Crimes of the Century - No. 21 - The Versace Killing Spree, 1997

The Versace Killing Spree, 1997

Today's crime of the century was just horrible.  It was all over the news - one, because the killer was gay, two, because the victim was a famous fashion designer and three, because he started killing everyone in his path.  Can you imagine if someone tried killing Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein or Giorgio Armani today. 

While the article by TIME (below) gives insight into the crime, you can also  go here to read the drama as it unfolded during those awful three months in 1997.

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Dismissed by his mother as a "high class male prostitute" and defended by his father as an "altar boy," Andrew Cunanan is indelibly cast in popular memory as the drug-using gay spree killer with AIDS, even though no one is certain what drugs he was on, if any, during his murderous three month rampage in 1997 or even if he had been properly tested for HIV before or after his death. Starting out in California, he would kill five people in all: two former lovers, both in Minnesota; a rich man in Chicago from whom he stole a Lexus; a cemetery caretaker in New Jersey, from whom he took a pick-up truck, fearing that police were on to the Lexus; and, most infamously, he killed the glitzy fashion designer Gianni Versace in Miami. Cunanan, 27, finally killed himself in an unoccupied houseboat not two miles away from the scene of his last crime. From what is known of him, he liked to embellish his biography, loved to spend money he did not have and learned to deal drugs. He was fueled by envy, obsessed with status and fame. That, combined with the realization that his looks were failing — and thus his marketability to rich gay men — may have led to a panic. But only Cunanan knew for certain what his motives were. The high life can produce very low forms of existence.

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TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

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To read the previous 20 crimes - click my logo below.

 

Crimes of the Century - No. 16 - Jeffrey Dahmer

 
JEFFREY DAHMER, 1991

 

His surname is now synonymous with "monster." Yet at least 17 times, Jeffrey Dahmer was able to get young men and boys to come home with him. In one incident, on the night of May 27, 1991 in Milwaukee, a 14-year-old managed to escape and wandered into the streets with Dahmer in pursuit. When the cops started asking questions, Dahmer was able to convince the police that it was merely a lovers' quarrel. The police conclusion: "Intoxicated Asian, naked male. Was returned to his sober boyfriend." 

 

Like the dozen before him and four after, the young man was eventually strangled and dismembered. Dahmer kept his skull as a souvenir. He stored parts of his victims in vats. He ate them. Dahmer's crimes raised several inchoate fears and revulsions: cannibalism, sexuality, class and race -- most of his victims were poor, African-American, Asian or Latino, while Dahmer was white. After his arrest on July 22, 1991, Dahmer was sentenced to nearly a thousand years in jail. He was killed by an inmate in November 1994.

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While the article above was just a short bio on a man known for all these heinous crimes, I recommend reading more about him here.  He truly was an evil human being. 

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TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

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To read the previous 15 crimes - click my logo below.

 

Famous Last Meals of the Green Mile

So what did all those famous notorious murderers have as their final meal?  One only wanted an olive with the pit in it. But another wanted 12 fried shrimp, a bucket of original recipe KFC, French Fries and a pound of strawberries.  Pretty darn interesting.

Victor Feguer

-28 yrs

-Florida

-Kidnap and Murder

-Lethal injection

-Single olive with the

pit in it

Angel Nieves Diaz

-55 yrs

-Florida

-Murder, kidnapping,

armed robbery

-Lethal injection

- Declined a meal*

*Was served the regular

prison meal instead,

but declined this also

Timothy McVeigh

-33 yrs

-Indiana

-168 counts of murder

-Lethal injection

-2 pints of mint and

chocolate chip ice

cream

Ricky Ray Rector

-42 yrs

-Arkansa

-2 counts of murder

-Lethal injection

-Steak

-Fried Chicken

-Cherry Kool-Aid

-Pecan pie*

*he left the pecan pie, telling a guard he was 'saving it for later.'

