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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:42
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that is so scary that when he walks through the
00:01:48
woods Bigfoot takes pictures of him he is the captain he's so scary he's so hairy but he's so cuddly thank you thank
00:01:57
you thank you it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling a
00:02:03
[Music] friend today we reach for a classic we are drinking jenesy beer garage grade
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truly a great classic beer and this week's fridge is full thank you to these truly Great Garage guys and girls first
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up we have Erica and Walter in Tracy California and big shout out to Laura from Chelsea Michigan we like your Gil
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but certainly not least we have Casey April and Amanda in Johnson City Tennessee so thanks to everybody for
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Captain the nice jib tank tops are now available back by popular demand on our store Page at true Crim garage.com and
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they are going fast my friends so get them while you all right let's gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
00:03:33
talk some true [Music] crime [Music] people on the outside do not know what evil is a quote by serial killer Arthur
00:04:27
J shawcross FBI criminal olist and former Army criminal investigator Colonel Robert K
00:04:35
westler coined the term serial killer this term was used to separate them from spree killers and mass
00:04:44
murderers as defined by the FBI a serial killer murders two or more victims at separate
00:04:50
times murder is one of the most complicated and difficult crimes to solve often there are only two witnesses
00:04:59
Pres present when a murder is committed and usually neither witness is talking because one is the offender and the
00:05:06
other is dead according to a study conducted in the 1990s 62% of the time the victim of a
00:05:15
serial murderer is a complete stranger and as we know stranger on Stranger murders are extremely difficult
00:05:24
to solve at one time Arthur J shawcross was reported to be the most studied serial
00:05:31
killer of his day interviewed extensively by local law enforcement the FBI and dozens of
00:05:39
psychologists yet no one could say for certain why sha cross had committed the atrocities we know him to be guilty
00:05:47
of some wonder if sha cross himself knew the reasons why there is little doubt that he was truly
00:05:56
evil this week we take an in-depth look into the life of one man and those around him and examine how one little
00:06:04
baby boy grows up to become known as the monster of the rivers the Rochester Strangler and perhaps the most notorious
00:06:14
of all the genese River [Music] Killer Arthur John shawcross was born in KY Maine on Wednesday June 6th
00:06:38
1945 this coincidentally on the one-year anniversary of D-Day his parents are Arthur Roy shawcross and Elizabeth
00:06:47
better known as Bessie or Betty shawcross his father was 21 at the time and Betty was just 18 at the time of
00:06:54
Arthur Shaw cross's birth he would be the oldest of four children the story about his parents courtship
00:07:02
and marriage is a simple one and it goes like this his father was in the Marines
00:07:07
and had returned to the US in early 1944 he and Betty were childhood sweethearts both now adults and later
00:07:16
that same year they got married the name Shaw cross is derived from the old English which Loosely translates as
00:07:25
belief in the cross and the colonel in Old English is transl ated into drunken bloke Arthur was born 2 months premature
00:07:34
but outside of that there were no complications he was a healthy little boy he spoke his first words earlier
00:07:41
than average but walked later than normal at four years old Arthur says this is when he started getting punished
00:07:48
by his father using either a broom handle or a belt when he would get into trouble I want to bring something up
00:07:56
right here before we really get into Shaw cross's History something I want all of you to put in your detective
00:08:02
handbag and to keep in mind as we discuss this guy throughout this timeline there will be accusations from
00:08:10
Arthur about sexual encounters and abusive Behavior by multiple family members these have all been adamantly
00:08:18
denied by all people involved except for uh some of the beatings from his father
00:08:24
which have some school records to support those incidents I will include some of these stories
00:08:32
throughout but not all as these are pretty much all unconfirmed accusations by Shaw cross his parents and siblings
00:08:40
maintain that he had a normal childhood and state the described events were largely the product of Arthur Shaw
00:08:47
cross's imagination but other than these school records is his family members denying that he was beaten as a kid
00:08:54
correct they are denying all of these allegations from Arthur Shaw cross as he recounts his childhood now most of the
00:09:03
time I would just report all of the stories to you and let let you all and the captain decide what is the truth and
00:09:10
what is not the truth however in this case I will just repeat a few because there are a lot of these stories
00:09:17
and and I I want to kind of back up my reasoning behind that with this Arthur shawcross would change his stories at
00:09:27
times at will regarding these accusations throughout his life and frankly I don't believe a lot of them to
00:09:34
be true MH uh this first story is true however at 5 years old Arthur created two Imaginary Friends one was called
00:09:43
Paul who was a boy of Arthur's age and the other was a friend um who was slightly younger a blond-haired girl
