The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (44 page)

identified serial killers have been declared incompetent At this writing, police in Kansas City say that four for trial or cleared by reason of insanity.

more women’s bodies have been found along the river Unfortunately, there is no firm definition of
insan-banks, all counted as probable victims of the Indepen-ity
in the United States, beyond the fact that it dence Avenue Killer. The dead were all alleged or con-remains a strictly legal term, divorced from any diag-victed prostitutes, similar in height and weight, all but nosis of specific mental illness. Nationwide, the 50

one of them Caucasian. Advanced decomposition and states are free to draft their own peculiar guidelines, submersion in the river’s swiftly flowing depths have chasing abstract terminology around in circles while thus far wiped out any useful clues that might have the individual defendants—and their countless vic-helped identify the slayer, and police are mum on cause tims—are ignored.

of death.

One test of sanity, applied in 16 states, is the Besides the 10 acknowledged dead, investigators M’Naughten rule. Named for a paranoid schizophrenic fear that three missing women may also have fallen who murdered the British prime minister’s secretary in prey to their local stalker. Alleged prostitute Connie 1843, this rule is widely favored on the basis of its sim-Williams, age 32, was last seen at her mother’s home ple (some would say simplistic) definition of insanity.

in Kansas City, but police say she was known to strut According to M’Naughten

124

IONOSYAN, Vladimir M.

To establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must defendant convicted under this rule is sent directly to a be proved that at the time of committing of the act the mental institution, there confined until he or she is party accused was laboring under such a defect of rea-deemed healthy enough to begin serving the appropri-son from disease of the mind as not to know the nature ate prison term. Some critics of this system have and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know, denounced it as an underhanded abolition of “insan-that he did not know what he was doing was wrong.

ity,” exalting public pressure over human rights, first curing the insane,
then
punishing them for actions A few states supplemented M’Naughten with the so-beyond their control.

called irresistible impulse test established by British The controversy has not been resolved, by any

courts in 1840 and transplanted to America in 1886. As means, and while it rages, antiquated doctrines like explained by Justice Somerville of Alabama in an early M’Naughten will undoubtedly survive. A fearful public case: “The disease of insanity can so affect the power of should draw consolation from the fact that in this cen-the mind as to subvert the freedom of the will, and tury, less than 2 percent of all serial killers have been thereby destroy the power of the victim to choose deemed incompetent for trial (one of them an illiterate between right and wrong, though he perceives it.” Pros-deaf mute, incapable of communicating with his ecutors often counter a plea of irresistible impulse with lawyer) and a comparably small number acquitted on hypothetical arguments of “the policeman at the grounds of insanity. At the same time, there
have
been elbow,” seeking admissions that a given defendant real-life horror stories of insane killers “cured” and could, in fact, restrain himself at chosen times. Today, released to kill again—EDMUND KEMPER is a shocking the question is moot, with a 1984 federal statute abol-case in point—and public fears of such mistakes, while ishing tests for the fabled “irresistible impulse.”

generally exaggerated, are not without basis in fact.

In 1954, a judgment from the District of Columbia
See also
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; INCARCERATION; established the new Durham rule, sometimes called the

“MASK OF SANITY”; PARAPHILIA; TRIAL

“products test.” In that decision, it was held that “An accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect.”

IONOSYAN, Vladimir M.

Those terms, in turn, were vague enough to require In early January 1964, residents of Moscow whispered clarification through a second case in the same juris-warnings to their neighbors of a mysterious long-nosed diction, defining “mental disease or defect” as “any killer prowling the city, knocking on doors at random, abnormal condition which substantially affects mental and gaining entry to the homes of his victims by posing or emotional processes and substantially affects as a meter-reader for Moscow Gas. It seemed a nearly behavior controls.”

foolproof gimmick, since the men from Mosgas made Officially unrecognized outside the nation’s capital, their rounds each month and were unlikely to arouse Durham remained in effect until 1972, when the new suspicion.

Brawner rule—also dubbed the “substantial capacity In the absence of reliable reports, with widespread test”—was inaugurated by the same judge who wrote tales of women slain and children mutilated, paranoia the Durham decision. Adopted by several states as part took control. By midmonth the authorities reported of a Model Penal Code, the new rule provides that that at least two Mosgas workers had been violently assaulted on their rounds, roughed up by tenants who 1. A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if were not inclined to scrutinize credentials. It became a at the time of such conduct as a result of mental standing joke for friends to telephone each other, hang-disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity ing on the line in silence for a while before they whis-either to appreciate the criminality (wrongfulness) pered, “Mosgas calling.”

of his conduct or to conform in conduct to the On January 16, Moscow police announced the arrest requirement of the law.

of a suspect in the case. Vladimir lonosyan, 26, was an 2. As used in this Article, the terms “mental disease unemployed actor fallen on hard times. He had turned or defect” do not include any abnormality mani-to burglary as a source of revenue, reportedly killing in fested only by repeated criminal or otherwise

the process. Charged with the ax murders of two boys antisocial conduct.

and a woman in downtown Moscow, Ionosyan was also linked with two similar killings in a suburban district.

Another modern guideline for insanity proceedings, Vladimir’s arrest resulted from a general police alert pioneered in Michigan in 1975 and since adopted by to taxi drivers, circulating suspect sketches with instruc-seven other states, is the verdict of “guilty but men-tions to beware of anyone who looked suspicious. Offi-tally ill.” Specifics vary, but in most jurisdictions a cers were summoned after Ionosyan stopped a trucker
125

IQBAL, Javed

on the street and tried to sell a television set—a luxury of an unnamed “religious militant organization.” Fifty in Soviet society—at bargain prices.

persons were injured and 20 arrested on December 9, A three-day trial resulted in Ionosyan’s conviction on when police clashed with 300 marchers protesting the five counts of murder. Sentenced to death on January manhunt’s lack of progress.

