Melvin Rees

Melvin David Rees (1928 – October 26, 1995) was an American serial killer who committed five murders in Virginia and Maryland between 1957 and 1959. He murdered and sexually assaulted (in that order) Margaret Harold, the girlfriend of US Army soldier Sgt. Roy D. Hudson, during a highway encounter near Annapolis. Two years later, he tortured and murdered the four members of the Jackson family near Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Early life Little is known about Rees' childhood and upbringing and some rumors suggest he was born in the UK but disowned and sent away to live in America at a very young age. He attended Edwards Military Institute in Salemsburg, NC and the Woodward School for Boys in Washington, DC before graduating from Hyattsville High School in Maryland. He entered the army in October 1946, serving as a military musician in Europe until his discharge in 1953. After returning to the US, Rees attended the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park, just outside Washington, D.C. Classmates at UMD would later recall Rees being a talented musician, showing skill with the saxophone, piano, and clarinet.

In 1955, Rees was arrested on charges of assaulting an unidentified 36-year-old woman. Rees had tried to force her into his car, but she escaped. The victim, however, did not press charges, and the case against Rees was dropped. The couple eventually moved to West Memphis, Arkansas, where Rees had taken a temporary job in a piano shop. It was in West Memphis where Rees was apprehended on June 24, 1960.

Murders Margaret Harold On June 26, 1957, Margaret Harold and her boyfriend—a U.S. Army sergeant on weekend leave—were traveling near Annapolis, Maryland when Rees, driving his green Chrysler, forced them off the road. After exiting the vehicle, Rees gestured at the couple to roll down their car window, displaying a nickel-plated .38 revolver. Hurkos visited the site of the Margaret Harold murder, and told investigators that the same killer had murdered the Jacksons. —sent a letter to the Fredericksburg authorities, suggesting that they look into Rees. Moser explained that he and Rees often engaged in heady philosophical conversations, one of which had been about whether murder could be considered acceptable. Rees, under the influence of benzedrine, confided to Moser that he considered murder to just be another part of the "human experience" that he eagerly wanted to take part in. "You can't say it's wrong to kill," Rees reportedly told Moser. "Only individual standards make it right or wrong." Virginia added a death sentence for the other four murders. However, Rees was never executed due to his mental incapacity to assist in his own defense. His sentence was eventually reduced to life in prison in 1972. Melvin Rees died in federal custody at MCFP Springfield in Missouri in 1995.

Investigators also suspected that Rees was responsible for four homicides in the area around the University of Maryland. Teenagers Mary Shomette, Michael Ann ("Mikie") Ryan, Mary Fellers, and Shelby Venable were all found raped and killed in separate incidents. Rees was never charged in any of those four murders.

Miscellaneous Rees' habeas corpus case reached the Supreme Court in 1967 due to his being incompetent—he was diagnosed a schizophrenic—but SCOTUS put their decision on hold until his death decades later, at which point they just put a lid on it with two words: “Certiorari dismissed.” However, in 2013 they made a nine to zero decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas so their earlier indecision couldn't be used as a precedent in other cases in which incompetent defendants might evade the death penalty.

Fellow musicians called him Dave.

Purportedly, Rees told a reporter in 1985 about two additional murders in 1956, that of Shelby Venable and Mary Fellers.