The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (51 page)

defendant replied, “Death by torture.” Instead, he was Czinkota’s constable recalled that there had been sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of more drums—and many more, at that. A search of the parole. Confined at Vacaville, he joined an inmate vol-surrounding countryside revealed another 17, each with unteer group recording books for the blind, and by Jana pickled corpse inside. Authorities from Budapest iden-uary 1987 had completed more books than any other tified the missing widows, and Marie Kiss occupied prisoner, with some 5,000 hours of recordings behind another drum; her lover, Paul Bikari, was the only male him. He remains incarcerated at this writing, with six among the 24 recovered victims.

parole bids rejected to date.

Police theorized that Bela Kiss had slain his wife and her clandestine lover in a jealous rage, disposing of their bodies in a fashion that—he thought—eliminated any
KISS, Bela

possibility of subsequent discovery. The crime apparently A family man and amateur astrologer, Hungarian Bela unleashed some hidden mania, and Kiss spent the next Kiss began his career as a serial murderer relatively late two years pursuing lonely women with a passion, bilking in life. In February 1912, at 40 years of age, Kiss moved several of their savings prior to strangling them and seal-to the village of Czinkota with his wife Marie, some 15

ing them inside his makeshift funeral vaults. It was a years his junior. Within a matter of weeks, Marie had grisly case, but Kiss had gone to face a higher court.

found herself a lover, one Paul Bikari, and in December Or had he?

1912, Kiss sadly told his neighbors that the couple had In the spring of 1919, Kiss was sighted on the Mar-run off together, leaving him to pine alone. In place of garet Bridge in Budapest, “Herr Hoffmann’s” antebel-his wife, Kiss hired an elderly housekeeper. She, in turn, lum stomping ground. Police investigation proved that learned to ignore the parade of women who came to Kiss had switched his papers with a battlefield fatality, spend time with Czinkota’s newly eligible bachelor.

assuming the dead man’s identity to make good his About that same time, Kiss began collecting large escape. That knowledge brought detectives no closer to metal drums, informing the curious village constable their man, however, for Kiss has slipped the net again.

that they were filled with gasoline, expected to be scarce The futile search went on. In 1924, a deserter from with the approach of war in Europe. Budapest authori-the French Foreign Legion told officers of the Sûreté ties, meanwhile, were seeking information on the disap-about a fellow legionnaire who entertained the troops pearance of two widows, named Schmeidak and Varga, with tales of his proficiency with the garrote. The sol-who had not made contact with their friends or rela-dier’s name was Hoffman, and he matched descriptions tives for several weeks. Both women had last been seen of Bela Kiss, but the lead was another dead end. By the in the company of a man named Hoffmann, said to live time Hungarian police were informed, legionnaire near the Margaret Bridge in Budapest, but he had also

“Hoffman” had also deserted, vanishing without a disappeared without a trace. Czinkota’s constable was trace.

generally aware of the investigation, but he saw no rea-In 1932, a New York homicide detective, Henry

son to connect Herr Hoffmann with the quiet, unas-Oswald, was convinced that he had sighted Bela Kiss, suming Bela Kiss.

emerging from the Times Square subway station. NickIn November 1914, Kiss was drafted into military named “Camera Eye” by colleagues because of his service, leaving for the front as soon as he was sworn uncanny memory for faces, Oswald was unshakable in
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KNOWLES, Paul John

his belief that Kiss—who would have been approaching On September 3, Knowles met businessman William 70—was living somewhere in New York. Unfortu-Bates at a tavern in Lima, Ohio, sharing a few drinks nately, Times Square crowds prevented Oswald from before he strangled Bates and dumped his body in some pursuing Kiss, and he could only watch in helpless rage nearby woods, where it would be discovered in Octo-as his intended quarry disappeared.