John Wayne Gacy

-52 yers

-Illinois

-Rape, 33 counts of

murder

-Lethal injection

-12 fried shrimp

-Bucket of original

recipe KFC*

-French Fries

-1 lb of Strawberries

*prior to being convicted Gacy had had managed 3 KFC restaurants

Ted Bundy

-43 yrs

-Florida

-Rape, Necrophilia,

prison escape, 35+

counts of murder

-Electric chair

-Declined a 'special' meal, so was given the traditional last meal

-Steak (medium rare)

-eggs (over easy)

-hash browns

-toast with butter and

jelly

-milk

-juice

Ronnie Lee Gardner

-49 yrs

-Utah

-Burglary, Robbery, 2

counts of murder

-Firing Squad

-Lobster tail

-Steak

-Apple pie

-Vanilla ice cream

-Eat while watching the

Lord of the Rings trilogy

Personally, I don't think any of them deserved last meals, they didn't give their victims last meals, why should they?

Crimes of the Century - No. 13 - John Wayne Gacy

JOHN WAYNE GACY, 1978

The warning signs were there: the arrest for sodomy with a minor; another sexual offense with a child; the strange smell, like dead things, in his house. But John Wayne Gacy was also an upstanding citizen: he helped out the neighbors, he was the chaplain of the Jaycees, he dressed up as roly-poly Pogo the Clown to entertain children. But when police came asking questions in December 1978, Gacy started confessing. And so the cops looked in the house's 40-ft. crawl space, beneath the garage and under the house. They found the bodies and remains of 28 young men and boys; Gacy said there were four others that he had thrown into the river. 

By the end of the year, police had practically torn the house down in their search. There was no question that Gacy would be found guilty; and a jury took barely an hour to come to that decision. He was sentenced to death, under new guidelines that would make sure the penalty was not "cruel and unusual" and therefore within constitutional bounds. But Gacy's execution by lethal injection in 1994 would reopen that question; instead of a five-minute procedure, the process took 18 and Gacy was clearly struggling as he perished. The critics asked: Was this cruel and unusual? His victims' families were unanimous: so was Gacy.

TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

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You can learn more about this notorious killer here, and how he became an embarassment to the Secret Service when he was photographed with the First Lady, Rosalynn Carter in 1978.  Gacy was an organizer of a Polish parade that was held in Chicago every year.  In the photo, Gacy is wearing a pin with an "S" on it - meaning he received some special clearance by the Secret Service.  Geez, it's amazing what you can learn by taking the time to read.

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To read the previous 12 crimes - click the logo.

Crimes of the Century - No. 12 - The Son of Sam

THE SON OF SAM, 1977

New York seemed to be going to hell in the summer of 1977. Already in perpetual fiscal crisis the city was plunged into a 25-hour blackout on July 13 that saw massive looting and arson. And the Son of Sam killer was still out there after more than a year, waiting to kill again, sending his perverse missives to the police and to New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin. The killer had called himself the Son of Sam in his letters, which spoke of Papa Sam as a drinker of blood and master of Satanic mayhem. And on July 31, the Son of Sam struck again, shooting a young woman, who was killed, and her male companion, who would be blinded. But it would be the last attack. 

A witness on the night of that shooting saw a man in the neighborhood remove a parking ticket from a Ford Galaxie. The police tracked their records and found 24-year-old David Berkowitz, a dweeby, pudgy employee of the U.S. Postal Service. Trained as a sharpshooter with the M16 rifle in the U.S. Army, he had used a .44 pistol in all the shootings, killing six and wounding seven. Who was Sam? Sam, said Berkowitz, was a cantankerous former neighbor. But Berkowitz said he was the devil and that he transmitted his orders through the infernal and incessant barkings of his dog, Harvey.

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You can learn more about this notorious killer here, and yes the maniac is still alive.  He is currently serving time at a correctional facility in Fallsburg, New York with his next parole hearing due in May of this year.  He has been denied the previous 5 times so it is unlikely he will be granted one.

TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

Go back and read the previous 11 crimes here.

Killers on the Road

Came across a small article in Newsweek regarding the following chart.  It was created by the FBI after they followed-up on a murder investigation that occurred off Interstate 40 in Oklahoma.  You can read the article here, and click on the picture to enlarge.  Even though a majority of serial killers are Truckers, and most deaths prostitutes, it's still chilling to know these people are out there - killing every day.

click to enlarge

The red dots denote locations where bodies or remains have been found in more than 500 cases in the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative database from 1979 - 2009. According to its study, suspects involved in these killings are primarily truck drivers, and most victims are women "who are living high-risk, transient lifestyles, often involving substance abuse and prostitution."