True Crime - Blog Posts
Why Netflix’s Dahmer Sandwich Scene Unlikely Happened
Netflix’s “Dahmer -Monster: The True Story of Jeffrey Dahmer” is been a true success worldwide and it collected more than 1b hours views, becoming the #3 most popular TV (English) on Netflix (#4 considering the Non-English TV top). Besides the show portraits the events in a pretty faithful way, there are some differences and inaccuracies, and one of the most famous (and one of the creepiest) scenes is one of them.
During the episode 7 “Cassandra”, Dahmer (portrayed by Evan Peters) goes visit the neighbour to excuse his behaviour which caused some complaints from the tenants, offering the woman an handmade sandwich. The tension of the scene comes from the doubtful content of the ingredients, making the spectator think that it isn’t animal’s meat but human’s. But did this really happen? (Un)fortunately, as much this scene blows people’s mind and it’s so much discussed, it’s most probably a fake.
What are the reasons why it’s considered a fake?
At first it goes in contrasts with Dahmer’s modus operandi. He would have never risked to get caught offering other people a sandwich. He mostly kept everything to himself, not showing a hint of his macabre actions to other people. He installed cameras and alarms into his apartment and he barely had contacts with the neighbours. He met and spoke with Bass spouses sometimes, where they visited each other’s apartments at times, but they never had a close friendship nor they knew each other very well. He wouldn’t have risked it all doing this gruesome “joke”.
At second the cannibalism act, as grisly it is, it was a very deep deed for Dahmer himself. It was a projection of his needs, the next step of feeling someone near to him. It was a process who brought him to consume the meat based on an extreme personal feeling, which he couldn’t share to anyone. It wasn’t an action of a psychopath or a sadistic act to feel more evil and twisted, but an intense desire to keep someone with him as much as possible, having their meat connected to Jeffrey Dahmer himself, to become “one” (source - Jeffrey Dahmer confession). He didn’t kill for fun, but for his own (sick) necessities, and so the sandwich action couldn’t belong to his persona, but he simply couldn’t share it.
At last but not least, the source is not been confirmed, nor it’s been denied officially. Pamela Bass, Jeffrey’s neighbour, claimed she ate one of those sandwiches and that Jeffrey was used to cook for people at Oxford apartments. Her ex husband, Vernell Bass, denied everything saying the ex wife made this story up as the case blown up, explaining Jeffrey didn’t even cook for himself, and if everything was real, he would have never accepted a meal from a neighbour whose house stank terribly at first place. But until today it’s only Vernell’s word against Pamela’s, and no one really intervened clearing everything up, not even the same Jeffrey did.
Tribute to P. Kennedy, G. Palermo, P. Dietz and M. McCann for their job
Detective Patrick Francis Kennedy
Detective Kennedy is the one who led the Dahmer’s interrogation with detective D. Murphy and the attorney W. Patrickus. Better known as “Pat”, he decided to follow his father’s and great-grandfather’s steps becoming a policeman, turning himself a detective in the crime division later after moving to Milwaukee.
He received the order to go to the Oxford Apartments, and proceeded with the arrest of the suspect Jeffrey Dahmer. Subsequently he led the interrogation and, thanks to his endearing personality, he succeeded on creating a bond with the serial killer himself. With a mutual trust, he spent lot of time with Dahmer for several weeks getting a full confession, for then attending and testify the man’s trial.
After years, Pat went back to the academy and later began teaching criminal justice at two Wisconsin institutions. He also joined various documentaries about the Dahmer’s case, as the most notorious one “The Jeffrey Dahmer Files” - came out in 2012. He even wrote a book telling his experience (it was called “Dahmer Detective” at first but then it changed to “Grilling Dahmer”).
Pat died in 2013 because of an heart attack at 59.
“I can’t say that I really did, because when I looked at Jeffrey Dahmer, what surprised me the most during the six weeks I talked to him was how very much like you and me he really was. I had breakfast with him, I had lunch with him, I would bring the paper in, showing what the people were saying about him. And it sounds weird that we became friends but we were kind of friendly. We were friends.” - P. Kennedy, 2012.
Doctor George B. Palermo
The psychiatrist George Palermo (whose real name is Giorgio Benito Palermo) was born in Tarquinia, an old city in Italy, and he graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Bologna in 1951. After moving back and forth from Rome to Wisconsin, he came back as a Professor of Criminology at Marquette University.
During Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial psychiatrist G. Palermo was called to offer an objective assessment of the defendant’s mental state. He took stand on 6th February 1992, where Dahmer pleaded guilty to the murders but claimed he was insane, a claim that was shot down by Palermo at trial. Palermo is been one of the few people who irritated and made Dahmer laugh, shaking him out of his stone-like stand.
Palermo served on the faculties of schools around the world and wrote books and scholarly articles, and lectured in places like Russia, China and Japan on a subject many might find revolting. He also liked visiting galleries in Rome because he was an art lover. On October 22, 2005, the Mayor of that time Alessandro Giulivi conferred on him the honorary citizenship of Tarquinia.
George died in 2016 at age 91.
“He looked as if he was used to it, that the courtroom was no hostile environment as far as he was concerned, and that he would get this over with nice and quickly. He was relaxed, urbane, smiling, often joking, slightly superior in manner, friendly and patient. He was patently a nice man and an amusing companion who would make a splendid dinner-guest.” - The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Doctor Park Elliot Dietz
Differently to his physician father and grandfather, Dietz is a forensic psychiatrist, criminologist and he also has consulted for television shows as Law & Order, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Kiss The Girls. He even published books called “Autoerotic Fatalities” and “Psychotherapy and the human predicament: A psychosocial approach”. He’s known for forensic psychiatry and for his expert testimony in high profile criminal cases.
Dietz was hired by the prosecution to evaluate Dahmer's claim that he was "guilty but insane", and so he spent 18 hours with him. He spoke with Dahmer, they watched Dahmer’s favorite movies and porns together, and Dahmer talked with him about the shrine. During his two days of testimony, Dietz held the trial professionally going through every one of the fifteen counts of homicide with a view to deciding in each case whether Dahmer knew right from wrong at the time of the offence and whether his actions betrayed a capacity to conform to the law if he had wanted to.
Park Dietz is also president and founder of Park Dietz & Associates, Inc. and TAG - Threat Assessment Group, Inc. The first is an association of professionals in the psychiatric and forensic field. The second is about educating institutions and individuals about the prevention of violence.
Today the psychiatrist P. Dietz is still alive at age 74, still working.
“Dr Park Dietz made his appearance in the witness-box on Wednesday, 12 February. It was immediately apparent why he was saved until the last, for there was about him an aura of unassailable proficiency. He was alert, meticulous, fastidious, precise, patiently prepared to suffer the task of explaining difficult concepts to the untutored. Like a reluctantly cynical professor, he had learnt that you have to speak slowly if people are to grasp your meaning, and you have to use simple words.” - The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Attorney Edward Michael McCann
E. Michael McCan was both attorney and politician, an he prosecuted numerous high-profile cases during his tenure as district attorney. He went to Milwaukee after he studied and graduated in Detroit and Cambridge, and he served as a prosecutor working under district attorneys, handling criminal appeals heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
McCann is a catholic moral man who was asked to obtain the conviction of Jeffrey Dahmer in 1991. After two weeks of the trial, McCann delivered his closing argument for the prosecution, describing Dahmer as a sane man, in full control of his actions, who simply strove to avoid detection. He argued that by pleading guilty but insane to the charges, Dahmer was seeking to escape responsibility for his crimes. Once again, McCann defeated Boyle’s defence, and Dahmer was ruled to be sane and got his sentence to life imprisonment.
