Nathaniel Lipscomb

Nathaniel Lipscomb (1929 – June 9, 1961), known as The Dawn Strangler, was an American serial killer responsible for three rape-murders in Baltimore, Maryland, committed between 1958 and 1959, in addition to several sexual assaults and a possible previous murder committed in Charlotte, North Carolina. Convicted for his crimes, he was executed at the Maryland Penitentiary, the last convict to be executed in the state prior to Furman v. Georgia.

Early life Born in Gaffney, South Carolina, in 1929, not much is known about Lipscomb's upbringing, but according to his later confessions, he was known to be a persistent voyeur who had been jailed in his hometown for spying on a woman undressing herself. His second known offence was committed in nearby North Carolina, where he served a prison sentence for stealing a bike.

Murders Mrs. Howard Maxwell On May 14, 1951, the Mecklenburg County Police Department were called in the afternoon about a suspected murder that had occurred in Charlotte. The caller said that her granddaughter, 4-year-old Diane Maxwell, whose head was cut and bloodied, told her that a man had burgled into their home and "cut" her mother. Upon arriving at the scene, patrolmen discovered the body of Mrs. Maxwell lying in a pool of her own blood, with stab wounds over her left eye that penetrated into her brain and another into her breast. In addition, her throat had been cut from side to side, leaving a deep gash on it.

In October, Lipscomb was released from Cherry Hospital, and subsequently vanished. Upon learning this, authorities searched for him at his family home, where his sister and mother lived, but they told them that they had run him off, as they were afraid of him. According to his mother, he claimed that he was going to Norfolk, Virginia, in search of a job. For the next eight years, Lipscomb remained under the radar, until his arrest as suspect in three rape-murders.

The first victim was 38-year-old black woman Mae Hall, whose body was found in a neighbor's yard on 1300 East Eager Street on December 9, 1958. She had been strangled to death, and it was determined that she had been dead for at least several days prior to the body's discovery. After a short trial, he was found guilty of the three murders, showing no visible emotion at his trial. He was sentenced to death, a verdict contested by his attorneys, who claimed that their client was insane at the time of the murders. The decision was appealed a few months later, but ultimately rejected by the Maryland Court of Appeals. On June 9, 1961, Nathaniel Lipscomb was executed in the Maryland State Penitentiary's gas chamber, the last inmate to be executed in the state pre-Furman v. Georgia.