she was Strangled by her brother
vlogging queen had ‘sullied the Family honour’
6 ways teresa could have died the minute-by-minute making of a murderer
life in fred & rose’s house of horror
death in the family
158 Spots of Blood
The crucial key to the murder of Billy-Jo Jenkins
They beat and abused her, but why did Heather have to die?
exclusive: spree k“ Sil l e r in t e r v iew ometimes it’s hard to believe that I did this”
Hard Wired japan’s Los Murderer deadly cult Urabeños Did nature compel Arthur Shawcross to kill?
plus
Brainwashing, torture, mass-murder and more
Inside the cocainepowered Colombian gang
cold case cards – 22 Years on Death Row – lemon juice bandit – and more
part 1
What happened to Hoffa?
The downfall and disappearance of a corrupt union boss
welcome J
ournalist and soon-to-be bestselling author of Fred & Rose, Howard Sounes was as surprised as anyone when what seemed to be the garden-variety murder of Heather West opened up a rabbit warren of incest, sexual abuse, rape, torture and serial killing. The public, Gloucestershire police, social services, teachers, friends and even the West’s neighbours on Cromwell Street hadn’t the foggiest idea that behind the door of number 25, Mr and Mrs West operated a depraved parody of the family home life that they outwardly portrayed. Right up until just
before her disappearance in 1987 and under enormous psychological strain, even Heather West managed to hide the reality of what was going on at home from her closest classmates. It’s easier to conceive of why this happened between two broken and twisted individuals, than to imagine how Fred and Rose West got away with murdering and raping for so long. Can we blame it on an era that bred, tolerated and even protected the likes of Jimmy Savile?
Ben biggs Editor
The infamous patio outside 25 Cromwell Street, where Gloucestershire police began their search for the remains of Heather West and got more than they’d bargained for
Contributors maria dilorenzo New Yorker Maria is a teacher and a writer whose work has appeared in magazines, journals and newspapers all over the US. She is currently working on a true crime novel on Maksim Gelman’s life and crimes, which should be finished next year. You can get a taste of that in her Gelman feature, on page 48.
dr charlie oughton Charlie is a broadcaster, author, lecturer and journalist specialising in taboo (particularly serial killers) horror and gender studies. This issue Charlie has delved into the dark and terrifying world of Japan’s ‘death cult’, Aum Shinrikyo, on page 32.
alex vasili Freelance writer and journalist Alex has assisted in the making of a Sky1 documentary on the worst serial killers of the last 50 years and is currently working on his debut book. He also keeps a crime blog, allexkarras.blogspot. co.uk. He has written our cover feature on the life and death of Heather West, on page 14.
david hutt David is a British journalist based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He reports on Southeast Asia’s volatile political scene, as well as shedding light on the murky pasts of gangsters and criminals. He looks to South America this issue, with the narco-trafficking, neo-political gang, Los Urabeños, on page 64.
seth ferranti Seth began his career in journalism having served a 21-year stretch of his 25-year sentence for an LSD kingpin conviction. He is now free and writes regularly for Real Crime magazine. Seth has drawn upon his contacts to put together the first of a three-part series on the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, on page 38.
joanna elphick
/realcrimemag /realcrimemag
Jo is an academic lawyer and lecturer specialising in criminal law, forensics and crime and deviance. She has created courses and given talks on subjects like Jack the Ripper. Her book, Murderous East Anglia, is available on Amazon. Jo has used her encyclopedic knowledge of forensics to write this issue’s unsolved case, on page 78.
3
Contents Xxxxxxx
Case notes
06 M urdered activist riots, killer pleads to be stopped, words that kill and more Stunning crime photos, present and past, from around the world
14 a death in the family Before she disappeared, she was raped and abused by Fred and Rose. But why did Heather West have to die?
24 hard wired killer Was he born bad, or could the Genessee River Killer Arthur Shawcross, who murdered 14, have turned out differently?
32 death cult murders
The murder of a Japanese lawyer and his family was just a precursor to the atrocities Aum Shinrikyo would go on to commit
38 j immy’s beef with the bosses
The corrupt Teamsters president rubbed many up the wrong way before he disappeared: What happened to Hoffa? Part 1
breakthrough
46 t he queen of hearts must die
it was in his dna
With no leads, the murder of Susan Schwarz went cold, until the cops came up with a novel idea...
48 i nterview with a spree killer
Writer Maria DiLorenzo meets Maksim Gelman, who’s serving a life sentence for his 2011 murder spree
minute by minute
58 k illing teresa halbach
There are six main theories behind Making A Murderer: here’s how they could have happened
suicide, stitch-up, or a local german man? 4
contents
briefing
64 los urabenos: colombia’s new narcos What started as a have-a-go drug gang has quickly become one of Colombia’s most powerful traffickers
70 no honour in killing
When a controversial vlogging queen was murdered by her own brother, the world took a hard look at Pakistan’s dark traditions
unsolved case
78 who killed billie-jo?
In 1997, teenager Billie-Jo Jenkins was found battered to death on the patio of her own home. Who could have done this - and why?
