Currently working on a big piece, likely multiple parts, on one of the cases which has stuck with me since hearing it, Winne Ruth Judd, also known as The Trunk Murderess.
In the Early hours of Friday the 22nd of July 1977, crackles of fire and the pungent scent of smoke awoke the residents of Cedar Hill Drive in Prospect Conneticut. Rushing to their windows and out into the front gardens, they quickly spotted the source of the awakening. The Beaudoin home was ablaze, the flames enveloped the building by the time the fire brigade arrived on the scene, and despite their best efforts, the once busy family home was gutted. Hidden in this shell of a home, 9 charred bodies scattered the floor.
Initially it was believed that this was a tragic accident. That the family had become trapped and perished in the flames, however, it would not take long before investigators realised that there was something far more sinister at play.
Mrs Beaudoin was found dead on the kitchen floor, her clothes burnt away from her body. The bodies of three children were found in a bedroom to the right of the hall, two in a bedroom to the left, two in the bathroom and one in the master bedroom upstairs. Mrs Beaudoin, her seven children and her niece who had been visiting her family, all lost their lives on this night. But how?
Mrs Beaudoin and several of her children had their hands bound behind their backs, investigators quickly discovered, and several of the children had feet bindings and visible wounds.
The investigation changed immediately. This was no longer a tragic accident. This was mass murder. The biggest in conneticut history.
Post mortems showed that Mrs Beaudoin had been killed by a combination of head injuries and a brutal stab wound to the chest. 8 year old Paul also died from head injuries.
Her other children, Frederick (12), Sharon Lee (10), Debra Ann (9), Roderick (6), Holly Lyn (5), Mary Lou (4), and her niece Jennifer (6), all died from a combination of head injuries and smoke inhalation, tragically telling investigators that these 7 children were still alive when the house was set ablaze.
Within 24 hours, police interviewed more than 100 potential witnesses, including Mr Beaudoin and his Foster brother, 27 year old Lorne J Acquin, who, investigators soon discovered, had actually been at the home the night before the fire.
Lorne had a record for burglary, and an additional sentence for an attempted jail break, and he matched a witness description of a man who was scene sitting in a car outside the home the day of the murder. Quickly, Lorne became the focus of the investigation, and on the 23rd, the day after the murders, he was detained for questioning.
It did not take long for lorne to break, and within 48 hours of the murders, Lorne was ready and willing to confess.
Lorne admitted that it was he who attacked his sister in law, beating her with a tire iron before stabbing in the chest. He also admitted to attacking each of those 8 children, and that he ‘might’ have molested 10 year old Sharon Lee (tragically the young girls autopsy supported this, as her body did show signs of sexual violence before her death). He then spread petrol around the home and set it alight in an attempt to cover up his heinous crimes. That very same day, Lorne was charged with 9 counts of murder, and one count of arson.
Almost two years later, on Monday the 16th of July 1979, Lorne trial began, and it only took the jurty 3 days after closing arguments to return a verdict. Guilty on all charges.
Lorne was sentenced to 25 years to life for eachurder, and 20 years for arson, for a minimum of 245 years incarcerated. He will never be released, and he is currently 70 years old.
Paula Baniszewski was introduced to 16 year old Sylvia Marie Likens and 15 year old Jenny Likens, who had to use braces when she walked due to surviving polio, by her friend Darlee McGuire in July of 1965. The girls were new in town, and after getting along with Paula, they were welcomed back to the Baniszewski home, 3850 East New York Street so that the girls could drink pop and listen to some records. The girls explained that their mother had left their father and ran away, bringing them with her, and that their mother had actually been arrested for shoplifting and she was being kept in the police station. The girls were invited to spend the night at the Baniszewski home so that they could meet up with their mother the following day, but this is not how this was going to go.
The next day Gertrude was paid a visit by Lester Likens, the girls father, who had been informed by the McGuire’s that his daughters were staying at her home after he traced his wife and children to town. Gertrude, as she was known to do, introduced herself as Mrs Wright, and not as Mrs Baniszewski, and Lester went on to explain the situation, and his an his wife’s new plan. They intended to take the girls and travel the US carnival circuit as Carnies. However, when Gertrude heard this, she saw an opportunity to make some cash, since her house was always so full of kids as it was, it was agreed that she would take in the girls, and allow them to stay with her for $20 a week, though it is not actually known who first suggested this.
Unfortunately, Lester didn’t feel the need to inspect the home, and if he had, he likely would not have agreed. The house had no stove or microwave, the only food kept in the pantry was stale bread and dry crackers, there were only enough plates and utensils for 3 people, not the 10 that would be living there, the home was filthy, and they had only half as many beds as they needed for the family.
Sadly, the girls were moved into the home, while their parents went off to work. The first week reportedly went by without issue, the girls attended school, school functions and church with the family, and were essentially treated just like she treated her own children. This would all change however, when Lester’s payment didn’t arrive on time. The late payment triggered an overwhelming temper tantrum, she screamed at the young girls that, “I took care of you two bitches for nothing,” and forced the girls to lie across their beds on their front with their skirts and underwear around around their ankles, and proceeded to beat the girls with a wooden paddle.
Lester and Betty Likens came to visit their children and give Gertrude the money which they owed her, but due to the fear that Gertrude had already instilled in the girls, they said nothing to their parents.
The following week, the girls decided that they wanted to get some sweets, and so in order to make a bit of cash for them, they went through rubbish and walked the streets to find bottle caps to sell for petty cash, this was quite a common thing to do for poorer families at the time, but that didn’t stop Gertrude from being angry about it and accusing the two young girls of stealing. Sylvia explained the bottle caps, but that seemingly changed nothing for Gertrude, and they were once again beaten by the woman.
After attending a church social with Sylvia and Jenny, the Baniszewski children reportedly returned home to their mother to complain about Sylvia, disgusted by how much food Sylvia had eaten while there. For some reason, this sent Gertrude into a rage, furious that Sylvia would do anything to risk damaging her appearance, and crafted a cruel and unusual punishment for the teenager. Sylvia was forced to eat a hot dog which was piled high with condiments, making the teenager throw up. The punishment would not end there however, as the young girl was then forced to eat her own vomit. By this time, Sylvia’s fear of Gertrude was heavily ingrained, and when her parents returned to visit them once again, Sylvia said nothing about Gertrude’s despicable behaviour towards her.
The violence against Sylvia really began to intensify in August 1965, when she was reportedly heard talking about the fact that she had once allowed a boy to feel her up, infuriating Gertrude. The older woman began to scream at the 16year old, calling her a prostitute and shouting to the entire house that the teen was pregnant. But it would not end there, as she began to repeatedly kick the young girl in the crotch, leaving her unable to stand, and in desperate need to get off of her shaky feet. When the kicking finally stopped, Sylvia moved to sit on a chair, only to be thrown onto the floor by Gertrude’s eldest daughter, who was actually pregnant at the time herself, shouting in her face that she “aint fit to sit in chairs”. This incident triggered a change in the house, and from this point on, Sylvia had to request the right to sit down every single time.
It was here that the abuse against Sylvia became more and more frequent and more and more aggressive, with Sylvia now reportedly being used as a ‘plaything’ for the older children, she would be beaten and often pushed down the stairs. The young girl was constantly being accused of being a prostitute, mostly by Gertrude, who had begun delivering ‘sermons’ to the family claiming that prostitutes, and in the end that women in general, were filthy.
The day after the beating where she was first accused of being a prostitute, jenny would later claim, her and Sylvia decided to come up with a plan to get vengeance against Paula, deciding to tell their classmates that they had seen Paula and the second oldest Baniszewski child Stephanie, sleeping with boys in the school for money. However, this would soon turn out to be a mistake when 15 year old Roy Hubbard, who was dating Stephanie showed up to the home and proceeded to beat Sylvia up quite badly. From this point on, with Gertrude’s encouragement, Roy Hubbard would come to the home quite often, and he would actually practice his judo moves on the youngster.
In a petty retaliation against Sylvia’s rumours abut her daughters, Gertrude somehow managed to convince Sylvia’s best friend Anna that Sylvia had also been telling people at school that er mother was a whore also, culminating in another violent attack against Sylvia, orchestrated entirely by Gertrude. She did the same to Paula’s friend Judy Duke, also orchestrating her beating of Sylvia. She even forced Jenny to beat her own sister, beating the younger, sickly girl until she agreed.
Also during August of 1965, the house neighbouring the Baniszewskis was purchased by a middle aged couple, Phyllis and Raymond Vermillion and their two children, and when they moved in, they saw the large number of kids next door and thought that it would be a good idea to get to know the family, in the hopes that Gertrude could babysit their two children for them. The Vermillions arranged a barbecue with their neighbours, and the family weren’t exactly on their best behaviour, nor where they really were trying to hide the abuse. Sylvia was walking around the party with a strong black eye, and when questioned by Phyllis about the cause, Paula admitted to, and actually bragged about causing the wound. Not long after this conversation, under Gertrude’s observation, Paula actually walked over to Sylvia, throwing a glass of steaming water into the girl’s face. Phyllis and Raymond Vermillion never reported this to the police, and as far as is known, never told anyone about the concerning behaviour that they had witnessed.
Phyllis also didn’t report some even more concerning behaviour that she would witness two months later, when visiting the Baniszewskis in order to borrow something from Gertrude. Sylvia reportedly walked into the room where Phyllis was waiting, dazed and confused with swollen and cut up lips and a black eye that had swollen shut. Paula, like she had done previously, bragged about how she had been the one to cause the wounds, and even proceeded to remove her belt and begin beating the young girl with it, right in front of their neighbour, and she said and did nothing to stop it.
Not too long after this,Sylvia came home from school and told Gertrude that she had been told to buy a new sweat suit for gym class, and was told that that the family couldn’t afford it. Not wanting to get into trouble with the school, and not knowing what else to do, Sylvia decided to steal a sweat suit from the school. When Gertrude found out however, she was furious, and once again twisted the situation to be about prostitution, and proceeded to kick Sylvia in the crotch over and over just like she had before. But this time, the punishment went even further, with Gertrude taking a lit cigarette and burning each of her fingertips in order to ‘cure’ her ‘sticky fingers’, and beating the 16 year old with a belt. From this point on, smokers in the house started to put out their fags on Sylvia as a reminder of her misbehaviour.
Sometime later, Sylvia went out to try and find more bottle caps to sell so that she wouldn’t have to steal again and get hurt so badly, but of course in Gertrude’s mind, Sylvia had been out working as a prostitute. On her arrival home, Sylvia was told by Gertrude that Jenny her younger, more sickly sister, would be beaten if she failed to do as she was told. What she was told to do was the most twisted and severe punishment that Sylvia had been given since moving into the abusive home. She was forced to strip naked in front of Gertrude’s sons, and some of the neighbourhood boys,and was forced to masturbate with a glass coca cola bottle in front of them. Despite being humiliating and traumatising, the damage this caused led to Sylvia becoming pretty much completely incontinent, which is what caused Gertrude to first lock the young girl in the basement of the home, where the abuse would begin to worsen at an alarming rate.
The case of The Papin Sisters is one of the most analysed cases in French history, with intellectuals and playwrights researching and using this case as an inspiration ever since the murders took place in 1933.
Christine and Lea were the two younger of three children born to the troubled Papin family south of Le Mans. Christine was born on the 8th of March 1905 and Lea was born on the 15th of September 1911, and despite the large age gap, they grew extremely close during their childhood, a bond which would continue throughout their entire lives. All three of the girls had extremely difficult childhoods according to the research done on the case, with all three girls being subject to severe neglect and abuse.
Emilia, the oldest of the three girls, was reportedly sexually assaulted by her cruel father, an experience which led to her moving away and becoming a nun, leaving her younger siblings to deal with their parents together. According to reports, their mother cared very little for the children, doing absolutely nothing to protect them, or show them any kind of love or affection.
After Emilia left to become a nun, their parents would divorce, but not because of their fathers crime, or his abuse of all three of his children, but because their mother was apparently jealous of Emilia and her fathers ‘relationship’ believing that he didn’t rape her, but that they actually had had a consensual affair. The difficulties in their childhood is what would lead to Christine and Lea becoming so unusually close, according to researchers, Lea always being protected by her older sister, from abuse and molestation, essentially led Lea to become an extension of her older and smarter sister, causing her t lack any real individual personality whatsoever.
After their parents divorced, the girls reportedly spent a portion of their childhood in a mental institution due to the fact that there was no one around to take the girls in. They had grown very quiet during their youth, so quiet in fact that those who were in the institution with them, and even some of the staff, believed the girls to be telepathic. Some people had never heard them speak at all, but they were always together. Upon their release they began to work as maids, together when they could, in multiple homes south of Le Mans, managing to both find a live in position with the Lancelin family in 1926. The girls working conditions were harsh, they worked 14 hour days 6 days a week for a pedantic mistress who would reportedly use 'mild violence in order to punish the girls, things like pinching them with her nails when they were slacking or that they weren’t doing their jobs well enough.
The attack took place on the night of February 2nd 1933 after they had worked in the home for around 7 years, after a argument reportedly started over Christine plugging in a faulty iron and causing a power outage in the home.
The Lancelin family were due to go to dinner at a friends home, but when Mr Lancelin arrived at their friends home and his wife and daughter failed to show u, he felt as though something was wrong, and decided to return to his home to make sure that his wife and child were okay. When he arrived all of the doors and windows were locked, and the only light in the home was the flicker of a candle in Christine and Leas bedroom. Knowing something was wrong he went and got the police.
Tragically when they entered the home, police found Mrs Lancelin and her daughter Genevieve dead, and beaten to a point that they were almost completelyunrecognizable. Investigators described the scene as looking like a 'blood orgy’, it a an incredibly violent attack which is believed to have lasted around half an hour. Both of the women had had their eyes gouged from their sockets, one of Genevieve’s eyes was found a little way away from her on the floor, and Mrs Lancelin’s eyes were found caught in the folds of the scarf which she was wearing around her neck. The two women also had numerous slash wounds on their legs, so many that they couldn’t be accurately counted and they had been hit around the head with a hammer, and with a pewter pot which had been at the top of the stairs.
The sisters denied nothing when they found wrapped in each others arms as they slept, with the blood Mrs Lancelin ad Genevieve rubbed all over their bodies, confessing to everything that hapenned almost immediately.
For the first time in their lives the girls wereseparated while they awaited trial, and after being found guilty and being sentenced to different prisons, Christine for life, and Lea for just 7 years since they believed that she was manipulated by her smarter, older, ad more dominant sister, Christine couldn’t cope. She suffered an extremely severe mental breakdown leading to her attempting to gouge out her own eyes, just like she had done to her victims, and she died after just 4 years of her sentence because she refused to eat, or to look after herself in any way.
Lea was released in 1941, and according to reports she started a new life under a fake name, found a job and never offended again, which wasn’t surprising to investigators who believed that Lea alone did not prove a threat to society, and that it was with Christine’s influence alone that Lea had committed these awful crimes.
There’s a lot of questions around the demise of Lea Papin, most sources state that the died in 91, however, a documentary filmed by Claude Ventura claims that she actually died in 2001. In Claude’s documentary, he claims to have found Lea in a hospital, post stroke, and unable to talk, however it is not known for sure whether this really was Lea orwhether he was simply trying to make his documentary more exciting, though this 'Lea’ was actually featured in his film.
Jane Toppan, or as she would come to be known later in life, ‘Jolly Jane’, was a Massachusettes serial killer who was active during the late 1800s. To this day it is not known for certain exactly how many victims Jane claimed during her lifetime, but Jane would claim that is was at least 30 victims, with some more sensationalising reports claiming the number to be closer to 100.
Jane was actuary born as Honora Kelley, in Boston in 1854 (or 1857 according to some reports) to Irish immigrants Peter and Bridgette Kelley, though there is little to no information about the family, largely due to their immigrant status. She would come to be known by her family by the nickname of Nora, and she was the youngest of at least three girls, with a sister, Delia, who was two years older, and another older sister called Nellie. Other reports claim that she may have had more siblings than this, but I couldn’t find any information about this. When Jane was a few years old, her mother grew sick with a brutal case of tuberculosis, leaving their father to raise the girls. Their father was a tailor, and an aggressive alcoholic who was believed by all those who new him to suffer from some kind of mental illness, which would leave to violent and angry outbursts. This trait would come to earn him a less than kindly nickname 'Kelley the Crack’ meaning that he was 'cracked in the head’. It’s widely accepted that Jane’s early years were extremely miserable, and her and her sister Delia were taken away from the home at the ages of 6 and 8, and sent to the Boston Female Asylum in order to protect them from their increasingly abusive father. I tried to find out what happened to their older sister Nellie, but all I could find for sure was that she was not brought into the orphanage with her siblings because she was too old. It is rumoured that Nellie had actually taken after her father and struggled with mental illness herself until she was eventually committed to an asylum herself. It is also not known for sure what happened to their father, however there was an urban legend that claimed that he actually suffered a severe a severe psychotic break and tried to sew his own eyelids closed.
The Boston Female Asylum, despite the name, was not actually an asylum but an orphanage that had been founded back in 1799 by Hannah Stillman, wife of Revered Samuel Stillman, long before state care for children was invented, and this was actually the first charity set up by women in Boston. Back then it was simply down to the charity of the genourous to provide this kind of home for children, and those running this orphanage were generous enough to provide a home for around 100 girls at the time that Jane and Delia arrived. Jane found a home after around two years in the home, moving in with the Toppan family in 1962. According to reports, Delia was not so lucky and after leaving the orphanage it is rumoured that Delia turned to prostitution in order to survive.
When Jane was placed with the Toppan family, she was not formally adopted, and in fact, she never would be, though this family would be the ones to change her name to Jane, and refer to her as Jane Toppan. Despite being given their name, she would never truly be accepted by the matriarch of the family, due to Ann Toppan’s hatred for the Irish. This was also why Jane’s name was changed, and using Jane’s dark hair and olive skin to her advantage, Ann spread rumours that Jane was Italian rather than admitting the girls Irish roots. However these beliefs didn’t spread to her new sister Elizabeth, who was extremely fond of Jane, despite them not being treated equally within the home. Ann Toppan sent Jane to school, where she flourished academically, she was a very bright girl, but was hated by pretty much all of her schoolmates. Jane became known in school for lying about her family, being a snith, blaming other classmates for her own bad behavior and spreading vicious lies and rumours about anyone who would cross her, traits which would continue throughout her life.
Jane was given freedom from the home, along with $50 in cash on her 18th birthday, however she made the decision to stay in the home, working for them as a live in servant for over a decade. During the 70s Ann Toppan passed away and Elizabeth married Deacon Oramel Brigham. Jane was also reportedly engaged at some point during this time, however he left her for another woman, leaving Jane working for her Foster sister the way up to 1885. At this point, Jane decided that she wanted a new challenge and to stand on her own two feet, so she decided, instead of working one of the few menial jobs available to women, she applied to nursing school, and in 1887 she was accepted to Cambridge Hospital in Boston.
Jane used her time in school to reinvent herself, having learnt from her previous schooling how not to behave if you want to make friends. The change in Jane and how she treated people was so drastic at this time that she actually earnt herself the nickname of Jolly Jane. She was working 12 hour days, 7 days a week, getting only two weeks off a year, but she loved it. Her stoicism and bubbly personality earnt her many friends, however her manipulative traits hadn’t disappeared. The nurse was still prone to spreading gossip and integrating herself with authority, but she was much alter now. Apparently on at least two occasions during her training Jane’s rumours actually cost the nurses their place at the school. She also apparently started committing petty thefts, but nothing ever came of this.
The patients coming through the hospital loved Jane, they found her bright and chatty and genuinely just believed her to be a lovely and bright woman. However it would later be discovered that her relationship with her patients at this time were unusual at best, it became known that Jane had actually been falsifying the medical records of her favourite patients in order to ensure they stayed longer than originally needed. It is also believed that it was around this time that she began given these patients the wrong medication for the same reason, but nobody suspected her of this at the time. The patients that Jane did not care about however, where the elderly, her callous views of them, likely triggered by her uneasy relationship with her elderly foster mother, was that there was 'no use’ in keeping them alive. No one at this time could have imagined that she was being serious, but it’s hard not to wonder what would have happened if these comments had been taken seriously.
According to Jane, she killed over a dozen people during her time as a student nurse, reportedly using her patients as test subjects by giving her patients varying degrees in order to see the effect which it would have one them. This gradually worsened to the point where Jane would sit and watch her parents suffer, gaining sexual pleasure from this. She even described her feelings while watching her first murder victim die as 'ecstasy’. As is often the case for murderers that operate in hosptials, especially at this time, no one saw her victims death as suspicious, allowing her the freedom to escalate her crimes. As she gained more pharmacological knowledge, she changed her drugs of choice from opiates to a mixture of Atropine 9 and Morphine, since they were much harder to notice. The effects of the drugs counteracted each other in a way that would allow the poisons to go completely unnoticed. By this point she was using her patients as props to improve her own reputation, by nursing her victims back to health when nobody else could.
The reputation that she had built for herself during her training would actually be enough to allow the killer to get a job at Massachusettes General Hospital, and be immediately be put on fast track for promotion once she received her official license. It was once she began working at the hospital that issues would begin to arise for Jane. She quickly got a reputation for taking credit for other people’s actions, something which went unnoticed at her previous job, and she also got caught out several times for tampering with medical records, but it was simply put down to incompetence and not malice. However even though the rest of her bad behaviour was being noticed finally, this did not extend to her crimes. Jane was still secretly torturing and killing her patients.
One of her patients survived an attack by Jane, and would reveal in the future, exactly what she remembered. Amelia Phinney recalled being wracked with brutal convulsions when Jane Toppan, her nurse, actually climbed into bed with her, stroking her hair and kissing her cheek and telling her that it would all be okay soon. Amelia recalled that the only reason that she got out of this situation alive was that Jane had been interrupted before giving her a fatal dose. Amelia didn’t come forward until after Jane’s arrest, since she woke up under the belief that it was nothing more than a dream, and didn’t realise otherwise until after Jane’s story was revealed.
Despite her difficult relationship with the nurses at her hospital, she managed to grow quite friendly with the doctors at the hospital, mostly due to the fact that she was very intelligent and was technically very good at her job when she was actually doing it. However after being suspected of stealing petty cash from coworkers and patients, and of stealing a nurses diamond ring, she was dismissed from her position in 1890, after she passed her exam, but before receiving her official license.
After working as a private nurse for a short period, Jane decided to return to the much more lenient Cambridge Hospital in an attempt to finally get her license, however Jane’s arrogance would get in the way. After an attempt to poison a trainee nurse, Mattie Davis, who will pop up again later on in the story was detected, an investigation was carried out which discovered the large number of patients with similar symptoms that had died while under her care had died. This was once again put down to incompetence and not malice, and Jane was somehow not reported to the police, but was instead fired and blacklisted from hospital work.
With hospital work no longer an option for the serial killer, Jane went back into private nursing, a job which paid far better, but lacked a consistent wage. Working privately also allowed Jane to do pretty much whatever she wanted, since there was no one keeping an eye on her, and no one to report to. Over the next few years Jane would actually go on to become one of the most successful private nurses in Boston.
Israel and Lovey Dunham were an elderly couple whom Jane was boarding with in Wendell Street Cambridge in 1895. Israel was old, and was growing weaker and weaker by the day and Jane, who we know to have very callous opinions of the elderly, decided that the man was 'too old’ that he was 'feeble and fussy’, and after a short consideration, Jane killed the defenceless man, using her medical training to make it seem as though he had simply had a heart attack. Jane then led his widow Lovey mourn his death for two long years while still living in the home before deciding to also kill the elderly woman. One by one, Jane began killing her way through her elderly patients not seeing 'much point in keeping old people alive’. After killing one of her patients, the family contacted a doctor in town, claiming that they believed Jane to have stolen some clothes from their grandmother’s home after her death, but the doctor defended Jane, claiming that she was 'One of the finest women and best nurses that he knew’.
For several years, Jane had been going on holidays to a rented cottage in Cape Cod, which was actually owned by Mattie Davis and her husband, and in August of 1899, Jane decided to extend the invite to her Foster sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth was apparently very excited to see her sister, she was still very fond of Jane, and couldn’t wait to spend time with her, but what she didn’t know was that Jane had nothing but hate in her heart for Elizabeth. Elizabeth had done nothing to cause this, but Ann Toppan parenting had twisted Jane’s mind against Elizabeth, and it had left Jane wanting revenge.
Within days of her arrival in Cape Cod, Elizabeth’s husband Oramel received a telegraph from Jane, claiming that Elizabeth had fallen seriously ill. When Oramel finally got to Cape Cod, Elizabeth was in a coma, after suffering a suspected apoplectic stroke, according to the doctor that was called. Tragically, Elizabeth would never recover and she passed away the morning after Oramel arrived.
Not long after her sisters funeral, which she attended despite being the person who killed the innocent woman, Jane decided that it was time to push forward with a scheme which she had been planning for quite some time. The Matron of St John’s Theological School at Cambridge, Myra Connors, had been a friend of Jane’s for several years now, or at least that was what Myra Connor believed. However, Jane was no friend to Myra, she simply had a plan. Jane wanted Myras job and the apartment, maidservant and regular paycheck that came with it and so, as she had so many times before, poisoned and killed the woman who thought she was her friend. Jane made this murder look like a case of peritonitis that took a tragic turn. At the funeral Jane managed to manipulate her way into the job, but she wouldn’t manage to keep it for very long. Jane was not used to being in a position of management, and she had a very lenient attitude towards finances, which would lead to her being asked to resign after just one year.
Jane decided to get away for a while to help soothe her injured ego, so she returned to Mattie and Alden Davis’ holiday cottage despite the fact that this was where she had murdered her own frosted sister not too long ago. The kindly couple always gave her a good rate and hadn’t charged her for her stay after Elizabeth’s death in 1899, and gave her an extension in 1900 since she didn’t have enough money to pay it. However when she returned returned to the cottage and left without paying once again again, Mattie took it upon her self to pay the killer a visit in order to confront her in person.
When Mattie went to visit Jane, she was boarding with a new couple, Melvin and Eliza Beedle, she had already poisoned the couple once before, but only enough to make them belive thst they had food poisoning. On Matties arrival Jane poured the woman a glass of water which she laced with morphene, causing Mattie to 'take over poorly’. The Beedle let Mattie rest in one of the homes empty rooms, which allowed Jane to easily top up the dosage without being seen, sending her into a coma. Mattie was diabetic, and when the doctor arrived, Jane told him that Mattie had simply eaten a piece of cake on arrival and that is why she was so unwell. The doctor had no reason to not believe the well known and pretty well respected nurse, and he left Mattie in Jane’s care, which would prove to be a tragic and fatal mistake. Jane toyed with Mattie for a week, varying her doses and bringing her in and out of her coma and allowing her moments of panic stricken lucidity, before growing bored and giving the poor woman a fatal dose.
After Matties death, her two daughters, Genevieve and Minnie decided to stay with their grandfather while they came to terms with their grief, and the sweet natured girls made the poor decision to incite Jane to stay with them a while, since they knew and trusted her. For a while, Jane kept herself amused by starting small fires around their their home, and pinning them on a stranger that she had invented, that she claimed to have seen 'skulking about’ the property. However, this petty arson wouldn’t be enough for her for long. Genevieve had been struggling with her mother’s death, she seemed to have not been coping as well as the other members of her family and Jane used this to her advantage. Using her skull for spreading rumours, Jane told Minnie, Matties other daughter, that she had seen her sister sat staring at a tin of arsenic, and suggested that they keep an eye on her, just in case. Jane would go on to poison Genevieve with arsenic, leading her family to believe that she committed suicide.
The use of arsenic in this case was quite an unusual tactic for Jane, heavy metal poisons like arsenic were far too easy to detect for her to normally risk using it, however this time she had built up a story thst would allow her to get away with it. At this time suicides didn’t tend to be investigated due to the stigma that surrounded them. Her official cause of death was written as heart disease, but this would not be enough for 'Jolly Jane’. Two weeks after Genevieves death, Jane poisoned her father, Alden, with her usual combination of poisons. His cause of death was officially recorded as grief, and still feeling far too comfortable due to the lack of information, Jane still wasn’t done with the family. When Jane gave Minnie her first dose of morphene, it left Minnie unable to swallow, but, determined to finish what she had started she delivered the fatal dose via enema. The doctors were baffled and after struggling to associate her death with anything else, they listed her cause of death as 'exhaustion’.
This string of unexplained deaths within such a short period of time naturally garnered a lot of attention, with several newspapers writing papers about the unusual situation, but people somehow still didn’t suspect that the family had been murdered. That is, people other than Minnie’s father in law, Captain Paul Gibbs, and Doctor Ira Cushing, who had seen Alden the day before he died. The two men got together and decided that something had to be done about Jane and her suspicious behaviour, and they know who they wanted to contact.
Leonard Wood was the US military governed of Cuba at the time, and he had studied medicine and spent time as a surgeon in the military before joking the officer corps instead. He worked with Tessy Roosevelt to form the famous 'rough riders’ that fought in the Spanish - American war, and while Teddy got all the glory for this, it had been at his family home on Cape Cod in 1901, he was payed a visit by family friend Captain Paul Gibbs, and he was asked to use his medical connections and his power to kick start an investigation.
While this investigation was taking place, Jane decided to pay a visit to Revered Oramel Brigham, her sisters widower, welcomed Jane into his home with open arms, but tragically things went off the rails during her short stay. Jane murdered Oramel sister and also proceeded to poison Oramel. Jane nursed Oramel back to health, apparently in an attempt to 'win his affection’, however when she was rejected, she calibrated the perfect amount of morphine and took an overdose which, while not fatal, did land her in the hospital. The investigating officer didn’t want to let Jane out of his sight so he feigned an illness to be admitted to the hospital alongside her.
Once she discharged she moved onto yet another one of her friends, this time decided to pay a visit to an old friend named Sarah Nichols, however a few weeks after her arrival, Jane was arrested by the police. Luckily for Sarah the police had exhumed the body of Minnie Gibbs and an autopsy finally found evidence of poison.
Jane was actually originally only arrested for Minnie’s murder, but as newspapers delved into her background they quickly discovered that this murder was just the start, and they quickly began to push forth rumours about Jane, most of which were untrue.
While the newspapers were free to make whatever judgements they wanted about Jane, the court case would not go quite so smoothly for a few reasons. The first issue faced by the prosecution was the recent death of the Davis families Doctor, since it meant that Jane could make claims about their health without anyone to claim otherwise. And the second issue was that the prosecution were operating under the assumption that Jane had poisoned Minnie with arsenic, however that wasn’t the case. The traces of arsenic found on Minnie’s body was actually from the embalming fluid that had been used.
It was an interview with Captain Paul Gibbs that would give prosecutors and police the lead they needed. A reporter from the Boston Journal asked Captain Paul for his thoughts kn the arsenic found in the two woman’s bodies, he was quick to reveal his surprise. He told the paper “I didn’t think Jennie Toppan would use anything as easily detected as arsenic.” He knew Jane quite well, and knew how well educated she was, and that she was a much more skilled pharmacologist than people wanted to admit. When asked what he believed that she would have used, and having knowledge on the topic himself, he actually suggested, if you’d believe it, a mixture of morphine and atropine, which as we know was what she had used for the vast majority of her crimes. He also revealed that Jane had owed the family money and that $500 had gone missing from Aldens pocket after his death.
Newspapers dove deep into the past of Jane Toppan, finding out all about her petty thefts and the mysterious deaths, especially thst of Myra Connors. However it was Jeanette Snow, Jane’s biological cousin who would give investigators their next big break. Jeanette told them all they wanted to know about Jane’s young childhood, especially about 'Kelley the Crack’, Jane’s father, and Nellie’s admittance to an asylum also. Jeanette’s information changed the public perception once again, with Jane Toppan no longer seen as an opportunistic poisoned, but as dangerously insane.
Jane’s wealthy patients began writing letters in an attempt to help her and for a while it seemed like it might have helped, however this wouldn’t last for long. Taking the advice of Captain Paul Gibbs, there was an inquest into Minnie’s death where they discovered that she had not been poisoned with arsenic but with morphine and atropine. Investigators had been looking through Jane’s finances to find evidence of her purchasing arsenic, and failing to find anything, however, now they were looking into morphine instead they found proof of purchase after purchase of morphine and they finally had the evidence that they needed to take the serial killer to court.
The date was set for Jane’s trials, but it did not happen yet. Fred Bixby, Jane’s attorney, and the DA agreed to appoint a panel of psychiatrists to examine Jennys mental state and see if she was fit to stand trial. In March of 1902 Dr Henry Stedman, Dr George Jelly and Dr Hosea Quinby began their examination.
