Marin County trial begins for alleged serial killer Joseph Naso
The trial of suspected serial killer Joseph Naso began Monday morning in Marin Superior Court, where a jury is slated to spend the next five months reviewing graphic evidence of alleged rape, sadism and murder.
Joseph Naso, who is acting as his own attorney, is expected to address the jury Monday after the prosecution finishes its own opening statement.
Naso, 79, is facing a potential death sentence for the murders of four reputed prostitutes in the 1970s and 1990s. Authorities suspect he might have killed many other women -- including six others on a so-called "list of 10" found among Naso's writing -- but have filed no additional charges.
Shocked with nine murders within four months, Kolhapur residents believe that a serial killer may have stuck their city.
Within the last 24 hours, a beggar was found stoned to death near the railway station while a labourer was strangled.
Noticing a pattern in the murders, the police have increased patrolling in the city. The victims were either from poor economic background or destitute, with most of them not yet identified. All the killings were carried out during the wee hours around the station area.
According to the Shahupuri police, in most cases, the victims’ heads were smashed with stones or cement bricks. The police have not arrested anyone as yet. “A mentally unstable person could be behind the killings. The police are trying to catch the killer,” said home minister RR Patil.
Man arrested on single murder charge confesses to being cartel serial killer
Jose Manuel Martinez, 50, from Delano, Calif., was arrested in May in Ariz. on an outstanding homicide charge from Alabama. Although he initially claimed to be innocent of that charge, he ended up confessing to police that he indeed was guilty of that Alabama murder, plus dozens of additional murders.
Martinez also told investigators that he was a hitman for a drug cartel.
"I'm the guy that comes and pays you a visit when you don't pay," the roughly 50-year-old suspect told one of the investigators who interviewed him in Lawrence County, which is north of Birmingham.
UK serial killer paid Russian mobsters for protection
Police killer Dale Cregan paid Russian gangsters to protect him after he fled to Spain during his 42 days on the run, police intelligence has suggested.
It has previously been reported he evaded police for weeks after killing two gangland rivals by travelling up and down the country staying in flats, holiday resorts, camping sites and caravans.
But it is now understood he hid both in Britain and on the Costa Del Sol and police intelligence suggests he was paying the Russians to protect him while a huge manhunt was underway in Manchester, according to reports.
The Manchester Evening News has reported he returned to England after he ran out of money and could no longer pay the mobsters to keep him in hiding, according to the intelligence.
Judge: Accused Fort Hood shooter cannot argue he was defending Taliban
(CNN) -- A military judge on Friday struck down Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's planned defense that he was acting to protect the Taliban in Afghanistan when he killed 13 people in November 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas.
The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, ruled that there was no evidence there was an immediate threat by anyone at the Army post to people in Afghanistan.
She also ruled that Hasan, as a uniformed soldier, had no justification to kill other soldiers.
The neice of Rsmirez talks about her uncle and his death
Shelly Ramirez’s uncle murdered 13 people—and masturbated in front of her when she visited him in prison. In the wake of his death, she talks to Christine Pelisek about growing up in his shadow.
When Shelly Ramirez heard last week that her uncle Richard had died, she felt a huge sense of relief. “I felt free,” she said. “What he did was sick. I’m sorry about what happened to the families.”
Ramirez, now 31, grew up in the shadow of her father’s brother, an infamous serial killer better known as the “Night Stalker” who brutally raped, killed, and mutilated 13 people in southern California during a two-year spree from 1984 to 1985. She was just 7 years old when he was convicted.
Indiana pair were "serial killer team in the making"
An IU criminologist says based on court records, the two suspects charged with murdering a Linton teen may have been a serial killer team in the making.
“The fact that they planned this ahead of time, that they had discussed it, that they had a fantasy to rape someone … that they went to at least one store to buy things that they needed,” explained Professor Kenna Quinet, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Quinet specializes in studying various aspects of homicide including serial and mass homicide.
Serial killer victims’ relatives view Cleveland memorial ideas
CLEVELAND: A children’s play area and a reflective pool are among proposed designs for a memorial at the site where the remains of 11 women were found in a serial killer’s home.
A coalition of pastors, community leaders and others showed potential designs to relatives of some of the victims at a meeting Thursday.
One coalition member, the Rev. Jimmy Gates, told The Plain Dealer newspaper that the victims’ families will help decide which design is selected.
Elroy Chester executed for 1998 Port Arthur killing spree
A Texas man who confessed to killing five people during a six-month crime spree in Port Arthur in 1998 has been executed.
Elroy Chester, 44, received lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the fatal shooting of Port Arthur firefighter Willie Ryman III.
The 38-year-old Ryman interrupted Chester as he sexually assaulted Ryman's two teenage nieces during a break-in at their home 15 years ago. Chester was on probation at the time, was arrested soon after and subsequently pleaded guilty to Ryman's slaying.
A Spanish court convicted on Tuesday a serial killer of murdering 11 pensioners at an old peoples' home where he worked in a Catalan town.
Joan Vila, 48, was found guilty by a unanimous verdict of the nine-person jury in the city of Girona of killing his victims by giving them caustic liquid to drink.
The deaths at the residency began in 2009 and continued until October 2010 when the discovery of acid during the autopsy of his last victim made it clear that the deaths at the 'La Caritat' residency had not been due to natural causes.
