By At the end of the last century, the gay community in California, in the United States, was horrified by an epidemic of serial murders. In this article we tell you the story of one of the perpetrators of this massacre.
For nearly a decade, three serial killers terrorized the streets of California. Although they killed independently, they blended in with one another. Their modus operandi was so identical and the victims they targeted so similar that police initially attributed all the murders to a single individual.
One of these killers was Patrick Kearney, who, like the other two killers, was dubbed “the highway killer.” The reason for this nickname was that several of the victims were picked up (and later killed) while hitchhiking . Over time, his pseudonym would become the trash bag killer.
In this text we tell you the story of this serial killer who caused terror in California for fifteen years.
The life of Patrick Kearney
Patrick Kearney was born in the late 1940s in Los Angeles. Although there is a belief that great serial killers come from rather broken families, Kearney is an exception to this rule, since, after an analysis of his childhood and adolescence, it was determined that his family was normal.
However, there were episodes in his childhood that made this a traumatic stage . In this sense, it is known that he suffered bullying for years, which laid the foundations for a purpose that, over time, would become real: to kill anyone who posed a threat.
As a teenager, he received many insults and death warnings, including one that would leave a mark on him: “I’m going to kill you, faggot.” This phrase was burned into the mind of this young killer. It made him obsessed and harbor negative beliefs about the gay community in his county, to the point that his victims were always young men.
Now, Patrick Kearney was very intelligent. He had a variety of abilities, spoke fluent Spanish, and completed an engineering degree. Thanks to these cognitive abilities, he got a large number of jobs and, as a result, never lacked shelter or food to eat .
Years later, she fell in love with a man, and she decided to move in with him. His name was David Hill, and she settled in Los Angeles with him in 1967. It was around this time that Kearney committed several of the murders to which she confessed in 1977.
The crimes
Following his confession to the murders, authorities were able to prove that Patrick Kearney had murdered 21 men. However, his confession included 28 homicides and, based on information gathered over time, it has been suggested that Kearney could have murdered as many as 40 individuals.
Patrick devised a method that allowed him to control the situation of each murder. Unlike the other two serial killers we discussed at the beginning of the article, he was neat, refined and clean.
His victims died without suffering too much, as he usually shot them unexpectedly while driving. However, despite the fact that the procedure he carried out has been considered aseptic, the reality is that he made cuts and dismembered and amputated various parts and organs of his victims.
The trash bag killer
In all cases, Patrick Kearney’s modus operandi was very similar. He would pick up individuals on the road, shoot them, rape their bodies and dismember them. He would then place the remains in black bags and leave them in different places in the desert. This is why he was given the nickname ” the trash bag killer . “
Among his victims are cases such as that of Oliver, 13, a boy who was hitchhiking in Baja California on March 21, 1976. Patrick Kearney picked him up and nothing more was ever heard of the young man. In fact, his body was never found, as happened with several of the victims of this murderer.
Kearney later confessed to having engaged in necrophilic practices with Oliver’s body, which he later dismembered. Today, it is hypothesized that parts of him may exist in various locations in Los Angeles County.
Kearney’s victims were always males between the ages of 5 and 28. This provides a relevant fact, since this murderer could have suffered, in addition to necrophilia , from a paraphilic disorder known as pedophilia .
Larry Espy, 17 years old; Ronald Dean, 5 years old; David Allen, 27 years old; Wilfrid Lawrence, 20 years old; Nicolás Hernández-Jiménez, 28 years old; John Demchick, 13 years old, are some of the names of the victims of this serial killer.
Capture and conviction
LaMay, a boy of just 18 years old, was the victim who took a sad victory to the grave. As a result of his murder, Patrick Kerney was arrested, tried and convicted.
He managed to avoid the death penalty, as the judge valued the fact that he confessed his crimes and pleaded guilty. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to life in prison. Patrick Kearney is currently incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison in California .