Unfortunately in the last years McCann was in the middle of critics of political, social and economic nature, and so he abandoned the scene in 2007. Following his departure from office in January of that year, McCann joined Marquette University Law School, where he became a Boden Teaching Fellow and adjunct professor of law. Today he’s retired and he’s living quietly at age 87.
“Opposing him would be the District Attorney, Michael McCann, a kindly, compassionate man who felt the burden of his duty to represent the community and give expression to their outrage. He was thorough in preparation, remorseless in presentation, and only appeared unforgiving. He was a deeply moral man whose passionate advocacy reflected his outrage and did not have to be contrived.” - The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Drawing note: I started sketching this art with Pat, as I saw his unique, even goofy, appearance. He looked like a Pixar character, so I decided to draw him in my style to have some fun. I didn’t plan to make a whole drawing with multiple characters at first, but then I sketched Palermo as well since his appearance was so cartoonish too. At the end I decided to amplify the canvas so I could add two additional characters and I decided to include Dietz and McCann. These four are the involved people of Dahmer’s case who hit me the most, and I decided to dedicate them a drawing. I don’t mean to minimize the gravity of the case with this drawing, I don’t want to treat it like a tv series making fanarts out of it, but instead it wants to be a tribute for their amazing job during the case, in my personal own artist way. I don’t mean to offend/disrespect anybody with it. If this causes troubles or unease to somebody, I won’t think twice and I’ll delete it right away. Thank you for reading!
Jeffrey Dahmer and the relationship with animals
Unlike other serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer never found interest on harming or torturing animals. In fact, abusing animals since childhood it’s an important factor which may link to future violence towards humans. However, hurting animals wasn’t under Jeffrey Dahmer’s radar.
“We’d go out and play in the fields, run around, she was a good dog to have.” -Jeffrey Dahmer
Childhood:
Since he was a kid he showed interest in animals, having a goldfish and a turtle as pets at only 18-months-old. The mother, Joyce, remembered those moments with affection, affirming the kind relationship his boy had with the animals: “Jeff was so very gentle with the turtle”.
He also had a cat, Buffy, during the time the family was living at Pammel Court. Unfortunately, due to the father’s job, The Dahmers had to move in Bath, Ohio, and they had to be sell Buffy. It was at that time, at age 7, that Dahmer was given a puppy to help distract him from the recent move. He named the puppy Frisky, she was a lovely black and white dog, and Jeffrey was very close to her.
Also around that time Jeffrey’s brother, David , was born. He loved his brother, yet he loved his dog more, as Joyce recalled: “…More adjusting for Jeff, but he loves Davy and is good to him. Frisky comes first in his heart, though. They really romp and play”. Jeffrey spent time playing and running out the camps with the dog.
Jeffrey Dahmer and a cat, possibly Buffy
Around age two or three, a curious fact had happened. His father was riding his bicycle with Jeffrey seated on the handlebars, when Jeffrey spotted what looked like a ball of dust (in the eyes of Lionel). Curious and pointing at it, Jeffrey encouraged the father to come closer, when Lionel noticed it was a baby nighthawk which had fallen from the nest. With Jeffrey’s urging, Lionel took the little bird at home and raised it with Jeffrey on his side. At the beginning they nursed it feeding it a mixture of milk and corn syrup, to switch with solid food later once the bird became strong enough. It almost became a pet, and a name was given: “Dusty”. “It was almost like a pet. It would come back when you called it, eat out of your hand and stuff like that.” Joyce said. When the bird grew and became stronger, it was ready to be released. It was Lionel who cradled it and took it outside, and when he opened the hand the bird flew away. It was a delightful moment, and all the three members of the family were happy.
Around age seven or eight instead, the first violent act of the child showed up. Jeffrey developed a certain fondness for the assistant teacher at school, and so he decided to give her a present. It was an innocent child gesture, a naive gift, but significant for little Jeffrey. He caught a bowl of tadpoles in a stream nearby a school where the family was used to go, to give them to the teacher as a sign of affection. Unfortunately after some time he would’ve found out the bowl was given to his friend Lee. He felt betrayed and as a sign of revenge he sneaked into Lee’s house garage (where the tadpoles were kept) and killed the animals pouring motor oil into their water.
“It stood about as tall as this table, short fur, looked like a Doberman, real friendly dog. My dog was chasing it into the street and this car came by and both dogs were together, right next to each other, and that car slammed into the big dog and just missed mine by that much. Boy, did I feel lucky.”
Dahmer remembering an episode with Frisky and the dog of his neighbours
Adolescence:
During adolescence he focused on his single hobby, started years before. At first he began watching and starring animals, such as snakes, toads, crabs, turtles, fish and wild rabbits. When living in Bath, Ohio, Jeffrey spent a great amount of time in a hut next to the house, collecting rests of animals. There was a skeletons collection, with the rests of squirrels, birds and chipmunks, and there was a jars collection with insects inside in formaldehyde. He even had a graveyard outside where he buried the dead animals.
However, his interest grew more and more, and it evolved in road-kills interest: he picked up dead animals in the streets, which were invested by cars, bringing them home. He was interested on the “mechanics” of the inside, and he wanted to know how it “worked”. He cut them open down the front, exposing the innards. Still, none of the animals were alive during the process, as he picked up dead creatures specifically. He usually found foxes, opossums, cats, raccoons and dogs. One of the dogs he found was very large, and after he brought it home as his usual, he waited for the skin to rot off to collect the bones later then. Another one was a Beagle, and after examining the insides, he grabbed the skull of the creature, putting it on a pole. Curiously, another time again, a chilling fact occurred, when he kidnapped a dog of a neighbour with the intent of killing it. He didn’t find the courage to do so after watching at the dog, and so he freed it. There’s also been one time in school where he stole the feral pig from the biology laboratory, taking it home and once in the garage, he removed the skin and flesh and kept the skull of the pig.
When in highschool, Jeffrey Dahmer shared a friendship with a certain Jeff Six, another student of the Revere High School. The friendship wasn’t deep at all, and it required no specific commitment. It was with him that Jeffrey spent some time in his car. Unfortunately, Six had a weird sadistic habit which Jeffrey didn’t like at all. While on the road, if a dog was spotted, Six would speed up to hit the animal. “His big thrill was to find a dog that was walking in the road and speed up real fast and hit it. It just amazed me. In one day he went through four dogs. How many dogs just walked into the road in front of him . . . He’d speed up real fast and just tick them off.” Dahmer said subsequently. One time in particular marked Dahmer quite a lot, when Six hit a little puppy, and when the latter looked back and Dahmer noticed his terrified eyes, he insisted to stop the car so he could go away, sickened by these acts.
The dog’s skull on a pole
Jeffrey Dahmer never killed an animal himself. It is frequently the case that people who grow into multiple murderers have evolved from sadistic children, and cruelty to animals in childhood is a common characteristic shared among them. Dahmer’s case is different in this regard as in most others. He displayed no cruelty, and was not interested in watching an animal suffer or react to pain.
- The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer
Adult life:
When living with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin, he took care of the grandma’s cat, Jody, who liked. Jeffrey expressed his love for cats even with his neighbours, Vernell and Pamela Bass, when he saw their cat on their apartment. “He was very impressed when he saw our cat walk out of the bedroom picking her up and saying he liked cats a lot.” Vernell explained. Douglas Jackson, downstairs neighbor, also stated he was used to see Dahmer in the backyard smoking cigarettes or drinking beers surrounded by cats, which followed him wherever he went.
