Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Cindy, the host of True Crime California,
Speaker 1: a weekly podcast about murders and other true crime that
Speaker 1: takes place in the great Golden State. Join me every
Speaker 1: week as I talk about a new case, some very
Speaker 1: well known and others not so well known, but always
Speaker 1: coming straight out of California. True Crime California is a
Speaker 1: proud member of the dark Cast Network.
Speaker 2: Dark Cast Network the Best of Endie podcast. Hey guys,
Speaker 2: I'm Hopper, daily host of The Final Trace, and you
Speaker 2: are listening to Rainbow Crimes and hopefully some of Unicorn Justice.
Speaker 3: Hey guys, it's me CJ. I hope you're all doing well.
Speaker 3: I quit my gym, but I'm joining a different one.
Speaker 3: Maybe the kids and I quit Planet Fitness and they
Speaker 3: joined an old gym that's close enough I can walk to.
Speaker 3: Last week, I went once with them as a guest,
Speaker 3: and to be honest, I don't feel safe at this
Speaker 3: new gym on any of the equipment they have. I
Speaker 3: mean like their ellipticals are so old and rickety. I'm
Speaker 3: shocked I didn't fall off. All of their equipment is
Speaker 3: so old, the whole place is. But they do have
Speaker 3: an indoor lap pool. Three jacuzzis a steam room, a
Speaker 3: racketball court, a basketball court, and a shit ton of
Speaker 3: free weights. And best part, hardly anyone ever goes there,
Speaker 3: so if I do end up joining, I'm hoping the
Speaker 3: pros outweigh the cons. The other thing I've started doing
Speaker 3: is tai chi walking videos on YouTube. These exercises are
Speaker 3: way more gentle than any of the gym equipment anyway.
Speaker 3: Well most see how the whole new gym thing works out,
Speaker 3: I guess. I've also received two new five star reviews
Speaker 3: on Apple. First one is from nerd Father five stars.
Speaker 3: CJ does an amazing job of showing you both crimes
Speaker 3: against and crimes committed by the LGBTQ community. She does
Speaker 3: famous cases and lesser known ones cases in the US
Speaker 3: and international cases. She's respectful to the victims, and she
Speaker 3: never ever celebrates the perpetrator. What a great true crime
Speaker 3: listen well, thank you, nerd Father. You get five stars
Speaker 3: from me as well and from an awesome Dark Past
Speaker 3: Network show called Psychology of the Strange. Five stars. CJ
Speaker 3: is doing such important work with Rainbow crimes. The storytelling
Speaker 3: is respectful, well researched, and handled with genuine care. If
Speaker 3: you care about representation and true crime and you want
Speaker 3: to hear stories that matter. This podcast is essential listening.
Speaker 3: Thank you Tara, hosts of Psychology of the Strange. So
Speaker 3: now let's go ahead and get into our case Warriors.
Speaker 3: In some past episodes, we've talked about serial killers versus
Speaker 3: spree killers, and that some serial killers are spree killers
Speaker 3: and some spree killers are serial killers, with the biggest
Speaker 3: difference between the two being that serial killers usually take
Speaker 3: a longer cooling off period between their victims and spree
Speaker 3: killers don't. Our main case today is about another spree
Speaker 3: killer who could also be considered a serial killer due
Speaker 3: to his number of victims. He is mostly listed as
Speaker 3: a serial killer in resources, and his crimes are moderately
Speaker 3: well known. Michael Lupo, or more formally correct, Michel de
Speaker 3: l Marco Lupo, was born in Bologna, Italy, on January nineteenth,
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty three, right on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius.
Speaker 3: Growing up, Michael was a choir boy for his Catholic church.
