Storyville Slayer

The Storyville Slayer is the nickname given to an American serial killer who murdered at least 12 prostitutes in New Orleans, Louisiana. Through the course of the investigation, two separate suspects were considered, one of whom was convicted of one murder, leading investigators to believe that multiple killers are responsible.

Modus operandi The perpetrator(s) mainly targeted girls and women of African-American descent, aged between 17 and 42, as victims. Most of them were strangled to death, while a number of others were beaten and drowned in canals and rivers, and then dumped in swamps, rivers or canals near highways bordering the western shores of Lake Pontchartrain. Due to the isolated locations of the dumping sites, the victims' bodies were left in water spanning from several weeks to several years, resulting in extreme decomposition and destruction of incriminating evidence. Some of the victims have never been identified.

On August 4, 1991, the body of 17-year-old Danielle Britton was found in a ditch not far from where "Brenda" had been abducted. Her body had been covered with garbage, and an autopsy determined that she had been beaten and strangled. Britton had dropped out of school shortly before her death, and was last seen in a New Orleans bar next to an unknown man. It is unclear where she was employed, but nothing indicated that she engaged in prostitution or used drugs.

On September 3, the body of 21-year-old Tyra Tassin was found. A mother of three, she had a criminal record for drug possession.

June 2, 25-year-old George Williams' body was found in the LaBranche Wetlands area of St. Charles Parish. An autopsy determined that she had been strangled. Investigators determined that she was transgender, and had worked as an exotic dancer at a New Orleans nightclub. Williams had prior arrest for robbery and drug possession. However, while investigating her death, authorities learned that she was last seen alive on February 2, getting into the car of an unidentified white male. Her mother Lillian reported her missing the same day.

February 21, the body of 42-year-old Delores Mack was found in the waters of a canal near a highway, not far from the Lewis crime scene. She too had been strangled, but had no known history with either drugs or prostitution.

On December 9, 1994, Robinson went to the police to report him for beating her, and according to her statement, Gant punched her in the face and broke her nose.

Russell Ellwood In addition to Gant, another resident of New Orleans, Russell Ellwood, soon came under police suspicion. A native of Massillon, Ohio, Ellwood moved to New Orleans in 1968 after graduating high school. For the next 30 years, Ellwood lived in squalor because of his drug addiction, had no permanent residence, never married and changed professions often, mostly sticking to photography and cab driving. Owing to his addiction, Ellwood was arrested several times from 1968 to 1998. When not imprisoned, he spent most of his time among fellow vagrants, with acquaintances describing him as an outsider who constantly sought to make get-rich-quick schemes, but consistently failed in his endeavors.

Ellwood first came under police scrutiny in 1994, after he was allegedly found masturbating in his car by police, which had been parked by the road, near where Cheryl Lewis and Delores Mack's bodies were found. In the following years, the credibility of this incident was questioned, as the program regularly received numerous calls from people who claimed to have done terrible things, with some alleging that Stern himself faked the call to boost his ratings. Ellwood was still incarcerated on August 13, 1997, so he may have been incarcerated at the time of the phone call.

After his release, Ellwood returned to Canton to live with his brother, who offered him a high-paying job. Based on Hill's testimony, the task force tracked him down and re-interviewed in the presence of Ron Camden, a 27-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department's Homicide Unit. During interrogation, Ellwood initially denied making any such statements to the inmates, but after an audio tape of Hill's testimony was played, he admitted that he had boasted to Hill. Ellwood was eventually convicted and ordered to spend 120 days behind bars. While incarcerated, authorities charged him with the murders of Lewis and Mack on March 4, 1998. Gilliam stated that she woke up to find herself in a pool of blood in an unfamiliar, wooded area, where a passing motorist found her by chance and sheltered her at the motel where he was staying. She said that she did not report the incident, due to being a prostitute with a criminal record.

Navassa Richmond, a former stripper and prostitute, testified that she had also been beaten and assaulted twice by a drug-crazed Ellwood, during which he also attempted to strangle her. Janie Stokes, a former prostitute, told the court that she first met him in either 1992 or 1993 at Snell's gas station in Marrero, when he was working as a cab driver. Stokes stated Ellwood bought her lunch and treated her nicely before driving her to his home, where he suggested that they use cocaine. After doing drugs together, Ellwood beat her, but she managed to flee. The witness, like Gilliam, did not report the incident because she was a drug addict.

Antoinette Rainey, who worked as a drug dealer in New Orleans, also appeared as a witness for the prosecution, testifying that Ellwood was a regular customer. She recounted an incident in which Ellwood forced her into his car at gunpoint, then drove her to an underpass where he beat, raped and robbed her, threatening to kill her during the ordeal. Rainey was able to escape, but did not report the attack due to her criminal lifestyle.

Three witnesses testified that they had seen the defendant with Cheryl Lewis shortly before her disappearance. Ellwood was found guilty of killing Cheryl Lewis and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on August 17, 1999. A deputy who worked in the department later attempted to sue them for allegedly firing him for revealing that Rushing had destroyed crucial evidence. His appeal was rejected due to lack of evidence.

Aftermath As of November 2021, all of the murders, aside from that of Cheryl Lewis, remain unsolved. Ellwood remains a suspect in several of the killings, but no charges have been filed against him. Gant left New Orleans after his discharge from law enforcement and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he presumably still lives today. In a 2016 interview with HuffPost, Major C.J. Destor of the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed that Gant is still on the suspect list.

Ellwood died at Angola State Prison in Angola, Louisiana, in 2014.