00:09:52
with no name during the months that follow Arthur would often carry on Long conversations in baby talk with these
00:10:00
imaginary friends which gave others the impression that he was talking to himself later he would tell psychologist
00:10:08
and authors quote I had to have these friends because I wanted someone to play with no one else liked me now his
00:10:16
childhood consisted of frequent nightmares bed wedding which he blamed on his little brother Jimmy um and he
00:10:24
started to stand out as being quote odd to others and he was actually nicknamed by the other school children as
00:10:33
aie at 6 years that's not a fun nickname as a kid no and I imagine he was probably Arty at one time you know for
00:10:42
Arthur and then they they changed that to aie at 6 years old he started running away from home this is believed that he
00:10:49
did this just to get attention as he would often return he would also kind of tell people in advance I'm running away
00:10:57
it didn't seem to have any serious significance to his life at that time yeah he would say Mom and Dad I'm
00:11:04
running away and they'd say okay see you at dinner at 8 years old Shaw cross began
00:11:09
bullying younger children when he was 9 years old he receives the first head trauma incident of which there will be
00:11:18
quite a few he was hit in the head with a stone for which he received stitches and claimed it caused
00:11:25
numbness now also when he was at nine years old and I believe this could be one of the largest impactful moments in
00:11:33
all of Shaw cross's life not just as a boy but forever okay so his grandmother on his mother's side she receives a
00:11:43
letter from a lady named thma Jun who lives in Australia good day mate who is Thelma June well for those of you who
00:11:51
like soap operas here is your true crime garage soap opera moment of the week sha
00:11:56
cross's father remember we had said he served this great country as a marine well back in 1943 a year before little
00:12:04
Arthur Shaw cross was born M his father was actually married to this Thelma Jun a woman who had he had met in Australia
00:12:12
while on leave they had a son together um and this was uh they named the son Hartley and after this after his time
00:12:23
was up he in 1944 returned to the US he never mentions to anyone that he is technically already married and has a
00:12:34
family uh when he gets back in and you know gets married here in the states and starts a new family yeah very honest guy
00:12:42
so it's at this very pivotal point that little Arthur Shaw cross's mother discovers that his father has a wife and
00:12:49
child in Australia this changes the family Dynamic incredibly and of course for the worse at 10 years old Arthur he
00:12:58
continued his his odd behavior which caused other children to bully him while he bullied weaker younger children he
00:13:07
began shoplifting and committing other Petty thefts he continued to run away again this is behavior that strongly
00:13:16
believed that Arthur was running away simply for the attention he would receive from his family and others at
00:13:23
this time he also began to get bad grades in fact he flunked the fourth grade and was forced to repeat the
00:13:29
fourth grade at 11 years old he says his mother caught him masturbating and threatened him with a butcher knife and
00:13:38
he also would later say that not only did she threaten him but she inserted a broom handle into his
00:13:45
rectum moving on when shawcross was 13 years old the shawcross family moved and a bunch of the extended family moves to
00:13:55
Brownsville New York so three sets of relatives move move nearby and then this area ends up being nicknamed Shaw cross
00:14:03
corner now Arthur does not fit in at school at this point in fact he doesn't even fit in with his cousins and other
00:14:10
family members according to them at 14 years old later in life this is the age when the sexual claims really start to
00:14:18
escalate as an adult he would claim that at 14 he was having oral sex with his sister and cousin on a regular basis he
00:14:27
also says when he was 14 he was tricked into getting into a car which later led him to have been raped by a male
00:14:36
stranger Shaw cross also said that he was having sex with animals even killing a chicken during the ACT we won't get
00:14:45
into that but chickens were not the only species he claims to have had sex with all of this extracurricular activity
00:14:53
leads to failing the eighth grade and that's how Arthur shawcross ends up being 16 years old and still in the eth
00:15:01
grade as he has failed two grades at this point are you implying that all the sex with animals is what caused him to
00:15:08
do bad in his stud he should have focused on school yeah stop having sex with chickens right leave the chickens
00:15:15
alone Arty uh people around him refer to him as a loner with deep mood swings this is also where we see another case
00:15:23
of him occurring a uh head trauma he was hit with a disc can you imagine that that's got to be
00:15:30
super painful he was hit with a discus and spent 4 days in the hospital at 17 years old art is a freshman at General
00:15:40
brown high school but he dropped out that same year so he would have been 20 years old when he would have finished
00:15:48
school or actually he would have been on Pace to fail a grade once more so 21 possibly right at the time of graduation
00:15:57
had he graduated he be drink he be bringing beer to school well that hey hey Arty where you been oh I've just
00:16:05
been having sex with some chickens bringing new meaning Captain to the old Matthew mccon quote from Dazed and
00:16:11
Confused I keep getting older and they stay the same age those chickens never get older after dropping out of high
00:16:18