Speaker 3: As a young adult, Michael elicted in an elite Italian
Speaker 3: Army commando unit. He learned hand to hand combat technique
Speaker 3: and how to kill someone with his bare hands. When
Speaker 3: his service to the Army was complete, Michael would leave
Speaker 3: Italy and moved to England in nineteen seventy five. Initially,
Speaker 3: he settled in London because of their high fashion and
Speaker 3: their hair dressing opportunities. One of his first jobs in
Speaker 3: London was at Eve's Saint Laurent and I probably just
Speaker 3: pronounced that incorrectly, and I'm sorry if I did. But
Speaker 3: after landing this gig, Michael discovered he had a talent
Speaker 3: and a passion for hairdressing. As his natural skills took over,
Speaker 3: Michael became a hair stylist. Michael, who was an openly
Speaker 3: gay man, began to explore his kink side. Now that
Speaker 3: he was in London and away from the more repressed
Speaker 3: homeland of Italy, Michael discovered new found freedom to live
Speaker 3: his truth. He enjoyed the sato'massachist side of the BDSM community.
Speaker 3: Michael was attracted to the rougher elements of the gay
Speaker 3: underground scene, and he even built himself his own personal
Speaker 3: torture chamber in his home in Kensington. By the mid
Speaker 3: nineteen eighties, he once boasted he had over four thousand
Speaker 3: gay sexual partners but by the start of March nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty six, Michael tested positive for HIV, the AIDS virus,
Speaker 3: and I believe nineteen eighty six was the year that
Speaker 3: this virus became overwhelmingly known as the gay disease. Although
Speaker 3: we know this virus didn't start with gays. It began
Speaker 3: back in the nineteen twenties in Central West Africa from
Speaker 3: hunters killing and eating chimpanzees who were infected with the virus.
Speaker 3: It seems like it took sixty years to work its
Speaker 3: way into the rest of the world, and people who
Speaker 3: had unprotected sex, people who were given blood transfusions with
Speaker 3: virus stained blood, and intravenous drug users were becoming infected.
Speaker 3: Promiscuous gay men who practiced and protected sex, they were
Speaker 3: hit the hardest. When Michael learned he had HIV, he
Speaker 3: was livid, but more so, I believe his diagnosis deteriorated
Speaker 3: his mental health and his rational thinking skills. And trust me,
Speaker 3: I'm being very kind when I say it like this.
Speaker 3: The truth is, Michael lost his shit. He set out
Speaker 3: on a new journey. He wanted to destroy gay men
Speaker 3: such as himself. He loathed them, he blamed them, and
Speaker 3: he wanted to make them all suffer. Michael continued to
Speaker 3: frequent many gay bars and pubs, including the Coalhern Arms,
Speaker 3: a club that catered to the leather and BDSM crowd.
Speaker 3: We touched a little upon the coalhern Arms in the
Speaker 3: episode on the serial Killer Colin Ireland that I covered
Speaker 3: early on in this show, Colin too would use this
Speaker 3: club as his hunting grounds for victims, but Colin wasn't
Speaker 3: active until a decade after Michael Lupo. Kevin McDonough was
Speaker 3: born June second, nineteen fifty four a Gemini. He was
Speaker 3: the youngest of five kids until his sister was born
Speaker 3: in nineteen fifty seven. He graduated from Cork University and
Speaker 3: he moved to London to study osteopathy, which is holistic
Speaker 3: medicine and exercises to improve circulation, nerve supply and to
Speaker 3: promote self healing. It's often used for chronic pain management,
Speaker 3: migraines and sports injuries. Later, Kevin would work in a
Speaker 3: joint practice in Wimbledon, helping out them tennis stars. Kevin
Speaker 3: met Michael at the Colhorn on March third, nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: Kevin was thirty one years old. Upon their meeting, everything
Speaker 3: seemed innocent enough, and he left the club to go
Speaker 3: with Michael. Michael took Kevin to a derelic basement in
Speaker 3: Earl's Court. In this basement, Kevin would survive an attack
Speaker 3: by Michael. Kevin woke up about an hour after his attack.
Speaker 3: He stumbled up to the street, saw a couple of
Speaker 3: police officers and told them that he had been attacked.
Speaker 3: The officers, though they were dismissive of Kevin. They figured
Speaker 3: he was just another drunk irishman. But Kevin did try.
