Serial Killer | My Crime Library

Oscar Ray Bolin Serial Killer Executed In Florida

Oscar Ray Bolin was a serial killer from Florida who was convicted on three counts of murder and would later be tied to another murder in Texas. Oscar Ray Bolin would be sentenced to death and executed by way of lethal injection. In this article on My Crime Library we will take a closer look at Oscar Ray Bolin

Oscar Ray Bolin Early Years

Oscar Ray Bolin was born in Portland, Indiana on January 22, 1962. His family consisted of laborers and carnival workers whose jobs would take them around the United States. Bolin parents were described as physically and mentally abusive towards their children.

Oscar Ray Bolin would be arrested a number of times throughout his youth for theft. In 1982 Oscar Ray Bolin would move to Florida with his girlfriend Cheryl Haffner who he would later abduct and drive around the Tampa Bay area for hours. Bolin would be arrested and charged with false imprisonment however the charges were later dropped and the two would get married.

Oscar Ray Bolin Murders

In 1986 Natalie Blanche Holley who was working as a manager for a restaurant was kidnapped when she left work and her body would be found hours later by a jogger. Natalie Blanche Holley had been stabbed to death.

Later on that same year, 1986, Stephanie Collins, a high school student was leaving her job working at a drug store when she disappeared. Her body would be found months later where her skull had been crushed and she had been stabbed to death.

When police found the body of Stephanie Collins they also had a report of a missing woman, Teri Lynn Matthew, whose body would be found later the same day in the same state as she had been wrapped in a sheet, her head had been beaten and her throat was slit.

Oscar Ray Bolin Arrest

Oscar Ray Bolin was arrested in Ohio for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a young woman. According to police the only reason she survived is that the gun jammed when Bolin attempted to shoot it. Oscar would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to twenty two years to seventy five years in prison.

A year later Cheryl Haffner would divorce him. Haffner would marry another man a year later and tell him that Oscar had confessed to the murders in Florida. Haffner would later testify that she helped Oscar destroy the evidence from the Florida murders.

In 1991 Oscar Ray Bolin would be convicted in Florida for the murder Natalie Blanche Holley and sentenced to death. He would later be convicted on the other two murders and again would be sentenced to death.

Oscar Ray Bolin was connected to a murder in Texas by his half brother who said he and Oscar had kidnapped and murdered a woman in Greensville Texas named Deborah Diane Stowe in 1987. Texas authorities declined to prosecute Bolin as he was under three death sentences in Florida

Oscar Ray Bolin Execution

Oscar Ray Bolin maintained that he was innocent of the Florida murders. When asked about the death penalty the night before his execution Bolin would tell the reporter that he was looking at it as a way out of prison for he had spent the last 28 years incarcerated.

Oscar Ray Bolin would be executed on January 7, 2016. He declined to make a final statement

Oscar Ray Bolin Videos

Oscar Ray Bolin More News

A Florida inmate convicted of killing three women in 1986 was executed Thursday night.

Oscar Ray Bolin, 53, was the first inmate executed in 2016. He was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-ditch appeal for a stay.

The time of death was 10:16 p.m., the office of Florida’s governor said. The execution took 11 minutes, NBC affiliate WFLA reported. When asked if he wanted to make a statement, Bolin said, “No, sir.”

Oscar Ray Bolin was convicted of kidnapping, stabbing and bludgeoning three young woman from the Tampa area in 1986. He is being executed specifically for the murder of Teri Lynn Matthews.

Oscar Ray Bolin had a last meal of rib-eye steak, baked potato, lemon meringue pie and Coca-Cola at 10 a.m., while meeting with his wife, Rosalie, who married him in 1996, when he was already on Death Row.

Bolin had been scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m., but it was delayed while the Supreme Court considered his appeal for a stay. The high court rejected the stay in a decision issued shortly before 10 p.m.

In Bolin’s appeals, he argued that he deserves more time to show that an Ohio inmate who confessed to the crime — and then committed suicide — is the killer. Prosecutors have noted that inmate falsely confessed to other crimes before claiming Matthews’ murder.