school he used all of that extra free time to burgler rise homes and he started peeping in Windows he broke into
00:16:26
stores stealing both Merchant ice and cash he however is either somewhat skilled at this or at least very lucky
00:16:34
because he is never caught nor arrested for these crimes right he also took on a
00:16:39
new persona people say that Shaw cross became extremely violent at this age when he would be crossed he was known to
00:16:48
have fired his 22 rifles several times at different people threatening them he was feared in his neighborhood well and
00:16:56
even though he was bullied he was bullied the weaker so I think this was his way of going if people aren't going
00:17:02
to like me well then screw them I'm going to make them fear me yeah and it doesn't take a very tough man to
00:17:08
threaten people with a firearm right now in 1963 Shaw cross was arrested for the
00:17:14
first time this was for burglarizing a Sears department store he broke into the basement of the store and set off the
00:17:22
alarm now he claimed he had he he claimed to have a good reason for this he told the judge that he was poor and
00:17:31
that he was stealing Christmas gifts so this found favor with the judge so he was only sentenced to 18 months
00:17:40
probation he received no prison or jail time for this uh burglarizing the department store in 1964 Shaw cross
00:17:50
found love when he met Sarah Lewis Chatterton when he was working at the family bargain Center store the two got
00:18:00
married in September of 64 at a Baptist Church he would have been let's see uh 19 at the time and Sarah was 20 years of
00:18:09
age after marriage he held a job as a butcher and he claimed it was his favorite job his here's a quote from Sha
00:18:18
Shaw cross regarding his time spent as a butcher he says quote I used to eat a lot of raw meat in ' 64 and 65 when I W
00:18:26
worked as a butcher I used to butcher 19 cows a day and just like the taste of raw meat you know I'd just cut cut off a
00:18:35
chunk and I could tell just by the taste of the blood whether we could turn it into steaks or
00:18:42
hamburger but shawcross would not be able to stay out of trouble and after a probation violation for unlawful entry
00:18:52
his wife Sarah files for divorce the marriage lasted less than two Years Don't Judge Sarah would later go on
00:19:01
record as saying Arthur was very immature and always faking illness or injury to miss out on work sex with him
00:19:09
was lousy he just couldn't keep it up at you're not a chicken at 20 years old sha
00:19:16
cross is arrested for beating a 13-year-old boy this is after the youth threw a snowball at his car what sha
00:19:24
cross called a sued up Pontiac for this sha cross that's what he says sued up Pontiac souped up Pontiac I guess is
00:19:33
what he's trying to say for this Shaw cross receives six months probation he is okay so so he's in his car and then
00:19:43
this teenager throws a snowball hits the car yeah I don't know if he he could have been driving or could have just
00:19:50
been parked and he witnessed the boy throwing a snowball at his car but he the I don't know how aggressive he was
00:19:59
with the 13-year-old but according to the record it states that he was arrested for beating a 13-year-old boy
00:20:06
now during this time he he received six months probation he's also evaluated by a psychologist who labels him as a an
00:20:15
emotional an emotionally unstable personality you think right you think guys having sex with chickens and
00:20:25
beating up 13-year-olds because they threw snowballs at him when he is 21 on April 7th
00:20:33
1967 Arthur shawcross is drafted into the US Army he is private number 529 67041 and started his training at Fort
00:20:46
Lee Virginia he then completed his basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia and
00:20:52
was designated a supply and parts specialist he meets Linda Ruth Neri while on a 30-day leave also while in
00:21:02
the military he fell off of a ladder hitting his head and concussing himself so another head trauma yeah he marries
00:21:10
Linda Neri in October of 1967 they both have stated that they thought that there
00:21:16
was a good chance that he would die in Vietnam so they got married in advance after getting hitched shawcross was
00:21:24
stationed in South Vietnam where he served a 12-month Tour of Duty with the supply and Transport company of the
00:21:32
fourth infantry division Arthur shawcross says that he was based in the central Highlands and was a Rambo type
00:21:41
oneman First Strike weapon fighting In the Heat of the action in one of his letters he wrote I shot a woman who was
00:21:50
hiding some ammo in a tree she didn't die right off I tied her up gagged her then searched the area found the Hut
00:21:59
with another girl inside of the age of about 16 knocked her out with the butt of the gun and carried her to where the
00:22:06
other girl was there was a lot of rice ammo and other stuff in the Hut I tied the young girl to a tree still gagged
00:22:15
tied her legs too they didn't say anything to me at all I had a machete that was very sharp I cut the girl's
00:22:23
throat then took off her head and placed it on a pole in front of that Hut that girl at the tree peed then fainted I
00:22:33
stripped her then first I gave her oral sex she couldn't understand what I was doing but her body did I untied her then
00:22:44
retied her to another small tree She fainted several times I cut her slightly from the neck to crotch she screamed and
00:22:54
[ __ ] herself I took my M16 p pulled on a nipple then put the gun to her forehead
00:23:01
and pulled the trigger cut off her head and placed it on a pool where they got water another time I went on patrol and
00:23:10
shot a kid chained up into a tree he killed one GI with an M1 our own weapon that made three again on patrol I killed
