I-70 killer

[wiseguy182]

Happened to catch part of a program on ID Discovery about this. Not sure if this was the first airing of it, but the guide said 2013. It was the Dark Minds show, and is typically the case with ID, you have to overlook all of the disturbing images and in-your-face graphics and whatnot.

Anyways, here is some info I gleaned from it.

-Nancy Kitsmiller, which I believe was the Wichita, KS victim, wasn't supposed to be working that day, but covered for another employee. Of course, it's always possible the killer could have killed the person that was originally intended to work that day which would be sad in and of itself, but those 'not supposed to be working that day' stories always get to me. I think UM said this was a boot store, but Dark Minds says it was a country and western apparel store. Perhaps a little of both.

-I always thought the 1-70 targeted stores where women worked, or where he believed women worked (bridal store, ceramics store), but this show theorized he targeted low traffic stores with few customers. Again, a combination of both is possible.

-The gift shop victim (where the tv repairmen next door got a glimpse of the killer) happened in Raytown, MO. Said town is heavily believed to be the setting for Mama's Family, which is probably the most talked about show on SO right now due to its upcoming complete series dvd release.

-The third Texas victim SURVIVED! Her name is Vicki Webb. I think this case may have been an anomaly because the killer engaged in small talk with the victim beforehand which he usually never did. The killer shot her in the back of the head once and collapsed. He rifled through the cash register, then went back to her and flipped her over and removed her clothing (though I don't believe the killer ever sexually assaulted any of the victims.) He went to shoot her again, this time in the forehead and point blank range, but thankfully his gun malfunctioned and wouldn't go off. I'm sure that would have been the death blow. He left shortly thereafter. Vicki was left temporarily paralyzed and speechless. A couple came into her gift shop shortly thereafter and they summoned help. She survived by having an abnormally large spinal cord. She made a complete recovery after 3 months, thank God.

[rarjake]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Happened to catch part of a program on ID Discovery about this. Not sure if this was the first airing of it, but the guide said 2013. It was the Dark Minds show, and is typically the case with ID, you have to overlook all of the disturbing images and in-your-face graphics and whatnot.

Anyways, here is some info I gleaned from it.

-Nancy Kitsmiller, which I believe was the Wichita, KS victim, wasn't supposed to be working that day, but covered for another employee. Of course, it's always possible the killer could have killed the person that was originally intended to work that day which would be sad in and of itself, but those 'not supposed to be working that day' stories always get to me. I think UM said this was a boot store, but Dark Minds says it was a country and western apparel store. Perhaps a little of both.

-I always thought the 1-70 targeted stores where women worked, or where he believed women worked (bridal store, ceramics store), but this show theorized he targeted low traffic stores with few customers. Again, a combination of both is possible.

-The gift shop victim (where the tv repairmen next door got a glimpse of the killer) happened in Raytown, MO. Said town is heavily believed to be the setting for Mama's Family, which is probably the most talked about show on SO right now due to its upcoming complete series dvd release.

-The third Texas victim SURVIVED! Her name is Vicki Webb. I think this case may have been an anomaly because the killer engaged in small talk with the victim beforehand which he usually never did. The killer shot her in the back of the head once and collapsed. He rifled through the cash register, then went back to her and flipped her over and removed her clothing (though I don't believe the killer ever sexually assaulted any of the victims.) He went to shoot her again, this time in the forehead and point blank range, but thankfully his gun malfunctioned and wouldn't go off. I'm sure that would have been the death blow. He left shortly thereafter. Vicki was left temporarily paralyzed and speechless. A couple came into her gift shop shortly thereafter and they summoned help. She survived by having an abnormally large spinal cord. She made a complete recovery after 3 months, thank God.

wow that is pretty amazing, that she was able to survive a gun shot to the head. but surley when he came back to shoot her again, she would of been dead.

a larger than normal spinal cord what does that mean? Wouldn't that mean the bullet had more room to hit it? So there is more of a chance she would of been dead,.
at any rate, it missed the spinal cord which is good, and missed all critical arteries.

