How to Make Homemade Mayonnaise:

When you're out of mayonnaise, blend a batch of this Homemade Mayonnaise in under 1 minute.

READY IN: 1min.  Servings: 20,  Yield: 20 tablespoons

Ingredients:

    1 whole egg

    1⁄2 teaspoon dry mustard

    1⁄2 teaspoon salt

    2 tablespoons distilled vinegar (clear) (white vinegar)

    1 cup canola oil (or any type of vegetable oil will do)

    1 dash paprika (this is optional)

Directions:

    Serving size is 1 tablespoon. This recipe makes 1-1/4 cups mayonnaise.

    In blender, add 1 whole egg, dry mustard, vinegar, (optional paprika) and 1/4 cup oil.

    Blend on low for 1-2 minutes.

    Turn the blender off, and scrape sides, if necessary thereby getting what was spattered back into the mix.

    Now, with the blender on low, and while it is running, slowly add the remaining 3/4 cups oil.

    Blend until the consistency of mayonnaise.

    Refrigerate in non-reactive (plastic or glass container.

    AND FOR VARIATION:

You can add ¼ - ½ tsp of your desired seasoning, such as, basil, tarragon, or parsley.

Enjoy !

- bird

One of the Most Evil Child Killers In History: Westley Allen Dodd

In 1989, Westley Allen Dodd sexually assaulted and killed three boys ages 11, 10 and four. His methods were so heinous, that forensic psychologists dubbed him one of the evilest killers in history.

His Childhood Years

Westley Allan Dodd was born in Washington State on July 3, 1961. Dodd grew up in what has been described as a loveless home and was often neglected by his parents in favor of his two younger brothers. At age 13, Dodds began exposing himself to children passing by his house. Realizing the dangers of getting caught, he started bicycling around the streets looking for opportunities to expose himself. His parents, distracted by their own problems of getting divorced, were aware of Dodd's strange sexual behavior but avoided confronting the boy about it or getting him help. Even less attention was given to Westley after his parents divorced. His desires expanded from exhibitionism to physical contact. He first molested those closest to him. His younger cousins, ages six and eight and the child of a woman his father was dating, became regular victims of his growing perversions.

He Was An Entrusted Caretaker of Small Children

Dodd grew up to be good-looking, fairly intelligent and personable teenager. These qualities helped him in finding part-time jobs where he was entrusted with the care of children. He would often babysit for his neighbors, seizing the private time to molest the children he was caring for as they slept. He worked as a camp counselor during the summer months, taking advantage of children's trust and admiration for him. Dodd spent most of his teen years devising new and better ways to abuse children, putting any child that came near him at potential risk of being abused. He learned how to combine the adult persona with a sense of conspiratorial camaraderie to completely control his young, innocent victims. He could cajole them into playing doctor or dare them to go skinny-dipping with him. He took advantage of their natural curiosity and often normalized what he did by offering it as a "grown-up treat". But Dodd could not master not being caught. On the contrary, he got caught a lot molesting kids, starting with his first arrest at 15 for exposing himself. Tragically nothing much was ever done, but to remand him to professional counseling.

The Refining Of His Techniques

The older he got the more desperate he was to find victims. He discovered he could use more force and less cajoling and began approaching children in parks, demanding that they follow him into a secluded area or that they remove their clothing. In 1981, after a failed attempt to capture two little girls which was reported to the police, Dodds joined the Navy. That did not stop his pedophiliac desires which were growing into sadistic fantasies. While stationed in Washington he began hunting children who lived on the base. He prowled the nearby movie theater restrooms and arcades in his spare time.

A Failed System

After the Navy, he got a job at a paper mill. His debased proclivities never ceased to occupy most of his thoughts and purpose. Once he offered a group of boys $50 to accompany him to a nearby motel to play strip poker. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped even though he admitted his intentions to molest them to the authorities. Not much later he was arrested again for an attempted molestation and served 19 days in jail and was again ordered to seek counseling. This wouldn't be the last time Dodd was caught. In fact, it could almost appear as if he wanted to be caught after being arrested several other times for assaulting the children of friends and neighbors. But as usual, Dodd's penalties rarely added up to any real jail time because many parents were reluctant to put their traumatized child through the court system. In the meantime, Dodd's fantasies were escalating and he began to carefully plan his attacks.

He kept a diary, filling its pages with his morbid fantasies of what he would like to do to his future victims.

The Diary Excerpts

"Incident 3 will die maybe this way: He'll be tied down as Lee was in Incident 2. Instead of placing a bag over his head as had previously planned, I'll tape his mouth shut with duct tape. Then, when ready, I'll use a clothespin or something to plug his nose. That way I can sit back, take pictures and watch him die instead of concentrating on my hands or the rope tight around his neck -- that would also eliminate the rope burns on the neck . . . I can clearly see his face and eyes now..." "He suspects nothing now. Will probably wait until morning to kill him. That way his body will be fairly fresh for experiments after work. I'll suffocate him in his sleep when I wake up for work (if I sleep)."

The Crimes

Possibly the fact that he had now molested about 30 children with impunity helped Westley go a step further towards violence. His yearnings became increasingly difficult to control, and his fantasies darker. He went from sketching torture racks to actually building one. He stopped cajoling and persuading and began ordering. He began to tie up his victims. He became consumed with thoughts of torture, mutilation, and cannibalism.

His Desire to Kill

In 1987, at age 26, he could no longer ignore his desires to kill his victims. He made up his mind to do it. His first attempt failed when the eight-year-old boy Dodd's lured into the woods managed to escape back to where his mother sat. He told his mother to call the police and Dodd was apprehended. Dodd received yet another slap on the wrist, in spite of the fact that prosecutors stressed his history of sex crimes. He served 118 days in jail and one-year probation. His fantasies sunk to new depths, and he began to depersonalize his targets, thinking of them as "it", rather than he or she. He wrote in his diary, "if I can just get it home...". On Labor Day weekend at David Douglas Park, he hid beside a trail. His plans were frustrated by hikers, watchful parents and by the whimsy of the children themselves, who would come tantalizingly close, only to dart down a side path or skip back the other way from where he hid. Dodd gave up, but the pressure to indulge his perverse and twisted desire to molest and kill a young child was overpowering and he returned to the park in the early evening hours, determined not to fail.

The Neer Brothers

Billy, 10, and his big brother Cole, 11, were late getting home from collecting golf balls from the local golf course, so decided to take the shortcut through the park. They came upon Dodd, blocking their way on the dirt trail. Dodd did not waste time and ordered the boys to follow him. The boys did as instructed, possibly out of fear when realizing the usually busy park was deserted so late in the day. Once off the trail, it took Dodd only 20 minutes to molest the boys, stab them and clean up the evidence. Cole took most of the abuse, probably in an attempt to save his younger brother, but nothing could save either boy from the pure evil which possessed Dodd. Dodd slashed at the boys and believing both boys were dead, he took off. Billy was found first, still alive, but he would die shortly after being taken to the hospital. Cole's body was found several hours later after the Neers reported that their sons were missing and authorities knew to look for a second child. At first, Dodd worried that police would somehow link him to the murder of the Neer brothers, but Dodd's unspeakable lusts were only heightened by his successful kills. His monstrous thoughts reached new depths of depravity. He pondered the greater thrill of castrating a young boy and watching the child bleed to death, or to keep him alive so that Dodd could cook the victims genitals in front of him and force feed them to the child. Possibly, he considered, the terror would actually be worse if Dodd himself ate them in front of their previous owner.

Lee Iseli

When Dodd realized that the police had no leads in the murders of the Neer boys, he began to plan his next move. He drove across the bridge to Portland, Oregon and cruised the parks and playgrounds, having some near misses. He finally went to a movie theater, but no opportunity to abduct a child presented itself. The next day he went to Richmond School Playground. Some older kids were playing football, but he noticed four-year-old Lee Iseli playing alone on a slide. Dodd asked little Lee if he wanted to have some fun and make some money. Lee - who had been taught not to talk to strangers - said no, but Dodd grabbed his hand and started toward his car. When Lee began to resist, Dodd told him not to worry, that Lee's father had sent Dodd to pick him up. Inside Dodd's apartment, Lee was subjected to unimaginable acts of abuse and torture, all carefully documented by Dodds with pictures and entries in his diary. The morning after his capture, Dodds hung Lee Iseli to death in his closet before heading off to work. He took photographs of the little boy dying and hanging dead, hid the body behind some blankets and left. After work, he made an entry in his diary that he would, "have to find a place to dump the garbage," meaning the tiny tortured body of Lee Iseli. He decided to leave the boy by the Vancouver Lake and burn any evidence, except for the child's Ghostbusters underpants. Robert Iseli, Lee's father, still had hope. Although Lee had been missing for several days, Mr. Iseli made a public statement expressing the hope that Lee had been taken by a lonely, but kindly person, but on the morning of November 1, 1989, all hope ended after the body of Lee Iseli was found.

His Capture and Gruesome Confession

Dodd, avoiding the local parks, decided that movie theaters would be a good place to hunt his next victim. He went to the New Liberty Theater and waited for a young child to go unattended to the restroom. He managed to get the screaming six-year-old boy outside but was captured by William Ray Graves, the boyfriend of the child's mother. Dodd was interrogated by police from Washington and Oregon, as a suspect in the murders of the Neer brothers and Lee Iseli. At first, he denied having any knowledge about the children and maintained that he only meant to molest the child from the theater. Then his whole attitude changed and he confessed to the murders, delighting in revealing the shocking details. He directed police to his diary, Lee Iseli's Ghostbusters briefs, the incriminating photos and the unused torture rack.

