E11: The Southside Strangler

On Fruitloops Episode 11 Beth and Wendy discuss the life, crimes and victims of Timonthy WIlson Spencer, AKA The Southside Strangler. This case is notable as the first case in the US where DNA was used to convict a serial killer. Timothy Wilson Spencer was convicted of raping and strangling four women over 11 weeks in 1987. There was very little circumstantial evidence and Spencer did not confess. Then DNA tests linked semen from the crime scenes with Spencer's blood. Most of Spencer's victims were killed while he was living at a Richmond halfway house after being released from a state prison, where he had served three years of a 10-year sentence for burglary. The slayings took place on weekends when Mr. Spencer was signed out of the halfway house.

STATS

Victims: 5 murder victims and 9 rape victims

Span of Crimes 1984, 1987 to 1988

Venue: Arlington and Richmond VA.

AKA’s: Southside Strangler, Southside Slayer and Southside Rapist

Method: stalking, laying in waiting and strangulation

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Footnotes:

Wikipedia Article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Wilson_Spencer

Murderpedia Article:

http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s1/spencer-timothy-wilson.htm

Court Doc:

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/5/758/626409/

Magazine Article:

https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/the-arlington-serial-killer-who-changed-history/

Timothy Wilson Spencer documentary https://youtu.be/yIRU-NFUmwk

Forensic Files - Season 1, Ep 6: Southside Strangler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Or3MsCdbg

NPR Article: On The Scale Of Evil, Where Do Murderers Rate?

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129175964

Dr. Stone video https://bigthink.com/videos/inside-the-mind-of-a-serial-killer

Podcast: Southern Nightmare: the hunt for the Southside strangler https://www.tulsaworld.com/good-friday-shootings-in-tulsa/collection_ae83ec02-66a7-11e3-89b9-001a4bcf6878.html

Style Weekly Article https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/southern-nightmare/Content?oid=9235363

Other info

News: Mollie Tibbetts article from the Washington Post  "Mollie Tibbetts’s father decries vitriol against Hispanics, saying they’re ‘Iowans with better food’ 

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