Speaker 3: He just didn't have any luck with the authorities taking
Speaker 3: him seriously. There's just not a whole lot of other
Speaker 3: details to this encounter other than Kevin survived. But Kevin
Speaker 3: would be living with the HIV virus and he would
Speaker 3: eventually die at the age of forty six in September
Speaker 3: of two thousand from bronco pneumonia. It's not believed Kevin
Speaker 3: contracted the HIV virus from Michael, but rather from Kevin's
Speaker 3: own admission he already had it. Incidentally, Kevin had never
Speaker 3: shared with any of his family members that he had
Speaker 3: been a survivor of a serial killer. They all found
Speaker 3: out many years later upon doing their own research. Five
Speaker 3: days after Kevin's attack, Michael would meet another man at
Speaker 3: the Colhorn. Thirty six year old James Burns worked at
Speaker 3: the Railways as a train guard at the Liverpool station.
Speaker 3: He was born of Virgo on September ninth, nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 3: in Scotland. Before working as a guard at the Railways,
Speaker 3: James had a brief career in the Royal Air Force.
Speaker 3: March fifteenth, nineteen eighty six, is when James and Michael met.
Speaker 3: Witnesses inside the club saw them leave the coal hern
Speaker 3: arms together in a taxi. Michael took James to the
Speaker 3: thirty two Warwick Road abandoned basement, where he tortured James
Speaker 3: and he murdered him. James's body was found the very
Speaker 3: next day by construction workers who were there at the
Speaker 3: location to renovate it. James had been strangled to death.
Speaker 3: He was partially clothed, his tongue had been bitten off,
Speaker 3: he had been sodomized, and he had beeces smeared all
Speaker 3: over him. James had also been slashed with a razor.
Speaker 3: Each time Michael performed these acts of hate on his victims,
Speaker 3: he wore a leather mask to inflict his torture. He
Speaker 3: came up with his own monarch of the Wolfman, and
Speaker 3: he would sometimes bite body parts off of his victims.
Speaker 3: Lupo means wolf an Italian, which is most likely where
Speaker 3: his creativity sparked from. Anthony Connolly, who went by Tony,
Speaker 3: was born November twenty sixth, nineteen fifty nine in Newcastle.
Speaker 3: He was a Sagittarius. He was also very artistically inclined.
Speaker 3: He moved to London to pursue an art degree at
Speaker 3: a university. After graduation, he moved back to Newcastle to
Speaker 3: teach art. Although he found his employment satisfying personally, it
Speaker 3: just wasn't enough to pay the bills, so Tony moved
Speaker 3: back to London got a job at a restaurant that
Speaker 3: allowed him to work on his art too, and he
Speaker 3: spent his time between a job that helped pay the
Speaker 3: bills and his passion of creating. Tony wore clothing that
Speaker 3: he designed himself, items that reflected his flamboyance. He met
Speaker 3: Michael at a gay London club on the night of
Speaker 3: April sixth, nineteen eighty six. On this night, Tony was
Speaker 3: wearing a leather jacket with silver studs. And shocking pink
Speaker 3: tights under distressed jeans. He was also wearing a scarf.
Speaker 3: Sometime during the evening, Tony and Michael would leave the
Speaker 3: pub that they were at and they headed to a
Speaker 3: railway hut in Brixton. This is a little structure near railways,
Speaker 3: mostly used by railway workers to have a tea break.
Speaker 3: It's used for shelter or sometimes tools are even stored
Speaker 3: in them. These huts were seen every mile or two
Speaker 3: along the tracks. I don't think that there's very many
Speaker 3: of them left anymore though. Inside one of these huts,
Speaker 3: Tony was strangled to death by Michael using Tony's own scarf.
Speaker 3: Tony's body was discovered by children who were playing near
Speaker 3: the hut the following day, although when it came time
Speaker 3: for Tony's family to get Tony's body back to lay
Speaker 3: them to rest, there was a huge delay. And this
Speaker 3: was due to the fact Tony's flatmate had recently passed
Speaker 3: away from AIDS and because of that, no corner or
Speaker 3: medical examiner wanted to touch Tony's remains. It didn't matter
Speaker 3: whether Tony had HIV or not. They just didn't want
Speaker 3: to touch him. And to that I think, Oh my god,
Speaker 3: just suit up, put your gloves on and do your
Speaker 3: damn job. Of course, back then we didn't know as
Speaker 3: much about the virus as we do today. Still, they
Speaker 3: could have just put on their hazmat suits. Cardboard City
Speaker 3: was a notorious homeless encampment located in the pedestrian underpasses
Speaker 3: of the Waterloo Bowl Ring in London. This area house
Speaker 3: up to two hundred people in cardboard boxes during the
Speaker 3: nineteen eighties. It was a prominent symbol of homelessness that
Speaker 3: was cleared away in nineteen nine, with the sight later
Speaker 3: becoming the bfi Imax Cinema. One of the residents of
Speaker 3: Cardboard City would encounter Michael on April eighteenth, nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: This man, who today remains unnamed, was wearing a tartan
Speaker 3: scarf and he was said to be around sixty years old.
