CLEWS The Historic True Crime Blog

A Boston Serial Killer Brought to Light

A former prosecutor has brought to light - if not to justice - a serial killer that roamed the Boston area in the 1970s and '80s.

Boston attorney Timothy M. Burke's new book, The Paradiso Files: Boston's Unknown Serial Killer [Amazon; B&N], was issued by Random House. The author posits that Leonard Paradiso was connected to one murder but guilty of as many as seven.

If the author's credentials, subject matter, and publisher aren't endorsement enough, the book has already been hailed as a page-turner. Said Kirkus Reviews: "This deserves mention alongside Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter (1974) and Robert Graysmith’s Zodiac (1986) as a stellar exploration of the soul of a mass murderer." That's quite a set of comparisons in this genre.

The publisher offers an excerpt on its website. The author recently sat down for an interview on a local Fox broadcast.

The accused man died on Feb. 28, 2008 - nine days after the book was released - and took his secrets with him.

One of those secrets may well have been his involvement in the disappearance of Harvard student Joan Webster, a missing persons case that was widely publicized in the early 1980s.

Don't serial killers scare us any more?

True crime author Morley Swingle (Scoundrels to the Hoosegow and others) has no time to write these days; he's prosecuting a serial killer of five women captured twenty-five years after the fact with DNA evidence. SOLVED is the simple headline over a deeply researched piece in the Southeast Missourian about the murderous career and capture of Timothy Krajcir and the victims of his crimes.

Ten, fifteen years ago, that might have been a national headline. What ever happened to the serial killer headlines? Does it seem to you as though their stock is slipping a bit these days?

Some blame The Silence of the Lambs for making serial killers "cool."

Others say The Silence of the Lambs is the reason they're no longer "cool." Fiction writers Martin Edwards and Minette Walters weighed in with such takes in The Decline of the Serial Killer? 

Even though profilers have actually had quite a bit of trouble getting their testimony admitted into the courts, some posit that serial killers are not the boogeymen they once were because they've been conquered in the movies by profilers.

Now it's spree killers we're afraid of - seemingly unstoppable, random, the new ultimate evil- just as, a century ago, poisoners were considered the apex predator, if you will. I think serial killers have always fascinated and scared us, particularly young people, even from behind bars, and I doubt it will end. But I for one am just tired of hearing about them.... which, I hate to admit, may well be a function of age.

Remembering the 22-caliber Killers

A long time ago now a pair of the Devil's sons haunted central Ohio for a full year, terrorizing the entire countryside with a series of fatal home invasions. The horror finally ended in their imprisonment but not before they shattered the peace thirty years ago.

The story of the .22-Caliber Killers was explored in the 2005 book A Year of Fear: The Story of the .22 Calibre-Killers Gary and Thaddeus Lewingdon by Bill Queen. The author was recently interviewed for an article in the Newark Advocate on the 30th anniversary of the first murder committed by the Lewingdon devils, who both died in prison. The Crime Library (R.I.P.) also has a piece by David Lohr on The Blood Brothers.

This is how the case was reported in the Marysville Journal-Tribune in May 1979 alongside ads for movies.

Coral Watts is Dead, God Damn His Soul

It is a terrible, a sad day in Michigan today. Coral Eugene Watts is dead at 53 of prostate cancer.

That psychosexual sickness that led him to indiscriminate murder must have festered until it killed him.

We will never know, not now, if he did indeed murder a hundred women, as he once claimed. He died without confessing.

He is, at this moment, if there is any justice in this plane or the next, signing his confession at the gates of Hell.

For more --

The Disturbing Reason Why You’ve Never Heard of Coral Eugene Watts

A Macabre Reminder of Bundy

Guest Post by Kevin M. Sullivan

(Many true crime junkies remember Snitch, the great but short-lived crime rag. I've already pinched one piece from the pages of Snitch for Clews. Now Kentucky true crime writer Kevin Sullivan has kindly agreed to share a piece he first wrote for Snitch after he met Retired Det. Jerry Thompson, the famous homicide investigator from Utah who first connected Bundy and his VW to several murders. Kevin is also working on a book about Ted Bundy; there's more to say about him, he says. In this essay, Kevin details an interesting item he came across in his research.)

At approximately 9:30, on the evening of May 30, 2005, in what were the waning hours of Memorial Day night, I phoned my wife from my car, and excitedly asked her to move any and all items from our dining room table. I then informed her that I was “bringing the gym bag home with me and I’ll have it for at least an hour”.

