Serial Killer Quarterly
Vol.1 No.1 21st Century Psychos
Grinning Man Press
Serial Killer Quarterly Vol.1 No.1 21st Century Psychos
© 2014 Grinning Man Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-9938232-1-3
First eBook Edition *August 2014
Published by Grinning Man Press
Editor-in-Chief: Lee Mellor
Editors: Lee Mellor, Aaron Elliott
Art Direction: Jonathan Whitehead, Northbound Creations
Cover Image: William Cook
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The views expressed by the editor-in-chief of Serial Killer Quarterly do not necessarily represent those of its contributing authors, illustrators, or designers. Similarly, the views expressed by individual authors do not necessarily represent those of Grinning Man Press, or any of the other authors. Duplication and/or distribution of any portion of the ‘21st Century Psychos’ e-magazine is prohibited by law, and may result in legal action by Grinning Man Press.
In this Issue Vol.1 No.1 21st Century Psychos
Introduction to 21st Century Psychos
A Quick Note on Style
Letters to the Editor
John Edward Robinson: The Spider’s Web
Lee Mellor
Psychopathic con man lures women to the mid-west through Internet. Between BDSM sessions, he takes control of their finances, before introducing them to his hammer.
The DC Snipers: Islam Will Explode
Michael Newton
Ex-soldier and radical Islamist takes on Jamaican teen as his disciple, indiscriminately murdering and injuring at least 24 citizens via sniper fire in 2002.
Infamous Last Words, Feasts of Death
Lee Mellor
What were the last words and meals of history’s most notorious serial killers? Did they go like lions or mice? Feast like dogs or birds?
Alexander Pichushkin: Checkmate
Aaron Elliott
Moscow is terrorized by hammer wielding loner who bludgeons drunks to death in Bitsa Park, posing their bodies or disposing of them down the sewers.
Sheila Labarre: Love in the Ashes
Robert J Hoshowsky
Seductress takes over dead doctor/boyfriend’s New Hampshire farm. Brings two developmentally challenged men to the property, where sex leads to abuse, torture, and finally murder.
Killer Flicks: Grinning Man Reviews Serial Murder Films, Past to Present
Israel Keyes: Building a Mystery
Dr. Katherine Ramsland
Alaskan thrill-killer—arguably the most organized serial slayer in history—leaves a trail of rape, slaughter and questions across multiple states.
Russell Williams: The Interview
Curtis Yateman
Canada is shaken to the core when one of the nation’s most distinguished air force base commanders is exposed as a cross-dressing rape-slayer and pedophile.
Cody Legebokoff : Canada’s Killer Country Boy
Kim Cresswell
Athletic blond-haired young man stands accused of murdering four women in British Columbia. If guilty, he is a rare example of a teenage serial killer.
A Preview of the Next Issue: Partners in Pain
Sources
Introduction to 21st Century Psychos
Welcome to the premier issue of Serial Killer Quarterly: the first popular digital magazine devoted to exploring the phenomenon of serial murder. Our goal is to provide you with tantalizing page-turners that will keep you up long after you shut off the bedroom lights. Simultaneously, we seek to minimize sensationalism and provide insight into this dark and fascinating subject. For this reason, we have contracted some of the most well respected authors in contemporary true crime. This month we are fortunate to showcase the work of Dr. Katherine Ramsland and Michael Newton.
Issue #1, 21st Century Psychos
, focuses exclusively on offenders who have operated in the new millennium. It also examines how modern technological advancements and political developments are influencing the manner in which serial murder is being articulated. The recent case of Israel Keyes as recounted by Katherine Ramsland, reveals that serial killers are looking back to their 20th century predecessors to avoid repeating their mistakes. In essence, our wealth of literature on homicide may serve as a kind of instruction manual of what not to do
for those literally looking to get away with murder.
Michael Newton’s examination of the Beltway Snipers offers us a glimpse at an entirely different type of serial killer—the radicalized Islamist emerging from the post-9/11 period. Whereas Israel Keyes murdered for private existential satisfaction, the pseudo-political killings perpetrated by John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were a decidedly public affair. Their intent was, at least in part, to terrorize the nation’s capital, and in that regard, the snipers were woefully successful.
The widespread presence of the Internet in 21st century life has also opened a gateway into our homes through which predators may acquire unsuspecting victims. In John Edward Robinson: The Spider’s Web
, I detail the exploits of the Internet’s first documented serial killer.
Fortunately, the new millennium has also seen many positive developments in our understanding of serial murder. We must remember that the study of this macabre topic only began in earnest in the latter quarter of the 20th century. With the passing of time, many of the notions we once held regarding the types
of people who become serial killers have been turned on their head. When in 2010, Russell Williams—a Canadian Air Force Colonel and commander of the country's most important base—confessed to the murders of two Ontario women, criminologists were stunned not only by the position of power the perpetrator occupied, but also that Williams began killing in his mid-forties. Similarly, if found guilty, alleged serial slayer Cody Legebokoff would have been committing murders since his late teens.
Both of these recent Canadian cases challenge the traditional profile of the compulsive killer as a white male loner between the ages of 20-35. Even our notions of female serial murderers have been called into question. Women are stereotypically thought to be act-focused
killers, slipping poison into tea cups or smothering babies for profit and/or attention. Yet in 2003, Sheila Labarre tortured and sexually dominated at least two able-bodied young men over the course of weeks in her New Hampshire farmhouse. In The Interview,
Canada’s Killer Country Boy,
and Love in the Ashes
, our staff authors Curtis Yateman, Kim Cresswell and Robert Hoshowsky shed light on these three paradigm-breaking cases.
Lastly, Grinning Man Press co-founder, Aaron Elliott, examines the most prolific Russian serial killer of modern times—the insidious Chessboard Killer,
Alexander Pichushkin. Suspected of fatally bludgeoning more than 60 people in Moscow’s Bitsa Park. He may very well be the deadliest murderer of the 21st century.
A Quick Note on Style
Before we make our initial descent into the abyss, I will briefly comment on Grinning Man’s unique stance regarding format and tone. Though our company is based in Montreal, Canada, the online nature of our business model allows us to publish for an international audience. For this reason, we have chosen not to select one style of English over another. American authors are free to lose the u’s
and extra l’s,
while Canadians and Brits can keep them. Thus, our magazines may contain alternate spellings of words such as behavior/behaviour or
travelling/ traveling" in different articles. Let’s face it, we inhabit a globalized world, and bickering about correct language at this level is a futile and pedantic pursuit.
Any names followed by a * are pseudonyms, and are typically employed to protect the identities of surviving victims.
You will also observe that the tone of the individual articles in Serial Killer Quarterly ranges in degrees from the impressionistic/ subjective to more traditional journalistic approaches. While both address cases of serial murder, Curtis Yateman’s Russell Williams: The Interview
and Michael Newton’s The DC Snipers: Islam Will Explode,
are notably different. Though some readers will likely prefer one style over another, we have tried to incorporate a multitude of voices into Serial Killer Quarterly in order to keep the material varied, and to provide numerous lenses through which to view the topic. Charles Manson—incidentally, a psychopathic cult ader, NOT a serial killer—has been quoted as saying: Look down at me and you see a fool; look up at me and you see a god; look straight at me and you see yourself.
In this spirit, we will look from whatever angle our contributors see fit, and maybe, one day, glimpse the full picture.
Welcome to the future of murder and publishing!
Enjoy (but not too much...),
Lee Mellor Editor-in-Chief, Serial Killer Quarterly
lee@grinningmanpress.com
Letters to the Editor
Are you enjoying the first issue of Serial Killer Quarterly? Hating it? Do you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the magazine or the cases in ‘21st Century Psychos’? Well, dear reader, we’d love nothing more than to hear from you. In the coming issues, this section shall be your soapbox. However, unlike some fiery-eyed street preacher, we do get to respond to you. Sound like fun?
Please send any communications through email to lee@grinningmanpress.com. Enter "Serial Killer Quarterly— Letters to the Editor" into the subject line of your email, and we promise to publish and respond to as many emails as possible in our next issue, ‘Partners in Pain.’ We also welcome suggestions for new stories, issue themes, films to review etc.
Grinning Man Press also accepts manuscripts for full length books, short stories and articles in the genres of true crime, science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, the paranormal, erotica and generally anything that pushes the boundaries of human thought, imagination, convention and comfort. Please send queries to grinningmanpress@gmail.com or befriend Grinning Man Press on Facebook, and shoot us a message.
John Edward Robinson: The Spider’s Web
On October 7, 2002, a balding 58-year-old family man stood trial in Johnson County, Kansas for the murder of three women. There was nothing particularly novel about John Edward Robinson’s psychopathology. Like numerous serial killers before him, he was a psychopathic sexual sadist who murdered for financial gain and as an expression of ultimate dominance. Yet, Robinson would go down in criminal history as being the first serial murderer to acquire prey through the Internet: a technology that defines the early 21st century.
By the time this doughy spider began stalking the web for vulnerable females, he had already claimed the lives of Paula Godfrey (1984), Lisa Stasi (1985), Catherine Clampitt (1987), and Beverly Bonner (1993). The first flies to become trapped by his electronic threads were Sheila and Debbie Faith of Pueblo, Colorado. Their story is truly tragic. A homely 45-year-old widow, Sheila spent much of her free time searching online for a ‘good man.’ Her 15-year-old daughter, Debbie, was crippled by spina bifida and cerebral palsy, barely strong enough to operate her wheelchair’s joystick. After Sheila’s husband died from cancer in 1993, she began to frequent online BDSM (an umbrella acronym for 'Bondage/Discipline, Domination/Submission, and Sadism/Masochism') forums, advertising herself as a submissive.
Her sister reportedly admitted finding BDSM literature in Sheila’s possession which hinted that she was aroused by spanking. Perhaps a life of heartbreak had finally shaken loose Sheila’s inhibitions. Maybe by consenting to be hurt, she sought a way to exercise control over her personal pain. Whatever the case, in 1994, she met her dream man online. Purporting to be a wealthy executive, John
offered to take Sheila on a cruise and pay for Debbie to attend private school. He would provide her with a job, and she could even ride horses on his farm like she had always dreamed. In the summer of 1994, the Faiths set off on a two-week trip to visit friends in Texas. They scheduled a brief stop in Missouri along the way so that they could meet John in person. Sheila and Debbie trundled out of Colorado in their beat-up white van, as friends waved their goodbyes. They never arrived in Texas. That Christmas, Sheila’s sisters received type-written letters postmarked from the Netherlands, bearing what appeared to be the Faiths’ signatures. There were hints that something untoward was happening. Before her disappearance, Sheila had always written her letters by hand. There was also an uncharacteristically upbeat tone to her correspondences. To quote her sister Michelle Fox: it was a happy letter, and Sheila wasn’t a happy person.
In reality, Robinson had bludgeoned both Sheila and her invalid daughter to death with a hammer, stuffing their bodies into 55-gallon metal barrels which he had secreted in a storage locker in Raymore, Missouri. Somehow he had also managed to have the Faiths’ social security cheques forwarded to PO Box 215 in an Olathe, Kansas mail room. Over the next six years, Robinson regularly collected his victims’ social security cheques, investing the money in new criminal enterprises. It is estimated that he defrauded the American federal government of more than $29,000 between 1994-97 alone.
After several