The Trial and Prosecution

Dodd was charged with three counts of first-degree murder plus the attempted kidnapping from the New Liberty Theater. Against his lawyer’s advice, he pleaded not guilty but later changed that to guilty. It was up to a jury to decide the penalty. The district attorney made it clear the verdict he expected. He told the jury, "He planned child murders. He committed child murders. He relived and fantasized child murders. With life in prison without the possibility of parole, two of those things are still available to him". The jury was then shown the diary, pictures, and other evidence. Dodd's defense called no witnesses and presented no evidence. Dodd's attorney, Lee Dane, did offer that no sane person would be capable of these heinous crimes. Dodd received the death sentence on July 15, 1990.

He Said No Appeals

Dodd refused to appeal his death penalty and chose to hang as the method of execution, claiming he wanted to experience what Lee Iseli had experienced. He told the court, "I must be executed before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I do escape, I promise you I will kill and rape and enjoy every minute of it."

When You Meet a Stranger

His date of execution was set for January 5, 1993. He received a lot of attention because no legal hanging had been done in the U.S. since 1965. Dodd enjoyed telling his story to the media and he wrote a pamphlet on how to avoid child molesters entitled "When You Meet a Stranger." During the months before his execution, Dodds seemingly turned to the Bible for comfort. During one of his interviews, he said, "I believe what the Bible teaches: I'll go to Heaven. I have doubts, but I'd really like to believe that I would be able to go up to the three little boys and give them a hug and tell them how sorry I was and be able to love them with a real true love and have no desire to hurt them in any way."

His Last Words

Westley Allan Dodd was executed at 12:05 a.m. on June 5, 1993. His final statement was, "I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said, `No.' I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find peace." There were no apologies for his crimes, no obvious look of remorse. Outside the prison, those who were in support of the execution could be heard chanting rhymes like "What the heck stretch his neck" while the non-supporters wept at the news that his execution had gone on as planned.

All people who are about to be executed seems to find “God” and have hopes that that will alleviate the pain that they have caused. Another escape for them.

-bird

A License to Kill - “Doctor Death” Joseph Michael Swango

Joseph Michael Swango is a serial killer who, as a trusted doctor, had easy access to his victims. Authorities believe he murdered up to 60 people and poisoned countless others, including co-workers, friends and his wife.

His Childhood Years

Michael Swango was born on October 21, 1954, in Tacoma, Washington, to Muriel and John Virgil Swango. He was the middle son of three boys and the child that Muriel believed was the most gifted.  John Swango was an Army officer which meant the family was constantly relocating. It was not until 1968, when the family moved to Quincy, Illinois, that they finally settled down. The atmosphere in the Swango home depended on whether or not John was present. When he was not there, Muriel tried to maintain a peaceful home, and she kept a strong hold on the boys. When John was on leave and at home from his military duties, the home resembled a military facility, with John as the strict disciplinarian. All of the Swango children feared their father as did Muriel.  His struggle with alcoholism was the main contributor to the tension and upheaval that went on in the home.

High School

Concerned that Michael would be under-challenged in the public school system in Quincy, Muriel decided to ignore her Presbyterian roots and enrolled him in the Christian Brothers High School, a private Catholic school known for its high academic standards. Michael's brothers attended the public schools. At Christian Brothers, Michael excelled academically and became involved in various extracurricular activities. Like his mother, he developed a love of music and learned to read music, sing, play the piano, and mastered the clarinet well enough to become a member of the Quincy Notre Dame band and tour with the Quincy College Wind Ensemble.

Millikin University Michael graduated as class valedictorian from Christian Brothers in 1972. His high school achievements were impressive, but his exposure to what was available for him in selecting the best colleges to attend to was limited. He decided on Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, where he received a full music scholarship. There Swango maintained top grades during his first two years, however he became an outcast from social activities after his girlfriend ended their relationship. His attitude became reclusive. His outlook changed. He exchanged his collegiate blazers for military fatigues. During the summer after his second year at Millikin, he stopped playing music, quit college and joined the Marines. Swango became a trained sharpshooter for the Marines, but decided against a military career. He wanted to return to college and become a doctor. In 1976, he received an honorable discharge.

Quincy College

Swango decided to attend Quincy College to earn a degree in chemistry and biology. For unknown reasons, once accepted into the college, he decided to embellish his permanent records by submitting a form with lies stating that he had earned a Bronze Star and the Purple Heart while in the Marines. In his senior year at Quincy College, he elected to do his chemistry thesis on the bizarre poisoning death of Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov. Swango developed an obsessive interest in poisons that could be used as silent killers. He graduated summa cum laude from Quincy College in 1979. With an award for academic excellence from the American Chemical Society tucked under his arm, Swango set out to get accepted into medical school, a task that was not so simple during the early 1980s. At that time, there was fierce competition among a massive number of applicants trying to get into a limited amount of schools throughout the country. Swango managed to beat the odds and he got into Southern Illinois University (SIU).

Southern Illinois University

Swango's time at SIU received mixed reviews from his professors and fellow classmates. During his first two years, he earned a reputation for being serious about his studies but was also suspected of taking unethical shortcuts when preparing for tests and group projects. Swango had little personal interaction with his classmates after he began working as an ambulance driver. For a first-year medical student struggling with tough academic demands, such a job caused great stress. In his third year at SIU, the one-on-one contact with patients increased. During this time, there were at least five patients that died after they had just received a visit from Swango. The coincidence was so great, that his classmates began to call him Double-O Swango, a reference to the James Bond and the "license to kill" slogan. They also began to view him as incompetent, lazy and just strange.

He Was Obsessed With Violent Death

From the age of three, Swango showed an unusual interest in violent deaths. As he got older, he became fixated on stories about the Holocaust, particularly those that contained pictures of the death camps. His interest was so strong that he began to keep a scrapbook of pictures and articles about fatal car wrecks and macabre crimes. His mother would also contribute to his scrapbooks when she came across such articles. By the time Swango attended SIU, he had put together several scrapbooks. When he took the job as an ambulance driver, not only did his scrapbooks grow, but he was seeing firsthand what he had only read about for so many years. His fixation was so strong that he would rarely turn down the chance to work, even if it meant sacrificing his studies. His classmates felt that Swango showed more dedication to making a career as an ambulance driver than he did for getting his medical degree. His work had become sloppy and he often left unfinished projects because his beeper would go off, signaling him that the ambulance company needed him for an emergency.

The Final Eight Weeks

In Swango's final year at SIU, he sent off applications for internships and residency programs in neurosurgery to several teaching colleges. With the help of his teacher and mentor, Dr. Wacaser, who was also a neurosurgeon, Swango was able to provide the colleges with a letter of recommendation. Wacaser even took the time to write a handwritten personal note of confidence on each letter. Swango was accepted in neurosurgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Once he nailed down his residency, Swango showed little interest in his remaining eight weeks at SIU. He failed to show up for required rotations and to watch specific surgeries performed. This astounded Dr. Kathleen O'Connor who was in charge of overseeing Swango's performance. She called his place of employment to schedule a meeting to discuss the matter. She did not find him, but she did learn that the ambulance company no longer permitted Swango to have direct contact with patients, although the reason why was not disclosed. When she finally did see Swango, she gave him the assignment to perform a complete history and examination on a woman who was going to have a cesarean delivery. She also observed him entering the woman's room and leaving after just 10 minutes. Swango then turned in a very thorough report on the woman, an impossible task given the amount of time he was in her room. O'Connor found Swango's actions reprehensible and the decision to fail him was made. It meant that he would not be graduating and his internship in Iowa would be canceled. As the news spread about Swango not graduating, two camps were formed--those  those for and those against SIU's decision. Some of Swango's classmates who had long decided that he was not fit to be a doctor used the opportunity to sign off on a letter describing Swango's incompetence and poor character. They recommended that he be expelled. Had Swango not hired a lawyer, it is likely that he would have been expelled from SIU, but shrinking from the fear of being sued and wanting to avoid the costly expense of litigation, the college decided to postpone his graduation by a year and give him another chance, but with a strict set of rules that he had to follow.

Swango immediately cleaned up his act and refocused his attention on completing the requirements to graduate. He reapplied to several residency programs, having lost the one in Iowa. Despite having an extremely poor evaluation from the dean of ISU, he was accepted into a surgical internship, followed by a very prestigious residency program in neurosurgery at Ohio State University. This left many who knew Swango's history completely dumbfounded, but he apparently aced his personal interview and was the only student out of sixty accepted into the program. Around the time of his graduation, Swango was fired from the ambulance company after he told a man having a heart attack to walk to his car and have his wife drive him to the hospital.

