serial murder in sin city

 Serial murder has become a mainstay of the 20th century, and Las Vegas has not been spared from the random and often sadistic nature of murder committed as a compulsion. Below is a list of just a few of the serial murders linked to Sin City.

taken from the mall

Christopher Wilder, a wealthy real estate investor and race car driver from Florida, had emigrated from his native Australia to the United States in 1969 while in his mid-twenties.  Wilder already had an extensive history of violent sex crimes at the time he emigrated, which only worsened upon arriving in the United States.  Wilder was arrested in relation to several sexual assaults and rapes in Florida throughout the 1970’s, though he never served any time in prison for these attacks.

Wilder escalated his crimes in 1984.  He had developed a hobby as a photographer over the years and on February 26, 1984, he employed a new modus operandi by approaching a young woman at the Miami Grand Prix and pitching himself as a modeling agent.  Wilder lured the young woman into his car with the promise of modeling opportunities – she was never seen again.  This began a six-week killing spree by Wilder that would bring him through Las Vegas.

The Meadows Mall was one of the commercial centers of Las Vegas in the mid-1980’s.  Even in the 90’s, when these authors frequented the Meadows Mall in middle school, the place was a consistently bustling hub.  On Sunday, April 1, 1984, the mall hosted a fashion show for Seventeen magazine.  Wilder, with his camera in hand, mingled among the dozens of teenage girls gathered for the show on the mall’s first floor.  Wilder approached nearly a dozen fashion show contestants with offers of a modeling job, telling them to meet him at Caesar’s Palace later that day.  Several of the girls took Wilder up on his offer, including 17-year-old Michelle Korfman of Boulder City.  Korfman’s car was later found at the Caesar’s Palace parking garage, but there was no trace of the young woman.

Michelle Korfman’s body was discovered weeks later on a southern California highway. Wilder continued on his cross-country spree as one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives, committing abductions and another murder as he attempted to make his way toward Canada. But shortly before making it to the border, Wilder was stopped by state troopers in Colebrook, New Hampshire. Wilder grabbed a revolver from his vehicle and attempted to fire at the officers, but one of the troopers managed to grab the fugitive. During the struggle, the revolver went off twice – both rounds fatally struck Wilder in the chest, ending his spree on a rural New Hampshire road.

A Mystery Murder in Las Vegas

Samuel Little – a drifter that began his long criminal career as a young man with charges for fraud, assault, and burglary – was arrested in 2012 at a homeless shelter in Kentucky on drug-related charges from California.  Authorities in California tested Little’s DNA and found it matched evidence left at the scene of three murders in the Los Angeles area between 1987 and 1989.  After being convicted of the three L.A. murders, Little was then linked with the murder of a woman near Odessa, Texas. 

It was after police and the FBI learned of the Texas murder that Little decided to reveal the full extent of his crimes.  He estimated he was responsible for over 90 murders between 1975 and 2005.  Then Little began rattling off to FBI agents the names of cities and the number of victims: “Jackson, Mississippi – one; Cincinnati, Ohio – one; Phoenix, Arizona – three; Las Vegas, Nevada – one.”

Little provided the FBI with sixteen sketches of his victims, including the woman he murdered in Las Vegas. The killer told agents that his Las Vegas victim had been a black woman about age 40 that was employed as a sex worker. Las Vegas police have so far been unable to identify the woman Little killed in the city nearly 30 years ago, though the FBI has as of mid-2019 been able to link Little with 36 of the women he confessed to murdering.

targeting those with the least

According to a count in 2017, nearly 7,000 people without a home reside in Las Vegas.  And of that number, over 4,500 homeless people sleep in tunnels, under overpasses, or on the street instead of in shelters.  Unfortunately, predators have targeted the unsheltered homeless population of Las Vegas in recent years.

In the dead of night on November 30, 2016, a hooded figure approached a homeless man sleeping in a lot near downtown Las Vegas.  Without warning, the hooded figure raised a hammer and brought it down on the sleeping man’s head.  The man survived the attack but he was unable to provide the police with any information about his attacker.  Then, on the night of January 4, 2017, Daniel Aldape was struck in the head and killed by a hammer blow while sleeping near a downtown intersection.  A month later, David Dunn was murdered with a hammer while sleeping at the same downtown intersection.

Investigators had no leads even after three vicious attacks.  Then detectives came up with an unorthodox ruse to identify the killer.  Around 3:00 a.m. on the morning of February 22, 2017, a man lingered near an apparently sleeping person covered in blankets at a downtown intersection.  He made sure there was no one else on the street before pulling a hood over his head.  The hooded man approached the sleeping figure, raised a hammer above his head with both hands, and brought it down.  The mannequin’s head was decimated by the force of a 4-pound ball peen hammer in the possession of 30-year-old Shane Schindler.  The apparent killer had fallen for the bait.

Police arrested Shane Schindler.  After some legal wrangling, and with no concrete evidence linking Schindler to the two murders, Schindler plead guilty to attempted murder for the attack on the mannequin. 

The hammer attacks were sadly not the last time the homeless population of Las Vegas were the targets of a thrill killer.  On January 29, 2018, Joshua Castellon shot a man standing outside of a convenience store in the small town of Logandale, approximately an hour outside Las Vegas.  Over the next seven hours, two homeless men in Las Vegas were shot, with Brian Clegg succumbing to his wounds.  A few days later, on February 3, 2018, Castellon parked on a quiet Vegas street, exited his vehicle, and fired two shots into James Lewis while he slept under a freeway overpass, killing the man instantly.  Authorities were able to use surveillance footage of the Lewis slaying to identify Castellon through his vehicle. 

“As I say every time a homeless person is murdered, the sidewalk or a soft patch of dirt is no place for a human being to take their last breath,” Las Vegas police captain Andrew Walsh commented after the hammer slayings.

Clark gable with a murderous streak

Las Vegas has served as an attractive detour for serial killers on a multi-jurisdictional spree.  One such killer was Carroll Edward Cole. Cole was a slight, middle-aged man standing at 5’6 and 120 pounds, described as having looks like Clark Gable. He was also linked to at least twelve murders across the United States, the first of which occurred when Cole drowned another child for making fun of him when he was only an 8-year-old boy.  Two of these murders occurred years apart in Las Vegas.

On the night of May 14, 1977, Carroll Cole approached 26-year-old Kathlyn Blum, a commercial driver, at an off-Strip bar.  Blum was taken by Cole’s charm and left with him in a cab.  Cole and Blum exited the cab in front of an apartment building where the killer told the young woman he resided.  But after the car drove away, Cole led Blum to an alley behind the apartment where he assaulted and strangled his unfortunate victim. 

Cole returned to Vegas in late-1979, where he met 51-year-old Marie Cushman in the early morning hours at a bar located in the low-end dingy downtown Casbah Hotel.  Cole rented a room at the establishment and suggested the two head upstairs, an offer Cushman accepted.  The nude and strangled body of Marie Cushman was found in Cole’s room the next day by housekeeping staff. 

Cole was apprehended and stood trial for the Blum and Cushman murders in 1984. Cole was convicted and sentenced to death for the Cushman slaying. The murderer sought to expedite his own execution, arguing that if he were left alive he would kill again. Cole was granted his wish for a speedy execution, and he was put to death at the Nevada State Prison in 1985.

drifter killer

Thomas Crump had already murdered back in his native New Mexico before making his way to Las Vegas in late 1980.  Crump rented a room at the Sunshine Motel – one of the seedy little dives that occupy the no-man’s land between the Strip and Glitter Gulch – and placed a call to the Showgirls of Las Vegas escort service. 

It wasn’t long before 26-year-old Jodie Jameson arrived at Crump’s motel room.  Money changed hands and the two had sex, though Crump was apparently annoyed that Jameson’s beeper kept going off during intercourse.  While the two were cleaning up in the bathroom, an unknown man snuck into the motel room and stole a substantial amount of money from Crump.  Crump accused Jameson of being part of a scheme to rob him.  She denied any role in the theft, but within a moment the drifter was upon her. Crump tied Jameson up and strangled the young woman before leaving the motel room.

Crump confessed to the Jameson murder while serving time for three other murders at the New Mexico State Prison.  Before being extradited to Nevada to stand trial, Crump participated in a brutal riot at the prison during which a guard was killed and several others tortured.  The killer was sentenced to death after the jury witnessed a videotaped confession where Crump coldly explained, “I really killed her because I wanted to kill her.  I didn’t have to kill her.”

Though he served his time in the Nevada State Prison’s death row, Crump ultimately died of natural causes in 2018.

a homegrown killer

Las Vegas local Wayne D. Horton would punctuate his career as a petty crook with brutal acts of violence, including murder and rape. Horton committed his first known murder in early 1973 when he killed an unknown woman in the desert outside of Las Vegas. 

Horton’s murderous propensities arose again on May 12, 1975.  He followed Edward Buccieri, a shift boss at Caesar’s Palace, after he got off work and watched as he entered his car.  Horton rushed up to the vehicle, swung open the door, and leveled a pistol at Buccieri.  Horton later testified that he hadn’t intended to kill the casino worker, only to rob him.  But Buccieri apparently called Horton “dirty names” which prompted the young man to fire five shots into Buccieri’s head.

A few months later, on August 8, 1975, Horton haled a cab after a night of drinking in downtown Las Vegas.  The cab driver and Horton became embroiled in an argument during the drive.  Horton resorted to his usual method of handling his rage by pulling a gun on the cab driver and ordering him to drive into the desert.  Horton shot the driver to death and then returned to his home in the city.

After Horton’s arrest for the murders and a multitude of lesser crimes, he again found himself at odds with another person.  After an argument with his cellmate, Calvin Brinson, at the Clark County Detention Center, Horton stabbed the other inmate to death. 

The young killer smiled and laughed while recounting his crimes in a Las Vegas courtroom. Horton eventually reached a deal with prosecutors in exchange for pleading guilty to the four murders, receiving four life sentences.