April 30, 1998 - Theodore Kaczynski - Who knew that Teddy K. -- the feared Unabomber -- was so lonely and unable to have a relationship with a woman that he once went to a psychiatrist to discuss a sex change operation. According to CBS News that's exactly what happened when Teddy K. was a graduate student at the University of Michigan
However, the budding psychopath was too ashamed to talk about his confused sex life, and left the meeting with the campus psychiatrist. Later he recorded his humiliation in his diary with the cryptic: "Why not really kill that psychiatrist and anyone else whom I hate... I suddenly felt that I really could break out of my rut in life and do things that were daring, irresponsible or criminal."
April 30, 1998 - AUM Shrinkyo - The AUM held a large meeting outside Tokyo raising fears that the group could be making a comeback. Japanese newspapers reported the meeting was mainly a fund raising event, saying the 200 members present paid up to $1,520 each to attend.
April 30, 1998 - Mary Bell - Talk about a rude awakening. Mary Bell's teenaged daughter discovered her mother's true identity as a double child-killer when their home on England's south coast was besieged by reporters. The poor girl had "no inkling of her mother's previous life... For the first time in 14 years the child has become aware, early this morning, of her mother's background, which is obviously emotionally disturbing enough."
April 29, 1998 - Gerald Patrick Lewis - After confessing to raping and stabbing to death a Mobile woman, Gerald Patrick Lewis, 32, has now linked himself to the killings of at least three other women, one in Baldwin County and two in Georgia. Lewis, who confessed to the April 12 murder of 32-year-old Kathleen Bracken, led officers to the body of Misty McGugin, whom he sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on January 31.
April 28, 1998 - Herbert Baumeister - Investigators concluded that businessman-serial killer Herbert Baumeister probably killed 16 men in all. The Indianapolis thrift shop owner -- who committed suicide in 1996 when investigators closed in on him -- had already been identified as the suspect in the slayings of at least seven men whose remains were found in the woods behind his suburban million-dallar home. Now investigators have concluded that Baumeister probably was responsible for nine other men whose bodies were found dumped along rural roads in Indiana and Ohio between 1980 and 1990.
April 28, 1998 - Theodore Kaczynski - While the sentence has already been decided, a 30-page sentencing memorandum was prepared and released by the prosecution as an accounting of Mr. K.'s crimes. The memo, quoting extensively from unreleased writings of the reclusive mountain-man genius, paints a picture of the luddite anti-technology terrorist as a run of the mill revenge killer. "I act merely from my desire for revenge," Kaczynski wrote in April 1971. "I believe in nothing. ... I don't even believe in the cult of nature worshippers or wilderness worshippers."
April 28, 1998 - Marc Dutroux - More fall-out from the Marc Dutroux failed escape. Willy De Ridder, the chief of Belgium's largest police force, was the next official to resign. With the ministers of Justice and the Interior gone too, perhapsPrime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene should be the next one to step down.
April 28, 1998 - Riviera Serial Killer - After Italian newspapers published a police sketch of "Riviera Killer," several witnesses came forward to say that they had seen the presumed murderer at close quarters on the night of the last killing. Authorities seem to be again looking for only one suspect responsible for the six dead prostitutes, the two security guards and the two women shot in the toilets of trains. The emerging picture of the killer suggests he is a local man, tall, about 50, with grey hair. Police believe he may be from Savona, not far from Genoa. Police said a possible suspect smoked a cigarette in the back of a taxi and they were examining the stub to see if it contained DNA that might match the male bodily fluid found in the train toilet.
April 27, 1998 - Ronald Taylor - A man in the Los Angeles suburb of Artesia killed five people, including a child, and then jumped to his death from a freeway overpass. The victims, found in the man's home, were four family members and a friend. The man who killed himself was identified as Ronald Taylor, 46.
The investigation started when Taylor jumped onto the San Gabriel River Freeway in Cerritos. He died later at a hospital. Police were unable to say if he was struck by any vehicles on the freeway, which was closed for two hours after the jump. Police discovered the other bodies when they went to his home to notify his family about his death.
Taylor, 46, worked for McDonnell Douglas for 16 years as a handformer. A spokeswoman for the Boeing-owned company said she didn't know what a handformer did. The victims were Taylor's wife, Ruthie, 40; son Rick Taylor, 24; sister-in-law Mylissa Campbell, 29; niece Jolissa Morales, 6; and Tomy Kang Jung, 24, a family friend. Ruthie worked as a manager at a chiropractor's office.
Court records show Taylor had suffered financial problems, seeking bankruptcy protection in April 1997 after running up debts of more than $64,000, including a $21,302 personal loan from McDonnell Douglas and a $5,547 Sears credit card.
April 27, 1998 - Ahmad Suradji - Indonesian death sorcerer Ahmad Suradji, aka Nasib Kelewang, aka alias Datuk, remained impassive as he was found guilty of killing 42 women by a three-judge panel in Lubukpakam on Sumatra island, about 900 miles northwest of Jakarta. The deadly sorcerer now faces death by firing squad. Also on trial is Tumini, 39, the oldest of his three wives. A state prosecutor is seeking the death penalty, alleging that she took part in the slayings. A verdict in her case is expected in the next couple of days.Outside the courthouse, people watched the proceedings on televisions set up under canopies.
April 26, 1998 - Three Dead in Brownsville - Three teenagers were found shot to death in a car parked along a trash-strewn backroad in Brownsville, Texas. Jason Sexton, 14, Roberto Moreno, 18, and Ricardo Mata, 19, were shot in the upper body multiple times. Sexton and Moreno were pronounced dead at the scene and Mata was taken to Columbia Valley Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. No arrests had been made and police said they had no motive for the killings.
April 25, 1998 - Marc Dutroux - According to a media poll, more than half the Belgian population believes the government should resign over the failed escape of pederast child murderer, Marc Dutroux. Already with the ministers of Justice and Interior having resigned, there are mounting calls for the resignation of Lt. Gen. Willy De Ridder, the head of Belgium's Gendarmerie.
