Who is John Charles Eichinger? Serial killer's Halloween outfit included souvenir from Pennsylvania triple murder
Oxygen is back with a series of high-quality true crime shows. “In Ice Cold Blood” is releasing remaining episodes from Season 3, with Grammy and NAACP Image Award Winner Ice-T returning as host and executive producer, lending his distinct voice to mind-blowing true stories involving sex, money, obsession – or even a fatal cocktail of all three.
The ninth episode of Season 3 revisits the bone-chilling case of serial killer John Charles Eichinger, who murdered four people – including a three-year-old child – simply because his romantic advances were rejected. After his arrest, detectives chillingly found trophies and keepsakes from his crimes as they executed a search warrant at his home. They weren't just mementos, officers noted. Every Halloween, Eichinger would wear a scream mask and carry his serrated murder weapon around the neighborhood while handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.
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The case
Eichinger callously murdered 27-year-old Heather Greaves from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, after she refused to leave her boyfriend for him. What's more? He didn't even spare the lives of her three-year-old daughter Avery Johnson and Heather's sister, 23-year-old Lisa Greaves in order to cut loose ends.
As detectives investigated this blood-curdling crime, they tried to place Eichinger in the frame for the 1999 murder of Jennifer Still, 20, as she had also been killed in a similar manner in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Eichinger approached Heather's home on March 25, prepared to kill her if she did not agree to end her relationship with her boyfriend. The pair became embroiled in an argument shortly after he arrived, and it eventually led to Eichinger pulling a knife from his waistband and stabbing Heather in the stomach multiple times, and slicing her neck.
The killer would later admit to detectives that he had ensured he had stabbed Heather in the stomach after learning from movies and books that “it was easier to puncture organs there than through the chest, where it is more difficult because of hitting bone.”
The horrifying attack was witnessed by Heather's three-year-old daughter Avery, Eichinger recalled. A dying Heather called on her daughter to dial 911, but Eichinger turned on the toddler and stabbed her to death as well. He then encountered Heather's sister Lisa, who came out of her bedroom due to the commotion. Tragically, she would meet the same fate as her sister and niece.
Eichinger later admitted to the police that he killed little Avery and Lisa to prevent them from testifying against him in court. He said he ripped open Lisa's shirt to confuse the police and make it look like she was the main target of the attack.
Fortunately, a neighbor had spotted Eichinger leaving the house and noted how his hands were bloody and bruised as he walked away from the property. He was arrested a short time later and confessed to the murders during interrogation.
While speaking to detectives, Eichinger shockingly admitted that it wasn't the first time he had killed. He revealed that he had used the same serrated knife in the brutal stabbing murder of Jennifer Still, 20, six years prior on July 6, 1999.
Eichinger said he had ended Jennifer's life because she, too, had refused to leave her fiance to be with him. Detectives had interviewed Eichinger at the time of the murder, but the case went cold as there were no solid leads.
Not just mementos
After Eichinger was arrested, officers made an unnerving discovery while executing a search warrant at his home. "John kept trophies and keepsakes from the Jennifer murder," said James Godby, retd. Det. Upper Merion Police Dept. "It was something out of a horror movie," journalist Keith Phucas added.
Investigators found the murder weapon sheathed in his closet, alongside articles, and information about the Jennifer Still case. Another bombshell they found was the shorts that he wore while committing the Still murder. "That saving of souvenirs -- all things that he's able to use to psychologically relive that murder," explained Paul Fallon, retd. Det. Montgomery County DA's office.
But John Eichinger told detectives they were more than just mementos. On Halloween every year, he would reportedly put on a Scream Halloween mask and carry the knife from the Jennifer Still murder in a sheath around his neck while handing out candies to children. "This man was the personification of evil," former Montgomery County DA Bruce L. Castor Jr. said.
In December 2005, John Charles Eichinger received the death sentence for the murders of Heather Greaves, Lisa Greaves, and Avery Johnson. In addition, he was also given an automatic life sentence for the murder of Jennifer Still.