The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (43 page)

HUANG Yong

in Dahuangzhuang, then beaten and bound to a noodle-17, 18, or 23 corpses on Huang’s property. A report rolling machine for marathon torture sessions before from China with the count of 23 states that 16

they were finally strangled.

corpses were unearthed behind Huang’s house and Sixteen-year-old Zhang Liang swallowed Huang’s seven were extracted from a grave beneath his bed.

line on November 7, 2003, and followed his new friend Yet another report says 18 bodies were found, but home. Over the next four days, Zhang was tortured that Huang confessed to 25 murders. In any case, incessantly and choked three times to the point of Huang was finally charged with 17 murders. He

unconsciousness while Huang told him, “I’ve already freely admitted to police that he stalked young men in killed 25. You are the 26th.” On November 10, Zhang order to “experience the sensation of killing.” Huang saved himself with a lie of his own. Pleading for mercy, was convicted on all counts at a three-hour trial on the youth promised to acknowledge Huang as his god-December 9, 2003. He was executed by a firing squad father and care for Huang in his old age. Huang not on December 26, but the case still had one more sur-only believed the preposterous story, but also gave prise in store.

Zhang money for his journey home. Zhang spent the On March 26, 2004, survivors of Huang’s victims night with friends, then went home on November 11

found remains of another victim at Huang’s home, and called police the following day. In a raid, Huang along with bloodstained kitchen knives that bore was arrested on November 12 and his home was exca-traces of human hair. Police followed up the report on vated for remains of the dead.

April 15 and found yet another corpse at the scene, Confusion surrounds the results of that search, officially describing the latest unknown dead as “vic-with various media reports claiming that police found tims 18 and 19.”

121

I

“I-45 Killer”

staunchly denies). The punch line of the federal profile In the 15 years from 1982 to 1997, 42 teenage girls and was direct and to the point—“Serial sexual offender: young women were kidnapped from small towns and Robert William Abel.”

suburbs along Interstate Highway 45 between Houston That profile alone was deemed sufficient to support a and Galveston, Texas. Many of those were later found search warrant, and police moved in, seeking—among dead, described by local authorities and FBI agents as other things—a cache of nude photos described by the victims of one or more serial killers prowling the SO

Abel’s wife. In fact, they
did
find photographs, some miles of wide-open highway. Despite the four-year focus 6,000 in all, of which precisely two depicted naked of police attention on a single suspect, no evidence has women, neither of them victims in the murder case. No been found to support an indictment, and by early evidence was found at Abel’s ranch connecting him 1998, it appeared that authorities had been mistaken in with any sort of criminal activity.

their choice of targets all along.

Frustrated in their search for clues, League City The most recent victim in the murder series was 17-police took the unusual step of naming Abel publicly as year-old Jessica Cain, last seen alive while performing a suspect in the I-45 murder case. He was “innocent with a local theater group one night in August 1997.

until proven guilty,” of course, but in the absence of Following the show, she left for home, driving alone alternate suspects, his life became a waking hell on down I-45, but she never reached her destination. Jes-earth, with death threats pouring in from neighbors and sica’s father found her pickup truck abandoned on the the relatives of sundry victims. One such, Tim Miller, shoulder of the highway, and her name was added to having lost his daughter Laura to the I-45 killer, the ever-growing victims list.

launched a personal crusade of daily “reminders” to By that time, police believed they knew the man Abel, including armed visits to his home and threats of responsible. Their suspect, Robert William Abel, was a murder recorded on Abel’s answering machine. League former NASA engineer and operator of a horseback rid-City’s finest, still convinced that Abel was their man, ing ranch near League City, in Brazoria County. Abel took no steps to prevent the harassment and stalled first came under suspicion in 1993, when the corpses of when Abel volunteered to take a polygraph exam. In four missing girls were found in the desert near his fact, while League City’s assistant police chief publicly property. FBI agents spent a grand total of two hours

“welcomed” Abel’s cooperation in the case, said coop-with League City police, sketching a psychological pro-eration only made matters worse, since such behavior is file of the killer based on such traits as “intelligence common among serial killers.

