Arthur Shawcross

Arthur Shawcross
Cause of death	cardiac arrest
Other names	The Genesee River Killer
Criminal penalty	250 years
Details
Victims	13
Span of crimes	May, 1972 – January, 1990
Country	U.S.
State(s)	New York
Date apprehended	January, 1990

Arthur John Shawcross (June 6 1945 – November 10, 2008) was an American serial killer, also known as The Genesee River Killer in Rochester, New York.

He claimed most of his victims after being paroled early following a conviction for killing a child, which led to criticism of the justice system.

Early life

Shawcross was born in Kittery, Maine, but his family moved to Watertown in New York State when he was young. As a child he was socially awkward and rarely accepted by his peers, who frequently called him "oddie". At a young age he was tested with an extremely low IQ and was prone to behaviors such as bullying, bed wetting, and physical violence. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and when he was 19 he enlisted in the Army. He fought in the Vietnam War where, as he later claimed, he had murdered and cannibalized two young Vietnamese girls, although there is no evidence to back up this claim.

Back in civilian life, living in Watertown once more, Shawcross married four times, but his wives invariably left him after a short time because of his violent and erratic behavior. It was there, in May 1972, that he sexually assaulted and murdered a 10-year-old named Jack Owen Blake after luring the boy into some woods. Four months later, he raped and killed eight-year-old Karen Ann Hill, who was visiting Watertown with her mother for the Labor Day weekend.

Arrested for these crimes, Shawcross confessed to both murders but was later able to obtain a plea bargain with the prosecutors. He would plead guilty to killing just Karen Ann Hill on a charge of manslaughter, instead of first-degree murder, and the charge of killing Jack Blake would be dropped. With little evidence to go on, prosecutors went along, and the self-confessed double child killer was given a 25-year sentence.

Shawcross served 15 years before he was released on parole in March 1987. He had difficulty settling down as he was chased out of homes and fired from workplaces as soon as neighbors and employers found out about his criminal record. Eventually he settled in Rochester, New York, and lived with a woman named Rose Marie Walley.

Second series of murders

Beginning in March 1988, Shawcross began murdering, primarily prostitutes, in the area, claiming 11 victims before his capture less than two years later. The victims were:

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• Patricia Ives, 25
• Frances Brown, 22
• June Cicero, 34
• Darlene Trippi, 32
• Anna Marie Steffen, 28
• Dorothy Blackburn, 27
• Kimberly Logan
• June Stotts, 30
• Marie Welch, 22
• Elizabeth Gibson
• Dorothy Keller, 59

They were usually strangled and battered to death, and were often mutilated as well. Most of them were found near the Genesee River.

All the victims were murdered in Monroe County, except for Gibson, who was killed in neighboring Wayne County.

After the last victim's body was found in January 1990, the police decided not to remove it and instead keep surveillance on the area, based on a psychological profile that suggested the killer would return to the scene.

Shawcross was spotted masturbating as he sat in his car on a bridge over the creek in which the body of his final victim was floating. He was arrested and eventually confessed in custody.

Trial and conviction

In November 1990, Shawcross was tried by Monroe County First Assistant District Attorney Charles J. Siragusa for the 10 murders in Monroe County. The trial was televised and drew many viewers. Shawcross pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with testimory from psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis that he suffered from multiple personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and possible child abuse. This testimony did not help and the jury found him sane and guilty, with the foreman later saying about Lewis that "the more she talked, the worse it got. It's just too bad she didn't leave after she read her qualifications." The judge sentenced him to 250 years' imprisonment.

A few months later, Shawcross was taken to Wayne County to be tried for Gibson's murder. He pleaded guilty and was given a life sentence.

In 1992, true crime author Joel Norris wrote a book about the case. The paperback came with a tape that contained "the live confessions of Arthur Shawcross and his hideous crimes!" This drew some criticism that Norris was sensationalizing the case. A clip from this tape played at the beginning of the song "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" by the death metal band Cannibal Corpse.

Imprisonment

Shawcross was held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York until he died on November 10, 2008.

In 2003, Shawcross was interviewed by a British reporter, Katherine English, for a documentary on cannibalism. He bragged about slicing out and eating the vaginas of three victims, but refused to discuss allegations of eating the genitals of the boy he killed in 1972. Some criminologists have doubted these stories and suggested Shawcross embellished his crimes to impress the reporter and viewers.

In 2006, he was interviewed by Columbia University forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Stone for the Discovery Channel series Most Evil. In the interview, Shawcross claimed to have been sexually abused as a child by his mother, and also admitted sexually abusing his younger sister as a child. He also claimed to murder the prostitutes in revenge for supposedly having sex with an HIV-positive prostitute, and to eat the body parts in order to speed up the process of death (he had assumed he was infected). Stone agreed with the jury's conclusion and did not believe Shawcross's claims of not being in control during the prostitute murders.

Death

Officials said he complained of a pain in his leg on the afternoon of November 10th, 2008. Such a symptom, when followed closely by sudden death, is entirely consistent with, and highly suggestive of, a deep venous thrombosis of the leg leading to (fatal) pulmonary embolism. He was taken to the Albany Medical Center, where he went into cardiac arrest and died at 9:51 p.m.

References

Norris, Joel. (1992) Arthur Shawcross: The Genesee River Killer. Pinnacle Books, ISBN 1-55817-578-4

WGBH Educational Foundation (1992). Mind of a Serial Killer (TV-Series). PBS Nova. Psychological profiling used to solve the case.

External links

• Crime Library article on Arthur Shawcross