00:23:21
two women in a river after they killed two GIS they had a map of base camp plus AK 47 rifles and ammo food and
00:23:31
$280,000 in money belts I split the money with some guys smashed the AKs and ammo took everything else back to camp
00:23:40
we let the bodies drift Downstream he also claimed a combat kill total of 39 which when investigated
00:23:49
later was also discounted as a fabrication authorities claim he killed no one on his Tour of Duty and saw no
00:23:57
action sh cross in interviews will talk about his time in Vietnam and it seems like the story changed from the way I
00:24:05
heard him tell it to the way you're telling it and it's like then if he tells it again it changes a little bit I
00:24:12
mean the stories are roughly the same it's just the details kind of switch yeah and I think there's several
00:24:19
things that make that difficult one the most likely thing is that he's lying and
00:24:25
totally making up these stories and he can't keep his lies straight two he tells different accounts to
00:24:33
different people this this account is taken from a letter that he wrote right now he also claims a combat kill total
00:24:41
of 39 so often when he's talking about these different let's call murders that he did while on tour um he he just
00:24:52
simply refers to these victims as the girl or the older woman or the boy that was tied up to the tree um he doesn't
00:25:00
give any names or a lot of times not even specific locations to kind of give you an idea of who he's referring to in
00:25:09
that long quote unquote combat kill total of 39 that he claims to have had well and he was no John Rambo right but
00:25:18
that doesn't mean that he wasn't going off on his own and killing people that he wasn't supposed to be killing and
00:25:25
just murdering EnV yes I mean we can't account for every waking minute that he had while on tour
00:25:34
on that tour of Duty for 12 months in October of 1968 John I said John Rambo John Rambo well
00:25:43
on that note it looks like I need a quick beer [Music] break this show is sponsored by better help do
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to answer call us at 1888 freedom [Music] all right cheers mates back to the case
00:28:11
of John Rambo on October of 1968 Arthur shawcross was reassigned to Fort Sil Oklahoma as a specialist fourth class
00:28:22
repairing weapons he was honorably discharged in the spring of 1969 and moved with his wife to Clayton New York
00:28:32
which is located along the St Lawrence River he put in a disability claim for war injuries although Veterans
00:28:40
Administration examiner found no substance to Arthur's claim the former soldiers constant badgering though won
00:28:48
him a $73 a month Disability Pension shortly after being discharged from the Army Shaw cross had nightmares and flag
00:28:57
flashbacks this led him to heavy drinking he started beating his wife around this time on one occasion the
00:29:06
beating caused her to Mis carry as she was 4 months pregnant they should have locked him up for murder that son of a
00:29:12
[ __ ] Linda then files for divorce this is in the fall of 1969 but it does not get finalized until
00:29:20
1971 so 7 months after leaving the Army shawcross found employment with the Nolton Brothers paper mill this is the
00:29:28
city's largest employer in April of 1969 He Set Fire to the place causing $28,000
00:29:35
worth of damage 3 months later a hay barn mysteriously caught fire and it was Arthur shawcross who had reported the
00:29:43
Fire 3 days later he set fire to Crowley's Cheese Company this was the city's second largest employer and
00:29:51
Arthur J shawcross also called the fire department to report this fire shortly after the chief Cheese Company fire sha
00:29:59
cross attempted to rob a gas station the proprietor of the business he knew sha Cross by sight and called the sheriff
00:30:08
and Arthur was arrested during questioning he ends up confessing to all of his crimes which included the arson
00:30:16
attacks a Jefferson County Judge sentenced shawcross to 5 years in Attica prison while in prison he claims to have
00:30:24
been raped by three other inmates he also claims he later extracted Revenge by beating and raping each of
00:30:32
his attackers in separate incidents he wrote his own version of the incident years
00:30:44
later titled the misbegotten son quoting sha cross quote got raped in Attica prison by three black guys I was lost
00:30:54
threatened and in pain I got all three my way their way I hurt them like they hurt me but I used a sock with soap as a
00:31:05
blackjack knocked them out and screwed them and then smashed them once in the nuts I was never bothered after that sha
00:31:13
cross was later transferred to Auburn prison right so these three black men wanted to rape him well he claims the
00:31:22
three of them attacked him um the three of them teamed up on him attacked him and raped him and then later he decides
00:31:29
to get revenge on them attacking them individually one at a time and raping them correct I think we should keep in
00:31:36
mind though here captain that with this incident a lot like the incidents that he talks about from his childhood
00:31:44
there's no one to cooperate any of these stories you know this is just AR Arthur
00:31:49
shawcross saying this is I was a victim and then I individually I was Stronger than these people and I attacked them I
00:31:56
was more brutal than they were to me and I was never attacked after that well you
00:32:00
you won the boner award John Rambo he was later transferred to Auburn prison now listen to this story this is a
00:32:07
interesting one on November 4th 1970 troopers were sent to Auburn prison when rebelling inmates refused to return to
00:32:17
their cells failed to report to assign workshops and prevented other inmates from doing so as well by 11:45 a.m.