The Deadly Compulsion

Swango began his internship at Ohio State in 1983. He was assigned to the Rhodes Hall wing of the medical center. Shortly after he began, there was a series of unexplained deaths among several healthy patients being cared for in the wing. One of the patients who survived a severe seizure told the nurses that Swango had injected medicine into her just minutes before she became critically ill. Nurses also reported to the head nurse their concerns about seeing Swango in patients' rooms during odd times. There were numerous occasions when patients were found near death or dead just minutes after Swango left the rooms. The administration was alerted and an investigation was launched, however, it seemed as if it was designed to discredit the eyewitness reports from the nurses and patients so that the matter could be closed and any residual damage curbed. Swango was exonerated of any wrongdoing. He returned to work, but was moved to the Doan Hall wing. Within days, several patients on the Doan Hall wing began to die mysteriously. There was also an incident when several residents became violently ill after Swango offered to go get fried chicken for everyone. Swango also ate the chicken but did not get sick.

License to Practice Medicine

In March 1984, the Ohio State residency review committee decided that Swango did not have the necessary qualities needed to become a neurosurgeon. He was told he could complete his one-year internship at Ohio State, but he was not invited back to complete his second year of residency. Swango stayed on at Ohio State until July 1984 and then moved home to Quincy. Before moving back he applied to get his license to practice medicine from the Ohio State Medical Board, which was approved in September 1984.

Welcome Home

Swango did not tell his family about the trouble he encountered while at Ohio State or that his acceptance into his second-year residency had been rejected. Instead, he said he did not like the other doctors in Ohio. In July 1984, he began working for Adams County Ambulance Corp as an emergency medical technician. Apparently, a background check was not done on Swango because he had worked there in the past while attending Quincy College. The fact that he had been fired from another ambulance company never surfaced. What did begin to surface was Swango's weird opinions and behavior. Out came his scrapbooks filled with references to violence and gore, which he doted on regularly. He began making inappropriate and strange comments related to death and people dying. He would become visibly excited over CNN news stories about mass killings and horrific auto accidents. Even to hardened paramedics that had seen it all, Swango's lust for blood and guts was downright creepy. In September the first noticeable incident that Swango was dangerous occurred when he brought doughnuts for his co-workers. Everyone who ate one ended up becoming violently ill and several had to go to the hospital.  There were other incidents where co-workers became ill after eating or drinking something Swango had prepared. Suspecting that he was purposely making them ill, some of the workers decided to get tested. When they tested positive for poison, a police investigation was launched. The police obtained a search warrant for his home and inside they found hundred of drugs and poisons, several containers of ant poison, books on poison, and syringes. Swango was arrested and charged with battery.

In The Slammer

On August 23, 1985, Swango was convicted of aggravated battery and he was sentenced to five years behind bars. He also lost his medical licenses from Ohio and Illinois. While he was in prison, Swango began trying to mend his ruined reputation by doing an interview with John Stossel who was doing a segment about his case on the ABC program,? 20/20. Dressed in a suit and tie, Swango insisted that he was innocent and said that the evidence that was used to convict him lacked integrity.

A Cover Up Is Exposed

As part of the investigation, a look into Swango's past was conducted and the incidents of patients dying under suspicious circumstances at Ohio State resurfaced. The hospital was reluctant to allow the police access to their records. However, once the global news agencies got wind of the story, the university president, Edward Jennings, assigned the dean of Ohio State University Law School, James Meeks, to conduct a full investigation to determine if the situation surrounding Swango had been handled properly. This also meant investigating the conduct of some of the most prestigious people in the university. Offering an unbiased assessment of the events that had occurred, Meeks concluded that legally, the hospital should have reported the suspicious incidents to the police because it was their job to decide if any criminal activity had occurred. He also referred to the initial investigations performed by the hospital as superficial. Meeks also pointed out that he found it astounding that the hospital administrators had not kept a permanent record detailing what had occurred. Once full disclosure was obtained by police, the prosecutors from Franklin County, Ohio, toyed with the idea of charging Swango with murder and attempted murder, but due to a lack of evidence, they decided against it.

Freedom andBack on the Streets

Swango served two years of his five-year sentence and was released on August 21, 1987. His girlfriend, Rita Dumas, had fully supported Swango throughout his trial and during his time in prison. When he got out the two of them moved to Hampton, Virginia. Swango applied for his medical license in Virginia, but because of his criminal record, his application was denied. He then found employment with the state as a career counselor, but it was not long before weird things began to happen. Just like what happened in Quincy, three of his co-workers suddenly experienced severe nausea and headaches. He was caught gluing gory articles into his scrapbook when he should have been working. It was also discovered that he had turned a room in the office building basement into a kind of bedroom where he often stayed for the night. He was asked to leave in May 1989. Swango then went to work as a lab technician for Aticoal Services in Newport New, Virginia. In July 1989, he and Rita got married, but almost immediately after exchanging vows, their relationship began to unravel. Swango began ignoring Rita and they stopped sharing a bedroom. Financially he refused to contribute to the bills and took money out of Rita's account without asking. Rita decided to end the marriage when she suspected that Swango was seeing another woman. The two separated in January 1991.

Meanwhile, at Aticoal Services several employees, including the president of the company, began suffering from sudden bouts of severe stomach cramping, nausea, dizziness, and muscle weakness. Some of them were hospitalized and one of the executives of the company was nearly comatose. Unphased by the wave of illnesses going around the office, Swango had more important issues to work out. He wanted to get his medical license back and start working as a doctor again. He decided to quit the job at Aticoal and started applying at residency programs.

It's All in the Name

At the same time, Swango decided that, if he was going to get back into the medicine, he would need a new name. On January 18, 1990, Swango had his name legally changed to David Jackson Adams. In May 1991, Swango applied for the residency program at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. Dr. Jeffrey Schultz, who was the chief of medicine at the hospital, had several communications with Swango, mainly centering on the events surrounding the suspension of his medical license. Swango lied about what had happened, downplaying the battery by poisoning conviction, and said instead that he was convicted for an altercation he was involved with at a restaurant. Dr. Schultz' opinion was that such a punishment was far too severe so he continued to try to verify Swango's account of what happened. In return, Swango forged several documents, including a prison fact sheet which stated that he had been convicted of hitting someone with his fists. He also forged a letter from the Governor of Virginia stating that his application for Restoration of Civil Rights had been approved. Dr. Schultz continued to try to verify the information that Swango had provided to him and forwarded a copy of the documents to the Quincy authorities. The correct documents were forwarded back to Dr. Schultz who then made the decision to reject Swango's application. The rejection did little to slow down Swango who was determined to get back into medicine. Next, he sent an application to the residency program at the University of South Dakota. Impressed by his credentials, the director of the internal medicine residency program, Dr. Anthony Salem, opened up communications with Swango. This time Swango said the battery charge involved poison, but that coworkers who were jealous that he was a doctor had framed him. After several exchanges, Dr. Salem invited Swango to come for a series of personal interviews. Swango managed to charm his way through most of the interviews and on March 18, 1992, he was accepted into the internal medicine residency program.

Kristen Kinney

While he was employed at Aticoal, Michael had spent time taking medical courses at the Newport News Riverside Hospital. It was there that he met Kristen Kinney, to whom he was immediately attracted to and aggressively pursued. Kristen, who was a nurse at the hospital, was quite beautiful and had an easy smile. Although she was already engaged when she met Swango, she found him attractive and very likable. She ended up calling off her engagement and the two began dating regularly. Some of her friends felt it was important that Kristen know about some of the dark rumors they had heard about Swango, but she did not take any of it seriously. The man she knew was nothing like the man they were describing. When it came time for Swango to move to South Dakota to begin his residency program, Kristen immediately agreed that they would move there together.

Sioux Falls

At the end of May, Kristen and Swango moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They quickly established themselves in their new home and Kristen got a job in the intensive care unit at the Royal C. Johnson Veterans Memorial Hospital. This was the same hospital where Swango began his residency, although no one was aware that the two knew each other. Swango's work was exemplary and he was well liked by his peers and the nurses. He no longer discussed the thrill of seeing a violent accident nor did he exhibit the other oddities in his character that had caused problems at other jobs.

The Closet Skeletons

Things were going great for the couple until October when Swango decided to join the American Medical Association. The AMA did a thorough background check and because of his convictions, they decided to turn it over to the council on ethical and judicial affairs. Someone from AMA then contacted their friend, the dean of the University of South Dakota medical school, and informed him of all of the skeletons in Swango's closet, including the suspicions surrounding the death of several patients. Then on the same evening, The Justice Files television program aired the 20/20 interview that Swango had given while he was in prison. Swango's dream of working as a doctor again was over. He was asked to resign. As for Kristen, she was in shock. She was completely ignorant of Swango's true past until she watched a tape of the 20/20 interview in Dr. Schultz' office on the day Swango was being questioned. In the following months, Kristen began to suffer from violent headaches. She no longer smiled and began to withdraw from her friends at work. At one point, she was placed into a psychiatric hospital after the police found her wandering in the street, nude and confused. Finally, in April 1993, unable to take it anymore, she left Swango and returned to Virginia. Soon after leaving, her migraines went away. However, just a few weeks later, Swango showed up on her doorstep in Virginia and the two were back together. With his confidence restored, Swango began sending out new applications to medical schools.

Stony Brook School of Medicine

Incredibly, Swango lied his way into the psychiatric residency program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine. He relocated, leaving Kristen in Virginia, and began his first rotation in the internal medicine department at the VA Medical Center in Northport, New York. Again, patients began to mysteriously die wherever Swango worked.