As he moved in his own apartment in Milwaukee, Apt 213 at 924 North 25th Street, he allowed himself to get a fish tank. It was a 30-gallon aquarium bought from The Fish Factory, a fish shop where he would usually wander around admiring the variety of fishes there, from their colours to their shapes. He was so fascinated indeed, so much that when he got caught they found books about fish care in his apartment. “It was nice, with African cichlids and tiger barbs in it and live plants, it was a beautifully kept fish tank, very clean . . . I used to like to just sit there and watch them swim around, basically. I used to enjoy the planning of the set-up, the filtration, read about how to keep the nitrate and ammonia down to safe levels and just the whole spectrum of fish-keeping interested me.” Dahmer said. He was so enthusiastic about trigger fish and puffer fish as well. He reminded the time when he saw the puffer fish in the store with enthusiasm: “I once saw some puffer fish in the store. It’s a round fish, and the only ones I ever saw with both eyes in front, like a person’s eyes, and they would come right up to the front of the glass and their eyes would be crystal blue, like a person’s, real cute.”. This was a very precious hobby for Dahmer, and after his arrest he would recall his aquarium moments with nostalgia, missing them.
Jeffrey and Jody at grandmother’s house in 1990.
“The cat's doing fine. She always wants to be brushed."
Jeff nodded.
"You know how she likes that."
"Yeah."
"She's always trying to be brushed," I said. "Remember how you used to do it?"
He stared at me silently.
- Excerpt From A Father's Story
Sources: The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer - Brian Masters; A Father’s Story - Lionel Dahmer; Across The Hall - Vernell Bass; Step into My Parlor - Edward Baumann; My Friend Dahmer - Derf Backderf
Grilling Dahmer - Chapter 18:
“I concentrated on the man himself. The most surprising thing was how very much like me and other regular people he was. In between sessions or during lunch, I pulled out the daily Milwaukee newspaper and read aloud what was being reported. Dahmer perused the latest info on the case, and we discussed other current world events. He was intelligent and articulate, pleasant and polite at all times. The give and take between us went so smoothly that anyone observing would conclude that we were friends. He displayed all the normal human emotions of love, fear, anger, and loneliness during these conversations, and it was only when we returned to his deeds that a distinct "other" personality emerged. Sitting erect and emotionless, he slipped into a trance-like monotonous state as he described the horror of his actions, his blue eyes glazed over and lifeless. Only then did I feel the chill of evil. It was extraordinary.”
Extract from “Grilling Dahmer” book. Fanart by me.
If you’re interested to know more support the author and get the book!
! On a personal note, I always found the relationship between the two men fascinating, and I’m a bit sad we got nothing of Dahmer and Kennedy together, so I decided to draw a moment of the two together. “If we don’t have any photos of the duo, then I’ll create one by myself”, that’s what I told myself. However, I ask to be respectful with this drawing of mine, since I’m still reluctant about posting it. I feel like drawing something about this case can be very delicate, I don’t want to be disrespectful in any way and mostly I don’t want to glorify Jeffrey Dahmer. If you don’t mind, I ask to do not save/post this somewhere else in other socials without my consent. Let’s keep it here and let’s consider it as a “journalistic” piece, since my intent was to document a specific scene which happened. Hope you can understand, thank you!
Dahmer’s behaviour in prison
Jeffrey Dahmer, Stone Philips Interview, 1994
Regarding Dahmer’s behaviour in prison, there are various opinions on why he would act like that. He was known for playing with food, putting ketchup on his meal to resemble body parts; he once placed a sign in his cell “Cannibal Anonymous Meeting”; he taunted scared guards next to him making them jump by whispering “I bite”.
Following the prison staff insight, he was a model inmate, but based on Christopher Scarver’s opinion, “He crossed the line with some people — prisoners, prison staff. Some people who are in prison are repentant — but [Dahmer] was not one of them”.
However it's important to consider Scarver never really had a direct contact with Dahmer, plus he suffered from a severe mental illness, which makes his statement of doubtful authenticity.
The same Gerald Boyle, Jeffrey Dahmer’s defence attorney, stated “Dahmer was such a milquetoast. He would never have done that stuff. He killed people, but he didn't taunt people. I never saw him do anything that would lead me to believe that he would mimic the deaths that he caused. I just don't believe that.”, claiming it wasn’t the serial killer’s “style”.
On the other hand, Roy Ratcliff, the pastor who baptised Dahmer, backed up the topic saying he'd been told by prison guards Dahmer would joke about cannibalism, effectively affirming the serial killer's ambiguous behaviour.
Last seen of Jeffrey Dahmer in the prison library, 1994
On why of these actions, the theories are three:
Causing outrage to find death: we are aware of Dahmer’s death wish. He claimed multiple times he wanted to be dead, from having suicidal thoughts, to requesting for the death penalty. He was conscious of the risk of his health by being included in the general population, yet, even after people’s recommendations, he chose to be moved anyway. He wasn’t able to commit suicide himself so he provoked people to get what he wanted. Relevant information is also they didn’t find marks on Dahmer’s body, meaning Dahmer didn’t fight back during the attack, accepting his fate. He also said these words no longer before his death to the mother Joyce “It doesn’t matter, Mom. I don’t care if something happens to me”.
His sense of humour: it is known that Dahmer had a particular dark humour. During highschool years Dahmer was known as the clown/mascotte to the students at Revere High School. He staged pranks and he bleated and simulated epileptic seizures or cerebral palsy, which became known as "Doing a Dahmer". Even during interrogation, “He picked up the brown bunch and commented that they held a remarkable resemblance to a person's fingers after they had been immersed in muriatic acid for a while. He placed the banana in his mouth and chewed. "It's not bad."”(cit. Grilling Dahmer). It’s possible he was just spending time as he could.
He had become a shadow of himself: he portrayed himself as THE cannibal in an attempt to attract attention, giving people what they expected from him. He didn’t have real friends, he never had, so he kept this attitude for say “stay away from me”. He toyed with the idea of cannibal quite a bit, because he didn’t trust people. This is the insight Roy Ratcliff gave after he learnt about Jeffrey’s behaviour in prison. Roy became one of the latest and only true friends Jeffrey met.
Roy Ratcliff holding the card Jeffrey Dahmer gave him for thanksgiving
After 28 years, we don’t know why of this behaviour yet, and we will never know. All the theories above are valid, meaning he could’ve acted that way because of a mix of those reasons. Jeffrey Dahmer will find death at Columbia Correctional Institution on 28th November 1994.
Patrick Kennedy’s first and last encounter with Jeffrey Dahmer:
Grilling Dahmer, chapter 2:
I entered first and saw three more uniformed cops, all dripping with sweat. They were straddling a Caucasian male suspect, who lay face down on the floor, handcuffed behind his back and shackled at the feet. One officer had his knee firmly in the suspect's back, another held his leg-ironed feet, and the third cop wiped his face with a hanky. Their uniforms looked just as unkempt as the first officer's.
I looked at the suspect as he lay on the floor. His light-colored hair was greasy and wet with perspiration. The faded denim shirt he wore was drenched with sweat, and I noticed he was bleeding slightly from the corner of his mouth. There was an obvious rug burn on his right elbow, glistening blood red. He appeared completely defeated, but his condition showed that a great struggle brought him to that point. He was motionless but made an ever-so-faint crying whine, like that of a child or a cat in the night.
