WELCOME TO THE MORGUE ARCHIVES

July 30, 1997 - Possible Spotsylvania Killer - Authorities announced the killings of three young girls around Spotsylvania, a small town 30 miles north of Richmond, are likely the work of a serial killer. The slayings of Sofia Silva, 16; Kristin Lisk, 15; and her sister, Kati Lisk, 12, bear obvious similarities that led the task force of federal, state and local investigators to tie them together.

July 30, 1997 - Marthinus Jakobus Stapelberg - A 22-year-old Internal South African Stability Unit policeman, Marthinus was convicted of five counts of murder and three of attempted murder, theft and robbery with aggravating circumstances for a three-month shooting spree which ended with his arrest in February, 1996.

July 30, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - Three unidentified sources told the Miami Herald that tests performed during the autopsy of Cunanan showed he did not have the AIDS virus raising new questions about his cross country rampage.

In related news, the bumbling Miami Beach police department released a 911 call placed from a Miami Subs fast food restaurant July 12 -- three days before the Versace murder -- in which the caller identified Cunanan from his profile aired a few days earlier in "America's Most Wanted."

Caller: I could be wrong, you know what I'm saying? I'm not a hundred percent sure.
Operator: Which way did he go?
Caller: He's inside the store now.
Operator: He's inside the store?
Caller: Yeah.
Operator: Eating?
Caller: No, he's waiting for his food.
Operator: And he's wanted for what?
Caller: There was this, um, guy, who is, um, who killed his homosexual lover and a couple other people -- like four people. ... you know, I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure but he looks like him, you know what I mean? He really looks like him. I'm not a hundred percent sure.

July 30, 1997 - Rosemary West - Serial killer and mother of eight Rosemary West has been officially told she will spend the rest of her life behind bars. After repeated attempts to win her freedom, Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that Rosemary should never be freed and imposed a life tariff on her sentence.

July 29, 1997 - "Phoenix Strangler" - A clear picture of the serial killer who is preying on the north Durban suburb of Phoenix should emerge by the end of this week, when South Africa's top forensic psychologist, Dr Miki Pistorius, completes her profile of the person behind the killing spree.

July 28, 1997 - Joseph Corcoran - Fort Wayne resident Joseph Corcoran was charged with four counts of murder after killing his brother, his sister's fiancee and two other men. Apparently Joe, 22, believed the victims were talking about him and he became angry. So he went downstairs with his semiautomatic and shot the victims as they sat in a living room, eating pizza and watching television. Three of the men were found dead on couches in the living room. The fourth man was shot in the kitchen as he attempted to escape.

July 27, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - Fernando Carreira, the caretaker who heard a shot in the houseboat and called authorities, filed a lawsuit claiming the $55,000 reward money for Cunanan's capture. According to Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Barreto, the caretaker's call was not so much a tip as "happenstance." Showing a little more class, the FBI and the Manhattan-based Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project confirmed they will be giving their part of the reward money -- about $10,000 a piece -- to Fernando.

July 26, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - According to an unidentified Dade County Medical Examiner, Andy was sporting a shaved head and a beard when he was found dead, thus disproving the FBI's claims that he was dressing in drag.

Agents questioned houseboat owner Torsten Franz Reineck, who owns a gay bathhouse in Las Vegas, and determined he had no connection to Cunanan. Reineck, who is wanted in Germany for fraud, claims to be from an unrecognized nation called the Principality of Sealand, which issues its own passports. The man -- a nutcase in his own right -- allegedly drives a car bearing diplomatic plates from the make-believe principality.

July 26, 1997 - "The School Killer" - The 15-year-old Japanese boy suspected in the decapitation-murder of another boy, the murder of a girl and the attempted murder of three more girls was detained for a month of observation by a family court. Because the suspect is a minor, he cannot be tried in the criminal courts. If the court decides he is insane, he could be held indefinitely in a mental institution. If he is deemed mentally stable, he would face a maximum of two years in a juvenile detention.

July 24, 1997 - "Phoenix Strangler" - Police dug up 5 new corpses bringing the tally of South Africa's latest serial killer, the Phoenix killer, up to 18. All the victims - black women aged between 20 and 30 years - were found in graves in the Phoenix-Mt Edgecombe plantation area near the White House shopping complex north of Durban. The latest victim could have died less than three days before the grissly discovery.

July 24, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - It's official, the FBI took Andy off their 10 Most Wanted List marking the end of their nationwide manhunt. Now the FBI Web site features his mugshot with a diagonal red banner saying "FOUND DEAD" printed accross it. Authorities confirmed the cross-country gay serial killer -- who blew his face off in a boathouse in Miami Beach -- was finally identified through fingerprints.

July 23, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - A body resembling suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face in a houseboat 2 1/2 miles from the spot where Gianni Versace was murdered. More than 100 police and FBI agents descended on the large blue, two-story houseboat after caretaker Fernando Carreira told officers he heard a gunshot inside. During the four-hour standoff, officers in black flak jackets fired volleys of tear gas and shouted "Come out! Come out!" Finally a SWAT team entered the house and found the dead body in an upstairs bedroom.

July 22, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - The latest credible sighting puts Andy in Lebanon, New Hamshire, in a sports memorabilia store on Route 12-A. The female clerk at the store reported a man -- fitting the suspect's description -- whose front pockets were stuffed with cash, leaving in a black Mercedes with Florida license plates.

July 21, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - The FBI has reportedly began warning acquaintances of Andrew Cunanan that they may be his next in his hit list. Federal agents are concerned that Andy -- now dressed in drag -- could be targeting wealthy gays and art patrons he believes have somehow crossed him.

July 20, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - The FBI announced a toll-free telephone number (1-888-324-9800) for people with information concerning the elusive Andy Cunanan. Meanwhile in South Florida Cunanan-mania has reached a fevered pitch. During the pastweekend several men vaguely resembling the elusive killer were assaulted in gay bars and clubs by panicked would-be vigilantes.

Newsweek magazine reports that security cameras at the News Cafe recorded Cunanan about 30 minutes before Versace made his usual appearance. Time magazine reports that a friend of Cunanan's told the FBI that the killer had a crush on a member of Versace's entourage, possibly his boyfriend.

July 19, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - About 1,000 mourners paid tribute to the dead fashion guru hours before police swarmed a hotel where Andy Cunanan reportedly stayed for weeks before the killing. The hotel manager, Miriam Hernandez, described him as "very gentle and nice. He had a beautiful smile and beautiful teeth". Police searching his room found only a pile of fashion and porn magazines, a hair trimmer and an electric razor.

Now that his face is constantly featured on TV, newspapers, web sites and on every storefront in south Florida, Cunanan sightings have been pouring in at an unprecedented rate. Curiously authorities now believe Andy returned to the Versace crime scene to gloat over the mayhem he was causing.

July 19, 1997 - Frederick Martin Davidson - A former San Diego State University graduate student was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole for shooting to death three engineering professors at a meeting to defend his master's thesis. Fred, 37, opened fire in a classroom August 15, 1997, while meeting with a panel of professors. The lethal graduate student told police he believed that his thesis adviser was bogging him down with work unrelated to his project.

July 19, 1997 - Khayan Kasien - A 17-year-old kitchen helper confessed to causing a gas leak that sparked a blaze that killed 91 guests at a seaside resort hotel in Thailand. Kasien said that he removed a hose from a kitchen gas cylinder without turning the valve off beforehand. The leaking gas resulted in an explosion and fire July 11 that raced through the Royal Jomtien Hotel in the resort town of Pattaya killing 91 people. According to the English-language daily The Nation, Khayan has been charged with negligence causing death and injury, but because of his age will be prosecuted as a juvenile offender.

July 18, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - FBI investigators now believe that Cunanan might have been stalking Gianni Versace for up to five weeks before the killing. The red pick-up he took from his previous victim that was found in a garage two blocks from Versace's home is now reported to have been there since June 10.

Police and FBI agents rushed to a home about 15 miles from the Versace shooting where a doctor, believed by authorities to be gay, was brutally murdered. A witness said a man fleeing the scene fit Cunanan's description, but investigators said there was no evidence connecting the serial killer to this murder. Police also have acknowledged they are re-examining recent unsolved murders, but had not linked the suspect to any more killings. Newsflash: not all murders in south Florida have been committed by Andrew Cunanan.

July 17, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - More than 400 FBI agents have been scouring a 250-mile stretch of Florida's Atlantic coast looking for the suspected serial killer.

July 16, 1997 - Possible Durban Serial Killer - South African police believe a new serial killer is prowling the country's east coast and has killed at least seven women since February. The decomposed remains of seven black women aged between 20 and 30 have been found in the Phoenix area on the outskirts of the Indian Ocean port city of Durban. "The women were all strangled .... It is difficult to establish if they were also raped," government sources said.

July 16, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - Police have now confirmed that Andy is the prime suspect in the shooting death of fashion star Gianni Versace. Officers identified the red pickup truck found in a five-story municipal parking structure near the crime scene as the one Cunanan took from the murdered cemetery caretaker in New Jersey. Next to it they found his bloodied clothes; inside they found his passport.

Hours after the slaying hundreds of people gathered across the street from Versace's South Beach mansion to honor and remember the dead designer. Other makeshift altars have materialized at many of the doorsteps of his stores worldwide.

July 15, 1997 - Doreen Ramirez - For reasons unknown, Doreen Ramirez, Rich's wife, has been talking to the media in Southern California about how wonderfully well their marriage is going. However sources close to Rich have told us at the Archives that the newlyweds are not as happy as Doreen wants us to believe. In fact, they say Rich hates his wife and thinks marrying her was the biggest mistake in his life.

July 15, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - The FBI is looking into the possibility that suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan, one of the agency's most wanted fugitives, may have been the killer of fashion designer Gianni Versace. Early this morning Versace was shot in the head at point-blank range outside his South Beach villa as he returned from buying an Italian newspaper.

Police said Versace's killer, acting alone and using a handgun, walked away after the shooting. There was no sign of robbery. At the site of the shooting police collected two cartridge cases and a dead pigeon. "We do not know if the bird was just a coincidence or some kind of symbol," an officer said.

July 4, 1997 - "The School Killer" - The 15-year-old Kobe boy who confessed to beheading 11-year-old Jun Hase was charged with another murder -- the bludgeoning of a 10-year-old girl. Authorities confirmed that the unidentified junior high school student also confessed to attacking two other girls.

July14, 1997 - Theodore Kaczynski - In an attempt to limit the prosecutor's evidence a new motion filed by Teddy K's defense lawyers claiming that the search warrant issued for his Montana hideaway was too broad rendering all gathered evidence inadmissable.

July 14, 1997 - Four Dead Inside a Freighter - Four crew members of a cargo ship in Miami were found slain at a crime scene so bloody police couldn't say whether the victims had been stabbed or shot. A fifth crew member was injured but apparently fled the 151-foot freighter Vanderpool Express and told a bystander to call the police.

Three men and one woman were found dead onboard, one on the deck and the others below in living quarters. Police did not immediately release their identities, but said they were from a Caribbean nation which they did not name.

July 14, 1997 - Frederick & Rosemary West Lacking any kind of fanfare a paved walkway laid over the site of Fred and Rosemary's infamous "House of Horrors" on 25 Cromwell Street was finally opened to the public.

July 14, 1997 - Swedish Prisons - Accompanied by three armed guards, Tommy Zethreaus, Sweden's premiere mass murderer, was given permission to spend an hour walking the woods outside the maximum security prison. He was informed of his temporary leave only five minutes in advance. After an hour and a half he was back in his cell again.

This procedure is common practice in Sweden. After three and a half years in prison long term convicts are given the opportunity to get out for an hour of supervised leave. It is called a "breather" and is part of a program to prevent the prisoners from getting cabin fever.

About two months ago, Sweden's other mass murderer, Mattias Flink, spent his "breather" canoeing in the Norrköping Archipelago accompanied by three armed guards in canoes and another three armed guards in a power boat.

July 11, 1997 - Remy Lecrenier - A Belgian suspected of the murders of his former girlfriend, her two sisters and their mother was apprehended in southern France after an international police hunt over four days. Remy Lecrenier was arrested late saturday night at a camping ground close to St. Tropez after being recognized by Belgian tourists. Belgian State Prosecutor Rene Stassart stated that Lecrenier was "close to confessing". A colleague of Stassarts stated that Lecrenier has shown no remorse over the four killings.

July 11, 1997 - Glen Rogers - As expected, suspected serial killer Glen Rogers was sentenced to Florida's temperamental "Old Sparky" for the stabbing death of Tina Marie Cribbs. Glen's brother Claude, a real estate agent from Palm Springs, California, said after the sentencing: "If you watch my brother -- he's been sitting watching a movie. I don't think reality has set in." Glen, through his lawyer, is still claiming he is innocent.

July 10, 1997 - Arthur Shawcross - Cannibal killer Art Shawcross married his long time sweetheart Clara Neal in the visiting room of the Sullivan Correctional Institute. According to the institution's policy, the newlyweds will be able to enjoy conjugal visits. Neal states she loves him and stands by her cannibal "no matter what". Shawcross, of course, used Neal's car to pick up, have sex with, and then kill his victims.

July 7, 1997 - Remy Lecrenier - Angry over his girlfriend meeting another man, Remy, 29, killed her with a crossbow and a Colt-45, then killed her mother and her two sisters. The massacre occured at the girlfriend's family home in the small village of Bas-Oha, 50 miles from Brussels.

July 7, 1997 - AUM Shinrikyo - Former cultist Masahiro Tominaga testified at the Tokyo District Court that in June, 1994 Yoshinobu Aoyama -- a lawyer for the AUM --- planned to ship 21 tons of sarin nerve gas to the U.S. in ice and/or concrete sculptures. The attack, of course, was never carried out.