April 24, 1998 - Riviera Serial Killer(s) - To quell the wave of hysteria sweeping through the Italian Riviera, authorities packed all trains in the area with plainclothes police looking for dreaded Train Serial Killer. Although at first authorities linked the train killer to the Riviera Prostitute Killer now they believe that there could be more than one killer on the lose. The other possible serial killer, the Riviera Serial Killer, has claimed the lives of six prostitutes and two security agents.
While the trademark .38 calibre bullet fired at the back of the head in each set of murders led authorities to believe they could be linked, contrasting descriptions have made them change opinions. One man, described as a dapper, middle-aged Jean Gabin type who drives a black Mercedes, is being sought for the killings of the prostitutes along a 25-mile stretch of coastal road west of Genoa.
April 24, 1998 - Andras Pandy - Teeth of eight or more people uncovered at a house owned by Andras Pandy, authorities now believe that the Hungarian, Brussels-based pastor killed at least 14 people. Tests by Norwegian forensic scientists showed that the new set of teeth were from seven women, aged between 35 and 55, and a man, who was between 18 and 23. It is suspected that the unidentified victims were lured from Hungary to Belgium with promises of marriage. Police had previously thought that the teeth, bones and other remains found at Pandy's house might have come from five people unrelated to him.
April 23, 1998 - Marc Dutroux - Taking full responsibility for the escape of Marc Dutroux, Belgium's Interior Minister Johan Vande Lanmotte and Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck stepped down from their posts. Their resignations were announced by Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene in an appearance before parliament, where he discussed the systematic failures that led to the escape and vowed to proceed with law enforcement reforms.
April 23, 1998 - Geoffrey Ferguson - A Norwalk, Connecticut landlord, Geoffrey Ferguson, was convicted of murdering five men over a bounced rent check. In 1995 Geoff, 47, shot to death three of his tenants and two of their friends. The defense suggested someone else killed the men, possibly in a drug deal gone bad. But witnesses described a bitter rent dispute that escalated just before the killings.
April 23, 1998 - Marc Dutroux - Child murderer and pedophile Marc Dutroux escaped from custody after wrestling a gun -- which was not to loaded -- from the single policeman guarding him during a court visit. Dressed in prison garb and white running shoes, Belgium's most feared criminal fled from the Neufchateau courthouse and took a car from a woman who was driving by.
Police set up roadblocks along highways in southern Belgium and alerted police in neighboring France. Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene suspended a session of parliament immediately after hearing the news. He rushed from the assembly hall to convene an urgent cabinet meeting to discuss the escape. Shocked by the ease with which Dutroux got away, opposition politicians called for the resignation of Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck and Interior Minister Johan Vande Lanotte. Socialist legislator Claude Eerdekens said it was "a grotesque Belgian joke that makes our country look ridiculous."
Fortunately for all involved Dutroux never got too far. The car he carjacked got stuck in the mud in the town of Straimont, about eight miles from where he escaped, where he was recaptured .
April 23, 1998 - The Rwandan Genocide - Pope John Payl II, Amnesty International, and other human right groups called for clemency for the 22 prisoners that will be executed on live TV in the Kigali soccer stadium for participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Outraging Western observers, the Rwandan state television plans to show the event as part of the government's campaign to ensure that another genocide will not take place.
One British worker told London's Telegraph: "This is generally the kind of tasteless show you might expect to see in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. Most countries know it's something that's best done in private." Does this mean that killing close to a million people over a month period is not considered tasteless enough?
April 22, 1998 - The Riviera Serial Killer - Police hunting the "Riviera serial killer" arrested a man at the port of La Spezia who, they said, had the same type of revolver used in the killings in his car. It was not clear whether he was the killer, but he had been identified by a prostitute who had been robbed by him a month ago. Witnesses who had previously been threatened by an armed man travelling in trains said the man wore a railwayman's uniform.
April 22, 1998 - Murder-Suicide in Inglewood, California - A U.S. Department of Agriculture employee shot and killed his supervisor and a union representative, ignoring cries for mercy, then shot himself in the head during an afternoon meeting at a district office in Inglewood. Apparently the supervisor was counseling the murderous employee at the time of the killings.
April 22, 1998 - "El Depredador of Ciudad Juarez" - In what's becoming a national scandal, the Mexican government admitted that at least 95 women have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez in the past five years by one or more sexual predator. However feminist groups put the death toll at 118. In any case, the bodies of 70 women have been found dumped in the Chihuahua desert or in roadside ditches, a dozen of which have turned up this year. The latest victim, an unidentified teen age girl, was discovered on April 16 under a railroad trestle.
April 22, 1998 - Phoolan Devi - A first for the Crime Archives. One of the killers listed in the Serial Killer Hit List, Phoolan Devi -- India's infamous Bandit Queen -- has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Ken Livingstone, the British Labor MP. The Bandit Queen was jailed in 1983 for, among other things, massacring 22 upper-cast villagers who had gang-raped her. While in custody she became a minor celebrity and patron saint of the underclass. In 1994 she was released under a special general amnesty and became a member of parliament.
April 22, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson & Andrew Golden - Using the Arkansas school shooting as a platform, gun control advocates in Congress have introduced two bills that would ban the sale of all ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds, and impose criminal penalties on adults who don't properly store or have safety locks on a firearm that a child uses to harm others. Predictably, an NRA executive Vice President blamed TV and the movies for the bloodshed: "People are talking about the breakdown of the family, about gratuitous violence on television. We ought to be looking at this as a tragedy rather than trying to make political hay out of it."
April 20, 1998 - The Riviera Serial Killer - Female travelers in Italy are terrified with news reports that a suspected serial killer with a passkey to enter train toilets has claimed the lives of two women over the past seven days. Both victims were in their early 30s and traveling alone. Both were found locked inside the bathroom leading police to believe that the killer has access to a master key. Adding a certain flair for the bizarre, the killer, after each slaying, left the victims' handbags on their train seats. RAI state broadcast reported that the slayer was believed to be left-handed and shot the victims in the back of their heads using pieces of their clothing to muffle the sound.
