This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hi Tanya, Hi Talia. Welcome by
everybody to Crimes and Consequences. We're so excited to have you here with us.
If you could do us a favor before we start getting into some crazy
true crime, hit the like, follow, subscribe button, whatever you normally
would do, and are you ready? I Roddy, Are you ready?
II Roddy? All right, We're gonna get into some true crime then.
Before we do, though, everybody should know a couple things about us.
We're lawyers, we swear sometimes a lot, yes, and we can be
pretty graphic with our true crime. So if you don't like that, that's
fine, but you will. You're gonna love us. You're gonna love us
because we are the best show out there. So can you quit talking?
Oh? Yeah, I'm sorry, let's hear some true crime. I'm gonna
not stop talking because it's my episode. Let's do it. Have you ever
heard of Arthur Shawcross. Yes, okay, Well, I'm gonna tell you
all about him today. I don't know who he is, but I have
heard of him. Well, he's a horrible, horrible person, of course,
horrible serial killer absolutely, and so I'll start with his background. Perfect.
He was born premature, okay, in the early morning hours of June
sixth, nineteen forty five, at the US Naval Base in Kittery, Maine.
I think I said that right. He was two months early. Probably
not. We always mispronounced everything. That's another thing about us. He was
two months early. I was two months early, okay, But anyway,
for sharing, you're welcome. At the time of his birth, his mom
Elizabeth, she went by Bessie. She was just eighteen years old, and
his father, Corporal Arthur Roy Shawcross, he was twenty one. Two weeks
after his birth, Bessie took baby Arthur and she moved. She left.
Well, yeah, she moved to Waterton, New York. But she only
did that. She really didn't leave the dad. She left because he was
being deployed, so she went to be closer to family. By nineteen forty
eight, the family had built a small house in a rural area six miles
northwest of Waterton, near Brownville. Arthur was only three at this time,
and yet he already was beginning to show signs of some abnormal behavior, starting
fires, badwater. Yes, and he talked like a baby until he was
about six. The following year he started running away from home, which family
members she ignored. Yeah, when he was seven, they said, you
know, it's just a way for him to get attention, so they just
kind of ignored it. By the time he was eight, other behavioral problems
began to surface. He seemed to really dislike, like, kind of hate
children younger than himself now, and he would tease them until they started to
cry. That's not that abnormal, that is true. Sometimes he became obsessed
with his sister, Jeanie, and he ignored his other sister and brother.
So he had he had two siblings. Yes, he's one of three.
Yes, he invented imaginary friends and he spoke to them using strange voices.
And he's eight doing this. Yeah about that, Okay. His classmates constantly
made fun of him and called him Addie because he was odd, and he
absolutely hated this nickname. Ah No, Arthur was a loner whose weird behavior
made it really hard for him to communicate and mix with the other kids.
He would often seen He was often seen being alone, like in the classroom,
he's kind of ostracized, you know, the kids would be out playing.
Yeah, because he's weird. A school nurse remembered him as being troubled,
and he constantly ran away from home. He often carried an iron bar
with him. Oh, he was just a weird kid. Okay, so
now everybody's got this picture of this weird kid. Yeah. By the time
he entered third grade, Arthur's behavior only got worse once He's only in third
grade. I mean, he was just a weird kid, and his grades
plummeted. He was given a series of psychological tests which indicated that his behavior
was due largely in part to his feelings of inadequacy rejection. He had a
growing hostility like this hostility that he felt towards his parents, especially his mother.
Was he being abused no surprise, surprise, mummy issues. Regardless of
the results of the tests, he later moved on to fourth grade, where
he stayed for two years. He did not asked fourth grade the first time
around. During this time, he ran away yet again, and he was
picked up at the Canadian border. I mean he's like light or nine.
He's like nine. Wow, I know. So by the time he was
nine, his home life was no better and a school was even worse,
especially when Arthur's mom found out that Arthur's dad had a whole other family in
Australia, in Australia, in Australia. How does somebody do that? Well,
back then it was easy, really probably Okay, it was maybe like
the fifties, right, Okay, it might have been a lot easier.
Did you take a long time? He got deployed out there. I'm being
deployed. Yeah, I'm being deployed Australia again. Okay, all right,
exactly. Arthur did his best to stay out of his mom's way, which
meant he spent a long time at his grandma's house. He said though he
suffered some sexual abuse from home. While he was at his grandma's house.
He said that his mom, he said he was suffered the sexual abuse from
He said he suffered the sexual abuse at the hands of his mom. Okay,
so maybe that was happening earlier. Maybe he would say that, you
know, true, I don't know, because we have to rely on what
Arthur said, okay, okay, so maybe I don't know, and we
know serial killers don't die, right, never, never, okay, he
said. She first began masturbating him, and then soon we started performing fallacio
Okay, he said. His aunt joined in. Yeah, all right,
I'm not saying it's not true. I know, but I'm just it's a
little far fetched, but it could have happened. Maybe, you know,
I'm not going to discount it. As the years passed, Arthur grew even
more violent and he would often beat up the neighbor kids. He just became
well known for his explosive temper. He also began breaking into houses he stole
from local businesses, and this is when he started lighting fires. Called it.
I knew it was coming. You called it, you knew it.
On one occasion, after falling into a river at a family picnic, oops,
he complained that his legs were sore, so he was given a brain
scan and a battery of other tests to determine, you know, why are
his legs sore? But the tests revealed nothing. And that's what his family
said, Oh, he's probably doing it for attention, right, yeah,
because he's always did stuff exactly becoming increasingly withdrawn and anti social. Arthur fell
further and further behind with his schoolwork, and by the time he was in
eighth grade, he was three years older than all the other eighth He should
have been like a junior. Eighth grade isn't hard to begin with, let
alone, you're three years older, yes, and everybody else. Yeah,
So he was obviously an outcast and way through puberty and all that, right,
I mean there's a big difference. Yeah, there's a big difference between
eighth grader and an eleventh grader. By his mid teens, he was still
wedding the bed, and he had check and he had almost completely withdrawn into
his own little private world. He spent hours walking in the woods, where
he would talk to himself. He was often seen yelling at inanimate objects and
beating the undergrowth with a stick. Schizophrenia, don't spoil it. No,
I'm gonna spoil it. No. He was never diagnosed with schizophrenica. He
would beat the underbrush with a stick as if he was fighting someone or something
that wasn't there. By the time he was fourteen, Arthur claimed that he
was regularly having oral sex with his sister Jeanie, and his cousin Linda.