July 7, 1997 - The Starbucks Murders - Three Starbucks Coffee employees were found shot to death in their shop in the tony Georgetown district in Washington, DC. The three young workers apparently were shot in the head the previous night after the shop closed. The bodies were discovered in a back room by a manager who arrived before dawn to reopen the shop. Local reports said police had identified a suspect who had no known connection to the coffee shop.

In true corporate fashion, the Seattle-based coffee chain said in a statement that although they were saddened by the murders they were "committed to providing the safest possible environment for both our partners and customers." So what are they going to do, put metal detectors in all Starbucks?

July 6, 1997 - New South African Killers - South African Police believe two serial killers are responsible for the murders of at least 13 people since the beginning of the year- seven in the Phoenix area on the outskirts of Durban and six in Johannesburg.

July 6, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - According to the FBI, two different people reported spotting rampage-killer Andy Cunanan in Oklahoma City driving the red pickup he took from his last victim. His last sightings placed him in the Boston area.

July 6, 1997 - African Magical Killers - Two sorcerers from the Ivory Coast were jailed for 18 months after the sudden death of a 14-year-old girl who they claimed they ate after turning themselves into birds to reach her home in France. The girl died suddenly two days after suffering a headache. The sorcerers claimed to have killed her because her mother failed to send money to relatives in the Ivory Coast.

July 4, 1997 - "The School Killer" - The Japanese Justice Minister denounced the Shinchosha publishing house and demanded an immediate recall of its two magazines that ran a photo of the 14-year-old Kobe youth being held in the decapitation-murder of a Kobe schoolboy. Not in the listening mood, the publishing house refused to recall copies of the two magazines in question.

July 3, 1997 - Vladimir Nikolayev - The supreme court of Russia's Chuvash Autonomous Republic sentenced Vladimir Nikolayev, 38, to death for killing and cannibalizing two people in the town of Novocheboksary.

July 3, 1997 - Mayhem - As we try to keep up with the latest in browser technology, we've started incorporating Netscape 4.0 tags to the code of the Archives. To see what all the hoopla is about go to the root page of www.mayhem.net. Unfortunately, if you don't have Netscape 4.0 you won't see anything that you haven't seen before.

July 1, 1997 - "The School Killer" - In a western-style backlash against the entertainment industry, Japanese Construction Minister Shizuka Kamei called for restricting violent and pornographic videos because they may have influenced the teenager charged with beheading of Jun Hase.

Adding a little more fuel to the already volatile mix, under Japanese law the suspect is too young to go to jail. Juveniles can be held responsible for a crime, but they must be at least 16 to be sentenced as criminals. At worst, if the unnamed killer is found guilty, the court will have to choose between probation and putting the boy in a reformatory.

June 30, 1997 - Josh Jenkins - Teenage family annihilator Josh Jenkins was sentenced to 112 years to life for killing his adoptive parents, grandparents and sister during a weekend visit to the grandparent's condominium north of San Diego. Jenkins said he killed his family in revenge for his parents sending him to boarding school. Judge John Einhorn called the familicide, "vicious, savage and almost incomprehensible."

June 30, 1997 - Mohammed Yaqub - A resident of the Kashmir state in Pakistan, Mohammed gunned down 10 people after flying into a rage when his nephew defied him by chopping down a tree.

June 29, 1997 - "The School Killer" - The Japanese public was shocked to learn that an ordinary -year-old boy confessed to beheading an 11-year-old acquaintance because he hated his school. The unnamed killer is also being investigated in relation to two knife attacks on schoolgirls that resulted in one death. The suspect had not been attending school recently and had been undergoing psychiatric treatment.

June 28, 1997 - Charles Smith - Charlie fatally shot his ex-girlfriend, 34-year-old Cindy Benson in her hometown of Joliet. Then he drove with her body 36 miles to her sister and brother-in-law's home and killed three of her relatives and raped another before killing himself.

June 28, 1997 - Debra Brown - Lawyers for Debra Denise Brown urged the Indiana Supreme Court to overturn her conviction and death sentence for the slaying of a Gary, Ind., girl during a 1984 Midwest murder spree with Alton Coleman.

June 28, 1997 - Russian Suicide Bomber - Five people were killed and 11 injured in a bomb explosion on a train from Moscow to St Petersburg. Police believe that one of the dead was the unidentified bomber.

June 27, 1997 - The Communications Decency Act - In a solid victory for porn-seeking teens and free speech supporters on the Internet, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the dreaded C.D.A. arguing that it amounted to illegal government censorship and violated First Amendment rights. The White House responded by posting this image on their ftp servers.

June 26, 1997 - Clifford Olson - Canadian authorities transfered Clifford Olson to the Archambault Prison in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Québec because his prison in Western Canada was being closed.

June 26, 1997 - Paul Dennis Reid - Having already been accused of five murders, Nashville authorities charged Paul Dennis Reid with two more slayings. The victims, Michelle Mace, 16, and Angela Holmes, 21, both Baskin-Robbins employees, were kidnapped as they prepared to close the ice cream shop.

June 25, 1997 - Pol Pot - The U.S. government wants to send in a strikeforce to capture Pol Pot and try him outside Cambodia for crimes against humanity. Canada, one of the few countries with laws allowing prosecutions for crimes against humanity by foreign citizens, has all but rejected an U.S. request to have Mr. Pol tried there because it does not allow kidnapping

June 25, 1997 - AUM Shinrikyo - Dubbed the "murder machine" of the AUM by Japanes media, Yasuo Hayashi pleaded guilty to murder charges in the Tokyo subway gassing. The last of five cult members accused in the attack to be arrested, Yasuo alone is believed to be responsible for eight of the 12 deaths and for about half the injuries.

June 25, 1997 - Killer Scroll - In an attempt to keep the Archives entertaining, our graphics team has created a set of looped pages using the JavaScript scroll command that should make for deadly visual candy. Unfortunately not every browser reads it. Presently only people using Netscape and a Mac can enjoy the freak show.

June 25, 1997 - Zurab Chkheidze - A Russian soldier shot and killed seven -- four guards, a gas attendant, and two civilians -- in a gasoline storage rampage the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

June 25, 1997 - Marc Dutroux - Two years after the disappearance of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, the two youngest victims of the notorious paedophile Marc Dutroux, thousands of Belgians took to the streets to protest against the slow progress of a promised overhaul of the country's judicial system. On the stroke of .30 am, church bells were rung, drivers sounded their horns and pedestrians opened umbrellas in a symbolic protest against politicians' reluctance to "get their feet wet" by taking on vested interests in the judiciary and police.

June 25, 1997 - Algerian Family Massacre - An armed group slaughtered 18 members of one family, including eight women and a six-month-old baby, in a village near Algiers. Officials blamed the atrocity on the country's five-year-old Islamist insurgency.

June 22, 1997 - Suicidal French Pedophiles - Sweeping raids throughout France searching for alleged pedophiles have resulted in the suicide deaths of four people. Henri Leclerc, chairman of France's League of Human Rights, denounced the paedophile sweep as scandalous and asked for their immediate halt.

June 22, 1997 - Post-Dunblane Gun Legislation - The British government announced that owners of large calibre hand guns will have three months from July 1 to hand them over. The Home Office published guidance leaflets detailing the arrangements for the surrender to the police of nearly 200,000 weapons by 60,000 gun enthusiast. Home Office Minister Alun Michael said: "This will be the biggest ever hand-in of weapons in Britain. We have worked closely with the police to ensure everything goes smoothly."

June 22, 1997 - Pol Pot - Cambodia's joint but feuding Prime Ministers, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, made a rare appearance together to announce that Pol Pot was being held by a rival group of Khmer Rouge guerrillas in north-west Cambodia. Now the world is looking at the leaders of the industrialized nations meeting at the "Summit of Eight" in Denver to find a venue for a fair trial for the ruthless and aging despot. The longer this is delayed, the more likely that Pol Pot will be killed in the jungle rather than brought to justice.

June 20, 1997 - The Russian Armed Forces - The newspaper Sevodnya reported that every day 10 to 11 soldiers and officers die in the Russian armed forces from causes unrelated to combat. The number of suicides caused by low morale and non-payment of wages has risen five times since 1991. There are no official statistics on non-combat related deaths in the army.

June 20, 1997 - Roberto Arguelles - Third District Court Judge David Young handed down the much cherished death sentence to Roberto Arguelles. In a strange courtroom exchange the judge bluntly asked Arguelles: "You're asking me to sentence you to death?" To which he replied: "I am because as many years as I've been through this, no one's going to help me with this condition... I would elect to be executed by firing squad," if possible without a hood, he added.

June 20, 1997 - Theofilos Sechidis - Theo was convicted of systematically killing and dismembering 5 members of his family. The former Greek law student thought they were plotting against him and claimed to have acted in self defense.

June 20, 1997 - Glen Rogers - Hillsborough Circuit Judge Diana Allen denied Glen Rogers' bid for a new trial saying testimony from a laborer who claimed he was with Rogers when one of his victims was killed was unbelievable. The judge found the rambling testimony of Thomas Ambrose -- an admitted drug addict and alcoholic with frequent memory lapses -- to be "inconsistent, incredible and totally unworthy of belief." Formal sentencing for the suspected serial killer was set for July 11.

June 19, - Pol Pot - After originally claiming that the ruthless despot had surrendered, Cambodia's co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh retracted a top general's claim and stated that Mr. Pot and his gang are still at large in the jungle. Gen. Nhek Bunchhay, the deputy army chief of staff, said earlier that Pol Pot and a ragged band of followers had given themselves up to defectors within his splintering Khmer Rouge movement. The government offered no immediate explanation for the surprising turnabout in Pol's fate.

June 18, 1997 - Sam N. Lau - What at first seemed to be a mob hit, has instead unfolded into another case of familicide. Sam Lau, a successful businessman from Hong Kong, fatally shot his wife, two sons and himself in an apparent murder-suicide in their home in Seattle.

June 18, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - The chairman of the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee proposed to strip Tim of his veteran's benefits -- including his eligibility for burial in a national cemetery -- following his bombing conviction.

June 16, 1997 - "The School Killer" - In another case of life imitating art, Wes Craven's immensely popular movie, ''Scream,'' had its Japanese release cancelled because it was deemed too similar to circumstances surrounding the beheading of the boy in Kobe.

June 16, 1997 - The Penis-Shrinking Psychosis - A crowd in Libreville, Gabon, beat a Malian man to death who was accused of making another man's penis disappear. This bizarre "penis-shrinking" psychosis has resulted in several other deaths throughout West Africa.

June 16, 1997 - Gerd Wenzinger - The German torture doctor, Gerd Wenzinger, accused of murdering and torturing women in Brazil and Germany, hanged himself in his jail cell after a court approved his extradition back to Germany.

June 16, 1997 - Murdered Seattle Family - A family of four was found dead inside their home in a quiet, well-to-do suburban Seattle neighborhood. Although police did not identify the victims, neighbors said the address was home to Sam Lau, a fireworks importer and member of a Hong Kong family that has been in the fireworks business for three generations.

June 16, 1997 - William Suff - Breaking his silence, convicted serial killer Bill Suff decided to put in print his side of his bloody story. The true crime book, "Cat and Mouse: Mind Games with a Serial Killer," by lawyer-writer Brian Alan Lane, contains Bill's writings, poetry, and cookbook. Bill --formerly known as "The Riverside Prostitute Killer" -- has also scheduled a live call-in on the "Geraldo Rivera" show from Death Row in San Quentin.

June 13, 1997 - Charles Heatley - Manhattan federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the first time in 40 years for Charles Heatley, the head of the Bronx drug gang known as the Preacher Crew who has been charged with nine murders.

June 13, 1997 - Theodore Kaczynski - Lawyers in the Unabomber case say they're trying to avoid getting a tainted jury and asked a judge to not allow the media see certain pieces of evidence -- such as portions of suspect Theodore Kaczynski's journal -- because it could hurt jury selection. Always willing to cooperate, TV stations throughout the country showed pictures of bomb parts and other evidence found in the mountain-man's cabin and newspapers quoted ample passages from Ted's diaries.

June 13, - Pol Pot - In a strange chain of events, Pol Pot, the ruthless leader of the Khmer Rouge during its "killing fields" rule over Cambodia, was reported to have fled his heavily-fortified base after killing his former defense minister, his wife, and 8 members of his family.

Mr. Pot, whose rule killed at least 2 million people, was said to have left the base at Anlong Venh near the Thai border with 200 armed followers and is now hiding in the jungle.

June 13, 1997 - "The School Killer" - Investigators have pinpointed the maker of a word processor believed used by the "School Killer" to write the message he sent to a daily Kobe newspaper. Although the message was hand-written, it seems it was based on one originally typed with a word processor. Police have studied certain kanji in the message and discovered that only word processors manufactured by Sharp Corp. can convert the characters "kyo" (emptiness) and "ra" for "bara" (rose) into the particular types of kanji used by the killer.

June 13, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - Betraying no emotion Tim sat stoically in the courtroom as a federal jury sentenced him to death for masterminding the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The jury, after deliberating for nearly 11 hours over two days, decided unanimously that the 29-year-old decorated Gulf War veteran should die by lethal injection. The decision is binding on U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch who, after reading the verdict, told the jurors, "You've done your duty and you've done it well."

June 13, 1997 - Aaron LeBaron - Leader of the polygamist Church of the Lamb of God, Aaron was sentenced to 45 years in prison for ordering the shooting deaths of three defectors and an 8-year-old witness. LeBaron was also ordered to pay $134,000 in restitution to help pay for the victims' funerals.