Matthews’ mother, Kathleen Reeves, told NBC News this week that she has no doubt that Bolin — who was convicted after his brother and ex-wife testified against him — killed her daughter, a bank worker.

“It’s about time,” Reeves said

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/florida-set-execute-serial-killer-oscar-ray-bolin-thursday-night-n492386

Frequently Asked Questions

Robert Hansen Serial Killer Hunting Humans

Robert Hansen was a serial killer from Alaska who was known to kidnap his victims, fly them to a remote location and then hunt them down. According to the FBI Robert Hansen is responsible for at least seventeen victims however the number could be higher. In this article on My Crime Library we will take a closer at Robert Hansen the human hunter

Robert Hansen Early Years

Robert Hansen was born in Esterville Iowa on February 15, 1939. According to family members Robert had a grudge on his shoulder from an early age. He was afflicted with severe acne as a teenager that left scars behind. Hansen would grow more resentment for he felt the pretty girls in high school refused to date him due to his appearance. Robert Hansen began hunting at an early age spending long hours practicing with both archery and guns.

In 1957 he began a one year stint with the United States Army Reserve. In 1960 Robert Hansen would get married.

Robert Hansen Early Crimes

Robert Hansen was arrested for the first time for burning down a school bus garage which he felt was revenge for the way he was treated in high school. Hansen would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. While in prison he would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Robert would get out of prison after serving twenty months. His wife would divorce him while he was in prison.

Robert Hansen would be arrested a number of times over the next few years for petty theft. In 1967 Robert decided to move to Alaska with his new wife and two children

In 1971 Robert Hansen would be arrested on two occasions. The first took place when he kidnapped and attempted to sexually assault a housewife and the second was for the sexual assault of a prostitute. Robert would make a deal with the court and he would receive a five year sentence however he would serve ten months.

Robert Hansen Murders

The FBI believe that Robert Hansen began killing the women he abducted began once he was out of prison. He tended to kidnap the women at gunpoint, sexually assault them and then fly them to a remote location in Alaska where he would hunt them down.

In 1983 a woman was kidnapped at gunpoint and forced into his vehicle where he drove her to her home where she was tortured and raped. The woman was chained around the neck and the chain was connected to a wall. The next day Robert Hansen was driving the victim to an airport where he kept his plane, the woman was able to escape from the vehicle and get to safety. Once the police were notified Robert Hansen dirty deeds came to light.

Robert Hansen Arrest And Trial

When the Alaska police had already begun investigating several murders around Anchorage where a variety of prostitutes were found dead. The Alaska police would contact the FBI who would send in their experts including Special Agent John Douglas who would give the Alaska Police a description which would lead them to narrow down their suspect list to one person: Robert Hansen

A police warrant was issued and Robert Hansen home was searched where authorities found a number of item belonging to missing women. Robert Hansen would blame the victims and would later confess to seventeen murders.

Robert Hansen realizing the evidence against him was overwhelming agreed to plead guilty to an assortment of crimes and would help police locate the victims that had yet been discovered. In the end Robert Hansen would be sentenced to 461 years in prison plus an additional life senence.

Robert Hansen would die in prison on August 21, 2014 from natural causes.

Robert Hansen Videos

Robert Hansen More News

Frank Rothschild can still vividly remember the first time he laid eyes on “the Butcher Baker.”

The case of Robert Hansen, an Alaskan baker and avid hunter who murdered at least 17 women during the ‘70s and ‘80s, is the subject of a new documentary on Investigation Discovery (ID) titled “The Butcher Baker: The Mind of a Monster,” which premieres on Wednesday.

The special is part of the crime and justice network’s “Serial Killer Week,” where audiences can tune in each night and watch original programming that takes a closer look at some of the most infamous and seemingly forgotten murderers from over the years.

Hansen was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing mostly dancers and prostitutes during a 12-year span. He was convicted of just four of the murders in a deal that spared him having to go to trial 17 times. The Anchorage baker also confessed at that time to raping another 30 women.

