Earle Nelson
Template:Use mdy dates Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Infobox serial killer Earle Leonard Nelson (Template:Né Ferral; May 12, 1897Template:Spaced en dashJanuary 13, 1928), also known in the media as the Gorilla Man, the Gorilla Killer, and the Dark Strangler,Template:Sfn was an American serial killer, rapist, and necrophile, who is considered the first known serial sex murderer of the twentieth century.Template:Sfn Born and raised in San Francisco, California<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> by his devoutly Pentecostal grandmother, Nelson exhibited bizarre behavior as a child, which was compounded by head injuries he sustained in a bicycling accident at age 10.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After committing various minor offenses in early adulthood, he was institutionalized in Napa for a time.
Nelson began committing numerous rapes and murders in February 1926, primarily in the West Coast cities of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In late 1926 he moved east, committing multiple rapes and murders in several Midwestern and East Coast cities before moving north into Canada, raping and killing a teenage girl in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After committing his second murder in Winnipeg, he was arrested by Canadian authorities, convicted of his final murder only - that of Emily Patterson - and sentenced to death. Nelson was executed by hanging in Winnipeg in 1928.
In undertaking his crimes, Nelson had a modus operandi: Most of his victims were middle-aged landladies, many of whom he would find through "room for rent" advertisements. Posing as a mild-mannered and charming Christian drifter, Nelson used the pretext of renting a room in the landladies' boarding houses to make contact with them before attacking. Each of his victims were killed via strangulation, and many were raped after death. His penultimate victim, a 14-year-old girl named Lola Cowan, was one of three victims to be significantly mutilated after death.Template:Sfn
Nelson's crime spree is believed, through recent research, to have included 22 murders and 22 other attacks.Template:Sfn He was a source of inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt.Template:Sfn
CrimesEdit
Early offenses; institutionalizationEdit
Nelson began his criminal activities at a young age, and was sentenced to two years in San Quentin State Prison in 1915 after breaking into a cabin in rural Plumas County,Template:Sfn which he believed had been abandoned.Template:Sfn He was paroled for this offense on September 6, 1916, but was arrested again in Stockton on March 9, 1917, for petty larceny.Template:Sfn Nelson spent another six months incarcerated before being discharged, after which he was arrested in Los Angeles for burglary charges.Template:Sfn After spending approximately five months in Los Angeles County Jail, Nelson escaped.Template:Sfn
Sometime in late-1917, Nelson enlisted in the U.S. military, but deserted after six weeks.Template:Sfn He repeated this pattern on several occasions, enlisting in different military branches under different names before deserting.Template:Sfn In 1918, Nelson was committed to the Napa State Mental Hospital after behaving oddly and erratically during one of his brief stints in the United States Navy.Template:Sfn A Navy psychologist noted that Nelson was "living in a constitutional psychotic state."Template:Sfn
Upon his arrival at Napa State Mental Hospital, a psychologist who observed Nelson on May 21, 1918, noted that he did not appear "violent, homicidal, or destructive."Template:Sfn William Pritchard, a psychiatrist who conducted a preliminary interview with him, noted that Nelson spoke of hallucinations and other paranoid delusions: "He has seen faces, heard music, and at times believed people were poisoning him. Voices sometimes whisper to him to kill himself. Says that if he were kept in jail, he would get something sharp and cut the veins in his wrists."Template:Sfn Pritchard also indicated that Nelson had experienced occipital headaches, fainted several times, and felt dizzy during their interactions.Template:Sfn
