Arthur Shawcross: The Genesee River Killer

 

Arthur Shawcross was born on June 6th, 1945 in Kittery, Maine, U.S. Arthur was the eldest of four children and his relationship with his parents was rocky. When he was young, the family moved to NYC. His life took a different turn from there. 

In school, Arthur was quiet but would also have violent outbursts. Many said that Arthur had very stereotypical sociopathic tendencies (various destructive behavior and lack of empathy). Many even claimed that Arthur turning into a serial killer was actually inevitable.

According to Arthur, when he was young, he was sexually abused by his mother and aunt. Later he also had sexual relations with his sister. But his family denied these allegations.

At the age of 19, Arthur joined the US army after dropping out of school and was later drafted to Vietnam. According to Arthur, he engaged in murder, rape and cannibalism during his time in the military. He also claimed to have a combat kill of 39. But there was no evidence to prove these claims. 

Afterwards he got married 4 times and also had children, but none of the marriages lasted due to his severe anger issues. In 1972, during his third marriage he kidnapped his neighbor's 10 year old son in New York. He lured the boy into the woods where he suffocated the boy until he passed away and then proceeded to sexually assault him. 

After 5 months, the boy's body was discovered. According to the autopsy, the boy's genitals were bitten off and the cause of death was suffocation. During the investigation the police actually suspected Arthur since he took the boy fishing a few days before his disappearance. But Arthur of course denied all the allegations and the police didn't have any evidence against him either, so they had to let him loose. 

Few months later, an eight year old girl's body was discovered under a bridge. She had been brutally raped and murdered. Her body was covered in mud and leaves. Once again, Arthur's name was brought up during the investigation because many had spotted him with the girl before the murder. 

This time the police brought him in for questioning and Arthur ended up confessing to both murders. But due to the lack of evidence, his lawyers were able to plea bargain the dropping of the first case. In 1972 Arthur pled guilty for manslaughter to the 8 year old girl's murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison but he ended up only serving 15 years of his sentence for "good behavior".

After his release in 1987, he moved back to New York but the neighbors knew about him and his past. They made sure to not make him feel welcomed in the neighborhood and publicly shamed him.  So Arthur seeked help from the parole officers and they actually went out of their way to help him. They sealed his criminal records so it was no longer available to law enforcement agencies. 

Then Arthur went on to live his life like nothing ever happened. At this point no one knew about his past and the police weren't checking up on him either. Arthur worked small jobs and life was going well for him. But a couple months later he was back to his old ways.

In March of 1988, the body of a 27 year old sex worker was discovered in the Genesee river. The body was floating under the ice of the river. According to the autopsy, the victim had signs of strangulation around her neck and bite marks around her lower region. It was also said that the killer was going back to the body weeks after the murder to cut out pieces from the body to eat it. But the police couldn't solve the case because of the lack of evidence.   

In 1989, another sex worker's body was discovered. She also had similar marks on her body but the police didn't assume that a serial killer was on the loose. In October of 1989, a 59 year old homeless woman's body was found. Not even 6 days later, another sex worker's body was found. Their cause of death was similar and all the bodies were found in the Genesee River. So people started to call the killer "The Genesee River Killer".

Apparently, when the police went through the criminal records they couldn't find Arthur since his criminal records were shut. Slowly more and more sex workers began to disappear. So the police started questioning the workers. They all gave the police one name. A man who went by the name of Mitch. They said they didn't know much about him but he was very violent in nature. 

Few weeks later, a 26 year old woman's body was found. It was clear right off the bat that she was the most abused among all the victims. She was sexually abused, strangled to death, her genitals were cut off and there was a slit from her throat to the lower region. 

The police weren't getting anywhere with the case so they decided to get help from the FBI profilers, which didn't help much either. But it did let them know that the attacker was getting more and more comfortable and was probably returning to the crime scene to relive the experience. 

In November one sex worker was seen with Mitch and found murdered shortly after. So the suspicions were growing. In December a pair of women's jeans were found near the infamous river. Inside the jeans there was also a woman's ID so the police assumed that the woman was probably abducted by the Genesee River Killer. So they began a search party for her. But in January found another woman's body during their search.

Her naked, cut in half body was found on the iced surface of the river. The helicopter that found the body was still patrolling the area, and it was then when they spotted a man standing on the bridge and there was also a van next to him. Arthur was there to relive the pleasure of his crime. 

When the police approached Arthur they were first startled to find him masturbating. But then they questioned him and looked through his documents. The car was registered under his partner's name and he didn't have any drivers license nor ID. While asked for the reason Arthur told them the truth, that he was in jail for manslaughter in the past. 

Arthur was brought into custody and he told them about his past. The local sex workers also confirmed that he was the Mitch in question. But Arthur wasn't ready to confess. Where in the past he would randomly confess to anything, this time he was taking a step back. 

Then the police questioned Arthur's partner, Clara and she didn't really have anything to say but the police spotted some jewelry on her which belonged to one of the victims. When they told Arthur about it he started to panic and they had him exactly where they wanted. 

Arthur finally confessed to all the murders but not only that, he even went into great details about each of them. He even told them about 2 other victims who were still undiscovered. He implied that he was "forced" to kill some of them in self defense. He also confessed to cannibalism. His entire confession was a total of 80 pages long. But the confession wasn't really remorseful in nature, it was more of a brag. 

In total there were 11 victims(besides the children he had already pleaded for). Arthur's lawyer tried the insanity plea. According to Arthur he was possessed by a 13th century English cannibal. Regardless, Arthur was declared sane and he was found guilty for 10 2nd degree murders. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for each, so in total of 250 years. 

Arthur passed away on 10th November, 2008 from cardiac arrest.   

  

The man who sold human burgers

Inside the messed up head of Joe Metheny

 Joe Metheny was born on March 2nd, 1955 in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. According to Joe, his early life was full of hardships as his father was abusive and mother was neglectful. They didn't have a stable home and Joe, along with his 5 other siblings constantly moved from different foster homes to another. When he was 6, his father passed away. So, his mother had to raise the 6 kids all by herself.

But Metheny's mother claimed that the whole tough upbringing thing was a complete lie. They were poor, yes, but the kids weren't really abused or neglected. 

Regardless, at 18 Joe joined the army and during that time he started doing drugs (Heroin and Cocaine to be precise). After serving in the military, Joe became homeless and started abusing more drugs. 

People said Joe had a short temper. But professionally he was well mannered and reliable. So he was able to get a job as a truck and forklift driver. 

At that time Joe met this woman, and they ended up getting married and having a child together. Joe was also able to afford a trailer for them to live in. But apparently, both of them were addicts so the marriage wasn't the most stable one. When their son was 6, Joe went home from work one night and everything was gone. The trailer was empty. Joe knew that his wife had left and she had taken their child with her. And rightfully so, he was devastated. 

After 6 months, Joe found out from a local drug dealer that his wife had moved to the other side of the town where she worked as a sex worker and was doing drugs all the time. And their child had been taken away from her for child abuse. 

One night Joe went up to the bridge where he heard his wife was living. He asked two men there if they knew where she was. They replied in the negative and that filled Joe with anger.  He genuinely believed that these two men were lying to him and they had something to do with her. Rage overtook Metheny's body as he took an ax and murdered the two men. 

Then he found a sex worker and lured her under the same bridge with some drugs. He also asked her about his wife and when she said she didn't know, he assaulted and beat her to death. Then he heard another sex worker nearby and killed her as well. But he wasn't done here. He saw a fisherman nearby who may or may not have witnessed something, so he hit him in the head with a steel pipe which killed him instantly. As Joe was 6 '1 and weighed about 450lbs, all of the murders were very easy for him.  

He tried to clear up the crime scene. He drowned two of the bodies in the lake, cut the head off of one of the homeless men and buried it, He threw another body into the bushes. But apparently more people were coming, so he left shortly after. 

After a couple weeks Joe was arrested for the murders. After a year he went through a trial but was proven not guilty for the lack of evidence. The time in jail taught him nothing but made him even more desperate to kill.

After getting out of jail Joe wanted to strike again. He had created a very good pattern for himself. He decided to target sex workers as he knew that people didn't care for them as much as they did for housewives or other women in the upper class society.

So he would lure the victims into his trailer and then strangle or beat them. After that he would dismember them and store the human flesh in his freezer. And bury the unwanted body parts. But as time progressed, his fridge was getting filled with human flesh. So Joe decided to utilize all of it and open up a small roadside business. Joe Metheny decided to sell human burgers.

He opened up his business on a main road where a lot of locals and truck drivers would get these burgers from him, thinking they were made out of pork or beef. Joe would mix real beef or pork with the meat of his victims. For weeks he sold these human burgers and no one had any complaints or suspected anything. Rather, people loved it. 

Fortunately, it all came to an end one night in 1996 when Joe lured in yet another victim. When the young woman entered his trailer he tried to knock her out. She fell to the ground but wasn't unconscious. But believing she was unconscious, Joe turned around for a split second and the girl was able to make an escape. 

She ran to the main road and spotted a truck driver. She told the man the whole story and they went to a nearby gas station and called the police. 

When the police went to his place to arrest him, Joe was already standing outside, waiting to be arrested. Joe gave a pretty long confession and he confessed to 13 murders. But no one really knew the actual count for lack of evidence. 

Joe was found guilty for the murders of Kimberly Spicer, Cathy Magaziner and Tony Ingrassia. He was sentenced to death but later on it was changed to two life sentences. 

 The police also went door to door to ask people about the said human burgers. But they said it tasted like normal beef or pork. Regardless there was no actual evidence of it. Joe only claimed to have done it. So he was never charged for that. 

At the age of 62, in 2017 Joe Metheny passed away in his prison cell.