Joseph Christopher

Murders

Christopher's murder spree began on September 22, 1980, when he killed three black men and one boy in the space of 36 hours with a .22 caliber sawed-off Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic rifle concealed in a brown paper bag. These murders led to the media epithet of the .22-Caliber Killer. A 14-year-old boy, Glenn Dunn, was the first victim, shot outside a supermarket in Buffalo on September 22. Harold Green, 32, was shot the next day while dining at a fast food restaurant in Cheektowaga. That same evening in Buffalo, 30 year old Emmanuel Thomas was shot while crossing the street to his home, only 7 blocks away from Glenn Dunn's murder. On September 24, Joseph McCoy was shot to death in Niagara Falls.

He committed two more murders on October 8 and October 9, both times bludgeoning his victims to death and then cutting their hearts out. The bloodied, beaten, and mutilated body of 71 year old Parler Edwards was found in the trunk of his taxi cab parked in Amherst on October 8. Forty-year-old Ernest Jones was found in similar condition beside the Niagara River in Tonawanda on October 9. Jones' blood-spattered taxi was found 3 miles away in Buffalo.

Collin Cole, 37, was attacked in a Buffalo hospital on October 10. A white man matching the description of the .22 Caliber Killer tried to strangle him to death. Cole said the man snarled, "I hate niggers" at him before trying to kill him. He was saved by the arrival of a nurse, and though severe damage had been done to his throat, he survived the attack.

These initial murders went unsolved at first, and Christopher enlisted in the United States Army in November, and was stationed at Fort Benning. He soon received Christmas furlough and arrived in Manhattan on December 20, where, on December 22, he committed four more murders and two more attacks; this time stabbing his victims to death, thus earning the moniker of the Midtown Slasher. Twenty-five year old John Adams was stabbed at around 11:30 a.m., but survived. About two hours later, 32 year old Ivan Frazier was attacked. He managed to deflect the blade with his hand, suffering only minor injuries. Luis Rodriguez, 19, was the first murder of the day; at around 3:30 p.m., he was stabbed to death. At 6:50 p.m., 30 year old Antone Davis was stabbed to death. Around 4 hours later, 20 year old Richard Renner was stabbed and killed. Finally, Carl Ramsey was stabbed with a knife while on the subway at around 11 p.m., and died from his injuries before midnight.

Christopher then returned to Buffalo and fatally stabbed another black man, 31-year-old Roger Adams, on December 29 and 26-year-old Wendell Barnes in Rochester on December 30. He committed three additional attacks in Buffalo on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day (Albert Menefee, Larry Little, and Calvin Crippen), but all three victims survived. Christopher then returned to Fort Benning in January 1981.

When back at Fort Benning, Christopher attacked a fellow black soldier with a paring knife in what was described as an unprovoked attack on January 18. The soldier survived the attack and Christopher was placed in the fort's stockade, where he attempted suicide by cutting himself with a razor. In a subsequent psychiatric session, he told a psychiatrist that he "had to" kill blacks. ? January 18, 1981 Fort Benning, GA Slashed/stabbed

Trial, imprisonment and death

He pleaded not guilty to the three murders and refused counsel by lawyers hired by his mother, opting instead to represent himself. He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in prison, but this ruling was overturned as the trial judge had barred the defense from presenting expert psychiatric testimony about Christopher's ability to stand trial. He was later found competent to stand trial, and appeared in court again in 1985 under various charges which led to him being sentenced to life imprisonment. While imprisoned at the Attica Correctional Facility, Christopher claimed that he committed 13 killings. Christopher would ultimately be convicted of three .22 caliber killings, those being Glenn Dunn, Harold Green and Emanuel Thomas. He died in prison due to a rare form of male breast cancer on March 1, 1993, at the age of 37.

Media coverage The Discovery Channel cable network television show The FBI Files first aired its Joseph Christopher investigation, on May 9, 2000, titled the ".22 Caliber Killer".