00:32:26
seven guards had been clubbed by inmates inmates armed with boards and pipes seized 30 guards as hostages prisoners
00:32:35
had taken control of the entire prison with the exception of the administration building 322 troopers were mobilized
00:32:44
with an additional force of 300 guards and sheriff's deputies placed in a support role Corrections officials
00:32:52
refused to discuss grievances until all of the hostages were released the show of overwhelming Force quickly
00:33:00
ended the riers desire to continue the attack at 3:30 p.m. the first hostage was freed and inmates started returning
00:33:10
to their cells without further incident approximately 450 inmates were actually involved in this Rebellion this incident
00:33:19
would lead to the October 18th 1971 parole of one Arthur J shawcross that's right right after only 22 months of a
00:33:30
60-month sentence Shaw cross was given an early release when he served when he saved the life of a prison guard who had
00:33:39
been clubbed during the prison riot how did he save his life I couldn't find the
00:33:45
the specifics the detailed report of of what he did during that to save this officer's life but that's why he was
00:33:54
Grant granted leniency on his sentence before his parole hearing he was examined by the prison's supervising
00:34:03
psychiatrist in his report Dr William Tucker wrote inmate is an immature adolescent with schizoid personality who
00:34:12
decompensated an ego functioning under the influence of stress and rejection by his wife he should be viewed as a
00:34:20
schizoid arsonist who requires supervision emotional support and immediate referral to to a mental health
00:34:27
clinic upon parole Leighton projected homicidal intent of at least two of his arson should not be underestimated he is
00:34:37
a fair parole risk and will require psychiatric treatment Plus close supervision upon his release Arthur went
00:34:45
to go live with his parents and he got a job the parole officials insisted that he undergo outpatient Psychotherapy at a
00:34:54
VA hospital this was scheduled Ed but shawcross regularly missed appointments and no action was taken by the
00:35:02
overworked parole officers after release from prison at 26 years old he returned
00:35:08
to Watertown he started seeing Penny shabino they knew each other from high school just after Christmas the
00:35:15
Watertown public works department hired him under the federal emergency employment program a supervisor assigned
00:35:23
him to a far corner of the 60 acre landfill at the end of Water Street Arthur shawcross and Penny got married
00:35:32
April 22nd 1972 so this is his third wife this would be his third wife that's correct yeah Penny already had two
00:35:41
children when they got married plus she was pregnant with Arthur's baby at the time however this baby was
00:35:49
miscarried they moved into an apartment at 233 Cloverdale Street Arthur claims that the marriage came under threat when
00:35:57
Penny's father accused him of sexually assaulting Penny's younger sister we need to introduce the Blake family at
00:36:05
this time the Blakes were a rough family but they loved their children they had nine children in total and they lived
00:36:12
just about a mile from the far corner of the 60 acre landfill where Arthur shawcross worked Jack Owen Blake was the
00:36:21
seventh of nine children and he had once saved his sister from drowning ing in the Black River he was 11 years old and
00:36:30
in the fifth grade he was an impressionable boy and he liked to go fishing he and his brother Peter who was
00:36:37
only 9 years old they would sometimes go to go fishing with a guy that their mother Mary Blake had said was sort of a
00:36:45
weird guy aie mm M and she would she had warned her son not to associate with the
00:36:53
man named Arthur shawcross and she didn't like Arthur because she states that this guy was always boasting about
00:37:00
his service in Vietnam and he was also showing the boy photographs of naked women he rode around on a white woman's
00:37:09
bicycle but the boys ignored their mother's warning they they like to go fishing and they and they like playing
00:37:16
around the water so sometimes they would lie to their mother right and tell her that they were going elsewhere but then
00:37:23
they would often go down by the water now sha cross many times went fishing by himself when he caught something he
00:37:31
would bring it home filet it and cook it up cook the fish for dinner sometimes when Shaw cross was down by the water
00:37:38
with a line in the water he would see some children down there playing many times he saw the Blake boys come down
00:37:45
there they even started talking to Shaw cross at some point asking him about fishing so after a while sha cross was
00:37:54
he was out walking heading down toward one of his favorite fishing spots and he sees the kids and asks them if they
00:38:01
wanted to go fishing this became a regular thing Shaw cross was very much he very much preferred to be alone so
00:38:10
fishing is a great hobby for somebody like him but he didn't mind the company when he would be fishing and it seemed
00:38:17
like he preferred the company of young children compared to that of adults on Sunday May 7th 1972 on that
00:38:26
day the two Blake brothers Jack and Peter they went fishing with shawcross at the Black River afterward Jack headed
00:38:34
to a friend's house at the old Cloverdale Apartments just a few blocks away Peter went home and that was the
00:38:41
last time that Peter saw his brother Jack when Jack didn't return home later that night Mary reported to the police
00:38:49