My wife, of course, already knew about the bag from my conversation the previous night, when I first laid eyes upon it, handled its contents, and entered into what you might call a mild, but shocked sense of exhilaration that was to stay with me for the next several days.

For you see, what I was gazing upon was not some ordinary gym bag belonging to any ordinary person. No, the bag in question-and all of its contents-were once the property of Ted Bundy, perhaps the most infamous and prolific serial killer to ever roam the cities, highways, and woods of North America.

And so as I stared at this old, and somewhat dry rotted leather bag lying next to me in the passenger seat, I was struck by how unusual a situation this was I was now finding myself in. After all, here I was driving through the darkened streets of the Hikes Point area of eastern Louisville, heading for my home, with the very bag Ted Bundy carried during his murder spree.

Indeed, by the time he was arrested in August of 1975, he had murdered at least 19 women in various states. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

This story actually began several weeks earlier when my friend Jim Massie, a probation and parole officer for the state of Kentucky, telephoned me with the news that Jerry Thompson was coming to town for several days, and would I like to have dinner with them. I immediately said yes, of course, for I had known for many years that Jerry Thompson was not just a homicide detective with the Salt Lake County Sheriffs department, but was instrumental in linking Ted Bundy with serial murder after he had been arrested on suspicion of burglary in his August 1975 arrest in Granger, Utah.

It was at this time that Bundy forever lost his gym bag, which in actuality was his murder kit. Yet neither I nor Jim had any idea what Detective Thompson would be bringing to Louisville. However, we would soon find out. On late Sunday afternoon, May 29th, Jim called my cell phone to let me know that the Thompsons had arrived at the Breckinridge Inn, and wanted just a little time to freshen-up for dinner.

Then he said to me, “He brought the bag.”

“What bag?” I said.

“The bag Bundy carried…I have it with me now in my truck.”

And then it hit me: I remembered Jim telling me years earlier how Detective Thompson had Bundy’s personal items that were in his car when he was arrested; items such as a ski mask, an ice pick, rope, a flash light and other things as well.

Astonished, I asked he if he would mind meeting me a few minutes before the Thompsons were due to arrive at the restaurant. Jim agreed, and within 10 minutes we were standing in the parking lot of the Golden Corral.

While Jim gingerly removed the brown, musty smelling gym bag from the clear plastic bag just large enough to cover it, I stood there like a child waiting to see what was inside. Slowly, we begin to remove each item: a ski mask, a white rope, an ice pick, a woman’s belt (no doubt belonging to one of the murdered girls), individual white strips of cloth Bundy had pre-cut for binding the hands and feet of his victims. There were also two right-handed mismatched gloves, one the “puffy” ski type (blue/black) and the other woolen, and beige in color. There was also an opened box of Glad trash bags.

Jim, who has done extensive research into the Bundy case, and has provided important information which was used in Dr. Ronald Holmes’ excellent book, Serial Murder, looked surprised when he saw the trash bags, and immediately launched into how Bundy would use the bags to hold the women’s clothing only, while the nude bodies were discarded in another location.

The trash bags containing the clothes were always dumped at another site far from where the victims were placed. After dinner, we returned to the Breckinridge Inn, were for almost two hours, Jim, Jerry and myself discussed the Bundy case in detail. When I mentioned having seen the bag, I asked him to tell me the story behind it.

Of course, as lead homicide investigator, he has had possession of the bag for almost 30 years now. However, at some point in time, probably in the late 1970’s, he signed an affidavit stating that he would use the bag and its contents strictly for the purposes of teaching. The only two items the courts refused to release were the crowbar and the handcuffs. Bundy’s VW bug was sold at auction sometime in the 1980’s. The individual who purchased Bundy’s car apparently had plans to capitalize on its infamous history.

As I stated earlier, Jim was allowed to keep the gym bag for about 48 hours, and so, he allowed me to bring it to my house on Memorial Day night.

Now, let us return to that most surreal experience. As I entered the house, I walked briskly and directly to the dining room. As I passed through the house I asked my son if his mom had told him that I was bringing Ted Bundy’s stuff into the house? He said no, and looked at me like I had three heads.

