Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - The Skid Row Stabber

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

Los Angeles in the ‘70s was a dangerous place to be. The city was menaced by multiple serial killers, and by 1978, yet another one had emerged on the scene. In Skid Row, nearly a dozen identical murders put the area’s homeless residents on high alert. Police put their prime suspect, Bobby Joe Maxwell, in jail — adamant they’d gotten their guy. But ultimately, the charges wouldn’t stick.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and satanic references. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. 45-year-old Frank Garcia exhaled audibly as he sat on a wooden bench under the pavilion of Los Angeles City Hall. It was the morning of November 23rd Thanksgiving Day, 1978. The holiday meant the streets would be quieter than usual for a Thursday, Most people were home with their families looking forward to a hot meal. Frank lit a cigarette and leaned back to enjoy the silence of the cool morning.

After a long shift cleaning a nearby medical center, he was looking forward to relaxing at Thanksgiving dinner later that day. It would be nice to relax with his loved ones. He hadn't been getting much sleep lately. Rumors of increased violence were circulating within the community, and people felt even less safe than usual. After a final drag, Frank threw his... cigarette butt to the ground. He shifted his hips and placed his purple lighter back into the

pocket of his jeans. That was when he felt large arms push him back down onto the bench. Before Frank could react, his attacker pulled out a large knife and began stabbing deep gashes across his torso. Spurts of blood sprang from Frank's body, soaking his shirt, the bench, and the assailant's hands. The aggressor loomed silently as Frank lost consciousness. Then grabbed the cigarette lighter from the dying man's pocket, leaning on the bench as he did so. Then, while Frank bled out, the Skid Row Stabber slinked off, disappearing into the quiet morning. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.

Today we're covering the Skid Row Stapper, a killer who terrorized lots of. Los Angeles' vulnerable homeless population during the 1970s. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi everyone, you can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parkast for free on Spotify. In the first part of this episode, we'll explore the Skid Row Stabbers' Crime Spree as he makes his way through the vulnerable homeless population in downtown Los Angeles. Later, we'll learn about the man police honed in on as their most viable suspect, then

follow the efforts to put him behind bars. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the Lonely Hearts Killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify.

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. The latter half of the 1970s was a golden age in Los Angeles. For starters, escapist blockbusters like Star Wars and Superman had transformed the entertainment industry, along with the tastes of moviegoers everywhere. Meanwhile, Hollywood's drug of choice, cocaine, turned the town into a non-stop party,

with wealth, glitz, and glamour on full display. At least for those who are not. had wealth to flaunt. But for those who didn't, Los Angeles was the place where their dreams just might come true, where they could be discovered. That meant there was a flood of young transplants pouring into the city. They sought excitement, opportunity, and the chance to make it in a post-hippy era. But beneath the facade of silver-screen heroes and drug-fueled revelry lay a far more gruesome

and nefarious side of the city, one associated with the Manson atrocity. and other high-profile crimes. Gang violence and a string of murders had earned Los Angeles a new title, the serial killer capital of America. Relentless violence and a growing pattern of unsolved homicides left the city in a state of terror.

Serial killers with monikers like the Skid Row Slasher, the Hillside Strangler, the Freeway Killer, and the Sunset Strip killers helped L.A. live up to this menacing new reputation. Between them, they were responsible. responsible for dozens of murders.

With so many prolific killers on the loose, dead bodies were being found all over the city. It seemed like police and locals were gathering around new crime scenes nearly every other day. Understandably, the impacable violence threw the Los Angeles Police Department into chaos. In response, the LAPD ushered in a fresh new generation of young recruits, but this wasn't as helpful as many might have hoped.

There were more boots on the ground hunting for multiple killers, but many of the cops were green, with no experience catching murderers. A lack of progressive investigative technology also meant that using DNA evidence wasn't an option. Without that, it was incredibly difficult to link the numerous victims to their killers. Meanwhile, in the fall of 1978, as the autumn air cooled the scorching city, a new string of murders was added to the growing pile. And these particular slings took place in an area of LA's historic course. LA's historic core, known as Skid Row.

