Pound Pup Legacy

 "I know I made a hole in a lot of people's hearts and souls, but probably I had the biggest."
- Keith Chul Weaver, Korean adoptee who murdered his American adopters.

A Casey Family Programs/Harvard Medical School study finds "rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] among foster care alumni are up to twice as high as for U.S. war veterans." Adoption is not the answer, apparently, as hundreds of "examples" on this page beg the question: (1) WHY is the number of known Serial Killers, who are known to be adopted, disproportionate to the general population who are Serial Killers? and (2) WHY are there twice as many Adopted Killers who are known to be in the category of Adoptees Who Killed Their Adopters?

Adopted Serial Killers (Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)

• Albright, Charles, (Eyeball Killer)

  Born in Amarillo Texas, adopted as the only child of Fred and Delle Albright, may be innocent of killing one or two of his serial killings of females.

• Barone, Cesar Francesco, 31, (aka Adolph James Rode)

  Born 12-4-60 as Adolph James "Jimmy" Rode Jr., and adopted as "Barone," he was convicted of sexually assaulting & killing 4 women in the Portland area in the 1990s & sentenced to Death in 1995.

• Bartsch, Guergen

  "Between 1962 and 1966, four schoolboys were abused, tortured and killed in Germany's Ruhr District. Their tormentor, Juergen Bartsch, was fifteen at the time of his first crime; nineteen when he was caught. His mesmerizing confession, which frames the re-enactment of his crimes and the circumstances through which they came about, forms the heart of this journey into the dark reaches of a troubled mind. Bartsch's cold and severe adopters, his terror-filled years at a Catholic boarding school, the discovery of his sexual attraction to boys, his desperate longing to never have to grow up."

• Benefiel Jr., Bill J.

  Executed 4-21-05 in Indiana, for the Feb. 7, 1987 murder of Delores Wells, 18, of Vigo County. Wells was kept in Benefiel's home for several days. She was sexually abused & tortured before Benefiel killed her. Benefiel also kept another victim in his home who survived [after he repeatedly raped her] & testified against him. Court-appointed experts testified during the guilt phase of the trial that Benefiel suffered from schizophrenic personality disorder, & from a mental disease or defect. As a baby, Benefiel's "birth" mother gave him to an unfit mother in exchange for having a place to live. Benefiel endured a traumatic childhood including abandonment & sexual abuse by his adoptive mother's boyfriend. During trial, Benefiel was reluctant to disclose the details of abuse he suffered & also reluctant to discuss the crimes he had committed. He suffered an emotional breakdown during the trial, refusing to go back into the courtroom after a recess. The trial court, however, ruled that Benefiel was not mentally ill... In 1991, the Supreme Court of Indiana stated that Benefiel's "impairment suffered as a result of mental disease is entitled to substantial mitigating weight ." However, the court maintained that this mental illness issue as mitigation was diminished because Benefiel exhibited both periods of non-violent behavior and control and because of the way in which the crimes were carried out. There is strong evidence to support the argument that Benefiel suffers from mental illness. The execution of persons with mental illness is a clear violation of international human rights standards as violating the 1964 and 1989 U.N. Economic & Social Council Resolution and the U.N. Human Rights Commission Resolution.

• Berkowitz, David, (Son of Sam & The 44-Caliber Killer)

  Born 6-1-53, adopted by Nathan & Pearl Berkowitz, there was no pre-adoption abuse to blame for his outcome; he grew up believing his mother died giving birth to him, so grew up feeling intense anger & guilt, also feeling rejected & scorned about being adopted & He killed 6 people, wounded several others.

• Bianchi, Kenneth, (The Hillside Stranglers)

  Alleged to have killed 25 women, Bianchi (adopted as an infant) & his adoptive cousin Buono, were sentenced to life in prison for the rapes & murders of 10 women.

• Brady, Ian, 23

  Together with his obedient girlfriend, Myra Hindley, they "killed for kicks." Brady was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the "illegitimate" son of a waitress and never knew who his father was. He was raised by foster parents.

• Bundy, Ted, (Florida Co-ed Murders; Lady Killer)

  Born out of wedlock & told his mother was his sister to coverup his in-family informal adoption by his grandmother, Bundy was executed in FL for serial killings of at least 28 women.

