finger-
print evidence to get a conviction. The defendant, Shirley Kinge, was sen-
tenced to twenty-two to sixty years in prison for what was believed to be her
role in the brutal murder of an entire family in New York State.
Kinge spent two and a half years in prison and sued the state. David Hard-
ing, the officer who said he found Kinge’s fingerprints on a gas can used in
an arson after the murders, was sentenced to four to twelve years after admit-
ting planting evidence in seven cases. The case against Harding, which even-
tually included the prosecution of his partner, supervisor, and three other
troopers, revealed almost routine fabrication of evidence and showed they
had planted fingerprints in forty cases involving murder, burglary, rape, and
drugs. Prosecutors found out about the widespread corruption when Harding
bragged about it while interviewing for a job at the CIA. In an ABC News
interview, Harding blamed the intense pressure to solve violent crimes, but
a special prosecutor in the case said it was “laziness, ego, self-glorification.”
Obviously, not all investigators turn to lying and fabricating evidence be-
cause of the recognized pressure of their jobs. Honest officers can be led
down the wrong path by any number of factors, including poor witnesses,
false confessions, reliance on corrupt informants, bad science, and tunnel vi-
sion or a combination of these factors. Overzealous prosecutors and inept
defense attorneys can also contribute to wrongful convictions.
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Steven Drizin, the legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions
at Northwestern University School of Law,5said officers can unintentionally
create scenarios where false convictions occur. “Most wrongful convictions
are not cases where police officers try to frame innocent people,” Drizin said.
“They have a reason to believe that someone is a suspect in a crime and they
view the entire investigation as confirming their belief that someone is guilty
while ignoring or discounting evidence of innocence.” He said investigators
may make mistakes in investigations when they become afflicted with tun-
nel vision on one theory of the case and may ignore cautions about the pro-
cedures they use.
Stanley R. Gochenour, a former police officer who as a private detective
has investigated more than 500 homicide cases, said the investigator pro-
vides the bottom line to a case: “What the system depends on to avoid the
conviction of innocent citizens is the active pursuit of the truth at the inves-
tigation level. Detectives use their education, training and experience to
objectively search out the truth. After determining the actual truth, they turn
that truth over to professional advocates for the crafting of a prosecution.
Prosecutors are advocates interested in winning. Detectives should be ana-
lysts interested in actual truth. The system relies on the independence of de-
tectives as a guard against the problems associated with advocacy and
ostensible truths.”
The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law6has
found that the most prevalent cause of wrongful convictions is mistaken
identity. Of 157 people it has helped to exonerate nationwide, more than 75
percent were convicted based in whole or in part on eyewitness testimony.
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University in western Pennsylvania7
concluded in a study in 2005 that most police departments in Pennsylvania
were not following federal guidelines for conducting witness identifications
and other lineups. The study also showed that other states plagued by unjust
convictions had implemented scientifically tested techniques to prevent fur-
ther false identifications.
Guidelines issued by the National Institute of Justice in 1999 recommend
a double-blind method of presenting a photo array to witnesses using an offi-
cer not involved in the investigation so there is no possibility of influencing
the response. They also say mugshots should be viewed one at a time and
that investigators should warn witnesses that the suspect may not be in the
array to reduce guessing.8
Rodney Nicholson did not need an innocence project to get him out of jail
for two robberies he did not commit. A convicted robber aided him. Nichol-
son was arrested in December 1998 when he showed up in a checkout line
at a central Pennsylvania supermarket that had been robbed twice the month
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Wrongful Convictions 499
before. A store employee who had witnessed one of the holdups called po-
lice and identified Nicholson as the robber. Other employees supported the
identification in one-on-one viewings. Police also looked at Nicholson’s ex-
tensive criminal record in determining whether to arrest him. Nicholson was
charged in both robberies, was convicted, and was awaiting sentencing when
a convicted robber contacted his attorney. More than a year after Nicholson’s
arrest, Louis Greenley, who was serving a twenty- to fifty-year term for
shooting an off-duty police officer during a robbery at a nearby pharmacy,
took credit for the supermarket robberies. His claims of “wanting to do the
right thing” were met with skepticism by prosecutors, who naturally sus-
pected he had little to lose by adding a few more years to his lengthy sen-
tence. However, he was able to support his claim with evidence that he had
been involved in a traffic accident shortly after and near the scene of one of
the robberies. After an investigation, prosecutors agreed to drop the charges
and free Nicholson. Nicholson spent fifteen months in prison before his
release.
Care should be taken when interviewing children or other easily influ-
enced witnesses. Numerous child care cases involving multiple accusations
of sexual abuse arose in the early 1980s. Convictions in most of those cases
were later overturned because of how the children were repeatedly and in-
tensively questioned. Most started with one accuser, but led to mass allega-
tions of widespread abuse. Some led to changes in the law. In the case of
Margaret Kelly Michaels, the New Jersey Supreme Court set new standards
for interviewing children in abuse cases. Michaels, a college senior from
Pittsburgh who was hired by Wee Care Day Nursery in Maplewood, New
Jersey, was convicted of more than one hundred counts of abuse for al-
legedly molesting dozens of children under her care for the seven months she
worked there. She was sentenced to forty-seven years in prison and served
almost five years before an appellate court freed her because of improper
interviewing techniques that the prosecution had used. Investigators repeat-
edly questioned the children, asking them leading questions, ignoring nega-
tive responses while reinforcing positive ones, and going so far as giving the
children badges and telling them they could be “little detectives” if they
helped keep Michaels in jail, tapes of the interviews showed.
In response, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that once a defendant
can show some evidence that interviews are biased, he or she is entitled to a
hearing in which the burden shifts to the prosecution to show they were not.
And while experts are not permitted to testify about a witness’s credibility,
the court allowed psychiatric professionals to comment on the interview
techniques and their effect on the reliability of the children’s statements.
Prosecutors chose not to retry Michaels.
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FALSE CONFESSIONS
A confession is the most powerful evidence that can be presented against
someone charged with a crime. Few people believe an innocent person
would admit to a serious crime. Yet it happens with surprising frequency.
The Center on Wrongful Convictions found that 59.5 percent of the forty-
two wrongful murder convictions it documented since 1970 relied in whole
or in part on false confessions of either defendants or codefendants.
Project researchers have also identified more than one hundred cases
where defendants or suspects falsely confessed, and they report a startling
number of cases involving mentally retarded or impaired suspects. Two of
those defendants spent years in prison and came within weeks of being put
to death before they were exonerated.
In one of the most notorious false-confession cases, five New York City
youths were convicted of the brutal rape and beating of an investment banker
who was jogging in Central Park in 1989. Their videotaped confessions did
not match the physical evidence in the case. The victim, who was left in a
coma, was unable to identify her assailants. DNA evidence later corrobo-
rated the 2002 confession of a dangerous sex offender who was serving
thirty-three years to life for murdering one woman and raping three others.
By that time, most of the teens had already served their sentences.
Some false confessions come about because of police misconduct, while
many involved suspects with mental infirmities that prevented them from
holding up to pressure that normal people could withstand. Police promise
leniency for a confession to a crime that would otherwise be met with harsh
punishment. They tell suspects they have evidence against them that they do
not. They question suspects for hours to wear them down. All of these tech-
niques are valid but should be used with caution.
As of this writing, Victoria Banks remained in prison for a crime that most
people who have reviewed the case say never happened. In May 1999,
Banks, who has a reported IQ of 40, requested a furlough from the Choctaw
County Jail in Butner, Alabama, claiming she was pregnant and about to give
birth. A prison doctor who examined her did not believe she was pregnant,
but another said he heard a fetal heartbeat, and she was freed on bond.
When she was taken back into custody in August, she did not have a baby.
She initially said she had a miscarriage, but after intense questioning by
authorities, Banks, her estranged husband, Medell, and her sister, Diane Bell
Tucker, confessed and were charged with capital murder for the murder of
the infant. Faced with the possible death penalty, all three pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and were sentenced to fifteen years in prison. What authorities
did not know at the time was that Victoria Banks had a tubal ligation in 1995
and could not get pregnant. In 2001, Michael P. Steinkampf, director of
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Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility at the University of Alabama
School of Medicine in Birmingham, examined Victoria and concluded the
tubal ligation was still intact and it was physically impossible for her to be-
come pregnant.
In spite of the evidence, the prosecution in the case pursued vigorous ap-
peals. Tucker was freed for time served on July 17, 2002, after agreeing not
to appeal the case further. An appeals court found that a “manifest injustice”
occurred in Medell Banks’s case and sent it back to the lower court. On Jan-
uary 10, 2003, Medell Banks was freed at the outset of his second trial, when
he agreed to plead guilty to tampering with evidence after tapes of his inter-
rogation showed he repeatedly said he knew nothing about a baby, but admit-
ted he heard a baby cry after hours of questioning. Victoria Banks did not
appeal.9
While police interrogators are reluctant to record interrogations because
of the methods used to break a suspect down, some states are requiring
video- or audiotaping of custodial interviews in response to the problem.
The supreme courts of Alaska and Minnesota have held that defendants are
entitled to have their interrogations recorded. Illinois lawmakers passed leg-
islation in 2003 requiring the electronic recording of suspects in homicide
cases. Some police departments across the country have implemented re-
cording policies on their own. Experts say videotaped confessions would
carry more weight in court and would dissuade dishonest officers from cor-
rupting the process. One of the key problems is police contaminating the sus-
pect by providing crucial information about the crime that would be known
only to the perpetrator.
A taped interview did not help William M. Kelly Jr. In 1990, Kelly, a
twenty-eight-year-old borderline retarded man, confessed to the murder of
a woman whose body was found at a landfill outside Harrisburg, Pennsylva-
nia. Kelly repeatedly confessed to the crime and reportedly led investigators
to the scene of the murder, describing how he bludgeoned Jeanette Thomas to
death with a tree branch. He confessed to police and his attorney and pleaded
guilty to third-degree murder. He was sentenced to ten to twenty years in
state prison.
It was not until two years later that investigators noted the similarities
between Thomas’s slaying and those committed by serial murderer Joseph
D. Miller, who dumped two of his victims in the same landfill. The DNA
from the Thomas crime scene matched Miller, who ultimately confessed to
her murder. Kelly was freed. Investigators were led to Kelly by witnesses
who said they had seen him in a bar with Thomas prior to the slaying.
Although he was much taller than Miller, Kelly vaguely resembled him
and had a similar speech impediment. A psychiatrist who interviewed Kelly
at length said the combination of alcohol blackouts and his mental condition
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made him susceptible to believing he had committed the crime when ques-
tioned by police. Kelly’s confession was tape-recorded, but only after
lengthy interviews that were not recorded.
Drizin said that is part of the problem: police record only the confessions,
not the interrogations that precede them. “If the interrogation which pre-
ceded the confession is not taped, there is no way of knowing whether police
officers used deception, trickery, threats, promises of leniency, et cetera to
induce the confession,” Drizin said. “There is also no way of knowing
whether the details, which only the true perpetrator would know, were sug-
gested to the suspect or originated from the suspect.”
While some questions arose about how Kelly could have led police to the
crime scene, a much more insidious process produced a confession from
Barry Laughman, another mildly retarded man who spent sixteen years in
prison for the rape and murder of an eighty-five-year-old neighbor before
DNA evidence set him free in 2004. Laughman, then twenty-four-years old,
was accused of the slaying of his distant relative, Edna Laughman, who was
discovered by relatives in her home near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the
evening of August 13, 1987. She was found lying with her upper body on
her bed and her feet on the floor, naked except for a bra pulled above her
breasts and a dress thrown over her face. The victim had pills stuffed in
her mouth and a pill bottle was in her right hand. Her belongings had been
ransacked. A Marlboro cigarette had been extinguished on a chair next to the
bed, and four more butts plus a Marlboro box lid were found throughout
the home.
An autopsy showed she had been beaten and tried to defend herself. She
was hit on the back of her head, and bruises covered her arms, legs, and nose.
She had suffocated on the pills. Lacerations showed she had been raped, and
semen remained on the body. The pathologist determined that sex had been
performed during or after her death.
Despite being warned by Barry Laughman’s family and coworkers that he
was mentally disabled and would likely be so nervous during any police
interview that he would seem suspicious, former Pennsylvania state trooper
Jack Holtz zeroed in on Laughman as the prime suspect. At trial, Holtz, who
was involved in other controversial cases in which the defendants went free,
would say that he matched three bruises on Edna Laughman’s arm with
Barry Laughman’s inability to use his pinky.
After telling Barry that a whorl fingerprint was found on the cigarette box
lid and pointing out that Barry had whorl-type fingerprints (which make up
25 to 35 percent of all fingerprints), Holtz said he knew Barry did it and
wanted him to tell the truth. He was joined by another trooper, who took
notes while Holtz asked the questions. Barry admitted he had broken into
Edna’s house the night before her body was found. In his confession he said,
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“I stopped at Edna’s house. I knew she was there and I wanted to have sex.
I went inside her home through the front window. She was there, she heard
me coming in. She had her bra on. She started to run toward the kitchen. I
chased after her and hit her on the head with the flashlight. I knocked her
down and dragged her back to her bed or pile of clothes. She had a bra on
and I slipped it up. I was holding her around the arms. I asked her if I could
have sex with her. She says no. Then I did it anyway. I had sex with her after
I put pills in her mouth. She made a choking sound when I put the pills in her
mouth. I dumped the whole bottle of pills in her mouth and was holding
her nose. I then stroked her throat.”
At trial, Holtz said Laughman offered up details that should have been
known only to the killer. However, given the results of the DNA test sixteen
years later, that could not possibly have been the case. The troopers also
ignored evidence that another man was seen lurking in the neighborhood and
that Edna was seen alive the morning after Barry supposedly killed her.
