Interviewer: Do you think killers have no soul?
Ramirez: Yes. Serial killers and killers in general have no conscience. They have souls, but their souls are dead.
- Excerpt from a prison interview with serial killer Richard Ramirez
Dennis Rader, aka the BTK killer, was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers. There were several communications from BTK during 1974 to 1979. This is a sample of one of his letters:
The victims are tie up-most have been women-phone cut- bring some bondage mater sadist tendencies-no struggle, outside the death spot-no wintness except the Vain’s Kids. They were very lucky; a phone call save them. I was go-ng to tape the boys and put plastics bag over there head like I did Joseph, and Shirley. And then hang the girl. God-oh God what a beautiful sexual relief that would been. Josephine, when I hung her really turn me on; her pleading for mercy then the rope took whole, she helpless; staring at me with wide terror fill eyes the rope getting tighter-tighter.
On the 25th of January, 2005, 10-year-old Katlyn “Katie” Collman departed her Crothersville, Indiana, home, to pick up some toilet paper from a Dollar Store just a couple of blocks away. When she didn’t come home, her parents reported her missing and an AMBER Alert was issued. A search team was quickly assembled but there was no sign of Katie.
Five days later, Katie’s lifeless body was discovered in a creek approximately 15 miles from her home. She had been raped before being forcibly drowned in the creek. Nearby, investigators found a discarded cigarette butt which they DNA tested and compared it to the DNA found on Katie’s body. It was a match; the DNA testing results led to Anthony Ray Stockelman. After pleading guilty in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table, Stockelman was sentenced to life imprisonment.
While the story should have ended there, it certainly didn’t. Also incarcerated in the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, where Stockelman was serving his sentence, was Katie’s cousin, Jared Harris. On 22 September, 2006, Harris slipped into Stockelman’s open cell. When Stockelman entered the cell, Harris slammed the locked door behind them. He then held Stockelman down and tattooed “KATIE’S REVENGE” on his forehead
On 15 August, 2016, authorities were called to the house of John Joseph Stevens III and his wife, Michelle Karen Mishcon, who lived in Marion County, Florida. When they arrived, they discovered an absolutely abhorrent scene. 19-year-old Florida State University student, Austin Kelly Harrouff, was on top of Stevens, wearing just his underwear, he was making animal noises and tearing off portions of the flesh from his face and eating it. John and Michelle had both been brutally stabbed to death in a seemingly unprovoked attack. Austin was unresponsive to a stun gun and even a K-9 biting him. The neighbour who had called 911 sustained stab wounds as he attempted to stop the savage attack but thankfully survived.
Police originally theorised that the teenager was on the drug, flakka. However, it was later reported in his toxicology report that he had no hallucinogenic drugs in his system at the time of the senseless attack. In documents recently released, police revealed that when they finally got him off Stevens, he told him: “Help me, I ate something bad,” before admitting that it was “humans” he had ate and spitting a piece of flesh out. Before the brutal attack, Harrouff had been acting very bizarrely, his friends and family would later report to police.
He had recently moved his bed to the garage, explaining his reasoning he had said there were “demons” in the home. In addition, he had told his sister that he had the ability to open locked doors with his mind. On the evening of the murder, he had gone to dinner with his dad. Exclaiming that the food was taking too long, Harrouff walked to his mother’s home, which was nearby, and started to drink cooking oil and a bowl of cheese mixed with cooking oil.
A wall cavity inside the home of Ivan Milat, arguably Australia’s most notorious serial killer, in which he hid the belongings of his victims. These included the clothes and camping gear of murdered backpackers.
On 11th July 1990, twenty-three-year-old Sarah MacDiarmid disappeared from a railway station in Melbourne, Australia. She has not been seen since. Police do believe that she met with foul play, and consider her dead but have vowed to never stop looking for her.
The last time anyone saw Sarah, she was heading to her vehicle in a dimly lit car park. This was around 10:20 PM. Later, numerous people would come forward to say that around this time they had heard a female voice yell out “Give me back my keys!”.
More than 250 police officers were involved in 21-day air, sea and land search for Sarah, but no trace of her could be discovered. Suspects did involve the convicted Australian serial killer Paul Denyer but he denied any involvement. Psychics have suggested that she had been murdered and her body discarded in a rubbish dump, but as far as anyone knows, there is no evidence to support this theory.
In 2004, the government, along with an anonymous benefactor, offered the reward of $1,000,000 for any information that solves the mystery of what happened to Sarah.
If you have any information, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Richard Speck’s crime scene. Speck killed 8 nurses in the middle of the night, leaving one alive. The survivor hid herself under bed and called for help in the morning hours after he had left.
As far as serial killers go, Ted Bundy was certainly among the smartest. He also used to make sure he was up to date with the latest news in politics and, of course, crime. In 1976, he asked his lawyer about execution.
What’s going on with executions now?” Ted asked. “Where are people most likely to be executed now?”
“I suppose it might be Georgia….No,” Bundy’s lawyer corrected himself. “It’d probably be Florida now.”
“Florida?” replied Bundy.
The lawyer said the constitutionality of Florida’s death penalty had recently been upheld by the U.S Supreme Court.
“Florida,” murmured Bundy, “Florida Hmmmm.”
It makes you wonder why Bundy started killing in Florida at all if he had knowledge of this. It’s most likely that his arrogance got in the way of his judgement and he didn’t think he’d ever be caught.
“Guilt? Its this mechanism we use to control people. Its an illusion. Its a kind of social control mechanism —- and its very unhealthy. It does terrible things to our bodies. And there are much better ways to control our behaviour rather than that extraordinary use of guilt.”
- Ted Bundy
The Sasebo Slashing
On June 1, 2004 an eleven-year-old girl (pictured) known only as ‘Nevada-tan’ entered an empty classroom in an elementary school in Sasebo, Japan, armed with a box-cutting knife. She lured her classmate, twelve-year-old Satomi Miratai into a recording closet and stabbed her, slashed her wrists, and wounded her neck. Miratai died within seconds. Nevada-tan then went back to class with her clothes covered in blood and told a teacher what she had done.Nevada-tan was swiftly arrested and initially gave no motive for the senseless murder. She was emotionless as she described killing Miratai, telling police she had asked her victim if she preferred being killed with her eyes shut or open. Nevada-tan cried as she told police that Miratai had mocked her for being “too fat” and had called her a “goody goody” on an online chat room. Despite being only eleven years old, Nevada-tan was an avid fan of horror manga magazines and police found violent videos downloaded on her home computer.
In September 2004 a judge declared Nevada-tan too young to receive a maximum sentence; she was instead sent to a reformatory for wayward girls and released after just four years.
Lost Cosmonaut – First Female in Space?
The lost casmonaut conspiracy theory is fairly well known. It is said that a group of Soviet cosmonauts entered space without telling the Soviet or Russian space authorities.
This audio was recorded by the Judica-Cordiglia brothers in 1961. It is reportedly one of many transmissions intercepted by the two brothers that prove the existence of the lost cosmonauts.
It is in Russian and translates to:
five…four…three …two…one…one
two…three…four…five…
come in… come in… come in…
LISTEN…LISTEN! …COME IN!
COME IN… COME IN… TALK TO ME!
TALK TO ME!… I AM HOT!… I AM HOT!
WHAT?… FORTYFIVE?… WHAT?…
FORTYFIVE?… FIFTY?…
YES…YES…YES… BREATHING…
BREATHING… OXYGEN…
OXYGEN… I AM HOT… (THIS)
ISN’T THIS DANGEROUS?… IT’S ALL…
ISN’T THIS DANGEROUS?… IT’S ALL…
YES…YES…YES… HOW IS THIS?
WHAT?… TALK TO ME!… HOW SHOULD I
TRANSMIT? YES…YES…YES…
WHAT? OUR TRANSMISSION BEGINS NOW…
FORTYONE… THIS WAY… OUR
TRANSMISSION BEGINS NOW…
FORTYONE… THIS WAY… OUR
TRANSMISSION BEGINS NOW…
FORTYONE… YES… I FEEL HOT…
I FEEL HOT… IT’S ALL… IT’S HOT…
I FEEL HOT… I FEEL HOT… I FEEL HOT…
… I CAN SEE A FLAME!… WHAT?…
I CAN SEE A FLAME!… I CAN SEE A
FLAME!…
I FEEL HOT… I FEEL HOT… THIRTYTWO…
THIRTYTWO… FORTYONE… FORTYONE
AM I GOING TO CRASH?… YES…YES… I FEEL HOT!…
I FEEL HOT!… I WILL REENTER!… I WILL REENTER…
I AM LISTENING!… I FEEL HOT!…
The Mystery of Lars Mittank
Lars Mittank disappeared on July of 2014. The last known footage of him was taken at an airport and it shows some unusual behavior. Lars, for some reason, panics, drops everything, and starts to run. He runs towards the woods near the airport and is never seen or heard from again. The bag he left was searched by police and nothing unusual was found. His family says he has no history of mental illness and they have no way of explaining his strange behavior.
On 10 November, 1997, a man with longish brown hair and brown eyes, approximated to be in his late thirties, checked into the Super 8 Motel in Aiken, South Carolina. He paid for the room in cash and didn’t give his name, explaining he wanted to “leave all that behind.” Later on in the evening, the mysterious man ordered a pizza to his room but didn’t answer the door when it arrived. A “Do Not Disturb” sign was hanging on the door along with a handwritten note which read: “I’m not responsible for the consequences.”
A few days later, his dead body was discovered in his hotel room. He had committed suicide but authorities did not mention how. No identification could be found inside the hotel room and a bottle of anti-depressants was found, although the label had been ripped off in an attempt to conceal his identity. An investigation uncovered that the anonymous man had been in a local hospital weeks prior following a failed suicide attempt. He had given his name as “Jeffrey Daniel” and provided a Social Security number and also a New York address; all of which proved to be fabricated. His true identity still remains unknown.