Suicide

Kristen and Swango had been apart for four months, although they continued to talk on the phone. During the last conversation that they had, Kristen learned that Swango had emptied out her checking account. The next day, July 15, 1993, Kristen committed suicide by shooting herself in the chest.

A Mother's Revenge

Kristen's mother, Sharon Cooper, hated Swango and blamed him for her daughter's suicide. She found it inconceivable that he was working at a hospital again. She knew the only way he got in was by lying and she decided to do something about it. She contacted a friend of Kristen's who was a nurse in South Dakota and included his full address in the letter stating that she was glad that he could not hurt Kristen anymore, but she was afraid of where he was working now. Kristen's friend clearly understood the message and immediately passed along the information to the right person who contacted the dean of the medical school at Stony Brook, Jordan Cohen. Almost immediately Swango was fired. To try to prevent another medical facility from being duped by Swango, Cohen sent letters to all the medical schools and over 1,000 teaching hospitals in the country, warning them about Swango's past and his sneaky tactics to gain admission.

Now The Feds Come

After being fired from the VA hospital, Swango seemingly went underground. The FBI was on the hunt for him for falsifying his credentials in order to get a job in a VA facility. It was not until July 1994 that he resurfaced. This time he was working as Jack Kirk for a company in Atlanta called Photocircuits. It was a wastewater treatment facility and frighteningly, Swango had direct access to Atlanta's water supply. Fearing Swango's obsession over mass killings, the FBI contacted Photocircuits and Swango was immediately fired for lying on his job application.

At that point, Swango seemed to vanish, leaving behind a warrant for his arrest issued by the FBI.

Off To Africa

Swango was smart enough to realize that his best move was to get out of the country. He sent his application and altered references to an agency called Options, which helps American doctors find work in foreign countries. In November 1994, the Lutheran church hired Swango after obtaining his application and falsified recommendations through Options. He was to go to a remote area of Zimbabwe. The hospital director, Dr. Christopher Zshiri, was thrilled to have an American doctor join the hospital, but once Swango began working it became apparent that he was untrained to perform some very basic procedures. It was decided that he would go to one of the sister hospitals and train for five months, and then return to Mnene Hospital to work. For the first five months in Zimbabwe, Swango received glowing reviews and almost everyone on the medical staff admired his dedication and hard work. But when he returned to Mnene after his training, his attitude was different. He no longer seemed interested in the hospital or his patients. People whispered about how lazy and rude he had become. Once again, patients began mysteriously dying. Some of the patients that survived had a clear recall about Swango coming to their rooms and giving them injections right before they went into convulsions. A handful of nurses also admitted to seeing Swango near patients just minutes before they died. Dr. Zshiri contacted the police and a search of Swango's cottage turned up hundreds of various drugs and poisons. On October 13, 1995, he was handed a termination letter and he had a week to vacate hospital property. For the next year and a half, Swango continued his stay in Zimbabwe while his lawyer worked to have his position at the ?Mnene hospital restored and his license to practice medicine in Zimbabwe reinstated. He eventually fled Zimbabwe to Zambia when evidence of his guilt began to surface.

Arrested !

On June 27, 1997, Swango entered the U.S. at the Chicago-O'Hare airport while in route to the Royal Hospital in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. He was promptly arrested by immigration officials and held in prison in New York to await his trial. A year later Swango pleaded guilty to defrauding the government and he was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. In July 2000, just days before he was to be released, federal authorities charged Swango with one count of assault, three counts of murder, three counts of making false statements, one count of defrauding by use of wires, and mail fraud. In the meantime, Zimbabwe was fighting to have Swango extradited to Africa to face five counts of murder. Swango pleaded not guilty, but fearing that he could be facing the death penalty on being handed over to the Zimbabwe authorities, he decided to change his plea to guilty of murder and fraud.

Michael Swango received three consecutive life sentences. He is currently serving his time at the supermax U.S. Penitentiary, Florence ADX.

-bird

The Alaska Serial Killer Israel Keyes

[Are There More Victims Are Out There? ]

On March 16, 2012, Israel Keyes was arrested in Lufkin, Texas after he used a debit card that belonged to an 18-year-old Alaska woman that he killed and dismembered in February. During the following months, while awaiting trial for the murder of Samantha Koenig, Keyes confessed to seven other murders during more than 40 hours of interviews with the FBI. Investigators believe there are at least three more victims and possibly much more.

Early Influences

Keyes was born Jan. 7, 1978 in Richmond, Utah to parents who were Mormon and home schooled their children. When the family moved to Stevens County, Washington north of Colville, they attended The Ark, a Christian Identity church which is known for racist and anti-Semitic views. During that time, the Keyes family was friends and neighbors with the Kehoe family. Israel Keyes was childhood friends of Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe, known racists who were later convicted of murder and attempted murder.

In The Military Service

At age 20, Keyes joined the U.S. Army and served at Fort Lewis, Fort Hood and in Egypt until he was honorably discharged in 2000. At some point during his young adult years, he rejected religion completely and proclaimed he was an atheist. Keyes life of crime had begun before he joined the military, however. He admitted to raping a young girl in Oregon sometime between 1996 and 1998 when he would have been 18 to 20 years old. He told FBI agents that he separated a girl from her friends and raped, but not killed her. He told investigators that he planned to kill her, but decided not to. It was the beginning of a long list of crimes, including burglaries and robberies that authorities are now trying to piece together into a timeline of Keyes' criminal career.

He Sets Up His Base in Alaska

By 2007, Keyes established Keyes Construction in Alaska and began working as a construction contractor. It was from his base in Alaska that Keyes ventured out into almost every region of the United States to plan and commit his murders. He traveled many times since 2004, looking for victims and setting up buried caches of money, weapons, and tools needed to kill and dispose of the bodies. His trips, he told the FBI, were not financed with money from his construction business, but from money he got from robbing banks. Investigators are trying to determine how many bank robberies that he may have been responsible for during his many trips across the country. It is also unknown at what point Keyes escalated to committing random murders. Investigators suspect it began 11 years before his arrest, shortly after he left the military.

His Modus Operandi

According to Keyes, his usual routine would be to fly to some area of the country, rent a vehicle and then drive sometimes hundreds of miles to find victims. He would set up and bury murder kits somewhere in the targeted area - stashing items like shovels, plastic bags, money, weapons, ammunition and bottles of Drano, to help dispose of the bodies. His murders kits have been found in Alaska and New York, but he admitted to having others in Washington, Wyoming, Texas and possibly Arizona. He would look for victims in remote areas like parks, campgrounds, walking trials, or boating areas. If he was targeting a home he looked for a house with an attached garage, no car in the driveway, no children or dogs, he told investigators.

Finally, after committing the murder, he would leave the geographic area immediately.

Keyes Makes Several Mistakes

In February 2012, Keyes broke his rules and made two mistakes. First, he kidnapped and killed someone in his hometown, which he had never done before. Secondly, he let his rental car be photographed by an ATM camera while using a victim's debit card. On Feb. 2, 2012, Keyes kidnapped 18-year-old Samantha Koenig who was working as a barista at one of the many coffee stands around Anchorage. He was planning to wait for her boyfriend to pick her up and kidnap both of them, but for some reason decided against it and just grabbed Samantha. Koenig's abduction was caught on video, and a massive search for her was conducted by authorities, friends, and family for weeks, but she was killed shortly after she was abducted. He took her to a shed at his Anchorage home, sexually assaulted her and strangled her to death. He then immediately left the area and went on a two-week cruise, leaving her body in the shed.

When he returned, he dismembered her body and dumped it in Matanuska Lake north of Anchorage. About a month later, Keyes used Koenig's debit card to get money from an ATM in Texas. The camera in the ATM captured a picture of the rental car Keyes was driving, linking him to the card and the murder. He was arrested in Lufkin, Texas on March 16, 2012.

Keyes Confesses To A Few Murders

Keyes was originally extradited back from Texas to Anchorage on credit card fraud charges. On April 2, 2012, searchers found Koenig's body in the lake. On April 18, an Anchorage grand jury indicted Keyes for the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Koenig. While awaiting trial in the Anchorage jail, Keyes was interviewed for more than 40 hours by Anchorage police detective Jeff Bell and FBI Special Agent Jolene Goeden. Although he was not completely forthcoming with many details, he began to confess to some of the murders that he committed over the past 11 years.

The Motive For Murder

The investigators tried to determine Keyes' motive for the eight murders to which he confessed.

"There were just times, a couple of times, where we would try to get a why," said Bell. "He would have this term; he would say, 'A lot of people ask why, and I would be, like, why not?' "

Keyes admitted to studying the tactics of other serial killers, and he enjoyed watching movies about killers, such as Ted Bundy, but he was careful to point out to Bell and Goeden that he used his ideas, not those of other famous killers. In the end, the investigators concluded that Keyes' motivation was very simple. He did it because he liked it. "He enjoyed it. He liked what he was doing," Goeden said. "He talked about getting a rush out of it, the adrenalin, the excitement out of it."

His Trail of Murders

Keyes confessed to the murders of four people in three different incidents in Washington state. He killed two individuals, and he kidnapped and killed a couple. He didn't provide any names. He probably knew the names, because he liked to return to Alaska and then follow the news of his murders on the Internet. He also killed another person on the East Coast. He buried the body in New York but killed the person in another state. He would not give Bell and Goeden any other details of that case.