Colloquially, the term Skid Row refers to the part of a city containing people who are on the skids of society. The L.A. neighborhood is just that, a well-known section of the city where thousands of unhoused individuals congregate. Skid Row occupies about 50 square blocks of downtown Los Angeles, in an area that was originally a destination for poor migrants of the early 1900s. During the Great Depression, Skid Row became a refuge for those facing poverty, struggling with alcoholism, and those living with mental illnesses. By 1970, the area was synonymous with disease, drugs, and crime. The most unfortunate reality was that over the decades, it had become the most crime-ridden neighborhood in L.A. Beyond the drugs and crime, Skid Row still held

some appeal. It's always been a neighborhood where people can find cheap beers, cheap food, and establishments that stay open when others in the city close for the night. So it wasn't unusual for a 50-year-old cook Jesse Martinez to be walking through the area after midnight, but on October 23rd, 1978, he didn't make it home. It's unclear who found Jesse Martinez slain in the Skid Row parking lot as the sun rose later that morning, but by the time authorities arrived, he lay dead and cold in a pool of his own blood. His body was riddled with stab wounds across his stomach and chest. It seemed like whoever murdered Jesse didn't care enough to cover or even hide the body.

As news of the murder spread, the media quickly nicknamed the unknown killer, the Skid Row Stabber. Not to be confused with a different serial killer, a few years earlier, the Skid Row Slasher had terrorized the same area with just a slightly different MO. Despite how much time had passed between the slasher's crimes and Jesse's murder, local media immediately drew comparisons between the two. The slasher had a reputation for cutting the throats of transient men in the area. Jesse Martinez wasn't homeless, but likely because of where the crime took place, his murder didn't make headlines, like many others at the time.

Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but with a We have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Given how preoccupied Los Angeles was with the spate of violent crime just then, it might seem strange that Jesse's murder didn't garner more attention. However, given what we know about the general attitude towards unhoused people in the United States, it's perhaps not that surprising.

In a 2010 survey administered by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, 49% of homeless respondents reported being victims of violence compared to just 2% of the general population. Additionally, a 2021 study in the journal Stigma and Health provided extensive insight regarding the views and stigmatization against homeless populations. The researchers found that the public tends to associate homeless persons with social deviance, criminal intent, and laziness. The way the media covered the stabbing of Jesse, Martinez seems to support this relative disregard for unhoused people, where the areas associated

with them like Skid Row. But coverage did exist comprise a little more than short, superficial blurbs, far from the front page of any local paper. Instead, journalists and the LAPD stayed focused on a more high-profile murderer terrorizing Los Angeles, the Hillside Strangler. The Hillside Strangler wasn't actually one murderer, but a pair of killers, a duo. A duo who dumped their victims around greater Los Angeles. Their first three victims were young women whose bodies were found strangled and discarded nude on public hillsides.

At least two of these women were thought to be sex workers and the resulting media attention was minimal. However, they moved on to kill and dump a number of women who were not sex workers and were abducted from middle-class neighborhoods. As such, the media attention and subsequent police investigation intensified. It's possible that seeing the hillside strangler get more media attention

and boldened the stabber to kill again. Perhaps he wanted the same kind of spotlight shown on his handiwork. Whatever his reasons behind his spree, on October 28th, just five days after Jesse Martinez's murder, the Skid Row Stabber claimed his next victim. 32-year-old Jose Cortez was found stabbed to death in an alleyway on the 300 block of East Third Street. little is known about Jose except that he was a homeless resident of Skid Row. Like Jesse, Jose was found sprawled on the ground

with stab wounds to his torso. There were no eyewitness accounts of the attack, but there was something that set this attack apart. This time, the Skid Row stabber had left a chilling message behind. A scrap of cardboard lay atop Jose's chest, the word Satan scrawled across its surface. This disturbing detail offered a possible