Frank Donnelly, a cold case investigator with the Pennsylvania State
Police whose work as a county detective helped lead to Laughman’s release,
said the most important thing in evaluating a confession is corroboration. “I
view a confession like any other evidence: with a bit of skepticism,” Don-
nelly said. “A lot of investigators think once they have a confession, they’re
done. Sometimes that’s just the beginning.” He draws an analogy to auto
repair: “If you’re fixing a car, if you have it right, the part should slide into
place. A lot of time if you’re jamming the parts in, you either have the wrong
parts or you’re putting them in wrong.”
Despite evidence that contradicted his confession, Laughman’s prosecu-
tion for capital murder proceeded. He became a victim of what has become
known in legal circles as “junk science.”
JUNK SCIENCE
Experts in the courtroom are given a privilege no other witnesses get: they
are permitted to render their opinion on evidence. Their testimony can often
make or break a case. Critics say junk science from forensic experts can lead
to false convictions under a number of categories, including misinterpreta-
tion of test results, suppression of exculpatory evidence, exaggeration of sta-
tistics, an undue reliance on evidence that can only be said to be consistent,
theories based on conjecture, and outright fabrication of testing results.
While some experts feel crime laboratories should be independent, the
Innocence Project is recommending they at least be subject to the same over-
sight as private labs. Texas and New York now have forensic science com-
missions overseeing the labs. The Innocence Project recommends that they
be subject to proficiency testing and accreditation. They also recommend
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that defense attorneys be given funds to conduct independent testing in cases
where lab results are being used by the prosecution.
Ray Krone, of Dover township,York County, spent more than ten years in
Arizona prisons before DNA evidence cleared him of the 1991 murder of
bartender Kim Ancona and led to a new suspect. Krone had been convicted
twice, largely on the basis of expert testimony, which was later shown to be
scientifically flawed, about a bite mark.
The prosecution hid the fact that a nationally renowned dental expert had
rejected the theory that Krone’s teeth matched a bite mark on the victim. Fur-
ther analysis of the bite mark evidence showed that the orthodontist who
claimed to be an expert in bite mark evidence had pressed a mold of Krone’s
unusual tooth pattern over the bite on Ancona’s nipple, leaving a further
impression that appeared to implicate Krone. Police were led to Krone be-
cause his telephone number was in Ancona’s personal telephone book. A
U.S. Postal Service employee and air force veteran, Krone had no criminal
record before the homicide case. He was convicted and sentenced to death,
but on retrial, the judge overrode the jury’s sentencing recommendation and
gave him life. DNA from saliva around the bite mark was fed into CODIS,
the National Criminal Offender Database, and led to Kenneth Phillips, a sex
offender who lived a few hundred yards away from the bar where Ancona
was killed. Phillips was serving time in the same prison as Krone. Krone was
released in 2002 after spending ten years in prison.
In Barry Laughman’s case, evidence that should have cleared him before
he went to trial was twisted and used against him. After his arrest, the troop-
ers took blood samples to compare with semen found on Edna’s body. The
semen was from a person of type A blood who secretes his blood type into
other bodily fluids. Barry also secretes his blood type, but he is type B.
At a trial where the prosecution was seeking the death penalty, Janice
Roadcap, a chemist for the Pennsylvania State Police, explained the discrep-
ancy with several different theories. She suggested that bacteria could have
attacked the B antigens. She said Edna had type A blood, and that her vagi-
nal secretions could have overridden Barry’s blood type. She said that antibi-
otics Edna was taking for a urinary tract infection could have changed the
blood type. In addition, Roadcap acknowledged at trial that she probably
amended her notes after Laughman’s blood type was verified as type B. She
wrote in the margins of the report that the swabs were moist when placed in
vials, and breakdown of B antigens could have occurred.
Serology experts said none of these explanations has any basis in science.
They said Roadcap should have maintained the samples for further testing to
try to prove her theories, but Roadcap returned them to a state police locker,
where they deteriorated. That point was brought up by the judge in his
charge to the jury on the death penalty. The jury opted for life in prison with-
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out the possibility of parole. Laughman is suing Holtz, Roadcap, and the
state police for civil rights violations. At the time of this writing, the suit was
still pending.
Laughman’s is not the only murder case where Roadcap has come under
fire. Steven Crawford spent twenty-eight years in jail for the murder of his
thirteen-year-old friend John Eddie Mitchell, based primarily on Roadcap’s
testimony. That testimony was contradicted by her original lab notes, found
years later, that were never turned over to Crawford’s attorneys through three
trials.
Crawford, who was fourteen years old at the time of the murder, filed suit
against Roadcap and a state police fingerprint expert who helped formulate
the prosecution theory. The state refused to defend the pair, saying if Craw-
ford’s accusations were true, they were acting outside the scope of their
employment. That suit was still pending in 2005.
Mitchell disappeared while making collections for his paper route on
September 12, 1970. His body was found the next day in a garage behind
Crawford’s family home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, after a neighbor found a
bloody hammer in an adjacent garage. Police searched the area and found
Mitchell’s body under a green 1952 Chevrolet in the Crawford family’s
boarded-up garage. A white 1957 Pontiac station wagon parked tightly next
to it was splattered and smeared with his blood. An autopsy showed Mitchell
had been struck on the back of the head at least three times with a blunt
object that perforated his skull. He had a cut and a less severe fracture on his
forehead, and two of his front teeth were knocked out. He also had been
stabbed twice in the chest, with one of the wounds leaving a five-inch track
to his backbone. The estimated time of death was l:00 P.M. the day before.
The thirty-two dollars he had collected on his rounds was missing.
The crime went unsolved for four years. In the meantime, Crawford was
sent to juvenile hall for car theft and burglary charges. Despite an alibi, po-
lice were convinced he had a role in the slaying because he had told an offi-
cer searching the garages that there was nothing in his family’s garage but
two old cars. The arrest came four years later when Crawford turned eight-
een. Investigators said they had identified three palm prints on the station
wagon as Crawford’s. It took them more than two years to make the match,
which was never challenged in court because Crawford frequently played in
the garage.
At some point, John Balshy, a state police fingerprint examiner, said he no-
ticed microscopic red flecks in the fingerprint powder. The prints were given
to Roadcap, who performed a presumptive test for the presence of blood using
a reagent that turns blue when it reacts with blood. Through three trials, Road-
cap, Balshy, and a city detective testified that they observed the chemical re-
action give a positive indication for blood on the ridges of the prints.
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This later became the whole theory of the case: since the blood was only
on the ridges of the prints and not in the valleys, it had to be on Crawford’s
hand when it touched the car, rather than blood randomly splashed across an
existing print or a print left on top of blood.
At trial, the only documentation of this test turned over to Crawford’s
defense was a two-sentence typed report saying the test “indicates the pres-
ence of blood deposited by the donor of the print.” Bolstered by expert tes-
timony, this finding indicated the blood had to be on Crawford’s hand when
it touched the car.
Crawford was convicted in three trials in 1974, 1977, and 1978. The case
languished for years until the fall of 2001, when a briefcase belonging to
a deceased detective in the case was found by two youths in a neighboring
community. The case contained Roadcap’s original handwritten notes,
which were done contemporaneously with the testing. They said, “Numer-
ous particles in the valleys also gave a positive reaction.” Crawford’s attor-
neys argued that would have bolstered the defense theory that Crawford’s
prints were already on the car when blood splashed on it. That part of the
report was blacked out in the original that was later pulled from state police
archives.
While prosecutors said the notes did not clear Crawford, they conceded
he never got a fair trial and dropped charges against him, saying it was un-
likely they could obtain another conviction. On July 19, 2006, the state set-
tled with Steven Crawford for an undisclosed sum.
OVERZEALOUS PROSECUTION
Prosecutors have a duty to seek justice, not just convictions. Sometimes,
though, in the heat of battle, they become blinded by their belief that a defen-
dant is guilty. This can lead to bending the rules of court to the point where
their actions cause courts to free suspects whether they are guilty or innocent.
On September 18, 1992, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, citing “egre-
gious” conduct by prosecutors and state police, freed former high school
principal Jay C. Smith from death row in the murders of English teacher
Susan Reinert and her two young children. The notorious case had spawned
two books and a television miniseries based on best-selling author and for-
mer police officer Joseph Wambaugh’s Echoes in the Darkness (1987).
The court’s ruling changed the double jeopardy law in Pennsylvania, de-
termining a new trial was not a sufficient remedy when prosecutors act outra-
geously to obtain a conviction. The court based its holding on a deal with a
prison informant that was hidden from the defense and on physical evidence
that would have helped the defense but was not turned over during the trial.
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“The record establishes the bad faith of the prosecution beyond any pos-
sibility of doubt; indeed it would be hard to imagine more egregious prose-
cutorial tactics,” Justice John P. Flaherty wrote in the court’s opinion. What
was widely known at the time of the ruling, but not mentioned in the court’s
opinion, was that Wambaugh had promised the lead investigator in the case,
Trooper Jack Holtz, fifty thousand dollars for information on the investiga-
tion on the condition that Smith be arrested and tried. Evidence of that deal
surfaced when a junk man removed trash from Jack Holtz’s attic earlier that
year. Other evidence, including a comb that was supposedly introduced as a
trial exhibit and notes contradicting his testimony, was found in the trash re-
moved from Holtz’s home.
Smith was convicted of conspiring with William S. Bradfield Jr., another
English teacher in Upper Merion School District, to kill Reinert, whose nude
and battered body was found in the trunk of a car abandoned in the parking
lot of suburban Harrisburg motel in motel in 1979. They also were found
guilty of murdering her two children, whose bodies have never been found.
While Bradfield, Reinert’s fiancé, stood to gain $750,000 in life insurance
proceeds from Reinert, Smith was being sent to jail on robbery charges in a
Harrisburg courtroom the same day Reinert’s body was found a few miles
away. Bradfield told friends and colleagues that Smith planned to murder
Reinert and set up an alibi for himself at the New Jersey shore.
Bradfield was arrested first and was tried separately in a trial where the
prosecution contended he was trying to frame Smith. A comb bearing the
insignia of Smith’s army reserve unit was found under Reinert’s nude and
battered body. A pin found in his car months after he went to jail was iden-
tified as belonging to Susan Reinert’s daughter. Smith was a likely fall guy.
A retired U.S. Army reserve colonel and strict high school principal, he led
a double life. He was involved in drug use and bizarre sex and had been con-
victed of dressing as a security guard to rob department stores. He also was
suspected of killing his daughter and her husband, two heroin addicts who
disappeared without a trace several years before Reinert’s murder.
The court based part of its ruling freeing Smith on rubber lifters that con-
tained several grains of sand. A retired state trooper testified at trial that he
had used the hinge lifters to remove sand from the victim’s toes. Since that
testimony bolstered the defense theory that she had been killed at the Jersey
shore by Bradfield, the prosecutor, Richard L. Guida, attacked the trooper’s
credibility in cross-examination and initiated a perjury investigation against
him. The lifters, which were found in a state police evidence locker by
another trooper, were turned over to Holtz in the last days of the trial but
were not turned over to the defense for almost two years after the conviction.
After an investigation, prosecutors dated the ink used to mark the lifters to
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the time of the 1979 autopsy, seven years before the trial. Nevertheless, they
suggested a private detective working for the defense somehow planted them
in a state police evidence locker.
The prosecution also steadfastly denied there was a deal with Raymond
Matray, a cop turned burglar turned jailhouse informant, who testified Smith
confessed to the slayings. Matray was released from jail a year before he was
entitled to parole and to this day has never served the remainder of his sen-
tence. Holtz retired from the force while under investigation. Several other
convictions he obtained were later overturned, one at least in part on the
basis of notes found by the junkman. By the time the court freed Smith,
Guida was serving time in federal prison for distributing cocaine. Bradfield
died in prison. Smith was freed after serving six years on death row. Many
still believe he was involved in the murders.
CONCLUSION
The authority to arrest another person is one of the most awesome powers in
our society. It also carries with it an awesome responsibility. Sometimes law
enforcement authorities, believing they have the right person, will do any-
thing to obtain a conviction. In some of the cases cited in this chapter, as well
as many other exoneration cases, authorities still maintain they had the right
person in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But rationaliz-
ing, playing with the facts, or lying in the name of justice cannot be con-
doned and can lead to unintended consequences that may tarnish the name
of law enforcement and the sanctity of the justice system. An innocent per-
son imprisoned for a crime he or she did not commit used to be the stuff of
novels and dramas. As technology advances, it is the reality of the twenty-
first century, and it is up to law enforcement authorities to prevent it.
Notes
1. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_
public_laws&docid=f:publ405.108.pdf.
2. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/srlinks.nsf/story/
9270DD9B25C367FB8625703B007B8C70? OpenDocument.
3. http://www.law.umich.edu/NewsAndInfo/exonerations-in-us.pdf.
4. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110.
5. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions.
6. http://www.innocenceproject.org/about/index.php.
7. http://www.pointpark.edu/defaultaspx?id=1511.
8. http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffileslinij/178240.pdf Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide
for Law Enforcement.
9. http://www.justicedenied.org/choctawthree.htm.
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CHAPTER
17
Criminal Confessions
Overcoming the Challenges
MICHAEL P. NAPIER
SUSAN H. ADAMS
American law enforcement consists of dedicated, talented men and
women of integrity and vision. Such officers would not sacrifice their
sworn duty to catch a criminal by knowingly allowing the conviction of an
innocent suspect. To do so would leave a criminal free to act again. Investi-
gators attempt to identify, charge, and prosecute the criminal population by
operating within an ethical framework in diverse and sometimes uncertain,
but always challenging, circumstances.
Widely used law enforcement interview and interrogation techniques re-
cently have come under scrutiny. Fundamental interview and interrogation
principles can counter the criticisms, however, and safeguard the confes-
sions by compiling solid, incriminating evidence.
CHALLENGES TO CONFESSIONS
Some critics of law enforcement techniques have gained notoriety as well as
some credibility. (The word critics is used throughout this chapter to denote
a small number of social psychologists who have testified for the defense
regarding the legal admissibility of some confessions.) Several criticisms
earn merit by reminding investigators of practical procedures to safeguard
the interviewers’ most valued work product, the confession.
