The Centre Cannot Hold » Church of Misery

1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, the Butcher of Rostov, is executed for his murders

Loki — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:00:06 +0000

Andrei Chikatlio, variously known as the Rostov Ripper, the Red Ripper and the Butcher of Rostov, was a Russian-born serial killer who confessed to 56 murders, and was convicted of 52 of them. His first murder was in 1979, a 9 year old girl whom he also raped. Another man was convicted and ultimately executed for the crime.

Chikatlio was finally caught in 1990, after a manhunt that stretched over several months, and was cooperative with police, leading them to the places where he had buried various of his victims. His execution took place only after a lengthy trial and psychiatric evaluation. He was shot behind the ear with a single pistol round, killing him instantly.

Referenced in:

Rostov Ripper — Impious
Citizen X (Erotophonophilia) — Divine Pustulence
Red Ripper Blues (Andrei Chikatilo) — Church of Misery

1973 – Herbert Mullin is arrested for murder

Loki — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:00:18 +0000

Between October 13, 1972 and Feburary 13, 1973, Herbet Mullin killed a total of 13 people. The last of these, Fred Perez, was an elderly hispanic gentleman who was unfortunate enough to be working on his garden when Mullin drove by. For no readily apparent reason, Mullins, did a u-turn, came back, shot the man, then drove off.

All of this took place in broad daylight, and there were several witnesses, one of whom called the police and gave them the license plate number of Mullin’s car. He was arrested within minutes of this phone call, and readily confessed to all his murders. Herbert Mullin is currently serving life imprisonment for the crimes, after trying and failing to use the insanity defence.

Referenced in:

Megalomania (Herbert Mullin) – Church of Misery

1984 – James Huberty goes on a shooting spree

Loki — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:23:00 +0000

James Oliver Huberty was a survivalist living in San Ysidro, New Mexico. A man who never felt at home in America, and felt that it was in a state of moral decay, but shared that all-too-common delusion that murder is apparently not a moral failing.

On July 18, 1984, he strode into a McDonalds three blocks away from his residence, and opened fire. He wounded 19 people, and killed 21 more, before he was finally killed himself. The massacre lasted 77 minutes. In the aftermath, McDonalds demolished the restaurant, and donated the site to the city as a memorial to the victims.

Referenced in:

McMassacre — Macabre
McMurder — Ethnic Cleansing
James Oliver Huberty — LoNNNIe
Shotgun Boogie (James Oliver Huberty) — Church of Misery

1962 – Graham Young is arrested for murder

Loki — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:23:08 +0000

Graham Young was only 14 years old when he was arrested for murder – and the murder in question was that of his stepmother, Molly. He had also been trying to poison his father, sister and a friend of his from school.

Young was convicted on three counts of attempted murder (the murder of his stepmother could not be verified, as she had been cremated) and served nine years in a prison for the mentally unstable. After his release, he poisoned at least another seventy-two people, two of them fatally. He was once again arrested, and this time sentenced to life in prison. He eventually died in prison at the age of 42.

Referenced in:

Poison — Macabre
Taste the Pain (Graham Young) — Church Of Misery

2001 – Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, is arrested

Loki — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:23:31 +0000

Gary Ridgway is one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. He was convicted of 48 separate counts of murder – but he has confessed to a total of 71, and some authorities believe that he may have murdered more than 90 people, almost all of them women. Favouring strangulation as his method of murder, Ridgway dumped the bodies in forested areas of King County, Washington state or in the Green River – it was the latter which led to him being dubbed the Green River Killer.

The murders took place over a span of about twenty years, beginning in 1982. Although no murders have been confirmed later than 1998, it is believed that Ridgway may have committed more murders between 19998 and his arrest in 2001. Ridgway’s arrest was as a result of DNA evidence gathered in 1987 – he had been a suspect for some of his killings since at least 1983.

Referenced in:

Deep Red Bells — Neko Case
Green River — Church of Misery
Skeletons in the River — Divine Pustulence
The Green River Murderer (He’s Still Out There) — Macabre

1978 – The Jonestown Massacre occurs

Loki — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:23:02 +0000

Jim Jones was a weird kid, into death and religion, who would later become a Communist. Later still, he would found the People’s Temple, and move it – and most of the adherents of the religion – to a site in Guyana he named the People’s Temple Agricultural Project, but which is better known to history as Jonestown. Messianic fuckwits like Jones are a cowardly and superstitious lot, and Jones himself was about as well balanced as an up-turned egg.

In 1978, after the visit of Congressman Leo Ryan, Jones’ personal demons got the better of him. He ordered a mass suicide of his followers – although accounts vary as to just how voluntary this suicide was – and the shooting of the Congressman and his party. A total of 918 people died, including Jones and 908 of his followers. Almost all of them were Americans, and until the 9/11 attacks, it was the single greatest loss of American lives that ever took place in a single day.