April 20, 1998 - Charles Ng - Although serial killer Charles Ng was diagnosed by a defense doctor as a manic-depressive, Superior Court Judge John Ryan ruled that he was mentally competent to stand trial. "Ng is not mentally incompetent. He has no mental disorder and he is capable of assisting counsel if he chooses to do so." After more than a decade of change of council and delays, the 37-year-old former Marine -- accused of the torture murder of a dozen people in a Sierra Nevada foothills cabin -- is scheduled to go on trial September 1.
April 19, 1998 - Branch Davidians - Commemorating the fifth aniversary of the Waco massacre, memorial services were held in Mount Carmel by surviving Branch Davidians. Simultaneously, the Committee for Waco Justice in Washington, D.C., erected 82 crosses in the northwest quadrant of the Ellipse, south of the White House.
April 18, 1998 - Antonio Cassio Mendoza - Here at the Archives we are celebrating the birth of a new potential crime buff, Antonio Cassio Mendoza, born in Los Angeles, April 18, at 11:37 AM. Hopefully this new arrival will not interfere with the regular updating of the Archives. And if he does, well I guess we'll have to send him back!
April 18, 1998 - Italian Riviera Serial Killer - Italian police suspect there is a serial killer preying on women in trains along the Italian Riviera. The latest victim -- 32-year-old Maria Angela Rubino -- was found shot in the head in a train bathroom by a cleaning crew in Ventimiglia, a town near the French border. This was the eight body found shot in similar circumstances since March 9. The previous six victims were four prostitutes and two security guards who came to help women who were accosted by a man with a gun. The prostitutes were killed at point-blank range while they were on their knees in isolated areas as part of what the Italian media have called "a macabre ritual."
April 17, 1998 - Theodore Kaczynski - Sentencing for confessed Unabomber Teddy K. was moved up to early May as both sides are -- again -- squabbling over the government's plan to detail his crimes. Teddy K.'s sentencing, originally set for May 15, is now scheduled for May 4. The sentencing date was moved up because the presentencing report was completed sooner than expected.
April 17, 1998 - Jesse Ethan & James Neal Eldridge - Sheriff's officials in Arkansas say they could not determine if the two teen age boys accused of killing their father threatened to gun down their classmates like the Jonesboro schoolyard killers. Because of lack of corroborating evidence the investigation was dropped and the potential snipers released from jail.
April 16, 1998 - Maceo Yarbough III - In true postal fashion, Dallas letter carrier Maceo Yarbough III fatally shot a post office clerk during a lunch break argument. The 27-year-old suspect sped off in a car and was arrested in southwest Dallas shortly after the shooting. The clerk, a 34-year-old Lavinia Kelley-Shaw, had worked for the Postal Service for 15 years and was pronounced dead at the scene.
April 16, 1998 - Dr. Jack Kevorkian - On a busy day for Dr. Death, Dr. Jack Kevorkian took two bodies to two suburban Detroit hospitals. The first body, a 73-year-old Oceanside, California, woman, was delivered to William Beaumont National Hospital in Royal Oak. Later in the afternoon, Dr. Death -- who has admitted to assisting in over 100 suicides -- delivered the body of a 89-year-old Boca Raton, Florida, man to the Valley Hospital in Commerce Township.
April 16, 1998 - Jesse Ethan & James Neal Eldridge - Two teen-age brothers -- charged with killing their father -- threatened to shoot their classmates using the same tactic utilized in the Jonesboro schoolyard massacre. The brothers, who were allowed to attend school while awaiting trial, allegedly told, among others, four girls, they were going to pull the fire alarm and shoot students as they left the building.
April 16, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson & Andrew Golden - The April 29 hearing for the two young snipers accused of killing four classmates and a teacher at the Westside Middle School was pushed back to June 17 by Circuit Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. The judge also removed Tom Furth as one of the attorneys for Mitchell Johnson. The hearing was delayed because the defense is waiting for a ruling by the state Supreme Court on a particular mental competency issue.
April 15, 1998 - Pol Pot - News sources from the Thai-Cambodian border reported that Pol Pot, the blood-soaked leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was 73. Pot, called "one of the most powerful monsters ever created by humanity," gained worldwide infamy after killing two million Cambodians (a quarter of his country's population) in an attempt at social purification.
April 15, 1998 - Cannibalism in North Korea - According to a report compiled by Doctors Without Borders, some North Koreans, in a desperate bid to survive their nation's famine, are resorting to cannibalism. The report quotes a 23-year-old refugee who said he saw his neighbors eat their daughter. Also there's a Chinese-Korean who sometimes crosses the border who said one woman ate her 2-year-old child. Corroborating their tales, the director of an orphanage in the Chinese border town of Yanji said she met an 18-year-old North Korean refugee who said her neighbor killed, salted and ate an uncared-for orphan.
On the other hand, Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Program, said after returning from a four-day visit to North Korea that she had seen no signs of cannibalism during her stay. Complicating matters further, a former North Korean commando claimed that international food aid was being diverted from the starving populace to feed the country's military and communist elite.
April 15, 1998 - Julio Pestonit - During and interview with Fox News Channel, Julio Pestonit -- a Cuban exile who participated in the 1961, CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion -- said he and his comrades resorted to cannibalism to survive the 16 days at sea they endured after escaping from the failed invasion attempt.
"I did eat some of the interior that was extended to me," he said. "It was crazy. It was like being in hell." Also he and others drank the blood of dead comrades. "We were desperate. People dying one after the other." At the time, Pestonit and the others in the cannibal ship vowed to take their secret to their graves. However, because of his festering anger toward President Kennedy and his administration, Julio decided to make his anthropophagy public. The question on everyone's lips is why make it public now, considering Kennedy has been dead for over 30 years? Money, is our guess.
April 15, 1998 - Brazilian Police Death Squad - Legal proceeding started against ten former police officers accussed of taking part in a 1993 death squad attack that left 21 people dead in a Rio de Janeiro slum.On August 29, 1993, a horde of hooded men with automatic weapons entered the Vigario Geral slum, firing at random and tossing grenades willy-nilly. After all was said and done, 52 former officers were charged with the butchery. Prosecutors say police carried out the massacre to avenge the killings a day earlier of four state troopers by drug dealers.