• Buono, Angelo, (The Hillside Stranglers)

  ...Alleged to have killed 25 women, Bianchi (adopted as an infant) & his adoptive cousin Buono, were sentenced to life in prison for the rapes & murders of 10 women.

• Coleman, Alton

  sentenced to 112 years for killing his adoptive mother and other adoptive relatives....sentenced to death in 3 states for a 1984 killing spree & executed in Ohio.

• Conde, Rory, (The Tamiani Killer)

  "Born in Colombia in 1965, his mother died of tetanus when he was 6 months old and informally adopted by his paternal grandmother...Sentenced to death for one murder, he pled guilty to murdering 5 prostitutes as part of a plea agreement to instead serve 5 consecutive life terms without parole"

• Desalvo, Albert, (Boston Strangler)

  Born 1937 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, as one of six children in his family, he grew up with a warped view of both sex and violence, mainly as a result of his alcoholic father, Frank, who beat both his children and his wife. When he waS 12, his parents divorced & his father sold him and two of his sisters as slaves to a farmer in Maine who paid $9 for them all [black market adoption]. He was sentenced to Life for sexual assault & robbery in a plea bargain, despite formerly admitting to having killed at least 13 women. He was stabbed to death in prison.

• Dugas, Gaetan

  Adoptee & Canadian airline steward who brought AIDS to the U.S., intentionaly infecting/killing hundreds of men in San Francisco's gay community. Resented his mother whom he never knew but fantasized about throughout his life.

• Francis, Rodney Cameron, 19

  "at age 10, he attempted to strangle a young girl and an elderly lady. By this stage, his adoptive parents had completely rejected him.....In 1974 at age 19, he raped and urdered a nurse....[In later years] he confessed to murder of 8 victims (Kidd 1999)."

• Georges, Guy, (Beast of the Bastille)

  Born in Paris, the son of a French woman & an American soldier who abandoned him as a small child, he was raised by a foster family but by adulthood had already racked up sexual offenses & his first killing in 1991. When arrested in 1998, he confessed to 4 rape-murders & us suspected of other murders. In 2001, he was sentenced to a light term of 22 years & has threatened suicide.

• Graham, Harrison T., 29, (Marty)

  Born 9-9-59, a mildly mentally retarded Black man in Philadelphia who entertained children with a Cookie Monster puppet. On 8-9-87 upon being evicted from his aprtment, police found the corpses of 7 women in his apartment. He was sentenced to one Life term & 7 electrocutions.

• Gunning, James

  James Gunning was charged with the 1997 slaying of Dawn McCary, a sex worker, & with attempting to murder 3 other prostitutes in Camden, New Jersey. Police suspect mechanic might also be responsible for the murder of Caroline Ann Brader, 29, an Allentown area prostitute whose body was found on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. says it's not possible for his office to investigate this suspicion since Gunning is locked up in another jurisdiction.

• Kallinger, Joseph, 25, (The Philadelphia Shoemaker)

  "...adopted by sadistic Catholic parents....[his adoptive] mother forced him to hold his hand over an open flame, beating him if he cried. Kallinger grew up taking extreme pleasure in torturing others...[& slowly drowned his 13 year old son]...After behading his [adoptive] mom ....he raped her headless body..."

• Kip, Martin James, (Dr. Crazy)

  ...Rape-slayer, child of a prostitute, given up for adoption at an early age. ("Attachment & Loss: Separation - Anger & Anxiety" book by John Bowlby)

• Kondro, Joseph

  " ....total lack of remorse for murdering two little girls. The burly former Longview millworker ...father of six saved himself from the death penalty in 1999 by pleading guilty to the murder of a 12-year-old and admitting to the older unsolved killing of an 8-year-old. They were the daughters of Kondro's closest friends. Police questioned Kondro, who had a prior child-rape conviction, about more than 70 other killings and disappearances. He remains a suspect in some cases. ...the self-described psychopath is serving a 55-year prison term for the murders. It's outrageous, he says, that someone as cold-blooded as him could cut a deal." ...Born Don Lee Durant, both his parents, whom he never got to meet, and his adopters, are deceased; he requests contact from other biological relatives. Source: Kondro's 2/18/05 letter to Lori Carangelo/AmFOR (re his parents & adopters)