Referenced in:

Guyana Punch — The Judys
Jimmie Jones — The Vapors
Reverend — Church of Misery
The Riverflow — The Levellers
Jonestown — Concrete Blonde
Guyana (Cult of the Damned) — Manowar
Carnage in the Temple of the Damned -– Deicide
Ballad of Jim Jones — Brian Jonestown Massacre

1957 – Police first find evidence of Ed Gein’s killings

Loki — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:23:58 +0000

Ed Gein only ever confessed to two murders, although the circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that there were more.

It all fell apart for him on November 16, 1957 when the disappearance of Bernice Worden from Plainfield, Wisconsin (their mutual hometown) was reported to the police. They then investigated Gein’s house – he being the last person to see her – and found Worden’s body there.

They also found body parts of at least ten other women, possibly more. Gein was eventually convicted of Worden’s murder only – it being judged prohibitively expensive to investigate all of them – and Gein claimed to have exhumed them, not murdered them. Gein was convicted of two murders – the ones he confessed to, and later died in prison.

Referenced in:

Nipple Belt — Tad
Ed Gein — Macabre
Ed Gein — Killdozer
Young God — Swans
Skinned — Blind Melon
Dead Skin Mask — Slayer
Plainfield — Church of Misery
Nothing to Gein — Mudvayne
Edward Gein — The Fibonaccis
The Geins — Macabre Minstrels
Old Mean Ed Gein — The Fibonaccis
Ballad of Ed Gein — Swamp Zombies
Sex Is Bad Eddie — The Tenth Stage

1994 – John Wayne Gacy is executed for murder

Loki — Mon, 10 May 2010 07:23:47 +0000

John Wayne Gacy was a serial rapist and murderer who lived in Chicago, Illinois. He is known to have raped and murdered at least 33 young men – 26 of whom he buried under his house. Most infamously, he often dressed as a character of his own invention, Pogo the Clown, in order to lure children into his clutches.

Gacy was arrested for his murders on December 20, 1978, and confessed two days later – in fact, he confessed to more murders than there was evidence to confirm. He attempted to plead insanity, but failed to convince the court. On March 13, 1980, he was found guilty of 33 counts of murder and sentenced to death. His execution by lethal injection took place in 1994, after years of appeals failed to overturn his convictions.

Referenced in:

Gacy’s Lot — Macabre
33 Something — Bathory
Suffer Age — Fear Factory
Pogo The Clown — Hubert Kah
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. — Sufjan Stevens
Pogo The Clown — Dog Fashion Disco
Master of Brutality (John Wayne Gacy) — Church of Misery
Three for Flinching (Revenge of the Porno Clowns) — The Dillinger Escape Plan

1964 – The Boston Strangler strikes for the last time

Loki — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:23:33 +0000

The Boston Strangler – assuming it was only one man – was a serial rapist and murderer who terrorised Boston from June 1962 and January 1964. He killed thirteen people, all of them single women (ranging in age from 19 to 85), and all but three of them he also sexually assaulted. Despite his nom du crime, not all of his victims were strangled.

Although a man named Albert De Salvo later confessed to and was convicted of the Strangler’s crimes, there remains some doubt that he was actually responsible for all of the crimes – although he knew many details police had not released to the public, there were some inconsistencies in his testimony. To date, however, no one else has been charged with any of the crimes attributed to the Boston Strangler.

Referenced in:

The Boston Strangler – Macabre
Midnight Rambler – The Rolling Stones
Dedicated to Albert De Salvo – Whitehouse
Boston Strangler (Albert DeSalvo) – Church of Misery

1949 – Howard Unrah goes on a killing spree

Loki — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:23:28 +0000

Sometimes, you really think that these things should have been caught earlier than they were.

Surely, for example, someone in Howard Unruh’s unit, back in World War Two, must have noticed the meticulous notes he kept about each German he killed? And although many men came home with souvenir firearms, not many of them went on to decorate their bedrooms with military paraphenalia, or built shooting ranges in their basements.

Whatever the reason, Howard Unrah’s madness went unnoticed until the morning of September 6, 1949. On this day, Howard loaded his captured luger, left his Camden, New Jersey home, and in only twelve minutes, killed 13 people and wounded 3 more.

A siege developed, but Unrah surrendered to police fairly quickly, and at his trial was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity. He was placed in the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, where he remains as of this writing.

Referenced in:

Retal – Church of Misery
Howard Unrah – Sheer Terror
Howard Unrah (What Have You Done Now?) – Macabre