Joseph Henry Burgess

Joseph Henry Burgess (1946 or 1947 – July 16, 2009), sometimes referred to as the Cookie Bandit, was an American fugitive and suspected serial killer. He was the prime suspect in a 1972 double homicide committed in British Columbia, Canada, where he had been hiding to avoid the draft.

He died in a shootout with police in rural New Mexico after being one of Canada's most wanted criminals for 37 years.

Early life Burgess was born in 1946 or 1947 in New Jersey, where he later attended a Jesuit college and occasionally taught religion classes.

According to authorities, he was a "religious zealot" who sometimes referred to himself as Job, after the Biblical figure. He fled to Canada in the late 1960s to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War, after which an active warrant was put out for his arrest. Eventually settling in a Children of God commune on the British Columbia Coast, he clashed with other residents due to his religious fervor and rifle ownership.

Burgess was initially considered a suspect in the 2004 double homicide of a couple on Fish Head Beach in Jenner, California. His involvement was cleared after Shaun Gallon was convicted of the crime in 2019.