Fortunately for the authorities, Shawcross had, as speculated, returned to the scene of one of his crimes to relive the pleasure of the attack. Arthur Shawcross. He served a tour of duty in the .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Vietnam War in October 1967, and he later claimed that he murdered and cannibalized two young Vietnamese girls and several children while there. When it came to Arthur Shawcross, this certainly appeared to be the case, because, throughout the years when interviewed,his answers to the questions seemed to change depending on who was doing the interviewing. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Dorothy "Dotsie" Blackburn, 27, was a cocaine addict and prostitute who often worked on Lyell Avenue, a section in Rochester that was known for prostitution. Arthur Shawcross was skilled in having conversation with the prosititues about buying sex. During his trial, his lawyer tried to prove that Shawcross was a victim of multiple personality disorder stemming from his years of being abused as a child. Blake's body was not found until authorities received a tip by telephone on September 5. A portrait of the late Princess Diana was among 10 sketches and paintings by him that sold for as much as $540 a piece. Right after receiving his draft papers he married for the second time. New York governor George Pataki called Shawcross works of art sickening because the gentle paintings didnt reveal the monster underneath. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! I dreamt about her, about him. Shawcross began to beat her and as she tried to get away through the Genesee River, he drowned her and let her body float downstream. He dropped out of school after failing to pass the ninth grade, and the next few years were punctuated with violence and jail sentences. After being arrested for the both childrens murder, Shawcross confessed and agreed to reveal the location of Jacks body which was still missing in order to have his charges dropped from homicide to manslaughter. The judicial system then thought it was wise to seal Shawcross records to prevent panic wherever he lived. He served two years in prison, was paroled to his respectable parents - and murdered a boy and a girl. Marie Welch, age 22 was a Lyell Avenue prostitute who was reported missing on November 5, 1989. There is simply no remorse, no emotion, and no feeling behind Shawcross voice. The physiological evidence about brain science and genetic factors was, at best, spurious and beyond the understanding of the jury. The three women were prostitutes who worked on Lyell . Founded in 2010, Thought Catalog is owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Company, Inc. For over a decade, we've been at the bleeding edge of media, pioneering an infrastructure for creatives to flourish both artistically and financially. Later, when Shawcross served in Vietnam, he claimed, although he had never served in combat, that he had . Early Life. People like Arthur Shawcross, the Rochester, NY based killer who killed 12 women . The press also grew interested in the murders and dubbed the killer as the "Genesee River Killer," and the "Rochester Strangler.". 'It Was A Flooring Moment,' Says Woman On Learning Serial Killer Arthur Shawcross Was Her Dad. Kevin MacLeod . He dropped out of high school in 1960. 1974. Serial killer Arthur John Shawcross, also called the Rochester Strangler or the Genesee River Killer, was prolific in the short time that he was an active killer. He was cremated. In 2000, Margaret Demming discovered that Arthur Shawcross was her biological father.She forged a relationship with him and allowed him to meet her seven children. Allegedly, the youngster then began experimenting with this sexuality in many ways, including homosexuality and bestiality, by age 11. Arthur Shawcross. Tidlige r. Steffen's father saw the facial recreation and identified the victim as his daughter, Anna Marie. Initially, upon his release, Shawcross moved to Binghamton, New York, then relocated to Delhi, New York to be with a woman named Rose who would eventually become his third wife. In this study, five serial murderers were identified as having engaged in childhood animal cruelty. Shawcross was born on June 6, 1945, and died on November 10, 2008, while serving a life sentence for the murder of 11 women. There are several different accounts of what his IQ actually wassome records show it as 86 or below average while other accounts report him testing slightly above average at 105 and 107. From school records it can be independently verified that he was an inveterate truant, with a particularly low IQ, a tendency to bullying and violence and that he came under suspicion for a series of juvenile arson attacks as well as burglaries. Linda would soon divorce him, after which he began committing crimes such as arson and burglary. Felicia went missing December 26, 1989, and a few days later on the 31st, a pair of hikers found some jeans with her ID in the pocket. Apparently, Stott was a friend and had been a guest in his home. This grave mistake led to the murders of 12 more people, all of them in Rochester. After hours of interrogation, Shawcross still maintained that he had nothing to do with any Rochester murders. Arthur J. Shawcross, a notorious serial killer, claimed to have had a very troubled childhood. heart failure. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/profile-of-serial-killer-arthur-shawcross-973145. Officials said 63-year old Shawcross complained of a pain in his leg on the afternoon of November 10, 2008, his date of death. Arthur is what is called a serial killer/ murder. They moved Shawcross and Whalley to Rochester, New York, where she became his fourth wife. Jack was never heard from again. Known as the "Genesee River Killer," Arthur Shawcross of upstate Watertown first raped and killed two children in 1972. Arthur John Shawcross, also known as the Genesee River Killer, is responsible for a brutal wave of slayings discovered between 1988 and 1990 in our downtown area. At around the same time, the Genesee River Killer murdered eight-year-old Karen Ann Hill. He thanks you for reading his content. Between 1988 and 1989, Arthur Shawcross killed at least 10 women in Rochester, New York, and they were not his first victims. She had been strangled, anally mutilated after death, had her labia removed, and was gutted from throat to crotch like a wild animal. The second child was Karen Ann Hill, age 8, who was visiting Watertown with her mother for the Labor Day weekend. 2. After his release and discharge from the army, Shawcross and his second wife would move to Clayton, New York where Shawcross would terrorize the surrounding counties until his final arrest. Twenty-seven year old victim of the "Genesee River Killer" known as Arthur Shawcross. The last victim, Elizabeth Gibson, had been killed in neighboring Wayne County. They developed a profile that described the killer as a white male in his 20s or 30s, who was strong, probably with a previous criminal record, familiar with the area, and comfortable enough with the victims that they would enter his vehicle without question. After Vietnam, he was stationed in Oklahoma where he remarried (Shawcross was already once divorced and had given up parental rights to a child who he never saw again) and worked as an armorer. After relocating due to the publics outcry of his release, he moved to Rochester with his fourth wife. 22. Then there were two in late October of that year, followed by a fourth on Thanksgiving Day. John Paul Fay was a murderabilia dealer with a troubled past. Post-traumatic stress disorder from his year in Vietnam was also anted up as a reason why he went insane and murdered women. Signing up helps us (not Zuckerberg) stay in direct contact with you and create the best horror website possible. Shawcross also made extreme reports about his early sexuality. When Lewis first invoked dissociative identity disorder as an insanity defense in the 1980s, particularly in the widely covered trial of Arthur Shawcross, who terrorized the Rochester, New York . His family moved to Watertown, New York, when he was young. ThoughtCo. He claimed his aunt sexually molested him when he was 9, and that he had sexual relations with his younger sister. Shawcross's medical records show that he had a cyst and scarring on his temporal lobe, which can dramatically alter . There is no corroborating evidence to support this, however. He lived in Watertown, New York (NY) in his youth, and was relocated to Rochester, NY later on in his life. She was also a Lyell Avenue prostitute and was last seen by Jo Ann Van Nostrand with the "Mitch" client who she had reported to the police in October. A judge sentenced the murderer to 250 years in prison. Our newsletter keeps our core readers connected. 9. In April 1967 Shawcross was drafted into the Army. 25. A background check on the vans plates led to the killers arrest on January 4. 5 of 22. His withdrawn behavior earned him the nickname "oddie" from his peers. 30-year-old June Stotts was the first of Shawcrosss victims where he dove back into his love of cannibalism and mutilation. Unfortunately, over the next two-year,many of the prostitutes that he got to know would end up dead. The case studies selected were those of Carroll Edward Cole, Jeffery Lionel Dahmer, Edmund Emil Kemper III, Henry Lee Lucas, and Arthur Shawcross. The body was not Felicia Stephens but that of missing prostitute June Cicero. 27. and he murdered 12 more women. 5. AP. As prostitutes continued to disappear, it became apparent that the killer must be someone familiar to the women who worked in the area. Aileen Wuornos killed seven men and was executed by lethal injection in 2002. After the criticism, the Department of Correctional Services banned the Corrections on Canvas in 2002. When approached, Shawcross agreed to assist the police with their enquiries. Shawcross claims while in prison he was raped and after extracting revenge on his attackers, he was transferred to another prison to serve out his sentence. His sister was equally vehement about never having had a sexual relationship with her brother. He served one tour in Vietnam, but despite never actually serving in combat loved to brag about violent, gruesome atrocities like such as raping and cannibalizing children and beheading mama-sans and nailing their heads to trees as a warning to the Vietcong. All of these stories would later be proven to be fabricated. Dennis Rader, known as the BTK Killer (standing for "Bind, Torture, Kill") murdered 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Elizabeth Gibson was merely waiting in Shawcrosss car to keep warm while Shawcross was getting a cup of coffee at a nearby diner. She had been beaten and strangled to death. When they asked for his driver's license, he admitted he did not have one and then revealed that he had been in jail for manslaughter. Shawcross was arrested on October 3, 1972, Shawcross stalled for two weeks before confessing both murders.