Critics use the term coercive to describe interview and interrogation tactics,
claiming that they result in a coerced confession. The difficulty of identifying,
509
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with certainty, the number of confessions obtained through coercion hampers
the critics’ position (Cassell, 1997). Acquiring an accurate representation of
false confessions obtained under police questioning remains imperative, and
ongoing research attempts to address this need (Jayne & Buckley, 1998). Even
if each alleged false confession was indeed deceptive, the occurrence of
alleged false confessions, when viewed in the framework of the millions of
suspect interviews conducted annually, is statistically minuscule. Yet profes-
sional officers view a single false confession as one too many.
The challenges to law enforcement interview tactics can be grouped into
five categories. The application of corresponding interview principles,
which involve simple and appropriate adjustments in style and technique,
can address the criticism of law enforcement interview tactics. The applica-
tion of these principles will enhance the suspect interview processes and
strengthen the admissibility of confessions. When used regularly, these prin-
ciples will illustrate the good-faith efforts of law enforcement in handling
the investigative responsibilities of identifying suspects and obtaining con-
stitutionally admissible confessions.
CATEGORY 1: BEHAVIOR
Challenge: Reading the Suspect’s Behavior
One censure of police procedures involves observing the behavior of sus-
pects in the interview room and selecting specific suspects for more intense
investigative inquiry. Critics allege that an officer’s ability to interpret behav-
ior, such as the aversion of direct eye contact, is inadequate to protect the
innocent from unreasonable investigative focus (Leo & Ofshe, 1997), which
may cause an improper concentration of limited police resources on the
wrong suspect, thereby allowing the guilty party to escape detection. Critics
accuse the police of placing excessive reliance on hunches and on-the-spot
reading of verbal and nonverbal characteristics, using methods that are nei-
ther scientifically valid nor reliable. Investigations may focus on the wrong
person because techniques do not distinguish between stressful responses
caused by deception and responses to stress caused simply by accusatory
interviewing (Ofshe & Leo, 1997a). Behaviors improperly interpreted by
investigators may take on the weight of perceived evidence and increase the
intensity of the police focus.
Interview Principle: Follow the Facts
Some cases do not contain the gift of clear evidence to follow on the path to
the case solution. Investigators therefore rely on investigative experience and
anecdotal lessons to identify responses consistent with known deceivers or
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Criminal Confessions 511
individuals with guilty knowledge. Law enforcement must place “gut in-
stincts” in context, however, by comparing them with investigative and evi-
dentiary facts, which take precedence over instincts. Thorough investigative
techniques will avoid a narrow focus on specific individuals by investigating
all viable leads capable of identifying additional suspects and eliminating
wrongly identified suspects. If the investigative hunch or the supposition does
not align with known facts, investigators always should follow the facts.
CATEGORY 2: TRAITS
Challenge: Identifying Personal Vulnerabilities
Several critics point out that certain individuals possess traits that make them
overly susceptible to police interrogation techniques, thereby leading to
coerced confessions (Ofshe & Leo, 1997b). These impressionable traits in-
clude youthfulness, a low or borderline intelligent quotient (IQ), mental
handicap, psychological inadequacy, recent bereavement, language barrier,
alcohol or other drug withdrawal, illiteracy, fatigue, social isolation, or inex-
perience with the criminal justice system (Gudjonsson, 1992). These traits
have sufficient strength to affect the suspect’s decision—making process,
mental alertness, and suggestibility.
Interview Principle: Know the Suspect
The most productive interviews are planned well in advance. Except in exi-
gent circumstances, competent investigators have learned to invest time in
the initial information-gathering process (Vessel, 1998).
Investigators can design the initial, low-key interview phase to obtain
norming information about how suspects normally respond verbally and non-
verbally. This also presents an opportunity to gather information from sus-
pects about their education and language ability, difficulties in life, and the
foundation for their successes in life. By learning details about all aspects of
a suspect’s life and lifestyle, investigators can avoid subsequent problems.
For example, if officers believe that particular suspects have low IQs, they
should not only check school records but also determine social-functioning
ability. Do these offenders have below-normal intelligence but a reputation
for being street smart? To what language levels do they respond? What are
their language difficulties or drug use patterns? How do they function in the
real world? As noted by one interrogation expert, although suspects may
have below-normal intelligence, they also may possess “a Ph.D. in social in-
telligence” or what police officers call street smarts (Holmes, 1995).
By examining varied aspects of suspects’ lives and closely questioning
each source of information, investigators can compile a witness list to later
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defend their choice of investigative techniques. Law enforcement should not
accept assertions of mental or personality disability. They should ask for
specific examples and exceptions from witnesses who know the suspects.
Vulnerable qualities should not exclude suspects from being interviewed.
Such vulnerabilities as reduced mental capabilities, the ability to withstand
pressure, bereavement, mental illness, age, or other personal traits that may
increase suggestibility require special care when using questioning tech-
niques. Investigators should place the suspect’s vulnerability in context,
adapt the investigative approach, and fully document any adaptations. In ad-
dition, law enforcement officers should plan specific word use to determine
if suspects understand questions at a particular language level or if the inves-
tigator’s terminology needs an explanation. If suspects understand language
typically used with other offenders, investigators should document that fact,
thereby substantiating concern for not overwhelming suspects or taking ad-
vantage of any declared vulnerability.
Case Example
A ten-year-old girl suddenly disappeared from a public street while on an er-
rand to a store. A twenty-nine-year-old man became a suspect, and through
police investigation, he also became a suspect in a similar incident involving
another prepubescent female ten years earlier. Although the suspect was
labeled intelligence handicapped at an early age, carefully gathered back-
ground information indicated his capability of dealing with life and living
alone. Based on this knowledge, investigators felt that language adjustments
were not necessary. Later testimony clearly indicated that the suspect under-
stood each question and that he responded appropriately. Challenges to his
multiple confessions were denied. The suspect now is on death row; his con-
victions for the two murders were based on confessions.
CATEGORY 3: STATEMENTS
Challenge: Contaminating Confessions
Some critics believe that police officers inadvertently contaminate confes-
sions by relying on questions that contain crime scene data and investiga-
tive results (Gudjonsson, 1992). Using crime scene or investigative photos
in the questioning process may amplify this flaw. Through these proce-
dures, the police might in fact “educate” suspects (Zulawski & Wicklander,
1998) by providing knowledge that suspects simply repeat in an effort to
escape intense interrogation pressure. As a result, suspects appear to offer a
valid confession.
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Criminal Confessions 513
Interview Principle: Preserve the Evidence
To avoid contaminating a suspect’s subsequent admissions and unnecessar-
ily revealing investigative knowledge, investigators should initiate the crim-
inal involvement phase of questioning by using only open-ended questions,
which avoid the pitfalls of leading or informing suspects. These questions
begin with such phrases as, “Describe for me . . . ,” “Tell me about . . . ,” and
“Explain how . . .” These questions force suspects to commit to a version of
events instead of simply agreeing with the investigator; they also prevent dis-
closing investigative knowledge. Because suspects may provide a wealth of
information in this free narrative form, open-ended questions make success-
ful lying difficult (Gudjonsson, 1992). If, however, suspects decide to lie,
open-ended questions provide a forum. This aspect of the open-ended ques-
tion technique may help investigators because every lie forecloses avenues
by which suspects may later try to defend themselves (Zulawski & Wicklan-
der, 1998).
Investigators must receive answers to open-ended questions without any
type of judgment, reaction, or interruption. By allowing suspects to tell their
stories without interruption, investigators fulfill the basic purpose of an in-
terview: to obtain information. In addition, they benefit from committing
suspects to a particular position (Holmes, 1995), which may contain infor-
mation that later becomes evidence of guilt or provides a connection to the
crime, crime scene, or victim.
The questioning process does not become contaminated when investiga-
tors initiate the interview with open-ended questions. Investigators have not
told suspects the details of the crime or subsequent investigation and thereby
have preserved the evidence. After listening to the narrative responses to the
open-ended question, skilled investigators will probe with additional open-
ended questions and ask direct, closed questions later.
Displaying crime scene photos to suspects prior to obtaining admissions
appears to have limited usefulness. By showing graphic details of the crime,
suspects receive information that, when parroted back, gives substance to
their confessions. Crime scene photos may include holdout information,
which primarily serves to validate confessions. However, from a psycholog-
ical perspective, few, if any, suspects will be shocked into confessing when
they see reminders of their gruesome acts.
Case Example
A thirteen-year-old female was raped, murdered, and decapitated. A sixteen-
year-old male was questioned as an alibi witness for the suspect. During his
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questioning, the police became suspicious of his personal involvement in
the crime. Eventually he provided a description of the crime and pointed out
crime scene details indicative of his direct involvement in the murder and
decapitation. Investigators remained persistent, and the youth later provided
an explanation of how he knew incriminating details. He reported that while
he was being questioned, an investigator sorted through crime scene pictures
attempting to locate a specific picture. The suspect stated, “When he switched
. . . the pictures real quick, I saw what was happening before them pictures [the
pictures selected for the investigator’s specific question]. . . . He says, where
do you think the body was? But when he was switching them, I saw where the
body was. . . . Then he says, where is the head part. . . . Anybody’s going to
know where a person’s place is when they got the big, yellow thing [crime
scene tape] around the water thing, the toilet. They had that caution thing all
around there. I says, ‘okay, right there’ [indicating the exact location of
the head].” Of special note, this youth had an IQ of about 70. Subsequently the
correct suspect was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison.
The charges against the alibi witness subsequently were dropped.
CATEGORY 4: OPTIONS
Challenge: Creating False Reality
Some critics allege that police use techniques that create a false reality for
suspects by limiting their ability to reason and consider alternative options
(Ofshe & Leo, 1997a). Some argue that the police intentionally present only
one side of the evidence or options available to suspects, namely, only the
ones that benefit the police. Once suspects accept a narrowed option, in-
ferred benefits coerce them, such as avoidance of a premeditated murder
charge in favor of describing the crime as an accident. The obvious benefit
of accepting a suggested lesser alternative leads suspects to be coerced into
a false confession out of fear of the police and possible prosecution.
Interview Principle: Adjust Moral Responsibility
The interviewer should question suspects, not provide legal counsel (Caplan,
1985). The investigator’s purpose does not include providing options for
guilty suspects to conceal their involvement.
Experienced investigators understand the following aspects of confes-
sions (Holmes, 1995):
• Confessions are not readily given.
• Full confessions originate with small admissions.
• Guilty suspects seldom tell everything.
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Criminal Confessions 515
• Most offenders are not proud of their violence and recognize that it was
wrong.
• Guilty suspects omit details that cast them in a harsh, critical light.
• Offenders usually confess to obtain a position they believe to be advan-
tageous to them.
Astute interviewers use rationalization, projection, and minimization to
remove barriers to obtaining confessions (Napier & Adams, 1998). These
represent the same techniques that suspects use to justify and place their
sometimes abhorrent behaviors in terms that assuage their conscience. Thus,
these psychological techniques serve two purposes: they allow investigators
to protect society by identifying guilty suspects and provide face-saving op-
portunities for suspects to make it easier for them to confess.
These techniques initially downplay the suspects’ culpability by omitting
their provocative behavior, blaming others, or minimizing their actual con-
duct. In certain circumstances, investigators might need to suggest that the
suspects’ criminality was an accident (Jayne & Buckley, 1998) or the result
of an unexpected turn of events, which the victims might have provoked.
Investigators attempt to obtain an admission or place the suspect near the
scene or with the victim. From the original admission of guilt, experienced
investigators refine their techniques by using all of the case facts to point out
the flaws and insufficiency in the original admission and to obtain a fuller,
more accurate description of the suspect’s criminal behavior (Jayne & Buck-
ley, 1998). Practiced interviewers use the initial admission as a wedge to
open the door to additional incriminating statements.
The suggestion that investigators interrupt an admission of guilt in a
homicide case to debate whether a suspect committed a premeditated or
spontaneous murder is unrealistic. The final disclosure of case facts and lab-
oratory results will provide details to reveal the most likely version of events.
Seasoned interviewers know that the interview and interrogation phase con-
stitutes only one portion of the entire investigation.
CATEGORY 5: CONSEQUENCES
Challenge: Promising Coercive End-of-Line Benefits
Investigators move into clearly coercive territory when giving clear and sub-
stantial identification of end-of-line benefits to confession. The coercive
aspect comes from investigators’ statements that remaining silent will lead
to greater penalties but confessing to a minimized scenario will result in
reward (Ofshe & Leo, 1997b). Investigators may openly suggest that sus-
pects will receive the most serious charge possible without a consent to the
offered lesser interpretation of their actions (Ofshe & Leo, 1997a). Many
c17.qxd 7/19/06 8:41 AM Page 515
interviewers blatantly and precisely state the suspect’s expected penalty in
unmistakable terms, such as the death penalty versus life imprisonment or
life imprisonment versus twenty years. Similarly, investigators may threaten
harm through investigation or prosecution of a third party, such as a wife,
brother, or child, if suspects reject the lessened scenario. Some critics accu-
rately have identified these tactics as being coercive enough to make inno-
cent people confess to a crime that they did not commit.
Interview Principle: Use Psychology Versus Coercion
The interview and interrogation system generally recognized as the most
widely used and adapted in the United States follows the limitations im-
posed by the ethical standards, as well as the dictates, of the courts (Inbau,
Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2001). U.S. courts have allowed investigators the
breadth of creativity in interviewing suspects, but any coercive investigative
acts are offensive to the skilled professional. Successful interviewing does
not hinge on coercive techniques because talented investigators have a ready
reservoir of productive, acceptable, and psychologically effective methods.
Blatant statements by investigators depicting the worst-case scenario facing
a suspect who does not accept a lesser responsibility are coercive and unnec-
essary. In general, these statements follow the pattern of, “If you don’t coop-
erate, I am personally going to prove your brother was up to his eyeballs in
this murder. He will go down hard.” Statements of this type are clearly coer-
cive and less effective than the use of psychological techniques of rationali-
zation, projection, and minimization.