The suspect walked slowly as he tried to negotiate the leg irons. His head was bowed over his slouched shoulders, but even in this position, I could tell he was over six feet and in good shape.
The wagon pulled up to the entrance of the apartment building, so the trip from the door was quick. I assisted the suspect into the wagon and climbed in after him. The two conveying officers got in the front and drove away toward the station. No one said a word as we cruised back downtown. I eyed the suspect as we rode. Although he was a good-sized man, he appeared almost fragile, sitting hunched over and trembling slightly. At the station, he cooperated-almost zombie-like as I led him into the prisoner elevator and up to the interrogation rooms on the fourth floor.
Once inside, I pointed to the cuffs and leg irons and said, "Take these off him."
"Look, Pat, I wouldn't do that. I had to fight with this fuckhead and he's no pussy." I looked at the copper and his pudgy partner and I knew he was not kidding.
I turned to the suspect. "Hey, if you give me your word you won't act up, we can take these off."
For the first time, the suspect looked at me directly and I caught his steely blue eyes. He nodded in affirmation and I motioned again for the officers to remove his shackles.
Grilling Dahmer, chapter 22/23:
Two deputies flanked Jeff and returned him to the holding cell. I walked over to him, standing alone, locked inside. As I approached, he moved closer to the bars of his cell. I reached through and took his outstretched hand. "Pat, I want to thank you for everything you did for me," he said. Shaking his hand for what I believed would be the last time, I said, “Good luck, Jeff. Take care of yourself." Then I turned and walked away.
People always say that I must have seen evil in his eyes as I sat down face to face with him during our interrogations, and I have to honestly tell them that I didn't. I saw a very normal, ordinary guy who-when we talked about things other than his crimes seemed very much like me, like you, like anybody you would meet.
“Despite Dahmer's crimes, Kennedy describes an odd kind of kinship that developed as he genuinely began accepting Dahmer's remorse for his numerous murders, and therefore experienced some grief when Dahmer was beaten to death a few years later. Kennedy quickly adds that he didn't befriend Dahmer at all during the time they spent meeting, and never considered him as anything other than a murder suspect. He did not continue to correspond with him and, in fact, never saw him again after Dahmer was led off to serve his sentence.”
More about Kennedy perspective:
As strange as it may seem, Jeffrey really trusted Detective Kennedy, and on the other hand Detective Kennedy low-key liked Dahmer. Without the help of Kennedy, Jeffrey wouldn’t opened up so easily.
If you’re interested to know more support the author and get the book!
Jeffrey Dahmer’s murder crime scene:
The twenty-inch bar that Christopher Scarver used to beat Jeffrey Dahmer to death.
The crime scene photograph of the bathroom of Columbia Correctional Institution where Jeffrey Dahmer was killed.
On the morning of November 28, 1994, Dahmer left his cell with other two inmates to conduct his assigned work detail. At approximately 8:10 a.m. Dahmer was discovered on the floor of the bathrooms of the gym suffering from extreme head wounds: The inmate Christopher Scarver beat him to death hitting him with a bar. His head had also been repeatedly struck against the wall in the assault. Although Dahmer was still alive and was rushed to a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead one hour later. Dahmer’s official decease was set shortly after 9 A.M.
Source: Monster: The True Story of the Jeffrey Dahmer Murders, book by Anne E. Schwartz
Guys who's that one female shooter with a blonde tied back pony tail, blue hoodie, and jeans? She was shooting at some rural barn looking place and I saw this video where she shoots this guy from pretty far away while his friend records next to him. She came to me in a dream but istg she's a real person. If y'all know who the fuck this is please let me know 😪
What the fuck am I watching
In a chilling case reminiscent of the “Swedish Josef Fritzl,” Martin Trenneborg, a 38-year-old doctor, employed a horrifying plan to abduct and imprison a young woman. The ordeal began when he drugged her with strawberries laced with Rohypnol, rendering her unconscious.
Trenneborg then transported her to his residence, located near Kristianstad in southern Sweden, where he had constructed a dungeon. In an attempt to conceal his identity, he wore two different masks during the entire ordeal.
For a harrowing week, Trenneborg subjected his victim to repeated acts of rape while she remained captive in the dungeon. Disturbingly, investigations later uncovered his intention to keep her captive for up to ten years. However, his twisted scheme took an unexpected turn when he returned to her apartment to retrieve some of her belongings.
Upon witnessing the police conducting a search in the area, he panicked and brought the woman to a police station, where he concocted a false story about the events that had transpired. In his fabricated account, he claimed to have kidnapped her out of a sense of loneliness and a desire for a partner.
Following a thorough legal process, Trenneborg was ultimately sentenced to ten years in prison for his heinous crimes. The severity of the sentence reflects the gravity of his actions and the immense suffering he inflicted upon his victim during her horrifying ordeal.
On the morning of the 6th of December, 2009, Susan Powell, from West Valley City, Utah, took her two sons, four-year-old Charles and two-year-old Braden, to a church service. Afterwards, a neighbour visited before leaving at around 5PM. This was the last time Susan was ever seen.
The following day, Susan, her husband, Josh, and their two children were reported missing. The boys hadn’t shown up at daycare and Susan hadn’t appeared at work. When authorities searched the home, they found two fans pointing at a damp spot on the floor but there was no sign of the family.
At approximately 5PM, Josh, Charles, and Braden appeared back at home. Josh claimed he had left Susan at midnight to take the boys camping at Simpson Springs Campground in western Utah despite the freezing cold temperatures. Susan was still missing, however, and a search of the marital home turned up some suspicions.
Investigators found traces of Susan’s blood on the floor as well as a life insurance policy on her life for $1.5 million. Also found was a handwritten letter from Susan in which she expressed fear for her husband and her potential death. Nevertheless, Josh was still not arrested. Years later, a prosecutor in Washington state said that he should have been arrested then and there, stating: “There is direct evidence. There is circumstantial evidence. There is motive. There is everything but the body.”
By 2009, Josh was named a suspect in the disappearance of his wife but was never arrested. Following her disappearance, he had refused to aid in the investigation and had even quickly filed paperwork to withdraw Susan’s retirement account money. He and their two sons moved in with his father, Steven Powell.
However, Steven too fell under a cloud of suspicion. He had a history of bizarre and inappropriate behaviour, including voyeurism. In fact, he was shortly arrested and charged with voyeurism after being caught taking photographs of his neighbours’ children through the bathroom window. In January of 2012, Josh was denied custody of Charles and Braden; custody was awarded to Susan’s parents, Charles and Judy Cox.
Just the following week, a social worker dropped the two boys over at Josh’s home for what was supposed to be a supervised visit. Josh opened the door and grabbed Charles and Braden before slamming the door in the social worker’s face. Just moments later, the house exploded and burst into flames. Josh, Charles and Braden all died in a double murder-suicide.
It appeared as though Josh had planned the fire for some time, dropping off their toys at local charities and sending final emails to friends and acquaintances. He sent emails explaining where to find his money and how to shut off his utilities. Inside the home, investigators found two five-gallon gasoline cans; the home had been saturated with gasoline to use as an accelerant.
It was theorised that Josh had killed his sons to prevent them from talking about what happened to Susan. The lawyer for Susan’s parents said that they had recently started to recall things they remembered from that fateful night. “They were beginning to verbalize more. The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared.”
Fourteen-year-old John Hron was a spirited teenager from Sweden who held no tolerance for bullies or racists. Despite attending school with individuals falling into those categories, he remained resolute in his convictions.