ber. Stealing money, credit cards, and Bates’s car, In 1936, a rumor spread that Kiss was working as a Knowles made his way to Sacramento, California, then janitor in an apartment building on New York’s Sixth doubled back through Utah, pausing at Ely, Nevada, Avenue. Again, he managed to evade police—if he was long enough to murder campers Emmett and Lois John-ever there at all—and there the trail grew cold. What-son on September 18.

ever finally became of Bela Kiss remains a mystery, Three days later, passing through Sequin, Texas, he beyond solution with the passage of more than six spotted a female motorist stranded at roadside and decades. In Hungary, he is remembered as the one who stopped “to help,” raping her before he strangled her to got away.

death and dragged her body through a tangled barbed-wire fence. On September 23, he met beautician Ann Dawson in Birmingham and instantly caught her fancy;
KNOWLES, Paul John

they traveled together, at her expense, until Knowles A Florida native, born in 1946, Knowles logged his first tired of the game and killed her on September 29. Her arrest at 19, spending roughly six months of each year body has never been found.

thereafter in jail on various convictions for burglary and Knowles drifted on through Oklahoma, Missouri, auto theft. He was serving time in Raiford when he Iowa, and Minnesota, apparently keeping his nose began corresponding with California divorcée Angela clean, leaving no bodies behind. By October 19, he Covic, and she visited the prison long enough to accept needed a “fix,” and he found it in Woodford, Virginia, his proposal of marriage, shelling out money for lawyers barging into the home of 53-year-old Doris Hovey, to win his release. Parole came through in May 1974, shooting her dead with her own husband’s rifle, then and Knowles flew directly to San Francisco for the nup-wiping his prints from the gun and placing it beside her tials, but Covic had changed her mind, warned off by a psychic who foresaw the entry of a new, dangerous man in her life. The night she dumped him, Knowles allegedly went out and killed three people on the streets of San Francisco, but his claim has not been verified.

Back home in Jacksonville, Knowles was jailed after a bar fight, but he picked a lock and escaped on July 26, 1974. That night, he invaded the home of 65-year-old Alice Curtis, leaving her bound and gagged as he ransacked her house for money, finally taking off in her car.

She choked to death on the gag, but Knowles hung around town for a few days, using her vehicle, until police connected him with the crime and his picture began turning up on TV. Preparing to drop the hot car on a quiet residential street, he spied 11-year-old Lillian Anderson and her seven-year-old sister Mylette, recognizing them as friends of his mother. Convinced the girls had seen him and would notify police, he kidnapped both of them and dumped their strangled bodies in a swamp outside of town.

The next day, in Atlantic Beach, Florida, Knowles broke into the home of Marjorie Howe, strangling her with a nylon stocking and stealing her television set.

His next victim was a teenage “Jane Doe” hitchhiker, raped and strangled for sport as he drifted aimlessly, working his way north. On August 23, he invaded the home of Kathie Pierce at Musella, strangling her with a telephone cord while her three-year-old son looked on but leaving the child unharmed.

Paul Knowles in custody (Wide World API)

146

KODAIRA Yoshio

body. Afterward, police could find no signs of sex or
KODAIRA Yoshio

robbery to offer them a motive in the case.

Arguably Japan’s most prolific serial killer of modern Still driving William Bates’s stolen car, Knowles times, Kodaira Yoshio, born in 1905, was the son of a picked up two hitchhikers in Key West, planning to kill violent alcoholic and was described by his first-grade them both, but his scheme went awry when a police-teacher as “inattentive and listless; gets into fights on a man stopped them for traffic violations. The careless daily basis.” The pattern continued throughout elemen-officer let Knowles go with a warning, but the experi-tary school, Kodaira further handicapped by a severe ence had shaken Paul. Dropping his passengers off in stutter, scraping by with low grades and graduating—

Miami, Knowles phoned his lawyer for advice. Reject-barely—with the rank of 21st in a class of 23 students.