During his institutionalization, Nelson managed to escape at least three times before staff eventually stopped trying to locate him.Template:Sfn His frequent escapes earned him the nickname "Houdini" among the hospital's employees.Template:Sfn Nelson was formally discharged from the Navy in absentia on May 17, 1919, and his file with the hospital was closed with a note indicating he had "improved."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Nelson subsequently acquired a job working as a janitor at St. Mary's Hospital, using the pseudonym "Evan Louis Fuller."Template:Sfn There, he met 60-year-old Mary Martin, an administrative worker.Template:Sfn The two began to date, and were married in August 1919.Template:Sfn Their marriage, however, was short-lived, as Nelson "made her life a living hell"Template:Sfn with his jealous rages, bizarre sexual demands, religious delusions, and increasingly violent behavior,Template:Sfn leading her to separate from him after cohabiting for only six months.Template:Sfn Martin would later recall various bizarre behaviors she witnessed while living with Nelson, which included protracted disappearances from their home and unusual bathing practices that entailed him pouring glasses of water over his toes.Template:Sfn
On May 19, 1921, Nelson posed as a plumber to enter the residence at 1519 Pacific Avenue in San Francisco and attempted to molest 12-year-old resident Mary Summers in the basement.Template:Sfn His attempt was thwarted when she screamed and attracted help from her nine-year-old brother.Template:Sfn Nelson fled, but was captured hours later while riding a trolley.Template:Sfn At a competency hearing, he was deemed dangerous and recommitted to Napa State Mental Hospital.Template:Sfn He would escape again on two occasions before being discharged from the institution in 1925.Template:Sfn
Murder spreeEdit
FebruaryTemplate:En dashNovember 1926: California, Portland, and SeattleEdit
Nelson began his killing spree early in 1926.<ref name=cf/> His first known victim was Clara Newman, a wealthy 60-year-old San Francisco landlady.Template:Sfn Nelson entered her boardinghouse at 2037 Pierce Street on February 20, 1926, posing as a potential tenant named "Roger Wilson."Template:Sfn Sometime after entering the home, Nelson strangled Newman before raping her dead bodyTemplate:Sfn and hiding her corpse in a vacant apartment in the house.<ref name=beastly>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn His second victim, 63-year-old Laura Beale, was strangled in her home in nearby San Jose on March 2.<ref name=kingston/> The silken cord that had been used to strangle Beale had reportedly been wound so tightly around her neck that it had embedded in her flesh.Template:Sfn
Nelson strangled and raped 63-year-old Lillian St. Mary, also in San Francisco, on June 26, 1926.Template:Sfn Exactly two weeks later, Template:Convert south in Santa Barbara, 53-year-old Ollie Russell was strangled with a cord in her boardinghouse.Template:Sfn An autopsy confirmed that Russell had been sexually assaulted after death, and the similarities in the modus operandi between her murder and the San Francisco area slayings led police to assume they were connected.Template:Sfn On August 16, 52-year-old Mary Nisbet, an apartment building proprietor in Oakland, was found by her husband, strangled to death and raped in the bathroom of a vacant apartment.Template:Sfn<ref name=healdsburg>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
Initially, local law enforcement questioned Nisbet's husband in her death, but he was shortly cleared of suspicion.Template:Sfn Witnesses later told police they had seen a "smiling stranger" lurking outside Nisbet's apartment building the day of her murder.Template:Sfn Others who claimed to have seen Nelson at the various boarding houses described him to police as a dark and stocky man with "long arms and large hands."<ref name=beastly/> Because of this, newspapers began referring to him as the "Dark Strangler," the "Gorilla Man," or "Gorilla Killer."<ref name=beastly/>
In the fall of 1926, Nelson relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he raped and murdered 35-year-old landlady Beata Withers on October 19,Template:Sfn her body found by her teenage son, stuffed beneath clothing inside a steamer trunk in the attic of her home.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> The following day, 59-year-old Virginia Grant was murdered in a vacant property she owned on East 22nd Street, her body hidden behind the home's basement furnace.Template:Sfn On October 21, landlady Mabel Fluke disappeared from her home in Portland; her body was discovered several days later in the attic, strangled with a scarf.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Despite the subsequent similar murders of Grant and Fluke, a coroner's jury of four men and two women was appointed on October 28 to evaluate the "mysterious" death of Withers.<ref name=eugene>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> The jury's decision was split in half, with three believing her death was a suicide and the other three believing it murder.<ref name=eugene/>
