Hugh Morse

Hugh Bion Morse (January 9, 1930 – April 2003) was an American serial killer who committed numerous crimes across the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. With the help of the FBI, Morse was arrested, tried, and convicted on one count of murder in Minnesota, and is known to have committed murders in Alabama and Washington beforehand. He also committed rape, burglary, assault, attempted murder, and child molestation in at least four other states.

Early life Hugh Bion Morse was born on January 9, 1930, in Kansas City, Missouri. Though little is known about his childhood, Morse entered the United States Army sometime during the 1940s. In 1946, he was AWOL from the United States Air Force.

Crimes

Morse first came to attention of law enforcement after a May 1951 arrest for indecent exposure and assault in Wilmington, North Carolina. For this, Morse was dishonorably discharged in December 1951. On November 7, 1959, he broke into the home of 28-year-old Glorie Brie, and proceeded to rape and subsequently murder her. A week later, Morse entered the same apartment building and broke into a different room, where he encountered an 18-year-old woman and raped her at knifepoint. Afterwards he fled the building and the state of Georgia altogether.

Morse continued his travels until he ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, on September 18, 1961, he raped and murdered 34-year-old Carol Ronan. It was not long until Mrs. Harold L. Carlson, 21, who was on her honeymoon recognized Morse's photo and reported him to the police, where he was arrested on October 13, 1961. After his arrest, Morse confessed to all four murders.

Incarceration Morse was charged with second degree murder for the killing of Ronan, for which he received a life sentence. In December 1963, Morse attempted to commit suicide in his jail cell at Minnesota Correctional Facility by slashing his wrists and his neck with a blade. By the time of his death, he was 73 years old, and had served 42 years in prison.

Other murders Morse was suspected in other unsolved cases from around the time he was active. By the time of his arrest, Morse had become a suspect in the March 1959 murder of 9-year-old Candy Rogers in Spokane, Washington. He first came to attention when investigators noticed several similarities in his movement and Rogers' murder. When confronted, Morse denied killing Rogers. Morse was also questioned after his arrest in the disappearance of Ann Marie Burr, who had gone missing in Tacoma, Washington in August 1961.