bizarre motive for the killer's attacks. Perhaps Jesse and Jose's murders were some kind of sacrifice from the stabber for Satan, and he wanted everyone to know it. Police frequently see messages left at crime scenes, and the reason behind them varies. In some cases, the message may just be a way the killer experience is a heightened thrill. Other times, it's a cry for the attention of the news media. Less often, though seen more in popular culture, a killer's message might be part of a game of clues, inviting investigators to play along. Or it can also be a signal that the culprit intends to strike again. They want the world to know they're not done yet. Indeed, this wouldn't be the last time the Skid Row Stabber would leave a message for police. And Jose Cortez wouldn't be

his last victim. Up next, the Skid Row Stabber continues his murder spree, and the LAPD step up their efforts to catch the killer. Put yourself in the shoes of a real-life detective. Imagine examining the crime scene, gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses, feeling the pressure mount as you race against time to catch a criminal. Each week on Scotland Yard Confidential, the new Spotify original from Parkast,

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In the fall of 1978, Los Angeles police were scratching their heads over two stabbing murders that had occurred in the Skid Row area. However, the crimes barely made a splash in the news. So on October 30th, most Angelinos didn't give much attention to the new killer, making himself known downtown. They were focused on finding spooky costumes. or flocking to the movie theater for the latest slasher film, Halloween. Residents of Skid Row, however, were more concerned with finding a warm place to sleep

and avoiding the very real killer who was terrorizing their neighborhood, and he was searching for his next target. The Skid Row Stabber claimed his third victim on October 30th. 46-year-old Bruce Drake was found stabbed to death in an alley on the 600 block of South Kohler Street. Bruce was a long-time downtown resident. Those who knew him reportedly claimed that his body had been stripped of his favorite piece of jewelry. It wasn't much to go on, but it was a clue investigators could at least keep in mind. However, they didn't have long to focus on Bruce's case.

Just five days later, on November 4th, 65-year-old J.P. Henderson was found a few blocks away from where Bruce was discovered. He was sprawled on a sidewalk with a similar fatal wound in his torso. so. Despite the mounting number of victims, investigators remain baffled, and an overwhelmed police force coupled with a lack of media attention certainly didn't help matters. But all that changed on the evening of November 9th. That night, three homeless men gathered outside L.A.'s central public library, hoping to find a comfortable and safe spot to rest. However, just as they began to get settled, they spotted a large black man walking toward them. His slow, menacing movements made them uneasy. But believing there was power in numbers, they stood their ground and waited as the

stranger approached. The man stopped before them, silent and very intimidating. It was like a showdown out of the old west. The tense silence was only broken after one of the homeless men demanded, Who are you? The men claimed that the stranger's voice was low, sinister, They also said that he had a thick Caribbean or Spanish-sounding accent. After several seconds of quiet rambling, he bellowed, I am Luther, I am the peacemaker, I kill winos. He took one last threatening glance at the group of men and walked away. They breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the danger had passed.

However, just moments later, the confused and terrified men heard a blood-curdling scream coming from around the corner. In that moment, instinct took over, and they ran toward the sound as fast as they could. A short distance away, they found 39-year-old David Martin Jones. He lay on the sidewalk, stab wounds across his body. Like the men who found him, he had only been looking for a place to sleep. The shocked group knew David well as a skid row regular and called for help immediately. When police arrived, David lay against a wall, moaning in pain. He lifted his soaked shirt and told the officers he'd been stabbed.

Then he lowered the fabric and died. Almost immediately, police recognized the hallmarks of the Skid Row Stabber. However, David was the first victim found alive at the scene. Though he'd been fatally wounded, this was a significant deviance from the earlier crimes. More importantly, investigators had eyewitness accounts from the men who'd been threatened right before David was attacked. Now, not only did detectives have a physical description of a suspect, they also knew he had a stated desire to kill, quote, Winoes, which offered them a possible motive.