The Currier Murders

On June 2, 2011, Keys flew to Chicago, rented a car and drove almost 1,000 miles to Essex, Vermont. He targeted the home of Bill and Lorraine Currier. He conducted what he called a "blitz" attack on their home, tied them up and took them to an abandoned house. He shot Bill Currier to death, sexually assaulted Lorraine and then strangled her. Their bodies were never found.

He Led A Double Life

Bell believes the reason that Keyes gave them more details about the Currier murders was because he knew they had evidence in that case pointing to him. So he opened up more about those murders than he did the others. "It was chilling to listen to him. He was clearly reliving it to a degree, and I think he enjoyed talking about it," Bell said. "A couple of times, he would kind of chuckle, tell us how weird it was to be talking about this." Bell believes their interviews with Keyes were the first time he had ever talked with anyone about what he referred to as his "double life." He thinks Keyes held back details of his other crimes because he didn't want members of his family to know anything about his secret life of crime.

And More Victims?

During the interviews, Keyes referred to other murders in addition to the eight to which he confessed. Bell told reporters that he thinks Keyes committed less than 12 murders. However, in trying to piece together a timeline of Keyes' activities, the FBI released a list of 35 trips that Keyes made across the country from 2004 to 2012, in hopes that the public and local law enforcement agencies could match up bank robberies, disappearances and unsolved murders to times when Keyes was in the area.

'All The Talk Is Over, Suicide His Way Out'

On Dec. 2, 2012, Israel Keyes was found dead in his Anchorage jail cell. He had cut his wrists and strangled himself with a rolled up bedsheet. Under his body was a blood-soaked, four-page letter written on yellow legal pad paper in both pencil and ink. Investigators could not make out the writing on Keyes suicide note until the letter was enhanced at the FBI lab.​ An analysis of the enhanced letter concluded that it contained no evidence or clues, but was merely a "creepy" Ode to Murder, written by a serial killer who loved to kill. "The FBI concluded there was no hidden code or message in the writings," the agency said in a news release. "Further, it was determined that the writings do not offer any investigative clues or leads as to the identity of other possible victims." We may never know how many people Israel Keyes killed.

The Travels of Serial Killer Israel Keyes

When confessed serial killer Israel Keyes took his own life in an Anchorage jail cell, he had confessed to the murders of eight people. FBI investigators believe Keyes had at least three more victims and possibly many others. While he was being held for trial for the murder of Samantha Koenig, who disappeared Feb. 1, 2012 from an Anchorage coffee stand where she worked, Keyes was interviewed for more than 40 hours by FBI investigators. Keyes told his interviewers that he would fly into a city around the U.S., rent a vehicle and then drive hundreds of miles to locate his victims. He also made trips to hide weapons caches or body disposal kits in locations around the country.

To try to discover other possible victims, the FBI put together this timeline listing his trips, grouped by region, which Keyes made to see if local law enforcement agencies could link any unsolved murders to visits Keyes made to their region.

Trip Made By Israel Keyes

Using Keyes' financial and travel records, the FBI has created the following timeline:

• Oct. 5, 2004, to Oct. 16, 2004: Eastern U.S.
• April 20, 2005, to April 25, 2005: Washington state, Canada's British Columbia
• May 10, 2006, to May 15, 2006: Western U.S.
• Sept. 1, 2006, to Sept. 7, 2006: Alaska

• Oct. 21, 2006, to Oct. 23, 2006: Western U.S., Mexico
• Nov. 8, 2006, to Nov. 16, 2006: Alaska
• Feb. 5, 2007, to Feb. 8, 2007: Southwest U.S.
• March 1, 2007, to March 9, 2007: Washington, Canada (drove to Alaska)
• April 24, 2007, to May 4, 2007: Western U.S., Mexico
• Aug. 26, 2007, to Sept. 6, 2007: Western U.S.

• Oct. 29, 2007, to Nov. 2, 2007: Western U.S.
• Nov. 12, 2007, to Nov. 13, 2007: Western U.S.
• Dec. 4, 2007, to Dec. 17, 2007: Midwest U.S. and Western U.S.
• Dec. 18, 2007 to Jan. 4, 2008: Western U.S. and Southern Canada
• Jan. 5, 2008, to Jan. 8, 2008: Western U.S.
• Jan. 28, 2008, to Feb. 15, 2008: Southern U.S. and Western U.S.
• May 11, 2008 to May 17, 2008: Western U.S.
• July 3, 2008, to July 7, 2008: Western U.S.
• Sept. 16, 2008, to Sept. 24, 2008: Western U.S.
• Oct. 24, 2008, to Nov. 5, 2008: Southwest U.S., Midwest U.S. and Western U.S.
• Nov. 7, 2008 to Dec. 9, 2008: Hawaii
• Dec. 11, 2008, to Dec. 25, 2008: Mexico
• Feb. 23, 2009, to Feb. 27, 2009: Western U.S.
• Mar. 6, 2009 to Mar. 26, 2009:  Western U.S. and Southern Canada
• April 1, 2009, to April 14, 2009: Eastern U.S., Western U.S.
• Sept. 11, 2009, to Oct. 3, 2009: Southern U.S.
• Dec. 17, 2009, to Dec. 29, 2009: Southern U.S.
• Jan. 11, 2010, to Feb. 25, 2010: Western U.S.
• March 1, 2010, to March 10, 2010: Western U.S.
• April 24, 2010, to April 30, 2010: Western U.S.
• May 19, 2010, to July 18, 2010: Midwest U.S. and Western U.S.
• July 18, 2010, to July 22, 2010: Southwest U.S.
• Oct. 15, 2010, to Oct. 25, 2010: Midwest U.S., Eastern U.S.
• June 2, 2011, to June 16, 2011: Midwest U.S., Eastern U.S.
• Sept. 15, 2011, to Sept. 25, 2011: Western U.S.
• Feb. 2, 2017, to Feb. 18, 2012: Southern U.S.
• March 6, 2012, to March 13, 2012: Southwestern and Southern U.S.

Authorities have already recovered two of Keyes' murder caches, one in Alaska and one in New York. They contained money, weapons and items that could be used to dispose of bodies. Keyes told the FBI that there were other supply boxes buried in other locations

- bird

The Most Prolific Serial Killer in New York States History: Joel Rifkin

For five years, Joel Rifkin avoided capture as he used the city streets across Long Island, New Jersey, and New York City as his hunting ground, but once he was caught, it took little time for police to get him to confess to the murders of 17 women.

Early Years

Joel Rifkin was born on January 20, 1959, and adopted three weeks later by Ben and Jeanne Rifkin.  He worked as a structural engineer and Jeanne was a homemaker who enjoyed gardening.  The family lived in New City, a hamlet of Clarkstown, New York. When Joel was three, the Rifkins adopted their second child, a baby girl who they named Jan. After a few more moves the family settled into in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. East Meadow was then much like it is today; a community of mostly middle to upper-income families who have a lot pride in their homes and community.The Rifkins blended quickly into the area and became involved in the local school boards and in 1974, Ben earned a seat for life on the Board of Trustees at one of the town's main landmarks, The East Meadow Public Library.

The Adolescent Years

As a child, there was nothing particularly remarkable about Joel Rifkin. He was a nice child, but terribly shy and had a difficult time making friends. Academically he struggled and from the start, Joel felt that he was a disappointment to his father who was very intelligent and actively involved on the school board. And despite his IQ of 128+, he received low grades as a result of undiagnosed dyslexia. Unlike his father who excelled in sports, Joel proved to be uncoordinated and very accident prone. As he entered middle school, making friends did not come easy. He had grown into a clumsy adolescent that appeared uncomfortable in his own skin. He naturally stood hunched over, which, along with his unusually long face and prescription glasses, led to constant teasing and bullying from his schoolmates. He became the kid that even the nerdy kids teased.

High School

In high school, things got worse for Joel. He was nicknamed Turtle due to his appearance and his slow, unsteady gait. This lead to more bullying, but Rifkin was never confrontational and seemed to take it all in stride, or so it appeared. But as each school year passed, he distanced himself further from his peers and chose instead to spend much of his time alone in his bedroom.  Considered to be an annoying introvert, there were no attempts made from any friends to coax him out of the house unless it was to pull a mean prank, including hitting him with eggs, pulling down his pants with girls around to see, or submerging his head into a school toilet.  The abuse took its toll and Joel began avoiding other students by showing up late to classes and being the last to leave school. He spent much of his time isolated and alone in his bedroom. There, he began to entertain himself with violent sexual fantasies that had been brewing inside of him for years.

Rejection

Rifkin enjoyed photography and with the new camera given to him by his parents, he decided to join the yearbook committee.  One of his jobs was to submit pictures of the graduating students and activities going on at school. However, like so many of Rifkin's attempts to find acceptance among his peers, this idea also failed after his camera was stolen immediately after joining the group. Joel decided to stay on anyway and spent a lot of his spare time working on meeting the yearbook deadlines. When the yearbook was completed, the group held a wrap-up party, but Joel was not invited. He was devastated. Angered and embarrassed, Joel once again retreated to his bedroom and submerged himself into true crime books about serial killers. He became fixated on the Alford Hitchcock movie, "Frenzy," which he found sexually stimulating, especially the scenes that showed women being strangled.  By now his fantasies were always made with a repetitive theme of rape, sadism, and murder, as he incorporated the murders he saw on screen or read in books into his own fantasy world.

College

Rifkin was looking forward to college. It meant a new start and new friends, but typically, his expectations turned out to be far greater than reality. He enrolled at Nassau Community College on Long Island and commuted to his classes with a car that was a gift from his parents. But not living in student housing or off-campus with other students had its drawbacks in that it made him even more of an outsider than he already felt. Again, he was facing a friendless environment and he became miserable and lonely.

Trolling for Prostitutes

Rifkin began cruising the city streets around areas where prostitutes were known to hang out. Then the shy, slouched-over introvert who found it difficult to make eye contact with girls at school, somehow found the courage to pick up a prostitute and pay her for sex. From that point on, Rifkin lived in two worlds - the one that his parents knew about and the one filled with sex and prostitutes and consumed his every thought. The prostitutes became a live extension of Rifkin's fantasies that had been festering in his mind for years. They also became an inexhaustible addiction that resulted in missed classes, missed work, and cost him whatever money he had in his pocket. For the first time in his life, he had women around who seemed to like him which boosted his self-esteem. Rifkin ended up dropping out of college, then enrolling again at another college only to then drop out again. He was constantly moving out, then back again with his parents each time he flunked out of school. This frustrated his father and he and Joel would often get into big shouting matches about his lack of commitment towards getting a college education.

The Death of Ben Rifkin

In 1986, Ben Rifkin was diagnosed with cancer and he committed suicide the following year. Joel gave a touching eulogy, describing the love that his father had given to him throughout his life. In truth, Joel Rifkin felt like a miserable failure who was a major disappointment and embarrassment to his father. But now with his father was gone, he was able to do what we wanted without the constant worry that his dark seedy lifestyle would be discovered.

His First Kill

After flunking out of his last attempt at college in spring of 1989, Rifkin spent all of his free time with prostitutes. His fantasies about murdering the women began to fester. In early March, his mother and sister left on vacation. Rifkin drove into New York City and picked up a prostitute and brought her back to his family's home. Throughout her stay, she slept, shot heroin, then slept more, which irritated Rifkin who had no interest in drugs. Then, without any provocation, he picked up a Howitzer artillery shell and struck her repeatedly on the head with it and then suffocated and strangled her to death. When he was certain that she was dead, he went to bed.

After six hours of sleep, Rifkin awoke and went about the task of getting rid of the body. First, he removed her teeth and scraped her fingerprints off of her fingers so that she could not be identified. Then using an X-Acto knife, he managed to dismember the body into six parts which he distributed in different areas throughout Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey.

Futile Promises

The woman's head was discovered inside a paint bucket on a New Jersey golf course, but because Rifkin had removed her teeth, her identity remained a mystery When Rifkin heard on the news about the head being found, he panicked. Terrified that he was about to get caught, he made a promise to himself that it was a one-time thing and that he would never kill again.

Update: In 2013, the victim was identified through DNA as Heidi Balch.

The Second Murder

The promise not to kill again lasted about 16 months. In 1990, his mother and sister left again to go out of town. Rifkin seized the opportunity of having the house to himself and picked up a prostitute named Julia Blackbird and brought her home. After spending the night together, Rifkin drove to an ATM machine to get money to pay her and discovered he had a zero balance. He returned to the house and beat Blackbird with a table leg, and murdered her by strangling her to death. In the basement of his home, he dismembered the body and placed the different parts into buckets that he filled with concrete. He then drove into New York City and disposed of the buckets in the East River and the Brooklyn canal. Her remains were never found.

The Body Count Starts to Climb

After killing the second woman, Rifkin did not make a vow to stop killing but decided that dismembering the bodies was an unpleasant task that he needed to rethink. He was out of college again and living with his mother and working in lawn care. He tried to open a landscaping company and rented a storage unit for his equipment. He also used it to temporarily hide the bodies of his victims. In early 1991 his company failed and he was in debt. He managed to get a few part-time jobs, which he often lost because the jobs interfered with what he enjoyed most - strangling prostitutes. He also grew more confident about not getting caught.

And Even More Victims

Beginning in July 1991, Rifkin's murders began to come more frequently. Here is the list of his victims:

• Barbara Jacobs, age 31, killed July 14, 1991. Her body was found inside a plastic bag that had been placed into a cardboard box and put into the Hudson River.
• Mary Ellen DeLuca, age 22, killed on September 1, 1991, because she complained about having sex after Rifkin bought her crack cocaine.
• Yun Lee, age 31, killed on September 23, 1991. She was strangled to death and her body was put into the East River.
• Jane Doe #1, was killed in early December 1991. Rifkin strangled her during sex, put her body into a 55-gallon oil drum and dumped it into the East River.
• Lorraine Orvieto, age 28, was prostituting in Bayshore, Long Island when Rifkin picked her up and strangled her during sex. He disposed of her body by placing it into an oil drum and into Coney Island River where it was discovered months later.
• Mary Ann Holloman, 39, was killed on January 2, 1992. Her body was found the following July, stuffed inside an oil drum in Coney Island Creek.
• Iris Sanchez, age 25, killed on Mother's Day weekend, May 10, 1992. Rifkin put her body under an old mattress in an illegal dump area located near the JFK International Airport.
• Anna Lopez, age 33, and the mother of three children, was strangled to death on May 25, 1992. Rifkin disposed of her body along I-84 in Putman County.
• Jane Doe #2 was murdered mid-winter 1991. On May 13, 1992, parts of her body were found inside an oil drum floating in Newton Creek in Brooklyn, New York.
• Violet O'Neill, age 21, was killed in June 1992 at Rifkin's mother's home. There he dismembered her in the bathtub, wrapped the body parts in plastic, and disposed of them in rivers and canals in New York City. Her torso was found floating in the Hudson River and days later other body parts were found inside of a suitcase.
• Mary Catherine Williams, age 31, was killed at Rifkin's mother's home on October 2, 1992. Her remains were found in a suburb in Yorktown, New York the following December.
• Jenny Soto, 23, was strangled to death on November 16, 1992. Her body was found the following day floating in Harlem River in New York City.
• Leah Evens, 28, and the mother of two children was killed on February 27, 1993. Rifkin buried the corpse in the woods on Long Island. Her body was discovered three months later.
• Lauren Marquez, 28, was killed on April 2, 1993, and her body was left in the Pine Barrens in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island.
• Tiffany Bresciani, 22, was Joel Rifkin's final victim. On June 24, 1993, he strangled her and put her body in his mother's garage for three smoldering days before getting the opportunity to dispose of it.

Finally He is Arrested !

At around 3 a.m. Monday, June 28, 1993, Rifkin swabbed his nose with Noxzema so that he could tolerate the pungent odor coming from the corpse of Bresciani. He placed it in the bed of his pickup truck and got on Southern State highway headed south to Melville's Republic Airport, which is where he planned to dispose of it. Also in the area were state troopers, Deborah Spaargaren and Sean Ruane, who noticed Rifkin's truck did not have a license plate. They attempted to pull him over, but he ignored them and kept driving. The officers then used the siren and a loud speaker, but still, Rifkin refused to pull over. Then, just as the officers requested backup, Rifkin tried to correct a missed turn and went straight into a utility light pole. Unhurt, Rifkin emerged from the truck and was promptly placed in handcuffs. Both officers quickly realized why the driver had not pulled over as the distinct odor of a decaying corpse permeated the air.

Seventeen Victims

Tiffany's body was found and while questioning Rifkin, he casually explained that she was ​a prostitute that he had paid to have sex with and then things went bad and he killed her and that he was headed to the airport so that he could get rid of the body. He then asked the officers if he needed a lawyer. Rifkin was taken to police headquarters in Hempstead, New York, and after a short period of questioning by detectives, he began to reveal that the body they discovered was just the tip of the iceberg and offered up the number, "17."

The Search

A search of his bedroom in his mother's home turned up a mountain of evidence against Rifkin including women's driver's licenses, women's underwear, jewelry, prescription drug bottles prescribed to women, purses and wallets, photographs of women, makeup, hair accessories and women's clothing. Many of the items could be matched to victims of unsolved murders. There was also a large collection of books about serial killers and porn movies with themes centered on sadism. In the garage, ​they found three full ounces of human blood in the wheelbarrow, tools coated in blood and a chainsaw that had blood and human flesh stuck in the blades. In the meantime, Joel Rifkin was writing a list for the investigators with the names and dates and locations of the bodies of 17 women he had murdered. His recollection was not perfect, but with his confession, the evidence, missing person reports and unidentified bodies that had turned up over the years, 15 of the 17 victims were identified.

On Trial in Nassau County

Rifkin's mother hired an attorney to represent Joel, but he fired him and hired law partners Michael Soshnick and John Lawrence. Soshnick was a former Nassau County district attorney and had the reputation for being a top-notch criminal lawyer. His partner Lawrence had no experience in criminal law. Rifkin was arraigned in Nassau County for the murder of Tiffany Bresciani, to which he pleaded not guilty. During the suppression hearing which began November 1993, Soshnick tried unsuccessfully to get Rifkin's confession and his admission to killing Tiffany Bresciani suppressed, based on the grounds that the state troopers lacked probable cause to search the truck. Two months into the hearing, Rifkin was offered a plea deal of 46 years to life in exchange for a guilty plea of 17 murders, but he turned it down, convinced that his lawyers could get him off by pleading insanity. Throughout the four-month hearing, Soshnick offended the judge by showing up to court late or not at all and often arriving unprepared. This irritated Judge Wexner and by March he pulled the plug on the hearing, announcing that he had seen enough evidence to reject the defense motions and he ordered the trial to begin in April. He was absolutely infuriated by the news, Rifkin fired Soshnick, but kept Lawrence on, even though it would be his first criminal case. The trial began on April 11, 1994, and Rifkin pleaded not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. The jury disagreed and found him guilty of murder and of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.

Nine Found Justice

Rifkin was transferred to Suffolk County to stand trial for the murders of Evans and Marquez. The attempt to have his confession suppressed was again rejected. This time Rifkin pleaded guilty and received an additional two consecutive terms of 25 years to life. Similar scenarios were played out in Queens and in Brooklyn. By the time it was all over, Joel Rifkin, the most prolific serial killer in the history of New York, was found guilty of murdering nine women and had received a total of 203 years in prison. He is currently housed at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County, New York.

- bird

Herbert Richard 'Herb' Baumeister Serial Killer and Founder of Sav-a-Lot

Herbert "Herb" Baumeister (The I-70 Strangler) was an alleged serial killer from Westfield, Indiana. Authorities believe that from 1980 - 1996, Baumeister murdered 27+ men in Indiana and Ohio.  Whatever knowledge Baumeister had about the missing men, no one will ever know. On July 3, 1996, 10 days after investigators uncovered the skeletal remains of at least 11 victims that were buried on his property, Herb Baumeister, husband and father of three, fled to Sarnia, Ontario, where he pulled over into a park and committed suicide.

His Younger Years

Herbert Richard Baumeister was born April 7, 1947, to Dr. Herbert E. and Elizabeth Baumeister in Butler-Tarkington, Indianapolis. Baumeister was the oldest of four children. Dr. Baumeister was a successful anesthesiologist, and soon after the last child was born, the family moved to the affluent area of northern Indianapolis called Washington Township. By all accounts, young Herbert had a normal childhood. When he reached adolescence, he changed. He began to obsess on things that were vile and disgusting. He developed a macabre sense of humor and appeared to lose his ability to judge right from wrong. Rumors circulated about him urinating on his teacher's desk. One time he pocketed a dead crow that he found on the road, and placed it on his teacher's desk. His peers began distancing themselves from him, leery of being associated with his strange, morbid behavior. In class, Baumeister was often disruptive and volatile. His teachers reached out to his parents for help.

The Baumeister's had also noticed the unusual changes in their eldest son. Dr.Baumeister sent him for a series of tests and medical evaluation. The final diagnosis was that Herbert was schizophrenic and suffered from multiple personality disorder. What was done to help the boy is unclear, but it appears that the Baumeister's decided not to seek treatment, probably for a good reason considering the options? During the 1960s electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was the most common treatment for schizophrenia. Those inflicted with the disease were often institutionalized.

It was also an accepted practice to shock unruly patients several times a day, not with any hope of curing them, but to make them more manageable for hospital staff. It wasn't until the mid-1970s that drug therapy replaced ECTs because it was more humane and produced better results. A lot of patients taking the drug therapy could leave the hospital environment and lead fairly normal lives. Whether or not Baumeister ever received drug therapy is not known.  Herbert continued in public high school, somehow managing to maintain his grades, but completely failing socially. The school's extracurricular energy was focused on sports, and the members of the football team and their friends were the most popular clique.  Baumeister was in awe of this tight group and continually tried to gain their acceptance, but was repeatedly rejected. For him, it was all or nothing. Either he would be accepted into the group, or be alone. He finished his final year in high school in solitude.

College and Marriage

In 1965 Baumeister attended Indiana University. Again he dealt with being an outcast because of his strange behavior. He dropped out in his first semester.  Pressured by his father, he returned in 1967 to study anatomy, but then dropped out again before the semester was over, but this time being at IU was not a total loss. Before dropping out, he met Juliana Saiter, who was a high school journalism teacher and part-time IU student. Herbert and Juliana began dating and found that they had a lot in common. Besides being politically aligned with their extremely conservative ideology, they also shared an entrepreneurial spirit and dreamed of one day owning their own business. In 1971 they married, but six months into the marriage, for unknown reasons, Baumeister's father had Herbert committed to a mental institution where he would stay for two months. Whatever happened did not ruin his marriage. Juliana was in love with her husband, his odd behavior notwithstanding.

The Need to Be Somebody

Baumeister's father managed to pull strings and got Herbert a job as a copyboy at The Indianapolis Star newspaper. The job entailed running news reporters' copy from one desk to another and other errands. It was a low-level position, but Baumeister dove into it, eager to start a new career. Each day he would come to work immaculately dressed and ready for his assignments. Unfortunately, his efforts to constantly gain positive feedback from the top brass became an irritant. He obsessed on ways to fit in with his co-workers and bosses but never succeeded. Soured and unable to handle his "nobody" status, he eventually left the position for a job at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV).

The Taste of Recognition

Baumeister began his new entry-level job at the BMV with an entirely different attitude. At the newspaper his demeanor was childlike and over eager, displaying hurt feelings when his expectations for recognition were not met. But that was not the case at the BMV. There he immediately came off bossy and overly aggressive toward his co-workers and would lash out at them for no reason. It was as if he was playing a role, emulating what he perceived as being good supervisory behavior. Again, Baumeister was labeled as an oddball. Not only was his behavior erratic, but his sense of propriety was at times way off. One year he sent a Christmas card to everyone at work that pictured himself with another man, both dressed in holiday drag. Back in the early 70s, few saw the humor in such a card. Raised eyebrows and talk around the water cooler was that Baumeister was a closet homosexual and a nutcase. After working at the Bureau for 10 years, despite Baumeister's poor relationship with his coworkers, he was recognized for being an intelligent go-getter that produced results. He was rewarded with a promotion to program director. But in 1985, and within a year of the promotion he had so yearned for, he was terminated after he urinated on a letter addressed to then-governor of Indiana, Robert D.

Orr. The act also put to rest all the rumors as to who was responsible for the urine that was found on his manager's desk months earlier. 

A Caring Father

Nine years into of marriage, he and Juliana started a family; Marie was born in 1979, Erich in 1981, and Emily in 1984. Before Herbert losing his job at the BMV, things seemed to be going well so Juliana quit her job to become a full-time mother, but returned to work when her husband could not find steady work. As a temporary stay-at-home Dad, Herbert proved to be a caring and loving father to his children. But being jobless left him with too much time on his hands and, unknown to Juliana, he began drinking a lot and hanging out at gay bars.

Arrested

In September 1985 Baumeister received a slap on that hand after being charged with a hit and run accident while driving drunk. Six months later he was charged with stealing a friend's car and conspiracy to commit theft, but managed to beat those charges as well.

In the meantime, he bounced around at different jobs until he began working at a thrift shop. At first, he disliked the job and considered it beneath him, but then he saw that it was a potential money-maker. Over the next three years, he focused on learning the business. It was during this time that his father died. What impact that event had on Herbert is unknown.

The Sav-a-Lot Thrift Stores

In 1988 Baumeister borrowed $4,000 from his mother. He and Juliana opened a thrift store which they named Sav-a-Lot. They stocked it with gently-used quality clothing, furniture, and other used items. A percentage of the store's profit went to the Children's Bureau of Indianapolis. It quickly grew in popularity and business was booming. It showed such a strong profit in the first year that the Baumeister's decided to open a second store. Within three years, the couple, who had until then lived paycheck to paycheck, were rich.

Fox Hollow Farms

In 1991 the Baumeister's moved to their dream home. It was an 18-acre horse ranch called Fox Hollow Farms in the upscale Westfield area, located just outside Indianapolis in Hamilton County, Indiana. Their new home was a large, beautiful, million dollar semi-mansion which had all the bells and whistles, including a riding stable and an indoor pool. Remarkably, Baumeister had turned into a well-respected man. He was seen as a successful businessman, a family man who gave to charities. What was not so ideal was the stress that came with the couple having to work so closely together each day. From the start of the business, Herbert treated Juliana like an employee and would often yell at her for no reason. To keep the peace, she would take a backseat to whatever business decisions had to made, but it took a toll on the marriage. Unknown to outsiders, the couple would argue and split up on and off over the next several years.

The Pool House

The Sav-a-Lot stores had a reputation for being clean and organized, but the opposite could be said about the way the Baumeister's kept their new home. The grounds that had always been meticulously maintained became overgrown with weeds. The inside of the home was equally neglected. The rooms were a mess, and it was obvious to visitors that housekeeping was a low priority for the couple. The only area that Baumeister seemed to care about was the pool house. He kept the wet bar stocked, and he filled the area with copious decor including mannequins that he dressed and placed around to give the appearance that a lavish pool party was going on. 

The rest of the house displayed the hidden turmoil of the marriage. To escape, Juliana and the three children would stay with Herbert's mother at her Lake Wawasee condominium. Baumeister would almost always stay behind to run the stores, or so he told his wife.

