The Genesee River Killer – Part Two [04]

seen a barn fire in person before. It's something that I've witnessed several times in the past, and strangely enough, I had a dream about a barn fire last night. I don't know if I would call it a nightmare, but it was definitely a vivid, realistic dream that made me think of being a young boy again in northern Indiana. I was standing there on my footy pajamas watching a structure fire that had no hope of being put out

before the entire building was consumed. It took me right back to when I was five or six years old. I remember driving miles and miles behind fire trucks and then standing out in the cold air of a Midwestern night. Barnes burned incredibly fast and incredibly hot. Usually by the time the fire trucks arrived, it was too late to save the building. They were just there to knock down the flames and prevented them spread into the farmhouse or

other nearby buildings. Sometimes the farmers were lucky enough to get the animals out. Sometimes they weren't so fortunate. But with a loft full of hay fueling the fire, there was usually no hope, and that always made it even more tragic. Sometimes there was a lot of confusion on the ground. Other times everything seemed eerily calm as the fireman went about their business. It all played out right in front of us. It was exciting and terrifying, beautiful

yet terrible all at once. I'm Scott Benjamin, and everything I'm about to tell you is real. This is insomniac. It was April and Arthur shaw Cross, now age, was out of prison and on parole once again, and this time his appearance was dramatically different. He was no longer the relatively fit and trim six ft tall ex military man that went into prison in nineteen He now weighed

three hundred pounds and it wasn't muscle. His third wife, Penny, had divorced him in ninet, just three years into his prison term, but he already had another girlfriend waiting for him. Her name was Rose, and she had been Arthur's prison penpal. Life on the outside was different for Arthur this time. For one, he and Rose couldn't find a place to live. It wasn't that there were no houses for rent or apartments available. The problem was that no community wanted a

convicted child rapist and murderer moving in. Arthur couldn't return to Watertown for obvious reasons, and since his post prison relocations were well publicized in the first three communities he tried, there was a strong objection to his arrival. First they tried Bingham, to New York, then Delhi, then Fleishman's but in every case he and Rose were run out of town. A senior parole board officer finally decided it was time

to try something different. They made the unfortunate decision to seal Arthur shaw Crosses criminal records and then moved him two d and fifty miles away into an apartment in the city of Rochester, New York, without telling the members of the community or the authorities. In other words, no one knew who he was and his violent sex offender

past was now invisible. Arthur soon found a job to pay the bills, work in the night shift, chopping and packaging salads and boxes for a local food service company, and he and Rose were married in the summer of By Christmas of the same year, Arthur, now age forty two, was already having an affair with an older woman named

Clara Neil. She was fifty six. By the spring of shaw Crosses typical behavior was so erratic that neither of the two women he was involved with noticed anything unusual when he began staying out all night and using his mistress's borrowed car, blue Dodge Omni two cruise for prostitutes in the industrial area near the Genesee River. That's where he found his first adult victim, a prostitute by the name of Dorothy Blackburn. The agreement the two made was

for mutual oral sex for thirty dollars. Years later, shaw Cross would claim that during the encounter, Dorothy bit his penis, drawing blood and infuriating shaw Cross to the point of violent retribution. In turn, he bit a chunk of flesh out of her vagina and then choked her until she was unconscious. He then drove her lifeless body out to one of his favorite fishing spots, the bridge over the Salmon River in Northampton Park, and dropped her into the

cold water below. Her remains would be found for nearly a week. She was well preserved in the icy water, but the river had also removed any evidence that her killer might have left behind, aside from the deep bite marks around her genitals. The community of Rochester, New York didn't know it yet, but Dorothy Blackburn's murder was just the first of what would be many, many more and Arthur's second series of victims. It would be almost four

months before Arthur would strike again. It was early July, and now that he was ready, he returned to his favorite hunting ground, a stretch of road called Lyle Avenue in downtown Rochester. It was there that he found another prostitute, Anna Marie Stephen. A deal was made between the two sex for cash, and they headed down to the banks of the Genesee River and the dark privacy that location provided.

But when shaw Cross was unable to perform sexually, he claims Anna Marie made fun of him, so he punched her to the ground in the darkness. She crawled into the river to escape, but he went in after her, grabbed her by the throat, and held her underwater until she drowned. This time, he simply let the body float downstream instead of trying to hide it. She was discovered two months later. Somehow, Arthur resisted the urge to kill for a full year before taking his third victim in Rochester.