Hansen was previously the subject of a 2013 film titled “The Frozen Ground,” which starred Nicolas Cage as an Alaska State Trooper investigating the slayings. John Cusack portrayed Hansen.

Rothschild, the prosecutor who was integral in getting Hansen to confess, participated in the documentary. Rothschild told Fox News he was surprised when he first encountered Alaska’s best-known serial killer.

“He was a small guy,” Rothschild recalled. “He came across as a little mild-mannered sort of fellow. You didn’t initially have any sense of what he was hiding behind the mask. It wasn’t until we weren’t going along with his program of how the confession was going to go that I saw a very different Robert Hansen. When that happened, his face turned red and the hair stood up on the back of his neck. There was a monster. He acted it out. He got really upset. He was screaming at employees for 10 minutes.”

During the ‘70s and ‘80s, Hansen was a bakery owner who depicted himself as a family man. His wife, a devout Christian, knew nothing of his other life.

At the time, construction of the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline in the ‘70s brought sex workers, pimps, con artists and drug dealers looking for quick riches during the construction boom. Sudden disappearances among them were commonplace.

“Anchorage at the time was perfect for someone like Robert Hansen,” Rothschild explained. “It was a place for someone like Hansen to easily lure women into his grasp. … [His victims] were all young women, mostly runaways, who really had no family support and were out in the world on their own. Most of them didn’t even make it through high school. … For many, this was a place for them to make money and survive.”

Rothschild pointed out that, initially, Hansen’s victims included any woman who caught his eye. However, he quickly learned that strippers and prostitutes were not only harder to track, but also less likely to be missed.

“Hansen learned he needed to take women who weren’t easily believed or cared about by the community or police the same way,” he shared. “He thought like a hunter.”

Hansen would abduct his victims and take them to remote places outside the city either by his car or private plane. According to investigators, Hansen raped the women in some instances but returned them to Anchorage, warning them not to contact authorities. But at other times, Hansen would release the women in the wilderness and then hunt them down with his rifle.

Hansen later told investigators that one of his favorite spots to take his victims was the Knik River, which is located northeast of Anchorage.

While his wife and children were out of town, he would bring home jewelry owned by the women as mementos and hide them out of sight. And since Hansen was an avid hunter who also worked odd hours, his wife, Darla Hansen, never suspected he had a double life.

“Hansen would get in his car and drive around downtown Anchorage, looking at all these young women walking up the street,” said Rothschild. “He would get aroused and excited about getting back in the game — his game.”

Out of the 17 women Hansen confessed to killing, only 12 bodies were discovered. The others were never found.

Rothschild said that Hansen’s childhood may have possibly played a role in his rage that he would later act out on his victims. Growing up, Hansen was a scrawny child whose face was scarred from severe acne. He also was afflicted with a stutter. This easily made him a target.

“The people who particularly made fun of him, that really, really got to him, were young girls,” Rothschild explained. “And so the attitude he developed about the female sex came out of those times. And the rage inside of him was actually evidenced by his years in school when he burned down the school bus barn. From what we know, that was his first real crime… I’m not a psychologist, but this rage that was developed in adulthood came from those childhood experiences.”

Rothschild said Hansen wasn’t caught sooner because his victims were those who were “hardly missed” by society. Oftentimes, their families weren’t even aware of their whereabouts. Some suspected they either headed to Hawaii for the next opportunity or suffered an overdose. But also, those who survived Hansen’s wrath weren’t instantly believed.

“Look at the Cindy Paulson case,” Rothschild pointed out, referring to the teenage sex worker Hansen abducted, raped and tortured in the basement of his home.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Paulson saw an opportunity to make a run for it as Hansen loaded his plane where he would fly her off on a one-way trip to the wilderness where she would face certain death.

