Her boyfriend waited 3 weeks to report her missing. Patrol teams on the ground were alerted to the vehicle, which had sped away. His wife filed for divorce soon afterward, stating that he was abusive. He had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. A bargain was struck: in return for a guilty plea to Karen Hills slaying, no charges would be filed in the death of Jack . His first admission that he was involved in the murders was when he told police that Clara had nothing to do with it. Officials disputed it and attributed him with a combat kill of zero. Interview with a Serial Killer is a powerful, no-frills documentary that consists largely of what the title advertises- a lengthy interview with Arthur Shawcross, also known as the Genesee River . Shawcross also killed 13 people over the course of 17 years. Jack Blake would be the first of many more victims. I suffered PTSD for many years. for help. Then learn the horrifying story of Rodney Alcala, the serial killer who won The Dating Game during his murder spree. He was released in October 1971, after serving just 22 months of his sentence. We only haunt the willing. He received a 25-year jail sentence, and third wife Penny divorced him shortly thereafter. See his granddaughter has a Burzum t-shirt on. Shawcross started his life of crime at a very young age and ended up being a big fat liar about many things he claimed to have done. His parole officer would later be quoted about his release saying, At the risk of being melodramatic, the writer considers this man to be possibly the most dangerous individual to be released to this community for many years.. Police investigators arrested Shawcross in October 1972 after he was identified as the man who was with Hill on the bridge right before she disappeared. It did not take long for himto become bored with his new menial life. 5. He hid the body and left but told police that he later returned and threw her skull into the river. Police tried various tactics, including canvassing all the local bars, to no avail. Officials said 63-year old Shawcross complained of a pain in his leg on the afternoon of November 10, 2008, his date of death. After Vietnam, he was stationed in Oklahoma where he remarried (Shawcross was already once divorced and had given up parental rights to a child who he never saw again) and worked as an armorer. He dumped her body into the Salmon River, one of his favorite fishing spots. He also admitted that he anally raped Karen Ann Hill before strangling her to death. Could it be that Rochester was being stalked by two serial killers? Interview with a Serial Killer: Directed by Christopher Martin. He later boasted of grotesque combat exploits, such as "beheading mama-sans and nailing their heads to trees as a warning to the Vietcong" and engaging in cannibalism; in reality he never served in a combat position. Both had been asphyxiated and the press started to show an interest as the cases were linked. Inside The Mind Of Arthur Shawcross, The 300-Pound Genesee River Killer. Shawcross' family members strongly denied that he was abused and described his childhood as normal. Investigators went from looking for individual killersto looking for a serial killer and the window of time between his kills was getting shorter. In 1989, on the day before Ted . He also was spending a lot of timewith prostitutes. According to autopsy reports, she had been raped and murdered, and dirt and leaves were found jammed down her throat. Arthur Shawcross's work has been offered at auction multiple times. Shawcross's medical records show that he had a cyst and scarring on his temporal lobe, which can dramatically alter . His second marriage, following drafting into the Army in April 1967, was also tainted by violence and was equally short-lived. This time, Shawcross wasnt getting out of prison. As prostitutes continued to disappear, it became apparent that the killer must be someone familiar to the women who worked in the area. . Post-traumatic stress disorder from his year in Vietnam was also anted up as a reason why he went insane and murdered women. In all the previous cases at least some attempt at concealment had been made, which police felt indicated previous criminal or military experience. A few months later, Shawcross was taken to Wayne County to be tried for Elizabeth Gibsons murder. Thats why we started Creepy Catalog in 2015 as a place for creepy content and creepy people to congregate. They developed a profile that described the killer as a white male in his 20s or 30s, who was strong, probably with a previous criminal record, familiar with the area, and comfortable enough with the victims that they would enter his vehicle without question. He had been spotted by an eyewitness and a police surveillance team standing near his car, apparently urinating on a bridge over Salmon Creek near where Cicero's body had been dumped. Call Her Christine: The Story Of The Original American Transgender Celebrity, Christine Jorgensen, The Shocking Crimes Of Velma Barfield, The "Death Row Granny", What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. In 1967 he was drafted by the US Army at age 21. After reports surfaced detailing that Shawcross had been seen with Karen before she disappeared and he later was seen eating ice cream cones on the bridge where the body was found, Shawcross was brought in for questioning. Arthur John Shawcross (June 6, 1945 - November 10, 2008), also known as the Genesee River Killer, was an American serial killer active in Rochester, New York from 1972 through 1989. 