I quickly enlisted my daughter Sarah as my helper for arranging the items to be photographed; and in fact, she would be responsible for taking the pictures. One by one, we laid out the items; the ski mask, ice pick, rope, flashlight, the FBI tagged strips of cloth Bundy had pre-cut, a women’s belt, the Glad box with the trash bags, and the two right-handed gloves. We also found six or seven small evidence tins with clear tops and evidence tape sealing them. Each contained either pubic hair or hair from the head of several of the murdered women, as well as the head hair of Carol DaRonch, the only known Bundy victim who was able to escape from one of his savage attacks. These hair samples had been obtained from the VW bug.

As we walked around the dining room table, Sarah snapping pictures as I pointed out various things, I remember thinking how very few people in this nation have ever seen these things, much less handled them. And here I was, in my own home, without a detective or museum curator standing over my shoulder giving instructions on what I can and cannot do.

After packing everything into the gym bag, I noticed several small pieces of the dry rotted bag had fallen off onto the table, as did a tiny section of the Glad box. Feeling it would be stupid to just throw these insignificant bits back into the bag, I scooped them up and placed them in a sandwich bag for safe keeping. Little did I know that I had something even better coming the next day.

On Tuesday evening, Jim and I met at the Breckinridge Inn, to say good bye to the Thompsons, as they would be leaving early the next day. As we stood around our cars in the front parking lot, snapping pictures, and discussing Retired Detective Thompson’s most famous case, he offered to give us each one of the green trash bags that had been sitting in Bundy’s gym bag since the night of his arrest. When I heard this I was speechless.

True, it is a macabre reminder of what this evil man did, but it is also a part of history. After thanking him profusely, I asked him if he would mind writing a letter of authentication and this he did willingly. Once again, I was feeling a sense of shock to have such an item come into my possession. It had been a very interesting three days, three days that I will never forget. And I consider it an honor to have met Detective Jerry Thompson. And for those readers who might be wondering whether or not I tried on the ski mask, well, I did!

A Hard Death for the Lonely Hearts Killers

The folks over at the Daily Perspective mark today as the anniversary of the executions of the "lonely hearts killers." Which ones, you ask? The year was 1951:

Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, commonly known as the Lonely Hearts killers, were executed today in Sing Sing Prison's electric chair. The couple, who were romantically involved, had deceived lonely widows to gain access to their money. Fernandez seduced the women and then stole their possessions, while Beck posed as his sister. Yet, what started as fraud soon turned into murder.

"Mrs. Beck and Fernandez were electrocuted for bludgeoning and strangling Mrs. Janet Fay, 66, an Albany, N.Y., widow, on Jan. 4, 1949, at their apartment at Valley Stream, N.Y. Mrs. Fay had entrusted $5,900 of her life savings to them after she had met Fernandez through a Lonely Hearts club correspondence. The widow was slain after she became suspicious, and demanded that Fernandez prove his love for her," explained The Lowell Sun on March 9, 1951.

The number of women murdered by Beck and Fernandez are unknown, but at least three deaths were documented and the couple had allegedly confessed to 12. Prior to their execution, the two had "expressed their undying love" to each other. "My story is a love story," said Beck, as quoted in The Charleroi Mail. "But only those tortured by love can know what I mean."

Martha Beck, a child killer, was always good for some syrupy, stomach-squeezing quote about love. Right up to the end. We have her to blame for their keeping this case ranking right up there on the list of infamous lonely hearts killers. Not to be confused with "help wanted" killers or "rooms for rent for World's Fair" killers.

There were many other killers who lured men and women specifically with lonely hearts ads. Belle Gunness was another one, and she killed children, too -- her own.

But as true crime writer Mark Gribben recently mentions in The Lonely Heart Family, sometimes the kids get in on the act.

For more on Beck and boyfriend, see Frances Farmers Revenge on Beck & Fernandez and a detailed review of the movie The Honeymoon Killers about Beck and Fernandez.

**

With the movie coming out now, there's so much new buzz about the new film. See --

Lonely Hearts, a true crime story by AM New York

Lonely Hearts' Todd Robinson

The New York Times review of the new film

The Atlanta Child Killer: Postscript or Rewrite?

Will the story of the Atlanta Child Killer get a shocking new ending? Well, we're about to be handed an epilogue in the form of DNA testing.

This week, an Atlanta judge ordered that tests be conducted on human hair and other forensic evidence that was used to convict Wayne B. Williams.

Williams was convicted of two murders and suspected of many more. The strongest proof against him came in the form of fibers matched to his home, bedspread, and his dog. Twenty murder victims were tied to Williams based on this fiber evidence.

