Wendell Lightbourne

Wendell Willis Lightbourne (born 1940), known as The Moon Mad Murderer, was a Bermudian serial killer who committed three rape-murders and the attempted murder of two others during a series of attacks that terrorized natives of the Warwick Parish area from July 1958 through September 1959, with most of the attacks involving mutilation to a degree. Although he was initially sentenced to hang, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Attacks July 19, 1958 Lightbourne is believed to have assaulted 35-year-old Florence Lillian Flood in her backyard on July 19, 1958, by striking her with a wooden lawn mower. She was hospitalized for two weeks, and survived; she claimed the attacker might have been her husband Leonard, and he was arrested, but was released after being cleared of suspicion.

March 7, 1959 Nine months later, Lightbourne attacked 72-year-old Gertrude Robinson outside her cottage in Warwick Parish on March 7, 1959. Robinson's neighbor William Kuhn discovered her later that day, nude, and badly beaten, but still clinging to life. Robinson was rushed to a hospital in Hamilton, where she died as a result of her injuries.

July 24, 1959 On July 24, 53-year-old Rosaleen Kenny was just about to fall asleep in her home when Lightbourne forced himself in. He located Kenny, and started beating her; four others were in the home at the time and heard the commotion, which caused Lightbourne to flee the home. Kenny was injured, but survived. She described her attacker as a large black man, which was a breakthrough to police as they now knew what the killer looked like, who was then dubbed "The Moon Mad Murderer". Sometime when she was taking a stroll, Lightbourne attacked her, stripped her of her clothes, and sexually assaulted her. He murdered her after the fact and threw her body into water. Once speculation about her disappearance was linked to the murders was overheard, skin divers were brought to the waters to possibly find her body, but it was not found until a craft crane crew discovered her mutilated body laying nude in the water. The mutilation of the body was mostly attributed to sharks. During this time, newspapers began to speculate, but later erroneously state as a fact, that the killer was a U.S. Serviceman. and was charged with killing Rawlinson. Although nothing conclusive enough linked him to the two other murders, the cases were closed after his arrest, with authorities pinpointing Lightbourne as the killer,

Trial Lightbourne went on trial in November. He attempted to sway the jury that the killing of Rawlinson was an accident. The jury found him guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in January 1960, and he was sent to serve his sentence in the United Kingdom.