Nevertheless, a distinction exists between blatant statements and subtle
references offered for interpretation as the suspect chooses. Suspects engage
in a self-imposed, personal decision-making process that incorporates their
life experiences, familiarity with the criminal justice system, and their time-
tested psychological processes of rationalization, projection, and minimiza-
tion. They may explain reasons for the crime (rationalization), blame others
(projection), or lessen their culpability and express remorse even if it is
unfelt (minimization). Guilty suspects attempt to describe their criminal acts
as understandable, in a manner that places them in a better position to obtain
the desired lenient treatment. They eagerly listen for any opportunity to look
good. Investigators are not responsible if suspects choose to offer an expla-
nation of guilt that places them in what the suspects perceive as a favorable
position. Investigators achieve part of their goal because the suspect must
admit culpability to achieve this desired perceived position.
Investigators must accept the admission, return to the basics of the inves-
tigation, and obtain a statement that comports to the reality of the crime.
Investigators too must go well beyond the “I did it” admission. They must
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Criminal Confessions 517
press for minute details to tie suspects to the crime scene to disclose their
active participation in the crime.
Corroboration anchors the most secure confession. Some suspects may
not readily provide information to support their involvement in a crime for
fear of exposing the true nature of their evil acts. However, a suspect’s cor-
roboration by providing details known to only a few individuals solidifies a
confession. Evidence linking such details as the location of the body, the
weapon, or the fruits of the crime provides a superior foundation for prevent-
ing the retraction of a confession or one otherwise successfully challenged
in court.
PERSONAL DIGNITY
A final principle that underpins the entire interview process involves the con-
cept of dignity. All individuals are entitled to maintaining their personal dig-
nity and self-worth. Convicted felons have explained that they more likely
would confess to an investigator who treated them with respect and recog-
nized their value as a person (Zulawski & Wicklander, 1998). Allowing sus-
pects to maintain dignity, even in adverse circumstances, is professional and
increases the likelihood of obtaining a confession. One experienced investi-
gator provides advice for interviewing the suspect of a particularly serious
crime: “Remember, he has to go on living with himself” (Holmes, 1995).
Many investigators now videotape their interviews to document the con-
fession, which allows attorneys and the jury to view it. This also allows in-
vestigators to view their interviewing performance and thus learn from
critiquing it. Videotaping can remind the investigator to treat the suspect
with respect as a person, regardless of the nature of the crime.
CONCLUSION
Law enforcement agencies are governed, sometimes invisibly, by their or-
ganizations’ value systems. Although organizations are built from the bot-
tom up, their values flow in both directions. The concept of professionalism
for the investigator begins with basic duties and carries through to a legal re-
sponsibility, providing sworn testimony in open court about ethically and
legally obtained evidence.
The manner in which an investigator approaches interviewing and inter-
rogation may symbolize the ultimate reflection of the professional values of
a department. Casual values appear as a casual attitude, which translates into
matching behavior. The appearance of casual values in the interview room
may result in suppression of admissions or confessions, but it also may re-
flect a casual approach to law enforcement at all levels. All aspects of law
c17.qxd 7/19/06 8:41 AM Page 517
enforcement must reflect vigilance to the highest policing values, but no-
where is this more important than in the interview room and in presenting
the investigative product of the interview.1
Note
1. Copyright © 2002 by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights
reserved. Copyright United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Nov.
2002. Reprinted with permission.
518 CRIME CLASSIFICATION MANUAL
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About the Editors
John E. Douglas, Ed.D., entered duty with the FBI in 1970 after serving
four years in the U.S. Air Force. He received investigative experience in vio-
lent crime in Detroit and Milwaukee field offices and also served as a hostage
negotiator. In 1977 Douglas was appointed to the FBI Academy as an
instructor in the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU), where he taught
hostage negotiation and applied criminal psychology.
In 1990 he was promoted as unit chief within the FBI’s National Center for
the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). Serving in that capacity, he had
overall supervision of the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP),
Criminal Investigative Analysis Program (better known as criminal profil-
ing), and the Arson and Bombing Investigative Services Program.
Douglas was a coparticipant in the FBI’s first research program of serial
killers and, based on that study, coauthored Sexual Homicide: Patterns and
Motives. The University of Virginia awarded Douglas the prestigious Jeffer-
son Award for academic excellence for his work on that study.
In 1992 Douglas coauthored the first edition of the Crime Classification
Manual (CCM), the first study of violent crime to define and standardize
techniques and terminology to be used by the criminal justice system and
academia. Douglas again received the Jefferson Award for this research
and the publication of the CCM.
Douglas has consulted on thousands of cases worldwide providing case
analysis, interview and interrogation techniques, investigative strategies,
529
babout.qxd 7/19/06 8:27 AM Page 529
prosecutorial strategies, and expert testimony. Included in the list of Dou-
glas’s cases are Seattle’s “Green River Killer,” Wichita’s “BTK Strangler,”
the O.J. Simpson civil case, and the JonBenet Ramsey homicide.
Since his retirement in 1995 from the FBI, Douglas has been providing
pro bono assistance whenever possible to police and victims of violent
crime.
Douglas has coauthored both fiction and nonfiction books, including two
New York Times best sellers, Mindhunter and Journey into Darkness. He also
has coauthored Obsession, Anatomy of Motive, Cases That Haunt Us, Any-
one You Want Me to Be, Broken Wings, and his newest book, Inside the Mind
of BTK.
Douglas does numerous public presentations yearly, belonging to the
Greater Talent Network (GTN) agency in New York. His personal Web site,
johndouglasmindhunter.com, contains crime information as well as an ac-
tive online discussion board.
Ann W. Burgess, R.N., D.N.Sc., is professor of psychiatric mental health
nursing at Boston College Connell School of Nursing. She received her
bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Boston University and her master’s de-
gree from the University of Maryland. She, with Lynda Lytle Holmstrom,
cofounded one of the first hospital-based crisis intervention programs for rape
victims at Boston City Hospital in the mid-1970s. Her work expanded into
the offender area when she teamed with special agents at the FBI Academy
to study serial offenders of sexual homicide, rape, and child sexual offenses.
This work advanced an understanding of the importance of the behavioral
footprints in crime scenes and the profiling process.
Burgess served as the first van Ameringen Professor of Psychiatric Nurs-
ing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing for seventeen years.
She has been a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) since 1994 and con-
tinues as codirector of the SANE Training Program at the university.
Burgess served as chair of the first advisory council to the National Cen-
ter for the Prevention and Control of Rape of the National Institute of Men-
tal Health (1976–1980). She was a member of the 1984 U.S. Attorney
General’s Task Force on Family Violence and the planning committee for the
1985 Surgeon General’s Symposium on Violence, served on the National
Institute of Health National Advisory Council for the Center for Nursing
Research (1986–1988), and was a member of the 1990 Adolescent Health
Advisory Panel to the Congress of the U.S. Office of Technology Assess-
ment. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of
Medicine in October 1994 and chaired the 1996 National Research Coun-
cil’s Task Force on Violence Against Women. She was a member of the 2003
530 ABOUT THE EDITORS
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About the Editors 531
Archdiocese of Boston’s Commission on the Protection of Children and is a
member of the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and the Law.
Burgess has been principal investigator of many research projects and has
written textbooks in the fields of psychiatric nursing and crisis intervention
and texts from her research in the crime victim area. She has coauthored over
160 articles, chapters, and monographs in the field of victimology. She also
has testified in criminal and civil cases in over thirty states.
In 2000 she was appointed Professor Without Term at Boston College.
She has received numerous honors, including the Sigma Theta Tau Interna-
tional Audrey Hepburn Award, the American Nurses’Association Hildegard
Peplau Award, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Episteme Laureate
Award.
Allen G. Burgess, D.B.A., is president of Data Integrity. He is a graduate of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University. He served in
the U.S. Air Force and was assigned to the National Security Agency. His ca-
reer spans thirty years beginning with computer design at Honeywell Infor-
mation Systems, where he designed four computer systems and rose to the
rank of chief engineer. He left Honeywell to join Raytheon, where he served
as computer and displays laboratory manager and supervised the design of
military computers. He left Raytheon to start Sequoia Systems, a manufac-
turer of fault-tolerant computers. In 1984 he started Data Integrity, where he
holds a patent for a solution to the Y2K problem.
In addition to his industrial experience, Burgess has taught at Northeast-
ern University, where he was an associate professor, and at Babson Col-
lege, Boston College, Bentley College, and Boston University as a visiting
professor.
Robert K. Ressler, M.S., is a criminologist in private practice and the direc-
tor of Forensic Behavioral Services, a Virginia-based organization dedicated
to training, lecturing, consultation, and expert witness testimony. He is an
expert in the area of violent criminal offenders, particularly serial and sex-
ual homicide. He is a specialist in the area of criminology, criminal person-
ality profiling, crime scene analysis, homicide, sexual assaults, threat
assessment, workplace violence, and hostage negotiation. He is a twenty-
year veteran of the FBI, serving sixteen years in the Behavioral Science
Unit as a supervisory special agent and criminologist, retiring in 1990. He
developed many of the programs that led to the formulation of the FBI’s
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.
Ressler became the first program manager of the FBI’s Violent Criminal
Apprehension Program in 1985. His academic affiliations have been as an
babout.qxd 7/19/06 8:27 AM Page 531
instructor of criminology while at the FBI Academy, adjunct faculty at the
University of Virginia, research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania,
and adjunct assistant professor at Michigan State University’s School of
Criminal Justice. He is a clinical assistant professor in psychiatry in George-
town University’s Program on Psychiatry and Law. He is a visiting instruc-
tor with the Department of Forensic Pathology at Dundee University,
Dundee, Scotland.
He received the 1991 Amicus Award from the American Academy of Psy-
chiatry and the Law, the 1995 Special Section Award from the Section of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the American Academy of Forensic
Sciences, and two Jefferson Awards in 1986 and 1988 from the University of
Virginia.
Ressler is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security, the
International and American Academies of Forensic Sciences, the Academy
of Criminal Justice Sciences, the International Association of Chiefs of
Police, the International Homicide Investigators Association, the Vidoqu
Society, and other professional organizations. He originated and directed the
FBI’s first research program of violent criminal offenders, interviewing and
collecting data on thirty-six serial and sexual killers, resulting in two text-
books: Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives (1988) and the Crime Clas-
sification Manual (1992). He also coauthored his autobiography, Whoever
Fights Monsters (1992), Justice Is Served (1994), and I Have Lived in the
Monster (1997).
Ressler’s books and life experiences have been the inspiration for many
books authored by Mary Higgins Clark and other authors and the films The
Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Copycat, and The X Files. He has testi-
fied as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases. He has lectured at and
consulted to law enforcement agencies, universities, writers, television net-
works, and corporations in the United States and abroad. He has appeared on
many major television and radio networks and has been featured in numer-
ous printed media articles in major newspapers and magazines worldwide.
Ressler has served with the U.S. Army, ten years of it active duty during
the Vietnam era. He served in the military police and as a criminal investiga-
tion officer (CID), with the Army CID Command Headquarters in Washing-
ton, D.C. He retired at the rank of colonel with thirty-five years of service.
532 ABOUT THE EDITORS
babout.qxd 7/19/06 8:27 AM Page 532
About the Contributors
Susan H. Adams, Ph.D., is retired from the FBI. She is an instructor at the
Centre on Counterintelligence Studies, Alexandria, Virginia.
Eileen M. Alexy, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of psychiatric nursing at the
State College of New Jersey.
Timothy Baker, Ph.D., is a social science analyst for the Department of
Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C.
Anne M. Berger, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S., R.N., is director of nursing core met-
rics at Children’s Hospital, Boston.
Gregory M. Cooper, M.P.A., is retired from the FBI. He is the investigative
support services manager for Motorola.
Lauren K. Douglas, J.D., is an associate at McGuire Woods L.L.P. in
McLean, Virginia.
John P. Jarvis, Ph.D., is a senior scientist in the Behavioral Science Unit at
the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia.
Carl J. Jensen III, Ph.D., is a special agent in the Behavioral Science Unit at
the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia.
533
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Leonard I. Morgenbesser, Ph.D., is adjunct faculty at Empire State College,
State University of New York.
Michael R. Napier is with the Academy Group in Quantico, Virginia. He is
retired from the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Vir-
ginia.
Mark E. Safarik is a supervisory special agent in the Behavioral Science Unit
at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia.
Peter Shellem is an investigative reporter concentrating on crime, courts, and
legal affairs for the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Eric W. Witzig, M.S., is a supervisory crime analyst and assigned to FBI
Headquarters.
Michael Welner, M.D., is a forensic psychiatrist and associate professor at
New York University. He is also chairman of the Forensic Panel in New York
City.
Arthur E. Westveer, M.L.A., is retired from the Behavioral Science Unit at
the FBI Academy. He is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond, Virginia.