What is the word on this case? I usually think these serial murderers who just stop, have either died naturally, or have been caught. And the police have not just linked the crimes up.
The Zodiac killer is one that always freaks me out, all of a sudden he stops? To me that is a sure sign, that he served some prision time. I remember they did a segmant on u.s about the zodiac killer and the una bomber and similarties. But that would be a bit of a stretch, since one likes the thrill of killing people face to face, and one doesn't
But what always gets me is, there is like 18 characters left in his message, that no one has ever been able to decode. It just so happens that these characters are just enough to spell out the first and last name of the unabomber.

don't mean to hijack the therad, just thinking out loud.

[DJ_Foxx]

I saw that episode!!

I learned a little more about case from that episode too. Never knew about Vicki Webb because I always thought the gentleman who came into the bridal store but got to leave was the only eyewitness to actually see te guy up close and personal and live to tell about it.

What really got to me was hearing the tv repairman's account. My heart broke for that guy because even after all that time, he still has so much guilt because he felt if he had maybe stopped the guy, that giftshop victim may not have been killed. He even at one point wished the guy had come into his shop instead of hers.

Overall, very interesting episode of that show.

[wiseguy182]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

-Nancy Kitsmiller, which I believe was the Wichita, KS victim,

Boy, I must have been having an off day yesterday. Nancy Kitzmiller with a z, was the St Charles, MO victim. The Wichita incident was at the bridal store.

In any event, I read that the Raytown victim had just opened the store 3 weeks earlier with some of her friends. It never re-opened after that. It was called "The Store of Many Colors"

[SheRaaa]

I watch Dark Minds from time to time -- good to see that this case is getting attention from a current TV program! Woohoo!

I'm always afraid some UM cases will fall off the radar completely, especially since most of them happened way before the internet made it possible (sometimes) to "freeze" and keep information on a case.

[UMFaninMD]

I also saw the episode and didn't even know about Vicki Webb. I'm glad they went a little more in depth about the case. The suspect they profiled is a very strong possibility but I wonder if this is one of those that may never be solved. This is a pretty decent show compared to the softcore crap ID has been churning out lately, hopefully they will feature some more UM cases, as they did with this one and the Connecticut Valley Killer.

[Killarney Rose]

I wonder if he is still out there but his MO has evolved in such a way the killings have not been connected?

[DanCart]

Originally Posted by Killarney Rose

I wonder if he is still out there but his MO has evolved in such a way the killings have not been connected?

It is a remote possibility , this guy clearly enjoyed shooting females in stores and if he were to evolve I would still expect his victims to be lone females - he might target them elsewere but the victim type would be almost consistent ..... the ironic thing is a few years ago the FBI issued a VICAP alert to police forces across the entire US for similar cases and I dont think anything meaningful came out as a result. .....

[lilmissd]

It's just the same as it is with serial rapists; these guys don't stop unless their either in prison for other crimes or dead. Guys like this just don't quit cold turkey, because they've gotten away with it, they get a "thrill" out of killing. As much as I hate to admit it; this guy committed the perfect string of crimes because he left no evidence behind that forensics can use, blood, hair, fibers, fingerprints etc. And typically they make a mistake, and that is when their caught; but I don't find any evidence that he made any mistakes, that's why his identity is still unknown unfortunately. It is possible that he;s still out their killing and may have changed his MO, as he would have to know that LE is looking for and tracking him.

[DanCart]

Originally Posted by lilmissd

It's just the same as it is with serial rapists; these guys don't stop unless their either in prison for other crimes or dead. Guys like this just don't quit cold turkey, because they've gotten away with it, they get a "thrill" out of killing. As much as I hate to admit it; this guy committed the perfect string of crimes because he left no evidence behind that forensics can use, blood, hair, fibers, fingerprints etc. And typically they make a mistake, and that is when their caught; but I don't find any evidence that he made any mistakes, that's why his identity is still unknown unfortunately. It is possible that he;s still out their killing and may have changed his MO, as he would have to know that LE is looking for and tracking him.

Another possibility is that he was jailed in another distant state for unrelated crime , given how far apart and spread out these crimes were its hard to even try and pinpoint were he came from or lived . The lack of any eye witnesses to describe his car has also left this case in ICU ...

[5353]

Another strange factor to this case was one of the victims was a male who worked in an antiques store. There's a theory that the killer thought he was a woman but based off of his picture, I don't think that's the case. His M.O. is certainly women in retail locations, but it makes me wonder if he assumed the person working there was a woman, only to find out he was a man, but it was too late as the victim already seen him. This makes it even more intriguing because the man who stopped to pick up a cummerbund was allowed to leave... he was a witness just like the rest of his victims.

