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CCJ1191 HUMAN BEHAVIOR
DR. E. BUCHHOLZ
SERIAL MURDERERS & THEIR VICTIMS
6TH EDITION
Eric W. Hickey, Ph.D.
CHAPTER 8: Team Killers
Learning Objectives
 To explore through case review the profiles and characteristics of serial murderers who
operate in teams of two or more offenders
 To understand the synergistic dynamics of team serial killers in pursuit of their victims
 To examine the role of females as frequent participants in team serial murder
 To review the latest research on team serial killers
William George Bonin
“The Freeway Killer”
William George Bonin
“The Freeway Killer”
Bonin accomplices
 Vernon Butts (22)
 accomplice in six of the “freeway murders”
 January 11, 1981: succeeded in his 5th suicide attempt, hanging himself in his cell at LA
Co. Jail
Bonin accomplices
 James Michael Munro (19)
 Arrested in Michigan for the murder of Stephen Wells
 Believed to have aided Bonin in the murder of Dennis Franklin
 Received a 15-to-life sentence for his 2nd-degree murder plea
 Was eligible for parole in 2000, but the parents of Steven Wells have made it a point to
make sure he serves the maximum
 Bonin accomplices
 Gregory Matthew Miley
 Arrested in Texas for murdering Charles Miranda and James McCabe, plus two counts of
robbery and one count of sodomy.
 Charged with an Orange County, CA murder and seven related felony counts
 Sentenced to a 25-to-life term for 1st Degree murder
Team Serial Killers Update, 2004–2011
 Team killers (N = 29)
 Account for 20% of all serial killers 2004–2011 (N = 146)
 Gender of killers:
 males 76%
 females 24%
 Average number of accomplices: 1
 Race of offender:
 Caucasian: 55%
 African American: 38%
 Hispanic: 7%
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Offender year of birth range: 1931–1991
Average age of offender at first killing: 30.6
Average age at apprehension: 33.4
Average span of offender killing: 3.1 years
Total number of victims:
 73–91
 Average number of victims per offender: 2.5–3.1
 Span of offender killing:
 1994–2010
 Offenders who killed all their victims in same year:
 41%
Contd.
 Offenders who killed in more than one year: 59%
 1–2 years: 14%
 2–3 years: 17%
 4–5 years: 7%
 6–9 years: 7%
 10+ years: 14%
 Method of killing:
 Shoot only: 40%
 Strangle only: 13%
 Beat/blunt force only: 13%
 Combination of strangling, beating, stabbing, and/or shooting: 34%
 Victims of team killers:
 Adults only: 100%
 Offenders who targeted specific type of victim: 100%
 Average number of victims per offender: 4.6–5.7
 Strangers only: 100%
 Prostitutes: 7%
 Males only: 33%
 Females only: 13%
 Male and female victims: 53%
 Involving more than one state: 20%
Team Killers
 The majority of cases involve only two offenders, whereas the remaining few cases have
three or more offenders in each group. The largest group in this study was identified as
having five offenders.
( See the Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono profile, p. 264)

Team offenders form dyads, triads, and even larger groupings
 sometimes they are both legally and blood related
 sometimes they are strangers and acquaintances
A cooperative relationship…
 The lust for power is the chameleon of vices and as such can be perceived and
experienced in many different ways. For some multiple killers, murder must be
simultaneously a participation and a spectator endeavor; power can be experienced by
observing a fellow conspirator destroy human life, possibly as much as by performing the
killing.
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The pathology of the relationship operates symbiotically. In other words, the offenders
contribute to each other’s personal inventory of power. What they could never become
alone, they can aspire to collectively.
Relationships
 In the nonrelative category, males almost exclusively assumed leadership. Cases were
extremely rare in which nonrelated females masterminded multiple homicides, but they
do occur.
( See the Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay profile, p. 267)
Black Widow Killers
Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay
 Appeared to be kindly old women spending their last days helping the less fortunate.