22. After his release and discharge from the army, Shawcross and his second wife would move to Clayton, New York where Shawcross would terrorize the surrounding counties until his final arrest. Authorities ran criminal background checks on possible suspects, but sealing Shawcross previous records meant they didnt show up in any checks. He was born on June 6, 1945 in Kittery, Maine. He didnt waste all of his time there. Shawcross later claimed that he killed 39 enemy soldiersduring combat. Kevin MacLeod . [3] On September 2, just prior to the body's discovery, Shawcross raped and killed eight-year-old Karen Ann Hill, who had been visiting Watertown with her mother for the Labor Day weekend. Shawcross was held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York State until November 10, 2008, when he complained of pain in his leg. Serial killer Arthur Shawcross, whose drive to murder was analyzed by Dr. Dorothy Lewis, had been convicted in the deaths of two children in New York before ultimately securing parole and killing more. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Adnan Syed: A Complete Timeline of His Trial, Appeal and Killing of Hae Min Lee. Shawcross began to beat her and as she tried to get away through the Genesee River, he drowned her and let her body float downstream. Arthur Shawcross Photo: Getty Images Serial killer Arthur Shawcross murdered 11 women in upstate New York in less than a two-year . Shawcross would find his first victim, 27-year-old Dorothy Dotsie Blackburn around this area. Murder Inc. AP. An autopsy revealed that she had suffered severe wounds from a blunt object. Arthur Shawcross was born in Kittery, Maine on June 6, 1945. She had brutally kickedand beaten, and dirt and leaves were crammed down her throat, much like Shawcross did to 8-year-old, Karen Ann Hill. There is no way of knowing whose version represents the reality of his upbringing, but what became clear, later on, was that Shawcross would change his stories at will, as he was interviewed by various professionals in the course of their investigations. During the aerial search for Felicia Stephens body, the helicopter made out the shape of a corpse under the ice as well as a car cruising the area. beheading mama-sans and nailing their heads to trees as a warning to the Vietcong., The High Falls of The Genesee River (Ken Gallagher/Wikipedia), A Woman Went To A Funeral To Berate A Grieving Mother, It Turns Out Her Daughter Might Be TheMurderer, Watch Chris Watts Give A Chilling Speech About Relationship Deterioration. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation Fortunately for the authorities, Shawcross had, as speculated, returned to the scene of one of his crimes to relive the pleasure of the attack. With little evidence, and no public impetus to solve the murder of a prostitute, her case languished for over a year. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with testimony from forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis that he had brain damage, multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder) and post-traumatic stress disorder, and had been sexually abused as a child. In contrast to these claims, however, his parents and siblings maintain that he had a normal childhood, and the described events were largely the product of his imagination. August 29, 2018, 12:00 AM. The jury in the Arthur Shawcross trial was unpersuaded by Lewis's diagnosis of DID and duly convicted Shawcross of murder after just half-an-hour's deliberation. He was sentenced to 250 years to life in prison, where he remained until he died of a cardiac arrest in 2008, aged 63. On the first episode of this two-part series, we explore the grim origins of brutal serial killer Arthur Shawcross, from his incestuous childhood to his time in 'Nam to his inexplicably numerous marriages. On November 10th, 2008 Shawcross complained to officers about a pain in his leg. Arthur Shawcross (Arthur John Shawcross) an American serial killer known as the Genesee River Killer and the Genesee River Strangler. Arthur Shawcross. [1], Arthur John Shawcross was born in Kittery, Maine, the first of four children of Arthur Roy Shawcross and Elizabeth "Bessie" ("Betty") Yerakes Shawcross. He was caught in 1990 and died in prison in 2008. . Dietz told the producers of "Crazy, Not Insane" that he believes multiple personality disorder, generally speaking, is "a hoax." After suffocating June, a family friend of his and Roses, Shawcross cut her open with his knife to remove her organs and speed up the decomposition process. Shawcross and his girlfriend Clara Neal were brought to the police station for questioning. From March 1988 to December 1989, Shawcross is believed to have killed 12 women, mostly prostitutes in the Rochester, New York, area and then dumping most of . Arthur Shawcross, convicted of killing 10 Rochester-area women from 1988 to 1990, was sentenced today to a minimum of 250 years in prison. After his release on parole in April of 1987, Shawcross simply could not stop his murderous tendencies. YouTubeArthur Shawcross with his daughter (left) and granddaughter at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in 2002. (33.02 x 25.4 cm) Frame Size: 14.75 x 11.25 inches . He was arrested on October 3, 1972, and finally confessed to both killings, although he was only charged with Karen Hill's killing, given the lack of evidence tying him to Jack Blake's death. Road patrols were also sent out, and on New Year's Eve, they found a pair of black jeans belonging to Felicia Stephens. Polly Flinders. At this time he divorced his first wife and gave up his rights to their 18-month-old son, whom he never saw again. In June 1987, Shawcross and his new girlfriend, Rose Marie Walley, were relocated to Rochester, New York. After his involvement in protecting a guard during a prison riot, he was granted an early release in October of 1971. In September, six months after Blackburn's body was found, the bones from another missing Lyell Avenue prostitute, Anna Marie Steffen, was found by a man who was collecting bottles to sell for cash. Shawcross killed most of his victims in 1988 and 1989 after being granted an early parole, which later led to controversy. His sister was equally vehement about never having had a sexual relationship with her brother. What's really fucked up is Shawcross had already been in prison for murdering other people.