Another time I went on patrol and shot a kid chained up into a tree. He

killed one GI, with an M1 our own weapon, too. That made three. Again

on petrol [sic] I killed two women in a river, after they had killed two

GI’s. They had a map of base camp, plus AK47 rifles and ammo, food and

$280,000 in money belts. I split the money with some guys, smashed the

AK’s and ammo, took everything else back to camp. We let the bodies drift

in the current downstream.

In another handwritten account, this erstwhile ‘Rambo’ described how he

allegedly committed other atrocities. These are disgusting accounts which must

be taken with a pinch of salt:

I shot one woman who was hiding some ammo in a tree. She didn’t die

right off. I tied her up, gaged her [sic], then search the area [sic]. Found

the hut with another girl inside of the age about 16. Knocked her out with

the butt of the gun and carried her to where the other girl was. There was

a lot of rice, ammo and other stuff in the hut. I tied the young girl to a tree,

still gaged, tied her legs too. They didn’t say anything to me at all. I had a

machete that was very sharp. I cut the girl’s throat. Then took off her head

and placed it on the pole in front of that hut.

That girl at the tree peed then fainted. I stripped her then … First I gave

her oral sex. She couldn’t understand what I was doing but her body did! I

untied her, then retied her to two other small trees … She fainted several

times. I cut her slightly from the neck to crotch. She screamed and shit

herself. I took my M16, pulled on a nipple then put the gun to her forehead

and pulled the trigger. Cut off her head and placed it on a pole where they

got water.

On reassignment furlough in Oklahoma, Specialist Fourth Class Shawcross,

repaired weapons and made reluctant visits to the camp psychiatrist. He was

honourably discharged in the spring of 1969, and moved with his wife to

Clayton, on the St Lawrence River. He promptly put in a disability claim for war

injuries and although a Veterans Administration examiner found no substance to

Arthur’s claim, the former soldier’s constant badgering won him a $73-a-month disability pension for leaving the examiner in peace.

Seven months after leaving the Army, Arthur Shawcross was divorced again

and soon in trouble with the police. He had found employment at a paper

factory, the city’s largest employer, and he repaid the firm for giving him a job

by setting fire to the place, causing $28,000 worth of damage. Within three

months a hay barn mysteriously caught fire, and it was Arthur who raised the

alarm. Three days later, he set fire to a milk bottling plant. This was the city’s

second-largest employer and, this time our community-minded Arthur was at

least considerate enough to telephone the fire brigade, then stand back admiring

the red vehicles as his handiwork reduced the building to ashes.

Shortly after melting the milk depot, he bungled a robbery at a gas station.

The proprietor, who knew Shawcross by sight, called the Sheriff and he was

arrested, confessing to all of his crimes, which included the arson attacks.

Hauled before the Court, Jefferson County Judge Milton Wiltse, who was an

irate old judge from the ‘whip ’em and hang ’em school’, sentenced Arthur to

five years imprisonment in Attica.

*

At the start of his prison sentence, Shawcross was subjected to a psychological

evaluation. He was assessed as ‘an immature adolescent with a schizoid

personality who decompensated [disintegrated or broke down] in ego

functioning under the influence of unemployment stress, employment stress,

rejection by wife. He should be viewed as a schizoid arsonist who requires

supervision, emotional support and immediate referral to a mental clinic on

parole later projected homicidal attempt of at least two of his arsons should not

be underestimated. He is a fair parole risk … will require psychiatric treatment

plus close supervision.’

Shawcross was paroled on Monday, 18 October 1971, after serving just 22

months in prison. At first, he worked with Frink Sno-Plows in Clayton but he

was laid off four days later when it was learned that he was a thief and arsonist

with a criminal record. Just after Christmas, the Watertown Public Works

Department hired him under the Federal Emergency Employment Programme. A

supervisor assigned him to a far corner of the 60-acre landfill at the end of Water

Street. As it transpired, his first murder victim lived a mile away.

Early in 1972, Shawcross attacked and raped a 16-year-old girl in an

underground room of Watertown’s old railroad station but, luckily for him, the victim failed to report the incident to the police. Then he met an old school

friend called Penny Nichol Sherbino. She was a short woman with a good figure,

lively brown eyes, tawny hair and a rural vivacity that took the form of a ready

laugh and a giggle. They dated for a short while before taking their wedding

vows on Wednesday, 22 April 1972, and setting up home in a neat, two-storey

apartment at 233 Cloverdale Apartments in Clover Street.

On Sunday, 7 May, 15 days after the wedding, Arthur was shuffling along

Clover Street with the intention of fishing Kelsey Creek. Set into a triangle of

woods and marshland bordered by Interstate Highway 81 and State Routes 37

and 12E, the creek was just a mile from his home. It was about mid-morning

when 10-year-old Jack Blake rushed up to him asking if he wanted any worms as

bait. Jack went out fishing that day with Shawcross and was never seen alive

again.

The Blakes were a rough family, but they loved their children, and Mary

Blake had warned her impressionable son not to associate with Arthur

Shawcross. She didn’t like the cut of the man who was always boasting about his

service in Vietnam, and showing the boy photographs of naked women.

‘He was a weird sort of guy,’ she said. ‘He rode around on a white, woman’s

cycle.’

When Jack didn’t return home later that day, Mary reported to the police that

her son was missing, explaining that Jack had wanted to go fishing with

Shawcross and, despite her warning, had probably gone against her wishes.

Suspicion, therefore, fell upon Shawcross from the outset. He denied being

with Jack that day, and with no other evidence to suggest otherwise, Shawcross

was released following two interviews with police who now thought that Jack

was a runaway from home.

On Friday, 26 May, Shawcross was again in trouble with the police. This time

he was caught stuffing grass cuttings down the shirt and shorts of a six-year-old

boy, and spanking him. For this offence, Shawcross received a $10 fine and a

reprimand from the Court.

Tragedy struck Watertown again on Wednesday 2 September 1972, when

Shawcross raped and strangled eight-year-old Karen Hill. The blonde-haired

child had been staying with family friends in Pearl Street because her parent’s

home, had, ironically, been destroyed by fire.

The chances against any American citizen falling into the clutches of a

predatory homicidal sexual psychopath are about 350 million: 1. However,

Karen’s chances increased considerably when such a monster came on the scene as she played on her front lawn during this beautifully clear Sunday.