• Krebs, Rex Allan, 17

  A severely abused child, Rex Allan Krebs got into trouble as a youth in Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1984 & served 18 months in jail for a felony grand theft conviction for stealing a car & some cassettes; he also was sentenced to a boot camp program. & completed 8 months probation before moving to Grover Beach, California. His problems seemed to mount after he moved to California where his mother had moved after remarrying. Although Rex never returned to Idaho, his father, Allan Krebs, visited him at least once in California before his father was arrested for drug trafficking in Montana; one of his brothers was murdered in Vancouver, Washington & his sister was murdered in Spokane. By age 21, Rex had been arrested as a suspect in 3 burglaries & 2 violent rape-sodomy attacks & also a misdemeanor sex offense, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in 1987 but paroled in 10 years, in 1997, registered as a sex offender & was chased out of town. On 11-12-98, in San Luis Obispo, he attacked college student Rachel Newhouse, beating her unconscious with his fists, raped her & left her hog-tied to strangle to death. In 1999, at age 33, in the same town, he beat, raped, tortured & killed college student Aundria Crawford, 20. Upon arrest, the alcoholic sex-and-slaughter addict confessed, saying "If I am not a monster, then what am I?" In 2001, he was sentenced to death.

• Lee, Bruce

  Killer, arsonist, child of a prostitute given up for adoption at an early age. ("Attachment & Loss: Separation - Anger & Anxiety" book by John Bowlby)

• Lindh, Aaron, 19

  Aaron, who is Black, was adopted by Mary Ann Lindh into her White family....He was confused about his identity as an interracial child & the prosecutor & psychiatrist testified at his trial that his impaired logic perceives problems as rejections; events even before the shootings (when he opened fire on police inside Madison Wisconsin Detective Bureau in 1/15/85) were seen as a series of abandonments.

• Munro, James, 18, (The Freeway Murders)

  Born 6/17/61 to Anna Marie Massow in Furth Byron, Germany, & adopted in 1983 by Evon Charron & Leigh Munro, Michigan. Although he admitted to participating in at least one of the "Freeway Murders"--serial killings of male prostitutes -- they were actually committed by William Bonin (who was executed). Munro, who has a low IQ, claims Bonin abducted him & forced him to participate by restraining one of the victims. Source: Munro's letters to AmFOR & http://www.AdoptedPrisoners.com

• Oken, Steven Howard, 25 (in 1987)

  Convicted in 1991 & executed in 6/17/04 in Maryland. In 1987 he murdered 3 women within 2 weeks: Dawn Marie Garvin, Antoine Hirt (his wife's older sister whom he also sexually assaulted), & Lori Elizabeth Ward (whom he also sexually assaulted). See http://AdoptedPrisoners.com for detailing.

• Payne, Eric, 18

  Born Eric Hollie, 1-7-73, in Roanoake VA, his father killed his mother & committe suicide when he was 4 months old. His aunt adopted him but kept him as "her son" for 6 years; he went through a series of foster homes & at age 8 was again adopted, this time by Gerald Payne & his wife who decided when he was 14 they didn't want him because of his lying & "failure to respond," and was imprisoned in 1991 at age 18 for 6 years for possession of LSD. When release in 1997, he went on a rampage of hammer beatings killing 2 women; a 3rd & her son survived his attacks; he was sentenced to death.

• Ramirez, Richard Leyva, (The Nightstalker)

  His was a stepparent adoption. He was convicted in Texas of 12 Satanic-motivate murders & a few dozen lesser crimes including rape & burglary, that he committed 1984-1985. Some of his victims included children, some he left alive which is how he was caught & sent to San Quentin's Death Row.

• Rifkin, Joel, 34

  Son of unwed teenage parents who gave him up for adoption 3 days after birth, adopted by Ben & Jeanne Rifkin & murdered at least 17 women, mostly prostitutes. He pleaded "Adopted Child Syndrome" as a mitigating factor, as he grew up believing his mother was a prostitute who couldn't afford and abortion.

• Speck, Richard

  Born 12-6-41 in Kirkwood, Illinois, the 7ths of 8 children, he adored his father who died when Richard was 6. His religious Catholic mother then married Carl Lindberg; his stepfather took out his drunken violent rages on Richard who, in his teen years, began boozing, fighting & whoring his way through life. Richard married and raped his wife who said he needed sex 4-5 times a day. Sixmonths after she filed for divorce, he murdered 6 nurses.

• Stano, Gerald Eugene, 27

  Born in 1951 at Daytona Beach, FL, taken from his mother at age 6 months & adopted. Murdered an estimated 80 young women (41 were prostitutes, runaways, hitchhiking teenagers, youngest was age 12) from PA to FL before his arrest at age 27 in 1980. He said "Adopted kids like me, I now know, seek out rejection, believe on some level that no one will keep them." Prior to killing he has sought help from 3 psychiatrists who never raised the issue of adoption and so didn't treat him. Executed 3/23/98. Source: "Dark Son," book by Denise Lang

• Toppan, Jane, 31, (Angel of Death)

  Born as Nora Kelly, in 1854 in Boston, she was adopted as an infant when her mother died & her father was institutionalized, for 2 decades worked as a nurse in New England, confessed to killing at least 31 people with morphine & atrophine, & is believed to have actually killed more people than any man or woman who has ever lived.

• Waldon, Billy Ray

  He scarcely knew his mother & apparently didn't know his father, having been raised from age 5 in 1957 by his grandmother "as her own" (informal adoption). Upon his grandmother's death in 1985, he began a killing spree.

• Wilken, Stewart

  Born 11-11-66, in Boksburg. He killed prostitutes. Article speculates "Perhaps it was anger at his biological mother for deserting him, his adoptive mother for not being the mother he wanted." When he was about 6 months old, he & his 2-year-old sister were left in a phone booth, where they were later found by a domestic worker, who took them to the home of her employer known only as "Doep," who subjected the boy to terrible abuse....burned him with cigarettes on his genitals.... engaged in acts of bestiality with his dogs, a made him lick his penis afterwards. At some point, his sister disappeared & he did not know what happened to her. When he was 2 years old, the neighbors, Mr and Mrs Wilken, adopted him out of compassion, named him Stewart Wilken, although he called himself "Boetie Boer." ...He failed the 3rd grade three times, was mocked by his peers because he was adopted, & when his teacher did not intervene on his behalf, but instead had incited the others further, he assaulted the teacher & was severely beaten by the principal in front of the other children. He often bit his adoptive mother as well as other children.... At age 8, he started smoking marijuana. At 9, a deacon sodomized him; the same year, Stewart's adoptive father died. Stewart's adoptive mother felt overwhelmed by the difficult boy & sent him to a reformatory where he was locked up without clothes as punishment, & the older boys sodomized him. In later life he was accused of sodomizing his own sons.

• Wuornos, Aileen Carol Pittman

  Illegally adopted in infancy, in 1960, along with her older brother Keith, by her maternal grandparents, Lauri & Britta Wurornos, abandoned at birth by her alcoholic mother, reportedly sexually abused by her father (a convicted child molester who committed suicide in prison), Aileen was pregnant at 14 by her brother Keith, & delivered and gave up her baby for adoption at a Detroiit Maternity Home; Aileen was also legally adopted as an adult by 44-year old born-again Christian Arlene Pralle & Pralle's husband. One of only 10 female murderers in the US to be executed, Aileen was executed in FL, 10-9-02, for murdering 6 FL truckers while working as a prostitute; she first claimed self-defense, later asked for death. Most detailed site on Wuornos is at http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/wuornos805.htm

• Yates, Robert Lee, 23, (Spokane Serial Killer)

  Yates grew up on Whidbey Island, Washington, where his mother died while he was still in high school. Records show that he was allegedly repeatedly sexually abused by an older neighbor boy when he was approximately 6 years old. A father of 5 children & retired from the Army; in exchnage for his life he pled guilty to murdering 13 female prostitutes, from 1975 to 1996 & was sentened to death in 2002.

from: http://www.amfor.net/killers/