This time it was a homeless woman, Dorothy keeler Age. Dorothy was working as a waitress in a diner shaw Crossing asionally visited, and she and Arthur were having an affair. It was July and the two had spent a lazy afternoon together fishing and having sex on seth Green Island in the middle of the Genesee River. At some point, the conversation grew serious, and Dorothy threatened to reveal herself to the other two women in shaw Across his life,

his wife Rose and his mistress Clara. Arthur and Dorothy argued. He flew into a rage, picked up a heavy log, and he beat Dorothy to death. He then concealed her body under a fallen tree before heading home for the evening. Later, shaw Cross told police that he returned to Keiller's corpse months afterward, to remove her skull, He threw it into the river and it was never found. What was left of her body was discovered by fisherman on October, nearly

three months after she went missing. Just six days after Dorothy Keeler was found on October, the discarded body of yet another local sex worker, Patricia Ives, would be uncovered at a construction site. She had also been strangled. A little more than two weeks later, the bodies of two Rochester prostitutes were found on the same day, November, Francis Brown, aged and Kimberly Logan, aged thirty. They had been taken

just days apart in early November. Kimberly Logan was found to have leaves stuffed down her throat to silence her during her attack. Similar to shaw Cross's second victim, a year old Karen Hill. Arthur also used this tactic to silence the animals he killed when he was much younger. Just days later, on Thanksgiving Day, the body of another local woman was found underneath the blanket and a pile of brush. It was the body of June stott Age, thirty.

She had been missing for exactly one month. She was not a prostitute or a drug user. In fact, Stott was a friend of Rose and Arthur shaw Cross, even an occasional guest at their home. Similar to the other recent victims, June Stott had been strangled to death. Unlike the other adult victims to date, however, her body had been mutilated. She was sodomized after she was killed. She had been gutted from her genitals to her throat, and

her vagina had been cut out and removed. Arthur would later claim that he had eaten that part of her on with some internal organs. The killer's violence, as well as the frequency with which he was taking his victims,

had now escalated considerably. It was impossible for the police and the press to ignore the similarities among the recent slangs, and while the detectives continued to comb through the criminal records of the violent offenders that might be living in the area, Arthur shaw Crosses sealed criminal records meant that he didn't show up on any police searches. He remained invisible.

As a result of interviews with the local prostitutes. The authorities were now canvassing the street corners and bars looking for a suspicious man that several of the ladies had come to know Ah's Mitch. He was a regular customer on Lysle Avenue, and some of them knew, both of experience and word of mouth, that Mitch was not only capable of violence, but he was also with several of

the now missing women. What the cops didn't realize at the time was that they were closer than ever to the mysterious Mitch, and they were unintentionally giving him inside information that allowed him to continue his deadly attacks virtually unchallenged. M Arthur and Rose shaw Cross lived at two one Alexander Street in Rochester, New York. There was a dunkin Donuts located just down the block from their home, on the corner of Alexander Street and Monroe Avenue, about a

four minute walk from door to door. Arthur was a regular customer there. I know it sounds cliche, but that donut shop is where the police would often gather, the place where they felt like it was safe to let their guard down a bit, And of course the shop talk often turned to what was happening in the Genesee River killer case. Arthur was routinely present for these discussions.

Between his deadly attacks, Arthur would learn exactly what the police were discussing the leads they were chasing down and in general how close they were to capturing, well him, the killer. The whole thing was a sort of cat and mouse game, where the mouse, Arthur, had the inside line and exactly what the cat the Rochester police were up to. Years after his arrest, Arthur was asked about

his donut shopped conversations with the police. He attributed to his ability to get away with being so close to his pursuers without suspicion, to being well groomed and well dressed, including wearing shiny shoes a trade. Arthur claimed the police liked about him at the donut counter. He the role of a concerned citizen instead of the sort of individually he might suspect would be out on the streets killing

prostitutes at night. And because Arthur had gained their trust, he was occasionally given some friendly inside information about the stakeouts, where the decoy prostitutes were located, and the investigation in general, straight from the police work in the case, Well, this is a fairly rare situation. It's not the first time

we've heard a similar story. Edmund Kemper is an example of another serial killer who befriended the local police to gain inside information on the investigation of the murders he was carrying out. He hung out with police in a bar called the Jury Room, across the street from the Santa Cruz County Courthouse in Santa Cruz, California. Similar to shaw Cross, the police came to know Kemper as a friend. One of the officers even once gave him a set