On the afternoon of August 17, 1995, John and his friend Christian were camping by Ingetorpssjon lake near Kode, Sweden. Their peaceful outing took a horrifying turn when four neo-Nazis approached their tent. Among them was Mikael Fjalljholm, a notorious bully from their school whom John recognized immediately.
John and Mikael had clashed in the past due to Mikael’s racist and cruel behavior. John was known for standing up to him when provoked. This time, however, Mikael was accompanied by three friends: Daniel Hanson, John Billing, and BM, as he was known in the media.
The group approached the tent and launched a senseless attack on John. They demanded that he proclaim his “love for Nazism,” to which John adamantly refused, enduring further beatings. Kicks and punches rained down on him while beer bottles were smashed over his head. The sadistic assailants subjected him to hours of relentless violence, intermittently feigning remorse and offering him drinks before renewing their assault. It was a vicious game of cat and mouse. They even burned him with fire and seared his neck with a scorching piece of wood.
At some point during the ordeal, John managed to break free and plunged into the nearby lake. In response, the group threatened to murder Christian if John did not return. Despite barely clinging to life, John swam back, and the torture continued. When he eventually lost consciousness, they callously tossed his lifeless body into the lake, where he tragically drowned. Christian managed to hitch a ride home and promptly alerted the police, providing them with the names of John’s killers. When John’s body was recovered, the extent of his injuries was likened to those of a train collision victim.
The appalling murder of John shocked the nation, but the sentencing of his killers proved equally distressing. Daniel was released after serving only six years, while Mikael received a five-year sentence in institutional youth care. The other two perpetrators received mere months in prison.
In recognition of his commitment to free speech and world peace, John was posthumously honored with the inaugural Stig Dagerman Prize.
The Cape Intruder
June 06, 2022
Cape Elizabeth is a small town in Maine, US, with a population of around 9,535 in 2020. Cape Elizabeth was known to be a desirable place to live, however, in 2005, the residents became terrified of an unidentified man who watched them as they slept.
In 2005, what was described as a young man began to sneak into people’s homes in the area, watching them sleep. The strange part was that this man would never break or steal anything from the homes, he didn’t attack or touch anyone, just simply watched them sleep.
Victims of the man who was dubbed “The Cape Intruder” or “Cape Trespasser” claimed they would wake up to find him standing over their beds, but he would flee the scene before they could catch him or even get a great look at him.
A police sketch of the man came out, and many believed he was in his 20′s. The police received several calls from various people claiming they believed to know who the Cape Intruder was. Two of the people who called in actually named the same man, but after a while the incidents stopped. One police officer said that everyone who called in seems to think the sketch looks like someone they know or have seen around.
While the Cape Intruder was active, a neighbourhood watch group would set up on Mitchell Road, where multiple houses had been targeted by the strange man.
The Cape Intruder was never caught, and the incidents stopped suddenly. The case remains unsolved.
The Puzzling Case of Mateusz Kawecki
January 02, 2023
Mateusz Kawecki was a 30 year old man from Poland who had been working in Hanover, Germany as a construction worker. He lived with his father who also worked in Hanover.
On March 28, 2018, Mateusz went to Poland to see his pregnant fiancé, who he was in a long distance relationship with at the time. His fiancé was about to give birth, and lived in a village called Lipia Góra, Poland. Mateusz began driving his 1998 BMW 525 around 11:30 pm to make it to the village. He was supposed to arrive there between 8-9 am the next morning, March 29. Mateusz never made it.
Mateusz’s father spoke to him on March 29, around 10:30 am, and Mateusz told his father there was really bad traffic jams on his route and he was currently stuck in Szzecin at the time, which is a town on the Polish-German border. Mateusz had about 133 miles to go before he would reach Lipia Góra. Around this time Mateusz sent his fiancé a text message saying he would arrive in about 2 more hours.
However, after not hearing from him, and several missed phone calls, his fiancé became worried and tried to contact Mateusz’s sister, Katarzyna Piotrkowicz around 5 pm, but could not get a hold of her either.
Later in the evening Mateusz’s mom went to the police to let them know no one had any contact with her son for quite some time, but the police discouraged her from filing a missing persons report, claiming it was too early to do so.
A few more days went by and in early April 2018, Mateusz’s family officially reported him as a missing person in Germany and Poland. The Germany police refused to investigate, claiming the Polish police were on the case. His family asked Polish police if they could locate Mateusz’s cellphone, but they were unable to do so as his sim card was German. It was also said that his cellphone had been on for a couple of days after he stopped having contact.
The German police eventually began investigating but could not locate the cellphone either, as Mateusz had gone missing in Poland. Polish police later said that Mateusz’s phone was never connected to any networks so no one was sure how he had spoken to his father earlier on March 29.
Katarzyna, Mateusz’s sister, said that officials believed her brother had never crossed the German-Polish border as CCTV monitoring at the border showed Mateusz had never entered Poland. Mateusz’s family became frustrated with police efforts, and began their own search, including putting up posters with Mateusz’s picture around. The family spoke on TV several times in Germany and Poland claiming the police were not doing enough.
However, the case took a strange turn on September 12, 2018, almost 6 months after the last known contact from Mateusz, when a neighbour went to Mateusz’s mothers house to ask about her barn, claiming that a horrible smell was coming from their barn since July and neighbours were starting to complain.
The neighbour asked if he could check the barn and she agreed. Half of the barn was walled off, which created a room. There was an attic level on top of the room. The neighbour climbed up and saw a pile of clothes in the attic space. When the neighbour checked more thoroughly he found a severed head and torso. The remains were too decomposed to be identified.
It was discovered that there were two rope nooses hanging from the roof and a backpack on the floor which was later identified as belonging to Mateusz. DNA evidence eventually determined that the remains were indeed that of Mateusz Kawecki. Some of his teeth had been knocked out and stuck to his clothes which had bloody patches on them.
Inside the backpack were a Polish water bottle with cigarette butts inside and an orange juice box. Mateusz’s family claimed he never drank orange juice. A cellphone was also found in the backpack and showed there had been one call made to Mateusz’s uncle on March 30, 2018, but it appeared to be an accidental call as it lasted for less than a second and never actually went through.
There was no DNA of another person found on any of Mateusz’s items. The police believed that this was a suicide and refused to investigate further, despite the families pleas. It was believed that Mateusz had planned his death and there was no evidence of foul play.
Four days after Mateusz’s body was found, his family found his shoe in the barn with his detached foot still inside. This determined that the police hadn’t even searched the barn properly according to his family.
Prosecutors gathered lots of evidence, including DNA, and an analysis of Mateusz’s cellphone. German police got security camera footage and searched Mateusz’s apartment in Hanover. All of this evidence was reviewed by experts in Warsaw.
Prosecutors believe that Mateusz lied to his family on the day he disappeared. He had not been in Szczecin when he’d spoken to his father and was not driving at the time the phone call happened. According to them, Mateusz had still been in Germany according to the receipts found with his belongings.
It is believed that Mateusz took a train to the German border, in Frankfurt an der Oder and walked over a bridge to the Polish town of Slubice about 24 hours after telling his family he was in Poland. Prosecutors believe he checked into a hotel in Slubice with another person.
Mateusz then took a train to Warsaw the next day, followed by a bus to Zamość, which is the largest town close to his home village, Hutków. He arrived in Zamość around midnight, but it is unknown how he got to Hutków.
