Stephen Marshall (murderer)
- Not to be confused with murderer of Jeffrey Howe
Stephen Marshall (9 August 1985 – 16 April 2006) was an American-Canadian vigilante who searched publicly available Sex offender registries in the United States for the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders before traveling to Maine in the Northeastern United States and murdering two.
Early life
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Marshall moved with his family to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia when he was a child. His parents divorced in 1996. In 1999, Marshall moved to Culdesac, Idaho, with his father, Ralph, who served three years as mayor. Marshall was charged with aggravated assault when he was 15, in April 2001, after he brought an AR-15 rifle onto his lawn where two youths were fighting. While his father went to live in Arizona, and later Maine, Marshall moved back to his mother's home in Cape Breton during the summer of 2003.
Murders
Out of 34 sex offenders listed on the Maine registry, Marshall took down the information on 29 of them. He began his Maine trip with a visit to his father, now living in Houlton, Maine.
Because his car had broken down during the drive, he borrowed his father's truck, and took a .45 handgun from him. That night he shot and killed Joseph Gray, 57, in Milo, and William Elliott, 24, in Corinth.[1]
When police stopped the bus he was aboard that evening, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Later investigation of the laptop he had brought with him indicated that he had gone to the residences of four other sex offenders.
Cultural depictions
In 2018, filmmaker Marc Bisaillon released With Love (L'Amour), a thriller film inspired by Marshall's case.[2]
References
- ^ "A vigilantes' charter? The bitter legacy of Megan's Law". The Independent. 24 June 2006. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015.
- ^ "Marc Bisaillon, au-delà du fait divers". Le Devoir, October 29, 2018.
- "Suspected killer accessed online sex offender registry, Maine police say". CBC News. 2006-04-17. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- Clarke Canfield (2006-04-20). "Suspect in Maine slayings had strong feelings about sex offenders". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
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Further reading
- Catherine Philp (2006-09-03). "A sad lesson in 'know thy neighbour'". The Times.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Catherine Philp (2006-05-29). "Is Megan's Law a vigilantes' charter?". The Times.
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