Oh and like mom and an nice, he insist. He also claims that
he had another relationship with a young girl who lived nearby, and they were
caught by her brother and at the time he was performing oral sex on the
girl. That is more believable. The brother supposedly threatened him, like I
said, I'm going to tell your parents unless Arthur performed earl sex on him.
Okay, all right, again, I'm getting really annoyed. But it's
from Arthur's, you know, his point of view. And it was around
this time that Arthur's craving for sex became insatiable, and he continued to have
oral sex with anyone, like any chance he could get. That year also
marked the period when Arthur claimed to have his first associated violence. Wait,
I'm sorry that didn't come out wrong. That you're marked a period of time
where Arthur claimed this is when he first associated violence with sex. Okay,
okay. It began after he's walking home from school one day and he was
picked up by a man in a red convertible who supposedly held him by the
throat while performing oral sex on him. Was he kidnapped or did he willingly
get I think he willingly got in the car and he This is what Arthur
had to say about it. He said, quote, he held onto my
balls and sucked me off end quote. Oh, I don't want to say
about any of this ship. This one's pretty graphic. When Arthur failed to
reach orgasm, the man antally raped him and dropped him close to his house.
Oh. I hope that's not true. I hope that's not true.
From that time on, Arthur claimed he could never reach orgasm without inflicting pain
on himself, on himself, on himself, oh right. The following year,
he was arrested for breaking into a serious department store. Do you remember,
of course, I remember sears. They're not around anymore. Yeah,
it doesn't that long ago. I remember, course. Okay, anyway,
go ahead. But he didn't take anything, so he was just given pro
like. All he did was break in. Why break into sears? I
don't know. Maybe he just got a throw up breaking into places, who
knows. For the next few years, Arthur wandered aimlessly throughout life until the
age of nineteen, and that's when he got married for the first time.
He got married. Yucky lady, some lucky lady out there snagged him at
the ripe old age of nineteen. The union lasted less than three years and
produced a son. In nineteen sixty eight, at twenty three years old,
Arthur went into the army. And so it's nineteen sixty eight, and you
know what's going on at that point, no more Vietnam War. So he
began a tour of duty in Vietnam. Just prior to his leaving for Vietnam,
Arthur married his second wife. So he got divorced, Yes, divorce,
and he's what twenty four, Yes, he's yeah, twenty three,
twenty four. A second wife, yep, prettame was Linda. They had
a very brief courtship. Once he got to Vietnam, he was assigned to
a year unit as a supply clerk. As a supply clerk, one of
his duties was to arrange for the distribution of ammunition, which consisted of him
traveling to other units by helicopter. And it was at that point he later
told psychiatrists that he started going out on fire missions with various companies. Faire
missions are when the unit was assigned a specific target and included like when you're
supposed to fire on it and how much ammunition you're supposed to use. So
if they said, you know, access your target in action, he yes,
they're in action. Yes. Initially, when he was in Vietnam,
he said, you know, he was initially shocked by all the violence,
but soon he began to crave the danger of going into the jungle looking for
the enemy, and he referred to himself this is when he became a predator.
Onward. On one such mission, Arthur claimed he encountered two Vietnamese women
hiding guns. I don't want to know. Yeah, it's pretty bad.
They were hiding these guns in a hollow tree. He shot one of them
initially, and he tied the other one to a tree. The woman who
was shot, she was actually still breathing when Arthur cut her head off.
What Yeah, this is what he said he did. He said, then
he took her head and put it on a post. What the fuck is
this ship for the Vietcong to find? Okay? He then he said,
he cut off a section of her thigh and roasted it over a fire.
He did that to the one. The other one she tied to a tree.
Watching this, Yes, and he said he ate it, or ate
a portion of it. So we have. We're very else here, right,
you have to question, Yeah, exactly what's going on? He said
the other woman. He ended up having oral sex with her, and he
raised her before shooting her in the head. And then he said he butchered
her body, which I'm taking to me and he dismembered her. Okay,
he's doing all in the jungle Vietnam. Yeah, alone roasting. Okay,
where's the guys in his company? I don't know. I don't know,
I don't know. I'm taking a story. I don't know anything, he
says. Right, He became an expert sniper who claimed that he fashioned a
silencer out of a rubber nipple from a baby's bottle. Can you even want?
I don't. I've never tried to make my own silencer. No,
never, no, no, I swear I haven't not yet. But I'm
maybe I have gone. I don't know what if. It seems kind of
weak to be able to be a silencer. But this is what he said
he did. And this guy says, he said that allowed him to pick
off the enemy without giving his position away. Really, yeah, why wouldn't
Why wouldn't everybody just put a nipple on? Right? I know I have
no words. So I'm already annoyed with this guy so much. Oh,
you're gonna hate him. Before this episodes over, Arthur admits he became an
animal quote unquote in v Nam, and he found it difficult to control the
violent urges that he had that drove him to rape and kill. The enemy
weren't the only victims of his sexual rays of his sexual rages, as he
also claims to have tacked several Asian sex workers. Salma's young as eleven years
old. It's just sad. Yeah, sad, discussed it right over,
asshole, Alight, that's getting really angry. Yes. When he returned home
to Waterton in nineteen sixty nine, but he was lovely. He was a
changed man, but not for the good. No, he was continually agitated.
He found it hard to relax. After after visiting his mother, he
went to see his wife, only to find that she had spent all the
money he had sent home and she was sing another man. Well, you
know, what, what the hell was he doing? Exactly? I can't
get mad at Linda. Soon after, when he was transferred to Fort Sill,
Oklahoma. That's where he was to serve out the remainder of his term
in the army. Linda went with him, and it was at this time
that they got they I guess, I know, even though you know she
spent all their money in love. I guess this. At this time is
when Arthur began to experience violent flashbacks and nightmares, and he began to physic
his own action. By the way, right, he began to physically abuse
Linda, which led him to consult with an army psychiatrist. Good idea.