“My gosh, she is running naked and in handcuffs on the streets of Anchorage scared to death,” Rothschild continued. “You saw the fear of death in her eyes. She describes the airplane, the house, the basement — all belonging to Robert Hansen. She directs the officer to the house. It’s exactly the way she describes it. … But the man who ran the sexual assault unit at the time … had the worst kind of bias and experience to run a sexual assault unit.

“All the facts are there. There’s no question she had this horrible experience. This wasn’t just a sex deal gone bad. But Hansen cooks up this alibi. This guy, the head of the sexual assault unit, hears the alibi and then says, ‘There’s no case here.’ There just wasn’t a drop of empathy for a rape victim. … That always upsets me.”

But that 1983 case was a turning point. According to the outlet, police with search warrants went through Hansen’s home several months later and found evidence to eventually charge him with four murders.

Hansen was serving a 461-year sentence in Alaska at the time of his death in 2014 at age 75. He had been incarcerated at the Seward state prison and was moved that year to the Anchorage Correctional Center to receive medical attention as his health declined. Alaska Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sherrie Daigle said at the time that Hansen had a “do not resuscitate” order on file.

Rothschild hopes the documentary will make viewers realized victims of assault and rape should be believed.

“When people are confronted with their terrible lies and vile acts, they lie their a— off,” he said. “For Robert Hansen, it was always denial, denial, denial. You can confront people with their misdeeds and they can still look at you right in the eye and say, ‘I didn’t do that.’ It happens all the time.”

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/butcher-baker-robert-hansen-documentary

Frequently Asked Questions

Dean Corll Serial Killer The Candy Man

Dean Corll was a serial killer from Texas who was known as The Candy Man and the Pied Piper. Dead Corll would have two teenage accomplices Elmer Henley and David Brooks who would bring victims to him. In this article on My Crime Library we will take a closer look at Dean Corll the Candy Man.

Dean Corll Early Years

Dean Corll was born in Fort Wayne Indiana on December 24, 1939. His parents had an on and off again marriage which would ultimately lead to two divorces.

In the mid 1950’s Dean Corll and his family would move to Texas after his mother would begin a new relationship that would lead to marriage. Dean was known as a good student but as a loner.

Dean Corll family owned and operated a candy factory and he was known to give candy to children hence the nickname The Candy Man.

When Dean mother divorced yet again the family would open a new candy factory called the Corrll Candy Company and named Dean as Vice President with his younger brother acting Secretary Treasurer. Apparently a teen employee went to Dean mother and complained that her son was making sexual advances towards him, the mother reacted by firing the employee.

Dean Corll was drafted into the United States Army in 1964. A year later he was honorably discharged.

In 1967 Dean Corll would meet twelve year old David Brooks and within a couple of years the two would begin a sexual relationship.

Dean Corll Murders

In 1969 the Corll Candy Company would shut down and Dean would begin working as an electrician for the Houston Lighting And Power Company

Between 1970 and 1973 it is believed that Dean Corll murdered at least twenty eight victims aged thirteen to twenty years old. Most of the victims would be brought back to the home by Elmer Henly and David Brooks. Ironically Elmer Henly was suppose to be a victim however Dean Corll would give him the same deal he gave David Brooks which was $200 for bringing back a male teenager to the home.

Each of the victims who were brought to the home were sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered.

Dean Corll Death

On August 8, 1973 Dean Corll was upset with Elmer Henly as the then seventeen year old had brought a girl back to the house. Eventually he calmed down and would give the two teenagers alcohol and drugs. When Elmer woke up he was laying on his stomach and felt Dean Corll trying to handcuff him. His mouth was taped closed and he was bound by his ankles. A teenager who Elmer Henly had brought back to the home the night before and the teenage girl were all in the same state.

Dean Corll threatned to murder the three teenagers but Elmer Henly was able to talk himself free promising to help Corll murder the other two. Once Elmer was free he would get his hands on a gun and would fatally shoot Dean Corll, the Candy Man was dead

Elmer Henly would contact the police and soon after would make a full confession on the crimes of Dean Corll, David Brooks and himself.