534 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
babout.qxd 7/19/06 8:27 AM Page 534
A
Adams, S. A., 509, 515
Alberti, Pat, 206, 207
Alexy, Eileen M., 425
Altman, L. K., 488
America Online, 429
Amherst, Jeffrey, 485
Ancona, Kim, 504
Anderson, John, III, Judge, 416
Andrews, William, 142–145
Ansley, Michelle, 143–145
Armagh, D. S., 425, 426
Arnder, Robert, 432
Arnon, S. S., 490
Ascher, M. S., 490
Avery, Cheryl, 246
Avery, Dennis, 246–249
Avery, Karen, 246
Avery, Rebecca, 246, 247
Avery, Trina, 246
B
Baehring, Franz Konstantin, 432, 433
Bailey, F. Lee, 242, 373
Bailey, Warren, 399
Baker, A., 425, 430
Balshy, John, 505
Banks, Medell, 500, 501
Banks, Victoria, 500, 501
Bartlett, J. G., 487, 488, 490
Battaglia, N. L., 425
Baxter, Crystal, 125, 126
Bearnson, LeRoy Wood, 26
Bell, Larry Gene, 217
Bell, M., 428
Belluck, P., 488
Bennett, W., 31–32
Benson, Carol Lynn, 138–140
Benson, Debby, 138
Benson, Edward, 138
Benson, Margaret, 138–140
Benson, Scott, 138, 139
Benson, Steven, 138–140
Berger, Anne M., 485
Bissette, Patricia, 241
Bittaker, Lawrence Sigmund, 230–235
Black, H., 489
Blackburn, Robert, 254, 255
Blake, Helen, 240
Blom, E., 429
Bloomberg, Michael, 387–389
Bonaventura, Sheryl, 454
Bonner, Beverly, 414, 415
Bosco, D., 234
535
Name Index
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 535
Bosket, Butch, 148
Bosket, James, 148
Bosket, Willie, 147–150
Botts, Cheryl, 445
Bowen, Earl Wayne, 157, 159
Bowen, Tibitha Jenelle, 157
Bradfield, William S., Jr., 507, 508
Bresette, Marian, 191
Bridgeford, Shirley (victim), 74
Bridges, Kenneth, 457
Bridgette, George Clarence, 125
Brooke, Edward (Massachusetts Attorney
General), 242
Brooks, Pierce R., 73–75, 82, 88, 89
Brown, Dante, 192
Brown, Mary, 241
Brunson, Robert, 440
Brussel, James A., 285, 286
Buckley, J. P., 510, 515, 516
Budd, Delia, 464
Budd, Edward, 462, 465
Budd, Gracie, 462–465
Bundy, Ted, 54, 77, 79, 97, 223, 461, 467
Burgess, A. W., 79, 95, 96, 298, 383
Burgess, Billy Charles, 418
Burke, L., 429
Byron, G. G., 54
C
Cade, Chinue, 125
Cade, James Earl, 125, 126
Cade, Pamela, 125, 126
Caplan, G. M., 514
Carabbia, Ronald, 111, 112
Carey, Hugh, 149
Carlson, Allan Eric, 390
Carpenter, Leona, 481
Carter, Jimmy, 190, 373, 374
Casey, Patty, 481, 482
Cassell, P. G., 510
Cavaness, John Dale (Dr. Dale), 131, 132,
134–137
Cavaness, Kevin, 132, 133, 136
Cavaness, Marian, 131, 132, 136
Cavaness, Mark Dale, 131–133, 136
Cavaness, Sean Dale, 131, 132, 134–136
Champion, Patrick Neal, 433, 434
Chance, Rick, 412
Chapman, Mark David, 153–155
Charga, Elizabeth, 103, 104
Charga, Jamiel (Jimmy), 101–104
Charga, Joe, 104
Charga, Lee, 101
Charlot, Pascal, 456
Cieslak, T. J., 487
Cintron, Carmela, 198
Cisternino, Butchy, 112
Clampitt, Catherine, 416
Clark, Sophie, 241
Clinton, William J., 374, 421
Code, Nathanial, Jr., 19, 20
Coleman, Martha, 191, 192
Connolly, Matthew, 148
Cooper, G. M., 45
Corbin, Evelyn, 241
Costas, Kristen, 172–175
Cramer, Gary L., 86
Crawford, Denise Boigt, 421, 422
Crawford, Steven, 505, 506
Crisovan, Valeriu, 399
Cunanan, Andrew Philip, 448–452
D
Dahmer, Jeffrey, 461
Daniels, Patrick, 426
DeFreeze, Donald, 254
Dendinger, Emily, 466
DeSalvo, Albert, 240, 242, 243
Devine, M. J., 75
Dietz, P. E., 228, 334
Dilone, Miguel, 167
Dinh, Van T., 393–395
Donnelly, Frank, 503
Donohue, T. J., 87
Dos Reis, Saul, Jr., 431
Douglas, J. E., 19, 35, 36, 95, 96, 98, 239,
405
Douglas, L. K., 19, 405
Doyle, A. C., 50
Drizen, Steven, 498, 502
Dull, Judy, 73, 74
Dunn, Kerri, 36
E
Egger, S. A., 74, 75
Eitzen, E. M., 487, 488, 490
Ellis, Connie LaFontaine, 78
Elrod, Michael, 251
Evans, G., 492
Evans, Jacob, 209
Evans, Larry Luther, 125, 126
536 NAME INDEX
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 536
Name Index 537
F
Faherty, Kevin, 240
Ferguson, Carolyn, 125
Ferguson, Terry, 453
Ferritto, Ray, 111, 112
Fields, Ted, 192–194
Fink, Benjamin, 481
Fish, Albert, 461–466
Fisher, G. A., 77
Flaherty, John P., 506, 507
Florez, Ismael, 482
Foster, Marcus, 254, 255
Fowles, John, 454
Francis, Daemon, 185
Francis, David, 185
Francis, Kathy, 184–187
Franklin, Joseph Paul, 190–195
Franklin, Linda, 457, 460
Freeh, Louis J., 421
Friday, Joe (fictional television character),
88
Friedlander, A. M., 487, 488
Friedman, S., 65
Fuhrman, M., 77–79
Fuller, Catherine, 258–260
Fuller, David, 258
G
Gacy, John Wayne, 213, 461
Gaffney, Billy, 461–463
Geberth, V. J., 97
Gianera, James, 184–187
Gianera, Joan, 184–186
Gilliam, Jackie Doris, 232–233
Gillmouth, Everson, 481, 482
Glaister, J., 471
Glass, T. A., 491, 492
Glatman, Harvey, 73, 74, 88
Gochenour, Stanley R., 498
Godfrey, Paula, 416
Gonzales, Rosario, 453
Gorchkov, Vasili, 397
Gorner, P., 487
Graf, Joann, 241
Gray, Anthony, 430
Green, T. J., 75
Greene, Daniel, 110–112
Greenley, Louis, 499
Griffin, Larry, 496
Griffin, Robert, 300–302
Gross, Samuel R., 496, 497
Gudjonsson, G., 512, 513
Guida, Richard L., 507, 508
Guilfoyle, Mary, 184–186
H
Hagman, M., 490
Hagmeier, Bill, 54
Hall, Andrea Joy, 231–233
Hammond, Karl, 226
Harding, David, 497
Harrelson, Charles Voyde, 103, 104
Harrelson, Jo Ann, 104
Harrelson, Woody, 104
Harris, A. R., 77
Harris, Eric, 419
Hart, B. L., 75
Hartman, C. R., 95
Harvey, Donald, 203–205
Hauer, J., 487, 488
Hazelwood, R. R., 79, 95, 98, 228, 239,
298, 334
Hearin, Annie, 114–117
Hearin, Robert, 114–117
Hearst, Campbell. See Hearst, Patty
Hearst, Patty, 254, 373
Hearst, Randolph Apperson, 373
Hearst, William Randolph, 373
Heatly, Maurice D., 442, 446
Henderson, D. A., 487, 488, 490
Hester, R. S. (Bob), 255, 256
Hirsch, D. J., 77
Hirsch, Stanley. See Dinh, Van T.
Hitchcock, Harry, 138, 139
Holland, Doctor Kathleen, 208–210
Holmes, W. D., 511, 513, 515, 517
Holtz, Jack, 502–505, 507
Hoolmes, Joe, 106
Hornbeck, Jack, 434
Howard, Frank. See Fish, Albert
Howlett, J. B., 76, 80
Huff, Aaron Kyle, 437
Huff, Yolanda, 150
Huff-Corzine, L., 235
Hurlbert, R. E., 486
I
Icove, D. J., 288
Inbau, F. E., 516
Inglesby, T. V., 487, 488, 490, 491
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 537
Irga, Ida, 241
Isaac, Frederick Benjamin, 26
Ivanow, Alexey V., 397
Iverson, Allen, 360
J
Jackson, Arthur Richard, 369–371
Jahrling, P. B., 490
James, Una, 458
Jarvis, J. P., 235–237, 471
Jasper, Theresa, 104
Jay, Matthew, 161–164
Jayne, B. C., 510, 515, 516
Jensen, Carl J., III, 471
Jiang, Juju, 399, 400
Johnson, Axel, 482
Johnson, James Taylor, 157
Johnson, K., 429
Johnson, Kathy, 249
Johnson, Martha Ann, 157–159
Johnstone, Richard L., 420
Jones, Doris, 438
Jones, Genene, 206–211
Jordan, Vernon, 191, 192, 194
K
Kaczynski, Ted (Unabomber), 25–26, 283,
359, 431–433
Kalfrin, V., 430, 434
Keating, Robert Stephen, 428, 429
Keefer, B., 75
Kelly, William M., Jr., 501, 502
Kennedy, John F., 370
Kennedy, Robert, 188
Kenyon, Elizabeth, 453, 454
Keppel, R. D., 77
Kerr, James, Jr., 101
Kestler, J. L., 46
Kinge, Shirley, 497
Klebold, Dylan, 419
Klotter, J. C., 48, 49
Knight, R. A., 311
Korfman, Michelle, 454
Kosa, R., 85
Koster, Chris, 416
Kraft, Danny, 249
Krone, Ray, 504
L
Lambert, B., 431
Lamorte, Anthony, 147
Lamp, Jacqueline Leah, 232–233
Lane, Darrell, 192
Lanning, K. V., 244, 425
Lantz, Ron, 458
Lashway, Kenneth, 433
Laughman, Barry, 502–505
Laughman, Edna, 502, 503
“Lauralei,” 413
Layton, M., 490
Ledford, Shirley Lynette, 232, 233–234
Leftkow, Joan (Judge), 181–182
Lenahan, Erin, 452
Lennon, John, 153–155
Leo, R. A., 510, 511, 514, 515
Levy, Jerrold, 416
Levy, Nathaniel, 428
Lewicka, Izabela, 416
Lewis, N. D., 485
Lewis-Rivera, Lori Ann, 456
Licavoli, James. See White, Jack
Lino, Robert, 419
List, John, 97
Little, Russell Jack, 254
Loevinger, L., 46
Logan, Suzanne, 453, 454
Long, Jeremy, 399
Loschin, Beth, 430, 431
Lundgren, Alice, 249, 250
Lundgren, Damon, 249
Lundgren, Jeffrey, 246–249
Lynch, E., 433
M
Madson, David, 449, 451
Maldonado, Susan, 206, 207
Malvar, Maria, 467
Malvo, Lee Boyd, 455–461
Malvo, Leslie Samuel, 458
Manning, Alphonse, 190
Markman, Ronald, 234
Martin, Vera Faye, 481
Marting, David, 192–194
Maslow, A., 53
Mateias, Calin, 399
Matray, Raymond, 508
Maximum John. See Wood, John (U.S.
District Court Judge)
McAuliffe, W., 430–432
McClellan, Cameron, 208
McClellan, Chelsea, 207–211
McClellan, Petti, 207, 208
538 NAME INDEX
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 538
Name Index 539
McClenahan, Shawn, 79
McDade, J., 487, 488
McDonnell, Anna, 462
McGiver, Harold, 190, 191
McLane, Kendall, 147
McLaughlin, J. F., 425, 426
McVeigh, Timothy, 283
Megargee, E. I., 94, 98
Meier, Dennis, 160
Meier, Rory, 162, 163
Meier, Shirley, 160, 162, 163
Meier, Torran, 160–164
Mercado, Ruth (victim), 74
Mercer, Melinda, 78
Metesky, George, 283–287
Meyers, Dean, 460
Meyers, Homer, 481
Michaels, Margaret Kelley, 499
Miglin, Lee, 449
Mikula, Kathleen, 192
Miller, Dorothy, 481
Miller, Joseph D., 501
Milliron, Jeanna, 413
Mitchell, John Eddie, 505
Montez, Michael, 431
Montoya, Alvaro “Bert,” 480
Moore, K., 75
Moore, Kristen, 283
Morgenbesser, Leonard I., 300
Morrison, Paul, 415, 416
Muhammad, Allen (John Allen Williams),
455
Mullin, Herbert, 183–187
Munroe, Ruth, 480
Myers, Dean, 456
N
Naisbitt, Carol, 143, 145
Naisbitt, Cortney, 143–145
Napier, M. R., 509, 515
Naslund, Denise, 77
Nassar, George, 242, 243
Neufield, Vicki, 412, 413
Newman, S., 65
Newton, M., 73, 74
Nichols, Nina, 240
Nicholson, Rodney, 498, 499
Nickell, Bruce, 120–122
Nickell, Cynthia, 122
Nickell, Stella Maudine, 120–123
Nicoll, Claire, 127
Nicoll, Daniel A., 126–128
Nicoll, Donald, 127
Norris, Roy Lewis, 230–235
Nussbaum, K. E., 236
O
Ofshe, R. J., 510, 511, 514, 515
Ono, Yoko, 153–155
Osborn, Laura, 127, 128
Osterholm, M. T., 487, 488
O’Toole, T., 487, 488
Ott, Janice, 77
P
Palmer, Betty, 481
Parker, G., 487, 488
Parker, James, 96
Parker, Richard, 161–164
Pearson, Marvin, 426
Pennel, Steven, 26–29
Perez, Fred, 185–187
Perez, Moises, 148
Perez, Noel, 147
Perl, T. M., 487, 488
Persico, Frank, 419
Pethereck, Wayne, 412
Phillips, Kenneth, 504
Pierce, David. See Wilder, Christopher
Pierre, Dale, 142–145
Pinizotto, A., 471–475
Prentky, R. A., 311
Prochair, Alfred, 150
Protti, Bernadette, 172–175
Puente, Dorothea (Dorothea Helen Grey),
475, 480–483
R
Raines, Alfredo, 167
Raines, Judith, 167
Raines, Miguel, 167–169
Raines, Violetta, 167–169
Rayz, E., 65
Reedy, Janice, 418, 429
Reedy, Thomas, 418, 429
Reese, Lawrence, 191
Reese, William, 449
Reichart, David (Detective), 78
Reid, J. E., 516
Reinert, Susan, 506, 507
Remiro, Michael, 254
Rendell, Lawrence K., 127, 128
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 539
Reno, Janet, 421
Resendez, Angel Maturino, 448
Resendez-Ramirez, Rafael, 448
Ressler, R. K., 95, 96, 98
Rider, A. O., 263
Ridgeway, Gary, 461, 466–469
Riechert, Tony T. See Dinh, Van T.