[wiseguy182]

Originally Posted by 5353

Another strange factor to this case was one of the victims was a male who worked in an antiques store. There's a theory that the killer thought he was a woman but based off of his picture, I don't think that's the case. His M.O. is certainly women in retail locations, but it makes me wonder if he assumed the person working there was a woman, only to find out he was a man, but it was too late as the victim already seen him. This makes it even more intriguing because the man who stopped to pick up a cummerbund was allowed to leave... he was a witness just like the rest of his victims.

I do think he probably initially thought Michael McCown was a female, based on the ceramics store as you mentioned, plus that he had long hair and was wearing an earring at the time.

I was kind of pleasantly surprised he let the witness in the bridal store go, although it was probably because the witness was putting up resistance and he didn't want to spent more time in there than he already had -- he was probably already surprised that there were 2 clerks in that store.

[DanCart]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

I do think he probably initially thought Michael McCown was a female, based on the ceramics store as you mentioned, plus that he had long hair and was wearing an earring at the time.

I was kind of pleasantly surprised he let the witness in the bridal store go, although it was probably because the witness was putting up resistance and he didn't want to spent more time in there than he already had -- he was probably already surprised that there were 2 clerks in that store.

Apparently the killer once exchanged words with someone when leaving one of the stores - I wonder what was said ?

[The Third Man]

The I-70 killer in my opinion was one of the most fascinating cases UM ever showed. Honestly, he is one of the most unique serial killers in US history, yet relatively little known amongst crime buffs.

My wife saw the ID episode, I didn't. She did say something I already agreed with: the Texas cases in her opinion aren't related. They really don't have much in common with the I-70 cases...in those ones the killer interacted with the victim, sexually assaulted his victims. I believe he used a different weapon as well. It's true that the choice of victim and location type was similar, but UM history is full of similar victim types (the Boston area Strip Mall Rapist is a prime example). So I'm going to leave those Texas cases out of the discussion.

The most curious thing about the I-70 killer is his motive. Most killers have one of three basic motives: money, sex, or power. Robbery wasn't a motive apparently, so we can rule that out. That leaves sex and power. I think the I-70 killer hated women and wanted to control them by eliminating them. Now lots of killers and deviants share this twisted motive, but he went about it in a curious way. There didn't seem to be any plan to his method: find a woman working alone, kill them, get away. What makes it so unusual was his lack of interaction with the victim (at least in the cases we know about). Most sexusl deviant killers want to interact with the victim or take a souvenir so they can relive the killing. Apparently, this guy didn't.

What also seems so interesting about the case is this killer's seeming disinterest in being caught. He easily could have killed the man who came back for the cummerbund but didn't. He walked past dozens of potential witnesses in one case. That suggests to me, again, a lack of planning--or, perhaps, there's a reason. Maybe he didn't kill "cummerbund man" because he planned to kill women and had no interest in killing men (a bit more about his one male victim later). Maybe he killed that one woman in daylight because that's when he happened to be in town. With a killer as opaque as this one (think of all the killers like him who taunted police or left signature clues) it's hard to guess.

The I-70 aspect is interesting. I've driven that road before. Parts of it are pretty desolate, and it's not a road you travel up and down just for a Sunday drive (because it's also boring scenery to be honest). So either the killer is someone who uses the road for work or a local who knows the area. I'm actually leaning towards the latter. He's probably not a truck driver...no witnesses reported him leaving in a truck. He's not a traveling salesman...I think he'd become too familiar to people in the area--plus his behavior suggests someone who doesn't have the outgoing personality needed in that job. No, I think he's a local loner who researches his targets, cases them at one point, then comes back on a later date to kill.

A few more thoughts later.

[wiseguy182]

Originally Posted by The Third Man

So either the killer is someone who uses the road for work or a local who knows the area. .

This happened over a variety of states, as far east as Indiana and as far west as Kansas, so I don't know how he could be local to all areas.

I was a bit curious as to why he apparently skipped Illinois, until I recently stumbled on an article that suggested he did strike in Illinois on New Year's Eve, but it wasn't conclusively linked.