The 1979-1981 murders made headlines across the world. The coverage was so intense because of the sheer number of victims, the panic they caused, and because "the original assumption was that the Atlanta child killer was a white redneck or a Klan-like group" (John Douglas, Anatomy of Motive).

Even after Williams was convicted, many people believed -- even to this day -- that the Ku Klux Klan was involved in the murders.

From the Brockton (Mass.) Enterprise, March 1982:

Soviet propagandists have been making hay out of the trial and conviction of Wayne B. Williams in the Atlanta child murder case.

According to Tass, the official Soviet news agency, poor Williams has been made a scapegoat by white racists, who are not only persecuting an innocent man but are also allowing the real mass murderer -- a white racist -- to remain at large while black children cower behind locked doors.

Tass does not, of course, tell its readers that Williams was run to ground and convicted after the most intense and costly criminal investigation in the history of Georgia and after one of the most expensive trials in the state's history.

Was he a black patsy? Or are his supporters misguided? I'd put good money on confirmation of the verdict. But DNA evidence has made a jackass of many a judge and juror, not to mention true crime author, so prudence dictates testing whenever a claim of innocence is made, regardless of the degree of plausibility. Some questions are best settled, so let the chips fall.

For more:

Our Georgia History on Wayne Williams - a timeline of the murders.

The Toxic Silence by Tayari Jones - a mesmerizing first-hand account of the terror that seized Atlanta's children during Williams' murder spree.

An Interview with the Hero Who Put a Serial Killer Back in Prison

Serial killer Coral Eugene Watts confessed to murdering eleven women in Texas and is a suspect in dozens of other murders and attempted murders in several US states and Ontario. Thanks to a putrid excuse of a prosecution -- Texas let him plead guilty to burglary -- he was up for mandatory parole in 2006.

Michigan decided to try to go after Watts to keep the women of America and Canada safe. But it was a challenge to find proof. Since he did not rape his victims, the biological evidence that usually puts his type behind bars is lacking. And he did not have a habit of leaving living witnesses behind.

Then a witness stepped forward to tell his story.

It was December 1, 1979, in Ferndale (suburban Detroit). Helen Dutcher had her last meal in Alfie's Diner. Outside the place, she was attacked -- chased into an alley -- stabbed and killed.

Joseph Foy (photo above) witnessed the murder from his back porch, and as the scene unfolded, from various windows in his house. In doing so, he became another victim of Coral Watts. And the only person who could keep him behind bars.

The police developed a very good likeness of the killer based on Foy's description, but it's all they had to go on. The case went cold. But Foy saw Coral Watts on TV in 1982 when he was prosecuted in Texas, and he recognized Watts.

It took two decades for authorities to follow up on Foy's eyewitness account. It was the critical evidence they needed to prosecute the man who killed Helen Dutcher. They got a conviction; Watts is now locked up for life.

Clews had a chance to ask Mr. Foy a few questions and he kindly obliged. Here is our Q&A.

What you did see on that night long ago?

I've told this story so many times and the horror and coldness of it never changes. The swelling of the eyes and the lump in the throat start immediately. I can still recount every move once I got up from the couch and first seen his car in the alley till the time I see him back down the alley as he left her lying there dying.

I still remember as if he was looking at me this very moment, the absolute coldness and evil in his eyes as he locked eyes with me as he made his way around the front of his car with the knife still in his hand. I'll never forget how my life changed that very instant when I saw her drop to the ground after his slashing motion.

Time's clock went into slow motion at that very second to where the next minute or so seemed like forever, to where my senses were so keen that I focused totally on the scene and what was taking place. I will never forget the cold, evil, so "matter of factly" way he took Helen's life. It was just so routine, like I was quoted "like he was dropping off his laundry".

I could not in typed or spoken words ever truly convey the pure horror, coldness or sadness that took place that night. But from that moment I was changed and for that I will have a special hatred for him till the day I die.

What is it like to be the one of the only living witnesses to a serial killer?

Hell, in only the way that binds the three of us, Helen, Watts and me. I still cannot shake how I seen her spend her last seconds on this earth...in pure terror. I will never shake his evil cold eyes. I will never shake being a witness to all the evil he imposed on all the victims' families, all the sadness I was, I guess "blessed" to hear as the families trusted me to open up to as they poured out all the pain they had suffered for so many years at the hands of Watts.

I still cannot go a hour without thinking about the whole damn thing. I can't stop the way he invades my dreams turning them into nightmares that upsets my world for days. It has and always will consume my life and I don't have a fucking choice in the matter.