While Jane was initially very distrusting of the three doctors, it didn’t take long for her chatty personality and her arrogance to show, and she began to open up. The doctors picked up very rapidly on her addiction to lying, but they pushed through, and despite having previously pled guilty, Jane Toppan confessed. The doctors had no idea how twisted Jan was, they were shocked as she discussed, calmly and coldly, thst she had a habit of climbing into bed with her victims, and the sexual thrill that she gained from their death. They had never experienced anything like this before, especially not from a woman. The doctors unanimously declared the serial killer as 'morally insane’ which was the term used for psychopathy at the time, and said that she was unfit to stand trial and that she would never recover from her illness.
This was the first time in American history that a serial killer was actually being prosecuted as a serial killer, but the trial was little more than a formality, and a worry free Jane chatted and laughed with her lawyer for the one day that the trial lasted. During the trial Dr Stedman was asked what reason Jane had given for poisoning Minnie Gibbs, to which he simply replied, 'To cause death’. Jane was sentenced to a lifetime in a mental institution the same day.
It wasn’t until after the trial took place that it was revealed that Jane had actually confessed to her attorney 6 months earlier when he first began to defend her, and she confessed to more than the 11 murders tbT the police had been investigating. Jane told him that she had been killing for 14 years, and that she had killed at least 31 people. The press went completely wild and every newspaper was reporting all they could about Jolly Jane Toppan.
Jane was sent to Taunton State Hospital, and for the first few years she really enjoyed her stay, and got along really well with all of the doctors and nurses that worked there, but she began to spiral. Jane was diagnosed with Manic Depression and she began to think about using her old name again and becoming a nun. By 1904 she had grown more and more paranoid to the point where she refused to eat anything because, ironically, she believed it to all be poisoned, after 34 years of struggling with worsening mental health issues and paranoia, Jane Toppan died in Taunton in 1938.at 81 years old.
Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo, or The Butcher Of Rostov, as he would come to be known, was a Soviet serial killer who murdered at least 50 people between 1978 and 1990. I’ve chosen to discuss this case mostly due to the political side of the case, as the countries communist views actively got in the way of the case. In the Soviet Union at this time their ideology asserted that serial murder was impossible in a communist society, making it even harder for the police to protect the people of Rostov.
Chikatilo was born on the 16th of October 1936 is Yablochnoye, Ukraine. Growing up in Ukraine at this time was extremely difficult, since the country was still dealing with the aftermath of an extreme famine which led to millions of deaths, and people resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. In fact, during his childhood Chikatilo would be told frequently by his mother that he had actually had an older brother, but he had been kidnapped and actually eaten by the townsfolk during the worst of the famine. While this story could never be officially verified it is believed that this story is actually what motivated Chikatilo to cannibalise some of his victims. He was an avid reader, and his favourite books to read would become heavily inspired by his own life. During the second World War, Chikatilos father was conscripted to fight in the war against Germany, at which time he was actually kept prisoner. His father was vilified when he eventually returned home, which would in turn affect Chikatilo. He was brutally bullied by his schoolmates because of his father’s perceived cowardice. After his father’s return Chikatilo began to develop an interest in stories about how German soldiers had been tortured by their Soviet captors during WWII.
However his surroundings would not be Chikatilos only issue. It is believed that Chikatilo was born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) at birth, which would cause several issues for Chikatilo. One of the most noticeable problems caused was his genital - urinary issues, which would cause bedwetting quite late into his life. It is believed that Chikatilo wet the bed until at least his late adolescence if not his wary adulthood. These genital - urinary issues would also cause Chikatilo to be unable to sustain an eretion later in life.
At 15 years old, Chikatilo experienced what would be his only sexual experience during his adolescence. Chikatilo attempted to overpower a young girl, and he acyally ejaculated almost immediately during the short struggle. Instead of taking this seriously, getting him help or telling anyone what had happened, his schoolmates instead just began to bully him even more aggressively than before. It is believed by psychologists that this event is what triggered Chikatilo to conflate violence and sex, a trait which would stick with him forever.
After failing his entrance exam to the Moscow State University, and completing a brief spell of military service, Chikatilo moved to a town near Rostiv-na-Donu with his younger sister where he got a job as a telephone engineer and married a local girl called Fayima whom his sister had actually introduced him to. Finally, in 1971 he managed to get himself a degree from Rostov Liberal Arts University and managed to get himself a pretty good job as a teacher. However Chikatilo was forced to move from school to school doolowed by complaint after complaint of sexual assault from his young students and their parents. However nothing official was done about this and he ended up settling at a mining school in Rostov.
Chikatilos first documented murder victim was 9 year old Lena Zakotnova. Lena was lured into a shed by Chikatilo, where he then attempted to rape the young girl, during the attack Chikatilo slashed at the young girl with his knife, ejaculating as he did so, confirming his psychological connection between violence and sex, which would go on to become a component in all of his attacks.
There’s was actually a witness during this investigation, who claimed to have seen Chikatilo with Lena not long before she disappeared, however despite police taking this seriously and investigating it, they would get nowhere. Fayima provided him with a strong alibi which enabled the killer to avoid any further suspicion in regards to this crime. Desperate to make an arrest in this case, the police arrested a 25 year old man who had a previous rape conviction, Alexsandr Kravchenko. After a brutal and extended interrogation by desperate police, Alexsandr actually confessed under duress for this crime that he didn’t commit. He was tries for the murder and in 1984, he was actually executed, and Chikatilo got away with his heinous first murder.
However the close brush with the law clearly got to Chikatilo, and as far as we know today, Chikatilo didn’t kill anyone else for 3 years. Tragically though, he hadn’t stopped committing crimes. Accusations of sexual assault and abuse kept popping up and finally in 1981 he lost his job at the mining school he had been working at and was unable to find another teaching positions because of this long list of previous accusations. Instead, Chikatilo began working as a clerk for a raw materials factory in Rostov. This should have been a good thing right? Since his access to children had been taken away? Tragically this was not the case. Chikatilos new job involved huge amounts of travel which would give him pretty much unlimited access to a multitude of young victims over the next 9 years.
Larisa Tkachenko, 17, would be Chikatilos next victim. On the 3rd of September 1981 Chikatilo gagged the young girl with dirt and leaves to prevent her from screaming before strangling and stabbing the young girl. The brutal force used is what gave Chikatilo the satisfaction he longed for and the murderer had started to form his own twisted MO.
Chikatilo would find young runaways, usually at train stations or bus stops, before luring the girls and boys into forests and woodlands nearby before beginning his attack. Chikatilo would attempt to rape his victims but due to his inability to sustain an eretion, he began to instead use a substitution, a knife. In a nber of cases, Chikatilo would actually eat the sexual organs of his victims, or remove other body parts like the tip of the tongue or the nose. However, in his earlier cases somothing which was almost always present, was the fact that Chikatilo would target his victims eyes. Slashing and even removing the eyeballs of his victims. Chikatilo would later claim that he did this because he believed the eyes of his victims held an imprint of his face, even on death.
Serial killers were not a very well known phenomenon in the Soviet Union at this time. This was down to a combination of cultural differences and most noticeably the suppression of information at the time, especially information about murder or child abuse cases, in an attempt to maintain public order.
However the Soviet authorities couldn’t Bury their heads in the sand when it came to Chikatilos crimes. The similarities in all the attacks, especially the eye mutilation during earlier attacks, was to to much to deny or ignore, and the authorities were forced to face the fact that there was a serial killer operation in Rostov, and a particularly brutal one as that. The media coverage was minimal, but that didn’t stop the speculation of the people in Rostov, and rumours of foreign plots and incredibly, werewolves, began to circulate the area, and fears really began to grow.
Major Mikhail Fetisov was transferred to Rostov in 1983 in order to take control of the investigation. Having no doubt in his mind that there was a serial killer on the loose, Mikhail Brought in specialist forensic analyst Victor Burakov to head the investigation in Shakhty. The investigation centered on convicted sex offenders and the ‘mentally ill’ but the interrogation methods used by investigators at this timeed to a large number of confessions that Burakov was hesitant to believe since they were likely made under duress like Alexsandrs had been. At this stage in the investigation, police had no idea how many murders had actually taken place since not all of the bodies had been discovered, but they did know one thing, with each new body came more and more forensic evidence. The police were operating under the believe that the murderer was blood typed AB due to the semen samples thst were discovered at several crime scenes. Chikatilos blood typed was actuallt type A, but he happened to be a part of a minority group called 'non secretors’ which meant that his blood type could not be found out from anything other than a blood sample. The police also had hair samples, since multiple identical grey hairs had been found at several of the crime scenes also.