Speaker 3: As Michael was beginning to climb stairs near a footpath
Speaker 3: where the man was standing, the unhoused man asked Michael
Speaker 3: for a cigarette. Michael handed him the one he was smoking,
Speaker 3: and just as quickly as Michael handed off the smoke,
Speaker 3: Michael grabbed the man by his jugular and he pulled
Speaker 3: on the scarf that the vagrant was wearing, effectively strangling
Speaker 3: the man to death in a matter of minutes. Michael
Speaker 3: attempted to drag the man, but he only got about
Speaker 3: fifteen feet with the man's body, and then he abandoned
Speaker 3: the task and made off into the dark of the night.
Speaker 3: Later that same night of April eighteenth, twenty two year
Speaker 3: old Mark Leyland would meet Michael outside of the gay
Speaker 3: club called Heaven. The two men would walk away from
Speaker 3: the club to an abandoned building for a consensual sexual encounter.
Speaker 3: Once at the building, Mark began to give Michael a blowjob,
Speaker 3: but when Mark looked up at Michael's face, Michael punched
Speaker 3: Mark upside his head several times with his fists. He
Speaker 3: then found a nearby piece of wood and he continued
Speaker 3: by smashing the wood into Mark's head. Michael did this
Speaker 3: until Mark lost consciousness, and then Michael left the scene
Speaker 3: believing Mark was dead. Several hours later, Mark came to
Speaker 3: staggering onto the street. He found a police officer and
Speaker 3: he reported that he had been mugged. Mark didn't want
Speaker 3: to tell the officer about the sexual encounter because he
Speaker 3: was afraid to out himself. Damian McCloskey was born September seventh,
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty three, a virgo in Ireland. After he graduated
Speaker 3: from school, Damien and a friend would move to London.
Speaker 3: The friend didn't have the drive to stay and the
Speaker 3: friend went back home to Ireland. But Damian he loved
Speaker 3: London and he loved to explore the gay scene of London.
Speaker 3: He was young, twenty two years old, vibrant, and he
Speaker 3: had such a passion for life. On April twenty fifth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six, Damien would meet Michael outside the Copa
Speaker 3: Cabana gay nightclub. Michael ended up taking Damien to a
Speaker 3: derelic basement in an old building for sex. As Damien
Speaker 3: took to his knees in front of Michael, Michael grabbed
Speaker 3: a dirty sheet lying nearby and he strangled Damien to death.
Speaker 3: Then Michael raped Damien's body and mutilated it with a razor.
Speaker 3: Damien's body would not be found until after Michael's arrest.
Speaker 3: On May seventh, nearly two weeks after the attack on Damien,
Speaker 3: Michael would find his next victim in thirty year old
Speaker 3: David Nigel Cole, outside of a gay bar called the
Speaker 3: Market Tavern. Michael convinced David to follow him to a
Speaker 3: local park and the two set off. The park was
Speaker 3: dark and desolate, no signs of anyone or anything stirring
Speaker 3: other than the two men who just arrived. When Michael
Speaker 3: realized his sexual encounter with David wasn't going the way
Speaker 3: he planned, he came up behind David, wrapped a silk
Speaker 3: sock around David's neck and began to strangle the thirty
Speaker 3: year old, But David wasn't giving in. He bought, and
Speaker 3: he bought until he finally got his hand between the
Speaker 3: sock and his neck, giving him ample breathing room. When
Speaker 3: Michael decided this wasn't working, he ran off into the night,
Speaker 3: and he'd didn't look back. David reported his attack to
Speaker 3: law enforcement, and within a day or two, David was
Speaker 3: assisting the police to catch his attacker. Undercover cops escorted
Speaker 3: David to a number of gay bars for a few days,
Speaker 3: and that on May fifteenth, he and the undercover detectives
Speaker 3: went to the Prince of Wales pub in Brixton. Who
Speaker 3: should David spot but Michael. David indicated to the detectives
Speaker 3: that Michael was the guy, and Michael was arrested following
Speaker 3: his arrest, Michael faved his right to a lawyer, and
Speaker 3: he confessed to the murders of four men and the
Speaker 3: attempted murders of two others. He later claimed his killing
Speaker 3: spree was triggered by his recent AIDS diagnosis, which had
Speaker 3: fueled a burning hatred within him for the gay community,
Speaker 3: and truly the only blame for his contracting the virus
Speaker 3: should have fallen upon himself for not practicing safe sex.