31, 1964, he was shot by a firing squad the next day.

Public shock deepened on December 15, when

Vladimir’s female accomplice, former ballerina Alevtina reporters published excerpts from Iqbal’s diary, naming Dmitrieva, received a sentence of 15 years in prison.

23 persons as “accomplices in the crime.” Two of those named were police officers, who soon joined six others in jail. The diary explained that Iqbal’s 100 victims
IQBAL, Javed

were slaughtered between June 20 and November 13, On December 2, 1999, police in Lahore, Pakistan, 1999, with the 40th killed on the day of his mother’s received a startling letter, dated November 22 and funeral. Iqbal wrote that some of his alleged accom-signed by one Javed Iqbal. The note included a confes-plices had “forced” him to murder their “rivals,” but sion to the sexual abuse and murder of 100 boys, with that assertion clashed with his descriptions and photos directions to Iqbal’s three-room rented home in a poor of underage victims. While Punjab lawmakers debated suburb, located 200 yards from the nearest police sta-a change in the criminal code, mandating police to reg-tion. Officers swarmed to the scene, where they found ister missing-child cases, detectives admitted that Iqbal the mutilated remains of three boys dissolving in a vat had visited CIA headquarters on November 27 to bail of acid. Twelve more drums contained chemical cock-out an alleged accomplice named Shahzad Sajid who tails with traces of human tissue. (“In terms of was detained on unrelated charges. On that date, expense,” Iqbal wrote, “including the acid, it cost me agency spokesmen admitted, Iqbal’s confession had 120 rupees [$2.40] to erase each victim.”) Also found already been received by police and passed on to the inside the house were sacks of photographs and chil-CIA for evaluation. Sheer negligence had permitted dren’s clothing, dozens of small shoes and board games, Iqbal’s escape.

and a diary detailing Iqbal’s gruesome activities.

Tired of the chase at last, Iqbal appeared on Decem-Detectives knew Iqbal as a 38-year-old chemical ber 30, 1999 at the office of
Jang,
an Urdu newspaper engineer and accused child molester, charged three in Lahore. Wearing a black mask to disguise his face, times with sodomy (but never convicted) in the years Iqbal surrendered to reporters and described a near-since 1990. Now, his letter threatened suicide while miss with police that afternoon, when officers had police offered a reward of 1 million rupees ($19,600) nabbed two more alleged accomplices in Sohawa.

for information leading to Iqbal’s arrest. Meanwhile, Before detectives reached the
Jang
office, Iqbal told the parents of missing children flocked to view the clothes staff, “I could have killed 500; this was not a problem.

and photos seized from Iqbal’s home. Relics of 69 boys Money was not a problem. But the pledge I had taken were identified by December 7, though the acid vat vic-was of 100 children, and I never wanted to violate this.

tims were burned beyond recognition. In a grim echo of DEAN ARNOLD CORLL’s case from the 1970s, provincial governor Mohammed Safdar accused police of ignoring missing-child reports throughout Lahore.

On December 6, 1999, authorities jailed two alleged friends of Iqbal, 19-year-old Zafar Ahmed and 15-year-old Muhammad Sabir. The youths allegedly confessed to raping and murdering 25 children, who were lured to Iqbal’s home with promises of food, shelter, and videos.

Once there, the victims had been sexually assaulted, drugged, smothered with pillows, and dissolved in acid.

Suspect Ishaq Billa, accused by police of selling Iqbal the acid, died on December 7 when he fell from a second-story window of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) in Lahore. Detectives called it suicide, but four officers were charged with Billa’s murder on December 12. Meanwhile, detectives held Iqbal’s wife and daughter “to put pressure on the accused.” They also Javed Iqbal (left) arrives at a court with two children in detained former councilor Malik Shaukat for question-Lahore, Pakistan, after turning himself in to police on ing, on grounds that he and Iqbal were both members January 6, 2000. (AP Photo/Khalid Chaudary)

126

IQBAL, Javed

I have no regrets. I killed 100 children. I was denied jus-Azam named Iqbal as “the most heinous offender” in tice.” Specifically, he claimed police had beaten him Pakistan’s history. “He is a beast, not a man,” Azam after one of his sodomy arrests, leaving him impotent.

proclaimed. Iqbal’s diary, complete with photos of his

“I was so badly beaten that my head was crushed, my victims and handwritten details of their suffering, made backbone broken and I was left crippled,” Iqbal said. “I telling evidence against him. He countered by inviting hate this world. My mother cried for me. I wanted 100

spectators to feel dents in his skull, allegedly inflicted by mothers to cry for their children.” In seeking victims, police truncheons. “I am not a well man,” he testified.

Iqbal explained, “I went for healthy, strong-looking

“My eyesight has been affected and my jawbone was boys, not frail kids.” He had chosen
Jang,
Iqbal said, broken. I have problems walking.” As for the crimes of because “The truth would not have seen the light of day which he stood accused, Iqbal said, “I was a witness to had I surrendered to the police.” In conclusion, he the killings but I myself have done nothing. The mur-declared, “I know my fate. I am ready to face the conse-ders were done in my house by 20 friends of mine. I quences of my actions.”

only confessed because I wanted to bring them to the Making his first court appearance on January 6, attention of the authorities. I was broken inside and 2000, Iqbal told Magistrate Mian Hussain, “I am wanted to die. I felt guilty about what my friends had guilty, I again confess my crime against the nation and I done.” On March 9, Iqbal changed his story yet again, am not afraid of death.” Proclaiming himself “the telling the court that none of the missing boys had been nation’s culprit,” Iqbal declared that he would not slain.