The doctor suggested therapy and a period in a mental hospital to try and stabilize
him, But Linda was a Christian scientist and she was wary of doctors and
hospitals, and she refused to sign the commitment papers. So he wasn't able
to get that help in the Army hospital, and they didn't volunteered to know
they were trying to involuntarily commit him. Yes, without therapy, Arthur's mental
state began to decline and he became wine. Okay, he was already in
the ascent, so we're just continuing descent descent. Sorry, you're right,
descent descent, my bad up down descent ascent. Yeah, you're right,
he spiraled. Okay, Okay, he just grew more and more irritated Linda
and her family. In April nineteen sixty nine, Arthur took his anger out
by setting fire to a local paper mill and later that year the cheese factory
where he worked at the time, A cheese factory. You know, I
do like the small burnt cheese, but it is really delicious. You're right,
Not when people could be hurt. No, I know, I wonder
when he did it after hours. I don't know. I don't know.
He was later arrested and convicted on two counts of arson, and was sentenced
to five years in prison. He served the first six months of a sentence
at Attica Prison, where three inmates allegedly raped him. Okay, this guy
has been sexually assaulted. H oh. Arthur claims he later got revenge by
beating and raping each of his attackers and separate incidents. Eventually, he was
transferred to Auburn prison to serve out his sentence. In nineteen seventy one,
he's given early release when he saved the life of a prison guard. Loves
nice of them and the prison guard had been clubbed during a prison riot which
was sparked by racial tension in the prison. He returned to Waterton to start
a new life, but it was without Linda, Linda can only do it
was without her. They got divorced while he was in prison. He stayed.
His stay in prison did little for his already fragilemental state, and by
the time of fragil did I say fragile, fragile mental state? Fragel And
by the time of his release, he was in a highly agitated fraom of
mind, ready to do further damage to anyone or anything. But he now
war and be in prison did not make him a better person. Unfortunately,
it just gets worse. One of my favorite things. She says that all
the time to me, and when she says it, she means it.
Yes, it's gonna get really, really fucking bad. It's gonna get bad,
and it's time to settle into a normal routine. Arthur took a job
at the Waterton Public Works Department as a handyman, and he got married for
the third time. This guy could he just you know, couldn't beat the
women off of a stick. Apparently all right. His new wife, Penny
Nichol, was a school was a school friend of his sister Jeanie and had
two children from a former relationship. Arthur claims that up until this time,
he was still having a sexual relationship with his sister Jane. He's going to
ask about that really, in that she introduced him to Penny because she had
gotten pregnant by her boyfriend and couldn't continue her relationship with her brother Arthur any
further. Okay, why if you're having relations with your brother, what does
it matter if you're pregnant, girl? I don't know rules to incest.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. By his recollection, after five months, the relationship
with Pennies seemed to be going great, and at one stage she got pregnant,
but she miscarried sometime later. He claims that the marriage came under threat
when Penny's father accused him of sexually assaulting Penny's younger sister. Arthur said,
you know, he denied all these aim but from that time on, Penny's
parents spent a great deal of time around the house watching him, probably trying
to protect the sister. Does she live in with him? Okay? Arthur
spent a lot of his spare time fishing in the creeks and rivers around Waterton.
As a result, he came to know many of the town's children,
and he often shared the same spot with them, because little kids liked to
go fishing and everything, and Arthur probably liked the little kids. Well he
didn't them, just spoiler alert. But I don't know. Maybe he did.
I don't know, Okay. One of his regular fishing companions was ten
year old Jack Blake, and on one occasion Arthur had gone to the boy's
house to ask Jack's mom, Mary, if Jack could go fishing with him.
According to Mary, when she refused because she probably thought it was weird.
Yeah, what are you doing, your little creeper, Arthur was polite
and agreed that she had made the right decision. Oh what's he gonna do
to Mary? He doesn't do anything to marry Oh goad. Sorry. Four
months later, on the morning of June fourth, nineteen seventy two, Jack
went out to play near the Cloverdale apartment block where Arthur lived, and he
never came home. Later that night, while out looking for her son,
Mary Blake knocked on Arthur's door and said, you know, where's Jack?
Have you seen Jack? Said, I haven't seen him. No, I
haven't seen him since this morning. What the matter was that Arthur had taken
Jack into the woods and after stripping him naked and forcing him to run through
the woods. What yeah, what, he caught him, molested him and
then strangled him. You just told me the kid, I didn't want you
to do what I knew he did. That's horrible, Yeah, it is
horrible, man. Why would he do that to Jack? Jack was his
body like they fished together? Because Arthur's a fucking asshole. Okay. Later,
Arthur would admit to removing the boy's heart and genitals and eating them.
Stop. I know the story. I told you. It gets true though
the backs to back that up, which is Arthur. I believe it just
came from Arthur. Okay. Although Arthur was a suspect in Jack's disappearance,
no action was taken due to a lack of evidence because he doesn't admit the
stuff until later three months later, when the police were still searching for Jack,
eight year old King, they hadn't found his body. Eight year old
Karen and Hill was found dead under a bridge near Black River. She had
been raped, mutilated, and strangled wasn't care for the boy, girl man
woman who When a police investigation revealed that Karen and Arthur had been seen together
earlier that same day, Arthur became a suspect in her murder. After they
received another report that Arthur was seen eating ice cream at the bridge near where
the body was found, the police picked him up and took him in for
questioning. He was by the way, hey Jack, you know what a
coincidence? You know Jack too? It was only three months after Jack had
disappeared, So I don't know. I don't know if the police put the
two in two together. He never was charged with anything regarding Jack's disappearance or
murder. Arthur was interrogated at police headquarters for a full day before he surprised
the police by asking them in front of his defense attorney, what's going to
happen to me? If I tell you something? I have to get into
trie so fast. Well, it's probably a wold have been arrested. I
had somebody on retainer maybe okay, sorry, that's okay. So if he
was my client, I've been like, shut up, shut up, she's
got nothing to say. Would have kicked him when he said that I didn't
pinch him. After several more hours of interviews and bargaining, Arthur ended up
pleading guilty to the land to the manslaughter of Karen Ann Hill. He was
later convicted and sentenced to twenty five years in prison. It's a lot for
a manslaughter case, don't you think. Well, I mean, I mean
it's not life. But yeah, I'm just so confused. Like he had
an attorney and he just went and spilled his whole guts out. M I
probably wanted to tell someone, don't you think. Yeah, probably got off
on it, yeah, or at least bragg at least bragg a. Yeah.