April 12, 1998 - Possible Newark Serial Killer - An Essex County task force charged with figuring out who killed 14 women says it's making progress and investigators may have found a pattern. Family members aren't convinced the perpetrator is a serial killer and they're unhappy that the women are being portrayed as drug addicts and prostitutes.
April 10, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson - Scott Johnson. the father of Mitchell Johnson, the 13-year-old schoolyard sniper in Arkansas, said he was wrong when he revealed on national television that his son had been sexually abused at a day care center. "The statement that I made about it being at a day care was incorrect. It was not a day care provider or a family member thereof," Johnson told The Dallas Morning News.
However the flustered dad reiterated that his son had been molested in Minnesota, but declined to elaborate. "There's been new information obviously, but I can't give it to you. I can't give it to anybody. I'm not about to be sued over this."
April 10, 1998 - Michael Carneal - Missy Jenkins, a 16-year-old girl who was the most seriously injured of the survivors in a high school shooting spree in West Paducah, finally left the hoispital and returned home in a wheelchair. Missy was paralyzed from the waist down when schoolmate Michael Carneal fired 11 shots into a group of students at a prayer circle meeting on December 1.
April 9, 1998 - Alfred J. Gaynor - A handyman was charged with the killings of two women in Springfield, Massachusetts. DNA evidence from semen samples linked Alfred J. Gaynor, 31, to the deaths of Joyce Dickerson and Rosemary Downs, both of whom were strangled. Gaynor -- who allegedly shared crack cocaine with the two dead women -- has not been ruled out as a suspect in three other asphyxiation deaths around the city.
April 8, 1998 - Efren Saldivar - Fired hospital worker Efren Saldivar told the ABC-TV news magazine "20/20" he made up his confessed Angel of Death rampage because he wanted to receive the death penalty. "I wanted the system to do to me what I couldn't do," that is, commit suicide. "I was looking to die, I wanted to die ... but I didn't have the courage."
April 7, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson - The elder of two school snipers Mitchell Johnson claimed through his lawyer that he was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of "a family member of the day-care center where he was placed." His father Scott Johson, and lawyer, Tom Furth, described Mitchell as angry about the abuse -- which allegedly started at age six -- and sorry about the shootings. In a letter read by his father the young slayer said: "My thoughts and prayers are with those people who were killed or shot and their families. I am really sad inside about everything. My thoughts and prayers are with those kids I go to school with. I want people to know the real Mitchell someday."
April 7, 1998 - Mayhem Network - For the last five days the Crime Archives had their mail cut off. If you sent us anything, we are sorry that your message was rudely returned. The situation has been corrected, and now Mayhem has a new mailing address. For love/hate/kill mail send all missives to elvision@mayhem.net.
In related news, President Clinton, banned 58 types of foreign assault rifles. Though the ban has been pending for months, the White House said the President wanted to make a high-profile announcement after the Jonesboro killings. Curiously, none of the weapons banned were used by the Jonesboro snipers.
April 4, 1998 - Spokane Serial Killer - Police believe a woman whose body was found on the same hillside outside Spokane where two previous victims were discovered in December is possibly the seventh victim of the local serial killer. Like the six other victims, Linda Marie Maybin, 34, died of a gunshot wound. Linda had been missing since November 22. Investigators would not say how many other similarities the latest case shared with the other deaths, other than to note the common dumping site. Maybin may have been involved in prostitution and drugs, as the six others were, police said.
April 4, 1998 - Nicholas Lungisa Ncama - South African alleged serial killer Nicholas Lungisa Ncama -- suspected of at least five killings -- escaped from police custody in the Debe Nek area.
April 2, 1998 - Joseph Franklin - Franklin -- drunk on confession juice -- admitted to the 1979 slayings of Mercedes Lynn Masters, 15, and Harold McIver, 27 in Georgia. DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan called Franklin "the most evil individual I have ever come across," and said the killings were motivated by racial hatred.
April 2, 1998 - Suspected Newark Serial Killer - Essex County Prosecutor Patricia Hurt has appointed a task force to investigate 14 unsolved murders of black women over the past five years. The women -- mostly prostitutes -- were stabbed, strangled or suffocated, and their bodies dumped in vacant lots or abandoned buildings a few miles from each other.
April 2, 1998 - Michael Ross - The death pact between Conneticut prosecutors and serial killer Michael Ross was declared not legally binding by the state's public defender office. In an unprecedented 10-page document, signed March 11, Ross and special prosecutor C. Robert Satti agreed to all of the aggravating factors surrounding the crimes. A model of diligence, Ross has been working in concert with Satti toward his own execution, saying he wants to spare the victims' families from having to go through another hearing.
March 31, 1998 - Daniel Remeta - The last of four scheduled executions in Florida's death row, Daniel Remeta -- convicted of killing five people in a tri-state crime spree -- took a seat on Old Sparky at 7:00 a.m. and was pronounced dead 12 minutes later.
March 31, 1998 - Henry Lee Lucas - Texas State District Judge John Carter finally set June 30 as the execution date for Henry Lee Lucas, a one-eyed drifter who 20 years ago confessed to more than 600 killings in 26 states. Although he later recanted all his confessions, he was convicted of murder in the 1979 slaying of a female hitchhiker known as "Orange Socks" for the only item of clothing left on her body.
March 31, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson - The older of two boys held in the Arkansas schoolyard ambush was accused of molesting a little girl while he visited Minnesota last summer. Mitchell, 13, was charged with inappropriately touching the girl, who was 2 or 3 at the time. The boy appeared in court twice and a juvenile trial is pending. His mother said it was all a "big misunderstanding" and that he was only helping the toddler pull up her pants in the bathroom. According to a sheriff's June 14 report, the boy (whom sources identify as Mitchell) admitted taking his pants down and the girl's pants down in a bedroom and touching her sexually.
March 30, 1998 - Efren Saldivar - Investigators in Glendale Adventist Hospital cleared 22 members of the respiratory unit that was suspended after Efren Saldovar confessed to killing up to 50 terminally ill patients. Police are following up on tips from people who called since the case was made public to say that their relatives died mysteriously at the hospital. Police had not yet confirmed whether Saldivar was even on duty at the times of those deaths. "We're working backwards," said Glendale police spokesman Sgt. Rick Young. "Normally you get evidence and a confession; we got a confession, then evidence."
March 30, 1998 - Reco Jones - Merely 23, Reco Jones was convicted of stabbing an ex-girlfriend, Yolanda Bellamy, and four children to death because she threatened to abort his child.
March 30, 1998 - Judy Buenoano -A frail looking "Black Widow," Judy Buenoano, was the first woman to be executed in the state of Floridad since 1848. Buenoano 54, was electrocuted for fatally poisoning her Air Force husband with arsenic in 1971 after his return from Vietnam. She also drowned her paralyzed son, tried to blow up her fiance and was suspected of killing a boyfriend.
March 29, 1998 - Efren Saldivar - Although police are still unsure whether Efren Saldivar was telling the truth when he admitted killing 40 to 50 terminally ill patients, authorities are considering exhuming one or two of the dead in search of evidence. A six-member task force has been combing through hospital records and interviewing staff and patient's relatives to build their case against the possible killer.
March 27, 1998 - Stephanie Johnson, Britthney Varner & Shannon Wright - In three separate ceremonies Stephanie Johnson, 12, Britthney Varner, 11, and the heroic Shannon Wright, 32 -- the three remaining victims of the Westside School massacre -- were laid to rest.
March 27, 1998 - Efren Saldivar - A former respiratory care practitioner at a Glendale hospital has confessed to killing 40 to 50 patients over a eight-year period, saying he targeted patients who were already near death. Glendale Police Officer William Currie said Efren Saldivar -- the suspected "Angel of Death" -- told him he killed some patients with lethal injections of the muscle relaxant drugs Pavulon or succinylcholine chloride, and others by decreasing the oxygen to patients on ventilators.
March 27, 1998 - Paige Ann Herring, & Natalie Brooks - As Jonesboro buried two of the four girls killed in the schoolyard massacre, U.S. Justice Department officials said they will not attempt to prosecute the two boys on federal charges. In separate ceremonies the two young girls -- Paige Ann Herring, 12, and Natalie Brooks, 11 -- were mourned and laid to rest.
As for their suspected killers, Sheriff Dale Haas said 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson had asked for a Bible and religious material while Drew Golden, 11, "was crying and wanted his mother."
March 27, 1998 - "The Beast of the Bastille" - Guy Georges -- 35, unemployed and homeless -- was picked up in Montmartre after police DNA-matched him to four Beast of Bastille murders and one attempted rape.
March 27, 1998 - Norman Avzal Simons - In a shock turn of events, the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein (South Africa) has increased the sentence of "Station Strangler" Norman Avzal Simons from 25 years to life. Simons was initially arrested in connection with 12 of the Station Strangler murders, but 11 of the charges were dropped before the case reached the Supreme Court.
March 26, 1998 - Jacqueline Annette Williams - An Illinois jury recommended a death sentence for Jacqueline Annette Williams murdering two children and their pregnant mother, who's unborn baby was cut out of her womb. A defense attorney placed a hand on Williams' shoulder when the verdict was read. Prosecutors said Williams, who had been pretending to be pregnant, masterminded the killings because she wanted the mother's unborn child.
March 26, 1998 - "The Monster of Florence" - Mario Vanni, 70, and Giancarlo Lotti, 58 were convicted of several of the "Monster of Florence" serial murders. Vanni, a retired postman, was sentenced to life for his participation in five of the eight "Monster" double murders. Giancarlo Lotti was given 30 years for participating in the last four double murders. A third suspect, Giovanni Faggi, 78, was acquitted. The fourth member of their gang of dirty old men from hell, 73-year-old Pietro Pacciani, died last month under what first appeared to be suspicious circumstances.
March 26, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson & Andrew Golden - The two Jonesboro snipers were charged in a juvenile detention building with five counts of murder and ten of battery. A tearful Mitchell Johnson held his mother's hand throughout the 15-minute hearing while she cried uncontrollably. Andrew "Drew" Golden was much more unemotional and smiled at one point. The two did not enter a plea. Under state law, children under age 14 can only be charged in Juvenile Court and can be held in custody until they turn 18.
March 26, 1998 - Heaven's Gate - As the one-year anniversary of the Heaven's Gate suicides approaches, Sam Koutchesfahani -- the owner of the Rancho Santa Fe property -- and his family have moved into the million-dollar estate. Perhaps it's the stigma of being the site of a mass suicide, perhaps it's the smell of formaldehyde in the air conditioning, but Koutchesfahani is finding it impossible to sell the place.
With the "Away Team" gone "beyond human", Rio DiAngelo -- the cultist who discovered the 39 bodies and made the cover of Newsweek -- has been maintaining the Heaven's Gate Web site, and sold his story for an upcoming TV "movie of the week." Next, he will finish the science fiction script his star trekking friends were writing before their cosmic rendevouz.
March 25, 1998 - Five Dead in Arkansas Trailer Park - Five bodies were found in a mobile home 20 miles south of the state capital, Little Rock. Authorirites entered the mobile home after relatives filed missing persons complaints and discovered the bodies. The victims were identified as Misty Irwin, 20; her cousin Shelly Sorg, 24; Ms. Sorg's children Taylor, 3, and Shawn, 5; and Samantha Rhodes, 12. There have been no arrests.
March 25, 1998 - Michael Ross - Serial killer Michael Ross signed 10-page agreement with a prosecutor to go to his execution quietly, forcing Connecticut -- a state that has not carried out the death penalty since 1960 -- to face the possibility of an execution. Legal experts around the country are calling the deal between Ross and special prosecutor C. Robert Satti unprecedented and say it has dangerous implications. A human rights group says it was the product of an "unholy alliance" of the killer and prosecutor. Even the judge in the case has expressed reservations, holding off accepting the agreement until hearing further arguments on whether it is legal and binding.
March 25, 1998 - Mitchell Johnson & Andrew Golden - Although authorities didn't release the names of the Arkansas Middle School snipers, The Jonesboro Sun identified them as Mitchell Johnson, 13, and his cousin Andrew Golden, 11.
An American flag flew at half-staff at the Westside Middle School, and a wreath leaned on a brick pillar wrapped in yellow police crime scene tape. Other pillars were wrapped with white bows. Classes where cancelled following yesterday's sniper attack. Teachers and families in Dunblane -- a prosperous town on the edge of the Scottish Highlands where Thomas Hamilton massacred 16 kindergarten children and their teacher -- offered their help and condolences to the families of children killed in Arkansas.
March 25, 1998 - Old Sparky - Cop killer Leo Jones, 47 -- the second of four executions scheduled since the reinstatement of Old Sparky -- met his maker with no unexpected pyrotechnics. The condemned killer kept his eyes focused on his religious adviser and repeated a prayer in Arabic while being strapped to the chair and readied for execution.
March 25, 1998 - God's Salvation Church - God's alleged TV appearance on Channel 18 at 12:01 on March 25, 1998, failed to materialize. Even in failure Mr. Chen -- the leader of the Taiwanese God's Salvation Church who predicted the coming of the Lord -- said his faith remains immutable.
Once the TV static was determined not to be God broadcasting the second coming, a contrite and candid Mr. Chen -- in his signature hat and white clothing -- emerged into the glare of television lights and microphones and asked others to dismiss his teachings: "Since God's appearance on television has not been realized, you can take what we have preached as nonsense. I would rather you don't believe what I say anymore."
Under the watchful eye of local authorities, legions of reporters with satellite trucks streamed to Garland for the long-awaited return of God. With no event to cover, the press enjoyed hovering over the harmless cultist and perhaps encouraging a news-making, Heaven's Gate type mass suicide.
March 24, 1998 - Arkansas Middle School Snipers - In a disquieting trend that is turning rural schools into the postal office of the 90s, two heavily armed kids dressed in camouflage opened fire on classmates and teachers in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing five and wounding 10. The snipers -- two cousins ages 11 and 13 -- lay hiding in the woods behind their school and started taking students down as they exited during a fake fire drill.
The two "gun-buddies" were caught heading towards a white van where they had more guns and ammunition. Giving a psycho-sexual tone to the bloodshed, ten of the wounded -- as well as the five dead -- were female. Apparently one of the boys was recently dumped by his girlfriend. A day before the massacre, the jilted 13-year-old boy warned friends, "he had a lot of killing to do." The girlfriend, Kim Candace Porter, was wounded in the massacre and is listed in stable condition at St. Bernards Regional Medical Center.
President Clinton -- on a trip around Africa -- called the shooting "horrifying." In a written statement he said: "Like all Americans, Hillary and I are deeply shocked and heartbroken by this afternoon's horrifying events."
March 23, 1998 - Gerald Stano - Florida's temperamental "Old Sparky" was at work again snuffing the life out of it's latest customer, 46-year-old serial killer Gerald Stano. The former short order cook made no final statement and stared straight ahead as he was strapped in. Unlike the last time "Old Sparky" was used there was no visible smoke or flames shooting from Gerald's head.
Having taken a one-year moratorium on electrocutions, the state of Florida is itching to start killing again. Not wasting any time, they have three more executions scheduled for the next eight days. The next to go are cop killer Leo Jones, 47, to be sizzled on the 24th, and Judy Buenoano, 54, on the 30th. The following day, spree killer Daniel Remeta, 40, is scheduled to be crisped.
March 22, 1998 - Ivan Milat - Australia's elite crime investigating unit launched a massive search of the coastal bush and dunes near Newcastle looking for clues to the fate of more than eight young people who disappeared from Hunter Valley and Central Coast in the past two decades. Though geographically the search areas are near Ivan Milat's hunting grounds, authorities were quick to point out they were not attempting to pin Ivan with additional murder charges. They also refused to say if these cases were the work of an unidentified serial killer.
March 21, 1998 - Charles Ng - Saying he has been "as patient as a judge can be," Santa Ana Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan told Ng's attorneys that the trial's September starting date was "nonnegotiable." The judge's decision meant that Ng will have to do without the services of San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Michael Burt, the only lawyer he has cooperated with.
Burt was Ng's original attorney and is still representing the former Marine on a murder charge in San Francisco. Ryan appointed Burt to the existing defense team led by Orange County Deputy Public Defender William Kelley. However, Burt feels he should be the lead attorney on the case, and says he needs more time to prepare. The judge noted that the case had already been moved back to September to accommodate Burt's schedule and would not impose a new delay.
Meanwhile, Kelley is seeking to have his client declared incompetent to stand trial because of his "obsession" with having Burt defend him. The defense attorney also made clear that he wants to be relieved of the case -- which is fast becoming the most expensive trial in California history -- because his client refuses to cooperate with him. Stay tuned for further delays on "As The Attorney Turns."
March 20, 1998 - Jacqueline Annette Williams - After two hours of deliberations, a jury convicted Jacqueline Annette Williams, 31, of first-degree murder for the 1995 killings of Debra Evans; her 10-year-old daughter, Samantha; and her 7-year-old son, Joshua.
March 19, 1998 - The Ijaw Tribe - According to a witness 30 people were sacrificed to local gods in an outbreak of inter-ethnic bloodshed in southern Nigeria. The victims, members of the Urhobo tribe, were murdered by members of the Ijaw tribe at a shrine in the village of Oboro in Bayelsa state. The witness said that 11 men, 10 women and nine children were killed after the chief priest performed a ritual. The Urhobos, who were aboard a funeral boat on a river in the Niger delta region, where attacked and forced to moor near the Ijaw village. Then they were stripped naked at a shrine to a local goddess and summarily sacrificed.
March 18, 1998 - Douglas M. Buchanan Jr. - When asked if he had a final statement, family annihilator Douglas M. Buchanan Jr., 29, smiled at witnesses in a booth at a Virginia death chamber and said, "Get the ride started. I'm ready to go." Ten minutes later he was dead from a lethal injection for the 1987 murders of his father, stepmother and two stepbrothers.
