Did you know that Baltimore had a serial killer on the loose back in 1982?
According to the the May 11, 1982 issue of the Baltimore Sun children playing in the 4300 block of Seminole avenue near Leakin Park found Ms. Joyce Ann De Shields, 26, of the 1600 block of Abbotson Street in Clifton Park. She was partly clothed and identified through fingerprints, she had been strangled.
But wait, there's more.....
Moving on the July 28, 1982 issue of the Baltimore Sun police are noticing circumstantial links in the death of three women. This is interesting enough for me to write down the entire article. This is from the second page.
On July 14, 1982, a young woman was found semi-conscious and in convulsions behind a house in the Holland Hills section of the county, north of Rosedale. On July 16, 1982 she died in a hospital. A few days later, police said, county homicide detectives called city investigators. "It's just a possibility that the cases are connected", police spokesperson Sergeant Shinnamon said. "Other than the similarities that have been found - the physical circumstances of the deaths and what little we know of their backgrounds - it would be speculation on our part to say there's more."
The five homicide victims are:
Dorethea Martin, 31, of West Baltimore. Her clothed body was found about 7:30AM Monday, September 21, 1981, under a pine tree in the 1500 block of North Potomac Street, near the Baltimore Cemetery. An autopsy showed she had been choked to death.
Jacqueline Hollis, 24, of the 1500 block of North Broadway. On Saturday, October 17, 1981 about 1:10PM two children found her clothed body on a path in a wooded area behind an apartment house in the first block of Downly Circle, in the Hillendale Gate apartments. After an autopsy, it was determined she had been strangled with a wire. She was identified through fingerprints.
Joyce Ann DeShields (see above)
Vadawntae martin, 20, of the 400 block of Manse Court. A maintenance man for the Woodington Garden Apartments in the 4300 block of Connecticut Avenue in Southwest Baltimore, found Ms. Martins nude body in a wooded area near the apartment complex about 9AM Tuesday, July 20. She had been choked to death and was identified through fingerprints.
Laverne Duffy, 21, of the 1800 block of Henneman Avenue. About 4PM Sunday, July 25, a motorist spotted a nude body in the northern section of Druid Hill Park, not far from Television Hill, and alerted an officer on patrol. Ms. Duffy, identified through fingerprints, had been choked to death.
In discussing the seven "questionable" cases where no cases of death has been found, detectives suspect many of the women died of drug overdoes. Some of the questionable deaths have similarities to the five murders, for example, two other women have been found dead in the Woodington Garden Apartments area, like Vadawntae Martin, on of the homicide victims.
One woman, Henrietta Jones, 28, whose body was discovered nude December 17, died of a drug overdose. The other, Yvonne Rucker, 24, of the 5300 block of Lantern Court, died of unknown causes. She was clothed when her body was found December 2.
Two women have been found in Druid Hill Park - Laverne Duffy, one of the homicide victims, and Adah C. Crum, 24, of the 1200 block of Ensor Street. POlice do not know how Ms. Cru, who was found clothed October 28, died.
Two of the county's cases - including its only declared homicide victim, Jacqueline Holllis - share the Hillengate apartments as a common element.
On June 28, Nataliee D. Williams, 23, of the 3600 block of Old York Road, was found lying in a stream, in the rear of the first block of Dowling circle at the Hillendale Gates Apartments - just a few door's away from the path where Ms. Hollis's body was discovered. She had been beaten, but the medical examiner's office ruled that her injuries were not severe enough to kill her.
The two other county cases are:
Linda Sue Burch, 32, of the 2700 block of East Preston Street. Her body was found June 14 behind a tool shed in the 2300 block of Hamiltowne circle. The cause of death has not been determined.
Shirly A. Hill, 31, of the 200 block of Aisquith Street. She was found July 14, semi-conscious and in confused, in the rear of a house in the 5900 block of Daybreak terrace, a few miles from Hamiltowne circle. She died two day later at Franklin Square Hospital; the cause of death is not known.
The other 3 questionable deaths are:
Regina Pulley, 19, of the 700 block of West Lexington Street. Her nude body was found March 19, 1981 in the 200 block of North Pine Street. The autopsy showed she died of a drug overdose.
Gwen Robison, 31, of the 5300 block of Goodnow Road. her clothed body was found December 2 in the 200 block of Reservoir Lane in North Baltimore. The causes of her death has not been determined.
Denise Perkins, 32, of the 1000 block of Mosher Street. Her nude body was found July 6, in the 1500 block of Winston Avenue in Northeast Baltimore. The cause of death has not been determined.
This blogger's editorial comment
In 1982 I was still in college up in Albany, NY. I would have been 20 years old.
There are 17 women listed here whose deaths look to me like the works of a serial killer. That's a lot of killing without anyone seeing anything and the police coming up with a big fat zero. In the years that have passed we've seen the Green River Killer, the guy in Cleveland who killed 11 women, the guy in North Carolina who killed a bunch of other similar women, the guy in Vancouver that filled a pig farmer with women just like this. .Of course many these women have something in common: they are black, they are poor, they are drug addicts and they are prostitutes. In essence, to the police, to society and to the politicians they don't exist.
As far as I can tell there was no follow up to this situation, the Baltimore City Police Department collective shrugged its shoulders (as it often does) and families and loved one scratched their heads wondering what happened to their mother, their sister, their daughter and their friend.
All this happened nearly 30 years ago and there won't be much anyone can do about it now. However, it will be a cold day in hell I will allow this kind of killing to happen now. Thankfully, at least here in Baltimore, we've found our voice when it comes to serial killers of prostitutes. I can't say the same for Cleveland and Vancouver though.