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 5, 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 in the killing of two children, 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 corroborative evidence.

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 Clara Neill.

Second series of murders

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

• 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.

June Cicero's body was discovered by aerial surveillance on January, 3 1990. Fortuitously the killer was at the scene.

Shawcross was spotted masturbating as he sat in his car on a bridge over salmon creek, upon whose frozen waters the body of his final victim rested. He was stopped in Spencerport Jan 3, 1990, taken into custody and later 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.

Federal Bureau of Investigation profiler Robert K. Ressler reviewed the PTSD claim on behalf of the prosecution before the trial. Ressler wrote that "his claim of having witnessed wartime atrocities was patently outrageous and untrue."

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.

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' 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 10, 2008, his date of death. It is reported that Shawcross had also been complaining of leg pains on Friday, November 7. On November 7 he was denied the use of a wheel chair because the medical staff and the Sergeant on duty at Sullivan Correctional Facility did not feel he had a valid complaint. Leg pains, when followed closely by sudden death, are 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 9:50 p.m.

Shawcross is survived by his only daughter, Margaret Deming of Brooklyn, New York. Shawcross and daughter were reunited in 2002 and were in constant contact over the last few years of his life. Shawcross was to be baptized in the Roman Catholic faith on 16, November 2008. Ms. Deming was the inspiration of her father's conversion as stated by Ms. Deming, "My father had finally found a center in his life and had said that for the first time in his entire life he had felt that his life was worth something and was to begin a new chapter in his life. He felt at peace with himself." Ms. Deming said Shawcross had completed his last and final interview with Gecko Productions in England over the summer of 2008. Production airs in December 2008.

Arthur Shawcross was privately cremated and his ashes are in the care of his daughter, Margaret Deming.

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

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