Suspected or convicted serial killers in 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 John R. Gasser Harvy L. Carignan James Dwight Canady What is a ? Even the nation’s leading experts don’t agree. The most general Warren Forrest definition is based on numbers and patterns: Two or more unrelated victims in distinctly Gary G. Grant Ted Bundy separate incidents. The Northwest has a notorious history of these “prototype” The .22 Caliber Killer, killers – among them are Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer, who Identity unknown, James Elledge Brian Keith Lord are synonymous with the term “serial killer.” Spokane The same killer is believed James Edward Ruzicka Yet other, less infamous killers have claimed scores of lives across the state. to be responsible for three Gary A. Taylor Some have been convicted of only one or two murders, but are suspected slayings of women found William Batten of many more. Four remain only suspects, pending trial. dumped near the Spokane Robert Lee Yates Jr. River in 1990. All of the victims Kenneth Bianchi were known prostitutes shot with the s Following general definitions provided by the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, criminal Morris Frampton profilers and other experts, the Post-Intelligencer compiled this list of the state’s ame .22 caliber gun. Investigators once looked at the crimes in relation to a string of Stanley Bernson modern-day serial killers. prostitute killings in Spokane that Robert Lee Lewiston Valley Killer It’s impossible to know if the list is comprehensive. There’s no national database of serial Yates Jr. later confessed to. But the Army Randy Woodfield helicopter pilot was later ruled out as the Martin Lee Sanders killers. It’s also true that some are better than others in hiding their morbid harvest. But murderer in these cases, as he was stationed in Charles Sinclair it does show that killers often roam our state for years, exploiting holes in a law Germany at the time of the killings. First known enforcement system that often fails to protect the missing or bring justice for the dead. murder 1990. Green River Killer Dwayne Elton Status: Unsolved William Scott Smith John R. Gasser William Batten Dwayne Elton Billy Ray Ballard Jr. Student/state employee, Car lot worker, Aberdeen Army sergeant, Fort Lewis. Joe Kondro Seattle/Olympia PHOTO Gary A. Shaw Committed to state psychiatric Shot and killed one prostitute, NOT KEY Daniel Yates A Seattle University student in hospital as a “sexual psychopath” strangled and sliced the throat of AVAILABLE Free 1948, Gasser raped and strangled a following child molestations in 1967. another. Elton dumped his victims Snohomish County Dismemberment Killer 22-year-old carhop and dumped her Stabbed two teenage hitchhikers near Madigan Army Hospital in 1984. In custody John Bill Fletcher Jr. body near the Sand Point Naval to death near Moclips in 1975. He The Seattle native later pleaded guilty to the First known murder The Index Killer Station. Years after his release from prison, he raped remains a suspect in the 1969 disappearance of a killings in military court to avoid a death sentence. and strangled a 49-year-old woman and dumped woman he had dated. Most recent arrest Westley Allan Dodd Status: In military prison in Kansas. Scott William Cox her body in a ditch outside Olympia in 1982. Status: In prison in Washington. First known murder and Status: In prison in Washington. arrest in same year Keith Jesperson William Scott Smith George Russell Robert Lee Yates Jr. Unemployed cook, Salem, Ore. The .22 Caliber Killer Aluminum plant worker and Westley Allan Dodd The Want Ad Killer Convicted of two counts of Robert “Sidetrack” Silveria Harvy L. Carignan Army Reserve helicopter pilot, Shipping clerk, Clark County aggravated murder for the sex Jack Owen Spillman III Gas station manager Spokane Raped, tortured and killed three boys slayings of two young Salem women Robert Lee Parker Seattle/Minneapolis Killed a string of prostitutes in in separate attacks in the spring of in Vancouver-Portland area. Caught Rafael Ramirez Suspected in dozens of sex-slayings Spokane and Pierce County since 1984. Smith was also questioned in after he tried to abduct a boy from spanning four decades and several 1996. Admitted to 16 murders, the 1983 unsolved murder of a 14-year-old girl in a Camas movie theater. Admitted to Dewayne Lee Harris Western states and provinces, convicted of 15. Typically would pick up prostitutes, Idaho. Although