The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (55 page)

1919. A notebook was found, bearing cryptic notations In early June 1915, Landru began courting another on each of his victims, but excavations at the villa widow, Madame Laborde-Line. She sold off her furni-unearthed only the remains of three dogs. No trace of ture on June 21, telling friends she was going to live his human prey was ever found, and Landru remained with her future husband at Vernouillet. Madame uncooperative, certain that he would go free in the Laborde-Line was last seen alive on June 26, after absence of bodies.

which Landru sold her securities and other belongings Prosecutors disagreed, and his trial at Versailles in for cash.

November 1919 became a sensation. Neighbors from Meeting his victims through lonely-hearts ads had Gambais recalled the rancid smoke sporadically pro-become a routine, and by the time he disposed of his duced by Landru’s chimney, most likely the result of second mark Landru had two more waiting in the bodies burning in his incinerator, and the court was sat-wings. A Madame Guillin, 51, joined him at Vernouillet isfied. Convicted of murder, he was sentenced to die in on August 2, and Landru sold off her securities a few spite of the jury’s recommendation for clemency. Taking days later. By December, a series of forged documents his secrets to the grave, Landru was guillotined on Feb-had siphoned 12,000 francs from the missing woman’s ruary 23, 1922.

bank account.

Calling himself “Dupont,” Landru rented a villa at Gambais, south of Paris, in December 1915. His latest
LEE, Bruce

paramour, Madame Héon, joined him there on Decem-Born Peter George Dinsdale in 1960, Britain’s most prober 8 and was never seen again. Her friends were briefly lific serial killer of modern times was the son of a pros-pacified by notes from Landru, each explaining that the titute and afflicted from birth with epilepsy, partial woman could no longer write herself because of failing paralysis, and a deformed right arm. Until the age of health.

three, he lived with his maternal grandmother, after-Victim number six, Madame Collomb, had corre-

ward joining his mother and her common-law husband sponded with Landru since May 1915, accepting his until their relationship disintegrated. Until the age of pledges of true-blue affection. She moved into his Gam-16, Dinsdale attended a school for the physically handi-156

LEWINGDON, Gary James and Thaddeus Charles

capped and was there introduced to homosexual practices that, in the words of his prosecutors, “eventually led to his downfall and discovery.” At age 19, Dinsdale legally changed his name to Bruce Lee, in emulation of the kung fu movie star he idolized.

A classic pyromaniac, Lee would explain in his confessions that a tingling in his fingers signaled him that it was time to light a fire. His first act of ARSON, at age nine, caused more than $30,000 damage to a shopping center. Lee’s normal technique involved dumping paraffin through a mail slot, followed by a match to light the fuel.

Lee scored his first fatality in June of 1973. On January 5, 1977, 11 elderly men were killed and six rescuers injured when he torched a nursing home. Slapped by an old man in an altercation over Lee’s disturbing some pigeons, Bruce threatened to kill his assailant. Later, the birds were all found with their necks wrung, and the man was burned to death in his armchair at home. The death was ruled an accident until, years later, Lee confessed that he had found the man asleep and set his clothes afire with paraffin.

In 1980, a house fire on Selby Street in Hull killed Edith Hastie and her three sons. Police found paper soaked in paraffin near the front door, but the Hasties were so unpopular with their neighbors that everyone in the vicinity was suspect. Some 18,000 persons were questioned before police discovered that Charles Gary Lewingdon (Author’s collection)

Hastie, one of the victims, was acquainted with various homosexuals who patronized public restrooms near his home. A group of suspects was rounded up, including man with multiple shots to the head. Robbery appeared Lee, who confessed to a series of fires spanning the past to be the motive, but police were less certain on April 8

11 years. In all, 26 persons had died by his hand, and when 77-year-old Jenkin Jones was gunned down in his multiple manslaughter charges were filed.

home, shot six times in the head, his four dogs killed Pleading guilty on all counts, Lee was sentenced to an nearby.

indefinite term in a mental hospital. As his prosecutor The same gun was used in both crimes, and ballistics remarked, “The sad fact is that this is his only real tests matched again on April 30 when Rev. Gerald accomplishment in life, and something he had expressed Fields was killed in Columbus while working part-time himself as being proud of.” Lee described his motive as a security guard. Three weeks later, on May 21, the more compellingly. “I am devoted to fire,” he said. “Fire gunman cornered 47-year-old Jerry Martin and his wife is my master, and that is why I cause these fires.”

Martha in their home, snuffing both victims with close-range shots to the head.

Police played a hunch, dusting off their files on an
LEWINGDON, Gary James and Thaddeus Charles

unsolved shooting from December 1977. Joyce Vermil-Between February and December 1978, residents of lion and Karen Dodrill had been ambushed on December Columbus, Ohio, were panicked by a string of random, 10, gunned down after work at a Newark, Ohio, restau-senseless murders, characterized by nocturnal ambushes rant, and detectives examined the nine slugs retrieved and home invasions, during which victims were shot from their bodies. Again the bullets matched, and that numerous times at close range. Police were stymied in made nine dead in a little over five months’ time.

their search for the “.22-caliber Killer” and only a The final victim, 56-year-old Joseph Annick, was clumsy mistake by one gunman prevented the crimes robbed of his wallet and shot nine times in his own from continuing indefinitely.

garage on December 4, 1978. A different .22 was used, On February 12, 1978, a prowler invaded the home but homicide investigators recognized the classic style of nightclub owner Robert McCann, executing him, his of overkill, and none of them had any doubts when mother Dorothy, and live-in girlfriend Christine Herd-Annick joined the victims list as number 10.

157

LI Wenxian

convicted him on eight counts, failing to reach a verdict on two others. His sentence was fixed at eight consecutive life terms, plus a $45,000 fine.

LI Wenxian

Hard-line communist societies face a built-in disability in dealing with serial killers, since state propaganda denies the existence of crime in a “workers’ paradise.”

Russian authorities learned the grim truth over a span of two decades from butchers like GENNADIY MIKHASEVICH (33 victims), ANDREI CHIKATILO (55 dead), ANATOLY ONOPRIENKO (at least 52 slain), and “IVAN THE

RIPPER” (never publicly identified), but the notion of serial killers was still new to Red China in 1991 when a faceless stalker surfaced in Guangzhou (formerly Canton).

The slasher’s first victim was reportedly found on February 22, 1991, described vaguely as a woman in her early twenties. Her genitals were carved out with a knife, but the mutilation did not prevent police from finding unspecified “evidence of sexual intercourse.”

Five more slayings followed in the next six months, each victim reportedly subjected to a sexual assault, then smothered, stabbed, or strangled, after which the bodies were dismembered, stuffed in rice bags, and Thaddeus Lewingdon (Author’s collection)

dumped on rubbish heaps in the bleak suburbs where Guangzhou’s “floating population” lives in dismal squalor. And then, the murders stopped.

The case broke on December 9 when 38-year-old

Thus far, there had been no press coverage of the Gary Lewingdon presented Annick’s stolen credit card to crimes in China, marking the case as a “success” in a clerk in a local department store. Arrested on the spot, terms of propaganda, even though the murderer

he was detained on suspicion of murder while detectives remained at large. Chinese authorities ran out of luck in examined his rap sheet. Discharged from the air force in March of 1992 when a seventh victim washed ashore in 1962, Lewingdon had lived with his mother until 1977

the nearby British colony of Hong Kong. As described when he married one of victim Robert McCann’s night-in the
South China Morning Post,
number seven had club waitresses. Along the way, he had logged arrests for been slit from throat to stomach, then crudely stitched petty larceny, possession of criminal tools, indecent shut again, her fingers severed almost as an after-exposure, and carrying a concealed weapon. None of the thought. Because no women were reported missing charges had led to conviction, but this time detectives from Hong Kong, it was assumed the corpse had

were sure that they had their man cold.

floated in from mainland China, and thus the

In custody, Lewingdon swiftly confessed to his role

“Guangzhou Ripper” was belatedly exposed.

in the “.22-caliber murders,” fingering his brother Even then, it was impossible for homicide investiga-Thaddeus as the other triggerman. Search parties recov-tors, reared from childhood under Communism, to ered the murder weapons, stolen from a gunshop in believe that their system would spawn such a monster.

November 1977, and the brothers were indicted on Zhu Minjian, head of Guangzhou’s provincial Criminal December 14, Gary facing 20 felony counts, while Investigation Department, told reporters, “In all my thirty Thaddeus was hit with 17.

years with the force, I have never come across anything On February 19, 1979, Thaddeus Lewingdon was

like this. Perhaps he copied from the West.” Zhu said convicted of the Vermillion, Dodrill, and Jones homi-there had been “progress” in the case, but he was not pre-cides. A month later, on March 26, he was convicted of pared to share the details. “We’re putting a lot of effort the McCann-Martin murders and sentenced to six into this case,” he declared. “We’ve got to solve it.”

terms of life imprisonment. Brother Gary went to trial Still, the murders continued for another four years, for all 10 homicides on May 14; 12 days later, the jury some victims bludgeoned with a hammer in addition to
158

LONG, Robert Joe

being choked and stabbed repeatedly. Thirteen women age five, when he was knocked unconscious in a fall were dead by November 1996 when the Ripper made from a swing and one eyelid was skewered on a stick.

his first mistake, leaving his latest victim alive. The The following year he was thrown from his bicycle, woman identified her attacker as Li Wenxian, a one-crashing headfirst into a parked car, with injuries includ-time farmer from southern Guangdong province who ing loss of several teeth and a severe concussion. At age had migrated to Guangzhou in 1991 and found work seven, he fell from a pony onto his head, remaining with a construction team. In custody, Li confessed to dizzy and nauseous for several weeks after the accident.

the attacks, telling police that he was motivated by At age 13, Long met the girl who would become his revenge against all prostitutes, since one of them had wife and simultaneously gave up sleeping with his cheated him a short time after his arrival in Guangzhou.