While reading the news online today I came across this interesting article.

San Francisco police look at ‘Night Stalker’ for 25-year-old case

(CNN) — The San Francisco Police Department is reopening a 25-year-old homicide that may be linked to convicted killer Richard Ramirez, known during his 1984-85 spree as the “Night Stalker.”

Richard Ramirez, known as the “Night Stalker,” is awaiting execution in California.

Detectives recently obtained a warrant to test Ramirez’s DNA based on new leads in the 1984 death of 9-year-old Mei Leung, who was sexually assaulted and killed in the basement of her home in the city’s Tenderloin district, police said.

“There are no charges at this time,” explained David Shinn, deputy director of the Bureau of Investigation. Inspectors went to San Quentin Prison, where Ramirez is awaiting execution, to get the DNA sample.

Ramirez was convicted in 1985 of 13 murders — 11 in Southern California and two others in the San Francisco area — along with five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. Ramirez, a professed “satanist,” was dubbed the “Night Stalker” for his preference of breaking into houses in the wee hours of the morning.

His brutal string of attacks, many of them on elderly couples, terrified Southern California. His preferred method of attack was to quickly kill the male and rape — sometimes repeatedly — the female after ransacking the home for valuables. Some of his victims survived and provided descriptions, but police were unable to name a suspect.

After an attack in San Francisco in August 1985, however, police finally got a break. A Tenderloin hotel manager recognized the descriptions as a man who had stayed at the hotel periodically for a year and a half.

Ramirez had already left San Francisco, however, and attacked again in Los Angeles on August 24. A week later, Ramirez took a bus from Tucson, Arizona, where he’d been visiting his brother, and was recognized from his picture, now gracing the cover of newspapers, at a store near the downtown Los Angeles bus station.

He fled and was finally brought down by residents of an east Los Angeles neighborhood who recognized him as he tried to steal two cars. They held him down until police arrived.

Mei Leung’s death was an open case for 25 years until what police described as new information pointed to Ramirez as a possible suspect. One of the investigators, Inspector Holly Pera, was just starting with the department when the girl was slain.

“It is the type of case as a new officer that you don’t forget,” Pera said. She and her partner, Inspector Joseph Toomey, have had the case for a couple of years.

Police said the family of the dead girl were notified of the developments and were described as being grateful that the crime is still being investigated.

Ramirez, sentenced to die in 1989, later married a woman who wrote him some 75 letters after his capture

Source: CNN

Ann Rule’s “Too Late To Say Goodbye” has been made into a made for TV movie which will air on the Lifetime Movie Network on November 7th. Here’s a little information about it:

Rob Lowe and Lauren Holly star in Lifetime Movie Network’s film adaptation of Ann Rule’ best-selling true crime book about an outwardly perfect couple whose secrets and affairs have fatal consequences. Jenn and Bart Corbin (Stefanie von Pfetten and Lowe) seem to have the perfect marriage until Jenn discovers his affair with a beautiful coworker. Distraught, Jenn turns to the internet for comfort and connects with a charming stranger. When she turns up dead of an apparent suicide, her sister (Holly) refuses to believe that she would ever leave her children without a mother and begins the hunt for the real killer.

You can read about the case by checking out these links:

Death and the Dentist (MSNBC)
Love & Lies (48 Hours)

If you’d like to purchase the book, Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal, Amazon has it for $7.99.

If you’re on Twitter you might find the following Tweets interesting!

@Tru_Crime_Tweet
@NYC_Crime
@London_Crime
@Criminalminds
@Dexter_News
@CathyScott (True Crime Author)

I was looking around on Amazon.com for a post idea and came across Ted Bundy: The FBI Files. The title alone peaked my interest and I clicked on the link to learn some more. Here’s what Amazon has to say:

Ted Bundy: The FBI Files contains the actual original and declassified criminal investigation files related to Theodore (Ted) Bundy who was wanted for questioning in as many as 36 murders in Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Florida and Washington. In June 1977, the FBI initiated a fugitive investigation when Ted Bundy escaped from a Colorado courthouse where he was on trial for murder. He was recaptured but escaped again, in December 1977, from the Garfield County Jail in Colorado. He was placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list and was subsequently arrested, using an alias, by the local authorities in Florida for a stolen car violation in February 1978. In 1979, he was sentenced to death and ultimately executed for the murder of two Florida State University sorority sisters. This publication is being published and made available now for the first time in a paperback book edition for those interested in the history of the life of Ted Bundy and also for those who enjoy reading about serial killers.

I wanted to find out more about the book and while doing a search I came across a link for the FBI that includes 257 pages broken down into 2 PDF files. Now, I have no idea if it’s the same information that’s found in the book but either way it’s very interesting. I’ve only checked out a few pages but there’s official paperwork, signed documents, articles on his escapes from various jails and much more. If you have the time to check it out I recommend it. Remember though it’s just scans of various documents and not in book format.

If you are interested in Ted Bundy: The FBI Files, the book, you can pick it up for $20.69.

The other day I was watching a biography on Alexander Pichushkin, better known at The Chessboard Killer. I don’t believe I’ve done a post on him and thought it was about time I did!