June 12, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - In a last-ditch attempt to save Tim's life, his lawyer abandoned all pretence that he was innocent, telling a Denver jury that, while the devastating terrorist attack was perhaps the ultimate in evil deeds, his client was "not a demon". The prosecution pointed out in their closing statement that after killing 168 people the jury had a moral obligation to make McVeigh pay with his life for his actions. "Look into the eyes of a coward and tell him you will have the courage... Tell him he is no patriot. He is a traitor and deserves to die."

June 12, 1997 - "The School Killer" - Police said they are investigating whether horror movies inspired the beheading of the of the 11-year-old boy in Kobe. Detectives have asked video shops in the area near the murder scene for lists of customers who rented horror films with scenes similar to the gruesome killing. "We have narrowed it down to about 10 horror movies that may have inspired the culprit," a police spokesman told reporters. However, he declined to say which films they were.

Leaving no stone unturned, the tabloid newspaper Tokyo Sports reported that authorities were investigating links between the killing and an amateur rock back known as Killer and Rose. One of their albums, "Devil Rose," released several years ago (and, coincidentally, also a secret soundtrack for The Wizard of Oz), has a song called "Rotten Vegetables," which sounds like "dirty vegetables, " a phrase used by the killer to describe his future victims. The six Chinese characters -- including "devil" and "rose" -- that were written in one of the two notes left in the boy's mouth, can be pronounced as a person's name, Seito Sakakibara, which the killer has since identified himself as in a letter.

June 12, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - The FBI placed Andy on its 10 most-wanted list. It also said it is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

June 12, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - Swiss police are on a heightened state of suicide watch in anticipation to the summer solstice on June 21. Gerard Ramseyer, the top justice official in Geneva, said police was maintaining a "discreet surveillance" of 10 people believed to be known members of the suicidal Solar Temple Sect. Two of the 10 under surveillance are believed to be children. Police think there are at least 100 people in Switzerland who were formerly close to or had been members of the suicidal cult.

June 11, 1997 - Possible Brazilian Serial Killer - Brazilian police are hunting for a possible serial killer after finding two boys, ages 10 and , dead with their sexual organs mutilated in northeastern Maranhao state.

June 11, 1997 - The Dunblane Massacre - Britain's parliament has voted overwhelmingly to approve one of the world's toughest gun laws by extending a ban on pistols to include all guns below .22-inch calibre. The Firearms (Amendment) Bill, drawn up after gunman Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 children and their teacher in the Scottish town of Dunblane in March 1996, passed the key second stage in the House of Commons by a vote of 384-181 thanks to the new Labor government's solid 179-seat majority. Prime Minister Tony Blair, told Parliament before the vote that lawmakers "owe a moral responsibility to the victims of Dunblane and their families."

June 11, 1997 - Bobby "Basher" Bates - Bobbie, a member of the lethal Shankhill Butchers gang, was shot in the head execution style in an apparent loyalist attack in Belfast. His murder constituted the final twist in a life which saw him being incarcerated as a psychopathic sectarian killer and coming out of prison a professed born-again Christian.

Basher was one of the leaders of the murderous Shankhill Butchers in Belfast that killed a total of 19 people, mostly Catholics, using knives and meat cleavers. But Bates and his gang killed at least five Protestants by mistake or simply a bloodlust that transcended any religious or political convictions. In 1979 Bates was convicted of 10 gruesome killings and sent to prison for the rest of his life.

In 1988 Bates, the hard drinking, sadistic and pathologically violent killer, announced he had found God. A new man, he swore off violence and was transferred to Maghaberry prison to a special block for reformed terrorists who had become Christians. His conversion was one of the factors that resulted in his eventual release on bail in a "work scheme" last October.

June 11, 1997 - Theodore Kaczynski - Prosecutors claim Teddy K. used his remote cabin as a bomb-making laboratory. Allegedly the mountain-man-hermit-genius described his bombing raids in chilling detail in a diary siezed by authorities in his Montana cabin.

In related news, Diogenes Angelakos, a pioneer in the field of microwaves, antennas and electromagnetic waves and one of the Unabomber's first victims, died of prostate cancer at the age of 77. Angelakos was director of the Electronics Research Laboratory at UC-Berkeley on July 2, 1982, when he grabbed the handle of a booby-trapped package in a coffee room. The pipe bomb exploded, mangling his right hand. He escaped more serious injury when a gasoline can attached to the bomb failed to explode. After extensive surgery, Diogenes eventually learned to write again.

June 11, 1997 - "The Butcher of Mons" - Investigators concluded DNA testing on the 30 body parts found in 18 garbage bag in and around Mons, and now believe there might be a fourth victim added to the list of the three they have already identified.

June 10, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - After showing a tearful video of Tim as a happy, young boy growing up in upstate New York, the defense rested their four-day penalty phase case in the trial against the convicted mass murdering bomber.

June 10, 1997 - Charles Manson - The ever crafty Charlie Manson was found guilty of dealing drugs in prison and has been ordered into administrative isolation. The self-proclaimed "King of Fuck" tested positive for drugs twice in a random testing program at Corcoran. The administrative isolation means that his dayroom privileges will be cut from every day to three hours twice a week, his commissary expenses will be cut from $100 a month to $35, and, although he can still have visitors, they will no longer have direct contact with him.

June 10, 1997 - Issa Abujabar - San Francisco police arrested Issa, 23, for allegedly killing his mother, a former girlfriend and her -month-old child. Reports indicate the bloody rampage may have been part of a satanic ritual. According to police, "Abujabar stated to a witness that he was Lucifer.. But we found no satanic items or indications of any satanic rituals."

June 9, 1997 - Army of God - The FBI appealed for public help in identifying the author of a letter claiming responsibility for two Atlanta bombings. The agency also released sketches of two people seen in the vicinity of one attack. The letter, purportedly written by a shadowy anti-abortion group called the Army of God, was sent to news organizations in late February. It claimed responsibility for explosions at a Sandy Springs abortion clinic Jan. 16 and at an Atlanta lesbian nightclub Feb. 21.

The letter, containing misspellings and grammatical errors, refers to homosexuals as "sodomites" and "preverts" and to "the ungodly communist regime in New York and your ... bureaucratic lackey's in Washington." It denounces the government, abortion and homosexuality, and ends with the phrase "Death to the New World Order."

Investigators say they suspect that the two bombings are linked to the Olympic park bombing in July. Investigators acknowledged there are significant differences between the Olympic bomb that exploded July 27 and the two later bombings. Black powder was used in the Olympic bomb, while the others used dynamite. The clinic and nightclub bombings each contained a second bomb authorities believe was intended to kill and injure law enforcement officers sent to the scene.

June 8, 1997 - Paul Dennis Reid - Jose Antonio Ramirez Gonzalez , the lone survivor of a bloody massacre at a Nashville McDonald's, testified that he was repeatedly stabbed by his attacker after the gun used to kill his three co-workers didn't go off. Jose Antonio said the assailant, who he identified as Paul Reid, pointed the gun at his head and fired "but nothing came out. He fired and I heard the click."

Reid wiped tears from his eyes several times during the testimony, often shaking his head in apparent disbelief. Not the model citizen type, Reid was arrested in June after police said he attempted to kidnap his former boss. He has been charged with five slayings in two Nashville fast food restaurants and is the prime suspect in about 10 other robbery slayings in Illinois, Texas and Tennessee.

June 8, 1997 - Richard Lyle Timmons - One for the abusive family annihilator file. Although he was jailed for threatening his wife Anita with a knife and throwing her out a window, Richard Lyle Timmons was eventually released from prison and returned home to kill her and her two sons with a hatchet and knife.

June 8, 1997 - Indonesian Cannibals - The Independent newspaper reported that up to 4 000 people -- not 300 as reported by the government -- died in riots in January and February of this year in the remote Indonesian province of West Kalimantan on Borneo island. Many of the dead were decapitated or had their hearts torn out. Richard Lloyd Parry, a reporter for the Independent, said he had obtained evidence of "an ethnic war of scarcely imaginable savagery, fought according to ancient principles of black magic."

Muslim settlers from the island of Madura have repeatedly clashed over land and jobs with the local tribesmen, the Dayaks, who once were headhunters but have now been converted to Christianity. Witnesses described seeing thousands of Dayaks, wearing war-paint, shooting Madurese with homemade shotguns, cutting off their heads, drinking their blood and removing and eating their hearts.

June 7, 1997 - Jeffrey Dahmer - Vickie Hines, a former court clerk who sat through the trial of cannibal killer Jeffrey Dahmer, is seeking close to $65,000 in workers compensation after suffering from a psychological disability resulting from the trial.

June 6, 1997 - "The School Killer" - A person claiming responsibility for the beheading of the schoolboy in Kobe threatened to kill three people a week in a letter sent to a local newspaper. Authorities confirmed that the handwriting of the letter sent to the Kobe Shimbun newspaper appears to match the note found in the mouth of the 11-year-old mentally retarded boy.

June 5, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - Norman Olson, who leads the Northern Michigan Regional Militia, urged Tim McVeigh to demand to be executed. "Targeting noncombatants is wrong and cannot be condoned by honorable men," Olson said,. "As a soldier, you must die for your war crime."

June 5, 1997 - Daniel S. Marsden - In another case of lethal homophobia a man shot six people at a plastics plant in South of downtown Los Angeles because he believed co-workers were making fun of him and saying he was gay. Two were killed before the gunman fled to plant and killed himself.

Plant workers and police had said that there was an argument involving Marsden the morning before the shooting. Then gunman stormed out of the plant and returned with a gun and screamed, "I am not a homosexual - you people are goint to pay!" before opening fire. As he rampaged through the Omni Plastics plant he kept yelling, "I'm not gay!" as he randomly shot at his co-workers. When he was done, he drove to South Central L.A., stopped at an intersection and shot himself with his 9mm semiautomatic after threatening bystanders.

June 5, 1997 - Shoko Asahara - In typical Shoko fashion, the portly doomsday guru mumbled his way through another day in court with a series of bizarre interruptions. After being ordered by the judge to shut up, he blurted out in English his desire to, "go to America to study radioactivity."

June 4, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - Unconfirmed reports place Andy, the gay cross-country serial killer, in the Boston area. If you live there, gentlemen, watch who you date, Andy has gone blood simple.

June 4, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - In an emotional outpouring unlike anything seen in a U.S. court, prosecutors drew tears from at least six jurors as they paraded a series of bomb survivors and relatives of the dead in an attempt to win a death sentence for McVeigh. After hearing about headless babies and bloody carnage, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch decided to recess so the jurors had time to compose themselves. In an attempt at fairness the judge disallowed some of the more dramatic testimony so to not turn the hearing into a public "lynching." He also asked the jurors not to "seek revenge" or be guided by emotions when making what he called a "moral judgment" on the life of the 29-year-old Gulf War veteran.

June 4, 1997 - "The School Killer" - Police investigating the beheading of a schoolboy in Kobe believe the killer may have been influenced by the famous "Zodiac" murders in San Francisco. Investigators are looking into similarities between notes left by the Kobe killer and the ones penned by the infamous Zodiac. Reports said a cross-like symbol was found on notes left by both killers and the taunting content of the messages was similar.

June 4, 1997 - Frederick Pete Cox - In custody since May 21, Orlando Authorities announced the suspect Fred Cox with the deaths of three prostitutes and two other attacks on two women. The 43-year-old telephone salesman and army veteran was charged with two counts of attempted murder and is being held without bail. Police said Cox's crime spree began in the middle of March and ended in April. All but one of the women attacked or killed were known prostitutes.

June 3, 1997 - "The Butcher of Mons" - Belgian police investigating the slayings terrorizing Mons have pieced together three corpses. "I can confirm there were three victims," said Dominique Hautier, a spokesman for the Mons public prosecutor's office. Police originally believed that the 30-odd neatly severed body parts -- including arms, legs, hands, feet, a torso and a head -- belonged to up to six women.

In a report released about the ionvestigation authorities said they are looking into some religious motive, or even satanism, relating to the killings. "The treatment of the bodies is very methodical, which is often the case with satanics involved in ritualistic killings," said local gendarme Didier Van Reusel. The town itself has worshipped through the ages many saints associated with decapitation. Pointedly, the last of the bags found containing bodyparts was on Rue St Symphorien, named after a third century French saint who was decapitated and whose relics are in church nearby.

The initial supposition that the killer was a butcher or a surgeon because of the precision of the dissections has now been disproven. Apparently the killer did not dismember the bodies by hand. He rolled his victims through a machine -- used for chopping logs -- with circular blades placed at -inch intervals. Each body part so far found measures exactly one foot. "There are not that many places you can carry out that operation, with the blood and the smell," said Mr Van Reusel. "And there are not that many people who own a machine like that."

June 3, - Fake Siberian Vodka - Methylated spirits sold as vodka have left 19 people dead in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Hospital officials told the Itar-Tass agency that a total of 31 people have been treated for drinking the lethal spirits. Three women have been charged with selling the deadly concoction.

June 3, 1997 - "The School Killer" - Police published the full text of the note found in the mouth of the decapitated school boy in Kobe. In it the killer warned: "This is the beginning of the game... You police guys stop me if you can... I desperately want to see people die, it is a thrill for me to commit murder. A bloody judgment is needed for my years of great bitterness." The note ended with words in English, "shooll (sic) kill" and was signed in a mysterious combination of Japanese characters meaning rice wine, rose and sacred master, followed by "the school killer". Similar slogans have been found painted on walls near the elementary school where the head was found.

June 2, 1997 - Mark Profit - Judge Peter Lindberg sentenced suspected serial killer Mark Profit to two consecutive life terms for murdering one woman and sexually assaulting another one in a Minneapolis park. Police believe Profit, 33, also killed three other women whose bodies were found in or near the park last summer. However, he was never charged in those cases and jurors were never told about the three killings. All four women were suspected of being prostitutes.