Speaker 3: He was so damn proud of his conquests, but he
Speaker 3: failed to see the bigger picture. After Michael's arrest, survivor
Speaker 3: Mark Leyland came forward with the true story of what
Speaker 3: happened to him the night Michael attacked him. He admitted
Speaker 3: his attack was much more than a mugging. Michael faced
Speaker 3: charges for four counts of murder and two counts of
Speaker 3: attempted murder at the Old Bailey in London. He entered
Speaker 3: guilty please to all counts, foregoing a full trial. On
Speaker 3: July tenth, nineteen eighty seven. Michael, then aged thirty four,
Speaker 3: received four concurrent life sentences for the murders, with an
Speaker 3: additional fourteen years of imprisonment for the attempted murders. The
Speaker 3: sentencing judge highlighted Michael's deliberate targeting of victims in London's
Speaker 3: gay community, was motivated by his rage of his diagn
Speaker 3: Following the verdict, authorities transferred Michael to a specialized AIDS
Speaker 3: unit at Brixton Prison that was so they could manage
Speaker 3: his health condition and to isolate him from risking any
Speaker 3: of the other prisoners. Michael's medical condition remained stable for
Speaker 3: many years after his attacks. During this time, he was
Speaker 3: transferred to several prisons in and around London, and in
Speaker 3: May of nineteen ninety four, his health took a turn
Speaker 3: for the worse. He would spend his remaining time on
Speaker 3: Earth in a hospital wing at h MP Franklin and
Speaker 3: County Durham. Michael refused to take medication. He refused transfer
Speaker 3: to an external hospital. He refused anything that would help
Speaker 3: him live longer or help him with his pain. Only
Speaker 3: on the day he died February twelfth, nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 3: did Michael receive a morphine shot for pain. And I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: as mean as this sound, I kind of think he
Speaker 3: deserved to experience the pain and suffering. Rest and power.
Speaker 3: James Tony Damien, an unnamed Cardboard City Man rest in
Speaker 3: Power to Kevin Michael's first victim, who went on to
Speaker 3: survive several more years after Michael's attack but ended up
Speaker 3: passing away due to AIDS complications, and to the survivors
Speaker 3: of Michael Thrive in Power Archer Crime Quickie is from
Speaker 3: the South Asian country of me and Mar formerly known
Speaker 3: as the country of Burma. Me and Marr was the
Speaker 3: home of twenty five year old gay TikTok star Tin
Speaker 3: zaw Tway, and I probably just butchered the hell out
Speaker 3: of his name and I apologize for that. Tin was
Speaker 3: an influencer who had a flare for fashion and shared tips,
Speaker 3: product endorsements, and lip sync songs with his followers. On
Speaker 3: January twentieth, twenty twenty six, in the Maysought district of Thailand,
Speaker 3: Tin's body was found by a villager who was leading
Speaker 3: a herd of animals through the forest. Tin was wearing
Speaker 3: a yellow T shirt, a black jacket, and black sweatpants.
Speaker 3: His pants and underwear were pulled down to his thighs.
Speaker 3: He had dried blood caked to his face and head.