Roadcap, Janice, 504–506
Roberts, P., 430
Robey, Ames, 243
Robinson, John, 412–416
Rockwell, Norman, 154
Rogers, Joseph, 222
Ross, Bart, 181–182
Rossi, D., 97
Rowland, J., 483
Rudolph, Eric, 283
Russell, George, Jr., 35, 36
Russell, P. K., 487
Ryan, Dan, 461
Ryan, George, 495, 496
S
Safarik, M. E., 235–237
Saldana, Theresa, 369–371
Salinger, J. D., 155
Samans, Beverly, 241
Sanders, Lindberg, 255, 256
Scalish, John T., 109–111
Schaeffer, Lucinda, 231, 233
Schecter, R., 490
Schock-Spana, M., 491, 492
Schwenn, Toni, 190
Secunda, Tom, 388
Shaw, Bernard, 374
Shaw, Patricia Hearst, 373. See also
Hearst, Patty
Shellem, Peter, 495
Shelton, Ronnie, 24–26
Sidal, Elaine, 220
Sidal, Jennifer, 220–222
Slesers, Anna, 240
Sluder, Randy, 418
Smith, Adriane Ione, 430
Smith, Alex, 35
Smith, Christine, 77, 78
Smith, Edward, 372
Smith, Jay C., 506–508
Smith, Michael, 35
Smith, Susan, 35
Smothers, Arthur, 192
Snow, Hayley, 120
Snow, Sue, 120, 121
Spates, Herman, 147–149
Speck, Richard, 441
Speed, Billy, 446
Spencer, S., 432
Starkweather, Charles, 448
Stasi, Lisa, 416
Steinheimer, David, 431, 432
Steinkampf, Michael P., 500, 501
Stewart, Potter (Justice), 57
Stropoli, Anthony, 419
Stuart, Carol, 31–32
Stuart, Chuck, 31–32
Sullivan, Jane, 241
Sullivan, Michael J., 384
T
Taeuber, C. M., 235
Tania. See Hearst, Patty
Taylor, Jesse, 191
Taylor, M., 74, 75
Taylor, Raymond, 191
Thomas, Jeanette, 501
Thomas, S. H., 77
Thomas, Willie (Chino), 125
Tina Marie, 454
Tingle, John, 178
Tinubu, Olufemi, 399
Tomei, Father Henri, 184, 186
Tonat, K., 487, 488
Trail, Jeffrey, 449, 451
Trestrail, J. H., 471–475
Trouten, Suzette, 413, 416
Tucker, Diane Bell, 500, 501
Tulloch, Robert, 96
Turner, R., 85
U
Unabomber. See Kaczynski, Ted
Unruh, Howard, 96
Upham, Troy, 429
V
Van Zandt, C. R., 457
Vasquez, David, 29–30
Versace, Gianni, 448–451
Vessel, D., 511
Vetter, Donna Lynn, 224–226
540 NAME INDEX
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Name Index 541
Vincent, Jan-Michael, 370
Vollmer, Scott, 251
Vorpagel, R. E., 97
W
Walden, Don, 445
Walden, Terry Diane, 453
Walekar, Kumar, 456
Walker, Orren, 143–145
Walker, Stan, 143–145
Wambaugh, J., 506, 507
Warren, J., 228, 334, 430, 431
Wason, Laurie A., 79
Watkins, Leo, 191
Webb, J., 88
Webking, Paul, 120, 121
Webster, William, 75
Weed, Stephen, 373
Welner, Michael, 55, 60, 62, 63, 197
Wesbecker, Joseph T., 177–179, 448
Westveer, A., 471–475
White, Byron (Justice), 45
White, Jack (James Licavoli), 110–112
White, Lawrence, 184
Whitman, C. A., 446
Whitman, Charles, 96, 437, 441–447
Whitman, Kathy, 446
Whitman, Margaret, 446
Wicklander, D. E., 512, 513, 517
Wilder, Christopher, 448, 452–455
Williams, Debra Kay, 433, 434
Wilson, C., 483
Wilt, Dawnette, 454
Winchell, Walter, 462–463
Winn, N. Alfred, 116, 117
Wischniwsky, Heidi, 428
Witzig, E. W., 73, 74
Wood, John (U.S. District Court Judge),
101–103
Wood, Percy A., 26
Wright, Jenny Ann, 157–158
Y
Yates, Robert, 77–79
Z
Zantop, Half, 96
Zantop, Suzanne, 96
Zevev, Oleg, 387–389
Zulawski, D. E., 512, 513, 517
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543
A
ABC News, 497
Abductions, 78, 79
Aberdeen, Scotland, 369, 370
Actions, categorizing by, 58–59
Adabase language, 82
African Americans, 236, 237, 241, 250
Aggravated assault, 375
Aggravated battery, 376
Alcoholics Anonymous, 134
al-Manar satellite television, 250
Amdahl computer, 82
America Online, 420, 429
American Airlines, 25
American Express Corporate card, 400
American Journal of Nursing, 202
American Nazi Party, 190, 195, 251
Amnesty International, 145
Antisocial personality disorder, 63, 69, 70
Anthrax, 487–489
Anti-Semitic hate crimes, 36
Antisocial personality by proxy, 63, 70
Arbor House, 26
Argument/conflict murder (123), 169–172;
argument murder, 170–172; argument
murder case study (123.01), 170–172;
conflict murder case study (123.02),
172–175; defining characteristics,
169–170; investigative considerations,
170
Arizona, Walton v., 57
Arlington, County Hospital, 191
Arlington, Virginia, 29–30
Arm of the Lord, 250
Arms Textile Mill (Manchester, New
Hampshire), 488
Arson: and crime concealment, 40–41;
general characteristics of, 263–264; and
insurance fraud, 41–42; overview,
261–263; search warrant suggestions,
264; serial, 25; staging in, 40–42
Arson, crime-concealment (230): case
study: crime concealment, murder
(231), 276–277; defining characteris-
tics, 274–275; investigative considera-
tions, 275; search warrant suggestions,
275–276
Arson, excitement-motivated (210): case
study: attention seeker (212), 269–270;
defining characteristics, 267–268;
investigative considerations, 268;
search warrant suggestions, 269
Subject Index
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 543
Arson, extremist-motivated (250): case
study (259), 287–288; defining charac-
teristics, 282; investigative considera-
tions, 283; search warrant suggestions,
283
Arson, extremist-motivated, terrorism
(251), 283; case study: extremist-
motivated, terrorism (251), 283–287
Arson, profit-motivated (240): case study:
insurance fraud (241.01), 280–282;
defining characteristics, 278–279;
investigative considerations, 279–280;
search warrant suggestions, 280
Arson, revenge-motivated (220): case
study: personal revenge (221), 273–
274; defining characteristics, 270–271;
investigative considerations, 272;
search warrant suggestions, 272
Arson, serial (260), 288–289; case study,
290–291; defining characteristics, 289;
investigative considerations, 289
Arson, vandalism-motivated (200): case
study: willful and malicious mischief
(201), 266–267; defining characteris-
tics, 264–265; investigative considera-
tions, 265; search warrant suggestion,
265–266
Ashland, Virginia, 457
Asian gangs, 105
Asians, 236
Assault (440): defining characteristics,
375–376; investigative considerations,
376; search warrant considerations, 376
ATF. See Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms
Atlanta Constitutional, 158
Atlanta, Georgia, 357
Attica Correctional Facility, 155
Attitudes, categorizing by, 58–59
Austin Police Department (Austin, Texas),
443
Australia, 429, 452
Authority murder (124), 175–179; case
study, 177–179; defining characteris-
tics, 175–176; investigative considera-
tions, 176–177; search warrant
suggestions, 177
Autoerotic fatalities, 36
Automated Modus Operandi System,
82–83
B
Bacillus anthracis, 487
Bank of America, 150
Battery/abuse (450): case study: Caleb,
377–379; case study: Ms. J., 379–381;
case study: seventy-three-year-old lady,
381–382; overview, 376–377
BAU. See Behavioral Analysis Unit
Beatles, 153–155
Beauty Queen Killer, 452. See also Wilder,
Christopher
Bechtel Nevada, 81
Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), 86
Behavioral Research Group, 86
Behaviorally Oriented Interview of the
Rape Victim, 79
Belgium, 417
Bellingham, Washington, 458
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 498
Benjamin Tasker Middle School, Bowie,
Maryland, 456, 457
Berkeley, California, 373
Beth Israel Medical Center, 199
Biological agents, 485–492; and anthrax,
487–489; and botulism, 490; and
plague, 491; and smallpox, 489–490
Biological weapons, 486
Biological Weapons Unit 731 (Harbin,
Manchuria), 485
Bioterrorism, 486
Blitz attacks, 35–36
Bloods (gang), 104, 106
Bloomberg, L. P., 387–389
Bondage, 296
Bonnano crime family, 419
Book of Mormon, 249
Bootstrapping, 98
Borderline personality disorder, 200
Boston, Massachusetts, 31–32, 240, 342;
Police, 242
Boston Strangler, 240, 241, 243
Botulism, 490
Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence,
460
Bridgewater State Hospital (Massachu-
setts), 242
Bristol-Myers, 121, 122
Brujeria, 200
Bruton v. United States, 45
Buffalo, New York, 127
544 SUBJECT INDEX
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Subject Index 545
Burbine, Moran v., 47
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
(ATF), 139, 140
Burglary (430): defining characteristics,
374; investigation considerations, 374–
375; search warrant suggestions, 375
Bush administration, 420
C
California, 40
California Forestry Association, 26
California Men’s Colony (San Luis
Obispo), 230
California Youth Authority, 164
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 242
Camden, New Jersey, 96
Canada, 426, 428
Cass County, Missouri, 414
Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), 154, 155
Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies,
491
Center on Wrongful Convictions (North-
western University School of Law),
498, 500
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 486,
489, 490
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 497
Check-kiting scams, 419
Chelyabinsk, Russia, 397
Chi Omega murders, 223
Chicago, Illinois, 182
Child molester, preferential, 296–297
“Child Porn Seeker” (Buffalo News), 428
Child pornography, traders, 425–427; and
collections, 428–429; distribution of,
428; and offender explanation, 429; and
possession of child pornography, 426;
production of, 428; profit motive, 429;
and sexual acts with children, 426, 428
Child pornography, travelers, 425, 427;
and homicide, 431; and international
travelers, 431–433; offenders, 430; and
sadistic sexual acts, 430–431
Child Protective Services (CPS), 377, 378,
380
Child/adolescent pornography (316),
337–339; and closet collector (316.01),
337; and cottage collector (316.03),
338–339; and isolated collector
(316.02), 337–338
Choctaw County Jail (Butner, Alabama),
500
Cincinnati, Ohio, 192, 194, 203; Veterans
Administration (VA) Medical Center,
204
CIRG. See Critical Incident Response
Group (CIRG; FBI)
Cisco Systems, 393
Claremont McKenna College, 36
Classic mass murder, 96, 97
Cleveland, Ohio, 24, 110, 246; mafia, 109,
110, 112
Club California (Buffalo, New York), 127
Coconut Grove (Miami, Florida), 125
Collector, The (Fowles), 455
Collier County Sheriff’s Department, 140
Columbia, South Carolina, 215
Columbine High School, (Littleton, Colo-
rado), 419
Colombo crime family, 419
Comfort Community Hospital, 209
Command hallucinations, 195
Committee on Uniform Crime Records
(International Association of Chiefs of
Police), 94–95
Computer crimes (500), 383–384; case
study: computer data as target, 387–
389; case study: denial of service, 390;
and case study: threats via Internet,
402–404; and computer data as target
(512), 386–389; and computers as tar-
get (510), 384; and denial of service
(513), 389–390; and malignant soft-
ware (511), 384–386; and threats via
Internet (540), 401–404
Computer Crime and Intellectual Property
Section (U.S. Department of Justice),
420
Computer crimes, computer user as target
(520), 391–392; case study: identity
theft, 393–395; and cyberstalking
(523), 396; and identity theft (521),
392–395; and invasion of privacy (522),
395
Computer crimes, criminal enterprise
(530), 396; and bank fraud (533.01),
401; case study, 397; case study:
Internet fraud, 398–400; and child
pornography (532), 398; and fraudulent
Internet transactions (533.02), 401;
bindex.qxd 7/19/06 8:29 AM Page 545
Computer crimes, criminal enterprise
(530), continued
and Internet fraud (533), 398; and
money laundering (531), 397–398
Concord, California, 254
Conduct Disorder, 63
Confession, 47–48. See also Criminal
confessions
Connecticut, 496; State Police, 242
Consolidated Edison Company (Con
Edison), 284–286
Contract murder (101), 98–104; case study,
101–104; defining characteristics, 98–
100; investigative considerations, 100–
101; search warrant suggestions, 101
Cookie, 385
Cooling-off period, 97, 437
Coprophilia, 296
Corpophagia, 465
Covenant, 250
Crime analysis, assessment phase, 32–33
Crime Analysis Report (VICAP), 79
Crime classification, 52–54
Crime Classification Manual (CCM), 243;
and motivational model for classifica-
tion of homicide, 98
Crimes Against Children (ICAC), 425;
legislation, 82
Criminal act, requirements: actus reus, 48;
causation, 49; mens rea, 48–50
Criminal competition (103), 108–112; case
study, 109–112; defining characteristics,
108–109; investigative considerations,
109; search warrant suggestions, 109
Criminal confessions: challenges to, 509–
510; and contamination, 512–514; and
creating false reality, 514–515; and
identifying personal vulnerabilities,
511–512; and personal dignity, 517;
and promising coercive end-of-line
benefits, 515–516; and reading sus-
pect’s behavior, 510–511
Criminal enterprise computer crimes
(530), 396–397; case study, 397
Criminal enterprise homicide (100),
98–151
Criminal enterprise rape (300), 299
Criminal Intelligence Assessment Report
(CIAR), 87
Criminal intent, 48, 49–50
Crips (gang), 104, 106
Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG;
FBI), 73, 86, 87
Crystal Springs Uplands School (Hills-
borough, California), 373
Cyanide, 121, 480
Cyber Security Enhancement Act, 423
Cybercrimes: and child pornography, 416–
419; combating, 420–423; and extrem-
ist groups, 419–4201; and interpersonal