not officially a suspect in any molesting about 30 children. John Eric Armstrong Carignan is thought to have killed at least two shoot them and engage in post-mortem sex. Grew Washington murders, Green River investigators at Status: Executed in Washington in 1993. women in Washington. He was convicted of two up on Whidbey Island and lived in several one time looked at him in relation to serial killings in murders in Minnesota. He met some victims by Washington cities. this state. Smith also has family ties to Pierce County. Dewayne Lee Harris Scott William Cox placing newspaper help wanted ads. A map found in Status: On death row in Washington. Status: In prison in Oregon. Transient his Minnesota home had at least 180 areas circled – Long-haul trucker, Newberg, Ore. Killed three prostitutes and transient including 18 in Washington – where some bodies Stabbed one prostitute and strangled have been found. women in Seattle. Typically would The Hillside Strangler: Billy Ray Ballard Jr. another in Portland. Suspected in bind his victims’ wrists and ankles Status: In prison in Minnesota. Kenneth Bianchi Truck driver, Plains, Mont. more than 20 other murders, with their shoelaces, gag them with Security-alarm installer, Confessed to killing a Seattle couple including the 1988 homicide of their under clothes and strangle them, Bellingham who disappeared while sightseeing Snohomish County transient Hazel then leave bodies in vacant city lots. John Dwight Canaday Gelnett and the 1990 murder of Tia Hicks, a Seattle Strangled at least seven women in the Columbia River Gorge. Their Status: In prison in Washington. City water department employee, and left their bodies on hillsides in bodies were recovered at different woman whose body was found in Montlake Terrace. Seattle Los Angeles. Also killed two times, dumped 30 miles apart, in Also suspected of raping and trying to kill a Seattle prostitute in May 1991. Abducted, raped and strangled two Western Washington University students in rural Grant County. Ballard’s arrest for the abduction, John Eric Armstrong women, then dumped their bodies Bellingham in 1979. He worked with an adopted and torture of two women in Wyoming months Status: In prison in Oregon. U.S. Navy, Bremerton/Detroit, Mich. near Stevens Pass. Canaday later “cousin” convicted of nine similar murders in Los later helped investigators match his fingerprint to Claims to have killed two women attacked two other women and Angeles. one left on the Washington couple’s abandoned car. Happy Face Killer: and a transsexual man in Seattle was being held in King County Jail on rape, assault Status: In prison in Washington. Status: In prison in Wyoming. and kidnapping charges when he confessed to the Keith Jesperson while stationed on the Bremerton- murders, leading detectives to one body. Long-haul trucker, based USS Nimitz from 1993 to Yakima Valley/Portland 1999, plus eight others worldwide. Status: In prison in Washington. Morris Frampton Joe Kondro Convicted of five Detroit-area prostitute murders. Sprinkler system installer, Seattle Laborer, mill worker, Longview Confessed to eight murders in five Police discount many of his claims. states. Jesperson typically raped, Beat to death a Seattle prostitute, Admits to raping and strangling two Status: In prison in Michigan. Warren Forrest then dumped her body near the young girls in Southwest beat and strangled truck-stop Clark County parks employee, South Park marina. Also convicted Washington – killings more than prostitutes and transients, then dumped bodies Vancouver of assaulting two other Seattle 11 years apart. Convicted of two along wooded roadsides. Sent taunting letters to Awaiting trial Suspected of kidnapping, raping prostitutes and acquitted of killing other , he also admits to media and authorities, signed with a “happy face.” and strangling six women near another. abducting a teenage store clerk at knifepoint. Caught after killing his girlfriend near Camas. Vancouver. Convicted of killing one Status: In prison in Washington. Suspect in dozens of disappearances, rapes and Status: In prison in Oregon. Brian Keith Lord and abducting, raping and murders since 1982. Carpenter, Kitsap County attempting to kill two others, after serving seven Suspected of the 1986 sex slaying Status: In prison in Washington. Eastside Serial Killer: years in a state mental hospital. Stanley Bernson of a Poulsbo teenage girl. At age 14, George Russell Status: In prison in Washington. Produce salesman, Spokane Lord shot