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Juan Chavez |
VICTIMS: 5 |
They're spreading AIDS." This one is a pretty rare case, a serial killer that operated during the 80's but was not convicted until 1999. I guess you could say he was pretty unlucky to get caught after 10 years of inactivity, even if that was forced upon him. So let me begin this story with his arrest, and the events leading up to it. As with so many serial killers Juan had a pretty shitty childhood. His parent shot through when he was very young which meant Juan and his half brother had been left in their grandmother care as young children. After the woman hit Chavez with a pipe one too many times, the two became runaways in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Eventually the boys crossed the border (illegally) into Texas and then moved on to California. Chavez went on to marry and have two children. He worked a series of low-level jobs, from dishwasher to steam-iron operator, in Los Angeles and committed a string of petty crimes to add to the pitiful income the lower classes are expected to live on in the USA. But the interesting bit doesn't happen until1994. Juan Chavez was sitting in Folsom State Prison for a botched kidnapping when police, who were investigating an old string of murders involving gay men in Los Angeles, finally matched a fingerprint on one of the victims car to a prisoner in Washington state. When they contacted the inmate he said he got the car from Chavez. Once police had Chavez's name they quickly turned all attention to him as the main suspect in the unsolved murders. They matched a photo taken at an ATM, where a different victims credit card was used, to Chavez's half brother. On Dec. 14, they interviewed Juan Chavez in prison. Being a pretty family orientated guy, Juan was worried about his brother being implicated in the murders so he confessed to five murders the following day. According to one officer who testified at Chavez's trial he said, "I thank God you guys found out about this, because you know what, that way I can clear my mind. My conscience has been bothering me for a long time." So what did he do? According to Chavez, men looking to have sex offered him money in Echo, Elysian, LaFayette and MacArthur parks, even though he did not dress or act like a prostitute. Obviously the fact that men kept offering him money for sex eventually got him down (and angry) so he started killing them. He never really explained why he was in well-known gay pickup spots at such regularity, but I guess that's beside the point. His first known victim, according to police, was Alfred Rowswell, 46, who was found strangled in his LaFayette Park apartment in July 1986. Rowswell's car was found later that year in Utah, but fingerprints on the windows initially proved inconclusive. Obviously no one tried to pick Chavez up over the next few years as there were no new victims until 1989 when Chavez killed four men in two months: Ruben Panis, 57, of Los Angeles; Donald Leeman, 48, of Los Angeles; Michael Cates, 46, of West Hollywood; and Leo Hildebrand, 52, of Alhambra. I guess he must have inadvertently dressed in a slightly homosexual way, but this would definitely have been without Juan knowledge I'm sure. Juan's M.O. was that when these men inadvertently thought he was a rent-boy (because he definitely wasn't) he would to persuade the men to take him to their apartments. He would then tie them up and strangle them. It was never planned and the robberies only took place as an afterthought. The men were strangled with whatever took Juan's fancy (other than the naked men, oops, they never did, 'cos he wasn't gay, was he) and included exercise ropes, neckties and electrical cords. Prosecutors at Juan's trial played up the robbery angle throughout the trial, but Juan came up with a new defence during that - "You don't understand, I want to get these men before they get me. They're spreading AIDS." But this silly insanity attempt was never going to work for poor Juan, so he eventually pled guilty to five murders as a trial could have led to him facing the death penalty. He was sentenced to 5 life sentences without the possibility of parole.
His half brother was never charged with any crime, so at least something went right for Juan. |
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MY OPINION Poor Juan. Despite already sitting in prison for an stupid kidnap attempt he must have felt pretty cool getting away with murder, just imagine how pissed off he must have been when police actually figured it out. Oh well, I find this case pretty interesting, and despite not believing a word Juan says I still can’t help but like the guy a little, I mean, it takes a pretty smart guy to get away with five murders for five years. Especially when you have a record as long as Juan no doubt had. it’s a shame he had a loyalty to his family because he could quite easily have pinned it all on his half brother, so I guess he’s not very smart at all. |
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