My wife and others tell me to "drop it" or "just don't think about it" but the only way for that to happen is for me to die and I won't let that happen until the Lord decides it's time, so until then, I deal. But if I could go back and change one small item and that would of been to stop him that night because if I would of so many countless innocent sweet women would still be alive today and that cross sometimes is unbearable.

Have you ever talked to him?

I don't think I'm on his "visiters list". But I do send him random letters reminding him of what a piece of shit he is and how he needs to step up and do the "right thing" by opening up his dark soul and telling of all the numerous others. I also send him a anniversery card every year on the date we got a murder conviction. So you see this is quite personal between him and I, we both share a very special bond that I never asked for, so he now has me in his life till he rots in hell, because he will be in mine till I am gone.

What about his family? Sorrow is how I feel for them. I can't imagine what they went through but they still stood up for him all throughout the trial by calling me a "liar" and "how can he remember" something that happened 25 years ago. After that my feeling for them is "fuck you".

Do you think there are more victims out there that we don't know about? Or do you think Watts is lying about how many women he killed?

I think when Watts was asked "How many have you killed Coral?" Then he said "that there wasn't enough fingers and toes in this room for as many as I've killed" and there were 5 people total in the room. Yeah it was exaggerated but by too few.

Here was an animal that went stalking for innocent women and was known to kill mutiple times a day. I don't think that was a fluke but more of the norm. So yes, his count could reach into the hundreds. When I saw how callously he killed Helen back in 79, he was well on his way to being a killing machine. Then all the murders in A2 [Ann Arbor], the Detroit murders, the Windsor murders, let's not bar Toldeo by any stretch of the imagination, when he fled Michigan he drove to his Aunt's I believe in Kentucky(?) then to Texas and you can't tell me he sat on his hands all that time.

So I'm sure they have a whole line of unsolved crimes from Michigan to Kentucky to Texas that has Watts' name written all over them.

Then you have the ones he confessed to in Texas. The key word is "CONFESSED" and granted immunity to. He won't say shit about any murder unless he gets a full "get out of jail free" card to do it. So they have a pile of cases in Houston that he wouldn't talk about. So, No, I don't think he's lying.

Someone told me he has cancer?

Yes, Colon or Prostate. That's what slowed his extradition here, they wanted to finish treatment in Texas and make sure they could take over treatment here. The things we do for our killers. I say let it eat him till he screams for the end to come and God makes him wait a minute longer.

The only speck of happiness was during the trial I knew as I looked at him he was sitting there in a diaper (friend of mine was a sherrif).

Well it'll be interesting to see what happens in Kalamazoo with him. I think that it doesn't have enough to convict and in a way it makes the state look hokey by trying too hard with so little. But for the sake of Gloria [Steele]'s family I hope they get a conviction so they can finally get the rest they deserve.

I would walk through hell again a hundred times over to make sure he was convicted just to ease their pain and sorrow in some small way that they so deeply deserve.

***

Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear Watts' challenge to his Michigan conviction, as was first reported by the Detroit Free Press. As Mr. Foy put it, the ruling "seals the coffin tight on the son of a bitch." Thanks to Joseph Foy, a serial killer is finally behind bars for good.

***

For more on Watts, see the book penned by Corey Mitchell -- Evil Eyes. See also -- Coral Watts - Back in the Dock (about his upcoming trial in Kalamazoo).

Selling Murderabilia on Ebay (or not)

Get yourself some ginger ale and soda crackers, because I predict you'll soon be as nauseated as I was when I discovered the truth. The marketing of "murderabilia," as it has been coined, is a business that's not only alive and well on the Internet, but actually thriving.

--Nancy Grace

A pubic hair once attached to Arthur Shawcross.

A bad painting of Charles Manson by John Wayne Gacy.

A Lizzie Borden figurine dripping with fake blood.

If any of these are on your wish list, we have to talk. About where to shop!

"Crime memorabilia" or "murderabilia" refers to collectibles by or about murderers or other infamous criminals. Needless to say it's not everyone's cuppa joe, and there has been backlash not only from the public and media but from legislators disgusted with the idea that anyone would profit from crime so very directly.

One fellow recently tried to put up a bit of murderabilia on Ebay with interesting results. Marty Graham came into possession of a ballpoint pen bearing the stamped imprint JOHN WAYNE GACY -- ones that Gacy had made for distribution to promote himself as an honest businessman long before his conviction and eventual execution.

