What are the Alphabet Murders? Criminologist links rape and killing of 3 girls to Hillside Strangler
ROCHESTER, NEWYORK: In 1970-1973, America came to know about a chilling murder mystery that remains unsolved to date. Three little girls were abducted, raped, and strangled to death and the only common link to the three murders was the initials of their names.
The victims -- Carmen Colón, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Maenza -- between the age group of 10-11 years old, were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered. Early in the evening of November 16, 1971, 10-year-old Colón vanished while returning to her Rochester home from a local pharmacy. Walkowicz vanished in a very similar way to Colón. It was 5 pm in the evening, around the same time that Colón disappeared. Walkowicz was 11. She was running an errand and returning home. On November 26, 1973, it was another 11-year-old's turn to not come home. Maenza had last been seen at 3:20 pm at the end of the school day, with classmates seeing her heading toward a shopping plaza where she intended to retrieve a purse that her mother had left at a store earlier in the day. Another errand, and soon enough, another missing girl.
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Criminologist and author Christopher Berry-Dee spoke to The Sun Online, claiming that he has cracked the unsolved puzzle. The investigator said he "100 per cent" believes the murders were all committed by the so-called "Hillside Strangler" aka Kenneth Bianchi.
"Without doubt, he was involved in the case," Dee told The Sun Online.
Remember the 1963 popular novel 'The ABC Murders' by the queen of crime fiction Agatha Christie? The plot was no different. There roamed a serial killer on the loose, working his way through the alphabet - and the whole country was in a state of panic.
What are the Alphabet Murders?
The Alphabet Murders are also known as the Double Initial Murders. A series of serial killings of children whose surnames started with the same initial as their first name i.e CC, WW, and MM. Ghastly, their bodies were dumped in locations near Rochester, New York, which also began from the same letter as their names.
Linking the puzzles
There were astonishing similarities in the selection of victims. All three were short in stature, were from Catholic families, socio-economically not well off, and all were said to have been loners or had few friends. These factors possibly made them vulnerable to a charming “friendly” predator offering incentives such as food. Walkowicz’s stomach contained food suggesting she’d eaten recently.
In 1979, Kenneth Bianchi was arrested for the murders of 12 women and girls in Los Angeles. He, along with his cousins, would drive their victims home, torture, rape, and kill them. Their youngest victim was just 12 years old.
One of the strongest arguments Criminologist Dee gave to support the statement is Bianchi was born and brought up in the crime locality in Rochester. He was working as an ice cream vendor in the city at the time of the Alphabet murders and is identified to have worked close by to both of the first murder scenes. He also drove an alike car to one seen at another crime scene.
Time and again, Bianchi has denied any involvement in the murders and recurrently strained to get the police to clear his name.