June 2, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - After deliberationg for four days a jury of seven men and five women found Tim McVeigh guilty of all 11 charges against him. The trial now enters its penalty phase in which both side will present additional testimony to determine whether the convicted bomber will get a life sentence or the death penalty.

June 2, 1997 - Sgt. Artur Vaganov - In another case of Russian military mayhem a mentally unstable soldier in a unit posted in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in the former Soviet republic of Georgia shot and killed 10 sleeping comrades and wounded three others before turning his gun on himself.

May 28, 1997 - Pvt. Yevgeny Gorbunov - Police and federal agents in the Chita region of Siberia announced an all-points bulletin for Pvt. Yevgeny Gorbunov after he killed five fellow soldiers and an officer.

May 30, 1997 - Vee Jay - A man in his late teens so far known only as Vee Jay is suspected of posing as a Hindu mystic and murdering gullible travelling companions. The body of a female english tourist in her 40's was found in a hotel room after a tip-off from the suspected serial killer himself led police to the murder scene. The woman had been strangled and written on the wall in lipstick was the message, "I have killed 25 people." The message was signed, "Sinner."

May 29, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - Lawyers for Timothy McVeigh rested their case in the Oklahoma City bombing trial after presenting just three and a half days of evidence. McVeigh did not take the witness stand in his defence nor was any alibi offered. The defense did not come close to presenting "the rest of the story" that would establish absolute proof of Timmy's innocence, as promised by his chief lawyer, Stephen Jones, in his opening statement.

May 28, 1997 - Thomas Quick - Swedish serial killer Thomas Quick was convicted for the 1988 murder of the Israeli tourist Yinon Levy. This is his fourth conviction for the serial killer who has confessed to 15 killings. Sentence will be passed in two weeks and will probably result in continued confinement at Säters Sjukhus, Sweden's high security asylum for the criminally insane.

May 27, - Possible Kobe Serial Killer - A school janitor found the head of Jun Hase, an 11-year-old retarded boy who had been missing since May 24. Authorities determined that he was strangulated. Hase's killing is the second in that area since mid-March, when an unidentified assailant bludgeoned to death a elementary school girl. Another girl was seriously wounded when she was stabbed the same day.

May 26, 1997 - Algerian Heads - The heads of 18 people were found by taxi drivers on a road about south of Algiers, near the town of Ain Maabad. Algerian officials said there was no information on where the 18 people had been killed, by whom, or when. The heads were taken to a nearby hospital for identification

May 24, 1997 - Genildo Ferreira de Franca - ,000 people attended the funeral of the victims of São Gonçalo massacre. As for rampager, only fifteen people -- including cemetary officials -- attended his funeral. Curiously, the one relative that was present was on Franca's hit list.

May 23, 1997 - Genildo Ferreira de Franca - Army buddy Francisco de Assis dos Santos, 22, confessed to aiding Genildo in the first five slayings of his rampage. According to police Dos Santos, a drug addict, said he held the arms of the victims as França shot them. He also said that after each kill the ex-soldier would laugh as if possessed by the devil. He stopped helping his friend with the killing because the laughs started to bother him.

Residents of tiny São Gonçalo do Amarante were in shock a day after the rampage. Shops and schools were closed and residents were walking around in a daze, not quite believing what happened.

May 22, 1997 - U'Wa Tribe, Colombia - A half-dozen U'Wa Indians and hundreds of Colombian supporters marched through Bogota, tying up the already chaotic downtown traffic, to protest against Occidental Petroleum's plans to drill what the tribe considers sacred ground. After the march Roberto Cobaria, the U'Wa chief, repeated the determination of his 5,000 tribesmen to commit mass suicide if the exploration goes forward. "The suicide will happen when our traditional laws are no longer respected... We are children of Mother Earth, and oil is the blood of Mother Earth. We cannot negotiate."

Government officials and U'Wa representatives are scheduled to meet on May 29 in Boyaca, a jungle province northeast of Bogota. If they cannot reach an agreement before June 1 the U'Wa begin a traditional 2 1/2-month retreat during which they stop communicating with the outside world and hold sacred ceremonies in which they ingest hallucinogens.

In 1995 Occidental Petroleum received a license to explore for oil in the Samore block, a region that spreads across part of two U'Wa reservations. Earlier this month, the US oil conglomerate released a statement promising not to enter the reservations without the tribe's permission. Historically, oil companies in their quest for the mighty petro-dollar tend to drill first and ask questions later . Our hope is that in this case the U'Wa's wishes are respected and that we won't be adding them to our killer cults list.

May 21, 1997 - Genildo Ferreira de França - Pissed-off at being called a homosexual, Genildo, a former soldier, went on a 22-hour murderous rampage killing 15 people in São Gonçalo do Amarante, a town on the outskirts of Natal, 1,800 miles northeast of ão Paulo. The dead included his ex-wife, her parents, his current wife and his mother-in-law.

May 22, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - Attorneys for Tim McVeigh, in their first day of testimony, tried to shift blame for the bombing on a stray leg found in the ruins of the Oklahoma City federal building. "We have one left leg which we don't know where it belongs," Oklahoma State Medical Examiner Fred Jordan said under questioning from defense attorney Stephen Jones.

May 22, 1997 - AUM Shinrikyo - In what is now routine, Shoko Asahara was ordered not to interrupt court proceedings after he stood up during his trial and shouted, "I'm Shoko Asahara." The portly death cult guru also kept muttering while witnesses were testifying on allegations that he ordered the 1989 killings of Tsutsumi Sakamoto, an anti-cult lawyer, and his family.

May 21, 1997 - Timothy McVeigh - Government prosecutors rested their case against Timothy McVeigh after four weeks of testimony in which they presented a mountain of largely circumstacial evidence that they hope will prove that Timmy was the perpretator of the worst act of terrorism in US soil in modern history.

May 21, 1997 - Siswanto - An Indonesian court found Siswanto, alias Robot Gedek, guilty of sexually abusing and murdering 12 boys and sentenced him to death. After sentencing, the presiding judge Sartono of the Central Jakarta State Court said Siswanto's "crimes sent shock waves through the community because he sadistically killed underage boys. What he did can never be forgiven."

May 21, 1997 - "The Monster of Florence" - Three alleged accomplices of Pietro Pacciani went on trial for their involvement in five of the eight double murders attributed to the feared monster. The prosecution hope to prove that Pacciani, who has a long record of violence and sexual abuse, headed the rural gang of card-playing, drunken grandfathers who, over two decades, have killed up to eight lovemaking couples around the outskirts of Florence.

May 19, 1997 - Nasib Kelewang - Indonesian police have unearthed the bodies of 40 women allegedly slain by Nasib, a self-proclaimed sorcerer, who said he killed them to boost his magical powers. Nasib, who helped police locate the bodies in a field next to his home, told officers he had wanted to kill 70 women in all, but had murdered only 42 before his arrest on May 2. About 80 families in the area have reported female relatives missing, leading to fears that more bodies may appear.

May 19, 1997 - Ivan Milat - Australia's "Backpacker Murderer" was placed under guard in Sydney's high security Long Bay prison after calling off a "meticulously planned" breakout attempt he planned with his cellmate, George Savvas, and two other inmates.

May 19, 1997 - "South-Eastern Italian Killer" - Police in Italy's south-eastern region of Apulia announced they are hunting a serial killer of elderly women who strikes only on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Up to date, one spinster and six widows have been killed.

May 16, 1997 - Theodore Kaczynski - Attorney General Janet Reno authorized prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Unabomber suspect Teddy K. The suspect's family, who was instrumental in his arrest, was "devastated" by the news and regretted having helped the government with their investigation.

On the other hand, family members of several of the victims praised the decision. Here at the Archives we believe the government's reversal will eventually backfire in this and other cases where they might need the cooperation of family members to enforce the law. "The family now are the ultimate hostile witnesses," said Laurie Levenson, associate dean of the Loyola University School of Law.

May 16, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - Charles Humphrey, fully recovered from his failed suicide attempt in an Encinitas motel, persuaded a judge to release him from a psychiatric facility so he could write a book and go on the speaking circuit. According to the ex-cultist, his opportunity to meet up with his class in the "next level" had passed and suicide was no longer an option.

May 14, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - Hydro-Quebec Secretary General Marie-Jose Nadeau told a news conference that the Solar Temple death cult had not infiltrate the provincially owned utility company, but the cult's deceased leader, Luc Jouret, had been paid to give management courses to some employees.

May 16, 1997 - Serious Crime Bureau - James Dickinson, Deputy Chief Constable of Essex and head of Operation Enigma, announced the formation of a national police unit to help detectives in their hunt for serial killers, multiple rapists and child abductors. The Serious Crimes Bureau will be a part of the National Crime Faculty, a unit set up two years ago to train officers in investigative techniques and provide a database of experts in all fields of crime.

May 15, 1997 - Roberto Arguelles - Confessed serial killer Roberto Arguelles pleaded guilty to the murders of three teen-age girls. Arguelles, who is defending himself, told the judge he doesn't plan on presenting much of a defense during the penalty hearing so to expedite his execution. On June 17 the judge will decide whether he should be executed or sent to prison for life.

May 14, 1997 - Colombian Nursing Student - A crazed nursing student killed himself and four classmates with poisoned sherry during a day trip to a town just north of Bogota. At least six other people, all nursing students, were in critical condition at the hospital in the town of Cajica.

Police said one of the victims told them before dying that a male student on the bus was passing out the wine and he was the apparent killer. Toxicology checks showed the sherry had been laced with a lethal insecticide commonly used to combat potato bugs.

The dead and injured were part of a 200-strong group that set out from Bogota in several buses to celebrate the graduation of 46 of the nursing students. They had been going for a meal at the Indiana Jones restaurant between Cajica and the neighboring town of Chia.

May 14, 1997 - Theodore Kaczynski - Prosecutors recommended that the government seek the death penalty for Teddy K. despite previous assurances to the suspect's family to the contrary. Federal agents acknowledged that the allegedly lethal mathematician would have not been arrested without the help of his family and unofficially expressed to the suspect's brother, David K., their unwillingness to pursue the death penalty.

May 14, 1997 - Cologne, Germany - Three blue bin-bags containing severed human limbs were found in a Cologne suburb in the space of two days. A police spokesman said there was no evidence of any link with a suspected serial killer in neighboring Belgium who has left body parts strategically placed in 15 garbage bags around the city of Mons.

May 13, 1997 - Andrew Urdiales - Serial killing ex-marine Andrew Urdiales was indicted on two counts of murder and one of aggravated kidnapping in Cook County, Illinois. He is scheduled to enter a plea on June 3.

May 12, 1997 - Dimitris Vakrinos - Diminutive Greek serial killer Dimitris Vakrinos was found dead in the showers of the prison's isolation ward. The former taxi driver was hanging by the neck from shoelaces tied to a shower head.

May 12, 1997 - Anthony & Damian Clemente - A murderous father and son team, Anthony and Damian were given mandatory life sentences for a lunchtime shooting spree that left four neighborhood rivals dead in a crowded Boston eatery. Vincent Perez, a family friend, was acquitted of murder charges but will be sentenced later on weapons charges.

May 11, 1997 - Triple Slaying in Los Angeles - Two men and a six-month pregnant woman were executed by at least four gunmen who busted through the steel mesh security door of their apartment while they were watching TV. The three victims -- all in their mid-twenties -- had just moved into the building in the Los Angeles' suburb of Florence three days before the killing.

May 11, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - An Oklahoma attorney and the William Morris Talent Agency announced their intentions to market a two-hour videotape of Bo and Peep that was recorded 1976. As per a contract drawn years ago between an Oklahoma video distributor and the star trekking cultist the tape was to be kept locked in a vault until 30 days after their "departures" from earth. Now that the 30 days have passed representatives of the Great Satan in the form of the William Morris Agency have gotten their greedy hands on the tape and plan to release it, first as a TV special and then as a home video.

May 10, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - The green 1994 Lexus belonging to the slain millionaire Lee Miglin was found in a New Jersey cemetery along with the body of a caretaker who had been shot in the head. The caretaker's pickup truck was missing. State Police said Andrew Cunanan, being the last person known to be driving the Lexus, was the logical suspect in the caretaker's slaying. With the New Jersey killing Cunanan is now considered responsible for up to five killings, four of which have ocurred in the last week.

May 9, 1997 - Glen Rogers - The Tampa jury that convicted Rogers of the 1995 slaying of Tina Marie Cribbs, took three hours to recommend his execution. Ultimately the decision will be made by State Circuit Judge Diana Allen who set sentencing for June 20. Under Florida law, only two sentences are possible for first-degree murder: execution or life in prison with no parole.

Prosecutor Karen Cox urged jurors to recommend the death penalty, saying "the hands that twisted that knife are the hands of evil." In contrast, defense attorney Bob Fraser said jurors should keep in mind that the ex-carny worker had mental problems, was an alcoholic and had a deprived childhood.

May 9, 1997 - U'wa Tribe, Colombia - Robert Caberia, the chief of the U'wa tribe, warned executives of Occidental Petroleum that his ,000 tribesmen will commit mass suicide unless plans to drill on tribal land were abandoned. Through an interpreter, he said: "If we lose our land we will lose our lives. When the U'was say they are going to do something they do it." Unbeknownst to the oil executives U'wa legend states that a group of tribesmen committed mass suicide in the 17th century in protest against Spanish colonialism.

Occidental refused to comment on the meeting. Chief Caberia said afterwards: "They made no response. It was not a dialogue. I told them they must go by the old laws and that oil is part of the blood of Mother Earth, but they said they could not respond or give any opinion. I invited them down to see our land for themselves and they said they may come." The U'wa consider that drilling for oil would inflict wounds on "Mother Earth" and doing so would have deadly consequences not only for the tribe, but for the whole of humanity.