ing the suggestion of surrender, he met the attorney Apprenticed to a Tokyo metalworks in lieu of higher long enough to hand over a taped confession, then education, he drifted through a series of blue-collar slipped out of town before police were informed of his jobs, none lasting more than a few months. An unwed presence.

father at age 18, he joined the Imperial Japanese Navy On November 6, in Macon, Georgia, Knowles

to escape his parental obligations.

befriended Carswell Carr and was invited home to As a seaman of the Japanese fleet, Kodaira soon spend the night. Over drinks, he stabbed Carr to death became accustomed to the low-rent brothels in various and then strangled Carr’s 15-year-old daughter, failing ports of call. By 1927, he was involved in Japanese in his attempt to have sex with her corpse. In the wake actions against mainland China, participating in various of his flight from Macon, Knowles was also suspected atrocities that included the rape and murder of helpless in the November 2 murder of hitchhiker Edward

civilians. As he later described one incident, “Four or Hilliard, found in some nearby woods, and his compan-five of my comrades and I entered a Chinese home, tied ion Debbie Griffin (still among the missing).

up the father, and locked him in the closet. We stole their Barhopping in Atlanta on November 8, Knowles met jewelry and raped the women. We even bayoneted a British journalist Sandy Fawkes, impressing her with his pregnant woman and pulled out the fetus from her

“gaunt good looks.” They spent the night together, but stomach. I also engaged in those depraved actions.”

Knowles was unable to perform in bed, and he failed And loved every minute of it.

repeatedly at sex over the next two days, suggesting Back in civilian life by 1932, Kodaira married the possible impotence with a willing companion. They daughter of a Shinto priest over her father’s objections.

separated on November 10, but Knowles picked up one The union was a stormy one and climaxed when

of Sandy’s friends, Susan MacKenzie, the next day, Kodaira settled one argument by beating his father-in-demanding sex at gunpoint. She escaped and notified law to death with an iron bar, injuring six other family police, but when patrolmen tried to stop him, Knowles members in the process. Sentenced to 15 years at hard brandished a sawed-off shotgun and made his escape.

labor, he was released in the general amnesty of 1940

A short time later in West Palm Beach, he invaded the and found work as a civilian employee at a naval facil-home of invalid Beverly Mabee, abducting her sister and ity in Tokyo. Most of his subordinates were female, stealing their car, dropping his hostage off in Fort Pierce, and Kodaira made a habit of spying on them as they Florida, the following night. A police officer recognized bathed after work. On May 25, 1945, he raped and the stolen car next morning and pulled Knowles over, strangled one of them, 19-year-old Miyazaki Mitsuko, but Knowles was faster on the draw. Taking the officer and hid her corpse behind an air raid shelter on the hostage, he drove away in the patrol car, using its siren premises.

to stop motorist James Meyer, switching cars a second Japan was under frequent air attack by that time, her time. Burdened with two prisoners now, Knowles hand-island fortresses in the Pacific falling to amphibious cuffed both men to a tree in Pulaski County, Georgia, invaders, and Kodaira’s crime went undiscovered while and shot each one in the head at close range.

the chaos of the war distracted the police from his A short time later, Knowles tried to crash through a crimes. Encouraged by his success, he raped and stran-police roadblock, losing control of his car and smashing gled 30-year-old Ishikawa Yori on June 22. Three into a tree. A chaotic foot chase ensued, with Knowles weeks later, on July 12, he repeated the procedure with pursued by dogs and helicopters; he was finally cor-32-year-old Nakamura Mitsuko. A fourth victim, 22-nered by an armed civilian on November 17. In cus-year-old Kondo Kazuko, died on July 15. Matsushita tody, he claimed 35 murders, but only 18 could be Yoshie, age 21, was killed on September 28; 17-year-old verified. On November 18, while being transferred to Shinokawa Tatsue followed on October 31; and 19-maximum security, Knowles made a grab for the sher-year-old Baba Hiroko on December 30.