86 dead man walking
Sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit and exonerated 21 years later, Nick Yarris talks about coping with life on death row
reviews
92 t he fear of 13, orange is the new black s5, gold and more The latest crime film, mystery fiction and true tales reviewed
158 spots of blood
strange case
98 r obber uses invisible ink as a disguise He covered his face in lemon juice to hide from CCTV security cameras
discover more REAL Crime
subscribe
page 76
beating the system 5
Case notes
6
case notes
La Esperanza,Honduras,3 March 2016
Riots Over Murdered Activist When residents learned that a highprofile environmental campaigner had been without official protection when she was killed, tensions boiled over into conflict
E
© Getty Images
nvironmental rights campaigner Berta Cáceres had led a decade-long fight against a project to build the Agua Zarca Dam along the Gualcarque River in Western Honduras, which had put her at the centre of hatred from opposing groups – and she knew better than most that threats against her were sincere. In the early hours of the morning on 3 March 2016, intruders broke into her home and shot her while she slept. The police initially reported the case as an attempted robbery, but the victim’s family spoke out about their belief that the killing was an assassination, ordered by people behind the project she had opposed so vocally. Although President Juan Orlando Hernández promised to swiftly find and punish the killers, violent clashes began to rise throughout the city, as students were outraged to learn that under recommendations by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Cáceres should have received protection from authorities because of numerous threats against her life. The night she was killed, she was without such protection. Honduras’s security minister, Julián Pacheco Tinoco, said that Cáceres was not in the place she had reported as her home when she was killed, and they were therefore unable to protect her.
7
Case notes
8
case notes
Chicago,Usa,11December1945
A Killer Signature I
Chicago police couldn’t ignore the writing on this wall when a menacing murderer was terrorising their streets, preying on vulnerable women
© Getty Images
t had been more than six months since the murder of Josephine Ross when her killer struck again. This time the victim was 32-year-old stenographer Frances Brown. Police had not connected the two women yet, but it wouldn’t be long before they would when they realised the pattern of brutality inflicted on both victims. Brown’s body was found in the bathroom of her Pine Grove Hotel apartment when a cleaner noticed her door open and music playing inside. The victim had been shot in the head and stabbed so ferociously in the neck with a bread knife that the blade protruded through the other side of her throat. When discovered, Brown was naked, her body had been rinsed of blood and her head was wrapped in towels. While the scene of the crime was free of fingerprints, the culprit had scrawled a threatening message on the wall in the victim’s own red lipstick: “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself”. Police determined that the attacker, most likely a woman, was waiting in the wings. The sinister message was splashed across the front pages of newspapers warning them that ‘The Lipstick Killer’ was on the loose and that in the comfort of their own homes, women were at risk of becoming the next victim. Unbeknown to everyone, 17-year-old William Heirens was just weeks away from his next and most horrific crime, the abduction, murder and dismemberment of a six-year-old child.
9
Case notes
10
case notes
Paris,France,7January2016
Knife-Wielding Attacker Marks Massacre Anniversary After a spate of attacks in France’s major cities causing concern among residents, police were faced with another opportunistic assassin the shooting, the suspect attempted to access the busy building located near Montmartre, the northern 18th arrondissement between the Gare du Nord train station and the Sacre Coeur Cathedral. His attempt to disrupt and potentially destroy the lives of those inside the police station was at 11.30am, the exact time that a year previously French brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi had opened fire on Charlie Hebdo.
Armed with a butcher’s knife and wearing what was believed to be an explosive device strapped to his body, police shot the man dead. Police later confirmed that the belt he was wearing had contained no explosives and identified the man as Moroccan-born Sallah Ali, a convicted thief. A note in Ali’s hand blamed “deaths in Syria” as a motive for what might have happened had police not stopped him in his tracks.
© Getty Images
I
t had been a year to the day since gunmen stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices and shot dead 12 civilians – including their controversial director of publication, Charb – when French police shot down a knife-wielding man outside a police station in Goutte d’Or. As France’s President François Hollande finished delivering a speech to security forces at the city’s main police headquarters to mark the first anniversary since
11
Case notes
Massachusetts, USA, 6 June 2017
If Words Could Kill With more than 1,000 messages exchanged between Michelle Carter and her former boyfriend, had her words prompted him to kill himself?
I
© Getty Images
n July 2014, Conrad Roy III got into his pickup truck and fed his body a deadly amount of carbon monoxide in an attempt to end his own life. As the poison gas coursed through his veins, Roy stopped and got out of the truck. Scared of what he had tried to do, he texted his girlfriend Michelle Carter that he couldn’t do it. “Get back in,” she told him. Back in the vehicle, Roy continued to message Carter and the lovers exchanged final words before Roy stopped responding altogether. Investigating his suicide, police found more than 1,000 messages between the pair discussing how a suicidal Roy would kill himself. Carter suggested multiple ways of committing suicide. Goading her boyfriend to end his life Carter told him in one message: “You just need to do it. You can’t keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did the last time and not think about it and just do it, babe”. She was indicted on an involuntary manslaughter charge in 2015 for her role in Roy’s death. The trial has been a landmark case in which prosecutors alleged that Carter, now 20 years old, convinced Roy to kill himself so that she could play the role of the grieving girlfriend and gain attention from her friends. “She used Conrad as a pawn in her sick game of life and death,” said Assistant District Attorney Maryclare Flynn. Meanwhile, the defence argued that though her actions were “reckless”, Carter was just 17 years old at the time of the incident and was taking antidepressants that made her involuntarily intoxicated. She decided against a jury made up of residents of her hometown decide her fate, and instead opted for a trial heard by the judge.
12