Within hours of listing the pen for sale on the auction site, Marty Graham found his offering delisted; Ebay won't sell murderabilia... until a full century, a hundred years, have passed, and presumably there is no one directly touched and left alive to object.

Soooo -- no recent murderabilia is allowed on Ebay.

So no Yorkshire Ripper letters, either. Sandra Lester -- at one time romantically tied to Peter Sutcliffe -- tried to list her correspondence from him on Ebay with the same result. After deciding to sell her collection, she's parted with a poem/sketch and several letters, but has more besides to offer the murderabilia collector.

Many states passed laws years ago, known as the "Son of Sam" laws, to prevent murderers from profiting from their infamy. The laws have been tossed out as unconstitutional and are rarely invoked today.

Other websites that transact business in this vein are --

Supernaught.com -- emphasizing serial killers, but including in its Not For Sale Gallery Jesse Pomeroy's signature, Lizzie Borden's signature, the Columbine 1999 high school yearbook, art by killers like William Heirens, Ed Kemper's clothes, and a handwritten letter by the Rev. Jim Jones.

Lowbrow Art World -- art by Gacy, Manson, Ramirez, and their ilk.

Murder Auction

So... do you collect murderabilia? Have you ever been tempted? Do you vehemently object? Do you understand why anyone would want this stuff?

I will confess only to having too much interest in the matter of Miss Borden.

Art: A painting by John Wayne Gacy. Current bid: $550 

Miscellaneous Notes about Rippers

"He just seems like your standard, serial sex murderer," says famous historic true crime author Harold Schechter of the serial killer trolling Atlantic City today. "It's a compulsion, and the publicity adds to the thrill of it. Like Jimmy Breslin said about the Son of Sam, he was a nobody until he became a somebody by killing people...." This in a very long and quite provocative article published today in Philadelphia's CityPaper.net.

The Ipswich Ripper makes more headlines. CNN and every other media outlet compares him to Jack the Ripper. It's not a good comparison, because the sheer butchery of the Whitechapel murders explains much of the lasting shock; the Ipswich victims fortunately were "merely" strangled. Harold Schechter is right -- this man in England too is a "standard" serial sex killer.

(Art: A Ripper painting by Walter Sickert, recently cut up by true crime author Patricia Cornwell. Story)

Crime historian E.J. Wagner (her website) is also going to weigh in with the long view of these cases, as she's been invited to appear on BBC TV's NewHour program to talk about the man from Ipswich. I hope to post details before it airs. BBC flattered your correspondent with an invitation, but I'm nowhere near their studio in New York, alack and alas. What I would've told them:

Jack the Ripper wasn't the first, though he put the name "Ripper" on a phenomenon that was known before -- Germany hanged a "ripper" in 1590, France burned one at the stake in 1440, and the Germans invented the word Lustmord to explain murders that were once put down to werewolves.

The serial killers in Ipswitch and Atlantic City should not be called rippers.

The press refers to any serial killer of prostitutes as a ripper. This overemphasizes the sexual component of the cases (the media loves to do this, see) and ignores the true horrible distinction. When the Victorian press said "ripper" they meant the killer ripped his victims open and mutilated them inside and out. A strangler was someone else. A strangler was a Strangler, if the tabloid headline-writers need a noun.

Jack the Ripper was the first killer to be called a Ripper. I've looked for pre-1888 uses of the word "ripper" to mean a murderer without result. The Etymology Dictionary on the word "ripper" isn't clear on its origin. I'm not sure on this, but I believe the word "ripper" might've come from a "lumber ripper" -- men who worked in sawmills, very dangerous work, featuring the risk of a broken blade ripping into the operator's flesh. Many men died this way. If you happen to know more about the first use of "ripper" for our purposes, let us know.

Many think serial killers plague some parts of the world (ie the USA) more than others. But there are rippers in all corners of the world. Right now Canada has a pig farmer on trial that they fear may break the record. There have been atrocious cases in the Middle East and all over Europe reported in the English languge press. Serial killers aren't an American phenomenon. Our perception otherwise is a function of population and mass media.

Ipswich and Atlantic City are unfortunately joining a league of cities worldwide that have had to deal with serial killers whose rapid pace caused panic and set scores of detectives running in circles. Here's hoping both are caught, but I'm afraid that the comparison to Jack the Ripper may prove right--we may never know their identities.