John Eric Armstrong

Early life John Eric Armstrong was born on November 23, 1973, in New Bern, North Carolina. He claimed his biological father was abusive toward him and his mother sexually abused Armstrong when he was a child. In 1978, Armstrong's younger brother, Michael, died at two months old from sudden infant death syndrome. Because of the grief caused by Michael's death, Armstrong attempted to end his life. Shortly thereafter, his father left him and his mother. Armstrong did not receive treatment for his grief until 1989, a year after he was hospitalized for locking himself in a bathroom because a girl at school was pressuring him to have sex with her.

Murders Armstrong joined the United States Navy in 1992. His rackmates have described him as "moody." He allegedly killed his first victim in 1991, although this is not confirmed.

Armstrong claimed that while serving in the Navy, he had "either killed, or tried to kill, every prostitute he'd ever had sex with". In his confession, Armstrong claimed he killed a total of eleven prostitutes elsewhere while serving in the Navy. He admitted to the murder of three women in the Seattle metropolitan area, two in Honolulu, two in Hong Kong, and one each in North Carolina and Virginia, as well as Thailand and Singapore. However, subsequent research by local police in Hawaii and Thailand found no cases similar to those described by Armstrong. Of the separate investigations, Armstrong could only be tentatively linked to the murder of a woman in Haifa, which was later discounted after Israeli authorities found that Armstrong was not stationed in Israel at the time of the killing. Additionally, Armstrong's description of one Seattle victim changed from "a transsexual [to] a black guy who tried to bum money off him", leading police to doubt the veracity of Armstrong's confession.

He was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1999, and enrolled at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan afterwards.

In media Television An episode of "History's Mysteries: Infamous Murders" included a brief segment on the John Eric Armstrong case. A September 2012 episode of the Investigation Discovery (ID) series "Very Bad Men" explored the Armstrong case. The second episode of the Oxygen Network's "Twisted Killers" series, airing in January 2022, focused on Armstrong and his crimes. Woodcut Media and Sky TV (UK) produced an episode of "World's Most Evil Killers" on the Armstrong case, released in December 2023.

Books

(prior edition of "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer," released in the academic community)