On this week (September 15-21) in crime history – Bombing
of the 16th Avenue Baptist Church in Bombing kills four children
(September 15, 1963); Gunman kills 12 in shooting rampage at the Navy Yard in
Washington, D.C. (September 16, 2013); Lonely Hearts Killer Harvey Glatman was
executed (September 18, 1959); Patty Hearst was captured (September 18, 1975);
Unabombers manifesto was published by the New
York Times and Washington Post
(September 19, 1995); Benedict Arnold commits treason (September 21, 1780).
Highlighted Crime of the Week –
Serial killer Harvey Glatman was executed in a California
gas chamber on September 18, 1959 for murdering three young women in Los
Angeles. Resisting all appeals to save his life, Glatman even wrote to the
appeals board to say, "I only want to die." As a young child, Glatman
developed an obsession with rope. When his parents noticed that he was
strangling himself on occasion, they took him to a doctor who told them that it
was just a phase and that he would grow out of it. As a teenager, he threatened
a girl with a toy gun in Colorado. Skipping bail, he made his way to New York,
where he later spent two years and eight months in prison on robbery charges.
Following his release, Glatman moved back to Colorado and
then to Los Angeles, where he began working as a television repairman. During
this same time he took up photography as a hobby. On August 1, 1957, with the
pretense of a freelance modeling assignment, Glatman lured 19-year-old Judy Ann
Dull to his apartment, where he raped her and then took photos of her, bound
and gagged. He then drove her out to the desert east of Los Angeles and
strangled her to death. By the time Dull's body was found, there were no clues
linking the crime to Glatman. Back in Los Angeles, Glatman posted the pictures
of Dull on his walls and became further obsessed with rape and murder. His next
victim was Shirley Ann Bridgeford, whom he also strangled to death in the
desert. In July 1958, Glatman struck again, following the same twisted
procedure. But in October, his luck ran out. Lorraine Vigil, who answered one
of Glatman's modeling ads, was driving with him to his studio when she noticed
that he was heading out of the city. She began to struggle with Glatman, who
pulled out a pistol and attempted to tie her hands. After being shot through
the hip, Vigil was able to wrestle the gun away from him. In the ensuing
struggle, they both tumbled out of the car just as a police officer drove past.
Glatman was arrested and confessed to the three murders, seeming to delight in
recounting his sadistic crimes. His trial lasted a mere three days before he
was sentenced to death.
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