that her son was missing explaining that Jack had wanted to go fishing with shawcross and despite her warning he had
00:38:56
probably probably gone against her wishes suspicion therefore fell upon shakos from the outset mhm police talked
00:39:04
with shoss going to his Cloverdale apartment knocking on the door he spoke with them he told them yes he had seen
00:39:11
the Blake boys down by the river several times he had even spoke to the boys on a
00:39:16
few occasions but he denied being with Jack that day the Blakes as we said were a rough family this was well known in
00:39:25
their community and they were known to be strong disciplinarians police began to think
00:39:30
that Jack was a runaway they were able to convince some of Jack's family that the boy had run away as well but at the
00:39:39
urging of a desperate and depressed mother who hounded the police time and time again to talk with shawcross
00:39:46
because quote he's weird and he knows something the police did follow through with her request but with no other
00:39:54
evidence to to suggest otherwise Shaw cross was released following two interviews with police and once again
00:40:02
the thought was that Jack had run away from home yeah so we have the family in this situation that they believe that
00:40:08
their son is not just missing but he was murdered and he was murdered by Shaw cross cuz he's a weird dude right and
00:40:16
this weird guy aie their kid was known to fish with him and this was you know pretty common knowledge to the brother
00:40:25
mhm to the parents now on Friday May 26th Arthur shawcross was again questioned by police this time it was
00:40:35
when he was caught stuffing grass cting down the shirt and shorts of a six-year-old boy and spanking him uh
00:40:43
this for this offense he received a $10 fine and was reprimanded by the court Wednesday September 2nd 1972 Karen Anne
00:40:54
Hill age 8 was last seen playing by the river she was not from Watertown and was
00:41:00
there that day only because her mother was staying with a friend now let's go through the police investigation yeah
00:41:07
it's going to start off with the eyewitness reports from children claiming that they saw a man that looked
00:41:13
like Arthur walking Karen across a bridge yes this is the Pearl Street bridge over the Black River which would
00:41:20
just be a short downhill walk from where Karen had been staying although the children didn't know the man by name
00:41:26
they and specifically a teenage girl recognized his distinctive white bicycle with its Brown mud guards and basket
00:41:36
which he had leaned against a wall styling and profiling from a distance the Curious children watched as the man
00:41:43
lifted Karen over the railings and gingerly led her down the bank to show her the fish when the alarm was raised
00:41:52
that Karen was missing the children came forward to tell the cops what they had seen at 10 p.m. search officers equipped
00:42:00
with flashlights discovered a crumpled body it was covered by a slab of concrete and lying face down crammed
00:42:08
into a sewage outfall pipe on the South Bank of the bridge police dogs were called for they tracked as scent up
00:42:16
Pearl Street to Starbuck Avenue and eagerly tugg their handlers left into Clover Street straight to the stoop of
00:42:25
Arthur cross's front door Karen Anne Hill was found dead under a bridge near the Black River she had been raped
00:42:34
mutilated and strangled when a police investigation revealed that hill and shawcross had been seen together earlier
00:42:41
that same day and they received another report that Shaw cross was seen eating an ice cream at the bridge near where
00:42:48
the body was found after the dog sniffed out this piece of [ __ ] they're going to
00:42:52
take him in for questioning well you have a combination of things happening here so the girl the poor little girl is
00:43:00
reported missing and hours later they find her body you have the dogs which you just mentioned they they walk the
00:43:08
officers from the crime scene to the where the body was found to Arthur Shaw cross's front door right and as if that
00:43:17
wasn't enough they start getting reports from these children that are coming forward and saying look we saw a guy
00:43:24
that kind of looked like him with somebody that kind of looked like Karen earlier today plus one thing that I
00:43:31
think is very telling here is Arthur has a very distinct bike it it doesn't look
00:43:37
like the other bikes in town you know this isn't a bike that is made for an adult it's white it has a basket on it
00:43:45
well it's made for a woman and it's a man writing it so that's also sticks out well I don't know if this is the same
00:43:51
bike that he had a long time ago it probably is at the odd Toops the medical examiner discovered that the girl had
00:43:59
died because of Suffocation and her killer had stuffed weeds and debris into the child's nose mouth vagina and rectum
00:44:08
now as the captain pointed out Shaw cross was picked up and he was question for this murder it took some time but he
00:44:15
would eventually confess to killing Karen Hill he also told investigators where they could find Jack Blake's body on
00:44:26
Tuesday October 17th 1972 after much negotiation Arthur shawcross plad guilty to the Lesser charge of first-degree
00:44:37
manslaughter and after proceedings which lasted only 20 minutes he was senten to
00:44:42
a maximum term of 2 to 25 years for the murder of Karen hill by a disgusted judge who had the misfortune of actually
00:44:52
having seen Shaw cross in front of him before this was the same judge who had sentenced him to 5 years for the arson
