Arthur Shawcross /// The Genesee River Killer | Forensic Files

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

Arthur Shawcross /// The Genesee River Killer

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Episode 198 - Arthur Shawcross, the monster often referred to as “the worst serial killer, you’ve never heard of”. That may not be the case as Shawcross came from one of New York state’s more populated cities. This man was a convicted child killer set free by the state to kill again. During his time in prison Shawcross allowed members of the media to interview him on several occasions. Shawcross also had several pen pals that he wrote to often. This week we discuss the life and murders committed by “The Genesee River Killer” and speak with one of his pen pals, John Paul Fey. John is the co-author of the soon to be best seller “The Shawcross Letters”Beer of the Week - Genesee BeerGarage Grade - 3 out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

Arthur Shawcross's life story reveals a troubled past leading to his crimes as a serial killer in Rochester, New York.

Key points

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Hosts Nick and Captain introduce the show with humor and gratitude.
The Life of Arthur Shawcross. Exploring the childhood and early life of the notorious serial killer.
Shawcross's Troubled Childhood. A look into Shawcross's early experiences and family dynamics.
Shawcross's Military Claims. Shawcross recounts his time in Vietnam, claiming numerous kills.
Shawcross's Troubling Past. After being discharged, Shawcross struggled with PTSD, leading to violence and crime.
Prison Riot at Auburn. Inmates took control of Auburn prison, leading to a massive police response.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.

Nick welcomes listeners to the show.

0:58WatchNov 26, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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