Patricia Ives, also known as ‘Crazy Patty’ was a 25-year-old drug-dependent

school dropout with a baby boy who had been placed into foster care. The once-

attractive woman, who used to bear more that a resemblance to film star Julia

Roberts, was now a walking skeleton. A known prostitute with a ragged and

unkempt demeanour, she had long, dirty hair, a sliced-bread complexion, and

ragged needle marks from her elbows to the backs of her fingers. It was thought

that she had AIDS and perhaps herpes.

A witness who was driving past the corner of Lake and Driving Park at about

7.30pm. on Friday, 29 September 1989, was the last person to see her alive.

Later, he told police that he knew her, and that she had been in the company of a

white male who was riding a bike with balloon tyres. There were fishing rods

protruding from the cycle’s rear baskets. The witness also added that he had

watched as the couple climbed through a hole in the fence behind the tennis

court of the YMCA.

Patty was reported missing the following day by her pimp and local burglar

boyfriend who delighted in the name ‘Ratface Billy’. Patty’s body was found by

children who were hunting for a lost baseball on Friday 27 October. They saw a

foot sticking out from a pile of flattened cardboard lying under a large maple tree near the lip of the gorge. The corpse, clothed in black pants and a heavy

sweatshirt, lay face up. A wedding ring was missing from her finger, there were

no shoes or socks, and maggots had devoured most of her flesh.

Shawcross said that he had killed her because she went through his wallet.

‘There were children playing nearby,’ he said. ‘I put my hand over her mouth

and held her nose. She didn’t struggle, didn’t holler, and didn’t fight.’

*

June Stott was the youngest of eight children and slightly retarded. She was a

shy, homeless woman who heard mysterious voices in her head and had taken to

sleeping rough on Lyell Avenue. Aged 30, June wasn’t a hooker or a drug

addict, she was just a lost and lonely soul who thought that evil sprits were

always chasing her. Shawcross knew her because she had visited his home for

dinner a number of times. On Monday, 23 October 1989, he saw her sitting on a

bench between Dewey Avenue and Saratosa. He suggested that they went

fishing together on the banks of the Genesee River and she accepted.

Down by the water’s edge, he tried to have sex with her and, when she

refused, telling him that she was going to report him to the police, he strangled

her. After removing her clothes and dropping them into the river, he drove

Clara’s dodge Omni back to her house where he picked up his cycle to ride

home. Two days later, he returned to the body and dragged it down into the

swaying cattails, where, using a knife he had found in her pocket, he cut open

her body from the neck to the anus. Then he gutted her like a large fish, throwing

the entrails into the swirling waters.

On Thursday, 23 November, Mark Stetzel was walking his dog in the northern

Rochester suburb of Charlotte and, among the beached, rusting river barges, he

noticed an ice-covered object that had been dragged into the reeds. It was a piece

of frozen carpet, under which was the badly decomposed body of June Stott. A

few feet away was a bloodstained Handi-Wipe cloth. The corpse was face down,

but lividity staining showed that she had been rolled over long after death had

supervened. The right leg was bent inward at the knee, elevating the buttocks,

and thus suggested the possibility of anal intercourse, probably after death. The

body was slashed from breastbone to crotch, the vagina was clotted with blood,

and the genital lips were missing.

Shawcross said, ‘I cut the vagina out and ate it. Then I covered her up with the

rug, picked up all the excess stuff that was there and threw it in the river, and left.’

When I asked him why he hadn’t disposed of the body in the river as well, he

replied, ‘Well, I kinda liked her.’

*

Maria Welch had a five-month-old son called Brad, and the 22-year-old woman

was described as 5ft 2in in height, weighing about 100lb, with a light

complexion, brown eyes and brown hair which she often dyed blonde. She was

last seen alive by another hooker near Lyell Avenue, at midnight on Sunday, 5

November 1989. She was reported as missing by her 60-year-old boyfriend, Jim

Miller, the following day. He told police that she had been wearing white

sneakers, a thigh-length blue jacket, jeans, a purple T-shirt, and she would have

had a gold chain around her neck. Her body was tattooed with a unicorn on her

forearm, a marijuana leaf and a rose on her left ankle to cover up the name

‘Leo’; a leaf on her right leg near the ankle; and ‘L-O-V-E’ over the knuckles of

her left hand.

Maria’s body was not found until Shawcross was arrested. He told the author

that he had picked up Maria at the Marques Restaurant in Lake Avenue.

‘We went down that area and parked,’ he said. ‘We sat and talked, for she was

cold. Had the heater on high. Gave her $30. She took off her shoes, socks and

jeans. Then took off the rest of her clothes. I only unzipped. I asked her if she

was on the rag, and she said “No.” But when I put my hand in her, I felt a Cotex

and blood. I’ve never done it that way. I asked for my money back, and she told

me to go fuck myself. I choked her until she passed out. Had some rope in the

car and tied her hands behind her, plus her feet to her hands. I had to take out

that Cotex and pushed in a bar towel. She came to, and asked me what I did to

her. Then she wanted me to untie her. I was sweating like crazy. Kept wiping my

head and face off. I pulled out that bar towel and it was almost clean. Then I

mounted her. My sweat dripping into her face. That was when she said “I love

you.” I kissed her, then I killed her.’