After committing the three murders in Portland, Nelson briefly returned to San Francisco, where he raped and murdered 56-year-old widow Anna Edmonds on November 18.Template:Sfn Initially, police were hesitant to attribute the crime to the "Dark Strangler"; however, several days after her murder, a friend of Edmonds told police she had stopped by her home on the day of her murder and found Edmonds talking to a "strange man" in her parlor about a business deal that involved her selling her house.Template:Sfn The woman's descriptions of the unknown man matched those of the "Dark Strangler."Template:Sfn
The following day, November 19, in nearby Burlingame, California, a 28-year-old pregnant woman was attacked while showing her home to a man posing as a potential buyer.Template:Sfn She survived the attack, and described the man as being around Template:Convert tall, well-dressed and well-spoken.Template:Sfn The woman later told reporters that, though she hadn't felt threatened initially, she realized in retrospect that, peculiarly, the man had commented on the home's intricate details, particularly the ceilings: "I realize now that he was trying to get me to look up towards the ceiling, so that he could get behind me and grab my throat," she said.Template:Sfn
Ten days later, on November 29, Nelson murdered and raped Blanche Myers in her Portland home.Template:Sfn Police were able to recover foreign fingerprints from Myers' iron bedpost.Template:Sfn The Portland murders ignited a public frenzy, and The Oregonian reported that the third floor of the Portland Police Bureau had become "a veritable madhouse," with clerks taking hundreds of phone calls and reports of "suspicious characters."Template:Sfn
One local woman called police, claiming that a suspicious man had stayed in her boardinghouse for several days after the Thanksgiving holiday, using the name "Adrian Harris."Template:Sfn On November 29, the day of Myers' murder, she stated the man told her and other residents that he was leaving to take a train to Vancouver, Washington, and had indicated that he would not be returning.Template:Sfn She found this suspicious, given that he had paid multiple days' worth of rent in advance.Template:Sfn Before departing, he gave her and another female boarder pieces of jewelry as a gift, which were later confirmed by police to have been owned by Florence Monks, a wealthy widow who had been murdered and raped in her Seattle home on November 23.Template:Sfn
In hopes of preventing further murders, law enforcement in California and Oregon issued public safety announcements to citizens; in the San Francisco Bay area, elderly women were advised to take precautions while renting rooms and inviting strangers into their homes.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, the Portland Police Bureau issued the following statement to the public: "Do not show your houses or rooms for rent while alone. If necessary, call a policeman to accompany you. Crimes such as these should be prevented and could have been prevented if women had been more careful. I do not wish to unduly alarm the people of Portland. But there is no denying the situation is grave."Template:Sfn
December 1926Template:En dashApril 1927: Midwest and East CoastEdit
After leaving Portland in late November 1926, Nelson moved eastward, hitchhiking or stowing away on trains.Template:Sfn On December 23, the body of Almira Berard, 41, was found inside her Council Bluffs, Iowa, home; she had been garroted with a shirt. Initially, local police presumed her death a suicide, as Brerard had recently been discharged from a psychiatric institution.Template:Sfn This was dismissed after it was discovered that she had been raped.Template:Sfn
Two days after Christmas, 23-year-old Bonnie Pace of Kansas City, Missouri, was strangled to death and raped in her home, her body discovered in an upstairs room by her husband.Template:Sfn On December 28, Germania Harpin, age 28, along with her eight-month-old infant son Robert, was found murdered in her Kansas City home.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> Both had been strangledTemplate:Spaced en dashRobert, with a diaperTemplate:SfnTemplate:Spaced en dashand Germania had been raped after death.Template:Sfn Both she and Robert were discovered by her husband when he returned from work that evening.Template:Sfn
Nelson continued to move further east, murdering and raping 53-year-old landlady Mary McConnell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 27.Template:Sfn Several articles of jewelry were also stolen from McConnell's residence.Template:Sfn The following day, Nelson attempted to sell one of McConnell's gold watches to pawn shop owner Marie Kuhn, but she declined.Template:Sfn One month later, on May 27, Nelson arrived in Buffalo, New York, where he rented a room from 53-year-old Jennie Randolph, using the name "Charles Harrison."Template:Sfn Three days later, Randolph was discovered strangled to death and raped, her body stuffed under a bed in her home.Template:Sfn Randolph's brother, Gideon Gillett, had met "Mr. Harrison" when he first arrived at the residence, and described him as "about thirty-three years old, with a stocky build, dark complexion, and black hair slicked straight back."Template:Sfn Fred Merritt, a boarder in Randolph's house, would later positively identify Nelson as "Charles Harrison."Template:Sfn
On June 1 in Detroit, Michigan, boardinghouse manager Fannie May, along with boarder Maureen Atorthy, were discovered murdered in the boardinghouse that May oversaw.Template:Sfn Their bodies were found by the building owner, Leonard Sink, who had arrived to collect rent funds from May.Template:Sfn May had been garrotted with an electrical cord cut from a table lamp.Template:Sfn Police determined that the cord had been cut while the electric current was still circulating, and that the knife with which it had been done would show visible burning as well as a nicked blade.<ref name=kingston/> Two days later, Nelson murdered 27-year-old Mary Cecilia Sietsma in Chicago, Illinois.Template:Sfn Sietsma was discovered by her husband on the floor of their home, strangled with an appliance cord.<ref name=wps/> Several articles of men's clothing were also stolen from the home.<ref name=wps/>
==Edit
CaptureEdit
Assuming that Nelson had fled to the United States, Canadian police sent descriptions of him to all U.S. police stations and post offices.<ref name=beastly/> In the intervening days, sightings of Nelson were reported in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Boissevain, Manitoba.<ref name=kingston/> A man matching Nelson's description who gave his name as "Mike Mowski" was arrested on June 14 in the Manitoba/Minnesota border town of Warroad by Customs Officers, but he escaped the next day.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On June 16, 1927, constables in Killarney,<ref name=kingston/> a Manitoba border town Template:Convert from the North Dakota border, arrested a man named "Virgil Wilson" who fit Nelson's description.<ref name=beastly/> His demeanor was reportedly so calm and cooperative that the constables assumed they had the wrong individual.<ref name=beastly/>
"Wilson" was incarcerated in the local jail, but managed to escape the same evening.<ref name=beastly/> Nelson made the mistake of trying to catch the same train that was transporting members of the Winnipeg police, and was recaptured twelve hours after his initial escape.Template:Sfn He was officially arrested again the next morning by an officer from the Crystal City police department, on the rail line Template:Convert east of Wakopa.Template:Sfn
Nelson was taken to the Rupert Street Police Station in Winnipeg where he was photographed, fingerprinted, measured, and prepared for identification lineups.Template:Sfn Nearly 4,000 spectators awaited his arrival outside the station, hoping to glimpse the accused man.<ref name=wps>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Free access</ref> Photographs of Nelson taken by Winnipeg police were shortly sent out to police departments throughout the U.S.; this resulted in positive identifications from witnesses in Illinois and California who claimed the man was the same unknown renter they had had encounters with.<ref name=wps/> Though he maintained that his identity was that of "Virgil Wilson," fingerprints forwarded to Winnipeg from the San Francisco Police Department from his earlier arrests confirmed his identity as Earle Nelson.<ref name=wps/> Nelson's fingerprints matched those left behind at several of the crime scenes, and his teeth matched marks found on victims.<ref name=trove>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
Initially, Nelson admitted to his crimes, bluntly telling reporters: "I only do my lady killings on Saturday nights."<ref name=cf>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, he would subsequently retract his admission and claim he was innocent.<ref name=cf/> Upon an interview with the Manitoba Free Press shortly after his arrest, he said: "I'm charged with two murders. But I'm not the one who done it."Template:Sfn When asked about the various persons in the U.S. and Canada who had positively identified him as the "Strangler," he simply responded: "All of 'em are wrong."Template:Sfn Despite attempts on part of both U.S. and Canadian law enforcement agencies to elicit confessions, Nelson refused to admit to any of the murders of which he was suspected or accused.Template:Sfn
Trial and executionEdit
At the time of his arrest, Nelson was wanted in six U.S. cities, and was held to be tried in a Manitoba court for the murders of both Cowan and Patterson.<ref name=kingston>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref> He was also charged with two counts of attempted molestation and one count of burglary.Template:Sfn Nelson's trial was scheduled to begin June 27, 1927, but postponed at the request of his attorney,<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> and instead began on November 1 at the Winnipeg Law Courts Building.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The case was prosecuted by R. B. Graham,Template:Sfn and overseen by Justice Andrew Dysart.Template:Sfn
Nelson was defended by court-appointed attorney James H. Stitt.Template:Sfn Nelson's ex-wife Mary Martin testified against him, claiming that he was "absolutely insane."Template:Sfn Additionally, over sixty individuals from both Canada and the U.S. testified, many placing Nelson at the scenes of the various crimes or linking him to property stolen from victims' homes.Template:Sfn A jail guard who oversaw Nelson throughout his trial noted that he had become particularly obsessed with a certain Biblical passage from the Book of Proverbs, which read: Template:Quote
Closing statements in Nelson's trial were completed on November 5, 1927.Template:Sfn After forty minutes of deliberation, the jury found him guilty of murder and he received a mandatory death sentence.Template:Sfn Relatives of victims McConnell and Cowan visited Nelson in prison after his conviction, and he continued to proclaim his innocence.Template:Sfn In late December 1927, Stitt submitted a thirty-page document to Minister of Justice Ernest Lapointe, petitioning for clemency on the grounds that Nelson was insane and that his personal history had been unfairly presented to the jury via the press.Template:Sfn
The "eloquent, even moving" document consisted of twenty affidavits from persons who had known Nelson throughout his life who swore they were "in a position to know full well the character and mentality of the said Earle Nelson that [they] verily believed without exaggeration or mental reservation [that he had] been for a long period of time a person of unsound mind."Template:Sfn In one of the affidavits, Mrs. L. J. Casey, who had employed Nelson as a groundskeeper in 1926, attested to this, noting that she "hear[d] him laughing and talking to himself all the time. One day while I happened to be there, he sat right outside in the drenching rain, looking at the sky, without a coat, until he was soaked through."Template:Sfn Despite the abundance of affidavits, the appeal was denied, and Nelson's execution was scheduled for the second Friday of January.Template:Sfn
Nelson was executed by hanging at 7:30 a.m. on January 13, 1928Template:Sfn at the Vaughan Street Jail in Winnipeg. His final words were: "I forgive those who have wronged me."Template:Sfn
Modus operandiEdit
When his identity was still unknown, law enforcement surmised that Nelson was a predator who "possessed a dual personality," likening him to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.Template:Sfn However, his modus operandi was clear even to investigators at the time of the crimes' occurrences.Template:Sfn
Nelson's victims were mostly landladies, whom he would approach on the pretext of renting a room.Template:Sfn Many of these victims were targeted after having placed "room for rent" advertisements in local newspapers.Template:Sfn Nelson, well-versed in Christian theology, often studied his worn Bible, using it to keep his victim at ease and off-guard.Template:Sfn Once he had gained their trust and was able to access their homes, he would kill them (almost always by strangling) and sometimes engage in necrophilia with the corpse.<ref name=beastly/> Nelson would often hide the body, leaving it under the nearest bed.Template:Sfn In several of his murders committed in Portland, he went to additional lengths to conceal the body, hiding it in the attic or in a steamer trunk within the house.Template:Sfn Other victims were concealed in closets or behind furnaces in the house.Template:Sfn
At the peak of his killing spree, Nelson was killing once every three weeks on average.Template:Sfn His killings sometimes occurred in spurts. His last victim, Emily Patterson, had been his fifth victim in only ten days.Template:Sfn
PathologyEdit
Though there are many extant documents regarding Nelson and his trial, few of them contain psychiatric information regarding his pathology.Template:Sfn During Nelson's incarceration leading up to his trial, he was examined by Dr. Alvin T. Mathers, chief of the psychiatric ward and Winnipeg General Hospital, on five separate occasions between July 27 and October 24, 1927.Template:Sfn Based on these sessions, Mathers testified in court: "I did not find any evidence that to me would constitute insanity."Template:Sfn
Historical significanceEdit
Nelson was the first serial murderer in American history whose crimes were subject to widespread media attention in newspapers, national magazines, and the then-new medium of the radio.Template:Sfn His crimes and trial received international media attention, appearing in newspapers across the United States, Canada, and Australia.<ref name=trove/><ref name=trove2>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref> Nelson's confirmed murder count, which exceeded twenty, remained a record high for nearly fifty years until the discovery of Juan Corona's crimes in 1971. According to crime historians Harold Schechter and David Everitt, Nelson was the first serial sex murderer in twentieth-century America.Template:Sfn
VictimsEdit
Though Nelson refused to admit to any of the crimes of which he was accused, he has been linked to a total of 22 murders that occurred between 1926 and 1927;Template:Sfn his victims consisted nearly exclusively of women, along with one male infant child.Template:Sfn
1926Edit
California, Oregon, WashingtonEdit
| Date | Victim | Age | Location | Notes | Outcome | Template:Abbr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 20, 1926 | Clara B. Newman | 60 | San Francisco, California | Strangled by Nelson while showing him a room in her boardinghouse. After her death, Nelson committed necrophilia with her corpse. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| March 2, 1926 | Laura BealeTemplate:Efn-lr | 63 | San Jose, California | Strangled to death in her home. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| June 10, 1926 | Lillian St. Mary | 63 | San Francisco, California | Strangled and raped after death. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| June 24, 1926 | Ollie Russell | 53 | Santa Barbara, California | Strangled and raped after death. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| August 16, 1926 | Mary C. Nisbet | 52 | Oakland, California | Strangled and raped in her apartment building. Her husband is initially questioned by police but cleared of suspicion. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| October 19, 1926 | Beata B. Duhrkoop Withers | 35 | Portland, Oregon | Strangled and raped after death. Nelson stuffs her body in a trunk which is later found in the home by her 15-year-old son. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| October 20, 1926 | Virginia Ada Gray Grant | 59 | Portland, Oregon | Strangled and raped; body hidden behind furnace of her boardinghouse. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| October 21, 1926 | Mabel H. Fluke | Template:N/A | Portland, Oregon | Body discovered in the attic of her boardinghouse. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| November 18, 1926 | Anna Edmonds | 56 | San Francisco, California | Strangled to death with a rag and raped. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| November 19, 1926 | Mrs. H. C. Murray | 28 | Burlingame, California | Pregnant woman, attacked while showing Nelson her home for sale. | Survived | Template:Sfn |
| November 23, 1926 | Florence Monks | 48 | Seattle, Washington | Body discovered by her caretaker, stuffed behind the basement furnace of her Capitol Hill home. Nelson later gives Monks' stolen jewelry to two Portland women as gifts. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| November 29, 1926 | Blanche MyersTemplate:Efn-lr | 48 | Portland, Oregon | Strangled and raped in her home. Fingerprints are found on her iron bedpost. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
Iowa, MissouriEdit