Mateusz’s car had never been found despite a search for it, and there was never any evidence found indicating it had been bought or driven by a new owner. They keys to his BMW were also never found, but his wallet was in the backpack that was found in the barn.
The attic where the body was found was visible from the ground, so it didn’t make sense that Mateusz had been there for months without his family noticing. Mateusz’s family also said that they had used the barn in the summer of 2018.
Mateusz’s cousin, Edyta Dabska claimed the family does not think Mateusz was hanging in the barn because no one had seen him.
To this day it is unknown how Mateusz got to the barn from Zamość and if he was in the barn for months how would his family not notice? There are so many unanswered questions in this case and hopefully someday it will make more sense.
Kajavia Globe was murdered in December 2015. Her body was found stuffed in a trash can and found by a horrified homeowner a day later. These unsettling images of an unknown person driving her car and using her credit card were captured just hours before she was found. The vehicle was later found abandoned. Although her boyfriend was charged with the murder, he claims that this was not him in the skeleton mask and was said to be “freaked the fuck out” by this surveillance footage.
In 2004, Mohammed Bijeh assaulted and killed as many as 16 boys in Iran, ranging from 8-years-old to 15-years-old. He would lure the boys out to the desert under the pretense of taking them hunting. Once here, he would then assault them and bludgeon them to death before burying their bodies in shallow graves. He received 16 death sentences and 100 lashes for the assaults.
On 16 March, 2005, Bijeh was handcuffed to a pole where he received those lashings. The crowd booed and threw rocks at him and at one point during the public execution, the brother of one of his victims broke out of the crowd and stabbed him in the back.
Following this, the mother of one of his victims placed a noose around his neck and he was hoisted up in the air by a crane, ending his life.
Perhaps one of the most mind-boggling unsolved cases to the FBI is Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes. On June 30th, 1999, the 41-year-old’s body was discovered in a Missouri corn field after having been missing for a whole three days. Police found the location of his body to be strange, as it was 15 miles from where Ricky lived and he did not own a car, nor were there any public transportation served in that area. Since his body was already in its early stages of decomposition, police ascertained he had been dead for at least a few days, but there were no indications that he was murdered. In fact, his cause of death appeared to be a mystery, so police initially ruled out homicide. That was until twelve years later, when the FBI announced that Ricky McCormick was indeed murdered. But then they revealed a shocking clue that they had never disclosed to the public before: inside Ricky’s pockets contained two cryptic notes in his handwriting, which investigators believe were written three days prior to his death. The notes consisted of ‘’a jumble of letters and numbers occasionally set off with parentheses’’. This also struck police as odd, considering that all who knew Ricky claimed Ricky was an illiterate and only knew how to write his name. The FBI was convinced that the cipher messages would point toward whoever was responsible for the murder, but all attempts made to decipher their meaning led to failure. To this day, the two coded notes are listed as one of the FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit’s top unsolved cases.
Tamara Samsonova, known as the “Granny Ripper,” defied the common stereotype of a serial killer, as she was a 68-year-old grandmother. Her arrest in 2015 shocked the world and launched one of the most bizarre true crime cases in history.
Authorities arrested Samsonova on suspicion of murdering 79-year-old Valentina Ulanova, whose dismembered body was found in a pond. Samsonova shared an apartment with Ulanova and was caught on CCTV disposing of her body, which led to her becoming a suspect. When police searched the apartment, they discovered a gruesome diary containing details of not just this murder, but several others.
The diary contained Samsonova’s confession to killing at least 13 people, including her husband, whom she murdered in 2005, and another tenant. She described how she dismembered their bodies with a knife in the bathroom and disposed of the remains in different locations. Shockingly, Samsonova also confessed to cannibalizing her victims and getting rid of unwanted body parts and organs.
Teenage Drama Turns to Death: The Tragic Murder of Skylar Neese
June 26, 2022
Skylar Annette Neese was born on February 10, 1996 in West Virginia and was the only child of Mary and Dave Neese. At 16 years old Skylar was attending University High School, worked at Wendy’s, got excellent grades and wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer.
Skylar had two best friends, Shelia Eddy (born September 28, 1995) and Rachel Shoaf (born June 10, 1996). Skylar and Shelia had met when they were 8 years old and had been inseparable ever since. Rachel became friends with the two girls a few years later, but the three of them were best friends, you would rarely see one of them without the other two.
On July 5, 2012, Skylar had returned to her home in Star City, West Virginia, after working her regular night shift at Wendy’s. The Neese family lived in an apartment building and later on surveillance video showed Skylar leaving her apartment from her bedroom window at 12:30 am on July 6, getting into a sedan.
Skylar’s father Dave Neese later said that Skylar had clearly planned on coming back later that night, as she didn’t take her phone charger with her and she had left the window open.
Skylar was at first considered a runaway by authorities and there was no Amber Alert issued for her disappearance because it was clear from the video footage that she had willingly left on her own accord. Skylar’s parents posted flyers about their missing daughter, hoping that someone would know her whereabouts.
Police soon found out that the sedan that Skylar was seen getting into that night belonged to Shelia Eddy so they brought her in for an interview. Shelia did admit that she picked up Skylar that night, but they had only driven around for about an hour before she dropped her back off at her apartment.
Rachel and Shelia were interviewed by the police several times, but their stories always remained the same. Shelia even helped the Neeses’ distribute missing persons flyers, and would come over to their house to cry with them about missing Skylar.
As time went on, Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf began to become suspects to the police, as other schoolmates were claiming they had heard the girls talking about committing a murder at school. One of the girls’ teachers even contacted the police to tell them she had also heard of them talking about murder.
About 6 months after Skylar had disappeared, Rachel Shoaf admitted that her and Shelia Eddy had been plotting to kill Skylar for 9 months. Rachel claimed that the reason the girls murdered Skylar was because they didn’t want to be friends with her anymore.
The seemingly perfect friendship the trio shared was anything but, as Skylar would often tweet about how Shelia and Rachel would leave her out of things. It seemed the girls would fight a lot, and Skylar had even written in her diary that Shelia and Rachel had a sexual relationship with each other, and would make-out or have sex in front of Skylar, making her extremely uncomfortable.
Skylar’s body was found on January 16, 2013, less than 30 miles away from her home.
Rachel told the police the whole story, claiming that on the night of July 5, 2012, Sheila and her had invited Skylar to go drive around with them. Apparently, Skylar was hesitant of this, as she had recently had a falling out with them, but after the girls texted and called her a few times she eventually agreed to sneak out.
Rachel told police that her and Shelia had prepared “a serial killer kit” which included kitchen knives, paper towels, bleach, clean clothes, cleaning cloths and a shovel. They had hid the knives in their hoodies.
When Skylar got into the sedan with the girls, they headed northwest from Star City toward Blacksville, on U.S. Route 19. Rachel and Shelia had originally planned on travelling along W.V. Route 7, but they changed their route once they saw a state police car in that direction.
They arrived across the Pennsylvania state border, where all three of the girls would occasionally smoke weed there. When they got out of the car, they told Skylar that they had forgotten to bring a lighter with them. Skylar then volunteered to go back to the sedan to get her own lighter, and once she turned her back, Rachel and Shelia both counted to three, which they agreed would be their signal, and began to stab Skylar.
Skylar had attempted to run away, but was only able to get a few feet before Rachel got her on the ground and continued to stab her. At one point during the attack, Skylar had managed to get the knife away from Rachel and stabbed her in the leg, which caused Rachel to back off and stop the attack, though Shelia kept going.