Alexander Pichushkin was born on April 9, 1974 in Moscow. That’s right, we’re talking about a Russian serial killer. He committed his first murder while he was a student in 1992 but stepped up his game in 2001. He’s believed to have killed 48 people but he’s claimed upwards of 63, one for each space on a chessboard. Some of his victims were residents of the same apartment complex and one was even a coworker. He would always use the same location to committ his murders, Bitsa Park, and would kill them using a hammer. Some of the bodies he left out in the open and others he would toss down a sewer drain. Those bodies were never recovered. It’s said that Pichushkin had a sick obsession with Andrei Chikatilo, another Russian serial killer who was convicted of killing 52 women and children over the course of 12 years. He wanted to “out do him” and be the most well known Russian serial killer of all time. The fact that he was only charged with 48 murders angered him, as he fell short of his “goal.”

He was arrested June 15th of 2006 and was convicted of 48 murders and 3 attempted murders. Since Russia doesn’t have capital punishment he was sentenced to life in prison with the first 15 years to be spent in solitary confinement.

If you’d like to read and learn more about Alexander Pichushkin be sure to check out the following links:

The Grandmaster Of Murder (TIME Magazine)
Russia’s ‘Chessboard Killer,’ Claiming 63 Murders, Gets Life in 48 (NY Times)
Biography.com Bio

I received an email about a new website that features True Crime related videos and thought I’d pass it along to you guys. Here’s the email:

We would like to info you about serial-killers.factualtv.com a video website dedicated purely to Serial Killers and Crime!

The new Serial Killer channel provides its users with long and short form videos and documentaries, as well as news, books and other content related to this subject.

We understand that you, as well as your visitors, have a specific interest in Serial Killers and Crime, and if you like our site, you can help us to spread the word about this site by adding a link to serial-killers.factualtv.com on your website.

FactualTV is an online service dedicated to gathering content relating to many different themes and subjects. Please visit www.factualtv.com to see the entire choice of channels and categories.

Serial Killers Videos and Documentaries can be found at this new website. Be sure to give it a look!

Don’t get the wrong idea about this post. “How To Be A Serial Killer” is a movie starring Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Laura Regan, George Wyner, Gonzalo Menendez, and Dameon Clarke as Mike Wilson. Here’s a little summary about the movie from it’s Facebook page.

How to Be A Serial Killer is the story of Mike Wilson, a charismatic, educated, and articulate young man who has found his life’s purpose in exterminating people. Mike is determined to spread his message about the joy of serial killing and recruits a lost soul named Bart to be his pupil. Mike leads Bart through the ethics of serial killing as well as teaching him various lessons in disposing corpses, balancing work and play, methods of killing, and many many more. Mike and Bart’s curriculum is interrupted when Mikes girlfriend discovers what’s beneath her boyfriend’s charming exterior and Mike and Bart must kill their way out of being discovered by the cops

It sounds like a pretty interesting movie! I’m a huge MGG fan and have been following news about this movie for a few months now. According to this Fangoria article it’s scheduled to open in select cities in late summer before being issued on a special-edition DVD October 13. If I hear anything about this select cities I’ll be sure to post about it.

If you’d like to know more about this movie check out the How To Be A Serial Killer movie website!

I seem to get a good amount of hits from searches about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. I figured I’d give the people what they want. Here are a few items that might interest some of you.

Karla (DVD): In stunningly acclaimed performances, Laura Prepon (”That 70’s Show”, “Slackers”, “Come Early Morning”) and Misha Collins (TV’s “24″, “NCSI”) breathe perverse life into their real life counterparts, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, dubbed by an anxious press the “Ken and Barbie Killers”. As the gruesome events unfold, and lovely young girls disappear, the utter lack of remorse from Paul coupled with his quirky charisma paint a delusional world of normalcy for Karla.

Invisible Darkness: The Strange Case Of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka: “You may think you’ve heard enough but you haven’t heard the half of it. It’s a must read ….Based on court documents….as well as countless interviews with police, lawyers, psychiatrists and friends of Paul and Karla, it is well-researched and thought-provoking.” — Bart Johnson, The Edmonton Sun, Sep. 1996

Deadly Innocence: Karla and Paul seemed like the picture-perfect newlyweds, but were really a pair of vicious killers who abducted, sexually tortured and murdered innocent schoolgirls, videotaping their evil acts in suburban Niagara Falls. Billed as the crime of the century in Canada, this case has received a great deal of media coverage on both sides of the border. Includes eight pages of photos.

Lethal Marriage: The Unspeakable Crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka: Nick Pron now gives us a comprehensive account of previously banned information about Bernardo and Homolka’s backgrounds and early relationship; of Homolka’s role in the death of her sister, Tammy; of what turned Bernardo into a sadistic rapist and killer; of slip-shod police work and lack of communication that gave Bernardo and Homolka the opportunity to murder schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French; of the fifteen-month suppression of key videotape evidence; and a host of disturbing facts that were ruled inadmissable at the trial.

Karla : A Pact with the Devil

All the information came from the Amazon pages for each book.

Serial killer to die in jail: Paul Steven Haigh, 51, was given six life sentences with no parole for a killing spree that included the murder of a young boy.

Serial killer confesses to two more murders: Mahanand Naik, who has been arrested in Goa for murdering women after luring them with marriage proposals, on Tuesday confessed to the killing of two more young women, taking the number of his victims to nine.

Shop gunman wanted to bea serial killer: A paranoid schizophrenic who gunned down a father-of-11 at a newsagent was plotting to become an infamous serial killer.

Suspected Serial Killer Ruled Competent To Stand Trial: Suspected serial killer Anthony Kirkland is competent to stand trial for allegedly killing three area women, according to a court-appointed psychiatrist.

Teen Speaks About Alleged Serial Killer: The daughter of one of trucker Bruce Mendenhall’s alleged victims breaks her silence after nearly two years.