| Date | Victim | Age | Location | Notes | Outcome | Template:Abbr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 23, 1926 | Mrs. John Brerard | 41 | Council Bluffs, Iowa | Strangled to death and raped. Initially thought to be a suicide due to Brerard's recent stay in a psychiatric hospital. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| December 27, 1926 | Bonnie Pace | 23 | Kansas City, Missouri | Strangled to death and raped. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| December 28, 1926 | Germania Harpin | 28 | Kansas City, Missouri | Strangled to death and raped. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| December 28, 1926 | Robert Harpin | 8 mos. | Kansas City, Missouri | Infant son of Germania Harpin; strangled to death with a diaper. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
1927Edit
East Coast and Midwest USAEdit
| Date | Victim | Age | Location | Notes | Outcome | Template:Abbr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 27, 1927 | Mary McConnell | 53 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Strangled and raped in her home. Several articles of jewelry, including a watch, are stolen. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| May 30, 1927 | Jennie Randolph | 53 | Buffalo, New York | Body discovered stuffed under a bed in her home. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| June 1, 1927 | Fannie May | 53 | Detroit, Michigan | Found dead in boardinghouse she operated as building manager, garroted with electrical wire. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| June 1, 1927 | Maureen Atorthy | Template:N/A | Detroit, Michigan | Template:Nee Oswald; resident of Fannie May's boardinghouse. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| June 4, 1927 | Mary Cecilia Sietsma | 27 | Chicago, Illinois | Found by her husband, strangled with an appliance cord. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
Manitoba, CanadaEdit
| Date | Victim | Age | Location | Notes | Outcome | Template:Abbr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 8, 1927 | Lola Cowan | 14 | Winnipeg, Manitoba | Kidnapped, murdered, and raped. Police discover her decaying corpse stored underneath Nelson's bed in a Winnipeg boardinghouse where he has rented a room. | Deceased | <ref name=beastly/> |
| June 10, 1927 | Emily Patterson | 27 | Winnipeg, Manitoba | Strangled to death and raped. Her body is found by her husband, stuffed underneath their son's bed. A whipcord suit, Patterson's gold wedding ring, and $70 are also stolen. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
Other possible victimsEdit
| Date | Victim | Age | Location | Notes | Outcome | Template:Abbr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 23, 1925 | Elizabeth Jones | 62 | San Francisco, California | Found strangled in her home with her own necklace after being seen speaking to a man interested in purchasing her property; Nelson had recently been discharged from Napa State Hospital at the time of Jones' murder. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| September 25, 1925 | Daisy Anderson | 45 | San Francisco, California | Strangled while showing a room in her boardinghouse; body found nude inside the home. | Deceased | <ref name=kingston/> |
| October 1, 1925 | Elma Wells | 32 | San Francisco, California | Body discovered nude, jammed into the closet of a vacant apartment in a building she managed. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| November 7, 1925 | Mary Murray | Template:N/A | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Strangled in kitchen; found deceased in upstairs bedroom. Body had been raped after death. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| November 11, 1925 | Lena Weiner | Template:N/A | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Found deceased in bedroom by husband. Body had been raped after death. Articles of clothing from husband's wardrobe also missing. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| November 1925 | Ola McCoy | Template:N/A | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Strangled in parlor of her home; found deceased in upstairs bedroom. Body had been raped after death. McCoy's home is located only blocks from that of Mary Murray. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
| August 18, 1926 | Isabelle Gallegos | 50 | Stockton, California | Russian immigrant John Slivkoff was arrested in Gallegos' murder but subsequently ruled out after witnesses failed to pick him out of a lineup. | Deceased | Template:Sfn |
In popular cultureEdit
Nelson's murder spree served as a source of inspiration for the 1943 Alfred Hitchcock film Shadow of a Doubt, which focuses on a serial killer, the "Merry Widow Murderer" (portrayed by Joseph Cotten), who targets elderly widows.Template:Sfn
NotesEdit
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Works citedEdit
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External linksEdit
- Historical account of Nelson's arrest from the Winnipeg Police Service