00:45:00
and the robbery right this manslaughter sentence was light um but it was agreed to in part to clear the Jack Blake case
00:45:11
however he was never charged with the murder of Jack Blake well I think it came down to that police didn't know
00:45:17
what happened they assumed that it was Shaw cross but that that the family wanted to know too and they wanted to
00:45:25
know some details and so I think that's why they made this horrible agreement yeah they needed to
00:45:31
recover the the boy's body right and without shawcross that wasn't going to happen and I think leading up to this
00:45:38
point I think the police thought that it was a little farfetch that somebody had
00:45:43
killed the boy until they find this girl dead now all of a sudden it doesn't seem
00:45:48
so so big of a leap right that we we may have a child killer killer in our area so now we have his second set of prison
00:45:59
years um which started in 1973 he was once again sent to Anica prison during this time period he states that he was
00:46:08
threatened by other inmates because of his crimes against children uh he filed for divorce from his wife Penny because
00:46:16
she refused to visit him while he was in prison all right well sorry I'm not visiting a piece of [ __ ] that kills
00:46:23
children he earned his high school equivalency certificate and qualified in carpentry he was transferred to Green
00:46:32
Haven Correctional Facility at Stormville New York this prison houses many of the state's most evil criminals
00:46:40
where 742 prisoners this is 33% of the population at that time were rapist and murderers prison psychiatrist diagnosed
00:46:51
him as a dangerous schizophrenic pedophile suffering uffing from an intermittent explosive personality and
00:46:59
it was noted that he heard voices when he was depressed sha cross was a Troublesome inmate and he continually
00:47:07
faked illness or psychiatric problems to gain attention we've seen this before fake The Runaway get attention a fake
00:47:17
you know when he was married I think to his second wife when he had faked illness so he didn't go to work he soon
00:47:23
learned that the key to an early parole lie in the hands of the people around him so what he decided to do was he
00:47:31
started playing the game and he started sucking up to the the officers in the prison sucking up to the prison
00:47:39
psychiatrist and the church that was offered there and he started to behave himself he became a model prisoner he
00:47:48
gained a penpal named Rosemarie Wall-E now while well into his sentence Arthur was found exhibiting all the
00:47:58
behavioral traits of a reformed man he figured that it was better to accept responsibility for the murder of Karen
00:48:07
Hill he worked his way into a counselor's job in the prison's mental health unit while there he learned the
00:48:16
language of Psychiatry and psychology and in doing so he eventually conned the support of three of the thre man State
00:48:24
parole panel who granted him his freedom he was granted parole on his ninth attempt his he was denied the
00:48:34
first eight attempts on Tuesday April 28th 1987 the gates of hell were opened and outw walked Arthur J shawcross a man
00:48:44
who spent just 15 years in prison for in all reality what was the rape and murder
00:48:50
of two children yeah it should have been two life sentences or like the death penalty but uh because they didn't have
00:48:56
the body they had to make that agreement and there was a parole officer this is Robert Kent who objected and made a
00:49:03
statement of quote at the risk of sounding dramatic this man could be possibly the most dangerous individual
00:49:11
to have been released to this community in years he was in fact released on parole
00:49:18
and Arthur shawcross had difficulty settling down in the communities as the neighbors would protest his presence
00:49:26
and employers would fire him yeah he first moved to Binghamton New York and then relocated to Deli New York this
00:49:33
with his girlfriend Rose remember she was once his pen pal while he was in prison when Delhi residents became aware
00:49:41
of sh cross's presence the couple were forced to move to nearby flashman's New York only to be met with hostility there
00:49:50
as well finally in late June of 1987 Shaw cross's parole office off moved him to the a transient hotel in Rochester
00:50:00
New York in mid October shawcross and his girlfriend Rose found a more permanent lodging this was at 241
00:50:09
Alexander Street in Rochester now Rochester is a city that is much larger than his previous days and it was
00:50:17
believed and encouraged by his parole officer that the larger population would allow sha cross to kind of sink into the
00:50:26
community and back into civilian life or be a cover well Rose once they were there Rose enrolled as a nurse at
00:50:35
the local hospital and Arthur shawcross found work with a vegetable and fruit wholesaler based in the public market
00:50:43
which was to the south of the city he would cycle an hour each way on a lady style blue Schwin Suburban bike okay
00:50:52
maybe it was a different bike before I ladies bikes but that's what I think you're hitting on here Captain I don't
00:50:59
know if the other because it was two white bikes or maybe the same white bike or seems like maybe he painted the old
00:51:05
white bike blue it seems like he's always having a a woman's well this again is another city so I don't know
00:51:12
that he's bringing the bike with him you never know after a long prison sentence
00:51:17