The Human Skeleton

In 1994, the Baumeister's son, 13-year-old Erich, was playing in a wooded area behind their home when he found a human skeleton that was partially buried. He showed the grisly find to Juliana, who in return showed it to Herbert. He told her that his father had used skeletons in his research and that, after finding it while cleaning the garage, he had taken it out to the back yard and buried it. Incredibly, Juliana believed her husband's weird answer.

What Goes Up, Must Come Down

Not long after the second store opened, the business began to lose money and never stopped. Baumeister began drinking during the day and would return to the stores, drunk and act belligerently to customers and employees. The stores went from being orderly to looking like a dump.

At night, unknown to Juliana, Baumeister cruised gay bars, and then returned home and retreated to his pool house where he would spend hours whimpering and crying like a child about the dying business. Juliana was exhausted from worry. Bills were piling up, and her husband was acting stranger every day.

The Missing Persons Investigations

While the Baumeister's were busy trying to fix their failing business and marriage, there was a major murder investigation going on in Indianapolis.  Virgil Vandagriff was a highly respected retired Marion County Sheriff who in 1977 opened Vandagriff & Associates Inc., a private investigation firm in Indianapolis which specialized in missing person cases. In June of 1994, Vandagriff was contacted by the mother of 28-year-old Alan Broussard, who she said was missing. The last time that she saw him, he was headed out to meet his partner at a popular gay bar called Brothers, and he never returned home. Almost a week later, Vandagriff received a call from another distraught mother about her missing son. In July, Roger Goodlet, 32, left his parents’ home to go out for the evening. He was going to a gay bar in downtown Indianapolis but never made it there.  Both Broussard and Goodlet shared similar lifestyles, looked like one another, were near to the same age, and seemed to vanish while in route to a gay bar.

Vandagriff made up missing posters and distributed them at gay bars around the city. In a search for clues, the family and friends of the young men were interviewed as were several customers at gay bars. The only real clue that Vandagriff learned was that Goodlet was last seen willingly getting into a blue car with Ohio plates. He also received a call from a publisher of a gay magazine who wanted to make Vandagriff aware that there had been multiple cases of gay men disappearing in Indianapolis over the last few years.  Now convinced that they were dealing with a serial killer, Vandagriff went to the Indianapolis Police Department with his suspicions. Unfortunately, searching for disappearing gay men was apparently a low priority. Most of the investigators believed, more than likely, the men moved out of the area without telling their families, to freely live their gay lifestyles.

The I-70 Murders

Vandagriff also learned about an ongoing investigation into multiple murders of gay men in Ohio. The murders began in 1989 and ended in mid-1990. Bodies had been found dumped along Interstate 70 and were dubbed the "I-70 Murders" in the newspapers. Four of the victims had been from Indianapolis.

Brian Smart

Within weeks of Vandagriff posting the missing posters, he was contacted by Tony Harris (fictitious name per his request) who said he was certain that he had spent time with the person responsible for Roger Goodlet's disappearance. He also said that he had gone to the police and the F.B.I, but they disregarded his information. Vandagriff set up a meeting and, in a series of interviews that followed, a bizarre story slowly unfolded. According to Harris, he was at a gay club when he noticed a man who seemed to be overly captivated by the missing person's poster of his friend, Roger Goodlet. As he continued to watch the man, there was something in his eyes that convinced him that the man knew something about Goodlet's disappearance. To try to learn more, he introduced himself. The man said his name was Brian Smart and that he was a landscaper from Ohio. When Harris tried to bring up Goodlet, Smart would become evasive and change the subject. As the evening progressed, Smart invited Harris to join him for a swim at a house where he said he was temporarily living. He said he was doing the landscaping for the new owners who were away. Harris agreed and got into Smarts Buick which had Ohio plates. Harris was not familiar with northern Indianapolis, so he was unable to say where the house was located. He was able to describe the area as having horse ranches and large homes. He also described a split-rail fence and a sign that he could partially see that read "Farm" something. The sign was at the front of the driveway that Smart had turned into. Harris went on describe a large Tudor home which he and Smart entered from a side door. He described the interior of the home as being congested with a lot of furniture and boxes. He followed Smart through the house and out down some steps to the bar and a pool area that had mannequins set up around the pool. Smart offered Harris a drink, which he turned down.  Smart excused himself and when he returned he was a lot more talkative. Harris suspected that he had snorted cocaine. At some point, Smart brought up autoerotic asphyxiation (receiving sexual pleasure from choking and being choked) and asked Harris to do it to him. Harris went along and choked Smart with a hose while he masturbated.  Smart then said it was his turn to do it to Harris. Again, Harris went along, and as Smart began choking him, it became obvious that he was not going to let go. Harris pretended to pass out, and Smart released the hose. When Harris opened his eyes, Smart became rattled and said he was scared because Harris had passed out.  Harris was considerably larger than Smart which was probably the only reason he survived. He also refused drinks earlier in the evening that Smart had prepared. Smart ended up driving Harris back to Indianapolis, and they agreed to meet again the following week. 

To find out more about Brain Smart, Vandagriff arranged to have Harris and Smart followed when they met the second time. But Smart never showed up. Believing that Harris' story had merit, Vandagriff turned again to the police, but this time he contacted Mary Wilson, who was a detective that worked in Missing Persons, and one that Vandagriff respected and trusted. She drove Harris to the wealthy areas outside Indianapolis on the chance that he might recognize the house that Smart took him to, but they came up empty. It was a year later that Harris would meet up with Smart again. They happened to show up at the same bar one night, and Harris was able to get Smart's license plate number. He gave the information to Mary Wilson, and she ran a check. The license plate was matched, not to Brian Smart, but to Herbert Baumeister, the wealthy owner of Sav-a-lot. As she discovered more about Baumeister, she agreed with Vandagriff. Tony Harris had narrowly escaped becoming a victim of a serial killer.

The Confrontation of a Monster

Detective Wilson decided on a direct approach and went to the store to confront Baumeister. She told him that he was a suspect in an investigation into several missing men. She requested that he allow investigators to search his home. He refused and told her that, in the future, she should go through his lawyer. Wilson then went to Juliana and told her the same thing that she had told her husband, hoping to get her to agree to a search of the property. Juliana, although shocked by what she was hearing, also firmly refused. Next, Wilson tried to get Hamilton County officials to issue a search warrant, but they refused. They felt that there was not enough conclusive evidence to warrant it.

The Melt Down

Herbert Baumeister appeared to go through an emotional breakdown over the next six months. By June, Julian had reached her limit. The Children's Bureau canceled the contract with the Sav-a-lot stores, and she was facing bankruptcy. The fairytale fog that she had been living in began to lift as did her loyalty to her semi-deranged husband. What also had not left her mind since she first spoke to Detective Wilson, was the haunting image of the skeleton that her son had discovered two years earlier. She made a decision. She was going to file for divorce and tell Wilson about the skeleton. She was also going to let detectives search the property. Herbert and his son Erich were visiting Herbert's mother at Lake Wawasee. It was the perfect time for her do it. Julian picked up the phone and called her lawyer.

Into The Boneyard

On June 24, 1996, Wilson and three Hamilton County officers walked out into the grassy area just feet from the patio area of the Baumeister's home. As their eyes began to focus, they could clearly see that what appeared to be small rocks and pebbles, all across the backyard where the Baumeister children had played, were bone fragments.  Wilson knew that it would turn out to be human bones, but the Hamilton County officers were uncertain. Fortunately, in less than a day, Wilson got a confirmation from forensics. The rocks were fragments of human bones. The following day, police and firemen swarmed the property and began excavation. Bones were found everywhere, even on the neighbor's land. In a matter of days, 5,500 bones and teeth were found in the backyard. A search of the rest of the property produced more bones. By the time the excavation was complete, it was estimated that the bones were from 11 men. However, only four victims could be identified. They were: Roger Allen Goodlet; 34; Steven Hale, 26' Richard Hamilton, 20; and Manuel Resendez, 31.

Erich Baumeister

When the police discovered the bone fragments in the backyard, Juliana began to panic. She feared for the safety of her son Erich who was with Baumeister. So did the authorities.  Herbert and Juliana were already in the beginning stages of divorce. It was decided that before police discoveries at the Baumeister's hit the news, Herbert would be served with custody papers demanding that Erich return to Juliana. Fortunately, when Baumeister was served with the papers, he turned Erich over without incident, figuring that it was just legal maneuvering on Juliana's part.

The Suicide

Once news of the bones being uncovered was broadcasted, Baumeister vanished. It was not until July 3 that his whereabouts would be known. His body was discovered inside his car. In an apparent suicide, Baumeister had shot himself in the head while parked at Pinery Park, Ontario.

He wrote a three-page suicide note explaining his reasons for taking his life were due to his problems with the business and his failing marriage. There was no mention of the murdered victims scattered in his backyard.

Baumeister Formally Linked to I-70 Murders

With Juliana Baumeister's help, investigators of the Ohio murders were piece together evidence that linked Baumeister to the I-70 murders. Receipts provided by Juliana showed that Baumeister had traveled along I-70 during the times that the bodies were found dumped along the interstate. 

A sketch drawn from a description by an eyewitness, who thought he saw the I-70 murderer, looked like Baumeister. Bodies had also stopped showing up along the interstate at the same time that Baumeister moved into Fox Hollow Farms where he had plenty of land to hide bodies.

-bird