They stopped by the Sunday lunch for the homeless at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.
 Olga lived in a well-worn Sycamore Avenue apartment building.
 Helen owned rental properties on the westside and lived in one of her own buildings on
Ocean Park Boulevard.
 Olga and Helen preyed on homeless men, befriending them, and obtaining insurance
policies for them. Afterwards, they'd kill the men, making it appear like hit and run
accidents. They were arrested by the LAPD on May 18, 2006. On April 16, 2008, they
were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
 Aged 75 and 77, respectively, at the time of their trial in 2008. They murdered two
homeless men — Kenneth McDavid, aged 50, in 2005 and Paul Vados, aged 73, in 1999
— staging their deaths to appear as hit and run incidents. They then collected life
insurance policies that they had taken out on the two men, for a total of $2.8 million.
Without exception, every group of offenders had one person who psychologically maintained
control of the other members of the team. Some of these leaders were Charles Manson types who
exerted an almost mystical control over their followers; others used forms of coercion,
intimidation, and persuasive techniques.
Male and Female Teams
 In other rare cases women have dominated the male in the killing relationship.
(See the Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez profile, p. 268)

Some of those who led groups of team offenders experienced a sense of power and
gratification not only through the deaths of victims but also through getting others to do
their bidding.
The “Lonely Hearts Killers”
 On March 8, 1951, the made-for-tabloids killer couple Raymond Fernandez and
Martha Beck were electrocuted at New York’s Sing Sing prison for murder.
Contd.
 The females described in this chapter who are part of the subgroup of male-female team
killers, tend to be, with a few exceptions, followers, not leaders. However, some of these
followers quickly learned how to kill, became “equal partners in the killing,” and
participated directly in some of the bloodiest murder cases ever chronicled.
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(See the Alton Coleman and Debra D. Brown profile, p. 269)
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown
Contd.
 Leaders of some groups tend to go through a process of self-abdication and place
culpability for the murders on the followers. In one case the group leader, denying
absolutely any involvement in a series of horrific mutilation murders, contended that his
ex-girlfriend had conceived and executed the murder plans.
(See the Douglas D. Clark and Carol A. Bundy profile, p. 272)
Doug Clark and Carol Bundy
Doug Clark and Carol Bundy were responsible for "the Sunset Strip Slayings" in Hollywood in
the early 1980s. Bundy would entice women into the car so that Clark could force them into
sexual acts, during which he would shoot them in the head. He would then have sex with the
corpses...or just with a severed head.
Contd.
 For some followers, killing first became acceptable and then desirable. Others continued
to kill solely as a result of their relationship with whoever held the reins of leadership.
(See the Gerald A. Gallego Jr. and Charlene Gallego profile, p. 284)
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When the couple had been together for a year, he said that he needed a pair of love slaves
to turn him on and asked Charlene to procure them.
The Gallegos targeted women. Their first victims were in their teens, but the later ones
were in their early 20s. More often than not, they abducted two at a time. They would
abduct them from public or semi-public places, often at gunpoint with a .357 Magnum,
with Charlene acting as the lure, and take them into their van, where Gerald would rape
them repeatedly before killing them in various ways, usually by shooting them with a .25
Beretta or bludgeoning them with some incidental object. Linda Aguilar and Virginia
Mochel, both of whom were abducted alone, were strangled.