March 18, 1998 - Old Sparky vs. Gerald Stano - Bad news for misogynist serial killer Gerald Stano. After nearly a year of disuse, Florida's Senate voted unanimously to keep electrocuting its death row inmates. "Old Sparky" -- as the 75-year-old three-legged oak chair is known -- was temporarily retired following a plume of fire that shot from the head of it's last customer. The fire eventually was blamed on the executioners' failure to properly apply electrically conducting sponges in the chair's headpiece. Conveniently its use was reinstated just five days before Gerald Stano scheduled charring.
March 17, 1998 - Possible Johannesburg Serial Killer - South African police announced that a new serial killer (who might be a practicioner of ritualized religion called muti) is stalking little girls in the poverty-racked areas of Orange Farm and Ennerdale in southern Johannesburg. Authorities believe the suspected muti killer has killed and dismembered up to five girls since 1996.
March 17, 1998 - Alexi Polevoi - Angry supporters of Alexi Polevoi, a teenager jailed for murdering his father and five others, accused French investigators of deliberately turning a blind eye to evidence of mafia involvement. His murdered dad, a Soviet apparatchik turned entrepreneur, seemed to be heavily connected with all types of Russian underworld figures. Considering that other attempts at his life had been made previously, supporters of the jailed son feel that the youngster was used as a patsy by a professional hit squad that perpetrated the rampage.
March 16, 1998 - Possible Springfield Serial Killer - With the discovery of a fifth woman suffocated to death in four months, local authorities in Springfield, Massachusetts, believe they might have a serial killer in their midst.
March 16, 1998 - Timothy McVeigh - In a strange "the pot calling the kettle black" type scenario, Timothy McVeigh said the district attorney who may prosecute him on state charges in Oklahoma City was, "a bloodthirsty killer." In a two-page letter addressed to KOCO-TV reporter Terri Watkins, McVeigh complained about his appeal and called those who want him tried in Oklahoma "a lynch mob.". Not mincing words, McVeigh said District Attorney Robert 'Cowboy Bob' Macy was a "bow tie Bozo."
March 13, 1998 - Kentucky Occult Killers - Six young occultist who killed a Tennessee couple and their 6-year-old daughter as they returned from a Jehovah's Witnesses conference, were sentenced to life without parole. Criminal Court Judge James Beckner cited that the cruelty of the killings and the mental anguish the victims endured between being kidnapped, driven to the murder scene and shot justified the harshness of the sentences. Under a plea agreement, prosecutor Berkeley Bell agreed not to seek the death penalty against the four oldest defendants.
March 12, 1998 - Heather McGill - A young mother accused of killing her three children in a trailer fire because her boyfriend didn't want a ready-made family was acquitted of murder and arson. Heather McGill, who could have gotten the electric chair, covered her face upon hearing the verdict. A cheer went up from her supporters. Prosecutors claimed she set fire to her trailer home with charcoal lighter fluid last March while her children were in bed, killing her daughters, ages 5 and 7, and her 4-year-old son. Heather testified that she loved her children and did not set the fire. The defense argued the blaze was caused by an electrical problem.
March 11, 1998 - Michael Ross - Convicted serial killer Michael Ross -- acting as his own lawyer -- signed an agreement with state prosecutors acknowledging that his crimes were cruel and heinous and asking the court to put his execution order into effect. Ross has been diligently working on getting himself executed ever since he was convicted of kidnapping and murdering six eastern Connecticut women during the mid-1980s.
March 11, 1998 - Revenge Killing in Pakistan - More than a dozen gunmen in Nowshera -- a town 75 miles north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad -- opened fire on a vehicle carrying celebrants home from a wedding. Twelve people died in the attack and eight were wounded. Authorities linked the attack to a personal feud, not the religious and ethnic violence wracking Pakistan, the report said. Blood feuds are common in Pakistan's rugged Northwest Frontier province, where Nowshera is located.
March 10, 1998 - Jeffrey Franklin - A teen-ager -- who was apparently involved in devil worship -- attacked and killed his parents with an ax and a sledgehammer and critically wounded three siblings before leading police on a 25-minute wild car chase over curbs and through lawns. The 17-year-old devil worshiper from Huntsville, Alabama, was eventually caught and taken into custody after he drove onto a dead-end street and crashed his car in a back yard fence. The suspect, who had no shirt on at the time of his arrest, had a pitchfork and a pentagram carved in his chest and abdomen. He fought police and spat upon a photographer as he was led away
The three critically injured children -- a 12-year-old girl and two boys, ages 6 and 9 -- were taken to Huntsville Hospital where they're undergoing surgery. "The children all had very serious head and face injuries in what looked like an ax and some sort of large blunt force object," said hospital spokeswoman Terri Bryson. The only unharmed sibling, an 11-year-old girl, was in dance class at the time of the attack.
March 8, 1998 - Matthew Beck - The Associated Press reported that Beck -- who rampaged through the offices of Connecticut's state lottery killing four supervisors -- had complained months before to at least two newspapers that the lottery was cheating people. He claimed the Connecticut Lottery Corp. exaggerated potential winnings to spur ticket sales, and that store clerks were taking winning scratch tickets for themselves by cracking the computer system. He also complained to The Day of New London and The Hartford Courant about unfair treatment at work. The Courant described him as wild-eyed and frothing at the mouth, while the Day described him as "scruffy."
March 7, 1998 - Rafael Garviso - A man in Hialeah -- a predominantly Cuban neighborhood in Miami -- fatally shot his neighbor and his landlord before turning the gun on himself, all because his car was towed from a parking space at his apartment building. Rafael Garviso -- who had been living in the building for a week -- parked his car the night before in a parking space assigned to his neighbor Marcelino Aristides Colina.
When Garviso woke up the next morning his car had been towed. Irate, Garviso got into a confrontation about the missing car with the building's owner, Eduardo Felipe Ponce de Leon. Tempers flared and Ponce de Leon was shot to death. Then Garviso confronted and shot Colina. After asking a woman walking by the apartment building to call police, he went to his apartment and committed suicide.
March 6, 1998 - Vampire Clan - Heather Wendorf, the teen-ager whose parents were bludgeoned to death by her vampire cult buddies, sold the rights to her story to a true-crime author for $1,000. The writer, Aphrodite Jones, said the money was a good faith payment toward a possible $50,000 Hollywood movie deal. Curiously, not even a week ago, Heather's ex-boyfriend, Rod Ferrell, was sentenced to death.
March 6, 1998 - Michael Carneal - Lawyers for Michael Carneal, the teen high school rampager from West Paducah, Kentucky, said they will use a mental health defense for their client. According to attorney Charles Granner, Michael, 14, was "suffering from a diminished mental capacity" wen he killed three students at a school prayer meeting. Carneal faces life in prison without the chance for parole for 25 years on each of the murder charges. Kentucky law prohibits giving the death penalty to anyone under the age of 16.
March 6, 1998 - Matthew Beck - A disgruntled accountant opened fire at Connecticut's state lottery headquarters, killing four supervisors before putting a bullet through his own head. Matthew Beck, armed with a semiautomatic pistol and plenty of ammunition, shot dead three supervisors inside the building before chasing after Otho Brown, the state's lottery president. Brown, 54, ran to a parking lot where he stumbled and was shot dead. Later, as police closed in on him, Beck shot himself and fell just feet from his last victim.
March 6, 1998 - Texas Teen Vampires - Four teen-age vampires calling themselves the "2 Foot Bong Krew" went on a drug-crazed rampage in Dallas, vandalizing dozens of cars and homes, spray-painting racial slurs and satanic symbols on walls, and burning a church. The teens, high on methamphetamine-laced pot, ransacked through their quiet middle-class neighborhood causing more than $300,000 worth of damage.
Before their arrest, the firemen spotted some of the vampires -- who reportedly had marks on their arms from sucking each others blood -- in lawn chairs on top of a carport watching investigators as they went through the ruins of the church. The evidence they recovered led them to the home of a 16-year-old boy, who was not identified because of his age. He and his vampire friends -- Lucas Charles Simms, 17, Brandon Lee Ramsey, 18, and Charles Randal Kinnard, 19 -- were arrested and charged with arson.
March 4, 1998 - Elton Manning Jackson - Chesapeake Police Chief Richard A. Justice named Elton M. Jackson -- who has been charged with only one murder -- as the suspect in a serial killing spree that has claimed 12 predominantly gay men over the last decade. Jackson, 41, was arrested in May, 1997, after being investigated by local authorities and the FBI for over a year.
March 4, 1998 - John Williams - A Raleigh man with an IQ of 80 was sentenced to death for killing two crack-addicted women, raping and assaulting two more, and trying to rape and assault another one. Though he's not been charged with any other murders, John Williams remains a suspect in the slayings of three more poor women in downtown Raleigh.
March 4, 1998 - Australia's Gun Laws - The tough gun laws imposed in Australia by Prime Minister John Howard after Martin Bryant's April, 1996, massacre in Port Arthur, are succumbing to pressures from gun lobbies and fast becoming watered down former versions of themselves. The Victoria government is moving to abolish the law's requirement preventing an existing gun owner from taking delivery of a new weapon for 28 days. The Queensland and South Australian governments are also considering the move before local elections. Western Australia already abolished the waiting period last year.
March 4, 1998 - Joseph Franklin - Racist serial killer Joseph Franklin, 47, pleaded guilty to the 1978 murder of a black man in Chattanooga. He admitted to shooting William Tatum outside a Chattanooga restaurant because Tatum was with a white woman. According to Assistant District Attorney General Joseph Rehyansky, Franklin -- who he calls a "homicidal moron" -- has undergone "some sort of bizarre religious conversion." A believer in numerology, he demanded the court hearing be on the fourth, because the day -- the 63rd of the year -- corresponded with his favorite number -- 3.
March 4, 1998 - Alfons Goetzfried - German authorities have arrested a former Nazi officer in connection with the 1942-43 killings of 70,000 Jews at a concentration camp in Poland. Alfons Goetzfried, 78, admitted that he personally shot 500 men, women and children in November 1943 at a concentration camp at Majdanek, in Lublin, eastern Poland.
A one time Gestapo officer, Goetzfried was a low-ranking officer in the Nazi security police based in Lublin during the period of the murders. He was imprisoned for war crimes in the Soviet Union until 1958. After his release, he lived in Kazakhstan until 1991, when he moved to Germany under a program allowing repatriation of ethnic Germans.
March 4, 1998 - Russell Ellwood - A former cab driver, Russell Ellwood was arrested for two of 25 similar slayings in the New Orleans area. From 1991 to 1996 New Orleans police kept finding nude bodies in swamp lands around their city. Most were African-American, female, and prostitutes; some were men and some transsexuals. Some had been strangled, others apparently killed by drug overdoses. Ellwood is suspected in eight of these killings. Four more suspects -- including Victor Gant -- remain under investigation in connection with the remaining murders.
March 2, 1998 - Possible Glasgow Prostitute Killer - Police are investigating the latest in a string of murders of prostitutes in Glasgow after the body of a woman was found in the city's red light area. Margaret Lafferty, 27, also known as Margo, is the seventh prostitute in the area to be murdered in seven years. Several were murdered in the red light district. The previous victim was Tracy Wylde, 21, a single mother, whose body was discovered in her council flat in November. The investigation into her death has involved interviews with about 1,500 people as well as DNA tests on her former clients, friends and relatives. Police recently publicized pictures of a man filmed walking with Miss Wylde on the night she died.
March 2, 1998 - Michael Swango Even though he is suspected of being a most prolific serial killer, Michael Swango is due in a New York court to face relatively minor fraud charges for lying in a job interview and illegally prescribing narcotics to patients. Authorities believe Swango, 43, may have poisoned and killed as many as 60 patients under his care over the past 10 years in a lethal crime spree spanning hospitals in two continents.
January-February, 1998 - Morgue Archives - For previous entries to the Morgue check in the casualties filling the archives.
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