Serial Killers Archives - People Who Kill Repeatedly

2023/06/112023/06/10

Amy Archer-Gilligan: Hidden Evil and Deadly Secrets Come Out

My last blog featured Carl Roland, who tried to escape arrest by sitting on a construction crane for three days. This week’s case is that of Amy Archer-Gilligan. For a decade in the early twentieth century, she poisoned at least five people and possibly many more.

Amy Archer-Gilligan

Born Amy E. Dugan in 1873, Amy Archer-Gilligan married twice. She and her first husband ran Sister Amy’s Nursing Home for the Elderly in Newington, Connecticut, as employees of the home’s owners. In 1907, the owners decided to sell the house. Amy and her first husband, James Archer, moved to Windsor, Connecticut. There they bought a house and opened the Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm.

James Archer died in 1910 of kidney disease. Amy had taken out a life insurance policy on James a few weeks before his death. The proceeds from that policy allowed her to continue operating Archer Home.

Three years later, Amy married Michael W. Gilligan, a man of some wealth. Gilligan died only three months after he married Amy. During their short marriage, he had drawn up a new will leaving his entire estate to his new wife. (The document later turned out to be a forgery, written in Amy’s handwriting).

Amy Archer-Gilligan’s Murder Spree

Between the opening of Archer House in 1907 and 1917, 60 residents died there. While only 12 deaths occurred between 1907 and 1910, from 1910 to 1917, there were a staggering 48 deaths. One of those who died was Franklin R. Andrews. Andrews was apparently in good health, but he sickened and died after gardening at Archer Home on May 19, 1914. The coroner ruled his death was from a gastric ulcer.

The house in Windsor, Connecticut, where Amy Archer-Gilligan operated Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm (Windsor Historical Society) — The house in Windsor, Connecticut, where Amy Archer-Gilligan operated Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm (*Windsor Historical Society*)

Andrews had a sister, Nellie Pierce, who didn’t believe her brother died from natural causes. Andrews indicated to her that Amy had been pressuring him for money. It turned out that several other residents of Archer House died after they gave Amy Archer-Gilligan a large sum of money.

When the local district attorney failed to show much interest, Nellie Pierce wrote to the Hartford Courant. The first of a series of articles on the Murder Factory” appeared on May 9, 1916. It took a few more months, but the police finally began investigating the case.

The Hartford Courant edition of May 8, 1916 (Hartford Courant) — The *Hartford Courant* edition of May 8, 1916 (*Hartford Courant*)

Authorities exhumed the bodies of Michael Gilligan, Franklin Andrews, and three other boarders. All five died from either arsenic or strychnine poisoning.

Amy Archer-Gilligan Tried and Convicted Twice

Amy Archer-Gilligan initially faced five charges of murder. Her lawyers managed to a single count, the murder of Franklin Andrews. On June 18, 1917, the jury found her guilty, and the judge sentenced her to death.

Granted a new trial on appeal in 1919, Amy entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The insanity defense failed, as it usually does, and she saw a jury convict her of murder again. This time, though, her sentence was life imprisonment.

Epilogue

In 1924, Amy Archer-Gilligan was declared temporarily insane and transferred to the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane at Middletown. She remained there until she died on April 23, 1962, at age 88.

The Archer-Gilligan case is credited with inspiring the play Arsenic and Old Lace (the 1944 film version starred Cary Grant).

You can read about Amy Archer-Gilligan in The Devil’s Rooming House by M. William Phelps.

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2023/02/192023/02/11

Mad Butcher: Strange Killer Makes Panic for Cleveland

Last week’s concerned Arnold Rothstein, the gambler who supposedly “fixed” the 1919 World Series. This week, we tackle the story of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.

The Mad Butcher

During the 1930s, America reeled from the effects of the Great Depression. Industrial cities like Cleveland, Ohio, suffered the worst. Adding to the economic misery, a serial killer terrorized the city during this time. The newspapers dubbed him “The Torso Slayer,” “The Headhunter,” “The Phantom Killer,” or “The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.” Between 1934 and 1938, police believe he murdered, mutilated, and dismembered at least twelve people, possibly as many as twenty.

Cleveland police search for human remains in September 1931 — Cleveland police search for human remains in September 1936

The first body appeared on September 5, 1934. A beachcomber walking along Lake Erie’s Euclid Beach found a rotting piece of human flesh. It was the lower half of a female torso. After this grisly find, people reported seeing other body parts floating in the water. The woman was never identified.

A year later, two boys playing catch found the headless bodies of two men. The older, never identified, had been killed at least five days before the other. Police were able to identify the younger man through his fingerprints. His name was Edward Andrassy, 29, a bisexual ex-convict. Retraction of the neck muscles on both victims indicated the decapitation occurred while they were still alive.

Edward Andrassy, the Mad Butcher's first know victim — Edward Andrassy, the Mad Butcher’s first know victim

Over the next four years, ten more mutilated bodies turned up around Cleveland. Most of the victims were poor and homeless men who lived on the streets or in shantytowns along Kingsbury Run—an area of downtown Cleveland. Not all of them were male; the victims included two women. Investigators identified two victims through fingerprints and made a tentative identification of a third through dental records. The rest remained unidentified.

Florence Genevieve Sawdy Polillia, another victim of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run — Florence Genevieve *Sawdy* Polillia, another victim of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run

Most of the victims had been decapitated or dismembered. This led to speculation that the murderer had some medical knowledge or experience in butchering animals. A few victims showed signs they’d been tortured before they died. This suggests that their killer may have had mental illness or sociopathic tendencies.

Who Was the Mad Butcher?

On July 5, 1939, police arrested Frank Dolezal, a Slovak immigrant, for the murder of the third victim, Florence Polillo. Dolezal, born in 1895, lived with Polillo at one time and had connections to the other two identified victims. He confessed to killing Polillo and Andrassy after a marathon interrogation. He soon recanted, however, accusing detectives of using third-degree tactics.

On August 24, Dolezal supposedly hanged himself in his cell. He had four broken ribs and numerous bruises on his body. Modern students of the Mad Butcher case do not regard Dolezal as a viable suspect.

Francis E. Sweeney came under suspicion. Sweeney was a World War I veteran, a doctor, and a severe alcoholic. In 1938, Eliot Ness, of “Untouchables” fame and by then Cleveland’s Safety Director, bundled him off to a downtown hotel. After Sweeney dried out, Ness subjected him to a week-long interrogation that left Ness convinced he had his man. Ness’s questioning was extra-legal, and if anyone kept records, they don’t survive today.

Dr. Francis Edward Sweeney. Eliot Ness believed he was the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run

After his ordeal, Sweeney committed himself to a mental institution. He died in a Dayton, Ohio, veteran’s hospital on July 9, 1964.

Most of the Mad Butcher’s victims were of the lower classes, homeless, or down on their luck. Eliot Ness believed that he could solve the Mad Butcher problem, if not the case, by removing the pool of potential victims. Ness decided the way to do this was to eradicate the Hoovervilles along Kingsbury Run. On August 18, 1938, Eliot Ness took the drastic and bizarre step of burning the shacks in the Kingsbury Run vicinity. Newspapers blasted Ness for this, and it hurt when he ran for mayor of Cleveland in 1947.

Ness drew harsh condemnation after a midnight raid left dozens of shantytown dwellings in flames. (The Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University) — Ness drew harsh condemnation after a midnight raid left dozens of shantytown dwellings in flames. (*The Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University*)

Epilogue

The Mad Butcher case is one of Cleveland’s most enduring mysteries. The last body turned up in August 1938, coinciding with Sweeney’s self-commitment. Does that mean he was the Mad Butcher? Maybe, but not necessarily. There is no evidence pointing to him as the killer. The true identity of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run remains unknown.

There are several books on the Cleveland torso murders. They include The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, Torso, In the Wake of the Butcher, and American Demon.

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2023/01/222023/01/20

Doug Clark: Odd Killer Makes for Terror in LA

Last week’s crime concerned a budding serial killer who supposedly left a message in lipstick begging police to catch him. The press dubbed him the “Lipstick Killer.” This week, we meet Doug Clark, who became infamous as the “Sunset Slayer.” But he didn’t act alone.

Doug Clark

Doug Clark was the son of Franklin Clark, a Naval Intelligence officer. Because of his father’s employment, the family moved a lot during Doug’s boyhood. The elder Clark left the Navy in 1958, but the family continued moving around the world. Doug later claimed to have lived in 47 different countries.

Young Doug attended an exclusive school in Switzerland and Culver Military Academy in Indiana. After graduating from Culver, Clark joined the U.S. Air Force. His postings included bases in Colorado and Ohio.

When he finished his stint in the Air Force, Clark drifted around, landing in the Los Angeles area. He worked sporadically, often as a mechanic or a boiler operator. He abruptly quit a job with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. His subsequent employment at a Jergens soap factory ended with his firing because of chronic absences.

Doug Clark Meets Carol Bundy

Clark liked hanging out in a North Hollywood bar called Little Nashville. It was in that bar that he met Carol Bundy in 1980. Bundy had three failed marriages behind her when Clark latched onto her. Before long, Clark moved in with her.

Little Nashville Club in 1983 (Pintrest)

Not long after moving in with Bundy, Clark began bringing prostitutes home to the apartment they shared for threesomes. From there, he degenerated into taking pornographic pictures of an 11-year-old girl who lived near the couple before escalating into pedophilia.

In June 1980, Clark came home one night and told Bundy about two young women he picked up on the Sunset Strip. They were stepsisters (and runaways) Cynthia Chandler and Gina Marano. After forcing them to perform sex acts with him, he shot them and dumped their bodies along the Ventura Freeway. Bundy phoned the police. She admitted she knew about the murders but refused to give any clue to Clark’s identity. Instead of turning him in, she became his accomplice.

Gina Marano and Cynthia Chandler were the first victims Clark admitted to Bundy he killed (IMDB)

Doug Clark Keeps Killing

Twelve days after he killed the first two women, Clark struck again. He lured two prostitutes, Karen Jones and Exxie Wilson, into his car, where he fatally shot them. He removed Wilson’s head, then dumped the bodies in plain sight again. Clark took the head home and stored it in the refrigerator. Two days later, he and Bundy put the head in a box and left it in an alleyway.

Murder victims Karen Jones Exxie Wilson (IMDB)

Three days after the couple disposed of Wilson’s head, another body was found in some woods in the San Fernando Valley. Police identified the victim as Marnette Comer, a runaway who had been killed three weeks earlier. That made her Clark’s first known victim.

Another body of an unknown young woman was found on August 26, 1980, but never identified. Police attributed this victim also to the serial killer the media had begun calling the Sunset Slayer.

Doug Clark and Carol Bundy Face Justice

One of the headline acts at Little Nashville was an Australian country singer named Jack Murray. Despite Murray being married, he and Bundy had been lovers, and she still attended his shows at the bar. After a performance one night in August 1980, a tipsy Bundy told Murray about her murder spree with Doug Clark. Her confession appalled Murray as it would any normal person, and he intimated he might call the police.

Murray’s reaction threw Bundy into a panic. She lured him into his van after a show one night with the promise of sex. Instead, she shot and stabbed him to death, then decapitated him.

Bundy had never been the most stable person. The psychological pressure of participating in murders grew too much for her to bear. She confessed to killing Murray to her coworkers, and they called the police. Her and Clark’s arrests quickly followed.

Carol Bundy, leaving her arraignment in Los Angeles on August 14, 1980 (Huynh/AP)

Prosecutors charged Bundy with two murders and Clark with six. During the trial, he acted as his own defense counsel (always a bad idea!). His defense strategy was to place all the blame on Bundy, but the jury didn’t buy it. He was sentenced to death in 1983.

Douglas Clark mugshot after his arrest on August 12, 1980

Bundy pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain and drew a sentence of 52 years to life.

Epilogue

Carol Bundy died in prison from heart failure on December 9, 2003, at age 61.

Doug Clark has spent forty years on California’s death row. He’s still there (2023), waiting for a date with the executioner that will probably never come.

Douglas Daniel Clark, C-63000, 2011 prison photo (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) — Douglas Daniel Clark, inmate C-63000, in a 2011 prison photo (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

You can read more about the Sunset Slayer killings in Louise Farr’s 1992 book, The Sunset Murders. The crimes are also the subject of Doug Clark and Carol Bundy: The Horrific True Story Behind the Sunset Strip Slayers, a book in the Real Crime by Real Killers series.

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2023/01/152023/01/11

Lipstick Killer: Murder Spree is a Challenge For Cops

In my last blog, I covered the case of Mollie Olgin and Kristine Chapa. In June 2012, an attacker shot both young women in a Texas park. Only Kristine survived. This week, we learn about the Lipstick Killer, a murderer who terrorized Chicago in 1946.

The Lipstick Killer Strikes

The Lipstick Killer’s first victim was 43-year-old Josephine Ross. She was found dead in her Chicago apartment on June 5, 1945, with multiple stab wounds. In her hand, she clutched some dark hairs. Her assailant didn’t take anything from the apartment. Witnesses reported seeing a dark-complected man running away, but police couldn’t identify him.

The next attack occurred on December 10, 1945. The body of Francis Brown was discovered with a knife stuck in her neck. She also had a bullet wound in her head. Again, the intruder didn’t take anything, but he left a message scrawled on the wall in lipstick. It read: “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.” The message in lipstick led the press to dub the unknown assailant “The Lipstick Killer.”

The second victim, Frances Brown (findagrave.com)

A month later, on January 7, 1946, six-year-old Suzanne Degnan went missing from her first-floor bedroom. She and her parents lived in the tony Edgewater neighborhood north of downtown Chicago, which didn’t see much crime. Suzanne’s father found a note demanding $20,000 for his daughter’s return. A man called the Degnan home several times, insisting the parents pay.

Suzanne Degnan was only six years old when she was abducted and murdered

Later, an anonymous tip led police to find Suzanne’s remains scattered in several sewers and storm drains. Her autopsy revealed that her killer strangled her shortly after he abducted her. Investigators deduced from the dismemberment of the body that the killer was either a surgeon or a skilled meat cutter.

The "Lipstick Killer" left this message in Frances Brown's apartment (Chicago Police Photo) — The “Lipstick Killer” left this message in Frances Brown’s apartment (Chicago Police Photo)

The Hunt for the Lipstick Killer

Police were under tremendous pressure to catch the Lipstick Killer. They soon arrested Hector Verburgh, 65, a janitor in the Degnan’s building. Cops held Verburgh for 48 hours, subjecting him to the “third degree.” Investigators determined that Verburgh, a Belgian immigrant, couldn’t write English well enough to have written even the crude ransom note. He was released without charges and spent ten days in a hospital recovering. He and his wife later sued the Chicago Police Department and received a $15,000 judgment (almost $230,000 in 2013).

Janitor Hector Verburgh was an initial suspect in the Lipstick Killer case (Chicago Tribune)

Another suspect, ex-Marine Sidney Sherman, emerged when police found a handkerchief with a laundry mark “S. SHERMAN” near the abduction scene. Sherman had left his room at the YMCA without checking out and quit his job without picking up his last paycheck. A nationwide manhunt ensued. Sherman surfaced four days later in Toledo, Ohio. He explained that his quick departure was because he eloped with his girlfriend.

Investigators found that the handkerchief belonged to Airman Seymour Sherman of New York City. They cleared him because he was out of the country when Suzanne Degnan was abducted and murdered.

Yet another suspect was Richard Russell Thomas, a nurse who had moved from Chicago to Phoenix, Arizona. He even confessed to killing Suzanne, but police were hot after a new suspect. By then, also, Thomas had recanted his confession.

Police Arrest the Lipstick Killer

On June 26, 1946, cops arrested 17-year-old William George Heirens after they caught him fleeing from a burglary. He quickly moved to the top of the Lipstick Killer suspect list.

Lipstick Killer suspect William Heirens after his arrest (Getty Images)

Two psychiatrists administered sodium pentothal, a so-called “truth serum,” to Heirens. They had neither a warrant nor Heirens’s or his parents’ consent. During the questioning, which Heirens later said he couldn’t recall, he allegedly spoke of an alternate personality named “George” who committed the murders. When asked for George’s name, Heirens replied that it was “a murmuring name.” Police quickly translated this to “Murman,” which the press was delighted to claim was a mashup of “Murder Man.”

This interrogation is problematic for three reasons. First, police questioned a drugged Heirens without a legal basis (no consent or warrant). Second, the transcript of the session disappeared in 1952. Third, one of the psychiatrists, Dr. Grinker, said Heirens never implicated himself in any of the killings.

William Heirens in a car seated between Detective Chief Walter Storms (L) and Captain Michael Ahern (R) (Chicago Tribune)

At a subsequent interrogation, Heirens indirectly implicated himself by blaming the killings on “George.” Investigators tried but could not find any such person as “George Murman.” Psychologists explained “George” as an alter ego that Heirens could blame for his antisocial actions.

The Lipstick Killer Cops a Plea

Despite the confession and some physical evidence, convicting Heirens for the three Lipstick Killer murders wouldn’t be a slam dunk. Instead, State’s Attorney William Tuohy offered Heirens’s lawyers a deal: plead guilty and avoid the electric chair.

On September 4, 1946, with his parents and the victims’ families looking on, William Heirens admitted his guilt on the murder and burglary charges. That night, he tried to hang himself in his cell during the guards’ shift change. He survived.

The following day, September 5, Chief Justice Harold G. Ward sentenced Heirens to three life terms.

Epilogue

William Heirens spent the rest of his life in prison, dying at age 83 on March 12, 2012.

Prison photo of William Heirens, the convicted Lipstick Killer, in his later years

He began claiming his innocence almost as soon as he finished pleading guilty. While it’s common for criminals to deny their guilt, Heirens had some points in his favor. For one, he made his first confession in a drugged state. For another, there were questions about how police handled—and maybe fabricated—evidence. Given the immense pressure on police to solve this case, it’s conceivable that they cut some corners.

Regardless, Heirens stayed in prison.

During his incarceration, Heirens took numerous college courses and set up an entire educational program when he transferred to Vienna Correctional Institution. He also helped other prisoners with their GED diplomas and their legal cases.

Several true crime and serial killer anthologies include the Lipstick Killer case.