# How many degrees of separation between you and a serial killer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 20, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144 "2005-10-20T21:06:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/41 "2005-10-21T05:21:32Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Out of curiosity, were you shocked when you found out about him? Did you have any inkling that he was unstable or violent when you knew him. And what do you think of his self-professed religious conversion now? Yep we where all shocked! He was adopted. Really was Italian)and converted to Christiantiy while serving with the army - Subscribed My family with “Sword of the Lord” and converted back I do believe he is devoted Violent -Nope Unstable- uh no not really a little strange, used to disappear and not explain where he went- The old neighborhood was what he said As for the night of his arrest I had just went to bed and got a call from a friend(a cop) who said Guess what they just locked up Son of Sam I said great but why call at this Time to tell me! He said it was dave Berkowitz and my answer was there has to hundreds by that name. Well I put on the radio and heard- Went to Chris Columbus HS Joined the Army Went to Korea was a postal worker Oh crap Its him!! was on the phone all night with friends ---
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/42 "2005-10-21T05:28:40Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > . And what do you think of his self-professed religious conversion now? Not much of a conversion If he was kiiling innocents after his conversion! Just MHO ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/43 "2005-10-21T05:44:25Z")
> [@CWN](#): > > Not much of a conversion If he was kiiling innocents after his conversion! > Just MHO That’s the danger of true believers, of anything. Sometimes they believe that their actions are acceptable because they’re privy to a higher calling that goes beyond morality or laws. After he was captured, Berkowitz said > [@](#): > > [his victims] were people I had to kill. I can’t stop and weep over them. You have to be strong and… you have to survive. He’s even quoted as saying that he “felt good after [he] did it”. In his mind, they weren’t innocent and what he was doing was necessary. I don’t think that, in his own mind, it conflicted at all with his religious beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/44 "2005-10-21T05:48:11Z")
> [@CWN](#): > > Not much of a conversion If he was kiiling innocents after his conversion! > Just MHO My mistake. I thought it was a jailhouse conversion. I didn’t realize it had already occurred much earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/45 "2005-10-21T07:52:59Z")
Ted Bundy’s youngest victim was the niece of a high school friend. Susan Smith, who drowned her two little boys in a car in a lake, was the daughter-in-law of someone I knew briefly. (Not a serial murderer.) I taught several murderers; I taught only one of them after the murder had taken place. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/46 "2005-10-21T08:12:34Z")
I lived two blocks from Patrick Henry Sherrill, who killed 14 people at the Edmond, OK Post Office in 1986. And my former wife’s cousin is John Hinkley, who shot Ronald Reagan. I met his mother and sister once several years before the shooting when they came to visit my wife’s family. They were very nice, sweet people. It’s a shame what they’ve been through. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/47 "2005-10-21T09:10:27Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > You’re kind of a hex, aren’t you? Dude, you have NO idea. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/48 "2005-10-21T09:48:07Z")
Not really a serial killer, but one of my best online friends goes to the same school as Taylor Behl. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/49 "2005-10-21T20:31:37Z")
Mrs. RickJay’s grandfather is a murderer. Shot two cops. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/50 "2005-10-21T20:41:17Z")
> [@CWN](#): > > David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam”- Was a good friend of mine during high school and afterwards- > Almost all of his friends went into law enforcement and he was an auxillery with the dept > He used to walk a footpost (NYPD) with a mutual friend while his killing spree was going on > LtFire I guess you lived in Yonkers at the time > Not something I usually admit Berkowitz lived at 35 Pine Street, and I was in a duplex diagonally across the street. There was a day when I was tossing a football in the street with my son, and an errant throw bounced the ball off the trunk of a car. The owner of the car was ‘guess who’. We exchanged ‘sorry’ and ‘no problem’, and the next time I saw him was at the bust. The owners of 35 Pine Street (a 6 or 8 story apartment building) changed the number of the building due to gawkers and notoriety. Heh, as if that changed anything. It was the only apartment building on the street. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/51 "2005-10-21T20:49:22Z")
My friend’s high school buddy was killed by John Wayne Gacy. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/52 "2005-10-21T20:50:18Z")
My brother (a cop, no less) is married to the daughter of one. They were already married before anyone knew what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/53 "2005-10-21T20:59:34Z")