May 9, 1997 - "The Killer of Mons" - Belgian authorities released their suspect in the serial killings of up to six women whose body parts have been found in garbage bags around the city of Mons. The suspect, a man who lived on the fringe of society, knew the only victim who has so far been identified. Since his arrest on April 25 authorities were unable to find any more evidence against him.

May 9, 1997 - Andrew Phillip Cunanan - A "typical party boy" in San Diego's gay community, Andy is the target of a nationwide manhunt after he became the prime suspect in three Midwestern slayings. San Diego police also want to question him about a local unsolved murder. Authorities said that last week Cunanan killed his former lover, 33-year-old Minneapolis architect David Madson, Jeffrey Trail, 28, and Lee Miglin, 72, a wealthy Chicago developer.

May 8, 1997 - Gian Luigi Ferri - In an abrupt turnabout, a San Francisco judge dismissed a lawsuit against Miami-based gun manufacturer Navegar Inc., saying the company wasn't responsible for the July 1, 1993, Gian Luigi Ferri rampage that left eight people dead.

May 7, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - Dick Joslyn, a former member of the Heaven's Gate cult, said he was worried that at least six other cultist might try to join their classmates. Joslyn, who had been in contact with Chuck Humphrey -- the cultist who survived the latest passage to the "next level" -- said his friend had grown frustrated by the lack of attention given to the group's ideas. "He was a little discouraged by the inability to get the word out. He made it clear to me that when his work was done, he would go too."

Another former member who goes by the name of Sawyer said that Humphrey, one of the brains behind the Higher Source web design team, "was supposed to spread information about the 'next level' and maintain the Internet site." When someone "commandeered" the site and he could no longer work on it, he tried to kill himself. At the Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas Humphrey's condition was upgraded to serious. He is still breathing through a respirator and has not regained consciousness.

May 7, 1997 - Glen Rogers - Known as the "Cross Country Killer," Glen was convicted of murder by a Tampa jury for killing a woman he had met in a bar. The smooth-talking former carny worker has three other murder charges pending in three different states. If the jury hands Rogers the death penalty, he will remain in Florida per an agreement struck after his arrest between Florida and Kentucky.

May 6, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - Wanting to join their classmates and teachers, two members of Heaven's Gate tried to "exit their vehicles" in an Encinitas Holiday Inn Express four miles from the cult's Rancho Santa Fe mausoleum. One died, the other was found unconscious and is now in critical condition in Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas.

May 6, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - Quebec officials announced that the three teen-agers who escaped a group suicide of members of the Solar Temple death cult left for France. The children, who were born and raised in Quebec, were visited by relatives from Europe after the incident. Quebec authorities said they made sure the relatives, who are said to be the grandparents of the three teens, had no links with the Order of the Solar Temple.

May 5, 1997 - Theodore Kaczynski - Prosecutors in Sacramento were ordered to turn over an array of documents to Ted's defense team, including DNA test results and handwriting analyses. Federal Magistrate Gregory Hollows also cautioned prosecutors against destroying any documents, noting that an FBI analysis of Kaczynski's writings included the notation "destroy when no longer needed."

May 5, 1997 - Samuel Jacques Coetzee - A South African transvestite accused of killing -- together with his ex-partner John Frank Brown -- four men and a boy, was found dead in his Boksburg prison cell from an apparent overdose of pills. He left a note saying he no longer wanted to live.

May 5, 1997 - Nasib - Indonesian sorcerer who goes by the name of Nasib was arrested after three corpses were found buried in a sugarcane plantation near his home on the outskirts of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. In custody Nasib, the local witch doctor, confessed to killing 42 women who paid him to cast magic spells to keep their husbands and boyfriends faithful.

May 4, 1997 - Sonia Sutcliffe - The former wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, has married her hairdresser in a traditional wedding at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Bradford. The newlyweds plan to live at her home at Garden Lane, Heaton, Bradford, where she lived with her serial killing former husband. Petie, nursing wounds on both eyes from his latest prison assault, was told of the wedding, but was unable to attend.

May 2, 1997 - Walter Hill - After spending 17 years on death row, Walt was executed in the Alabama electric chair for killing three people after he was refused permission to marry the 13-year-old girl of one of them.

May 1, 1997 - Archie "Mad Dog" McCafferty - Under tight security "Mad Dog" was finally forced to leave his beloved Australia and return to Scotland. Archie McCafferty was escorted onto a plane by two police officers and sent on his way back to a country he has no desire to live in. Scottish authorities stated that they will have to house him if he returns to Glasgow, but there are fears of a lynch-mob if the public discovers his whereabouts.

May 1, 1997 - Miami Triple Murder - A businessman, his son and an employee were found slain inside a warehouse for their appliance-export business. Raul del Castillo, 57, his 33-year-old son Alberto, and Jose Morales, 55, were working late but relatives grew worried when they couldn't reach them and drove to the warehouse near Miami International Airport. Police said the men were either shot or stabbed but wouldn't be more specific. Furthermore, they wouldn't discuss a motive, but said there was no sign of robbery.

April 30, 1997 - Martin Bryant - Australian prison guards have intercepted fan mail to mass murderer Martin Bryant that came from a group of prisoners in another jail. Queensland state police minister Russell Cooper told reporters that warders found a letter addressed to Bryant while making a routine check in a Brisbane correctional centre. The letter, initialled by four prisoners, praised Bryant and expressed their wish to "out do" him.

April 30, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - Because of the smell of death, the mansion where 39 Heaven's Gate cult members "shedded their containers" was taken off the market as work crews strip, gut and restore it. "Unfortunately, there's a smell throughout the entire house." said Randall Bell, whose real estate firm is overseeing the work, "Anything porous has to be removed. Wallpaper, carpets, some of the wood cabinetry, the vent system. We're stripping the house down to the bare bones."

April 30, 1997 - Fort Lauderdale Family Murder - Four family members were fatally shot in their suburban home near Fort Lauderdale. The victims were a 2-month-old infant, a 3-year-old girl, their mother, Marie Carmel Altidor, 29, and the girls' paternal grandmother. Police came after Mrs. Altidor's husband, George Altidor, called police and said he couldn't get anyone at the house to answer the telephone. "That is a loving family," said neighbor Patrick James. "The sad thing I was going to bring over clothes for the baby today. These people were neighbors in every sense of the word." Having ruled out robbery, police have no motive for the killing.

April 29, 1997 - Andrew Urdiales - Under the watchful eyes of his parents, two sisters and a brother, the confessed serial killer suspect was arraigned in a Chicago court and ordered held without bail and placed on a round-the-clock suicide watch.

April 29, 1997 - Feng Guohui - An enraged hermaphrodite, long tormented by the taunts of his neighbours, stabbed six people to death in Yangjiang, southern China, before being captured by police.

March 28, 1997 - Port Arthur, Tasmania - 35 candles, one for each person who died, were lit during a memorial service commemorating the first anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre. All throughout Australia other ceremonies were held honoring the dead. On the other side of the world, the parents of 5-year-old Emma Crozier, one of 16 children shot to death in their school in Dunblane, Scotland, lit a candle at their Dunblane home.

Prison authorities said that Bryant tried to kill himself two weeks ago by taking drugs that were given to him by another inmate. He also had a makeshift noose made of torn sheets hiding under his bed. Not one for this world, in the last year Bryant tried to strangle himself with bandages and choke to death by swallowing a rolled-up tube of toothpaste.

May 28, 1997 - Glen Rogers - Jury selection began in the murder trial of Glen Rogers, a handsome redneck drifter charged in the deaths of four women during a cross-country killing spree in 1995.

April 27, 1997 - Portuguese Arson Attack - Authorities arrested seven men in connection to the arson attack that left 13 dead in the Meia Culpa, a Portuguese strip club. The arrested include the owner of the Diamante Negro, a rival nightclub, who is suspected of ordering the attack and three men in their early 20s who carried it out.

The three arsonist were bouncers at nightclubs in the nearby city of Oporto who were paid $5,800 each for the attack. The others arrested were man who acted as intermediary between the owner of the Diamante Negro club and the assailants, and two 18-year-olds who stole the getaway car used by the arsonist.

April 26, 1997 - Heaven's Gate A group of homeowners have voted to change the name of the street where 39 cultist moved on to a higher level of existence. The street, Colina Norte, has had a string of "strange visitors" who tend to get out of their cars and start praying. The neighbors, tired of all publicity and curiosity seekers, want to change the name to Paseo Victoria in honor of a little girl that lives there.

April 25, 1997 - Andrew Urdiales - A Chicago security guard -- one of the more coveted job in the serial killing community -- admitted to killing three women from Illinois and Indiana, and five more in Southern California.

April 25, 1997 - Amsterdam Airport - Dutch customs said seven human skulls and the mummified corpse of a baby were found in a container at Schiphol airport. "There were seven skulls, some still with some hair and skin attached, and the dried-out body of a baby probably somewhere around birth age," customs spokesman Peter Mulder said. The human remains were found concealed in a cargo container among handicrafts from Peru during a routine drugs check.

April 24, 1997 - Aum Shinrikyo - In a barely intelligible statement Shoko Asahara said that he is not guilty of ordering the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system or any other crime he's been charged with. "I issued an order to stop (the attack) but was defeated (by my disciples)," Asahara told the Tokyo District Court. The statement was Asahara's first for the court record since his trial began a year ago. He also said that he "never ordered" the death of Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a Yokohama lawyer representing families who wanted to help their relatives leave the cult.

April 24, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - Canadian authorities announced that the three teen-agers whose parents died in a fire in a Solar Temple suicide pact last month won't face criminal charges even though they helped set the blaze. "The fact the children chose life and tried to persuade all the adults to forget the idea was taken into account when we considered their degree of responsibility," Prosecutor Mario Tremblay told a news conference.

Youth protection officials said they were trying to determine where the teen-agers should live. Most of their family lives in France. Who knows if they too are planning fiery "departures" to the star Sirius.

April 23, 1997 - Aum Shinrikyo - Yoshihiro Inoue, the cult's former intelligence chief, testified that the cult paid about $79,000 to Oleg Lobov, a former Russian security chief, for the blueprints of how to build a nerve gas plant. Police said they have evidence that cult experts made repeated trips to Russia, Australia and other countries to study the feasibility of obtaining a wide range of weapons and dangerous materials, including tanks and uranium.

April 21, 1997 - Archie "Mad Dog" McCafferty - A multiple killer who has been in jail in Australia for the past 23 years was to be deported to his native Scotland within the next two weeks. "Mad Dog", who was given three life sentences in 1974 for leading a gang which killed three men in five days, was granted parole on April 20. Australian authorities immediately confirmed that they would send him back to Scotland from where he came with his family when he was ten.

April 20, 1997 - "The Killer of Mons" - Belgium's latest criminal embarrassment seems to be taunting authorities by leaving the dismembered remains of his victims in places with emotive names. Having already left remains in the Rue du Depot (Dump), near the River Haine (Hate), on the Chemin de l'Inquietude (the path of Worry), and on the banks of the River Trouille (Jitters), one can only think that Belgian authorities should give their geography more cheerful names.

April 19, 1997 - Branch Davidians - About 100 people gathered peacefully for a memorial service at the site of the Branch Davidian siege and unveiled a headstone commemorating the deaths of 168 people in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The monument, linking the Branch Davidian tragedy with the Oklahoma bombing, was erected by a religious group identified on the stone as The Branch Congregation of the Lord Our Righteousness.

"I think the Oklahoma City bombing was a tragedy that should have never taken place," said Clive Doyle, a Davidian who survived the fire and was later acquitted of federal weapons charges. "I do not promote or like anybody using us as an excuse to take action against others." Allegedly, Timothy McVeigh carried out the bombing attack as retaliation for the government raid on the Davidians' compound exactly two years earlier. Although the Davidians were primarily a religious group, many other patriot militia groups have rallied behind the Mount Carmel tragedy.

Since the tragedy in Waco, about 250 surviving Branch Davidian cultist and relatives of the dead have filed a lawsuit against the government for the wrongful deaths of David Koresh and his followers. The lawsuit -- seeking hundreds of millions of dollars -- challenges the government's conclusion that the Branch Davidians started the fire and were the first to shoot during the federal raid that triggered the standoff. The plaintiffs contend that when federal agents punched through the walls and fired tear gas into their Mount Carmel compound, the canisters caught on fire and set the building and the people inside ablaze.

April 19, 1997 - Gary Heidnik - What does a man have to do to get himself lethally injected? Apparently killing two women and feeding them to six others just doesn't cut it for condemned killer Gary Heidnik. After a week-long barrage of suits and counter suits, Gary won -- much to his chagrin -- a last-minute reprieve as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court barred the state from executing him before hearings can be held on his mental competency.

The court extended its stay beyond midnight, when Heidnik's death warrant was set to expire. The ruling will keep Heidnik from being executed at least until another death warrant is signed. The justices set deadlines for the filing of legal papers next week and were expected to hear oral arguments later in April.

April 19, 1997 - Belgian Serial Killer - Authorities have found three more garbage bags containing body parts in a makeshift grave at La Poudriere, between Mons and Havre in southern Belgium. The discovery brings to 15 the number of bags found in the vicinity since March 22. Police say at least four, and possibly up to eight, victims are involved.

April 18, 1997 - Gary Heidnik - Proving that sadistic torturers have rights too, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court wrongly denied Maxine Davidson White's request to intervene in the case of her father, Gary Heidnik, and, in effect, ordered U.S. District Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen to issue an indefinite stay for his execution. "While there is no dispute as to Heidnik's considerable intelligence and expressive powers ... there is no evidence, and no finding, that Heidnik could make a rational decision in that regard," the court said.