He was never charged, like I mentioned, with the murder of Jack,
even though he did later admit to the rape and murder. And he
showed police where he had dumped the body. And I don't know why that
wouldn't give them enough to convict him. Here's his body, I mean,
yeah, anyway, maybe it was a part of a police maybe the body.
If you don't, maybe charge me. He subsequently told police psychiatrists that
he had returned to the grave site. Oh stop, do not you got
ready for this on several occasions to have sex with Jack's corpse. Adding in
nephilia, necrophilia, cannibalism, child the lasting. Yeah, he's just fucking
gross. Yea, extremely, this is a terrible growth story. Absolutely.
Arthur began his second jail term in the New York Penitentiary in greenhn For the
first eight years he was there, he spent much of his time protecting himself
from the other inmates because they found out he was a child killer. Yeah.
Absolutely, he was like the lowest of the low. His record shows
many incidents of fighting minors, stealing offenses, lighting fires, and refusing to
lead a cell. Eventually, though, he began to settle in to prison
life. He's getting older now, yeah, you know, more mature.
Maybe he started behaving himself and he seemed to be a model prisoner. Stop
during his raping anybody, beating, anybody, setting fires. Now he's a
model. Now he's like a sawyer boy, right. Yeah. During his
incarceration, he claimed that he tried to tell the prison psychiatry that his problems
were a result of the Vietnam War, but they refused to listen because psychiatrists
apparently don't listen. Oh yeah. One of the first psychiatrists to examinee was
doctor Albert dresser. He did not consider Arthur a psychological risk resent. What
does that mean? Well, his report shows that he didn't perceive any evidence
of delusions hallucinations, Okay, didn't diagnose them with any sort of mental ill
right, there was no sensory deception in Arthur. Some months later, in
October nineteen seventy three, another prison psychologist, doctor mc williams, also examined
Arthur, and he carried out a series of tests including the Bender motor Gustalt
test and the Weschler adult intelligence tests. Yeah, but found no evidence of
any neurological impairment. What he did find was that Arthur suffered was from being
fucked up. He suffered fits of deep depression. Well, okay, and
in prison. Yeah, I mean right, Prison's just depressing enough. But
he also relied heavily upon fantasy as a source of satisfaction coping skills. Yeah,
fantasy. Yeah, you're right, you're right. His final entry in
the case file was that he considered Arthur quote to be a normal individual,
but who knows he's done wrong. It would like to help himself get back
on the right track for his eventual return to society. No, no,
not gonna happen curiously. In his file, though, an unknown person crossed
out the reference to normal person and doctor mcwilliam's report and wrote the words a
psychopathic killer above it, yeah and pencil thank you. You know, someone
was like, nope, nope, nope, it's not normal. In nineteen
seventy six, doctor Micah doctor Michael Boscha examined thirty one year old Arthur,
and he found that he hadn't come to terms with the severity of the crimes
that he did, and he constantly blamed other people for his problems, so
he didn't take responsibility for anything. In his opinion, Arthur hadn't requested that
first psychological exam. He didn't request it like to deal with his mental problems.
He had done it merely to impress the parole board. The following year,
this model prisoner had taken courses in locksmithing and horticulture. Locksmithing, Yeah,
let's let him know. Let's let a criminal let locksmith think locksmith.
I thought that was funny too, Yeah, that's interesting. And he began
preparing for his ged with more than a touch of irony. He also began
working with mental patients as a counselor. Oh soul right now, tell me
about it. I know, hey, I know how you're feeling. You
I'm like cutting someone's heart out. I'd been there. I've been there.
This is how you cope? What? What? How did they let him
do that? What? I don't know, I don't know and befool them
all or something. I don't know how, But go ahead. I don't
know, I don't know. I'm so confused by this and angry. Before
I tell you more, we're going to take a break. In June nineteen
seventy seven, yet another prison psychiatrist, doctor have Alwalla sounds good. I
probably mispronounced he did, I'm sure, gave him another psychological exam and found
that although he had adapted to prison life, you know, he had a
prison routine, but he had his schizoid personality. I knew it, Yeah,
I knew it. He was antisocial and he had a distinct personality disorder.
In addition that that was his personality disorder. They didn't specify. They
just said it was a personality disorder. Probably everything. I'm sure there's a
lot of things he have been diagnosed well. The doctor also wrote, quote,
this man does not show a good degree of evidence of successfully resolving or
working out his psycho sexual conflicts end quote, which sounds like he's pretty dangerous
to me, because when you do that shit, you can't get better.
Some things cannot be turned around. No, no, they can't. Absolutely,
if you find God and Jesus, you still can't stop the sexual fantasies
and desires. I mean, I don't know personally, I'm just saying,
I'm guessing. I'm guessing. Two more years passed and yet another report was
tendered which described Arthur as quote a person of abnormal character traits with psycho sexual
tendencies. It must be noted that the above mentioned complications tend to be chronic
in duration. Like you said, you just can't used to like to have
sex with dead children or cannibalize people over that now or you know, commit
necrophilia. Yeah right. Basically, what most doctors were trying to say that
under was that under normal circumstances, Arthur was a passive individual, but when
subjected to stress, he became a slave to his inner sexual drives and he
was unable to stop himself from giving them full rain. I get it,
you're under stress, but don't you want to kill someone when you're under stress.
No, no, well, okay, I mean we're recording. As
your attorney, I would suggest you don't answer my own question. Everybody in
life has stress, Yes, exactly, most of us cope with it.
I mean maybe not so well, but yeah, okay, we don't murder
people. I don't. No, I don't. I don't. It's being
clear and regardless of these and other unfavorable logical report, you do not tell
me he gets out or lose my mind. Oh okay, we'll be prepared
what. Arthur continued to improve himself in prison. By nineteen eighty five,
he had completed his high school diploma and had enrolled in college courses at Penn
State University. A parole report during that same period further stated that Arthur exhibited
a belligerent reaction, representing a foreboding potential for a possible re enactment of his
tragic behavior. It's a lot of fancy words to say, he was going
to read He's gonna do it again. Yes. The report went on to
further criticize the prisoner for his disdain for the prison sex offender program and is
playing his fury during a parole interview. You gotta be nice. You would
think that you play the game honestly, right, but incredibly, despite the
numerous psychological reports to the contrary and the board's own misgivings, don't say it.
I'm gonna say it. Arthur qualified for early release in March nineteen eighty
seven. Anne was deemed to be fit to re enter society. What the
fuck is that, Tanya? I know? His pearl officer was quite upset.
Why bit after his release. This pearl officer he worked in bingham in
Binghamton County, his name was Robert T. Kent. He wrote to his
superiors, get a load of this. I quit fuck you. I'm moving
away to get away from this freak quote. At the risk of being melodramatic,
this writer considers this man to be possibly the most dangerous individual to be
released to this community for many years. Hello, Hello, people, somebody
gets it with it? You know, I'm like it all worked up?
You know, no one? No one heeded the warning. When Arthur was
released and he was placed in the Binghamton area, the officials and residents of
Waterton had made it plain and clear they didn't want him there. Who wants
this freak? Right? He also had been maintaining a penpale relationship with a
woman named Rose Wally and indicated they get married. Oh they do, but
you're killing me here, he told, you know, he told the Pearol
Board he's going to go live with her. He's probably gonna marry her.
Because his pearl conditions, among other things, you know, required him to
have somewhere to go. It restricted his movements to Broome County. He had
a curfield, so he couldn't go out, you know, between eleven pm
and seven am. He couldn't are taken any alcoholic beverages. He wasn't allowed
to have contact with anyone under the age of eighteen, and he was supposed
to stay away from schools and other places where children were. Well, that
makes sense. This stay in Bangington proved to be a short one because nobody
wanted him there. So he got approval to move to Delhi, New York,
and that's when he moved in to Rose Wiley's apartment. Shortly after he
moved in, however, the residence of that community got wind of his presence
and they wanted him out. They wanted him out, so he appealed to
the parole board and he was sent to live in the basement of a Baptist
church in Delhi until suitable accommodations could be found. He and Rose later moved
to Fleischmann's, New York. They moved into a large house, and Arthur
obtained work with a local building contractor. So everything seems to be normal.
Yeah, but a woman, got a big house, got a job.
Everything seems to be going great. But within a matter of days days he
was recognized at a local post office and later that night an angry mob hell
yeah, thank you, led by the mayor. Oh, we're like,
he needs to go, they assembled outside his house and they demanded that he
leave the area. In the following weeks, Arthur and Rose were bounced around
from one area to the next and until they were finally given an apartment in
Rochester, New York. Because you know, he's bound by these parole conditions.
He can't just move where ever he wants. Eventually, according to Arthur,
he grew tired of the parole boards, interference, interference, and he
and Rose got their own apartment and new jobs and settled into their surroundings.
Because what would happen, is, he would say, him having trouble here
they would find him a new place to live, so he instead he just
said, we're going to find a place to live. Okay, I don't
need your help. Yes. The job that Arthur got was at a company
where he was employed to pick salads and boxes. Oh seems like a I
don't want a different job. Yeah, I don't know. His life seemed
stable enough until Christmas nineteen eighty seven, when he was forty two years old.
This is when he asked his family to come to Rochester to meet Rose
and they refused. Well, yeah, I'm surprised to him talking to him.
But his mood darkened when his sister informed him at the only visited her
in Virginia and told her how they had returned. And she told Arthur how
his family had returned the Christmas presents that he had sent them. Why would
you tell him because he can fuck off? Oh, I don't know.
Because he's had sex with it. He murdered kids. I don't know,
that's why. Yeah, I'm surprised anyone in his family he been talking to
him after everything he alleged had like allegedly having exactly, so, I don't
know. He became angry and ranted about how his family didn't want him.
Who is right for me? Anyone? Out at his bike and rode for
miles until he cooled down. Shortly after the Christmas incident, he started a
relationship with another woman. What having a Rose, Well, she's still around.
He's got two ladies now, must be. Is he good looking?
No? I mean my standards. No, I don't know. Maybe the
ladies found him. I mean pretty low, you bitch, Just kidding,
but I don't know. So this new woman was Clara Neil, and she
had a car, and he often would borrow her car. For a year,
he maintained both relationships, and he explained to Rose that I'm just being
nice to Clara so I can borrow her car. I'm using her. I'm
using her. Yeah, okay, honey, okay. Great. Because he
didn't want to ride his bike everywhere. On one particular evening, this is
March fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight, he rode his bike to Clara's and took
the car and he drove around until he reached Lake Avenue, which is near
the Genesee River. It was an industrial area well known for its chief sacks
and drug deals. As he drove slowly down the street, twenty seven year
old Dorothy. She went by Dotsy Blackburn signaled for him to stop. When
he pulled over, she asked him, you know, do you want a
date? He said yes, and she directed him to park his car behind
a warehouse. He told her he wanted to have mutual oral sex, and
he paid her thirty dollars. She then undressed like she got his car undressed,
and she complied with his request. Okay, now this is what Arthur
describes. He says, at that point, dots He bit him on the
penis, drawing blood. Why would she do that? Thank you? He
said. He became enraged and bit her vagina out of revenge and squeezed her
throat until she lost consciousness. He then attempted to stop the flow of blood
from his damaged organ and tied Dotsy up with articles of her own clothing before
driving out of town along State Route one oh four to an area in Northampton
Park called Salmon River and it was one of his favorite fishing spots. Okay,
so she's still alive. He told her that he was going to rape
her, and she began taunting him and calling him names. That's what you
do when you're tied up and you're terrified for your life. Yeah, he
threatened to kill her, but she can tinue the name calling until he just
couldn't stop. He lost it. Yeahs stressed out. Yeah, he took
her. He took her neck in his hands, and he crushed the breath
out of her. He stayed in the car with her body until nearly midnight,
then calmly carried her through the snow to the river bridge and dropped her
body into the icy river below, because that's what you do. Walking back
to the car, he drove back into Rochester and drove up and down Lake
Avenue looking for any sign that maybe indicated people were looking for Dotsy. You
know, didn't anybody miss her? I don't know how we would find out,
right, And you're just putting yourself back into an area where you could
cause suspicion. That's why I called bullshit and everything he said satisfied. You
know, okay, that nobody saw me pick her up. He went to
a nearby coffee shop to relax. That's what you do, right, And
after about an hour or Starbucks or whatever. Yeah, after about so he
went back to the car. He collected Datsy's clothes and other property. They
threw them into a dumpster bin. The following morning, after he cleaned up
Clara's car, he returned it to her, and then he wrote his bike
home, thanks, let me use thanks. Because of his normally erratic behavior,
I guess he'd probably disappeared a lot. Neither of these women in his
life realized that there was anything different in his behavior. Plus, you know,
he suffered from these nightmares, and you know, so if he was
acting weird, it was probably normal. And they liked it. They liked
normal, they liked weird, they liked him. I guess you're probably right.
Something little off about them too. I'm guessing I don't know him.
I don't know him. They're probably lovely. I don't know. Maybe,
I don't know. Maybe. In the following months, Arthur became a Lake
Avenue regular, and he was well known by the local sex workers as Mitch
Mitch Mitch. On March twenty fourth, about a week after Arthur murdered,
Dotsy Plice found her body floating in the river some distance downstream from the area
where she had been dumped. Her body was well preserved by the icy waters
because it's March, but It also removed any evidence that might link her with
her killer. The one thing that they did notice about her body was there
was like a chunk that had been torn from her vagina. And so that's
where he better bit or tore a chunk bit he said he better, said
a chunk. Well, that's where there was a chunk missing. Okay,
okay, I'm no he didn't he said he better. Oh, I believe
he better. But that's a bite, that's more. I mean, that's
like, never mind, let's just move on. I don't know what it
looked like. Girls like Arthur then contained his urge to kill for several months.
But when Arthur's boss learned why Arthur had been in prison because apparently he
didn't know, he fired him, and that triggered off Arthur's next wave of
violence. The second victim, while this is actually the fourth victim, but
because you don't give to count jack and what would have helped Vietnam to yeah,
m yes. She was a part time sex worker named Anna Stephen who
Arthur had picked up and taken to the river near Driving Park Bridge. Arthur
claimed that she had offered him sex for twenty dollars, but when he was
unable to get an erection. She began making fun of him, because again,
this is what people do. I guess I don't believe it. Everybody
else's fault. They're all just bullying, right Arthur, making fun of him,
calling him names, right, I mean, it goes back to childhood.
He became angry and punched her, which made her fault to the ground
trying to get away from him. She crawled into the water, but he
went in after her, and he held her under the water until she drowned.
He later told police said he couldn't be bothered trying to conceal her body,
and he just let it float down the river. I'm surprised that he
just drowned, like that's all he did me too, You're right, she
became caught up in debris downstream, where because of the warmer conditions, her
body rapidly decomposed. From that time on, he tried to resist the temptation
to kill. He got another job working nights pecking salads for a company called
G and G Food Service, pecking salads again. Yeah, he was pecking
salads again and at night, So maybe this kept him off the street for
a while. It did, because he didn't kill again until June nineteen eighty
nine, so it was maybe like, oh, a year and three months,
so we know, yeah, so he says. So, he says
he was forty four at the time. This next victim was different than the
first two, and that she wasn't a sex worker. She was a fifty
year old. She was a fifty eight year old homeless woman named Dorothy Keller.
And I'm gonna call her Keller because we already have Dotsy and Dorothy in
our story. Arthur had met Keller when she worked as a waitress and a
diner that he frequented. The two struck up a friendship, which quickly turned
into an affair. What the hell, dude, he's a ladies man.
This is It's crazy right. One afternoon, Arthur was on his way to
the river to fish when he stopped to talk to Keller. When she found
out where he was going, she asked, can I tag along? He
said, sure, I wants to tag along fishing I don't know anyway,
According to Arthur, they spent the morning fishing and having sex. Fishing and
having sex, and they're out the open along this river bish and had some
sex by the river. Daylight, right, I mean, I don't know.
I don't know. I've never seen people do that, but okay,
I'm sure people are doing it, all right. I don't know. They
were there until midday when it started to rain. They huddled under a crude
shelter that he had built, and while there they got into an argument about
Keller stealing money and about his relationship with Clara and Rose, because apparently she
was jealous that Clara and Rose were in his life. I don't know.
He claims that when Keller threatened to tell the other women about the affair,
he became angry, he got upset, he got stress, and he had
no other choice but two. He picked up a log and beat her on
the side of the head, killing her instantly. M Yeah. After hiding
her body under a fallen tree, he returned home. He later told police
that he returned to the spot. Sp don't do not say he had sex
with her. Yeah, several months later. What he didn't have sex with
her. He removed her skull and he dumped it in the river. I
know that, Okay, he probably did, because it's what he fucking does
all the time, so I wouldn't doubt it. Yeah, No, one
said he just put her head in the river, because that's not disgusting either.
Maybe, yeah, I probably, I don't know. Didn't want her
identified. I don't know. I don't know. Fisherman eventually found Keller's remains,
but Arthur was never connected with this woman, even though he had been
seen with her regularly and often went to this fishing spot. Let's not forget
his history. No, but nobody put two and two together. The next
to die was another Lake Avenue sex worker named Patricia Ives, and she was
known on the street as crazy Patty. Oh I want to be as crazy
Tanya you are, but we just don't say it to your face. Oh
okay. He claims that she offered him sex for twenty five dollars and when
he approached the same wait, I'm so sorry. He claimed that she offered
him sex for twenty five dollars. When he approached the same diner where Dorothy
Keller had worked, he agreed that they He agreed, and they went to
a construction site. While they were having sex, Arthur said he caught Patty
like reaching for his wallet oh okay, and he pushed her heart against the
ground when she began to cry. He antally raped her and began strangling her
until she went limb These poor women, I know. He hit her body
under some scrap of construction material. He waited until dark and then he went
home. It's so cruel. Oh, he's awful. I told you you
were going to hate it before. This episode's old for the women. I
mean. Two months later, he killed another sex worker named Francis Brown in
similar circumstances, except in this instance, he claimed to have choked Francis with
his penis. He choked her literally, I'm calm, bullshit. Oh so
during oral sex? Yees, during oral sex? Oh man, what are
we to go? Hontelea? What the fuck is that? This whole?
I hope, I just hope he's lying. I hope he's lying too.
It's horrible. And he said he continued to have sex with her after she
died. Okay, I do believe that. Okay, I'm not stopping.
Do you have any good news? It's horrible. I know, it's really
horrible. No, seriously, it is horrible. That's horrible, yes,
okay. He then dumped her body down a nearby and ba. Following Francis's
murder, the media began to pick up on the story of the murdered five
Rochester, New York women. This all happened within eighteen months, and they
called the unknown perpetrator the Rochester night Stalker, the Rochester strangler, and the
Genesee River Killer. Some even suggested that the crimes were similar to the Green
River killings in Seattle and speculated that the killer had merely just changed locations,
like maybe you know, because they hadn't caught Gary Ridgeway by then. For
the next victim, which total, how many more we get, Well,
this is the eighth victim, and he did have a total of thirteen victims.
Of a few more to tell you about, Arthur again chose someone close
to home. June Stats was a friend of Arthur and Rose and regularly was
a visitor at their home. She was also mildly mentally challenged. Arthur had
seen June sitting near the river on a warm November day, hanging up by
this river I know, and he said to her, you know, do
you want to come for a ride with me? She accepted and they drove
down to a local bench O beach. Sorry, she accepted and they drove
down to a local beach where they played in the sand and fed the birds
before they walked to a deserted area and lay down on the ground to have
sex. Everybody's just dying to have sex with Arthur by a river, by
a river. At some point during sex, Arthur claims he made an innocent
comment about her not being a virgin, and she started screaming. He then
held his hand over her mouth to silencer, and then he soon realized he
had accidentally suffocated whoops. He then cut her open with his knife so that
she would decompose quicker, and he covered her with a blanket in some nearby
brush and then left her. You blood all over him? Think, So
that's why I don't know. I don't know how to feel about him saying
these things. You would think, like there's nobody else in this area.
It's I can't I can't even look gum on the sidewalk without getting a ticket.
Right, I don't know, not that I have. Well, guess
what he did something horrible to her. He later claimed that he removed her
vagina and some of her organs and he ate them. Okay, again,
I don't know. Is he trying to shock? Where? Where do you?
Where? How do you? I don't know what a coup bullshit?
Yeah, I hope. So. Look it's what I know. I can
only say what the fux so many times? I know it's bad, It's
just bad. Why would you admit that? Like, I know, That's
what I'm saying, Like, is he trying to shock probably like the police
or I don't know. I don't know. Maybe he did do it,
I don't know. That same month, Arthur picked up Maria Welch from Lake
Avenue, that's where the sex workers were usually found, and he took her
to a small beach near the bank of the Genesee River, where they argued
over a suitable price before they began having sex again. Like Patty Ives,
he claimed that Maria tried to reach for his wallet like that. Yeah,
they're all just robbing him, I know, And so he snapped and he
strangled her. He later changed his story, and he told investigators that he
had become angry and killed her when he realized she was menstruating, because that's
her fault. He drove further down the road next to the river and dumped
her body in some bushes. Who knows what the truth is. On November
eleventh, nineteen eighty nine, police. Police investigators from the sixty strong Serial
Crimes Unit identified the body of Francis Brown. Incredibly, no one in the
newly formed task force uncovered the fact that a known sex offender and child killer
was still on parole living in their midst I don't know. It's before computers
were really popular too. I guess I can't blame, you know. I
mean today you'd all know. They don't know, you know, hopefully,
hopefully. Two weeks later, on November twenty third, while police were examining
the decomposing body of June's stats, Arthur killed again, as before the pattern
was set. He picked Darlene Trippy up from the Lake Avenue area and drove
to an isolated car park. After the money was paid, they had oral
sex, but Arthur failed to get an erection. He claimed she became frustrated
was calling him name, oh there we go again, rights and taunting.
He said that enraged him. He choked her until she lay dead under him.
He dumped her body in open woodland. The following month, he killed
Elizabeth Gibson in a similar fashion when she got into his car to keep warm
while he was getting coffee from a diner. They had oral sex in the
car, and again he claimed she tried to take his wallet, and angry,
he strangled her. Arthur later told police that she had struggled so hard
that she had broken the gearshift his car. He disposed of Elizabeth's body in
an area near Wayne County that he hadn't used before, as he feared that
the police were getting too close. Like he went he did dump people like
in similar areas. So I mean it was stupid. He was stupid,
thankful, because that's how people get caught. Two more weeks passed, and
even though the police were out in full force in the Lake Avenue area,
Arthur picked up an attractive girl named June Cicero and took her to another another
isolated area, and attempted sex with her before he strangled her. He dumped
her body off a bridge near the Salmon River. Two days later, he
returned to the dump site with a small Handsaw. Okay, and that's when
he said he cut her vagina from her froze body. Okay, it was
just okay, I don't understand, all right. The final victim, yes
please, yes, was another sex worker, only she was different than the
others because she was a black woman named Felicia Stevens didn't fit his normal profile.
When he was interviewed later, he said he really couldn't remember too many
details about killing her, other than the fact that she was a black woman
and that he strangled her. He dumped her body near those of June's Cicero
and Dorothy Blackburn. And Dorothy Blackburn was his first victim that had picked up
like one of the first sex workers. It was this desire to keep the
bodies where he could find them again that left he was capture. On Wednesday,
January third, nineteen ninety, forty five year old Arthur drove to Salmon
Creek in Northampton Park to visit June's Cicero's body. He was aroused at the
thought of him and say he hadn't been following the progress of the Serial Task
Force that had become prime news on TV and in the newspapers, which I'm
really surprised because a lot of killers get off on that. Yeah, and
I thought you said that he went to like some park, like a parking
lot and dumped one because he thought they were getting to clothes. But he's
not following it. Yeah, he's not following He had clippings and stuff like
they do. He didn't follow it that close. He's just visiting the body.
And if he had followed the case, he would have known that the
police surveillance was in and around the Northampton Park that had increased dramatically. But
they were out in full force. You know, they really wanted to catch
this killer. He was happy that there were no cars parked where. He
wanted to stop on a bridge overlooking the creek so he could view June's body
while he ate his lunch. So I guess he could get it. He
could get on this bridge and I guess he could see her. Well,
he ate his lunch, lunch just casually. I'm gonna, you know,
bring my brown bag. And I know he didn't realize that a police helicopter
had been checking the Salmon River and had not only seen his car parked on
the bridge, but also the outline of the body under the ice. Oh
wow. Yeah. As a helicopter approached, Arthur noticed it. He left
the area and drove along Highway thirty one and he turned laughed at route to
fifty nine, heading toward the town of Spencerport, with the helicopter following him.