and killed a family friend Unemployed, Mercer Island Suspected of killing up to 30 Gary A. Shaw in California; and abducted his Northwest women, Bernson Unemployed, Tacoma Raped and killed three women he sister-in-law when he was 20. His Gary G. Grant stabbed a 15-year-old girl to death Convicted of raping and killing two met in Eastside bars, leaving their conviction and death sentence for the Washington Navy enlistee, Renton and buried her in a shallow grave in Tacoma women in separate bodies in particular poses. A small- murder was overturned, with retrial set for this year. time burglar/con-artist who Confessed to four sex-slayings, Richland. Authorities in Oregon also attacks in early 1985. Shaw Status: In Kitsap County Jail, awaiting trial. including the murders of two 6-year- charged him for the 1978 murder of a Umatilla dumped his victim’s bodies in pretended to be a cop, Russell made his living old boys and two teenage girls. All teenager, whose body was found in 1985. wooded areas of Pierce County. off women he met, through trickery and theft. victims stabbed, strangled or both, Status: In prison in Washington. Status: In prison in Washington. Status: In prison in Washington. Green River Killer: then dumped in wooded areas near Identity unknown a Renton trailer park where he lived with his parents. The Box Car Killer: Forty-nine murders are attributed to the Green River Status: In prison in Washington. Lewiston Valley Killer Daniel Yates Killer, whose victims were prostitutes and runaways Robert “Sidetrack” Silveria Identity unknown Tattoo artist, Bremerton in the Puget Sound area. Railroad transient Believed responsible for five murders Convicted of raping and killing a Gary L. Ridgway, a South King Ted Bundy Claimed to have killed 28 drifters and disappearances in the Clarkston, ? 13-year-old girl – one of three County truck painter, is accused of Law student, Tacoma while riding box cars in seven states, Wash.- Lewiston, Idaho, area from hitchhikers he picked up, abducted killing Cynthia Hines, Opal Mills and mostly bludgeoning his victims with One of the most infamous serial 1979-82. Some victims were and tortured. Yates also raped and Marcia Chapman in 1982 and Carol rocks and axes. Convicted of four killers of modern time, the former dismembered and dumped in a river. tried to kill a 12-year-old boy and Christensen in 1983. Although all murders – two in Oregon, one each in Kansas and Tacoma man and University of Two bodies have never been found. Victims include 13-year-old girl during the same attack. Later four deaths have been attributed to Florida. Seven other murders also have been directly Washington law student is thought three young women, a girl and a man. charged with killing a 35-year-old housemate in the killer, and Ridgway remains a linked to him, though Silveria was never tried for to have killed at least 36 young Oklahoma. suspect in other deaths, authorities RIDGWAY Status: Investigators have a suspect, but have these crimes. Member of the Freight Train Riders of women and girls in Washington, Oregon, California, never made an arrest. Status: In undisclosed out-of-state prison. are careful not to call him the Green River Killer. Utah, Colorado and Florida. America, a loose-knit gang of transients, Silveria frequently traveled to Washington from 1988 to Status: Ridgway arrested in 2001, awaiting trial. Status: Executed in Florida in 1989. 1996. He was questioned about a transient’s death The Green River investigation continues. The I-5 Killer: Dismemberment Murders in Klickitat County. Randy Woodfield Identity unknown Status: In prison in Oregon. James Elledge Bartender, Eugene/Portland, Ore. One killer could be responsible for Michael J. “Cowboy” Braae Part-time church janitor, Lynnwood Suspect in at least 13 homicides, three murders in which the victims’ ? Transient, Lacey Attacked at least four women over including three in Washington. Best bodies were dismembered and Jack Owen Spillman III Suspected of killing five women and 33-year span, killing two. Crimes known for robbing, raping and dumped in remote areas in Laborer, East Wenatchee assaulting others in Washington and include a 1966 robbery/kidnapping killing women in communities along Snohomish County. One victim was Oregon. in Albuquerque, N.M.; a 1974 Interstate 5 from Bellevue to Redding, Calif. Often a Bulgarian organized crime figure whose body was Raped, murdered and mutilated Braae faces trial in the slaying of bludgeoning murder in Seattle; wore a false