It was admitted that Rachel and Shelia stopped counting how many times they stabbed Skylar once they got to 50, and Shelia had stabbed Skylar until there was silence and her neck stopped making gurgling sounds.
The pair attempted to bury Skylar’s body, but the soil was too hard and rocky to dig a hole, so they decided to hide Skylar’s body with rocks, fallen branches and dirt. They then returned to the sedan, cleaned themselves up, changed into clothes, and left.
On May 1, 2013, Rachel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Rachel actually got a plea deal because authorities believed she had cooperated with them, so the recommended sentence for her would be 20 years of incarceration.
On September 4, 2013, the prosecutors identified Shelia Eddy publicly as the second perpetrator in Skylar’s murder and stated that she would be tried as ana adult. Sheila was indicted on September 6, 2013, on one count of kidnapping, one count of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. She pleaded not guilty.
The trial date was set for January 28, 2014. Shelia was facing additional charges from Pennsylvania authorities so she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. During the trial, Shelia expressed no remorse and did not cry at all. She was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole after 15 years. Because of her plea deal to plead guilty to first-degree murder, Pennsylvania did not file charges against her.
On February 25, 2014, Rachel received a sentence of 30 years in prison and will be eligible for parole after 10 years. Both Shelia and Rachel are incarcerated at the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County.
Due to an Amber Alert not being issued in Skylar’s disappearance due to a waiting period of 48 hours before a teenager is considered missing and the fact that Skylar had left on her own accord and was not considered kidnapped, a new bill was introduced called “Skylar’s Law” which modifies West Virginia’s Amber Alert plan to issue immediate public announcements when any child is missing and in danger, regardless if the child is believed to be kidnapped.
Rachel Shoaf will be up for parole next year, with the hearing on May 1, 2023, though according to WV DOC she will likely be paroled on April 28, 2028. Shelia Eddy will be up for parole in 2028.
Albert Fish
March 30, 2023
***Trigger Warning: Lots of graphic nature and abuse of children***
Albert Fish was born Hamilton Howard Albert Fish on May 19, 1870 in Washington, D.C. to Randall and Ellen Fish. Randall was 43 years older than Albert’s mother Ellen, and was 75 years old when Albert was born. The pair had multiple children together, with Albert being the youngest.
Albert began using the name Albert as a child, named after his dead brother so that his peers would stop calling him “Ham & Eggs” a childhood nickname he despised.
Many of Albert’s family members suffered from different mental illnesses. Albert’s mother, Ellen, had what was known as “aural and/or visual hallucinations.” Albert’s father, Randall, had a heart attack and on October 16,1875 he died when Albert was only 5 years old.
Ellen, being overwhelmed with her husband now gone placed Albert in the Saint John’s Orphanage where Albert was abused regularly. Albert would later begin to enjoy the pain he endured at the orphanage, the beginning of him experiencing sexual pleasure during pain or inflicting pain.
In 1880, Ellen got a better paying job and was able to get her son back from the orphanage. In 1882, Albert had begun a relationship with a boy who introduced Albert to drinking urine and eating feces. Albert also began visiting public baths where he could watch young boys undress.
Albert also began to write obscene letters to women who he would see their names in classified ads in the papers.
In 1890, at the age of 20, Albert moved to New York City where he was a male sex worker and began to rape and molest boys, most of whom were under the age of 6. In 1898, Albert married a woman named Anna Mary Hoffman, who was 9 years younger than him. This was an arranged marriage Albert’s mother had set up. Albert and Anna had 6 children together: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry.
In 1903 Albert was arrested for grand larceny and incarcerated in Sing Sing. Albert later said he had gone to a wax museum with a male lover once and became fascinated by the bisection of the human penis, which led to an obsession with sexual mutilation.
In 1910, Albert met a man named Thomas Kedden. It was said that Thomas was intellectually disabled. The two began a sadomasochistic relationship, it is unclear whether Albert forced Thomas to do any of the acts. After 10 days, Albert took Thomas to an old farm house where he tortured him for two weeks, tying him up and cutting off half of his penis.
Albert’s original plan was the kill Thomas and cut up his body. Albert feared he would be noticed if he tried to bring Thomas’ body back to his house, so he poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief, and left him $10.
Albert never contacted or tried to contact Thomas again and does not know what happened to him after that.
In January 1917, Albert’s wife left him for another man who had been boarding with them. Albert was then left to raise his children on his own, saying that his wife had taken almost everything they owned with her.
Albert often began having auditory hallucinations, once wrapping himself in a carpet saying he was following instructions from John the Apostle.
Albert began to self harm by embedding needles into his groin and abdomen areas. After he was arrested, the X-rays showed that Albert had at least 29 needles in his pelvic area. He would also hit himself with a nail studded paddle and would put wool covered in lighter fluid into his anus and light it up.
It was never reported that Albert ever abused his own children physically, however it is said that Albert would encourage his children and their friends to hit him in the buttocks with the nail studded paddle.
Around 1919, Albert had stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in Georgetown. Fish claimed he would go over intellectually disabled or African-American people because he did not think they would be missed.
On July 11, 1924, Albert saw 8 year old Beatrice Kiel playing alone on her parent’s farm in Staten Island, New York. Albert offered the little girl money to come help him look for rhubarb. Beatrice was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Albert away. Albert later returned to the Kiel farm where he tried to sleep in their barn, but was discovered by Beatrice’s father.
During 1924, Albert was suffering from psychosis and claimed God was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children. Three days after the Kiel’s, Albert murdered Francis McDonnell on Staten Island.
Francis McDonnell
On July 14, 1924, 9 year old Francis McDonnell was reported missing when he did not return home from playing with friends. A search began and his body was found, hanging by a tree in a wooden area near his home.
Francis had been sexually assaulted and then strangled with his suspenders. His left hamstring had been almost entirely stripped of flesh. Albert denied responsibility for this but did say he planned to castrate the boy but heard someone approaching so he ran off.
Francis’ friends told police Francis had been taken by an elderly man with a grey moustache. A neighbour also claimed to have seen Francis with a similar looking man walking towards the woods.
Anna McDonnell, Francis’ mother, said she also saw that man earlier in the day, claiming he had been coming up the street mumbling to himself and making motions with his hands. Anna said the man appeared faded and grey, this description eventually leading to “The Grey Man” nickname Albert was dubbed.
Francis McDonnell’s murder went unsolved until Grace Budd. Albert denied the charges until March 1935, after the trial of Grace Budd’s murder, where he admitted to killing Francis and another boy, Billy Gaffney.
Billy Gaffney
On February 11, 1927, 4 year old Billy Gaffney was playing in their apartment hallway with two other boys, ages 4 and 12. When the 12 year old left, the two smaller boys disappeared.
The 4 year old, a boy named Billy Beaton was found on the roof of the apartments. Beaton said that the “bogeyman” had taken Billy Gaffney. Gaffney’s body was never recovered. A man named Joseph Meehan, a motorman on the Brooklyn trolley eventually recognized a picture of Albert, claiming that was the man he saw on the day Billy went missing.
Meehan claimed the man had been trying to quiet a little boy on the trolley. The boy was not wearing a jacket and was crying for his mother. It was found that Albert had been working a few miles from the location Billy was taken at the time.
Albert later confessed he had taken the boy, tied his hands and feet, and gagged him. He burned his clothes and left. The next day he went back with his tools and whipped Billy, cut off his ears, nose and slit his mouth from ear to ear. Albert also gouged out his eyes, and drank his blood. Albert cut off the head, arms, hands, legs and feet, and threw them in sacks with stones, throwing them into water.
