Criminology presentation

Zodiac Killer (Unknown) Although the true identity of the zodiac killer is unknown, there have been over 2,500 suspects, the rain of terror began October 1966. He was described as a heavyset, white male in his late twenties or thirties with short brown hair and thick-rimmed glasses. During the attacks, he wore a large hood, like those worn by executioners, as described by his surviving victims. The zodiac killer is believed to be guilty for at least five killings between 1968 and 1969. He sent letters describing the murders to local newspapers, the police and the first victims father. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted by the Zodiac between December 1968 and October 1969. Of the seven attacked, five died In the Californian cities of Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco. On 10 June 1994 a white man was shot in Highland Park with a .22 calibre zip gun but the incident went unreported. On 1 August 1994 the New York Post received another Zodiac letter. It had a list of new victims, an odd totem pole code and the line “sleep my little dead how we loathe them”. When the New York Post printed the story, New Yorkers were once more in the grip of fear about the Zodiac killer.

Rodney Alcala (the dating game killer) Alcala was born in San Antonio, Texas, his father abandoned him at a young age. He then moved to LA at 12 years old with his mother and sister. He joined the military at age 17, 4 years later he was discharged with Antisocial personality disorder. In 1968, Alcala was witnessed luring an 8 year old girl into his apartment in Hollywood. The girl, named Tali Shapiro, was found beaten, raped and strangled with a steel bar. In 1971, a flight attendant for trans world airlines was found raped and strangled in her apartment and was not solved until 40 years later. After serving 34 months in jail, he was arrested again for assaulting a 13 year old girl. He was released after 2 years. In 1978 Alcala photographed hundreds of young men and women after convincing them he was a professional photographer. Later one of his workmates said that he showed his workmates the photos he had taken. Most contained sexually explicit pictures of teenage boys and girls. Police fear that some of the subjects may be additional cold-case victims. Also in 1978, Alcala was a contestant on the dating game, he had already killed at least 4 people in different cities. ‘Bachelor#2’ described Alcala as a ‘very strange guy’. Cheryl Bradshaw refused to date Rodney after he won the contest and criminal profiler believes this rejection led Alcala to commit at least 3 more murders following the contest. In 1980, Alcala was tried, convicted and sentenced to death after evidence proved he was the murderer of Robin Samsoe who disappeared between the beach and her ballet class. Her body, decomposing, was found 12 days later in the LA foothills. Rodney was convicted a second time in 1986, and again semtenced to death. A ninth circuit court of appeals cancelled out the second trial because a witness was not allowed to testify as he had been ‘hypnotized’ by police investigators.

John Wayne Gacy Gacy had a troubled relationship with his Father, who was an alcoholic who regularly abused him. At 11 he suffered head trauma which resulted in blood clots until he was 16. Around 1967 Gacy had 2 children and worked at a KFC franchise although he was deeply involved with prostitution, pornography and drugs. Whilst cheating on his wife Gacy opened a "club" in his basement for the young boys of Waterloo, where he allowed them to drink alcohol and made sexual advances towards them. Gacy was then convicted of sexually assaulting 2 boys, and sentenced to 10 years in prison but after 18 months he was released. Gacy confessed to more than 30 murders of young boys between July 1975 and December 1978. Gacy would pick up male teenage runaways or male prostitutes off the streets, and take them back to his house with either promising them money for sex, or just grab them by force. Once he was back to his house he would handcuff them. Gacy would often stick clothing in their mouths to muffle their screams. After this, he would choke them with a rope as he sexually assaulted them. Gacy would also keep the bodies with him for as long as decomposition would allow. He would hide the remains of his victims in a crawl space under his house. Gacy’s trial began in february the 6th, 1980. he pleaded not guilty for reason of insanity. He was found guilty of 33 murders on march 13th and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Gacys last meal was an original bucket of KFC chicken with deep fried shrimps and fries. On may 10th 1994 John Wayne Gacy was executed, an execution which took 18 minutes to complete due to tube malfunctions, crowds cheered as he was pronounced dead.