Convicted killer Gerald Gallego listens to his death sentence in Contra Costa County
Superior Court. He was sentenced to die in the gas chamber for the murder of a college
couple in 1980. (May 25, 1983)
Gallego’s Original Pen Pal Request
My name is Gerald Gallego. I am 54 years old and I will soon be starting my 21st year on Death
Row. I was arrested Nov 17, 1980, in Omaha, Neb. I was returned to California. In 1983, I was
convicted of murder and sentenced to Death. I was then extradited to the State of Nevada. On
June 24, 1984, I was convicted of murder in the State of Nevada and sentenced to death. I have
been fighting the convictions and death sentences in both states through out all these years. My
family is all dead and gone. All my friends somehow vanished after my arrest. Over these 20
years, I have had very little to do with the outside world. My appeals is starting to come to an
end (both states) and I am looking for a friend. I am looking for a person that is honest in words
and sincere at heart. Someone that will stand with me and befriend me until the end. I'm not
looking for a lot of friends - just one true one. As you can see by my poor writing, my misspelling,
etc, I am not a well educated man. I don't know if I have anything to offer anyone. I don't have
anything to offer anyone except my friendship. I guess what I'm trying to say is I just don't want
to go down the road by myself anymore...I don't have any picture of myself...maybe you know
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someone that might want to write me. I am not very good at letter writing, and somedays are
harder than others. But I will try and be a very good penpal to someone. Sincerely yours,
Died of cancer in prison - July 18, 2002, age 56
Northern Nevada Correctional Center
Charlene was released in 1997, age 41
Unusual Groups
 There are other types of male-female team serial killers that do not fit traditional concepts
of serial murder, yet they are serial killers by definition.
(See the Tene Bimbo Gypsy Clan profile, p. 268)
With only a few exceptions, most of these team offenders did not receive college education, and
only a few received postsecondary education, such as vocational training. In brief, they were
generally ill prepared to achieve occupationally successful careers.
Mobility
 Having more than one offender involved in serial killing id not increase the number of
victims per case.
 Solo offenders were a little more likely, on average, to kill more victims
 When two or more offenders are involved in a case, the chances of someone talking or
leaving evidence at or near the crime scene increase.
 Victimization
 Team killers do not appear to be gender-specific, and equally select both males and
females as targets, especially those who are adults. About half of all team cases and
offenders killed both males and females.
 Strangers were the most common type of victim, and there was a preference for adults
over children.
(See the Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Elwood Toole profile, p. 274)
Contd.
 Offender mobility data indicates that team killers are most likely to remain in local
proximity to their killing sites and least likely to be classified as place-specific offenders.
 The majority of cases involve stranger-to-stranger violence.
 Risk-takers such as prostitutes and hitchhikers were at greater risk than those who
avoided such lifestyles.
Methods
 Guns were commonly used by team offenders during the commission of their crimes (see
Table 8.8). However, guns only were used in approximately one out of four cases as the
sole method of killing.
 As in other serial murders, the purpose was usually not to dispose of victims quickly but
to keep them alive so they could be subjected to tortures and mutilations.
(See the Dean A. Corll, David O. Brooks, and Elmer Wayne Henley profile, p. 280)
Murder Ventures
 Some team killers group themselves together in almost businesslike ventures that
culminate in murder.
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(See the Leonard Lake and Charles Ng profile, p. 282)

Lake had settled on two and a half acres of woodland near Wilseyville, in Calaveras
County, enlisting the help of neighbors to construct a fortified bunker beside his cabin,
stockpiling illegal weapons and stolen video equipment.
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Team killers were twice as likely to come from unstable homes as solo killers
Solo offenders were much more prone to report feelings of rejection than team serial
offenders.
Disposition
 The problem is we are not keeping these offenders incarcerated and are freeing
convicted psychopathic felons every year who go on to become some of
America’s most infamous serial murders.
End of Chapter 8
Related Movies
 Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer – (Based on the true story of Henry Lucas and Otis
Toole).
 The Hillside Stranglers – (Based on the true story of Ken Bianchi and Angelo Buono).
 Helter Skelter – (Based on the true story of Charles Manson and his “family”).
Related Websites:
 1. TruTV: William Bonin: The Freeway Killer,
www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/bonin/killer_4.html.
 Deseret News: Serial Killer Myron Lance Dies after Years in Prison,
www.deseretnews.com/article/700061597/Serial-killer-Myron-Lance-dies-after-years-inprison.html.
 The Guardian: In Cold Blood, Half a Century On,
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/16/truman-capote-in-cold-blood.