Spectacular Endings for a Murderer?

Argh, I had a response all typed up and my computer ate it. You're right that a surprisingly large number of criminals are caught in surprisingly boring ways (like traffic stops). Here's my ideas...

-Bonnie and Clyde were killed in a shootout with police.
-Christopher Dorner was not technically a serial killer, but he went out fighting. In the end, he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound, but before that there was a carjacking and a siege and a fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dorner
-Google pointed out this guy, who was Croatian and died in a shootout with police.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinko_Pintarić
-Another idea - going back many years - John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln's assassin) was killed by a soldier who shot into a the burning barn where Booth was trapped.

Jeanette said:

Okay, so I've done some Googling about and other than Richard Ramirez (aka The Night Stalker), are there any other serial murderers who have been caught by police in a crazy way?

Bundy got pulled over for a traffic stop. Green River, police just went to his job or wherever and arrested him. Same kind of 'meh' ending for BTK.

No shoot-outs or car chases (not counting O.J.'s Wild Ride) or 'Boom Goes the Dynamite' endings to capturing monsters?

I ask because I'm writing the third in my series and want a great ending and would like some type of reference for pulling it off.

Thanks!

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I think you're selling Bundy short. He busted out of jail and went on a spree, decompensating like hell. He was caught on a traffic stop but that didn't exactly go smoothly - didn't he try to shoot the cop to get away?

Mostly you're going to have the kind of confrontational thing you're looking for from a different type of mass killer.

Basically, you're writing a fiction piece. Make it up.

Jeff

Let me recommend Kansas' own pet serial killer --BTK. The serial rapist/murderer of entire families who terrorized Wichita for 30+ years was caught because he just had to re-start a bragging campaign. He actually sent police a floppy disc that led them right to his church... where he was a deacon! The craziest part is that he had asked police, in an anonymous newspaper ad, if a floppy disk could be erased. Of course they told him yes. DUH! Turns out this crazed demon was, besides a church deacon, a small town dog catcher with a wife and family. No one suspected him except his neighbors--certainly not law enforcement. He was home free and would have never been caught except that he had to match wits with computer savvy youngsters. google Dennis Rader or just BTK--s6

Some of them don't have the brains to match their savagery. One guy (I'd have to look up the name) took a contract to kill a lawyer's wife. He cut a hole in the garage wall so he could ambush her when she got home. He made only rudimentary attempts to cover his tracks. When caught and locked in the county jail, he got out of a window and threatened to jump from the tenth floor. Of course the lawyer also got caught.

Here in Italy they have found out this way. They got all males to give a dna sample in the area where the murder (s) were committed, they found a dna sample that was similar to the trace they found on the victim's underwear. Basically it belonged to someone related to the killer. They started searching among the relatives of this individual and ended up exhuming the body of a man who had died 10 years previously and found it was the father of the murderer who had a child out of wedlock. So basically now they know who the killer's father is, but they haven't caught the killer yet. You could take it from there. You'd have to look into the dead man's past, do some investigating....I don't see how hard it can be.... obviously Italian police are finding it hard though :-/

During a prison break near where I live, about five-six prisoners escaped. It was snowing and the police dogs lost their scent in the snow, plus it's all kind of swampy near this particular prison. Among those who got out were a few murderers/rapists. (I live near the prison where the Boston Strangler was held for a while.)

Anyhow, a farmer caught them shivering in the hay in his dairy barn. Apparently the cows were upset and making a lot of racket and the farmer went out to see why. Farmer called the local police and the escapees were caught among the cows.

(This particular hunt for the prisoners was quite exciting for those near the prison. Overhead helicopters with searchlights; tracking dogs in the woods behind my house; police stops where cars and trunks, etc. were searched. We had prison officials come to my house and ask to search our cellar, etc., but we declined. Even saw some police with heat-seeking helmets to look for the prisoners' body heat in the swamps and woods. But I don't think anyone in my neighborhood slept very well until the dairy farmer caught them.)

Foolonthehill said:

Here in Italy they have found out this way. They got all males to give a dna sample in the area where the murder (s) were committed, they found a dna sample that was similar to the trace they found on the victim's underwear. Basically it belonged to someone related to the killer. They started searching among the relatives of this individual and ended up exhuming the body of a man who had died 10 years previously and found it was the father of the murderer who had a child out of wedlock. So basically now they know who the killer's father is, but they haven't caught the killer yet. You could take it from there. You'd have to look into the dead man's past, do some investigating....I don't see how hard it can be.... obviously Italian police are finding it hard though :-/

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That's interesting to me, that that's possible in Italy. That method of investigation - compelling everyone who lives in a certain area to submit DNA samples, wouldn't work in the U.S., at all.

Foolonthehill said:

Here in Italy they have found out this way. They got all males to give a dna sample in the area where the murder (s) were committed, they found a dna sample that was similar to the trace they found on the victim's underwear. Basically it belonged to someone related to the killer. They started searching among the relatives of this individual and ended up exhuming the body of a man who had died 10 years previously and found it was the father of the murderer who had a child out of wedlock. So basically now they know who the killer's father is, but they haven't caught the killer yet. You could take it from there. You'd have to look into the dead man's past, do some investigating....I don't see how hard it can be.... obviously Italian police are finding it hard though :-/

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This is going on now? What's the guy's name?

Butch Cassidy and Sundance

D.B. Cooper, who may, or may not, have died jumping from the plane.

There was that shootout ten or fifteen years ago between LAPD and two bank robbers who had AK47s and bulletproof vests. That was quite the sideshow.

If you want a spectacular fail, look up the Darwin Award books. I believe there is one specifically on criminals. Yup, here it is, Felonious Failures. The description mentions a terrorist who opened a letter bomb that had been returned to sender for lack of sufficient postage. You might find some inspiration, especially if you want your criminals to be epically dumb.