6 serial killers who left deep scars on Wisconsin
Wisconsin has seen its share of heinous serial killers over the years. Here's a look back at the horrific criminal cases that have scarred state history.
Serial killer Ed Gein
Ed Gein is one of Wisconsin’s most notorious killers. He was arrested for murder in 1957 after the headless body of a woman was found hanging in his shed in Plainfield. It was said to be “dressed out like a deer.” Authorities then found parts of other bodies and decided that Gein had robbed graves and also likely murdered other people. He used skin and body parts to make things such as chairs and lamp shades. Gein was found guilty but criminally insane and sent to Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, where he died in 1984, at age 77. Gein’s case inspired the movie “Psycho,” with the character of Norman Bates representing Gein.
Shown above: Gein, center, is shown when he was arrested in 1957.
Serial killer Ed Gein
Ed Gein, center, is escorted to the state crime lab by Waushara County Sheriff Art Schley, right, and his deputy, Leon "Specks" Murty, on Nov. 19, 1957.
Serial killer Ed Gein
A Wisconsin State Journal from Nov. 19, 1957, reports on the Ed Gein murder and grave-robbing story.
Serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin
Joseph Paul Franklin was a racist killer responsible for 18 slayings, including two in Madison. He gunned down a young biracial couple at East Towne Mall in August 1977. Police say he went on a killing spree in the late 1970s and early 1980s, fueled by hatred of African-American and Jewish people. He also robbed banks. Franklin, a drifter, ended up in Madison because he was planning to kill a local judge for making what he thought was a poor sentencing decision in a sexual assault case. But he happened upon the couple first. Franklin was eventually sentenced to death in Missouri for shooting a synagogue member near St. Louis. He died at age 63 by lethal injection on Nov. 20, 2013.
Shown above: Franklin is pictured here in 1997.
Serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin
Joseph Paul Franklin is pictured in Dane County Circuit Court on Nov. 8, 1985.
Serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin
Joseph Paul Franklin is pictured in Dane County Circuit Court on Jan. 7, 1986.
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to killing 16 young men in Milwaukee and one in Ohio. He told investigators that he had sex with the corpses, cut them up and ate parts of their bodies to fulfill his fantasies. Most of the men were black, and he tried to target victims in gay bars – looking for someone who he thought wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared. The crime spree ended in July of 1991 when a man who was to be Dahmer’s 18th victim managed to escape from the killer’s apartment. Dahmer, convicted of 15 homicides in Wisconsin, was sentenced to 16 consecutive life sentences. He was beaten to death in 1994 by a fellow inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage.
Shown above: Dahmer is pictured at his initial appearance on charges filed against him in 1991.
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer sits in court during his 1992 trial on charges in the deaths and dismemberment of many men. To Dahmer's right is his attorney, Gerald Boyle.
Serial killer David Spanbauer
David Spanbauer, a paroled sex offender in Oshkosh, admitted abducting two girls as they bicycled on rural roads, assaulting and killing them and dumping their bodies in rural areas. He also confessed to killing an Appleton woman in her home, along with committing many rapes. In 1994, Spanbauer was sentenced to three life sentences plus 405 years. Spanbauer died July 29, 2002, in Dodge Correctional Institution from complications of heart and liver disease, at the age of 61.
Shown above: Spanbauer is shown in court on Nov. 18, 1994, in Appleton.
Serial killer David Spanbauer
David Spanbauer is escorted out of Outagamie County Circuit Court on Nov. 29, 1994, after a hearing.
Serial killer Walter Ellis
Walter E. Ellis was convicted Feb. 18, 2011, of killing seven Milwaukee women over a span of 21 years -- between 1986 and 2007. All seven victims were strangled; one also was stabbed. He eventually pleaded no contest in the slayings. Investigators suspected all of the victims were prostitutes, but some of the victims' family members dispute that suggestion. Ellis was arrested Sept. 5, 2009, after the Milwaukee Police Department's cold case unit sifted through thousands of cases and tested the DNA of more than 100 people. Ellis was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences with no eligibility of parole. He never said why he did it, and two other men were wrongly convicted of homicides linked to Ellis.
Shown above: Ellis is pictured at a court hearing Dec. 23, 2010, in Milwaukee. He died in prison at the age of 53 on Dec. 1, 2013.
Serial killer Walter Ellis
Serial killer Walter E. Ellis is led in for an initial court appearance on Sept. 9, 2009, in Milwaukee.
Serial killer Edward Edwards
Edward W. Edwards was convicted in 2010 of killing two Wisconsin teenage sweethearts in August 1980, a double-murder that had long been a mystery. At the same time, he also pleaded guilty to a double murder in Ohio in 1977. In Wisconsin, Edwards killed Tim Hack and Kelly Drew, both 19, after they disappeared from a wedding reception in Sullivan, about 40 miles east of Madison. Searchers found their bodies in the woods two months later. Police believe Hack was stabbed and Drew was strangled by Edwards, who was working in the area at that time. Edwards eventually admitted to killing his foster son in June 1996. He was also linked to other murders in Ohio and Portland, Oregon, but he only admitted to five. He ended up serving his prison time in his native Ohio and died of natural causes there on April 7, 2011. Edwards, 77, was to have been executed by lethal injection four months later.
Shown above: Edwards, age 76 and in poor health at the time, makes his initial appearance in the Jefferson County Courthouse on Aug. 13, 2009.
Serial killer Edward Edwards
Edward Edwards appears at his sentencing in Jefferson County Circuit Court on June 21, 2010.
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