April 18, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - Making the strange a little insipidly stranger, Nick Matzorkis -- the employer of the cultist formerly known as Rio -- was arrested in California for a parole violation in Ohio. Free on bail, he has been ordered to travel to Ohio to face charges of auto theft. Apparently Nick was recognized by his parole officer when he appeared on TV elaborating on the mysteries of the cultist deaths. As for Rio himself, he too is having his share of legal difficulties. Not only does he plan to battle San Diego County in court for the belongings of the containerless cult buddies, now his ex-wife has decided to sue him for years of unpaid child support.

April 17, 1997 - Gary Heidnik - Two days after the 53-year-old torturer-murderer was scheduled to die, Heidnik is still wondering whether he will be executed. In federal court, Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen refused to issue a permanent stay arguing that Heidnik's delusional paranoid schizophrenia did not make him incompetent to waive appeals.

But the judge also ruled that the temporary stay would remain in effect while lawyers for an anti-death penalty group filed with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In effect Gary will not face another execution deadline until the courts issue their rulings. Making the situation even more complicated the state has until Saturday the 18th to execute Heidnik under the death warrant signed by Governor Tom Ridge. All this seems absurd considering the fact that the convict has stated repeatedly that he wanted to be executed. Maybe they should save everyone the trouble and call Jack Kervokian.

April 16, 1997 - Josh Jenkins - One from the teen rebellion file. 16-year-old Josh, accused of familicide last year, changed his plea from not guilty by reason of insanity to guilty the day before his trial was set to begin.

April 16, 1997 - Portuguese Arson Attack - Three masked gunmen burst into a topless bar and discotheque in Amarante, northern Portugal, and set it ablaze killing 12 people and injuring 14 others. Eight of the dead were women. Police hadn't determined the motive for the attack. Apparently, some of the bar's hostesses had been recieving hate mail. Local media reported there was friction between the bar owners and other area clubs.

The gunmen, firing into the ceiling, stormed the bar, the "Meia Culpa", just before 4 a.m., when about 30 people were inside. "I saw three men in black with guns and with cans of gasoline," customer Antonio Jorge told state radio Antena 1. "They poured out the gas and pushed everyone back inside as people tried to get out. I tried to make a dash for it and they shot me." Local firefighters said most of the dead were found near the locked fire door.

April 16, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - Japanese national Keiji Tanimura, a member of a Russian branch of the Aum Shinri Kyo, was arrested in Moscow and charged with distributing pornography and encroaching on citizens' rights.

April 16, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - Looking for a computer to work on your Web site? Look no more. On June 7 San Diego County plans to auction off the cult's belongings -- worth an estimated $1 million -- and give the proceeds to surviving family members. However, former cultist Rio, claiming that his containerless "brothers and sisters" wanted him to assume ownership of the Higher Source web design firm, announced his intentions of settling the matter in court. "If they want to start some ugly, post-death battle, then we may have to pursue legal action," said Rio's attorney, Robert Zakari.

April 15, 1997 - Joseph Franklin - Racist killer Joseph Franklin, on Missouri's death row for shooting a man outside a synagogue 20 years ago, was indicted by a grand jury in Cincinnati and charged with the June 8, 1980 murders of two black teen-agers. The two teens Dante Brown, 13, and Darrell Lane, were shot from a railroad trestle while walking to a convinience store.

April 15, 1997 - Gary Heidnik - U.S. District Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen temporarily barred the state from executing Heidnik and ordered an emergency hearing on whether he is too mentally ill to waive his right to a federal appeal or should he be given the lethal injection he so desperately wants to have. Authorities said a van transporting Heidnik to Rockview state prison, site of his scheduled 10 p.m. execution, turned around and headed back to Philadelphia where the competency hearing will be held.

April 15, 1997 - Marc Dutroux - A parliamentary commission, set up after the arrest of the convicted rapist Marc Dutroux, condemmed the appalling failings of Belgium's police and justice system and called for sweeping reforms.

In its report the commision discovered that the competition between rival forces had prevented vital information from being exchanged and obvious evidence from being followed up. Even Dutroux's mother warned police to watch out for her son after noticing that children kept disappearing in Belgium. They disregarded her warning. Jean-Denis Lejeune, the father of one of the dead girls, said: "It's clear there are people in the police and justice departments who are not worthy to work there."

April 14, 1997 - Gary Heidnik - Although Heidnik, 53, has never fought the death sentence from his 1988 conviction, he said he is innocent of murder. Gary -- Phily's most infamous wacked-out torturer-murderer -- denied killing Sandra Lindsay and Deborah Dudley, claiming both died at the hands of the other four female prisoners he kept in his basement torture-dungeon. However, his surviving captives said that Heidnik indeed electrocuted Lindsay and starved Dudley to death, then butchered her corpse with a chainsaw and fed them her ground-up flesh mixed with dog food.

April 14, 1997 - Tsutomu Miyazaki - Print shop worker Tsutomu Miyazaki, 34, was sentenced to death by hanging for the abduction/murders of four girls in the Tokyo and Saitama prefectures. Despite conflicting reports by court-appointed psychiatrists on the defendant's mental state, presiding Judge Kenjiro Tao ruled that Miyazaki was of sound mind at the time of the murders. Standing before the judge in a navy blue suit and white shirt, Miyazaki showed no outward reaction when he was sentenced. His defense lawyers immediately filed an appeal with a higher court.

April 13, 1997 - Charles Sobhraj - A free man in France, Sobhraj has proved to be as ruthless a businessman as he was a killer. For him, every word and picture have their price. As his agents is quick to point out: "We're in 1997. Wherever people are offering money, people are taking it. It's the name of the game. No money, no meeting." Who says crime doesn't pay?

April 13, 1997 - Belgian Serial Killer - The discovery of two more plastic sacks holding body parts near Mons has convinced Belgian authorities that they are dealing with a serial killer. The new sacks contained a female head, foot and shin. To date nine other sacks have been found in the area with bits and pieces of three or four women.

April 11, 1997 - Gary Heidnik - The Center for Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense Assistance filed papers to delay Gary Heidnik's scheduled execution. The advocacy group asserted in its motion for a stay that Gary is mentally incompetent and should not be executed. "Heidnik is delusional," said Robert Dunham, director of the non-profit group. The execution is set for April 15 at Rockview State Prison in Bellefonte.

April 10, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - Judge Fumihiro Abe of the Tokyo District Court told Shoko Asahara to be prepared to comment on all charges against him and enter a plea at the April 24 session of his trial. Asahara responded to the judge's request by mumbling unintelligibly.

April 10, 1997 - Richard D. Herr - An Amtrak machinist known as the "pigeon man" because he talked to birds killed three fellow employees in an early morning rampage.

April 9, 1997 - Dimitris Vakrinos - In a case of insults leading a man to serial mayhem, Greek serial killer Dimitris Vakrinos claimed he murdered his victims after they made fun of his height. Standing at five feet four inches, Dimitris, 35, proved to be a powerhouse killer after confessing to committing -- over a decade -- five murders, six attempted murders and four armed robberies.

April 8, 1997 - Charles Sobhraj - Saying he is ready for a secluded and tranquil life after making his movie deal, French serial killer Charles Sobhraj -- known as "The Serpent" for his ability to elude justice -- left his New Delhi jail cell and boarded an Air France jet on his way to Paris.

Upon his arrival at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Sobhraj was taken to a judge in Bobigny, a northern suburb of Paris, for questioning in connection with the 1976 attempted poisoning of a group of French engineering students visiting India. Having served a two-year sentence in India for the poisoning, Sobhraj's lawyer said that his client considers the affair closed.

April 7, 1997 - The "Beam Me Up, Scotty" Cult - New to the Archives, this page serves as a postmortem of the Trekkie suicide cult and the media frenzy that followed their astral rendezvous. All sound, quicktime and images were pulled from magazines dealing with the suicide (which were pulled from the cult's videos) and the cult's web sites. Anyone care for some pudding?

April 7, 1997 - Heaven's Gate In an interview in Newsweek Magazine, the cultist formerly knows as Rio, talked about how Applewhite decided to get castrated a year ago after two cult members quietly went to Mexico to be neutered. After Do snipped off the offending organ, five other cult members eagerly followed and "couldn't stop smiling and giggling" about the procedure.

April 7, 1997 - Mohammed Nazari - As crowds yelled "God is greatest," Mohammed, the vengeful father who killed six people in the Yemeni capital of San'a on March 30, was publicly executed with a single bullet from a sharpshooter in front of the two schools were the rampage took place. His corpse was then nailed to a cross and will be displayed in public for three days.

April 6, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - In apparent response to the defense lawyers' one-day court boycott, the Tokyo District Court said it will cancel one of April's four scheduled court appearances for doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara.

April 4, 1997 - William Darrell Lindsey - After being charged with killing a prostitute in Asheville, North Carolina, Lindsey has become the main suspect in the deaths of seven Florida women since 1983. Authorities pieced together his murderous trail after several former residents of the St. Agustine area now living in North Carolina sent news clippings about Lindsey's arrest to the sheriff in Florida.

April 4, 1997 - Heaven's Gate - As predicted, ABC announced it had inked a deal with Richard Ford, the ex-cultist formerly known as Rio, for the film rights to his story. The deal was brokered by Ford's employer, Nick Matzorkis of InterAct Entertainment. Surprisingly, ABC stated previously that they were not interested in the story because they thought it was, "tasteless and had little dramatic value or conflict."

April 3, 1997 - Newsweek - As worldwide media looks into the Web for examples of the bizarre and the strange, Newsweek found our "Cults R' Us" page to be "really creepy stuff." Being our favorite weekly news magazine, we took that as a compliment. Making us even prouder was the fact they thought our sound loops were nightmare inducing.

April 1, 1997 - Robert Leon Nichols - Proving that great minds think alike, Robert Leon Nichols, the author of "Truckin' with the Grateful Dead in Egypt," was found dead in his trailer home in remote Marysville, California, with a bag over his head and a scarf shrouding his body. A suicide note found next to the body read: "I'm going on the spaceship with Hale-Bopp to be with those who have gone before me."
According to police, the dead space cadet, "had made a model of a galaxy with a little spaceship out of aluminum foil and hung it from the ceiling so he could view it from the bed."

April 1, 1997 - Heaven's Gates - Federal authorities are confident that there are no more Heaven Gaters or other splinter cults out there ready to "shed their containers." The FBI reported that they were not able to substantiate the rumor that a group in Arizona was planning to meet Do and the rest of the crew in the now infamous spaceship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet.

In related news, the shadowy ex-cultist formerly known as Rio has now been identified as 43-year-old Richard Ford. Ford left the group four to six weeks before the mass suicide because he disagreed with their plans of ascending to a higher level of existence. We have to wonder what kind of offers Ford has been getting for the book and film rights to his story.

March 31, 1997 - Mohammed Nazari - A day after his deadly rampage, the disgruntled Yemeni father was sentenced to death by firing squad.

March 31, 1997 - Heaven's Gates - According to Simon Burgess, the managing director of Goodfellow Rebecca Imgrams Pearsons, an insurance brokerage firm, the ever-cautious Trekkie cult had -- after watching too many episodes of the "X-Files" -- insured themselves against being abducted, impregnated or killed by aliens. As far as the insurance company is concerned, none of the Heaven Gaters were abducted by aliens in their rash departure from earth, so they won't be paying for any claims.

March 30, 1997 - Mohammed Nazari - Distraught over "indiscretions" by his teen-age daughters, a Yemeni father opened fire at two high schools, killing five people, and wounding 12 others. Happy Easter.

March 30, 1997 - New York Times - The media frenzy and Internet bashing sweeping cyberspace and paperspace reached an all-time low today when a screen-shot of the Crime Archives appeared on the front cover of the Week in Review section of the New York Times. The accompanying article, "Old View of Internet: Nerds. New View: Nuts," by George Johnson, is an interesting analysis of the hysterical Weblash following the Trekkie cult shedding of their "containers." Although we are not keen about some of the sites we were grouped with -- like "German First Nationalist Socialist Web Site" and "White Power" -- we're just glad to have been nominated!

March 30, 1997 - Heaven's Gates - Postmortem information on the Trekkie suicide cult reveals that eight members, including Do, had been surgically castrated so to better adhere to their doctrine of container evacuation readiness. It has also been revealed that Do met his "fellow traveller" Ti -- a nurse -- in a psychiatric hospital where he was trying to cure his homosexual impulses, leading us to think the castration was more of a personal solution to a problem than a requirement, as stated by Do, for star trekking.

March 29, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - In other cult related news, Kazuo Konya, a former member of the Aum, told the Tokyo Municipal Court that in an 1988 initiation ritual he paid $8,100 to drink their guru's blood. Other former cult members have also testified they paid for blood, strands of Asahara's hair and his bath water. Some said they paid $2,400 for an intravenous injection of an unknown substance. Ironically, all throughout, Asahara preached to his followers that they should renounce materialism.

March 28, 1997 - Heaven's Gates - New information about the cyber-suicide cult puts the numbers of the dead at 21 women and 18 men, ages 26 to 72, with the median age at about 40. They all died of lethal cocktail of phenobarbital with custard and/or applesauce and a vodka chaser. The name of the cult is now believed to be Heaven's Gate, not Higher Source, as reported previously.

March 27, 1997 - Charles Manson - Amidst the millennial madness, a grey-bearded Charlie Manson -- a lethal cultist in his own right -- had parole denied for the ninth time. Manson, now 62, stated he didn't care for parole because he was just too busy working on his web site. Then he rambled for an hour about killing, "a lot of people." Showing that he keeps up-to-date with the news, he referred to the events in Rancho Santa Fe saying, "These monks that just took their heads in San Diego they're way behind the times."

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay, an original prosecutor, argued against Manson's release as he has done at every parole hearing. "Finding Charles Manson unsuitable for parole is the easiest decision you will have this year," he told the panel. "Mr. Manson and I both know that Charles Manson will never be suitable for parole."