I dated a girl who was a friend of Ann Marie Fahey, who was murdered by [Thomas Capano](http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/capano/1.html) (I know, not a serial killer, but one evil SOB nonetheless). ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/54 "2005-10-21T21:22:46Z")
Someone I knew fairly well when we were in elementary school together (but whom I had not seen since we graduated from high school as classmates) murdered his wife and children in a shopping mall parking lot. He then fatally turned the gun on himself. Apparently he was despondent about his tenuous employment situation and consequent inability to provide for his family. The story made the local (Cleveland-area) papers, but a few years before the Internet took off – Googling his name brings up no relevant sites. ---
**Author:** ![Yamirskoonir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/c0e974/32.png) [@Yamirskoonir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yamirskoonir)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/55 "2005-10-21T21:43:53Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > I went to high school ( and dated) [John Orr](http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/006009527X.asp) 's younger sister. I also knew their father and shopped at his store. I probably met John once or twice, but I don’t recall. > In case you don’t recognize the name Orr was the fireman that was convicted of being a serial arsonist, and killing 4 people in a fire he set at a home improvement store in Pasadena, Ca. > Joseph Wambaugh wrote a great book about it called Fire Lover. Growing up, I was really good friends with the son of one of the victims from that fire. I always hated Orr on his behalf, not only because he lost his mother, but because he ended up with a real witch of a stepmother when his father eventually remarried… ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/56 "2005-10-21T21:47:55Z")
I’ve been wanting to tell this story for awhile, and this seems like as good a time as any. Circa 1987 during the U of Texas vs Texas A&M game, a young woman was brutally murdered in her sorority house. My friends and I were at the game, and afterwards decided to meet at “Terry”’s apartment, which happened to be directly behind the sorority house (we didn’t know about the murder at the time). “Mike” arrived at the apartment first. He had a key and decided to play a practical joke: he let himself in and hid in the the shower, planning to scare the hell out of the next person to enter the bathroom. Just as Terry and others arrived at the apartment, they were greeted by police who wanted to search the apartment. When the officer assigned to search the bathroom pulled back the shower curtain, Mike jumped out and yelled “BOO!” Mike was met with a speedily drawn revolver. There was some ‘splainin’ to do, but it all got sorted out. The murder appeared to be the work of a transient. There were few clues, and the case was not solved during the time I remained in Austin. Recently I saw a case on Court TV about a serial killer whose M.O., time line, and geographical range made it seem likely to me that he was the killer. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/57 "2005-10-22T00:46:39Z")
My son,(same kid who threw the football at the Son of Sam) went to high school with Kendall Francois. Who, you say? He murdered 8 prostitutes, and buried many of them in his basement. And, his parents never knew it! [http://www.geocities.com/verbal\_plainfield/a-h/francois.html](http://www.geocities.com/verbal_plainfield/a-h/francois.html) ---
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/58 "2005-10-22T01:08:36Z")
> [@ltfire](#): > > Berkowitz lived at 35 Pine Street, and I was in a duplex diagonally across the street. There was a day when I was tossing a football in the street with my son, and an errant throw bounced the ball off the trunk of a car. The owner of the car was ‘guess who’. We exchanged ‘sorry’ and ‘no problem’, and the next time I saw him was at the bust. > The owners of 35 Pine Street (a 6 or 8 story apartment building) changed the number of the building due to gawkers and notoriety. Heh, as if that changed anything. It was the only apartment building on the street. He kept inviteing me over to his apartment for a visit but never found the time. After his arrest and they showed the pictures of the holes in the wall and the writing over them .I am so glad I didnt go! ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/59 "2005-10-22T05:04:34Z")
I’m related to someone who taught John Glover’s children and who had spoken to him on several Parent-Teacher nights. John Glover was dubbed “the Granny Killer” because he murdered several old ladies and assaulted quite a few others in a “safe, middle-class” area of Sydney. He died recently in gaol. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144/60 "2005-10-22T07:02:44Z")
> [@Sarah Woodruff](#): > > I’m related to someone who taught John Glover’s children and who had spoken to him on several Parent-Teacher nights. > > John Glover was dubbed “the Granny Killer” because he murdered several old ladies and assaulted quite a few others in a “safe, middle-class” area of Sydney. > > He died recently in gaol. It was suicide, if I remember correctly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-degrees-of-separation-between-you-and-a-serial-killer/327144.md?page=4)