There were 15 more victims during the course of 1984 and the police efforts intensified drastit, mounting massive surveillance operations canvassing most of the bus stops and train stations in the area. Incredibly this actually did lead to Chikatilos arrest after he was seen behaving very suspiciously at one of the bus stations that were under surveillance. He was imprisoned for just 3 months for a number of minor offenses, but since his blood type didn’t match their suspect, (due to his non secretor status) he evaded suspicion for his crimes once again. If this crime had taken place in present day, this would likely have been it, this would probably have led to Chikatilo being discovered as murderer due to the advances in forensics.
After being released from his 3 month sentence he found work in Novocherkassk as a travelling buyer for a train company, and as far as I could find he didn’t commit another killing, or any crimes for that matter until 1985, when he murdered two women in two separate incidents.
Burakov was growing frustrated with the case, and another specialist was brought in in an attempt to further assist the investigation. This time it was psychiatrist Alexandr Bukhanovskys turn to help investigators by refining the profile of the murderer. Bukhanovskys defined the killer as a 'necro-sadist’ and placed the mans age as between 40-50 years of age, which was a fair bit older than the police had believed him to be previously. Burakov was so desperate to bring this sick killer to justice, and he actually made the decision to visit and interview serial killer Anatoly Slivko shortly before he was executed, in an attempt to get inside of the mind of someone who was capable of committing such heinous crimes.
Around the time of this interview, the attacks seemed to stop. As usually happens when serial killers have breaks in their crimes, the police theorised that one of three things had happened, either he had stopped killing, been arrested for unrelated crimes, or that he had died. However, in 1988, he was back, with a slightly altered MO. This time he was keeping his attacks outside of Rostov and he was no longer finding his victims at bus stops and train stations like he used to. Chikatilo killed a documented 19 people over the next two years, and he seemed to be killing much more irrationally than he used to, and taking bigger risks than he had previously. He was now focusing primarily on young boys. And his crimes would often take place in locations thst were pretty public, and at a higher risk of discovery.
Massive pressure was now being put on the police in the area, and police were patrolling the streets almost constantly which did little more than make people feel a bit safer at first. Burakov then brought in ununiformed officers to patrol likely areas. Chikatilo had actually evaded capture on several occasions, but his luck would soon run out. On the 6th of November, shortly after killing his final victim Sveta Korostik, he was noticed by patrolling police station due t oh his suspicious behaviour. His information was taken and when he was linked to his arrest back in 198r, Chikatilo was put under surveillance.
Chikatilo was finally arrested on the 20th November 1990 due to even more suspicious behavior but he refused to speak. This was when Burakov had an idea, he allowed Bukhanovski to interview Chikatilo, claiming that he wanted Chikatilos help to try and understand the mind of a seru killer from a scientific perspective. This 'flattery’ was all it took for Chikatilo to open up to the psychiatrist. He gave Bukhanovski very detailed descriptions of his crimes, and even led the police to previously undiscovers bodies. He claimed to have taken the lives of 56 victims but only 53 could officially be verified. The police had no clue that there were so many victims, they had only linked 36 murders before this.
Chikatilo was deemed fit to stand trial and on the 14th of April 11992 he was taken to court. The killer was kept in an iron cage for the duration of the trial to keep him away from the families of his victims and to be be honest, to keep him away from everyone in the room. He was referred to as 'The Maniac’ by the media due to his behaviour in court. His behaviour ranged from bored to manic, singing,talking gibberish and pulling his trousers down in the middle of court. The judge residing over the wasn’t exactly impartial, he often overruled Chikatilos lawyer and it was very clear that he’d already decided that Chikatilo was guilty. However despite this, there would not be a verdict on the case for another two months. On the 15th of October 1992, Chikatilo was found guilty of 52 murders, and sentenced to death 52 times.
Chikatilo appealed his conviction, claiming that his psychological evaluation was biased and that he was never fit to stand trial to begin with, but his appeal was denied, and 16 months later, on the 14th of February 1994, he was executed by a shot to the back of his head.
A positive not to end, Alexandr Bukhanovsky, the psychiatrist who was viral during the investigation, actually went on to become a celebrated expert on sexual disorders and serial killers.
Due to the fact that The Axemans attacks almost exclusively targeted grocers of Italian descent, some people believe that the victims were actually victims of an early form of mafia called The Black Hand. It was named after a method of extortion that was being used at this time in Italian neighbourhoods. However this theory is subjected to a lot of scrutiny since so many of his victims survived. If the attacks were really due to unpaid extortion debts, why were some of them killed and some of them left alive.
THEORY TWO (VENDETTAS)
Similar to The Black Hand theory, some people believe that the murders may actually have been due to vendettas, since Scillian immigrants in the US at this time had huge distrust for the authorities, so they would often settle their disputes themselves. However the similarity in the MO makes this one hard for me to believe.
THEORY THREE (JOSEPH MUMFRE)
Joseph Mumfre is probably the man thst is associated with The Axeman most often. Mumfre apparently led a blackmailing gang in New Orleans which specifically targeted American Italians, which obviously fits the victim profile. Mrs Pepitone, the widow of The Axemans final victim, was certain that Mumfre was The Axeman, claiming that she saw him running from the scene. She believed this so strongly in fact that in December 1920, a year after The Axemans final murder, Mrs Pepitone reportedly shot and killed Mumfre, which could explain why The Axemans crime.
It is believed that Mumfre spent some time in prison between 1912 and 1918, the times apparently lining up with the breaks in the Axemans crimes, which could explain why the timing was so incredibly inconsistent.
Other reportings and recordings from the time however claim that Mumfre never actually existed, putting him down to an urban legend that arose in New Orleans as a way to try to come to terms with what happened and built some kind of explanation.
THEORY FOUR (COPYCATS)
Although The Axemans MO was so incredibly specific, the many inconsistencies lead some people to believe that the crimes were actually the work of multiple assailants, who may have been working together to terrorise the community.
THEORY FIVE (DEMON)
This theory isn’t usually taken very seriously in today’s society, but it is interesting to note that at the time of the attacks many God-fearing families really started to believe this after his letter was published, largely to his ability to seemingly appear and disappear without a trace.
Our story begins on the night of the 22nd of May 1918 in New Orleans. The bodies of grocery store owner Joseph Maggio and his wife Catherine were discovered in pools of their own blood by Joseph’s brothers who actually lived just next door. Joseph and Catherine’s throats had been slit with a razor while they slept, Catherine’s was actually cut so deeply thst her neck was almost entirely severed from her shoulders. Their heads had then been bashed in with an ace. It was a bloody and brutal crime scene, their blood was soaked into the mattress of their marital bed.
Police discovered the point of entry to the home upon arrival, a panel had actually been chiselled out of the back door to allow the attacker to enter. It was also quickly clear that burglary was not the motive for this crime. Nothing had been taken from the home, or at least nothing of value. The blood soaked axe (which actually belonged to the couple) had been left in the bathroom, the chisel had been left by the door and the razor blade was thrown into the neighbours garden.
The police were very quick to make arrests in this case, including one of the Maggio brothers, however due to a lack of evidence all of the suspects had to be released. Due to the time severely limited the technology available, the only evidence the police were able to find was a message, scribbled in Chalk on the floor a short walk from the crime scene, which read, “Mrs Maggio will sit up tonight just like Mrs Tony.” The police connected this message to Mrs Tony Chiambra, one of a number of grocers of Italian descent that were attacked and killed between 1911 and 1912. While these cases were never officially connected to The Axeman, the similarities in both the MO and the victim profile make it seem unlikely to me that they weren’t connected in some way.
A month later, on the 27th of June, The Axeman Of New Orleans struck again. Baker John Zanca went to make a delivery to the grocery store owned by Louis Besumer just like he had many times before. When there was no sign of life from the front of the store, and no answer to his knocks, Zanca got the uncomfortable feeling that something wasn’t quite right, and he decided to walk to the back of the building where he knew that Besumer and his (supposed) wife, Harriet, would likely be sleeping. However when he did reach the back of the store, he discovered the couple lying in pools of blood, with multiple wounds to their heads, but somehow they were still alive.
The Besumers would reported waking up to extreme pain, before seeing their attacker hacking at them with their own axe. When police arrived at the scene, they saw the panel cut from the back door, saw the lack of stolen objects and saw that the Besumers axe, which was used to attack them, had once again been left in the bathroom of the home. One of the most intriguing elements to this case for me has always been the fact that The Axeman would never bring his own axe to his crime scenes, and would instead use the victims, as this suggests a lot of prior knowledge about his victims, their belongings, and where in the home these belongings were kept.
Once again, a string of arrests were made in this case, including one of Besumers employees, but due to the lack of evidence and the media frenzy which would occur, they were all released. It was discovered soon after the attack that Harriet was in fact not Besumers wife, but his mistress, which was a total scandal at the time and led to the media frenzy actually interfering with the case. This media frenzy would only worsen in the two months before Harriet would tragically die. Before she passed away, she actually pointed the blame Besumer himself, claiming that he was actually a German Spy. Police had a difficult time believing this, largely due to the fact that Besumers had received some pretty severe injuries during the attack, including a skull fracture. However they apparently came over to Harriet side because 9 months after the attack, and 7 months after Harriet unfortunate death, Besumer was arrested and actually taken to trial for the murder, where he was found not guilty and released.
The next attack would occur in August of the same year, but this time, there was only one victim. 8 month pregnant Mrs Schneider was attacked in her sleep while her husband stayed for work. Mr Schneider returned home from work to find his wife covered in blood, with some of her teeth missing and her skull cut open, but she was alive. A few days after the attack Mrs Schneider regained consciousness and told the police what little she remembered. She recaes waking to a figure hovering over her holding what she would only know to be an axe when he started to strike. Luckily Mrs Schneider made a full recovery, and her unborn baby girl was miraculously unharmed, and she was born not long after the attack.
Police were confused as to why The Axeman had attacked Mrs Schneider, the MO matched perfectly but the victim profile was so off. Mrs Schneider was neither a grocer nor of Italian descent.
Just 5 days after the attack on Mrs Schneider, an elderly Italian grocer and his wife woke to the sound of a struggle coming from the room next to theirs, where their uncle was sleeping. When they entered the room they discovered their uncle Joseph Romano with a head wound, badly bleeding, and they actually saw the attacker flee the scene. Romano neice described the attacker to police as “dark skinned, heavy set and wearing a dark suit and a slouch hat”. Once again, a panel had been removed from the door and nothing of value had been taken. Joseph unfortunately died from his injuries two days later.
Once again a media frenzy arose in New Orleans. Men began to arm themselves and watch over their families as they slept.
Police were looking into the growing list of things that simply didn’t make sense about this case. Why did The Axeman always leave the chisel behind? Why did he never bring his own axe, and how did he have this kind of knowledge of his victims belongings? And why had he killed Mrs Schneider and Joseph Romano, Mrs Schneider didn’t fit the profile, and why kill Romano and not his grocer nephew that was in the same home.
Just when the attacks began to speed up, with only 5 days between the last 2, The Axeman disappeared, for 7 long months the families of New Orleans began to hope again, wanting nothing more than for the axeman to be gone for good. But tragiy on the 10th March 1919, The Axeman returnee. When he did, nothing about his MO had changed. He entered the house through a cut out panel and he attacked the Cortimiglia fighting with The Axeman, a fight which he would lose, receiving multiple blows to the head and a fractured skull. The Axeman then turned to Rosie, and tragically her 2 year old daughter that she was cradling. The child sadly died instantly, and Rosie received a fractured skull.
Fellow grocer Iorlando Jordano lived next door, and when he heard his neighbours screams, he raised the alarm and ran into their home in attempt to help in any way he could.
Luckily, both Charles and Rosie made full recoveries, and Rosie claimed to know exactly whk did this. Rosie pointed the blame at the very man who had gotten them help, claiming that Iorlando and his son Frank had committed this heinous attack. Charles ferverently denied this, and would reportedly go on to divorce his wife because of this. The men were actually arrested and charged with the attack however, Iorlando was sentenced to life in prison and his son Frank was actually sentenced to hang. It wasnt until almost a year later that Rosie withdrew her testimony, claiming that she lied out of spite and jealousy.
A few days after this attack, there was an intriguing and chilling new development in the case. The Times Picayune newspaper received a letter from ‘hell’ and addressed to 'esteemed mortal’. The Axeman had decided to contact the people he had been keeping in fear for so long., claiming to be a 'demon from the hottest hell’ with a 'close relationship with the angel of death’ bragging that he will never be found as he wasn’t a human. He then proceeded to make an unusual proposal:
Now to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you. Here it is:
I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devil’s in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much better for you people. One thing is certain, and that is that some of you people who do not jazz it up on that specific Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.
When the clock struck 12:15 on the 19th of March, New Orleans was full of noise and people 'jazzing it up’. A local composer actually created a song just for that night, which would go on to become a huge hit, titled, The Mysterious Axemans Jazz. The Axeman was satisfied and there would be no attack that night and there wouldn’t be another until early August.
Grocer Steve Boca was attacked while he slept, with the exact same MO as the previous attacks. Luckily Boca recovered but couldn’t remember anything at all about the attack.
One month later on the 3rd of September, teenager Sarah Laumann was attacked during the night, and suffered severe head injuries and missing several teeth. However a lot of people question whether this was actually the work because there are several inconsistencies, from the victim not fitting the profile, to the axe being found out in the garden and not te bathroom like all the others, and most noticeably because the attacker came through the window and not through a door panel.
Another month later, there would be one final attack, another attack which isn’t confirmed to have been the work of The Axeman. Mrs Pepitone woke up to the sounds of a struggle from the next door room where her husband Mike was sleeping. When Mrs Pepitone went into the room she saw her husband in a puddle of blood, with most of the room covered in blood spatter. But while Mr Pepitone fit the victim profile, Mrs Pepitone reported seeing two neb running from the scene. Mr Pepitone would sadly die of his severe injuries very shortly after the attack.
And that was the last New Orleans would see of the mysterious and horrifying Axeman of New Orleans. Sorry for the long wait but I hope the length of the post makes up for it. I’ll probably do a follow up some different theories I can find floating around.
More than 170 sharks were caught during a heinous and cruel cull policy in western Australia. Of those, around 50 sharks were murdered. And it was all legal as Australia embarked on the killing spree after a handful of fatal attacks took place in the country over the past two years.
Conservationists rightly charged the government of going against…
I can’t stop thinking about this reddit post on soapmaking dude
I cannot express what an insane recipe that is. No one else could grasp it either
Like beeswax doesn’t. It kinda just stays as beeswax in the soap. The lye has nowhere to go with it. That liquid seeping out of the soap? The brown and clear drops?? That’s lye. That’s straight up lye. This mf made the soap equivalent of the Chernobyl elephants foot.
Quick reminder that if you touch lye with your bare hands, it will react with the fatty oils on and in your skin to create soap molecules.
That means it will give you chemical burns while creating human soap.
OP’s comment about the soap equivalent of a Chernobyl elephant’s foot is on point.
Lye (aka sodium hydroxide) turns hydrocarbons/fats into soap.
You are a hydrocarbon.
Please be careful when making soap, because You are a thing that could be used to make soap. And nobody wants to bathe in human soap, no matter how much rosemary you put in it.
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Nobody wants to bathe in human soap, no matter how much rosemary you put in it.
When you’re used to killing, you get desensitized to bodies hitting the ground. You get used to being less than human when you know you have to kill to save your skin. You breathe again, fingers tucking the gun into your back pocket for a moment.
“I’m not religious, if you want to, you can. But this man, was anything but innocence.”
“That doesn’t make it okay for you to kill him James !!!! He – He could’ve had a family, he could’ve become a better person if someone tried !! We don’t get to decide who lives or dies or judge anyone — only God can do that.” It’s when people did that thatchaos andtyranny overpowered every other good instinct within people.
She covered her face and breathed. “What was so awful?” Her hands move to her hips and she glares at him. “What was so awful that you decided it was wise to kill him?”
I’m writing this today on behalf of a coalition of over 80 people and growing, called Not1More, deeply affected by the recent events at University of California Santa Barbara. As I’m sure you’ve heard, on May 23rd, a young man named Elliott Rodger murdered six people and injured seventeen before killing himself, after his bitterness over his virginity came to a head.
We are organizing a national demonstration for June 28th, and taking direct action against the cultural standards of misogyny and male entitlement that allowed this horrible incident to take place. We feel that we must take a stand. This man’s beliefs and actions were unacceptable, but also stemming from direct messages in our media; and as citizens of the United States, we are responsible to remind people that our social norms are created by us, and can be destroyed by us too.
WE ARE REQUESTING YOUR ASSISTANCE OR INVOLVEMENT. If you cannot participate to make this happen in your city, please SHARE THIS, or contact us if you can get us in touch with people or groups who can. We are trying to make contact with people as quickly as possible, so people have time to organize and get the word out.
On 12th of April 1928 Madeleine Smith who stood trial in one of Scotland’s most sensational trials died peacefully in New York
Sex, blackmail, poison and death. With this heady mix it is hardly surprising that one of the most enduring murder cases from the past 150 years is the story of Madeleine Smith.
The 21-year-old lass was the daughter of a well known Glasgow architect and socialised in high circles until she was charged with the murder of a previous lover.
Her one-time lover had been Pierre Emile L’Angelier of Jersey. The Crown alleged that she had administered arsenic to him between 19th February and 23rd March that year, at or near her father’s house. L’Angelier had collapsed suddenly at his lodgings in Glasgow on 23rd March. He was found in a doubled-up position at the door in the early hours of the morning and despite constant medical attention by a doctor he died the following day.
After his death, his family insisted a post-mortem was conducted and the results were handed over to the police. A forensic examination detected over 30 grains of arsenic in his remains.
Previously, during their passionate affair, L’Angelier and Madelaine had corresponded through secret letters. L’Angelier often referred to his lover with the words “Wifie mine”. On one occasion Madelaine had written, “Am I not your wife? Yes, I am”, and there is reason to believe that L’Angelier assumed that they were married according to Scots law.
After L’Angelier’s death investigators uncovered the secret correspondence between the pair which revealed their passionate liaison and helped piece together the events surrounding L’Angelier’s suspicious death. It was discovered that, despite her affair with L’Angelier, Madelaine had been attracted to a Mr Minnoch, a high class member of society. Soon after, she became engaged to Mr Minnoch and wanted L’Angelier to return the letters. L’Angelier refused and threatened to bring them to the attention of her father and Minnoch. Madelaine buckled under the threats, and was forced to maintain L’Angelier’s company. His nightly visits resumed, but on two occasions he was seized with an inexplicable illness after being given a cup of cocoa from her hands. On the evening of his death witnesses testified that he had been seen heading in the direction of Madelaine’s house.
On her arrest Madeline’s family were said to be distressed and ashamed, however Miss Smith did not seem to suffer from the same discomfort. At her trial she entered the dock with “the air of a belle entering a ballroom or a box at the opera. Her steps were buoyant and she carried a silver-topped bottle of smelling salts. She was stylishly dressed and wore a pair of lavender gloves”.Throughout the trial she never appeared perturbed, and seemed to exert a peculiar fascination over the men in the court audience. She was later to tell her prison matron in a letter that she had received hundreds of letters “all from gentlemen, offering consolation, their hearts and money”.
Madelaine claimed that she had not seen L’Angelier for three weeks prior to his death. In her defence she explained that a poison she had recently purchased was for killing vermin and also for cosmetic purposes, diluted with water, to wash her face, arms and neck. The prosecution case rested on the overwhelming motive that the prisoner had for disposing of her erstwhile lover. The defence proceeded to allege that there was no evidence that the couple ever met on the days in question. It was even suggested that the heartbroken L’Angelier may have taken his own life in despair.
The jury took only half an hour over their deliberations. While they were absent, it was said that the least excited person in the court was Miss Smith. When the foreman delivered a verdict of “not guilty of the first charge by a majority, of the second charge not proven, and by a majority find the third charge also not proven”, the result was greeted with great applause. Madelaine Smith left the trial a free woman.
A short time after the trial, Miss Smith married a gentleman of good social standing in London. She emigrated to America some years later, where she married yet again. The story was famous in Victorian times for the reason that the public could not believe that a woman could be so devious. Madelaine became something of a femme fatale and was sensationalised as a devil woman who captured unsuspecting men in her web of deceit. There are still stories and articles written about her, the latest being in The Courier last November.
Eternity, Hoffa and Lizzie Borden - This Week in Dark/Strange History
- July 30, 1967 Arthur Malcolm Stace died of a stroke in a nursing in Sydney Australia. He was 83 years old.
Stace was also known as Mr Eternity for the fact that he had written the word “Eternity” an estimated 500,000 times on Sydney footpaths, train stations and anywhere else he thought he could get the word seen by as many people as possible.
Over a period of 35 years Stace would rise early from bed, leave his home and walk the streets in order to scribe his one worded message. Unfortunately the Sydney City Council did not approve of this defacing of footpaths and other public areas, so set the police on his trail.
However, no one knew who was responsible for the freshly written words in chalk showing up around the city. He became a kind of legend. It was a reverend of the church Stace worked at who solved the mystery of “Eternity” when he saw Stace bend down, pull some chalk out of his pocket and write the word in perfect, beautiful, copperplate script – quite the feat since he was almost illiterate and could barely write his own name.
The Reverend Thompson wrote about Stace’s life which revealed why Stace had written the word so many times, over and over. Stace had been born into poverty, living out of bins in Western Sydney. He became a ward of the state, an alcoholic and was sent to jail at age 15. When discharged, heworked in rather seedy locations, gambling dens and brothels before enlisting in the army for World War 1.
While abroad he became quite sick and was discharged from service, after which he resumed drinking and petty crime. Living on the streets, broke and without food, he went to a church for a free feed, and that is where his life changed. He listened in on a sermon which inspired him to better his life, a short time later he heard the preaching of Evangelist John G. Ridley reading “On the Echoes of Eternity”.
Stace wanted to help spread the message, and soon started chalking the word on Sydney streets. At times Stace tried writing other words, but Eternity always won over, and soon he stopped fighting it.
The last known ‘Eternity’ that is left written in Stace’s own hand is a mystery in its own right. It is located inside the bell of the General Post Office clock tower. The tower was being rebuilt sometime after Stace’s death (it had been dismantled during World War 2) and when the bell was brought out of storage, the script was found within. Noone knows how it got there…
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July 31, 1975 Jimmy Hoffa is last seen alive in a car park outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Detroit, Michigan. Before departing on his fateful journey, he told several people he was to meet with two Mafia leaders, and as such the disappearances were immediately blamed on the mob.
Jimmy Hoffa was closely involved with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (a labor union) rising from being a rally organiser all the way through to its presidency. However, in his early years, he became involved in organised crime and in 1964 was imprisoned for Jury Tampering, bribery and fraud. He only served about half of his prison time before he was given a pardon by Richard Nixon (also not the most honest of people).
The night of his disappearance, after he failed to return home, he was reported missing and the search began. The investigation continued for several years before Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982. The two Mafia leaders he was to meet were essentially cleared of being tied to the disappearance as they had alibis.
Hoffa’s fate was and still is undetermined, but there have been many theories put forward as to where he is, the most popular being that he is buried beneath a football field at the Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
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August 4, 1892 Bridget Sullivan, the Borden family’s maid, hears Lizzie Borden (the Borden’s younger, 32 years old, daughter) shouting that “Father’s dead. Somebody came in and killed him.”
Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father, was slumped on his side, covered in blood, on the sitting room couch. Abby Borden, Lizzie’s step mother, was found in a guest bedroom, her skull pretty much caved in. The two Borden’s had been repeatedly smashed with a hatchet like weapon, one of which was found by police in the basement missing most of its handle.
Suspicion soon fell to Lizzie, as asides from the housekeeper, she was the only one home at the Borden’s Fall River, Massachusetts, home. Lizzie went on trial for the crimes which attracted attention from around the nation.
Although there was some evidence that pointed possibly towards Lizzie’s guilt (she burned one of her dresses soon after the crime, had sought to purchase acid the day before the murders and had been fighting with her parents the month before) she was quickly acquitted after it was decided that she could never commit such a crime.
No one was ever found guilty of the murders, but speculation is still rife, even today, so long after the murders. Definitely one to have a good read about if you have the time.
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Until next week…
Ashley Hall 2013
Photos: Arthur Stace Inset upper: Jimmy Hoffa Inset lower: Lizzie Borden