Always thinking of his legacy, Manson asked the parole board, "This will go in history books, right?" When the parole board told Manson he would have to serve at least another five years, Manson replied, "I accept this decision. That's cool."

March 27, 1997 - Higher Source - A day after the discovery of the mass suicide, the Higher Source Web site remains boastful of the company's programming capabilities. On its Homepage the accompanying Java applet states: "Welcome to Higher Source -- your best source for Website Design, graphics & animation. Higher Source-computer programming - Java, CGI, Perl, FoxPro & many other languages. Higher Source-RealAudio, ShockWave, QuickTime movies, 3D modeling, VRML & Web site Design."

The Web site itself features pictures of stars and nebulae scanned out of National Geographic , but appears to be as business-like as anything else on the Web. Heaven's Gate -- another web site designed by the Higher Source team -- cryptically states that suicide is acceptable for cult members who want to ascend to a "higher level of life." In this case the "higher level of life" refers to a spaceship behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Stay tuned!

March 27, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - The 12 defense lawyers for Shoko Asahara -- after skipping a March 14 court session to protest what they regard as too many court appearances too close together -- ended their one-day boycott and returned to work.

March 26, 1997 - W.W. Higher Source - Up to 39 bodies were found by sheriff's deputies inside a multimillion-dollar mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive community in northern San Diego County. Victims of an apparent mass suicide, the dead were mostly white males and females -- with some Latinos -- ages 18 and 24, with tightly cropped hair, dressed alike in dark pants and tennis shoes. Initial reports have identified them as members of W.W. Higher Source, a self-sufficient Christian group sustaining itself by developing Web pages. Welcome to the millennium!

March 25, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - According to authorities, the three teen-agers found drugged near the scene of a doomsday cult mass suicide rejected an offer to take part in the deadly ritual.

March 25, 1997 - Possible Belgian Serial Killer: Police in Belgium uncovered a rubbish bag containing the surgically dissected torso of a fourth female victim increasing fears that a serial killer was on the prowl. Police believe that one killer may be responsible for this death and three other corpses found over the weekend because they were all dismembered in a similar fashion.

March 23, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - In another instance of ritual murder-suicides, police in St. Casimir, Quebec, found five dead people inside a home that was consumed by a fiery propane blast.

These latest deaths brings the number of murder-suicides by cult followers in Europe and Canada over the past 2 years to 74. Authorities in Switzerland and France quickly contacted and placed under surveillance all known followers of the cult, fearful the Canadian deaths were part of a new wave of ritual suicides within the cult.

March 23, 1997 - Possible Belgian Serial Killer - Limbs of three women were found wrapped in garbage bags in a ditch near Mons in Belgium. One of the victims had probably been dead for up to a week, but the other two, whose limbs appeared to have been frozen, could have been killed up to two years ago. Authorities believe that there's no relationship between these deaths and the Marc Dutroux murderous pedophile ring that shocked this quiet European nation a summer ago.

March 21, 1997 - "The Vampire Clan" - Authorities released an investigative report before their first pretrial hearing shedding light on Rod Ferrell, and his so-called Vampire Clan. In the report Ferrell is said to have told a friend he was convinced he had to kill many people "in order to consume their souls" to open the "Gates to Hell and gain super powers."

The vampire teens also drank their own blood and that of mutilated animals, investigators said. Ferrell told his friend, John Goodman, that his sign was a "V" with dots on each side representing himself and his clan. Cigarette burns in the shape of a "V" along with two pairs of dots on each side of the letter were scorched onto the body of the man they allegedly bludgeoned to death last fall.

March 20, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - The two-year anniversary of the Tokyo subway Sarin gas attack was commemorated at the Kasumigaseki Station by a group of survivors and relatives of the victims by handing out 500 copies of a 44-page compilation of their memories of how the tragedy unfolded.

March 20, 1997 - Patricia Krenwinkel - For the tenth time in a row Patty Krenwinkel was denied parole by the California Parole Board. Krenwinkel, 45, is serving a life term for her involvement in the notorious Manson family murders of Sharon Tate and six others. "I don't believe these defendants should ever be paroled," said Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay, who has attended all Manson family parole hearings since he helped prosecute the case in 1970.

March 20, 1997 - Laxma Reddy - A doctor suspected of killing his wife, daughter and father-in-law near Boston, was shot and killed when he pulled a gun on a sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop in Elko, Nevada.

March 20, 1997 - Siberian Satanic Cult - Russian police announced that they are searching for the ringleaders of a Satanic cult in western Siberia. The cult is believed to be from the city of Tyumen, 1,400 miles east of Moscow, where five young people have been found hanged to death in what, at first, athorities though were suicides. Later, the discovery of cabalistic jottings in the belongins of the dead youths revealed that they were involved in a seven-stage initiation ceremony that culminated in ritual suffocation.

March 19, 1997 - John Williams Jr. - A drifter from Georgia picked up for assaulting a woman on February 4 is now believed to be the serial killer responsible for at least four slayings in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.

March 19, 1997 - Perth Serial Killer - Ciara Glennon, 27, became the third woman to disappear in 14 months from the Continental Hotel - a popular nightspot in an affluent suburb of Perth -- prompting authorities to suspect the existence of a serial killer in Western Australia. The suspect has been profiled as a typical organized killer. Police believe he is a "verbal, intelligent man" who will almost certainly strike again.

March 19, 1997 - Ilshat Kuzikov - In another instance of Cannibalism in Russia, Ilshat was found to be insane and sent to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital, for killing three drinking partners and eating their internal organs.

March 19, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - Satoru Hirata, 31, an ex-member of the Aum Shinri Kyo, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attacking three perceived enemies of the cult with VX nerve gas that resulted in one death, and helping in the February, 1995, kidnapping and murder of the notary clerk Kiyoshi Kariya.

March 18, 1997 - Laxma Reddy - Police in Brookline, Massachusetts, are searching for the husband of Uma Reddy who is suspected of shooting her, her father and her 13-year-old daughter. The three victims were shot in the head execution-style in their beds.

March 17, 1997 - Anatoly Dolbyshev - A Russian murderer who sold pieces of his victim's flesh as meat, Anatoly was sentenced to eight years in prison for "swindling and appropriation of property through deceit".

March 15, 1997 - Killers at Large - A new page added to the Archives featuring a worldwide report on all serial killers on the lose. Also, there is a new and improved Russian Cannibals page. In addition, a new page was added to the infamous Truckload Loop.

March 14, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - As warned, lawyers defending Shoko Asahara boycotted his trial saying they had not had time to prepare their case. The have demanded that their four court sessions per month be cut to three if he is to get a fair trial, and are prepared to defend him for 10 years if necessary.

March 14, 1997 - Martin Bryant - Tasmanian prison authorities announced that Martin, 29, has attmepted suicide twice Tasmania killer attempted suicide twice last April. First he tried to hang himself with bandages, later he tried choke on a tube of toothpaste.

March 13, 1997 - Comerica Bank Security Guard - More than 24 hours after Allen Griffin's rampage, a bank janitor found an unarmed security guard cowering in the bank's boiler room.

March 13, 1997 - Peter Sutcliffe - The very civil minded Yorkshire Ripper has threatened to sue Broadmoor Hospital after being blinded in his left eye in an attack by another murderous patient.

In related news, authorities are considering moving the Ripper from Boadmoor to the Ashworth secure unit near Liverpool as soon as he recovers from his injuries.

March 12, 1997 - Jimmy Ray Price - A Fairbanks, Alaska, resident was charged with murdering three fellow boarding house residents because their TV was too loud.

March 11, 1997 - Allen Lane Griffin Jr. - Depressed over a "domestic situation," Allen, 21, went to a Comerica bank branch in suburban Detroit and killed three people being shot dead by the police.

March 10, 1997 - Peter Sutcliffe - Known worldwide as the Yorkshire Ripper, 50-year-old Peter was stabbed in both eyes by a fellow inmate during a fight at the Broadmoor Hospital. Sutcliffe, jailed for life in 1981 for the murder of 13 women, was taken under guard and in severe pain to a nearby hospital. There he underwent surgery and his condition was described as serious.

March 8, 1997 - Sergei Lepnev - Six people were killed and two badly wounded when a 18 year-old first-year cadet at a Russian military school opened fire on his classmates after the changing of the guard.

March 7, 1997 - Mark Storm - Chalk this one up to the troubled outpatient treatment file. Mark, a riverboat pilot on leave of absence, checked himself out of a psychiatric ward in Wheeling, West Virginia, and proceeded to blow away five family members and himself.

March 7, 1997 - Elfriede Blauensteiner - A jury in Krems, found Austria's black widow, Elfriede Blauensteiner, guilty of the first degree murder of Alois Pichler. Elfi was sentenced to life in prison -- the maximun sentence possible -- for poisoning her geriatric lover. Harald Schmidt, her former lawyer, got seven years for helping the frau with the crime and forging the victim's will.

March 6, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - The lawyers defending Shoko Asahara said they wanted to quit the case because they are not being given enough time to prepare for trial sessions. The trial has been proceeding at a pace of two all-day sessions every two weeks. However, most criminal trials in Japan tend to be even slower.

March 3, 1997 - Internet Crime Archives - Once again, the Archives has changed servers. On our way out we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to Zentropy Interactive for having housed us for over a year. On or way in we would like to thank our new host Cannery Interactive for giving us a new home in their top-of-the-line 200 MHz Pentium-based server hooked into a T-3 connection.

Because of it's ever-expanding size, the Serial Killer Hit List has been broken down into four sections: 20 or more kills, 10 to 20, five to 10, and less than 5. We hope you will find this format more functional. In related site developments, the flashy new left-handed menubar unfortunately uses a JavaScript MouseOver code that jams Netscape 2.0. If that's your browser of choice, it's time to upgrade to Netscape or Microsoft 3.0.

Finally, due to the overwhelming negative response to our Killer Sound Loops, we have decided to consider cutting down on some of them. Well... we will... after you tell us what do you think? Keep the sound or kill it?

March 1, 1997 - Aaron LeBaron - A Houston court found polygamist cult leader Aaron LeBaron guilty of directing the June, 1988, slayings of three sect defectors and a girl. The jury delibirated for more than six hours before convicting LeBaron of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs and racketeering.

February 27, 1997 - Joseph Franklin - Unrepentant racist killer, Joseph Franklin finally got his wish when he was sentenced to death by a jury in Missouri. Franklin, who threatened to kill again if he is not executed, was being tried for the 1977 killing of a Jewish man outside a Clayton, Montana, synagogue. After Judge Robert L. Campbell read the sentence, an elated Franklin thanked the jury "for a fair trial."

February 24, 1997 - Charles Sobhraj - The expulsion from India of the serial killing French national Charles Sobhraj was called off at the last minute after the French embassy in New Delhi failed to hand over travel documents to immigration officials.

February 23, 1997 - Ali Abu Kamal: A crazed Palestinian gunman fired into a crowd of tourists on the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six others before shooting himself.

Ali, 69, died without regaining consciousness five hours after the rampage. The killer muttered something about Egypt and then started shooting a .380-caliber handgun into the crowd. Belgian tourist Stef Nys said he saw Kamal shoot himself and fall to the ground as his dentures popped out.

In a gesture of absolute kindness, Leona Helmsley, whose real estate company manages the Empire State Building, said the firm would pay for the families of the victims to be flown to New York to pick up their loved ones.

February 21, 1997 - Alexei Petrichev - Alexei, a 22-year-old unemployed Russian ex-convict, went on a killing spree stabbing three neighbors to death and wounding two others.

February 22, 1997 - Jean-Michel & Jean-Louis Jourdain - Thousands of neighbours in the Outreau suburb of Boulogne clamoured for the reinstatement of the guillotine -- abolished 16 years ago -- for the two brothers suspected of raping and killing four French girls after a Mardi Gras dance.

February 21, 1997 - Ivan Milat - Australia's backpacker killer began motions to appeal his seven murder convictions on the grounds that he did not act alone. In an unprecedented case of sibling rivalry, Ivan's lawyer, in no uncertain terms, said that there was "a reasonable possibility" that his brother, Richard, was the real killer. The Sydney judge presiding over the case adjourned the appeal until April 7.

February 21, 1997 - Jason Curtis - This gun fanatic with a deep-seated grudge against the police was sentenced to four and a half years for unlawful possession of .22 cartridges, a silencer and component parts of a pump action shotgun. The court also accepted guilty pleas to a number of drugs charges.

Although Jason did not kill anyone, British police believe that he came within 16 days of massacring the inhabitants of Powys, a small Welsh town. A 28-year-old loner with an obsessive interest in weapons and death, Jason had a recurring, drug-induced dream of murdering the police officers that he blamed for the revoking of his gun licence 18 months earlier.

According to a four-page, account found at his home, Jay planned to rampage through the Llandrindod Wells police station on July 8, 1996. Afterwards he would walk through the town, cutting down passers-by willy-nilly. To end the day he would barricade himself inside his house and die in a hail of gunfire as he shot it out with the police.

"Curtis was a time-bomb ticking away," a senior police officer said. "We are convinced that we came perilously close to a Hungerford-style massacre." Police believe that the potential carnage of Llandrindod Wells was averted when two officers stopped Curtis's van and found a quantity of pot and LSD inside. Later, in his apartment, they discovered the gun components, ammunition, weapons and the type-written blueprint for his personal armageddon. In a loft they also found a sophisticated hydroponic set-up for growing pot.

February 20, 1997 - Unidentified French Killer(s): Police found the bodies of two pairs of sisters who had disappeared on February 11 after attending a Mardi Gras dance in the English Channel port town of Boulogne. Ten days later, their lifeless bodies were discovered in shallow graves in the dunes near a bunker built by the Nazis in Sainte-Cecile, a seaside resort 10 miles south of Boulogne.

February 19, 1997 - Girley L. Crum Jr. - 35-year-old Girley was convicted of slashing to death his ex-girlfriend's family. On March 1996, he killed a family of five in the Oregon trailer park where they lived. The jury deliberated for five hours before finding lethal Girley guilty of five counts of aggravated murder.

February 16, 1997 - Charles Sobhraj - As promised, the notorious French serial killer suspected of drugging and murdering 14 female tourists in Thailand in the Sixties and Seventies was freed on bail in New Delhi. Minutes after his release he was rearrested for being in India without valid documents.

February 14, 1997 - Ilshyat Kuzikov - In another case of cannibalism in Russia, police arrested St. Petersburg resident Ilshyat Kuzikov who is suspected of killing three of his vodka drinking buddies and eating their internal organs. The confessed cannibal said he killed his first victim in 1992 after inviting him to his flat for a nightcap. After sating his appetite Kuzikov dismembered his friends and put them in a garbage dump. Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - For the second day in a row another former high ranking member of the cult testified that Shoko Asahara ordered his lieutenants to murder lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family. Also for the second day in a row, the miffed guru was ejected from the courtroom.

February 14, 1997 - Moses Sithole - American voice expert Loni Smrkovski testified that alleged serial killer Moses Sithole was the man who confessed to the killings in a 1995 telephone conversation with Capetown's The Star newspaper. With the aid of spectrograms, Smrkovski pointed out similarities between samples of Sithole's voice and sections of the taped confession. A hired gun for the prosecution, the voice expert charged more than R15,000 for his two days of testimony.

February 14, 1997 - Charles Sobhraj - Sobhraj, the 52-year-old French national and suspected serial killer, was granted bail in New Delhi after spending two decades behind bars. Charles, who is desperately trying to avoid extradition to Thailand, said he would not leave jail until he received his identity papers from the French embassy.

February 13, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - Kazuaki Okazaki, A former high-ranking cult member testified that Asahara ordered the November 4, 1989, murders of anti-cult lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and their 1-year-old son, in a meeting 24 hours before the killings.

Asahara immediately disputed the testimony, shouting to Okazaki, "You're not supposed to tell lies," and -- for the fourth time in the proceedings -- was thrown out of the courtroom.

February 12, 1997 - Stephen Anderson - Four days after his rampage the Raurimu killer was charged with five additional counts of murder, eight counts of attempted murder and unlawful possession of a 12-gauge shotgun when his firearms licence had been revoked. The killer has been remanded to the Tokanui Mental Hospital where he is undergoing psychiatric testing.

February 11, 1997 - Robert Black - A convicted child killer serving 10 life sentences for murdering three girls, Robert may be given immunity from prosecution for the murder of a girl 19 years ago if he provides information leading to the discovery of her remains.

February 10, 1997 - Elfriede Blauensteiner - The trial of Austria's "Black Widow" started in the town of Krems. A sell-out event, the tumultuous crowd of journalist and cameramen gathered around the courthouse to get a glimpse of the lethal granny. Holding a little golden cross in her right hand, Frau Elle fielded questions from reporters as she repeated her claims of innocence.

February 10, 1997 - David Stuchbery: Not yet a member of the Archives, British police think they could have a possible serial killer resting in a Kent morgue. Detectives are looking for possible links between Stuchbery's recent attack on an elderly woman which resulted in his death and two unresolved murders from 15 years ago. Furthermore, they are also looking for links to the July, 1996 murders of Lin and Megan Russell.

The latest victim, an Avon lady, survived David's attack by killing him with a single blow to the chest from a kitchen knife. The police investigation has revealed that Stuchbery, a 49-year-old street sweeper with a history of psychiatric problems, had been convicted 29 years earlier of for a simmilar attak on another woman.

In 1979, the body of a foreign woman in her late 20s was found with similar injuries in Bedgebury Forest, near Lamberhurst. Three years later, 46-year-old Jean Brook was found bludgeoned to death in the undergrowth a mile from where the first body had been found. Lin and Megan Russell met their deaths in similar fashion. If the evidence pans out, Stuchbery, could posthumously become the latest British serial killer on file.

February 8, 1997 - Stephen Anderson - A 24-year-old native of Wellington, Stephen went berserk in the New Zealand ski resort of Raurimu Spiral killing six people and wounding five others before he was arrested naked and unarmed by authorities who tracked him through the rugged forest with the help of planes and helicopters.

February 7, 1997 - Willie Woods - An city electrician, Willie Woods was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for gunning down four of his managers after a bad work review at the Piper Tech complex in Downtown L.A.

February 5, 1997 - Charles Sobhraj - Asian serial killer Charles Sobhraj has moved closer to freedom as charges against him for possessing illegal weapons have been dropped.

February 5, 1997 - Marcelo de Andrade - Serial killer Marcelo Costa de Andrade, who escaped from the Heitor Carrilho Psychiatric Hospital, in Rio de Janeiro on January 24, was arrested in Guaraciaba do Norte, where he went to see his father before heading to the Holy Land. As a security measure, Andrade will be confined in the 3rd Battalion 4th Company headquarters in Tianguss until he is transferred back to Rio.

February 5, 1997 - David Obertorf - Suspected satanist and French car factory worker David Obertorf, was charged with stabbing to death an elderly priest in a church in the Alsatian village of Kingersheim.

February 5, 1997 - Myra Hindley - The London High Court declared that , Myra, dubbed Britain's most despicable female killer, will spend the rest of her life behind bars with no possibility of parole. In 1966 Hindley was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1966 for the sadistic murders of five children. Her lawyers have argued -- to no avail in light of the court's recent decision -- that it was unlawful to keep her in jail and that Myra was a changed woman.

February 5, 1997 - Emile Davis: Authorities have charged Emile Davis, 37, in the murder of one of three elderly women slain in their east Tacoma homes in January of 1997. Police have not linked the three slayings and are still actively looking for the perpetrators of the other two. Relatives of Davis say they're relieved he was arrested. Not the nicest man alive, Davis lived with his mother, two sisters and 10 nieces and nephews. They all told authorities they were so afraid of him that they slept in shifts and put furniture against their bedroom doors to keep him out.

February 4, 1997 - Danny Keith Hooks - Through DNA sampling Hooks, a convicted rapist and known drug addict, was arrested in California for the murders of five women whose bound, gagged and stabbed bodies were found in a Oklahoma City drug house in 1992.

February 2, 1997 - Marc Dutroux - Convicted child molester and kiddie-porn kingpin was finally charged with killing two teen-agers whose corpses were found on September, 1996, buried under one of his properties in Southern Belgium.

Dutroux has already been charged with the murder of an accomplice, kidnapping of two girls, trafficking in stolen cars and criminal association. The new murder charges were withheld while investigators gathered more evidence. As well as the two counts of murder Dutroux was charged with four new counts of kidnapping and two counts of rape.

February 2, 1997 - Javier Rosado & Félix Martínez - In a short and brief trial unlike anything seen in the U.S., the two "Role Playing" Spanish killers were found guilty of murder and are now awaiting sentencing.

January 30, 1997 - Shoko Asahara - The portly doomsday cult guru accused one of his former disciples of directing the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attacks. "Yoshihiro Inoue was the leader in this case. Why do other people have to be arrested as accomplices?"

In related news, An independent panel rejected the Japanese government's proposal to ban the doomsday cult saying the group no longer posed an "imminent danger" to society. However, the panel said the Aum remained potentially dangerous and its activities should be kept under strict surveillance.

January 29, 1997 - Henry Louis Wallace - After being handed nine death sentences Henry Louis Wallace -- who had not said a word during his trial -- apologized to the families of his victims. Reading from a three-page statement he said, "None of these women, none of your daughters, mothers, sisters or family members in any way deserved what they got. They did nothing to me that warranted their death." Superior Court Judge Robert Johnston then handed Wallace 10 more life sentences plus 322 years for 20 other crimes.

January 28, 1997 - The Vampire Clan - Heather Wendorf, one of the five vampire teens and the daugther of the slayed couple, was cleared of murder charges in the bludgeoning death of her parents.

After the 15-year-old testified voluntarily for two hours, a grand jury determined that she did not participate in the November 25 slayings. The court found that Heather had no idea her parents were murdered until she was in the car with the other teens heading to Baton Rouge, La., where they were arrested.

January 28, 1997 - Moses Sithole - For reasons unknown, the trial of South African HIV positive serial killer and rapist Moses Sithole has been postponed until February 5.

January 28, 1997 - Javier Rosado & Félix Martínez - The trial of two youths accused of randomly killing a janitor in an elaborate role playing game began in Madrid, Spain.

January 25, 1997 - Belarusian Serial Killer - Taxi drivers in Brest, a southwestern town on the Belarusian-Polish border, held a protest demanding that police find the serial killer who's been targeting their fellow cabbies.

January 24, 1997 - 25 Cromwell Street - The BBC said that the infamous "House of Horrors" -- home of Fred and Rosemary West -- will be turned into a landscaped pedestrian path after the Gloucester city council met with deep hostility to the idea of any memorial marking the scene of Britain's worst case of serial killing.

January 24, 1997 - Order of the Solar Temple - Authorities announced that the farmhouse near the Swiss city of Fribourg, where 23 members of the Order of the Solar Temple died in a mass murder-suicide in October 1994, will be demolished to avoid it becoming a place of ghoulish pilgrimage. Three other chalets at the village of Granges-sur-Salvan, in Valais canton, where 25 charred doomsday cult members were found the same day, were destroyed last May.

January 23, 1997 - Andonis Daglis - A Greek serial killer, Andonis was found guilty of raping and murdering three prostitutes and cutting them up with a chain saw. He was sentenced by an Athens court to 13 life sentences.

January 23, 1997 - Randy Greenawalt - after spending 18 years on death row in Arizona for murdering a family of four, Randy Greenawalt was executed by lethal injection. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," were his last words. As the execution began, Greenawalt smiled, wiggled his feet and strained to wave his right hand to his sister, Darlene, sitting in the front row. In a final instance of life Randy appeared to look at his sister and mouth the words, "I love you."

January 22, 1997 - Internet Crime Archives - After being off-line for about a week, the Crime Archives are back in business. Two new pages have been added to the site: See You in Disneyland, a chronicle of Richard Ramirez's wedding, and, The God of Poison, a chronology of the fall of Shoko Asahara and the house of the Supreme Truth.

Several other pages have been spruced up with new imageloops and JavaScript random background generators. Now older entries are stored in the Morgue Archives and Bodycount Archives respectively.

January 22, 1997 - Martin Bryant - Authorities announced that the suburban house of Australian mass murderer Martin Bryant will be sold with the proceeds going to his victims.

January 21, 1997 - Roman Burtsev - The Russian daily Izvestia reported the upcoming trial of Roman Burtsev, Rostov-on-Don's latest serial killer. Arrested in July, 1996, Roman is accused of raping and murdering at least six children.

January 21, 1997 - Phoolan Devi - A court ordered the arrest of Phoolan Devi, India's infamous Bandit Queen. Now a lawmaker, Phoolan is accused of massacring 20 upper-caste men in 1981 in the village of Behmai in northern Uttar Pradesh state, where she had been held prisoner and repeatedly raped.

January 20, 1997 - Phan Thi Ai - The Peoples High Court in the City of Ho Chi Minh handed Phan Thi Ai the death sentence for torching her lover's home and killing the five people inside.

January 16, 1997 - David Anderson - A second high-school dropout was arrested in the slayings of a Bellevue family. King County prosecutors announced they will charge David, 17, as an adult.

January 15, 1997 - Possible Maryland Serial Killer - With five dead black gay men in the morgue, police suspect there is a possible serial killer targeting the patrons of three popular District of Columbia gay nightclubs.

January 15, 1997 - Mark Richard Hilbun - A former postal worker Hilbun was sentenced to nine life terms in prison for killing his mother, his best friend, and attempting to kill seven others.

January 15, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth -The Japanese government signaled that it would step back from invoking the never-before used Antisubversive Activities Law to outlaw the Aum.

January 14, 1997 - Alex Baranyi Jr. - Authorities charged 17-year-old Alex Baranyi Jr. as an adult for killing a family of four in Bellevue, a suburb outside of Seattle.

January 11, 1997 - Pvt. Oleg Lokhmatov - A Russian draftee on guard duty at a military facility in the Urals Mountains, Oleg went on a rampage shooting to death three fellow guards and a civilian.

January 10, 1997 - "El Psicópata" - Costa Rican authorities have asked the FBI for help in tracking down a serial killer who preys on young couples as they make love and has claimed up to 31 victims.

January 7, 1997 - Henry Louis Wallace - Confessed serial killer Henry Louis Wallace was convicted of killing nine women in NC. The jury, who deliberated 15 hours over several days, returned 28 guilty verdicts, including nine counts of first-degree murder, eight counts of first-degree rape and one count of second-degree rape. Wallace -- who showed no emotion while the verdict was read -- has not yet been tried for two other killings, one in the Charlotte area and another in South Carolina.

January 6, 1997 - Aum Supreme Truth - Following a purification ritual workers began demolishing the former headquarters of the AUM Supreme Truth at the base of Mt. Fuji.

January 3, 1997 - Frederick & Rosemary West - The Portman Entertainment Group denied it planned to make a film based on the story of serial killer Frederick West. The company -- the brains behind Hugh Grant's "An Awfully Big Adventure" -- bought the rights to the West archives from the British government two months before the scandal erupted.

January 3, 1997 - "Monster of Florence" - The case against Pietro Pacciani -- suspected of being the feared "Monster of Florence" -- took a bizarre twist when Mario Vanni, a prosecution witness and friend of Pacciani, admitted to killing two of the 16 victims attributed to the unidentified predator.

1995-1996 - Morgue Archives - For previous entries to the Morgue check in the Morgue Archives.