violence, 412–416; overview, 405–408;
possible scenarios, 409–412; types of,
412–423; victimology, crime scene, and
investigative considerations in, 408–
409; and white-collar crime, 419
Cyberstalking, 412
Cybertrader.com, 393
Cygnus Solutions, 392
D
Dakota apartment building, 154
Dalmine, 481
Dartmouth College, 96
Death Penalty Information Center, 497
Defiance (cinema), 370
DeLand, Florida, 117
Depersonalization, 39
Depravity Standard, 61–64; in Court, 65–
68; and defining depravity standard
items, 65; and diagnoses associated with
criminally depraved acts, 63; and ex-
ample of item description, 66–67; infor-
mation sources for items of, 67; items
under study in, 69–70; using, 68–72
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Men-
tal Disorders (DSM-IV-TR; American
Psychiatric Association), 98
DNA, 182, 275, 374, 467, 495–497,
500–504
DOE. See United States Department of
Energy
Domestic homicide (122), 155–169
Domestic homicide, spontaneous (122.01),
155–159; case study, 157–159; defining
characteristics, 155–156; investigative
considerations, 156
Domestic homicide, staged (122.02): case
study, 160–161; defining characteris-
tics, 159–160; investigative considera-
tions, 160
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Subject Index 547
Doraville, Georgia, 190
Dorchester, Massachusetts, 241
Double Fantasy (Lennon), 154
Douglas, J. E., 19, 35, 36, 95, 96, 98, 239
Dragnet 1969 (cinema), 88
Dragnet (television series), 88
Drake Memorial Hospital (Cincinnati), 204
Drive-by killings, 105
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
126, 127
Drug murder (106): case study: A, 125–
126; case study: B, 126–129; defining
characteristics, 123; investigative con-
siderations, 124; search warrant sug-
gestions, 123–124
E
e-Bay, 389, 391
Echoes in the Darkness (Wambaugh), 506
Emerald Industrial Relations, 110
“Engineer Starts Jail in Child Porn Case”
(Pearson), 426
Enough Is Enough, 422
Erotomania-motivated murder: case study,
153–155; defining characteristics, 151–
152; investigative considerations, 152–
153; search warrant suggestions, 153
Ethanol, 479
Evidence, physical, 46
Exhibitionism, 296, 311
Exodus Communications, 392
Extra-Strength Excedrin, 120, 121
Extremist homicide (127): defining charac-
teristics, 188–189; investigative consid-
erations, 189; political (127.01), 190–
195; religion-inspired (127.02), 195–
200; and religion-inspired homicide
case study, 197–200; search warrant
suggestions, 189–190; typologies,
187–188
Extremist homicide (142), 250–253; defin-
ing characterizes, 251; investigative con-
siderations, 252–253; and paramilitary
extremists, 253–254; political (142.01),
254–257; religious (142.02), 255–257;
search warrant suggestions, 253
F
Falls Church, Virginia, 191, 457
Family mass murder, 96
FBI Investigative Support Unit, 175
Federal Anti-Tampering Act, 117
Federal Aviation Administration, 154
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 54,
81–83, 96, 110, 125, 175, 194, 224,
248, 254, 372, 390, 397, 399, 418, 432;
Academy, 95; Behavioral Science Unit,
95, 98; Critical Incident Response
Group, 73; Cyber-Crime Survey (2005),
423; Investigative Support Unit (ISU),
175, 222, 368; Training division, 75;
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), 94–95
Felony murder (108), 140–145; indiscrimi-
nate (108.01), 141–142; situational
(108.02), 145–150
Felony murder, situational (108.02): case
study, 147; case study: elder, 150;
defining characteristics, 146; investiga-
tive considerations, 146–147; search
warrant suggestions, 147
Fetishism, 311
Field Information Cards (FIC), 106
Filicide, 164
Filipino gangs, 105
Florence, Kentucky, 194
Florida, 402, 403, 420, 432
Flushing, New York, 399
Food and Drug Administration: Cincinnati
laboratory, 119
Forensic Panel, 61
Fort Myers, Florida, 139
Fort Wayne, Indiana, 191
Fort Worth, Texas, 418
France, 417
Fredericksburg, Virginia, 456
“Freedom Club” (F.C.), 26
French and Indian War, 485
Freudian theory, 286
G
Gang-motivated murder (102), 104–108;
case study, 107–108; common forensic
findings, 105–106; crime scene indica-
tors frequently noted, 105; defining
characteristics, 105; investigative
considerations, 106; search warrant
suggestions, 107
Gay.com, 430
Georgia, 57
Georgia, Godfrey v., 57, 60
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Georgia, Gregg v., 57
Glendora, California, 230, 231
Godfrey v. Georgia, 57, 60
Google, 389
GoToMyPC, 399, 400
Grand Central Station (New York, New
York), 285
Gray Man, 462
Great Britain, 64
Greece, 432, 433
“Green Man,” 242. See also Boston Stran-
gler
Green River Killer, 78, 466–469
Green River Task Force, 78
Gregg v. Georgia, 57
Group cause homicide (140), 243–244
Group cause homicide, cult (141): case
study, 246–250; defining characteristics,
245; investigative considerations, 245
Group excitement (143), 257–260; case
study, 258–260
H
Harborview Medical Center, Seattle,
Washington, 120
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 501
Hawaii, 105
Hezbollah, 250
Hibernia Bank, 373
Hillsborough, California, 373
Hispanics, 236
Hollywood, California, 370
Homeland Security Act, 423
Homicide: double, 95–96; single, 95;
triple, 96
Homicide classification: by victims, type
and style, 95–97
Homicide Injury Scale, 237
Honolulu, Hawaii, 154
Hotmail, 387
“House Arrest for Importing Child Porn”
(Canadian Press), 426
I
I Want to Hold Your Hand (cinema), 370
Illinois legislature, 496
Immigration and Naturalization Service,
458
Independence, Missouri, 246–248
Indianapolis, Indiana, 191
Indiscriminate felony murder: case study
(108.01), 142–145
Infantilism, 296
Infotech Training Working Group (U.S.
Department of Justice), 420
Ingram Micro, 398, 399
Innocence Institute of Point Park Univer-
sity (Pennsylvania), 498
Innocence Project (Benjamin N. Cardozo
School of Law), 498, 503
Insurance murder, commercial profit
(107.02), 137–140; case study,
138–140; defining characteristics, 137;
investigative considerations, 137;
search warrant suggestions, 137
Insurance murder, individual profit
(107.01): case study, 131–137; defining
characteristics, 129–130; investigative
considerations, 130; search warrant
suggestions, 130–131
Insurance-related death (107), 129; for
commercial profit (107.02), 137–140;
for individual profit (107.01), 129–137
Intents, criminal sentencing aggravators
categorized by, 58–59
International Association of Chiefs of
Police, 94
International Longshoreman’s Union, 110
“Internet Child Porn King Jailed for Four
Years” (Sydney Morning Herald), 428
Internet Child Sex Offenders: overview,
425–426
Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC),
425
Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC),
421
Internet service providers (ISP), 389, 395,
409
Invita, 397
Iran, 250
Irish Republican Army, 252
Islam, 195, 250, 458, 459; Nation of, 459
Islamic Shiite groups, 250
Israel, 250
J
Jackson, Mississippi, 114, 116; Junior
League, 114; Opera Guild, 114; Police
Department, 114
James v. State, 47
548 SUBJECT INDEX
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Subject Index 549
Japan, 485
John D. Long Lake (Union, South
Carolina), 35
Johnson County, Kansas, 415
Johnstown, Ohio, 192
Joy of Sex, 35
Juniper Networks, 392
Justice for All Act (2004), 496
Juvenile Offender Act of 1978, 149, 150
K
Kansas, 414
Kansas City, Missouri, 412, 413, 415
Kazkommerts Securities (Almaty,
Kazakhstan), 387
Kennedy assassination, 103
Kensington, Maryland, 456
Kent, Washington, 121
Kentucky, 413
Kerrville, Texas, 207–209, 211
Kidnap murder (104), 112–117; case
study, 114–117; defining characteris-
tics, 113; investigative considerations,
113–114; search warrant suggestions,
114
King County, Washington, 79, 121
Kirtland, Ohio, 246, 247
Kitts, Emilie, 438
Ku Klux Klan, 190, 251
L
Lake Squammamish (Washington State),
77
Lakeland, Florida, 194
Landslide Productions, 418, 429
Las Vegas, Nevada, 81
Law Enforcement Assistance Administra-
tion (LEAA), 75
Law Enforcement Bulletin (FBI), 87
Law Enforcement Online (LEO), 83, 86,
87
Lawrence, Massachusetts, 241
LEAA. See Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration
Leavenworth Prison, 103
Lebanese Shiites, 250
Lebanon, 250
LEO. See Law Enforcement Online; Law
Enforcement Online (LEO)
Linn County, Kansas, 413
Little Egypt, Illinois, 131, 132
Logic bomb, 385
London, Kentucky, 203
Long Beach, California, 125
Los Angeles, California, 73, 74, 369–371,
370, 391; Police Department, 104
Los Angeles City College, 369
Los Gatos, California, 184
Lundgren Cult, 247, 249
Lust murderers, 95, 98
Lycos, 392
Lynn, Massachusetts, 240
M
Mad Bomber, 283–286, 359
Madison, Wisconsin, 190
Makiki Mental Health Clinic, 154
Malibu Canyon Highway, 162
Malignant Narcissism, 63, 69, 70
Manassas, Virginia, 456
Marymount Hospital (London, Kentucky),
203
Masochism, 296
Mass murder, 437–441; case study: George
Emil Banks, 438–441; classic, 96; fam-
ily, 96; and mass murder–suicide, 97
Massachusetts, 402–404, 430
Massachusetts Sexually Dangerous Preda-
tor Act, 331
Massachusetts Treatment Center: Rapist3
(MTC:R3; Knight and Prentky), 311,
312
Mattawan State Hospital, 287
“Measurement Man,” 242. See also Boston
Strangler
Memphis, Tennessee, 433; Police Depart-
ment, 255
Mercy/hero homicide (128): defining char-
acteristics, 200–202; hero homicide
case study (128.02), 205–211; inves-
tigative considerations, 202; mercy
homicide case study (128.01), 203–
205; search warrant suggestions, 203
Mexican border, 101
Mexico, 167
Miami, Florida, 125
Michigan, 23
Minnick v. Mississippi, 50–51
Missing persons, 78–79
Mississippi Arts Festival, 114
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Mississippi, Minnick v., 50–51
Missouri, 414, 415
Modus operandi (MO), 19–54; definition
of, 20–21; and linking cases, 23; and
serial arson, 23; versus signature, 21–22
Monroe County, New York, 301
Moran v. Burbine, 47
Mormon Doctrine, 247, 248; “Doctrine of
Blood Atonement,” 249
MSN, 389
N
NAACP. See National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
Naples, Florida, 139
Narcissistic personality disorder, 63
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, 496
National Basketball Association (NBA),
360
National Center for the Analysis of Violent
Crime (NCAVC), 29, 33, 35, 37, 54,
75, 86, 243, 244, 263, 288–291; defin-
ing characteristics, 289; Investigative
Support Unit (ISU), 217
National City, California, 249
National Criminal Offender Database, 504
National Cybercrime Training Partnership
(NCTP; Richmond, Virginia), 420–422
National Incidence Studies of Missing,
Abducted, Runaway and Thrown-Away
Children, 347
National Institute of Justice, 498
National Law Center for Children, 422
National Law Enforcement Telecommuni-
cations Systems (NLETS), 87
National State Rights party, 190
National Urban League, 191
National White Collar Crime Center
(NW3C), 420, 421
Native Americans, 485
Nazi skinheads, 251
NBC, 182
NCAVC. See National Center for the
Analysis of Violent Crime
Necrophilia, 63, 69, 70, 468
Neonaticide (122.03), 164–169; case study
(122.03), 167–169; common forensic
findings, 166; defining characteristics,
165–166; investigative considerations,
166–167
Neteller.com, 400
New Hampshire, 455
New Jersey Supreme Court, 499
New York City, 33, 147, 154, 283–286,
370, 372, 419; Police Department, 284;
Public Library, 285; Transit Authority,
148
New York State, 73; Department of Public
Health, 285; DNA database, 301;
prison system, 300
New York Times, 417
New York World, 462
Newsweek magazine, 417
Nonspecific motive murder (126): case
study, 183–187; defining characteris-
tics, 182–183; investigative considera-
tions, 183
North Carolina, Supreme Court of, 496
Northeast Baptist Hospital, San Antonio,
Texas, 102
Northwest Pipeline, 192
Northwestern University, 498
NW3C. See National White Collar Crime
Center
O
Oakland, California, 254
Office for Victims of Crime, 425
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, 425–426
Ogden, Utah, 142, 143
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 283
Olathe, Kansas, 412–415
Olympics (Atlanta), 283
Operation Avalanche, 418
Operation Cyber Loss, 422
Operation Firewall (Secret Service), 423
Overkill, 26–29, 39, 60, 186
Oxford University, 430
P
Pacific Coast Highway, 231
Paramilitary activity, 248
Paramount Theater (Brooklyn, New York),
285
Paraphilias, 296, 305, 311
Paraquat, 479
Patriot Act, 422, 423
PayPal, 345
Pedophilia, 296, 417, 418
Pennsville, New Jersey, 449
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Subject Index 551
Pennsylvania, 65–66; State Institution,
Green, 440, 441; State Police, 503, 504;
Supreme Court, 506
Pentagon, 420
Prescriptive interview: and analysis, 51;
and assessment, 51; and burden of
proof, 48; and confession, 47–48; and
data collection, 51; and eyewitness,
45–46; and physical evidence, 46; and
plea bargaining, 46–47; preparing for,