level” and assumed proximity to the crime scene. Abel’s It was early 1998 before Robert Abel got to take his ex-wife pitched in with tales of alleged domestic abuse long-sought polygraph, courtesy of the television show, (“externalized anger,” in FBI parlance) and claims that 20/20. In fact, two tests were administered by a retired Abel sometimes beat his horses (a charge that he FBI agent, with Abel denying any knowledge of the four
122

INCARCERATION of Serial Killers

victims found near his ranch in 1993. He hesitated in the name of Wisconsin’s “Mad Biter”? Montreal’s responding to one surprise question, dealing with

“Vampire Rapist”? The “Peeping Tom” gunman of

rumors of a young victim’s drug use, and was rated Washington, D.C.?

“untruthful” in respect to that answer, but a second Unfortunately, the relief engendered by conviction of test, administered without trick questions, found him to a ruthless predator is often premature. In far too many be truthful on all counts. FBI agents in Houston called cases, disposition through a prison sentence—even life the 20/20 test “extremely significant,” admitting that without parole—is anything but final. Random killers the four-year-old profile of Abel was “poor quality”

have a way of coming back to haunt society at large work on the part of their colleagues. In fact, they told beyond the scope of retrospective articles and tabloid the world, Robert Abel had been eliminated as a sus-TV broadcasts. All too often, they come back against pect in their eyes, and even Tim Miller appeared to all odds to kill again.

repent his harassment of Abel with a televised apology.

Serial killers, like “normal” felons, respond to con-Not so the lawmen in League City. Abel may indeed finement in various ways. As natural chameleons, be innocent, they say, but since they have no solid evi-skilled from childhood in the art of covering their dence to clear him by their own exacting standards, tracks, some become model prisoners, following every Abel “is still swimming in the pool of suspects.” One is rule to the letter, working overtime to counsel and tempted to ask
what
pool, since vague local references encourage other inmates. Many “get religion” and are to “other suspects” always stop short of naming alter-

“born again,” as in the case of Charles (“Tex”) Watson, native candidates. Texas courts have barred Abel from a MANSON FAMILY alumnus who runs his own ministry filing a lawsuit to clear his name, ruling that League from behind prison walls, receiving regular donations City police are within their rights to publicize him as a from his flock.

suspect, even when the original FBI profile has been It may be argued (and persuasively) that random retracted.

killers mind the rules or “find the Lord” with self-The
real
I-45 Killer, meanwhile, remains unidentified serving motives in mind, striving to please their cap-and presumably still at large. Women added to the tally tors and influence future parole boards. Author Joel since the first edition of this work was published Norris, on the other hand, describes compliance with include: 39-year-old Jo Ann Sendejas, missing since authority as a serial killer’s natural reflex, induced by December 1999 from the San Leon home she shared imposition of an orderly environment and the removal with her sister (investigators are uncertain whether of those stimuli—drugs, alcohol, pornography, even Sendejas was abducted from the house or climbed out junk food—which contribute to erratic, aberrant her own bedroom window); 57-year-old Tot Tran Har-behavior. Whichever theory finally wins out, the fact riman, who vanished with her car while visiting rela-remains that many random killers never adapt to life tives in League City during July 2001; and 23-year-old in a cage, including 2 percent who wriggle out of cus-Sarah Trusty, who vanished while riding her bicycle tody by means of suicide. At the same time, another 2

through Texas City in July 2002. Two weeks later, fish-percent of America’s serial slayers continue to kill ermen pulled her corpse from a local canal.

behind bars, venting their rage on guards, fellow Texas prison inmate Mark Roland Stallings, serving inmates, even visitors. Another S percent have jail-489 years for aggravated assault and attempted escape, breaks on their records, and 71 percent of those who confessed two of the I-45 slayings in November 2001, escape commit one or more murders before they are further implicating himself in the murders of four other run to ground.

women around Houston. At press time for this volume, Parole is unlikely (though not unknown) for notori-no further charges had been filed against Stallings, and ous serial killers, but a glance at the record reveals a his role in the killings (if any) remains uncertain.

frightening number who were paroled after their first slaying, sometimes having bargained murder charges down to a lesser offense, such as manslaughter or
INCARCERATION of Serial Killers

aggravated assault. HENRY LUCAS was paroled 10 years Society tends to forget about criminals once they are after killing his mother, free to launch a nationwide convicted and sentenced to prison or death. Each new murder spree, and at least 30 other serial slayers have day brings banner headlines of a fresh atrocity, another been released to kill again in similar circumstances. The bogeyman to conjure waking nightmares. Last year’s problem is worse with JUVENILE KILLERS, since most monster is a fading memory, except to his or her surviv-states demand release of youthful offenders at age 18 or ing victims, grisly details dusted off for special anniver-21, often with their criminal records sealed by court saries and sporadic parole hearings. Who, aside from a order, thus masking their proven potential for violence.

handful of aging detectives and crime buffs, remembers Such cases are the first cited by supporters of CAPITAL

123

“INDEPENDENCE Avenue Killer”

PUNISHMENT, who remind us that no killer to date has for “tricks” on Independence Avenue. If she was mur-returned from the grave to repeat his crimes.

dered, as authorities assume, her disappearance two
See also
INSANITY DEFENSE; TRIAL

days prior to Christy Fugate’s would make her the killer’s first known victim. Forty-year-old Jamie Pankey dropped out of sight on November 1, 1996,

“INDEPENDENCE Avenue Killer”

and the youngest suspected victim, 19-year-old Nicknamed for the street in Kansas City, Missouri, Cheresa Lordi, was last seen alive on February 24, where his female victims plied their trade as prostitutes, 1997. The case was profiled on
America’s Most
this unidentified serial slayer is blamed for 10 murders
Wanted
in spring 1998, but it remains unsolved at this and the disappearance of three other women since writing. Detectives are at a loss for clues and hope that October 1996. The victims found to date have all been their quarry makes a critical mistake and is identified pulled from the Missouri River, downstream from before he claims more lives.

Kansas City, suggesting to police that their bodies may have been dropped from various urban bridges. Thus far, aside from an assumption that the killer must be
INSANITY Defense Used by Serial Killers

male, nothing is known that would identify a suspect in In any murder case, the first responsibility of prosecu-the case.

tors and defense attorneys is determination of the sus-The Independence Avenue Killer’s first acknowledged pect’s mental state. Our legal system makes allowances victim was 21-year-old Christy Fugate; last seen alive for individuals whose aberrant behavior is compelled on October 3, 1996, her corpse was pulled from the by mental illness, sparing them from punishment as river in neighboring Lafayette County, east of Kansas common criminals. The general public has been outCity, 12 days later. A month after that grim discovery, raged in recent years by cases like that of would-be on November 19, 20-year-old Connie Wallace-Byas presidential assassin John Hinckley, where verdicts of made her last appearance on the Independence Avenue

“not guilty by reason of insanity” spare defendants

“stroll”; the only black victim, she was missing five from execution or prison, instead consigning them to months before her body surfaced in Boone County, 90

mental institutions for an indefinite term. Surveys of miles to the east, in April 1997. Meanwhile, the killer public opinion reveal a consensus that many or most had claimed three more victims: 26-year-old Sherri Liv-accused felons try to “cop a plea” with bogus insanity ingston, vanished on February 14, dragged from the schemes, large numbers of them slipping through the water in Lafayette County on March 29; 41-year-old cracks and serving “easy time” before they are released Linda Custer, missing since February 27, found near once more into society.

Dover in Lafayette County on April 23; and 30-year-old In fact, statistics show that only one percent of all Chandra Helsel, last seen alive on April 5, hauled from American felony suspects plead insanity at trial, and the river on May 8 near Booneville in Cooper County, barely one in three of those is finally acquitted. Serial some 70 miles to the east. Tammy Smith was four murders, with their bizarre trappings of sadism, months shy of her 31st birthday when she vanished necrophilia, and the like, seem ideally suited to insanity from Independence Avenue on December 20, 1997; her pleas, but even here the odds against acquittal are corpse was found in the river near Silby, Missouri, on extreme. Since 1900 in America, only 3.6 percent of April 2, 1998.