Today in History: Serial killer and rapist is executed
He resisted all appeals to save his life, even writing to the appeals board to say, “I only want to die”.
On this day in 1959, serial killer Harvey Glatman was executed in a California gas chamber for raping and murdering three young women in Los Angeles.
Glatman was a smart child. As a Boy Scout, he developed an obsession with rope. When his parents noticed that he was strangling himself on occasion, they took him to a doctor who told them that it was just a phase and that he would grow out of it.
As a teenager, he threatened a girl with a toy gun in Colorado. Skipping bail, he made his way to New York, where he later spent two years and eight months in Sing Sing prison on robbery charges. Following his release, Glatman moved to Los Angeles and opened a television repair shop.
He took up photography as a hobby, in addition to playing with ropes. On 1 August 1957, he combined these two interests in a sinister way. On the pretence of a freelance modelling assignment, Glatman lured 19-year-old Judy Ann Dull to his apartment, where he raped her and then took photos of her, bound and gagged.
He then drove her out to the desert east of Los Angeles and strangled her to death with his favourite rope. By the time Dull’s body was found, there were no clues linking the crime to Glatman.
Back in Los Angeles, Glatman posted the pictures of Dull on his walls and became further obsessed with rape and murder. His next victim was Shirley Ann Bridgeford, whom he also strangled to death in the desert.
In July 1958, Glatman struck again, following the same twisted procedure. But in October, his luck ran out. Lorraine Vigil, who answered one of Glatman’s modelling ads, was driving with him to his studio when she noticed that he was heading out of the city.
She began to struggle with Glatman, who pulled out a pistol and tried to tie her hands. After being shot through the hip, Vigil was able to wrestle the gun away from him. In the ensuing struggle, they both tumbled out of the car – just as a police officer drove past.
Glatman was arrested and confessed to the three murders, seeming to delight in recounting his sadistic crimes. His trial lasted a mere three days before he was sent off to San Quentin to die.
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