beard and hooded sweat shirt during found in 1987, but wasn’t identified for 10 years. three females, including a 9-year-old Lori Jones, 44, whose body was and the1998 fatal stabbing of one woman and his attacks. Another was a Korean immigrant from Bothell with girl, and a mother and her teenage found July 8, 2001, in her Lacey apartment. He is of another in a Lynnwood church. a record for prostitution. Her body was found with daughter in a separate attack. Also Status: In prison in Oregon. also charged in Yakima with shooting Marchelle the remains of a third man, who has never been charged with rape and robbery in Kent. Status: Executed in Washington in 2001. Morgan, 50, of Yelm, also in July 2001. She survived. identified, in 1991. Status: In prison in Washington. Braae is a suspect in the death of Velina Larson, 37, Martin Lee Sanders Status: Unsolved. James Edward Ruzicka Long-haul trucker, Spokane whose remains were found in Oregon in January Robert Lee Parker 1998, and the disappearances of Deb VanLuven, 45, Stable cleaner, Redmond Convicted of raping and killing two John Bill Fletcher Jr. Unemployed, Shoreline of Lacey, in 1997, and Susan Ault, 39, of Roseburg, Deemed a “sexual psychopath” teenagers in Spokane in 1983. He Separately killed two neighbor in 2001. after attacking two Seattle women, also killed two teenage female Convicted in 2001 of two stabbing women and set fire to their Status: In prison in Idaho. he escaped Western State Hospital, hitchhikers in Grant County in 1980. murders of Yakima-area women in Shoreline apartments in 1995. Also then raped and strangled two Avoided prosecution in those 1987. He was a convicted rapist is suspected of shooting and killing teenagers in West Seattle. He hung murders by later pleading guilty to the Spokane already serving more than 46 years a man in a passing car in 1996. the body of one victim from a tree and hid the other homicides. for a similar 1987 sex attack when he Lee Boyd Malvo Parker, an Arkansas fugitive who lived with his Student in a field. He was arrested in Oregon after raping a Status: In prison in Washington. confessed to the slayings. girlfriend in Shoreline, is suspected of a similar John A. Muhammad 13-year-old girl. Status: In prison in Washington. murder-arson that left one woman dead in Georgia Status: In prison in Washington. in 1995. Mechanic, Tacoma/Bellingham Coin Shop Killer: Status: In prison in Washington. Best known in connection with a Charles Sinclair The Index Killer seemingly random series of sniper The Phantom Sniper: Transient, Deming Identity unknown shootings in the Washington, D.C.- MALVO Gary A. Taylor Suspected in six murders in One killer may be responsible for The Railroad Killer: area last fall, they are suspected of Escaped mental patient, Burien Washington state, including the murders of two Seattle women ? Rafael Resendez Ramirez 13 slayings and five attempted Abducted, shot and buried a Burien killings of an elderly couple whose whose bodies were dumped in the Day laborer, transient killings in five states and the District of Columbia, including the fatal housewife. Suspected of killing as bodies have not been found. Index area in 1988. Both victims, Robbed and killed at least eight shooting of Keenya Cook in Tacoma many as three women in Michigan, Robbed, raped and killed across several other known prostitutes and drug users, people who lived near or spent time in February 2002. where he spent 15 years in mental Western states, including two suspected murders in were stabbed. Three other women – two found dead on railroad tracks around the hospitals. Texas authorities suspect him of killing at Montana, two in California and one attempted nearby and a 14-year-old runaway last seen with Midwest and South in the late Status: Awaiting trial in Virginia. least one woman and sexually assaulting four murder in Utah. Sinclair often preyed on coin shops one of the murder victims – may also be victims. 1990s. Has not been named as a suspect in any MUHAMMAD others, and at one time questioned him about 16 and their employees. Washington state crimes, but is known to have been Status: Unsolved. Note: This document has been updated and corrected since sniper shootings on Texas freeways. in Seattle, the Tri-Cities and Spokane in 1996. Status: Died in jail in Alaska. its original publication on Feb. 20, 2003. Status: In prison in Washington. Status: On death row in Texas. Source: Seattle P-I research SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER