World's Most Evil Killers: 'Riverside Prostitute Killer' used breast of a victim to make chili in cooking contest
William Lester Suff, popularly known as the Riverside Prostitute Killer in the 1980s, was known as a model employee and a great cook. He was a 41-year-old government stock clerk living in Riverside County, California. Nothing about him and his mundane life raised any alarms for authorities or suggested that he could be a serial killer responsible for over a dozen bodies found in the area. The bodies of women were piling up, with one killing nearly every month, but the police remained clueless about the perpetrator for over a year.
Suff, who also did community work, did not appear odd to even his neighbors, one of whom described him as a "friendly person" who helped people in need. However, hardly anyone in Riverside knew of the nerdy stock clerk's dark past in Texas. Suff, during the 1970s, had spent nearly 10 years in a Texas prison for beating his two-month-old daughter to death. His former wife had also been arrested in the incident but was later released on account of lack of evidence. Stuff, in 1974, was sentenced to 70 years in prison but was released after serving 10 years. He eventually moved to California, and that's when reports of brutal murders in the area started coming to the fore.
Between January 1988 and January 1992, at least 12 murders were reported in and around Riverside County. All of them were female prostitutes. Suff reportedly frequented red light areas in the region to hunt for his prey. He abducted them within miles of his home, then raped, tortured, stabbed, mutilated, strangled them before dumping their bodies within blocks from his house. He continued his killing for months at end, without drawing suspicion, and even appeared in front of officers during the murder investigation. During his work as a warehouse clerk, Stuff reportedly once delivered office furniture to the investigative officers who were probing the murders he had committed.
After a nearly two-year killing spree, Suff was arrested on January 9, 1992 after a routine traffic stop as a police officer discovered a bloody knife and objects believed to be related to the killings in the van he was driving. During his trial, the prosecutor reportedly told the foreman and four other jury members that he suspected Suff cut out the breast of one of his victims and used it in the chili he made during a cooking contest which he won. The claims, however, were never verified.
The forensic evidence found inside his van tied him to at least two of the murders. A Riverside County jury eventually, on July 19, 1995, found Suff guilty of murderimg at least 12 women and attempting to kill another. A month later, on August 10, it took the jury only ten minutes to announce a guilty verdict, he was sentenced to death. Officials, however, believe that Suff was responsible for at least 22 killings.
A few years after his conviction, Suff's solicitor Brian Lane released a book on him titled 'Cat and Mouse: Mind Games with a Serial Killer', which contained Suff's poetry, writings, and award-winning recipes.
Reelz' docu-series 'World's Most Evil Killers' releases Friday, June 12.