to the uh new city of Rochester but again a lady style bike for some reason I don't know maybe he prefers the uh
00:51:25
what is that the crossbar that's low crossbar yeah anyway this bike was quite distinct in itself it was a bluewin
00:51:33
Suburban bike which had a shallow basket um and had a Stars and Stripes flag on the handlebars with two deep baskets
00:51:42
straddling the rear wheel in which he would keep his fishing gear so he's a creature of habit of course Captain we
00:51:50
see this guy that in his free time he's going to Bicycle around town and he's going to go fishing mhm his weekday
00:51:58
working hours were between 7:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. which left him the evenings to
00:52:04
pursue his Hobbies let's say well do we know what shift his wife is working I believe
00:52:11
she worked the evening shift mhm so he'd be by himself quite a bit yeah yeah and
00:52:18
he was actually having an affair at this time as well with a woman named Clara Neil she was 40
00:52:25
she was 58 years old um and she had a lot of kids a lot of grandkids but the two of them were having an affair while
00:52:33
his girlfriend was at work mhm he would borrow cars from both his girlfriend that he lived with and the woman that he
00:52:43
was having an affair with now um one of the vehicles was a small metallic blue Dodge Omni and the other was a some sort
00:52:51
of Gray Chevrolet I used to drive a Dodge Omni yeah and he well he would use these to do you know run errands to go
00:52:59
out on the evenings or to go fishing mhm now sha cross married Rose after two years of living together this took place
00:53:08
in August of 1989 right and the count of wives for Arthur is up to number four yeah just putting that out there well
00:53:19
and it was sometime after his wedding captain that his employer found out and discovered that he was a former convict
00:53:27
and at at that point they released him or fired him from their employment his next job that he had was selling hot
00:53:35
dogs on Main Street before he landed a permanent job as a salad maker for the g& Food Services which provided catering
00:53:44
services to hospitals and schools now at that time Arthur did work the night shift he worked nights and he was
00:53:51
getting paid $66.25 an hour uh which this was back in 1987 MH so actually approximately if you
00:54:01
convert that to today's it would approximately been making about like 13 to14 an hour which is pretty good money
00:54:08
for somebody that's been forced to move around because they're a convict that nobody wants to hire right also during
00:54:16
this time shortly before his marriage he started visiting sex workers and having
00:54:22
sex with them uh female or male uh females well and starting in 1988 Rochester is going to
00:54:30
find um a problem on their hands they're going to find a series of murdered victims female victims well and the
00:54:39
first believed victim in this series that you had mentioned Captain is thought to be Dorothy who went by the
00:54:46
name of Dotsy Dorothy Blackburn she was 27 years old she was a mother of a six-month-old boy and two older children
00:54:56
she was a small boned woman with a slender figure uh brown eyes and long brown hair petite and dainty she was
00:55:05
StreetWise with two convictions for loitering in 1985 she was last seen alive on Tuesday
00:55:13
this is March 15th 1988 after having lunch with her sister and she was seen on a a place that's
00:55:21
going to become familiar throughout this case and it's called ly Avenue mhm during an interview many years later
00:55:29
shawcross claimed that he had been driving Claire Neil's Omni around and he admitted that he had killed dosi at the
00:55:38
Northampton park because she had bitten his penis during fellatio he said that she was laughing
00:55:45
at him because he couldn't get his what he refers to as he couldn't get his pecker up and when she started laughing
00:55:52
at him and making fun of him he said that he slap slapped her around and when he did that she bit him and he got m in
00:55:59
hell and that's when he decided to kill her old what he had the old wet noodle he says that he dumped her clothes in a
00:56:07
trash can he cleaned the blood from the seat of the car and then he drove home Al doi's body was found by hunters
00:56:16
during the morning of Tuesday March 24th floating face down in Salon Creek a stream that meander through Farmland in
00:56:26
woods on Rochester's Eastern Fringe a crew of laborers clearing debris and garbage that had clogged a
00:56:34
covert they soon realized however that what they were looking at was a woman's frozen body her face had a distinctive
00:56:43
heavy eyebrows full lips slightly irregular teeth and her left eye was shut she had long dark hair and wore
00:56:51
jeans a hooded sweatshirt and a single white soda pops brand sneaker at the autopsy the medical examiner determined
00:57:00
that she had died as a result of manual strangulation and noted that she had been bitten several times around the
00:57:07
vagina which is probably retaliation for her biting his penis is I'm I'm guessing
00:57:14
those bites around the vagina well or yes or or as he claims mhm he's a well yeah who knows what to
00:57:23
believe with [Music] Arthur a lot more to get to on this case in part two if you'd like to support the
00:57:39
garage go to True Crim garage.com click on the store Page and check out the nice
00:57:43
jib tank tops thank you to everybody for joining us here in the garage tonight we
00:57:48
will see you back here tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music]
00:58:07
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