Zodiac Killer’s Identity And Weapon Uncovered?
The Zodiac Killer murdered several people, terrorizing the Bay Area and taunting police in the 60’s and 70’s. The FBI confirmed to CBS13 on Thursday that they are now running laboratory tests on some items that may link a suspect to the killer.
Tag Archive for 'Serial Killer'
Dear Charlie Manson…
In the late ’90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy.
‘Drag queen’ suspect in 18 murders. French police have detained a 68-year-old man - reported to be a “drag queen” performer - on suspicion of murdering 18 mainly homosexual men, a judicial source said today.
We make celebrities out of these monsters, so why not mass-merchandise some of the most brutal and malevolant murderers the modern world has seen? The Dark Art of Nico Claux 2007 calendar is ready for bulk shipping to fine specialty stores everywhere. Or for single purchase ($20). Claux’s portraits of serial killers are, says the accompanying blurb copy, “a reflection on crime as a product of a society based on consumerism, where the killer has achieved the same media status as the movie star.” Featuring Richard ‘The Nightstalker’ Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert Fish and Charles Manson amongst others.
A Malden man’s guilty pleasure of investing in murderabilia has come back to haunt him thanks to a “cursed” clown painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, which the collector claims turned his life into a three-ring circus.
“I just want to get rid of it,” said musician Nikki Stone about the late Gacy’s signed self-portrait of his terrifying alter ego, ‘Pogo the Clown’.
Since he plunked down $3,000 in 2001 to buy the framed oil Stone said his beloved dog has died and his mother found out she had cancer.
When a friend offered to store the painting at his house, the friend’s neighbor was killed in a car crash. A second friend who kept the painting for Stone attempted suicide, Stone said.
“I’ve never even hung it,” said Stone, who hopes a less superstitious buyer will at least cover the $3,000 he blew - even if only to burn the true-crime artifact.
The creepy conversation piece is now in the care of Stone’s pal Shawn McCarron, a consignment art dealer and owner of Kaleidoscope Tattoo & Art in Cambridge.
McCarron has had his own share of bad luck: His mother, Maureen, 58, was murdered in Malden in 1999.
“I’m not afraid of it,” McCarron said of the painting. “I don’t believe in the hocus-pocus and the bad mojo that comes with it.”
And if McCarron should pocket a buck or two from the oil’s sale, as he sees it, “Every murderer in the world should be rolled into one. They all owe me.”
McCarron keeps the Gacy under wraps, but said, “People do ask to see it. They get a chill through their body. I’ve had people say, ‘Oh my God, put that back in the box’.”
John Wayne Gacy, (aka Pogo) a suburban Chicago contractor and former shoe salesman, was executed in 1994 at age 52 for the torture and murders of 33 boys and men. Gacy, who also performed as Pogo the Clown at children’s parties, would kill his victims while raping them, then bury the bodies in a crawl space in his home.
Stone admits he once thought it would be ’super cool’ to own a Gacy original. “It’s the most evil of bastards who are most in demand”, he reasoned at the time.
And after all, actor Johnny Depp invested in a Gacy clown painting. Then again, Depp reportedly became so weirded out by the piece that he developed a pathological fear of clowns and unloaded the artwork.
New Criminologist Library Archivist Joshua Brown, is currently working on procuring some absolutely astounding material on the late John Wayne Gacy. Josh’s latest files will include the unedited police video of what has been dubbed “The Summerdale Dig” - which is original footage shot by investigators in late December 1978, of the excavation and recovery of the bodies of the victims of the Chicago-based sexual sadist.
As twenty-nine bodies of young men and boys, all brutally, raped, tortured and eventually slain by the portly building contractor, were unearthed from beneath his garage, a barbecue pit in his back garden, and the crawl-space beneath is ranch-style home in Norwood Park, Des Plaines, the media watched in horror.
The crawl-space, where 27 of the bodies were discovered in shallow graves, some still with a noose around their neck or materials crammed into their throats and rectums, is one of the most frightening personal graveyards, kept by a serial killer, in the annals of criminal history.
Although Gacy would ultimately be charged and convicted of thirty-three murders - the final four victims were dumped, out of necessity as the man’s house was already full to capacity with decomposing corpses, in the Des Plaines river in Illinois - it was the idea of this monster being a pillar of his community, who dressed as a clown to entertain sick children, was active in politics and was a successful businessman, that could not be comprehended. How could someone so outwardly gregarious and even respectable, all the while be systematically eliminating and burying the bodies of violated young men under his house?
Shockwaves ripped not only through this man’s community, but the world at large, as people shook their heads in disbelief, wondering how he could have been killing, so prolifically for so many years, and getting away with it.
Christopher Berry-Dee makes some attempt to unravel the Gacy story in his excellent paper on the case, which will be included with this fascinating criminal case file.
It’s not like anyone’s ever accused Korn frontman Jonathan Davis of being lighthearted and well adjusted. After all, the guy took a job in high school at his local morgue and has been venting onstage about mental and physical abuse for the past decade. Over the past few years however, Davis had been planning on opening a serial killer museum.
pic above: Jonathan Davis with John Wayne Gacy’s “Pogo” costume
For years, Davis has been buying mass murderer art and other items, and has amassed a series of works owned or created by America’s most twisted and nefarious individuals.
Jonathan Davis poses in front of Ted Bundy’s infamous VW. Yes, the same VW that Bundy used to pick up women in the ’70s. (Debbie Harry claims she was one of them, but the facts suggest the Blondie frontwoman was mistaken.) The 33-year-old Davis doesn’t see anything strange about this.
“The car was auctioned off by the police,” he says. “They always sell stuff off after a long time has passed between the crimes.”
Davis says he bought the car with the aim to open a museum dedicated to serial killers, but the project has been shelved and the car is taking up space in his Los Angeles garage.
“I’m just gonna keep it,” he says. “I’d never drive it.”
“I really caught the bug of collecting serial killer artifacts and we have a whole gangster section with autopsy bullets of famous gangsters that were killed; like a whole bunch of stuff, so…I think my pride and joy is my Gacy suit and the Bundy Bug.”
But the project never got off the ground. Davis has been sued by a former business associate for breach of contract after announcing plans for a museum of American serial killers.
Arthur Rosenblatt, a collector of criminal artifacts, sued Davis, a former mortuary science student, and his associates, for approximately $4 million in a 12-count lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday (22 June 2004), relating to a failed attempt to open a museum.
In the suit, Rosenblatt says Davis approached him in June 2001 about his collection of “Americana”.
Rosenblatt told Davis of his plan to open a museum of artifacts related to the criminal justice system and Davis said he wanted to participate, offering $250,000 to fund the museum, which Rosenblatt suggested be named the MUSEUM OF JUSTICE + ODDITORIUM or MOJO MUSEUM, according to court papers.
In the lawsuit, Rosenblatt claims Davis and other partners never provided any money and that his life was threatened on various occasions.
Rosenblatt, now living in New York, says he’s considering pursuing criminal charges against Davis.
According to the suit, between 2001 and 2003, Rosenblatt left his job, relocated to Los Angeles and loaned Davis Bundy’s car and other artwork worth $20,000.
Starting around April 2002, Davis appeared on MTV and on radio referring to the museum as a “serial killer museum” and using other terminology that was contrary to the deal between Davis and Rosenblatt, say court documents.
Others became involved, including David Engle, a friend of Davis, who offered $350,000 in exchange for a percentage of museum profits, but never provided the money, the suit says.
By March 2003, Davis suggested funding the museum via a TV or film production and then in April 2003, he brought in other financiers who suggested a stage show with bikini-clad women, the suit said.
Rosenblatt expressed no desire to change the show in that way and claims Davis refused to return the car and artifacts. The suit says Davis displayed Rosenblatt’s artwork at Ozzfest, where he performed, and then subsequently offered to return the car to Rosenblatt only if he promised not to sue.
At Ozzfest 2003, a black trailer located near the second stage held a display of artifacts from Korn singer Jonathan Davis’ personal collection, including a life-size replica of movie demon Pinhead; cyber-erotic paintings by H.R. Giger; Nirvana’s final set list from Munich, Germany 1993; and artifacts tied to serial killers Albert Fish, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez and Ted Bundy.
A frame containing a Ted Bundy legal document (signed twice by Bundy) and a photo of him.
The 1928 confession letter from cannibal Albert Fish, who killed over 100 children and wrote letters to some of the families of the victims containing gruesome details of the murders
The “Pogo” clown suit worn by John Wayne Gacy when he entertained kids at his local children’s hospital (he later killed at least 33 people between the ages of 9 and 27)
The “Patches” clown suit worn by John Wayne Gacy.
John Wayne Gacy painting: A Gacy painting representing his transformation into Pogo
John Wayne Gacy painting: A Gacy painting of himself and a friend standing in a cemetery
Jonathan Davis looks over his Richard Ramirez (The Nightstalker) artwork
Drawings by Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker,” who committed at least 13 murders between 1984 and 1985 and considered himself a disciple of Satan
Drawings by Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker,” who committed at least 13 murders between 1984 and 1985 and considered himself a disciple of Satan
Part of the Ozzfest display
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