SERIAL KILLERS, Summaries of Business

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T. R. T h o m a s

SERIAL KILLERS

SERIAL KILLERS

K E Y T E R M S fantasize —to imagine something happening homophobic —fearful of, or hateful to, gay people indecent exposure —the crime of showing private parts to someone in public infamous —having a very bad reputation inmate —a prisoner in a jail or prison

DID YOU KNOW? Dahmer murdered most of his victims at the Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee. Afterward the apartments were torn down. The site is now an empty lot.

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer makes his first court appearance in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

JEFFREY DAHMER

One day he hid and waited for a jogger to run by. He gripped a baseball bat. His plan was to knock the jogger out. But the jogger didn’t go by that day. So Dahmer forgot about it. His parents began having problems. Their arguing became yelling matches. They split up when Jeff was 17. Fellow students said he was the class clown. He was always doing goofy things. But Jeff had a terrible secret. His urge to kill was getting stronger. He couldn’t talk to anybody about it. So he drowned his feelings with liquor. He was an alcoholic by the time he graduated.

Dahmer’s First Murder

It was the summer of 1978. Jeffrey was 18. He lived with his father. One day he picked up a hitchhiker. Steven Hicks was 19. Jeff hit him with

Hyde is in Cheshire County near Manchester, England.

DR. HAROLD SHIPMAN

Many of his patients were elderly. About 80 percent were women. Usually they were found dead in their armchairs, fully dressed. Sometimes they were on a sofa or bed. They appeared to have died peacefully in their sleep. The death certificate often listed the cause of death as a heart attack. Sometimes it was pneumonia or stroke. But what really killed them was diamorphine, or heroin. Dr. Shipman had injected it.

Things Didn’t Add Up

Cab driver John Shaw had lots of regulars in Hyde. Many of them were older women. He got to know them well. Over the years he noticed a disturbing pattern. Many of his passengers were dying. Dr. Shipman was always involved. Shaw started keeping a list.

SERIAL KILLERS

Mrs. Grundy was a lively woman. She had worked for many charities. She had been the mayor of Hyde a few years earlier. The sudden death of this active senior came as a surprise.

A New Will

Angela had always handled her mother’s legal business. That included her will. Mrs. Grundy had filed her will a few years earlier. In it she had left her money to family members. Angela was shocked to learn there was a new will. It had been filed shortly before Mrs. Grundy died. Her estate was worth about 386,000 British pounds. That is more than half a million dollars. The new will gave all of her property to Dr. Shipman. Angela could see right away that the will was a crude forgery. Someone had typed it carelessly. It contained many