The rest of the boy Albert took home with him and ate. Billy’s mother travelled to Sing Sing to ask Albert about her son’s death but he refused to speak with her. Albert began to weep and asked to be left alone. After two hours of asking questions through his lawyer, Billy’s mother gave up and was not convinced he had killed her son.
Grace Budd
On May 25, 1928, Albert saw an ad in the paper by a young man who wanted work. The young man was 18 year old Edward Budd, who lived at 406 West 15th Street.
On May 28, Albert went to see the Budd family in Manhattan, claiming he wanted to hire Edward but was really planning to tie him up and mutilate him. Albert introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, New York. Albert told Edward he would take on him and his friend Willie, and would come back for them in a few days.
Albert never showed up a few days later, sending a telegram that apologized to the family, setting up a new date for when he would return.
When Albert came back, he met Edward’s little sister Grace, who was 10 years old at the time. Albert knew he immediately wanted to take Grace instead of Edward, so made up a story about going to his niece’s birthday party, asking Delia and Albert Budd if Grace could come along with him.
Albert took Grace to an abandoned house, a house he had previously picked out for his next victim, before his plans changed and he took Grace instead. Albert murdered Grace Budd and claimed he ate her after as well.
The police arrested a man named Charles Edward Pope on September 5, 1930 for the murder of Grace Budd after his estranged wife accused him. He spent months in jail and was his trial began on December 22, 1930. He was found not guilty.
In November 1934, an anonymous letter was sent to the Budd family, claiming that whoever wrote the letter had murdered Grace and detailed how they had tortured her and then taken 9 days to eat her body. The letter did say that Grace had fought back, and that the writer, who was obviously “Frank Howard” had let Grace die a virgin.
The letter eventually led police back to Albert Fish, who did not deny the murder of Grace Budd. He actually told police his original plan was to kill her brother, Edward. Albert claimed he had no intention of raping Grace, but when he was strangling her he had two involuntary ejaculations.
This was used in trial to determine Grace’s kidnapping was sexually motivated, and it avoided the cannibalism.
Albert’s trial for the murder of Grace Budd started on March 11, 1935. The trial lasted 10 days, where Albert pleaded insanity, claiming he heard God telling him to kill children. It was said that Albert was a “psychiatric phenomenon” and that there was no other individual in medical records who had this many sexual abnormalities.
The jurors all believed that Albert Fish was insane, but they believed he should be executed anyway. So they found him sane and guilty and he was sentenced to death by electrocution.
Albert Fish was executed on January 16, 1936, in the electric chair in Sing Sing. It was said that Albert had actually helped the executioner position the electrodes on his body before he died. He last words were, “I don’t even know why I’m here.”
According to a witness, it took two jolts before Albert died, and rumours circulated that it was due to the needles that he had inserted into his body for years. These rumours turned out to be untrue, as it was claimed that many individuals in the electric chair take more than just one jolt to die.
After Albert’s execution, his lawyer, James Dempsey said he had Albert’s final statement, which was multiple pages of hand-written notes that Albert had written hours before his death. When journalists asked Dempsey to say what Albert had written, he replied, “I will never show it to anyone. It was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read.”
Pedro López aka “Monster of the Andes”
Pedro Alonso López, more commonly known as the Monster of Andes, was born 8th October the seventh of thirteen child of Benilda López De Casteneda in Colombia 1948. He commonly caught his mum committing acts of prostitution and this would lead his mother finding him fondling his younger sister’s breast in ‘57 when he was eight. As a result he was kicked out of the house. The supposedly a polite boy who wanted to be a teacher (according to his mother), ran away to Bogotá, Colombia. He then said he had been kidnapped and raped. He was later taken in, aged 12, by a US immigrant family and enrolled in a school for orphans. He ran away again after two years either with a teacher or because he was being molested by a teacher.
He was a serial killer and child rapist who murdered a minimum of 110 young girls from the year 1969 to 1980 but claims to have murdered over 300 across Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. The monster of Andes claimed that during his imprisonment for car theft, he was brutally gang raped and then, still incarcerated he hunted down and killed the most brutal of his rapists. When he was released he moved to Peru and started murdering young girls. He claimed that by ‘78 he had killed over 100 girls before he was caught and captured by an indigenous tribe. They were about to execute him, before a missionary from the US persuaded them to hand him over to the state police, after which he was quickly released.
López claimed he returned to Colombia and the moved to Ecuador, during which, he claimed he had killed about three girls a week. He stated: “I like the girls in Ecuador; they are more gentle and trusting. More innocent.”
The nonce was arrested when an attempted kidnapping failed and he was trapped by market traders. The Associated Press (AP) reported his arrest to been in march 1980 and that he had boasted about killing anywhere from 200 to 369 young girls. According to CNN, López “Was arrested in 1980 but was freed by the government in Ecuador at the end of [1998]”. During an interview from his prison cell, the pedophile described himself as “the man of the century” (obviously disregarding his rapes and murders of young girls) and said he was being released for “good behaviour”. An A&E biographical documentary reported that he was released from an Ecuadorian prison on 31/8/199, then rearrested as an illegal immigrant and tossed him to the Colombian authorities, who pinned a 20-year-old murder on him. He was declared insane and held in the psychiatric wing of everyone’s favourite Bogotá hospital. In 1998, he was declared sane and released on a $50 bail, subject to conditions. He later absconded. The earlier documentary says that Interpol released an advisory for his rearrest by Colombian authorities over a fresh murder in 2002, he is currently wanted and whereabouts are unknown.
Aside from uncited local accounts, López’s crimes first received international attention from an interview with Ron Laytner, a longtime freelance photojournalist in his Ambato prison cell in 1992. According to Laytner’s story, López got his nickname Monster of the Andes in ‘80, when he purposely led the police to the graves of 53 girls between the ages 9 to 12 in Ecuador.
Woman says she was kidnapped by gnomes and goblins for nearly a week
Speaking to a Nicaraguan TV station Canal 10, the woman, named as Jasmina, said that as a kid, she had been playing outside her family home in Monte Oscuro, west Nicaragua, when she was approached by gnomes.
Jasmina insists that they convinced her to go with them to a hillside cave where she was holed up by her captors for five days and six nights.
She said: "They appeared one day when I was playing and they took me away."
Carl Tanzler, a radiologist residing in Key West, Florida, developed an intense infatuation with Elena Milagro Hoyos, one of his patients. Tragically, Elena succumbed to tuberculosis in 1931. Consumed by his obsession, Tanzler took extraordinary measures to preserve her memory. With the consent of Elena's parents, he commissioned a mausoleum to house her remains, convinced that it was preferable to her decomposing underground.
Night after night, Tanzler would visit Elena's tomb, unable to let go of his fixation. Eventually, his obsession took a disturbing turn when he decided to bring her body home with him. In his bed, he kept Elena's corpse, attempting to restore her decaying form by replacing her deteriorating skin with plaster. He adorned her with a new wardrobe and perfumes, meticulously maintaining the illusion of her existence.
The disturbing truth came to light in 1940 when one of Elena's sisters grew suspicious and confronted Tanzler at his residence. To her horror, she discovered Elena's decaying corpse lying in bed, dressed in an elegant gown. Tanzler's grotesque act of necrophilia had been exposed. Subsequently, he was arrested and charged with crimes such as wanton destruction of a grave and unauthorized removal of a body. However, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations on the charges, he was eventually released.