of real police handcuffs as a gift. He occasionally used them in his killings. If the code he abducted was putting up a struggle, it was late. Arthur shaw Cross was forty four years old, and his body count continued to steadily grow. Seven missing women had already turned up dead, and there would be numerous more before it was all over. Just four days after the Thanksgiving Day discovery of June Stott's body, another shaw Cross victim was found. This time

it was Elizabeth Gibson, aged nine. She was a prostitute, strangled to death just like the others. However, her body was dumped in nearby Wayne County, New York, instead of Rochester, as Arthur felt the police were getting a little too close for his comfort level. Next, it was the body of twenty year old Felicias Stevens found on New Year's Eve, murdered just three days after Christmas. She was Arthur's final kill, but she wouldn't be the last victim recovered. There were

still missing women to be found. Just three days later, on January three, the body of June Cicero was recovered as a result of the New York State Trooper helicopter surveillance flight. Those on the scene would note that her body had been mutilated in a manner similar to two earlier victims. At some point after her death, the killer had returned to June Cicero's frozen body to remove her

vagina with a small hand saw. This was the same surveillance flight that also exposed Arthur shaw Cross parked on the bridge directly above June Cicero's frozen corpse. When the authorities finally caught up to and questioned him on that first day, Arthur reluctantly told them he was previously found guilty of manslaughter in Watertown in but he denied any knowledge of the recent Rochester murders, and since he wasn't under arrest, he was questioned a while longer photographed and released.

Kept under constant surveillance, of course, but released overnight. The detectives did their homework right away. They found his sealed criminal file and a link to some critical physical evidence in the case. They investigated Arthur's place of employment, a food service company called G and G Cheese, and found that the company used a brand of handy wipes that matched those founded two of the crime scenes, and they were the same wipes found in shaw Crosses home too.

And from there the rest of the missing pieces started coming together. One point that really grabbed the investigator's attention was when Arthur started telling them about his favorite fishing spots. All the places he preferred along the river coincided with

where the bodies of the missing prostitutes were found. Just two days after their initial contact with shaw Cross, and with around the clock investigation into his background and activities, including several hours of conversation with him personally, the police had enough evidence to arrest him and charge him with the murders. The date was January five, Arthur knew was over.

He asked to be allowed to speak with his wife, Rose, and said that if he could just speak to her first, he'd tell them everything they wanted to know, and that's what he did. Throughout his lengthy confession to the authorities, Arthur showed no sign of emotion, no remorse at all. When asked why he did it, he coldly stated that

he was just taking care of business. With the sign confession in hand, the authorities allowed Arthur to lead them to the bodies of two missing women they hadn't yet recovered, Maria welch Ago, who had been missing since early November, and Darlene Trippy, age two, who had been missing since December. It wasn't a surprise that both women had been strangled

to death. When it was all over, the number of women who lost their lives at the hands of Arthur shaw Cross in Rochester alone was twelve, and when you add the two children he killed in Watertown in nineteen seventy two, Jack Blake and Karen Hill, the grim total grows to fourteen. Since all of victims were killed in Monroe County, New York, with the exception of Elizabeth Gibson, who was killed in nearby Wayne County, the Monroe County

trial was held first. The poor proceedings lasted nearly three months, with all of Rochester keeping watch. It wasn't until years later that I realized this siren chasing was a common behavior in my family. We always watched from a safe distance away, maybe a few hundred yards or so. Usually we were close enough to smell the smoke and even feel the heat. Sometimes I would see the whole structure

collapse onto itself. That always produced what seemed like a million glory numbers shooting upwards, along with the blinding red orange flames and a tower of the thickest black smoke you can imagine, billowing into the sky. I remember it was a thrill to be so near the action, but it was also scary. My dad was always a siren chaser. He couldn't resist getting close to the scene of an accident,

the fire, and arrest in progress, anything. Really, it was a behavior he learned from his mother, my grandmother, and lately I began to wonder if it was a behavior that she had learned from her father, my great grandfather. They lived in a small town, so whenever the sirens began, my grandmother would load up to kids and go see what she could. My dad was the same way when I was growing up, and today I find it difficult to resist turning the car around and see what's happening

if I see emergency lights. I can't believe that it took me so long to realize that I'm the product of at least three, possibly four generals of siren chaser's. That explains a lot. In the United States, broadcasting and photography of the court proceedings is allowed in some court rooms but not others. In ninety nine, the eyes and ears of the public were focused on the nationally televised trial of serial killer Ted Bundy. In it was Jeffrey Dahmer, in the Menendez Brothers, in he was the O. J.