Speaker 3: Near his body lay a bloodied baseball bat that appeared
Speaker 3: to have been the murder weapon. Tin's belongings were scattered
Speaker 3: around his body, his shoulder bag, cosmetics, condoms, and a
Speaker 3: few other personal items. Missing was his cell phone in
Speaker 3: gold jewelry. Tin had disappeared from his home two days
Speaker 3: prior to the villager discovering his body. His roommates said
Speaker 3: before Tin left, he received a message on TikTok from
Speaker 3: one of his followers. His follower was asking for help,
Speaker 3: and without hesitation, Tin went to meet this follower. Police
Speaker 3: now believe two individuals lured him into the place where
Speaker 3: they murdered him. One suspect has been apprehended and is
Speaker 3: currently being held, but they still believe that this one
Speaker 3: suspect has an accomplice. There hasn't been any more updates
Speaker 3: on this case that I can see, but I'll try
Speaker 3: to keep watching it to see if anything new shakes loose.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping that they can nail both of these guys
Speaker 3: who trick Tin with a fake distress signal. I mean,
Speaker 3: if Tin is just gonna up and leave this Kai
Speaker 3: obviously had a good heart. He wanted to help others,
Speaker 3: and it's just so sad that he was trying to
Speaker 3: do something good just to be lured to his death,
Speaker 3: Brest and power Tin. I think I'm just gonna let
Speaker 3: our Sunshine News sit this one out and hopefully there'll
Speaker 3: be more to report next episode. But i do want
Speaker 3: to let you know that I'm hoping that next week's
Speaker 3: episode will be one that I'm collaborating with Courtney from
Speaker 3: Book of the Dead. It's a case I've been wanting
Speaker 3: to cover since last November, but I have just not
Speaker 3: been able to figure out how to approach it. And
Speaker 3: things in this case are ever changing. Courtney's helped me
Speaker 3: with it, and we will be speaking with the mom
Speaker 3: and the victim of the case, and my heart really
Speaker 3: aches for her. That's all I'm able to give you
Speaker 3: at the moment, and again I'm hoping it'll be ready
Speaker 3: for next week. Now I leave you with a joke.
Speaker 3: A rancher dies and left everything to his wife. Now,
Speaker 3: she was a very good looking woman. She was determined
Speaker 3: to keep a ranch. She knew so very little about ranching,
Speaker 3: and she decided to place an ad in the newspaper
Speaker 3: for a ranch hand. Two cowboys applied for the job.
Speaker 3: One was gay and the other was a drunk. So
Speaker 3: she thought long and hard about it, and then when
Speaker 3: no one else applied. She decided to hire the gay cowboy.
Speaker 3: She figured it would be safer to have him around
Speaker 3: the house than the drunk. He proved to be a
Speaker 3: very hard worker. He put in long hours every day,
Speaker 3: and he knew an awful lot about ranching. For weeks,
Speaker 3: the two of them worked and the ranch was doing
Speaker 3: so well. Then one day the rancher's widows said to
Speaker 3: the hired hand, you have done such a really good job,
Speaker 3: and the ranch looks great. You should go into town
Speaker 3: and kick up your hills. The hired hand readily agreed,
Speaker 3: and he went into town one Saturday night. The rancher's
Speaker 3: widow was waiting up for him.
Speaker 1: That night.
Speaker 3: One o'clock came, however, no ranch hand. Two o'clock came,
Speaker 3: still no ranch hand. Finally he returned around two thirty,
Speaker 3: and upon entering the room, he found the rancher's widows
Speaker 3: sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine. She
Speaker 3: was waiting for him. She quietly called him over to her,
Speaker 3: and she whispered, and button my blouse and take it off. Trembling,
Speaker 3: he did as she directed. Now take off my boots.
Speaker 3: Ever so slowly, he did as she asked. Now take
Speaker 3: off my socks. He removed each gently, and he placed
Speaker 3: them neatly by her boots. She whispered, now take off
Speaker 3: my skirt hesitantly. He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her
Speaker 3: eyes in the firelight. Now take off my bra again.
Speaker 3: With trembling hands, he did as he was told, and
Speaker 3: he dropped it to the floor. Then she looked into
Speaker 3: his eyes and said, if you ever wear my clothes
Speaker 3: into town again, you're fired. I love you, guys, and
Speaker 3: you matters so much. Remember it's not a crime to
Speaker 3: be gay or to live your truth, unless you're a murderer.