You're not going to get away from the helicopter found him entire time.
The helicopter crew then called in to patrol cars to follow Arthur and intercept him.
They followed him to an address in Spencerport where the car was parked,
and Arthur got out and entered the Wedgewood adult home where his wife worked.
Oh hey, honey, honey. I The police entered the home and asked
the attendant about the man who had just honored, and they told him he
went down into the basement. The police followed and approached Arthur in the basement
and they asked for his ID. Well casual about it. He took his
ID out and said, hey, what's up? What do you guys?
Stop sign? What what's you doing here? They then asked him to step
outside to answer some questions. Later, he was interview in the car by
Paul Dasillis, who was one of the Task Force investigators, and he was
asked why he had been at Samon Creek in lunch. Yeah you know,
but Arthur said, oh, I'd been out driving and I stopped a pea.
But then when he saw the helicopter, he got shy and he decided
to sit in his car and pee in a bottle because guys do do that.
Ye so, but God forbid the you know, helicopter see him p
outside. It's probably a crime. I don't know. Yes it is,
Yes, it is for several hours. Can't just piss outside. I don't
do it. I know. But you're a lawyer, You're like, it's
probably a cript. I's gonna let you know. Thank you to Leah.
Detective Dacillus question Arthur for hours, question him extensively about his movements that morning,
but found that Arthur had a pretty convincing story while they were talking.
While they were talking, Arthur told him about his earlier conviction for the chick.
Hey, guess what kids better casually? I don't know. Detective d.
Sillis continued to ask him questions about his wives, his jobs, his
sexual habits, and even asked him details of the attacks on Jack Blake and
Karen Hall. Those children, Karen Hill, those children. Throughout the questioning,
he was completely cooperative, even though he hadn't been arrested and he was
talking to the police voluntarily. Later that night, he was released and he
went home, unaware that his house was now under constant surveillance. The following
morning, the detectives picked him up early again because they're like, we need
you to come back to the station questions. There's some inconsistencies we need your
help with. Again, Arthur complied with their request and he went with them.
They drove him to an area near a golf course where he had supposedly
had a liaison with a sex worker who had said, you know, he
often took her to this area and that's where he picked up a lot of
sex workers. When Arthur agreed with that assrotation, he's like, yeah,
I do. He was asked to accompany the detectives to their office, where
an official interrogation was conducted. Later that same evening, Arthur positively identified photographs
of the eleven victims, and he confessed to their murders. Thank god,
okay. He then accompanied the police to various grave sites, and later that
night, after twelve straight hours of interrogation, Arthur was officially charged with the
Genesee River killings. At his arraignment, Arthur followed his court appointed attorney's advice
and and pled innocent on all charges, and it was strongly rumored that he
was going to raise the insanity defense for the next several months, Arthur was
given a multitude of tests by numerous psychiatrists, one of which was doctor Krauss,
who compiled an extensive report which suggested that Arthur was quote and emotionally unstable,
learning disabled, genetically impaired, I know, biochemically disordered, neurologically damaged,
individual, psychologically alienated from significant others during his entire life, venting his
frustration and rage mixed with fear and defiance in a lifetime of ever more violent
and destructive aggression which ultimately turned to overpowering, murderous fury aka fucked up.
That's its diagnosis. Yeah, I mean, he just so tell me what
happens to him? Please please? Well, he went on trial because we
didn't take the stand. It was extensively covered by the media. The only
defense witness was not Arthur. It was doctor Dorothy at now Lewis, who
testified that Arthur had been hideously traumatized as a child. Maybe that's true,
which left him with multiple people personality disorder. Oh really yeah. Yes.
She also cited post traumatic stress disorder caused by his war experiences as a root
cause for his behavior, which it probably contributed. Yeah, but a lot
of people went through. Oh yeah, absolutely, they don't do this shit
show whatever. I can't even fucking you're so angry, so angry, you
can't even talk. No excuse for it. I know. I don't know
why one person goes through the same thing and they don't end up killing thirteen
people. But anyway, Arthur acted like a good boy, and he made
sure to play the part, play the part. Sitting in court. Could
you look like a goddamn good boy? We sat there. I'm sorry,
I'm gonna be I only ate the vagina. No, you can't be a
good boy. He tried to give the impression that he had advanced psychosis to
the jury, which I don't know, what, do you have a crazy
look on your face or something. But the jury was less than impressed because
it only took them six and a half hours. I took them six and
a half hours. Yeah, well, there's a lot of there's a lot
of victims. They returned a unanimous guilty verdict and recommended a sentence of two
hundred and fifty years in jail. Okay. In September of nineteen ninety nine,
Arthur was found to be selling his paintings and autographs on the Internet from
within prison. The New York State Department of Correctional Services temporarily suspended his art
privileges after learning that his artwork and autographs were listed for sale on eBay.
What people were buying this ship? People did buy the ship just really getting
out of a prison. I don't know. Somebody was probably smuggling it out
for him and then taking a New Blacks something like that. Yeah, right,
they had the panties in origin and New Black. Yeah. He received
disciplinary actions for the breach, which included being locked in a cell for extended
periods. So do you want to know where Arthur is today? Yes?
I do. Well, he's dead. That's what I was hoping you would
say. He died on No remember ten, two thousand and eight of cardiac
arrest. How old was he? He was a whopping sixty three. He
died young. But it's young. It is young. But yeahs for him?
Though too long? You aren't too long for him? Too long for
him, exactly, asshole. Horrific excuse for life, waste of oxygen.
This was a tough one. Yeah, I know, I just said through
it. Yes, that's that's the end. There's no more victims. I
think I feel bad saying this, but thank you for thinking you're welcome.
You're welcome a lot. That's sad, right, it was very sad,
But I mean I don't make I mean to make light of it. That's
how we cope. Yes, And I laugh when I'm nervous or uncomfortable,
so that doesn't help, you know, I'm not giggling because it's a hilarious
story. No, it's just ridiculous lies. Yeah, his lives were stupid.
And hate him, you know. I think God he was dumb though,
t leah, because that's how he got Yeah. Well it took a
long time, it did, a lot of people lost it. He moved
a lot though. I mean he was killing people like left and right.
Yeah. Thank you everyone for tuning in to this episode of Crimes and Consequences.
Thank you, and if you haven't done so already, please hit like
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