Dean Corll More News

A onetime henchman of one of the Houston area’s most notorious serial killers has died of COVID-19, officials said Wednesday.

David Owen Brooks was 65 when he died in a Galveston prison hospital on May 28, two weeks after he had been hospitalized with symptoms consistent with the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website. He also suffered from a number of preexisting conditions but did test positive for the virus, and preliminary results of an autopsy suggested it was a contributing cause of his death.

Brooks was serving six life sentences in prison for his part in the reign of terror by Dean Corll, who killed at least 28 teenage boys and young men in Houston in the 1970s. Corll, a Houston electric company worker and former candy store owner, used Brooks and fellow teen Elmer Wayne Henley to lure youngsters to his apartment, where they were handcuffed and shackled to a plywood torture board before being sexually assaulted and killed.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/former-henchman-of-houston-killer-corll-dies-of-covid-19/2386839/

Dean Corll Other News

The cryptic nickname “Candy Man” conjures up all kinds of creepy depictions of candy-coated predators. There’s the 1992 slasher film “Candyman,” which dramatizes an urban legend about a slave owner’s son who is seeking out revenge. Then, there’s the real life horror story from the 1970s of a Texan who poisoned neighborhood kids, including two of his own, with Pixie Sticks on Halloween. One of the children died — the killer’s son — and the killer was executed a decade later. Of course there’s also “The Candy Man” song from the arguably creepy “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”

But have you heard of “Candy Man” Dean Corll, arguably the most deviant “Candy Man” who ever existed, real or fictional? He was actually believed to be the most prolific serial killer of his time, surpassing the infamous Boston Strangler.

Netflix’s “Mindhunter” is a fictionalized account of real-life FBI profiler John Douglas’ endeavors interviewing and investigating real life killers, mostly of the serial variety.

The second season focused primarily on the Atlanta Child Murders, but it also incorporated several storylines involving other real-life killers, including a prison interview with one of Corll’s victims, who ended up becoming his accomplice. That man, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., ultimately ended up murdering Corll when he was just a teen.

Before interviewing Henley, the FBI team discussed Henley and Corll’s crimes. They noted that Corll was known around Houston as the “Candy Man” — he gave free candy (or drugs) to teenage boys to lure them into being kidnapped, raped, tortured and often killed. In all, he killed 28 victims. Henley was 14 when he met Corll. He could have been one of his many murder victims, but instead assisted in some of the murders.

In the show, Henley’s character maintains that he yes, he helped lure other teens to Corll.

“He told me he was looking for white, good-looking and young,” Henley’s character recalled.

When asked what if it was like to kill Corll, if it was difficult to do so, his character replied, “Nah, it was cool.”

He claimed he only killed Corll, not anyone else, despite being convicted of killing six.

The real-life Henley received six life sentences in 1974 for killing Corll and for helping him in killing others, and he’s still incarcerated in Tennessee.

As for the real-life Corll, he’s obviously dead, after Henley killed him at age 17. That murder halted Corll’s horrific murder spree.

The nickname “Candy Man” isn’t just about the free candy and drugs he offered to children to lure them into abuse. His family also owned a candy factory, according to Houstonia. He became vice president of his family’s “Corll Candy Company” after being discharged from the army, according to the 1974 book “The Man with the Candy: The Story of the Houston Mass Murders.” His profession allowed him to give out free candy to kids in the Houston Heights, where he lived. He also became known as the “Pied Piper,” referencing a legend from the Middle Ages about a man who lured over 100 children out of a town to avenge its mayor, who neglected to pay him what he was owed.

Corll is no legend, and he did indeed kill 28 people between 1970 and 1973 — along with the help of Henley and another teen accomplice, David Owen Brooks. The victims were males aged 13 to 20, and most of them were in their mid-teens.

Brooks met Corll when Brooks was in the sixth grade and soon Corll was sexually abusing him, according to an archived article. Brooks is currently also serving time for his role in the murders.

The murder victims were also sexually assaulted before being strangled or shot to death. Then, their bodies were tied in plastic sheeting. Many of the bodies were discovered in an isolated section of a beach, according to an archived Associated Press report. Others were found in a wooded area. Corll was known for keeping trophies of his victims, namely keys, according to the Houston Ledger.

His reign of terror was cut short when at 33, he was shot to death in his Pasadena home, a Houston suburb, by Henley, according to a 2011 Texas Monthly article which detailed how the horrors affected the area.

News of the murders shocked the country, as the death toll surpassed all serial killings at the time (serial killer was not yet an actual term). Reporters flocked to the area, including author Truman Capote, according to the Texas Monthly.

The report went on to note that, although two books were quickly published about the shocking case at the time, for some reason the case went on to become largely forgotten by media.

All in all, there is absolutely nothing sweet about this real life tale.

https://www.oxygen.com/candyman-killer-dean-corll-elmer-henley-real-killers-behind-netflix-mindhunter

Dean Corll Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

Kelly Cochran Serial Killer

Kelly Cochran is a serial killer from Michigan that has been convicted of two murders but is believed to have murdered nine more.

In October 2014 Kelly Cochran and her husband Jason Cochran lured Christopher Regan over to their home with the promise of sex. Once Christopher was in the home he was “caught” having sex with Kelly and fatally shot. Kelly and Jason Cochran would then use an electric saw in order to dismember Regan body. The body would later be disposed around Michigan

Christopher Regan would be reported missing a few days later and Kelly Cochran and Jason Cochran would be named as suspects however the twisted married couple would not be charged due to lack of evidence.

In 2016 Jason Cochran would die from a massive heroin overdose. Police did not believe that the death was an accident and investigated Kelly Cochran.

Weeks later Kelly Cochran was charged by Michigan police for the murder of Christopher Regan however she would flee before they were able to arrest her. A few weeks later Kelly would be arrested by US Marshals.

During the interrogation Kelly would tell police where they could find the remains of Christopher Regan. While in custody police returned to the investigation of the death of Jason Cochran and it turned out he did not die from a heroin overdose but by asphyxiation. Apparently Kelly gave Jason a large does of heroin and then smothered him to death

Kelly Cochran would ultimately be convicted for the murder of Christopher Regan in Michigan and Jason Cochran in Indiana. Kelly would be sentenced to two life sentences without parole.

Kelly Cochran 2021 Information

MDOC Number: 356714

SID Number: 5267595X

Name: KELLY MARIE COCHRAN

Racial Identification: White

Gender: Female

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Hazel

Height:5′ 10″Weight:165 lbs.

Date of Birth:06/05/1982 (38)KELLY MARIE COCHRAN

Image Date:7/3/2020

Current Status: Prisoner

Earliest Release Date: LIFE

Assigned Location:Huron Valley Complex/Women’s

Maximum Discharge Date:LIFE

Kelly Cochran More News

Kelly Marie Cochran, 34, stands accused of helping her husband kill and dismember her boyfriend. She is also charged with killing her husband to “even the score” – and the prosecuting attorney thinks her body count may not stop there.

According to reports, on October 13, 2014, Cochran and her husband, 37-year-old Jason Cochran, came up with a diabolical plan: the next night, Cochran would lure 53-year-old Christopher Regan, Kelly’s coworker and boyfriend, to her home with the promise of sex and Jason would kill him. The plan worked, and when Jason “caught” Regan with his wife, he shot him in the head with a .22 caliber long-barrel shotgun.

The Cochrans then set about dismembering Regan’s body – Kelly later admitted to getting a cord for an electric hand saw, known colloquially as a “sawzall”, so Jason Cochran could cut up his corpse. They then divided Regan’s body between garbage bags, and threw the bags into the woods around the Iron River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Regan was reported missing a few days later, and his car was found abandoned at a park-and-ride lot four miles east of Iron River, Michigan. According to the local Daily News, police honed in on Cochran because she was one of the last people to see Regan. When police searched her home with the FBI in March, 2015, they found nothing – but Cochran was spooked and she and her husband packed up and moved to Lake County, Indiana.

Police continued their investigation with Kelly listed a person of interest, but a year passed and still they had nothing. Then, in February 2016, Jason died of an apparent heroin overdose. Kelly held a memorial service, writing on Facebook that his death was “the hardest thing I will ever have to deal with.” But police weren’t buying it. Nine weeks after Jason died, Michigan authorities charged Kelly Cochran with Regan’s death – and she fled Indiana. The U.S. Marshals Service eventually tracked her down in Kentucky, where she was arrested on April 28th and taken into custody. According to court documents, she spent her time in her jail cell turning her glasses into shanks and threatening violence against anyone who came near her. She was extradited to Michigan where she is now in custody awaiting trial.

Following her arrest, Cochran was interrogated by both Michigan and Indiana police for almost 70 hours. According to the northwest Indiana Post-Tribune, she was able to direct investigators to a desolate stretch of Michigan woods where they discovered evidence of Cochran’s alleged crimes, including a human skull with an apparent bullet hole, bones and bone fragments. Police also recovered a .22 caliber rifle, a .22 caliber bullet, and a pair of glasses at the scene.

While Cochran was in custody, police also questioned her about the death of her husband. They had grown suspicious when Cochran’s version of what happened the night that Jason Cochran died kept changing. Paramedics had been called to the house that Cochran shared with her husband in February, but the EMTs found Jason unresponsive and were unable to revive him. At first glance it looked like he had died of a heroin overdose, but the Indiana Lake County Coroner discovered that Jason had actually died from asphyxiation, not heroin. That’s when suspicion turned to his wife, who had been “disruptive” while EMT were working on her husband’s body.

The Post-Tribune reports Cochran told police that she delivered an overdose of heroin to her husband and proceeded to put her hands on his neck, nose, and mouth, until he died less than a minute later.

In an interview with detectives in Hobart, Indiana, Cochran finally gave police a motive for her brutal crimes –her decade-plus marriage needed saving. According to the Post-Tribune, Cochran told police that the night before the murder, she and her husband had argued – perhaps about Regan – and her husband wanted to know how “she was going to fix things.” The answer they stumbled on, apparently, was to kill Regan. In interviews, Cochran said she blamed her husband for Regan’s death and for “taking the only good thing I had in my life.” The Post-Tribune notes that in court records Cochran said, “I still hate him (her husband), and yes, it was revenge. I evened the score.” There was a brief moment before Regan’s death, she had reportedly considered killing her husband instead of her boyfriend. Instead she ended up killing them both, waiting 16 months to exact her revenge on her husband.

In Indiana, Cochran has been charged with the death of her husband; in Michigan, she faces charges related to Regan’s death, including homicide, assisting her husband to “mutilate, deface, remove or carry away a portion of a dead body” and concealing the death of an individual. Cochran pleaded not guilty to all the charges. While she initially claimed that she wanted to defend herself, she eventually relented and asked for assistance from a public defender.

While Cochran is charged with two murders, Iron County prosecuting attorney Melissa Powell thinks there may be more bodies buried in Cochran’s past. According to her court filings, Cochran has “claimed responsibility for the deaths of other individuals, which, if true, make her a serial killer.”

While it’s unclear what other deaths Cochran may be talking about, Powell appears to be taking the statements seriously enough to question Cochran’s mental health – before Powell can launch an investigation into Cochran’s claims, she has to prove that Cochran is competent. Iron County District Court Judge C. Joseph Schwedler agreed and has ordered a forensic examination of Cochran to determine both mental competency and criminal responsibility.

According to Powell’s filings, Cochran has a long history of mental illness, including a voluntary admission to a psychiatric hospital in Indiana and suicidal ideation. Cochran has “written her family goodbye letters and has threatened to commit suicide while incarcerated as well as threatened bodily harm against any persons whom she may have contact with while incarcerated.”

Until the forensic examination can determine her competency, which the judge has asked to expedite, Cochran remains in the Iron County Jail on a $5 million cash bond.

Kelly Cochran Photos

Kelly Cochran Videos

Ray and Faye Copeland Serial Killers

Ray and Faye Copeland were two serial killers from Missouri that are a bit odd for a number of reasons including the fact that they were married and for their ages by the time they would go on trial for multiple murders. In this article on My Crime Library we are going to take a closer look at Ray and Faye Copeland.

Ray And Faye Copeland Early Years

Ray Copeland was born in Oklahoma on December 30, 1914 to a poor family and from an early age turned to a life of crime. Ray would be arrested and sent to jail in 1939 for forging a check. Once released Ray would meet Faye Wilson and the pair would soon marry and have a number of children. Ray Copeland would serve a number of jail sentences for theft and forging checks causing the Copeland family to constantly move from one place to another.

Ray And Faye Copeland Murders

To help with the Copeland family farm Ray would hire farmhands to purchase cattle, Ray could not as he was known as a thief, with bad checks and soon after the purchase was done the farmhands would disappear. Ray would sell the cattle quickly. Unfortunately the scam was quickly noticed by authorities and he was soon arrested again.

Once out of jail Ray Copeland would resume the scam but this time he would use farmhands that had no connection to him. One of the farmhands would later go to police and tell them about the scam and that he had seen human bones on the property. The police decided to investigate Ray Copeland

When the police searched the Copeland farm they found the remains of several people. Ray and Faye Copeland would be arrested and charged with multiple murders

Ray And Faye Copeland Trial

The police came to the conclusion that Ray Copeland had hired the farmhands to purchase cattle and after the deal was done would murder the individuals. However Faye Copeland role in the murders was not clear.

Ray Copeland would be quickly convicted and sentenced to multiple death sentences.

Faye Copeland lawyers tried to put forth a defense that she was innocent of the charges and was an abused woman who was controlled by her husband. The defense did not work and she as well was sentenced to multiple death sentences.

Ray And Faye Copeland Deaths

Ray Copeland would die from natural causes in October, 1993 while he awaited execution on Missouri Death Row

Faye Copeland remained on Missouri Death Row until 1999 when her death sentences were overturned and she was resentenced to multiple life without parole sentences. In 2002 Faye Copeland suffered a massive stroke that left her unable to speak and partially paralyzed. The Governor of Missouri would grant a medical pardon a few weeks later allowing Copeland to be moved to a nursing home where she would die of natural causes at the age of 82 on December 23, 2003.

Ray And Faye Copeland Photos

Ray And Faye Copeland Videos

Ray And Faye Copeland More News

Faye Copeland, a convicted killer once considered the nation’s oldest woman on death row, has died at a nursing home where she had been released on medical parole, the Missouri Department of Corrections said Tuesday. She was 82.

Copeland was convicted and sentenced to death along with her husband for the murders of five transients as part of a late-1980s livestock swindle at their farm near Chillicothe.

She was the oldest woman on death row until a federal court commuted her sentence in 1999 to life in prison. Copeland suffered a stroke in August 2002 that left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. She was paroled a couple of weeks later to nursing home in her hometown.

Copeland died Sunday at the Morningside Center nursing home from what Livingston County coroner Scott Lindley described Tuesday as natural causes.

Authorities contended Ray and Faye Copeland used transients in a scheme to buy cattle with bad checks, then killed the men and buried them in shallow graves. Faye Copeland’s defense during trial was that her husband committed the killings without her knowledge and that she was bystander who was the victim of battered woman syndrome.

But jurors found Faye Copeland’s guilty after prosecutors presented a handwritten list of farm helpers in her writing. She had written the names because Ray Copeland was illiterate.

Twelve of the names had scrawled X’s by them. Five of those men turned up dead, and prosecutors believed three others who were missing also died.

Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., who before he was elected to the U.S. House helped prosecute the Copelands in separate trials, said in 1999 that the list of names showed Faye Copeland was more of an accomplice than she claimed.

Copeland had pressed for her release since she was imprisoned

https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/dec/31/convicted_killer_dies/