Arthur Shawcross

Arthur John Shawcross (June 6, 1945 – November 10, 2008), also known as the Genesee River Killer, was an American serial killer active in Rochester, New York, between 1972 and 1989. Shawcross's first known murders took place in his hometown of Watertown, New York, where he killed a young boy and a girl. Under the terms of a plea bargain, he was allowed to plead guilty to one charge of manslaughter for those two 1972 murders, for which he served 14 years of a 25-year sentence.

Shawcross killed most of his victims in 1988 and 1989 after being granted an early parole; the granting of that early parole later led to controversy. A food service worker, he trawled the streets of Rochester in his girlfriend's car looking for prostitutes to kill. Shawcross died on 10 November 2008, while serving a prison sentence of 250 years for his 1980s crimes, at the age of 63.

Michael H. Stone, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and an authority on violent behavior, identified Shawcross's early parole as "one of the most egregious examples of the unwarranted release of a prisoner" in his book The Anatomy of Evil.

Early life Arthur Shawcross was born in Kittery, Maine, on June 6, 1945, the first of four children to Arthur Roy Shawcross and Elizabeth "Bessie" ("Betty") Yerakes Shawcross. His family moved to Watertown, New York, when he was young.

Throughout his childhood, Shawcross was a frequent bed-wetter. He later claimed his mother performed oral sex on him for several years starting when he was aged 7, and that during junior high school he had sexual relations with his sister. Shawcross had a reputation at school as a bully and would frequently act out violently. He dropped out of high school in 1960.

In April 1967, at age 21, Shawcross was drafted into the United States Army. At this time, he divorced his first wife and gave up his rights to their 18-month-old son, whom he never saw again. He served one tour of duty with the 4th Supply and Transport Company of the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. He later boasted of grotesque combat exploits, such as "beheading mama-sans and nailing their heads to trees as a warning to the Vietcong" and engaging in cannibalism; in reality, he never served in a combat position. On September 2, just prior to the body's discovery, Shawcross raped and killed eight-year-old Karen Ann Hill, who had been visiting Watertown with her mother for the Labor Day weekend. He was arrested the next day.

A grand jury indicted Shawcross for murder in Hill's death. On October 17, 1972, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first degree manslaughter for both deaths and was sentenced to an indeterminate term with a maximum of 25 years at Attica Correctional Facility. In November he was transferred to Green Haven Correctional Facility.

Jefferson County District Attorney William McClusky explained the plea bargain by stating that other than Shawcross's confession to police, there was no direct evidence linking him to the Blake killing. McClusky also suggested Shawcross could have argued at trial that he was under "extreme emotional disturbance", and a jury would have been likely to arrive at a verdict of manslaughter. Name Age Disappeared Discovered 1. Dorothy "Dottie" Blackburn 27 March 18, 1988 March 24, 1988 2. Anna Marie Steffen 28 July 9, 1988 September 11, 1988 3. Dorothy Keeler 59 July 29, 1989 October 21, 1989 4. Patricia "Patty" Ives 25 September 29, 1989 October 27, 1989 5. June Stott 30 October 23, 1989 November 23, 1989 6. Marie Welch 22 November 5, 1989 January 5, 1990 7. Frances "Franny" Brown 22 November 11, 1989 November 15, 1989 8. Kimberly Logan 30 November 15, 1989 November 15, 1989 9. Elizabeth "Liz" Gibson 29 November 25, 1989 November 27, 1989 10. Darlene Trippi 32 December 15, 1989 January 5, 1990 11. June Cicero 33 December 17, 1989 January 3, 1990 12. Felicia Stephens 20 December 28, 1989 December 31, 1989

All the victims were murdered in Monroe County except for Gibson, who was killed in neighboring Wayne County. Retired detective Robert Keppel has argued that the detectives investigating the case over-relied on the concept of modus operandi, at times searching for multiple suspects due to small differences in the profiles of each victim. Lewis also claimed that Shawcross moved into a separate internal personality named "Bessie" when he killed, arguing for him to be institutionalized rather than being returned to the prison system.

In response to the defense's claim that Shawcross's actions were the product of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his war service, FBI criminal profiler Robert K. Ressler reviewed the claim on behalf of the prosecution before the trial. Ressler wrote that "[Shawcross's] claim of having witnessed wartime atrocities was patently outrageous and untrue." Prosecution psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz testified that Shawcross had antisocial personality disorder. It was later determined that Shawcross had a cyst pressing on the temporal lobe of his brain, as well as scarring on his frontal lobes areas that are responsible for decision-making and self-control.

Imprisonment

Shawcross was incarcerated at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York, where he was held until his death.

In 2003, Shawcross was interviewed by British reporter Katherine English for a documentary on cannibalism. He bragged about slicing out and eating the vulvae of three victims, but refused to discuss his earlier claim of eating the genitals of his first victim, Jack Blake.