Simpson trial. It's clear that television viewers enjoy watching high profile criminal court cases play out in front of them on live television, and while the nineteen ninety trial of Arthur shaw Cross might have had a somewhat limited audience due to its local coverage rather than national coverage, the

citizens of Rochester were more than willing to watch. The New York Times ran an article about the televised shaw Cross trial on December two nine, and it's said, like a moth drawn to a flame, Rochester, a city of two hundred and forty one thousand people has been both repulsed and riveted by the proceedings in the teak paneled second floor Core Room of the Monroe County Public Safety Building.

For more than ten weeks, the residents of Rochester and the surrounding areas tuned in to witness the Core room drama and theatrics of the show cross Case. It was television that was difficult to watch at times because it was a lured tale that included details of child sexual abuse, beastiality, wartime atrocities, murder, reincarnation, corpse mutilation, and claims of cannibalism.

Adding to the public's outrage was the now widely known fact that shaw Cross's criminal record had been sealed and that a convicted child rapist and killer had been moved into Rochester without alerting members of the community or the authorities.

They also saw him plead not guilty by reason of insanity, well as defense attorney showed the Core room videotapes of a supposedly hypnotized shaw Cross as he claimed to be taken on one of his many multiple personalities, Ara Mas, a reincarnated thirteenth century cannibal from England who Arthur claimed taught him to eat human flesh. While the tapes were shown, and throughout the entire trial, shaw Cross sat perfectly still in the courtroom, head down, shoulders slumped, showing no emotion

at all. In the end, the jury didn't believe Arthur was possessed, and much to everyone's relief, he is found guilty of ten counts of second degree murder, with the sentence of twenty five years for each count. Arthur shaw Cross, now age, would be behind bars for the next two d and fifty years with no chance of her role. The following year, when the Wayne County trial was held, shaw Cross simply played guilty to the second degree murder

of Elizabeth Gibson and received yet another life sentence. Arthur was incarcerated at the Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison from male prisoners in Fallsburg, New York. In prison, Arthur was an outsider, a pariah with very few exceptions. He was avoided, ignored, and often threatened by nearly every other inmate in Sullivan. They deemed him the lowest of the low, a pedophile, a rapist, and a serial killer of women and children. Soon after his conviction, Arthur was

divorced from his fourth wife, Rose. She served him with papers on his forty nine birthday in June. Of Rose shaw Cross would pass away less than three years later. In the spring of Arthur was now legally free to marry his former mistress Clara, and did so in a ceremony held in the prison's visiting room on July. She was his fifth wife, but his time in prison for this his second series of murders, would be only slightly longer than his sentence for the child killings back in

nineteen seventy two. On November tenth, eight just shy of eighteen years after his trial and conviction, Arthur shaw Cross, now age sixty three, died of a pulmonary embolism. He had complained of leg pain earlier in the day, and by the time he was transferred to the Albany Medical Center later that evening, it was too late. Arthur shaw Cross was dead, and the citizens of upstate New York

breathed a collective sigh of relief. Well, the best case scenario would have been devoid even a single murder that might not even have been entirely possible in this case. Throughout his entire life, whenever he wasn't in prison. Arthur shaw Cross was killing, whether as when he was a kid torturing and killing small animals, as a young adult torturing and killing children, whereas a middle aged man strangling

and killing sex workers. And if Arthur shaw Cross had not been granted the plea bargain deal in nWo after the Watertown child killings, he would have been locked up for life. The body count would have stopped at just two instead of reaching fourteen. Two dead children are bad enough, but in this case, a series of poor decisions led to the deaths of twelve additional women. In Rochester, New York. In two thousand eleven, in a South Georgia college town,

a bad neighbor was lurking near campus. People found him creepy, antisocial, but he turned out to be far worse than anyone ever expected, a predator who selected the woman next door as his prey. I'll prove that you never know who might move into your neighborhood, and you certainly have no idea what they're up to or capable of behind closed doors.

Next time on Insomniac. Insomniac is a production of I Heart Rate and Tenderfoot TV, written and hosted by Scott Benjamin and produced by Miranda Hawkins, Alex Williams, Matt Frederick, and Josh Thain. Music composed by Makeup and Vanity Said, and cover art by Trevor Eisler. Follow on Twitter and Facebook at Insomniac Pod, on Instagram at Insomniac podcast, and

at our website insomniac podcast dot com. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows