a criminal's mind

a collection of known serial killers, what they did, who their victims were, and their stories.

warning: may contain nudity and gorey images

Margie Velma Barfield

- born: October 29, 1932

- from: South Caroline

- died: Novemeber 2, 1984

- cause of death: lethal injection

- number of victims: 5

- location of killings: North Carolina

- the first woman in the United States to be executed after the 1977 resumption of capital punishment

- the first woman to be executed since 1962

- the first woman to be executed by lethal injection

Margie Velma Barfield

Joseph D. Ball–Murders

After a while women in the area were reported missing, including barmaids, former girlfriends and his wife. When two Bexar county sheriff’s deputies came to question him in 1938, Ball pulled a handgun from his cash register and killed himself with a bullet through the heart (some sources report that he shot himself in the head). If he were tried and convicted of the murders, he would have surely been sent to the electric chair.

A handman that conspired with Ball, Clifford Wheeler, admitted to helping Ball get rid of the bodies of two of the women he had killed. Wheeler led them to the remains of Hazel Brown and Minnie Gotthard. Wheeler told authorities that Ball murdered at least 20 other women, but the alligators had disposed of any evidence. There has never been any firm evidence that the alligators actually ate any of his victims.

There were few written sources from the era which could verify Ball’s crimes. Newspaper editor Michael Hall investigated the story in depth in 2002, and wrote up his findings for Texas Monthly.

The film Eaten Alive by Tobe Hooper was inspired by Joe Ball.

Joseph D. Ball–Background

After serving on the front lines in Europe during World War I, Ball started his career as a bootlegger, providing illegal liquor to those who could pay. After the end of Prohibition, he opened a saloon called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas. He built a pond that contained five alligators because he misunderstood the term corpus delicti, believing that a murder conviction without a body would be impossible. He charged people to view them, especially during feeding time; the food consisted mostly of live cats and dogs.

Joseph D. Ball

- nicknames: The Alligator Man, The Butcher of Elmendorf

- born: January 6, 1896

- from: San Antonio, Texas

- died: Septmeber 24, 1938

- cause of death: suicide

- number of victims: anywhere between 5 and 20

- killing location: Elemendorf, Texas

Joseph D. Ball, The Butcher of Elmendorf

Joseph D. Ball, The Butcher of Elmendorf

Benjamin Anthony Atkins

- nickname: Woodward Corridor Killer

- born: August 26, 1968

- from: Detroit, Michigan

- death: September 17, 1997

- number of victims: 11

- served 4 years of his 11 life sentences before death

All the victims were found in vacant buildings, all were raped and strangled. Many of the victims were working as prosititues. Atkins said he was motivated by a hatred of prostitution.

“Sister” Amy Archer-Gilligan

In 1901, Amy and James Archer opened Sister Amy’s Nursing Home for the Elderly at Newington, Connecticut.

Their chosen clientele was the wealthy and the Archers gained a reputation for the quality of their care, despite neither having any medical qualification.

In 1907 they moved to larger premises in Windsor and opened the Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm. In 1910 James Archer died and his widow carried on running the home alone until 1913 when she married Michael W. Gilligan, a wealthy widower.

He died not long afterwards. Then strange happenings began at the home – inhabitants began dying despite being healthy.

Franklin R. Andrews signed an agreement allowing Archer-Gilligan to take money from his account for his care and died on 30 May 1914. He has been in good health.

Resident had to pay $1,500 up front for a promised lifetime of care in the home but soon afterwards many of them died; the rate was estimated at ten deaths a year, six times greater than the average death for the area.

There were 48 deaths in a five year period. Archer Gilligan was hoping that the authorities would not notice, especially since her local doctor, Howard King was signing the death certificates as natural causes.

Among the victims Charles Smith was poisoned on 9 April 1914, Alice Gowdy in December 1914 and Maude Lynch died on 2 February 1916.

Finally, the police did take notice and two bodies were exhumed, including that of Michael W. Gilligan. Both were found to contain very high levels of arsenic.

Amy Archer-Gilligan was arrested and in June 1917 went on trial in Hartford, Connecticut. The prosecution showed that she had bought large quantities of arsenic, the poison found in the bodies of her victims.

She claimed that she was devoted to her church and to the nursing profession. It cut no ice and she was convicted of five murders and sentenced to death.

Her lawyer engineered a retrial in June 1919 and she was again convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. She died aged 59 in 1928 while incarcerated in an insane asylum.

(Source: crimecircle.com)

“Sister” Amy Archer-Gilligan

“Sister” Amy Archer-Gilligan

Servant Girl Murders (Victims)

Mollie Smith: 25, murdered on December 30, 1884

Walter Spencer: seriously injured on December 30, 1884

Clara Strand: Swedish, seriously injured on March 19, 1885

Christine Martenson: Swedish, seriously injured on March 19, 1885

Eliza Shelly: murdered on May 6, 1885

Irene Cross: bled to death on May 22, 1885

Clara Dick: seriously injured in August of 1885

Mary Ramey: 11, mudered on August 30, 1885

Rebecca Ramey: seriously injured on August 30, 1885

Gracie Vance: murdered September 28, 1885

Orange Washington: murdered September 28, 1885

Lucinda Boddy: seriously injured September 28, 1885

Patsey Gibson: seriously injured September 28, 1885

Susan Hancock: murdered December 24, 1885

Eula Phillips: a courtesan, 17, murdered December 24, 1885

James Phillip: seriously injured on December 24, 1885; convicted for the murder of his wife, but the conviction was late overturned.