50–52; and prosecution’s arsenal,
45–52; and theorizing, 51–52
Personal Cause Homicide (120), 151
Personation, 32–33; versus signature, 33
Philadelphia Daily News, 390
Philadelphia Inquirer, 390
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 360
Philadelphia Phillies baseball team, 390
Physical evidence, 46
Physician Desk Reference, 203
Pierce County, Washington, 78
Pipe bombs, 25–26
Pirates, 104
Plea bargaining, 46–47
Poisoning, homicidal: appendix, 478–483;
demographics of, 1990–1999, 477; geo-
graphical and temporal features of,
475–476; incident characteristics, 476;
method, 472; offender attributes,
473–474; overview, 471–472; relation-
ship of victim to offender in, 474–475;
results, 472–473; and type of poison,
475; victim demographics, 473; by year
and month, 476
Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 432
Product tampering (105), 117–123; case
study, 120–123; defining characteris-
tics, 118; investigative considerations,
119–120; search warrant considera-
tions, 120
Profiling, investigative, 97–98; as retro
classification, 97
Proof, burden of, 48
Prosecution, arsenal of: and burden of
proof, 48; and confession, 47–48; eye-
witness, 45–46; and physical evidence,
46; and plea bargaining, 46–47
Psychopathology, 97
Psychopathy, 63, 69, 70
Puget Sound National Bank, 120
Purdue University, 414
Q
Qualcomm computers, 391
Quantico, Virginia, 75, 95, 175, 222
R
Rape, abduction (319), 347–349; case
study (319.01 and 319.03), 348–349
Rape and sexual assault: and fixation,
297–298; and general forensic evidence
collections, 298–299; overview, 294–
297; and sexual ritual, 296; and victim
contact, 297; victims of, 295
Rape, anger (314), 325; age (314.02), 327;
case study: child victim, 328–330; case
study: elderly victim, 327–328; case
study: gender, 325–327; case study:
global, 332–333; case study: racial,
330–331; child victim (314.02.02),
328; elderly victim (314.02.01), 327;
gender (314.01), 325; global (314.04),
331–332; racial (314.03), 330
Rape, criminal enterprise (300), 299
Rape, exploitative (313.04), 323; case
study: adult (313.04.01), 323–324
Rape, felony (301): case study: primary,
300–302; case study: secondary,
303–304; primary (301.01), 299–300;
secondary (301.02), 302–304
Rape, opportunistic (313), 310–313;
motive, 311; nonsadistic types, 313;
and opportunistic motive, 311; sadistic
types, 312–313; and sexualization mo-
tive, 311–312; and vindication motive,
313–314
Rape, power assurance (313.03), 319–323;
adolescent (313.03.02), 321; case
study: adolescent, 322–323; case study:
adult (313.03.01), 320–321; defining
characteristics, 319–320
Rape, sadistic (315): adolescent (315.02),
335–337; adult (315.01), 334; case
study: adolescent, 336–337; case study:
adult, 334–335; overview, 333–337
Rape, social acquaintance (313.01), 314;
case study, 314–315
Rape, subordinate (313.02), 316; case
study: adult (312.02.01), 316–318;
case study: child (313.02.01), 318–319;
child (313.02.03), 318
Red Onion State Prison, Wise County,
Virginia, 460
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Remote Sensing Laboratory (United States
Department of Energy), 81
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ Latter
Day Saints, 246–248
Revenge homicide (125), 179–182; case
study, 181–182; defining characteris-
tics, 179–180; investigative considera-
tions, 180–181
Robbery (420), 371; bank (421), 372; case
study: bank, 372–374; defining charac-
teristics, 371–372
Romania, 399
Russian State Research Center of Virology
and Biotechnology (Koltsovo, Novosi-
birsk), 490
S
Sacramento, California, 25
Sadism, 62, 63, 69, 70, 296
Sadomasochism, 465
Salem, Massachusetts, 241
Salt Lake City, Utah, 192, 194, 468
Sam Huston State University, 75
San Antonio Medical Center Pediatric In-
tensive Care Unit (PICU), 206, 210, 211
San Antonio, Texas, 207, 209, 224; Police
Department, 226
San Diego, California, 150, 391
San Fernando Valley, California, 232
San Francisco Chronicle, 26
San Gabriel Mountains, 230
San Mateo, California, 373
Santa Ana, California, 398
Santa Cruz, California, 183, 185
Santa Cruz Mountains, 184
Santa Cruz state parks, 185
Satanic murders, 243
Scandal in Bohemia (Doyle), 50
Scatophilia, 296
Schizophrenia, 184, 195, 369
School Pictures of Mississippi, 114, 116
Seattle, Washington, 35, 120, 121, 397
Secret Service, 423
September 11 terrorist attacks, 419, 420
Serial arson, 25
Serial bombing (270), 291
Serial bombs, 25–26. See also Kaczynski,
Ted
Serial killers: and signature crime, 26–29;
versus spree killer, 97
Serial murder, 96–97, 437, 461–466; case
study: Albert Fish, 461–466; case
study: Gary Ridgeway, 466–469
Severity: and aggravators relating to
crime itself, 56–57; and challenges of
heinous, atrocious, and cruel, 60–61;
classifying crimes by, 55–56; and con-
stitutionality, 57–60; criminal sentenc-
ing aggravators categorized by intents,
actions, attitudes, and victimology,
58–59; and Depravity Standard for
criminal sentencing, 61–64; distin-
guishing, 57–60; and framework for
defining worst of crimes, 61
Sex rings, child/adolescent (317): case
study: solo, 340–341; case study: syn-
dicated, 346–347; case study: transi-
tional, 342–344; solo (317.01), 339–
341; syndicated (317.03), 344–347;
transitional (317.02), 341–344
Sexual assault, domestic (312): adult
(312.01), 306–307; case study: adult,
307–308; case study: child, 308–310;
child (312.02), 308–310
Sexual assault, formal gang (331), 349;
case study: single victim (331.01),
349–350
Sexual assault, group cause (330), 349
Sexual assault, indirect offense (311),
304–306; isolated/opportunistic
(311.01), 305; preferential (311.02),
305; preliminary (311.04), 305–306;
transition (311.03), 305
Sexual assault, informal gang (332): case
study: single victim (332.01), 350–351
Sexual assault, personal cause (310), 304
Sexual assault, unclassified (390), 352
Sexual battery, 376
Sexual homicide (130), disorganized
(132): case study, 220–222; defining
characteristics, 218–219; investigative
considerations, 219–220; search war-
rant suggestions, 220
Sexual homicide (130), mixed (133), 223;
case study, 224–226
Sexual homicide (130), organized (131):
case study, 215–217; defining charac-
teristics, 213–214; investigative consid-
erations, 214–215; search warrant
considerations, 215
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Subject Index 553
Sexual homicide, elder female (135): case
study, 240–243; defining characteris-
tics, 235–239; investigative considera-
tions, 239
Sexual homicide, sadistic (134), 226–227;
case study, 230–235; defining charac-
teristic, 227–229; investigative con-
siderations, 229; search warrant
suggestion, 229–230
Sexual preoccupation, 311
Sexual sadism, 63
Sexualization motive, 311–312
“Sexually Sadistic Criminal and His
Offenses, The” (Dietz, Hazelwood, and
Warren), 228, 229
Shannon Street Seven, 256
Shelton, Ronnie, 24–26
Sheriff Lynwood Gang Unit, 106
Shreveport, Louisiana, 19
Sid Peterson Hospital (Kerrville, Texas), 209
Signature crime, serial killers and, 26–29
Signature, offender, 19–54; aspect to vio-
lent crime, 21–22; cases linked by,
24–26; and linking cases, 23; versus
modus operandi, 22–23
Silver Spring, Maryland, 456
Simple battery, 376
Sing Sing prison, 372
Slover Park Reorganized Church, 247
Smallpox, 489–490
Solid Waste Guild, 110
Spain, 417
Spokane County, Washington, 78
Spokane, Washington, 77, 79
Spree authority killing, 178
Spree murder, 96, 97, 437, 448; case study:
Andrew Cunanan, 448–452; case study:
Christopher Wilder, 452–455
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church
(Redondo Beach, California), 231
St. Louis, Missouri, 131, 132, 134, 135
St. Mary’s Church (Los Gatos), 184
St. Petersburg, Florida, 116
Staging, 34–37; in arson, 40–42; crime
scene red flags, 37; forensic red flags,
38–40
Stalker, domestic (411), 362–363; case
study, 364; defining characteristics, 363;
investigative considerations, 363–364;
search warrant suggestions, 364
Stalker, erotomania (413), 367; case study,
369–371; defining characteristics,
367–368; investigative considerations,
368; search warrant suggestions, 368
Stalker, nondomestic (412), 364–365; case
study, 366; defining characteristics,
365; investigative considerations, 365;
search warrant suggestions, 366
Stalking crimes (410), 360–361; defining
characteristics, 361–362; investigative
considerations, 362; search warrant
suggestions, 362
Standard Gravure Corporation, 177
State Correctional Institute, Centre County,
Pennsylvania, 440, 441
State Correctional Institute, Graterford,
Pennsylvania, 440
State Correctional Institute, Huntington,
Pennsylvania, 440
State, James v., 47
Steganography, 420
Stockcharts.com, 394
Stockholm syndrome, 373
Strangler Bureau, 242. See also Boston
Strangler
“Student Arrested in Porn Case,” 428
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),
157
Sun Valley, California, 232
Super aggravators, 65–66
Supplemental homicide reports (SHR),
472, 473, 476, 478
Sussex I State Prison, Virginia, 460
Swastika, 195. See also American Nazi
Party
SWAT teams, 447
Sword, 250
Sword of Laban, 249
Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), 254,
373
T
Texas, 23, 101
Thessaloniki, Greece, 432
Threat delivery (402): letter (402.03.01),
359; symbolic (402.03.02), 360; verbal
communication (402.02), 358–359;
visual communication (402.01), 358;
written communication (402.03), 358–
359
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Threats, communication (401): conditional
(401.03), 357–358; defining character-
istics, 354–355; direct (401.01), 357;
indirect (401.02), 357; investigative
considerations, 355–357; nonspecific,
358; search warrant suggestions, 357
Threats, physical communication (402.04),
360
Times Beach, Illinois, 134
Torrance, California, 231
Traders, 425–427. See also Child pornog-
raphy, traders
Travelers, 425, 427. See also Child
pornography, travelers
Treatment Center, Bridgewater, Massachu-
setts, 323, 324, 330, 331, 333, 335,
337, 351
Trench Coat Mafia, 419
Trojan horse, 111, 385, 391, 394
Tylenol, 158; murders (Chicago 1982), 122
U
Undoing, 33, 39
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), 94–95, 472
Union, South Carolina, 35
United Airlines, 26
United Kingdom, 432
United States Army, 370; Medical
Research Institute, 489
United States Attorney’s Office, 419; Com-
puter Hacking and Intellectual Property
Section (CHIPS), 383, 391
United States, Bruton v., 45
United States Census Bureau, 426
United States Customs Service, 418
United States Department of Energy
(DOE), 81
United States Department of Justice, 94,
420
United States Secret Service, 370
United States Supreme Court, 50–51, 60, 64
University of Alabama School of Medi-
cine, 500, 501
University of California, Berkeley, 25
University of Michigan Law School, 496
University of Texas, Austin, 96, 442
University of Texas Tower, 438, 441, 444
University of Utah, 192
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 391
UNSUB, 32
V
Valium, 161
Vanderbilt University, 25
Variola virus, 489
VICAP (also ViCap). See Violent Criminal
Apprehension Program Unit
Victimology, criminal sentencing aggrava-
tors categorized by, 58–59
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforce-
ment Act of 1994, 81–82
Violent Criminal Apprehension Program
Unit (VICAP): black hole in, 81; busi-
ness analysis of, 79–81; business
change of, 81–82; case types, 76–79;
cases suitable for, 87–88; and cold case
analysis, 84–85; and complicated report
form, 80–81; and crime case matching,
84; few submissions to, 80; homicide
or attempts, 76; missing persons and
abductions, 78–79; national database,
85–86; new, 83–86; origins of, 73–75,
75; and sexual assault, 79; tool configu-
ration, 85; and unidentified dead, 79;
urban void in, 80
Violent protests, 287
Virginia, 420, 460
Viruses, 384
Voyeurism, 311, 452
W
Walekar, Kumar, 456
Wal-Mart, 389
Walter Reed Hospital (Washington, D.C.),
370
Walton v. Arizona, 57
Washington, D.C., 75, 258, 370
Washington Post, 26
Washington Times, 412
Washington-Baltimore Beltway sniper
attacks, 455–461
Waterbury, Connecticut, 286
Wee Care Day Nursery (Maplewood, New
Jersey), 499
West Side Rapist, 24–26. See also Shelton,
Ronnie
Westborough, Massachusetts, 394
White Flint, Maryland, 456
Wikipedia, 184, 455, 461
Wilder, Christopher, 452–455
Willie Bosket’s Law, 150
554 SUBJECT INDEX
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Subject Index 555
Wiltwych School for Boys, 148
Wonderland, 418
Woodlake, California, 26
World Health Organization, 485, 491
World Trade Center, 420
World War II, 285
World Wide Web, 64, 345
Worms, 384–385
Wrongful convictions, 495–508; and
false confessions, 500–503; and junk
science, 503–506; and overzealous
prosecution, 506–508
Y
Yahoo!, 389, 420
Yersinia pestis, 490
Z
Zandvoort, Netherlands, 417
Zoophilia, 296
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