Using this new information, the LAPD investigators finally ramped up the search for the killer. But at almost 50 square blocks, L.A.'s skid row is a large area. It would be almost impossible to cover each and every one at all hours. As such, more victims died at the hands. of the stabber before the next useful clue was uncovered. On November 11th, 57-year-old Francisco Rodriguez was found stabbed to death in a Skid Row parking lot. A mere 24 hours later, 36-year-old Frank Reed and 49-year-old Augustine E. Luna were found dead in nearby lots with similar knife wounds. One of Frank's only possessions, a unique commemorative

coin had been stolen, presumably by his killer. On November 17, in that very same neighborhood, the killer struck again. 35-year-old Native American man, Melford Fletcher, also known as Jimmy White Buffalo, was stabbed to death and left in a parking lot off Main Street. Frank Garcia, the stabber's 10th victim, was murdered at City Hall on Thanksgiving Day, 1978. Like the others, he was stabbed to death.

But this time, police found a bloody palm print at the scene. It was a breakthrough piece of evidence, but without a suspect to, it to, it was largely useless. Or now. It seems unfathomable that the LAPD wouldn't have made more progress after 10 nearly identical murders in such a small area. But there are some possible explanations for the slow progress. For starters, it's unknown whether any friends or family members followed up on any of

the victim's cases. Plus, as we discussed earlier, violent crimes against unhoused individuals garner less attention and sympathy from law enforcement and the general public. However, Frank Garcia's murder did help investigators finalize a victim profile. It was now abundantly clear that the stabber was targeting mostly homeless men of similar age, late at night, and using the same type of knives as his weapon. Some victims were also being found with their pants pulled down, signaling that the stabber was collecting souvenirs from each victim's pockets, and may also have had some type

of sexual fetish for humiliating his victims as he left their bodies at the crime scenes. Furthermore, Garcia's City Hall murder took place mere yards from the LAPD Parker Center headquarters downtown. It seemed like the killer was having fun now, and perhaps even taunting investigators. Then abruptly, the murders stopped for two whole months. At least no more deaths were linked to the stabber during that time. It seemed like the killer was gone. While this was great news for the vulnerable residents of Skid Row, there was still at least two other serial killers terrorizing the city at the time. And by January of 1979, Angelinos had hit a breaking point.

Southern California was in a state of panic. The ongoing violence was becoming a national embarrassment, and the media was putting enormous pressure on the authorities to clean up the streets. Police were now working with a renewed sense of urgency, rushing to put together task forces and push investigations forward. And it was during a lull in the Skid Row stabbings that the police discovered yet another perplexing but useful clue. On January 3rd, 1979, mysterious graffiti was found on the door of a bathroom at the Greyhound bus station in downtown L.A. The chilling words read,

My name is Luther. I kill Wino's. I put them out of their misery. It was eerily similar to the cryptic statement shouted at the men outside the library, right before David Martin Jones was murdered. The police wondered if Luther was actually a shortened nickname for the original fallen angel, Lucifer. With that in mind, and the earlier message the killer left behind on Jose Cortez's chest, it seemed almost certain that the killer investigators were hunting was a Satanist.

Gavin Ivy, a clinical psychologist, whose research includes the psychology of satanic worship, defines Satanism as a specific religious cult, characterized by the inversion of Christian norms and ideology. Ivy argues that satanic activity is strongly correlated with harsh socioeconomic realities and social instability. Some who claim to follow Satanism express their convictions through rituals which can materialize into particularly harmful forms of criminal behavior, such as desecration, rape, or murder. Some followers of Lucifer view him as a model of enlightenment,

and the message at the bus station certainly seemed to fit this belief system. My name is Luther. I kill Wino's. I put them out of their misery. Almost immediately, investigators believe the message at the bus station may have been left by the Skid Row Stapper. If they were right, it was likely the killer had now referred to himself twice as Luther. But while they came to terms with that new piece of the puzzle, the stabber claimed yet another victim. his first in two months.

26-year-old Luis Alvarez was found stabbed to death on January 21st, 1979, at 415 Harlem Place in downtown L.A. Although the method of Luis's murder fit the same pattern as the other 10 victims, other aspects did not. For starters, Luis was the stabber's youngest victim. More significantly, he was not a homeless resident of Skid Row, but instead lived in Culver City. about 10 miles across town.

At first, the police were baffled. Could yet another serial killer be on the loose in downtown L.A.? Or was Luis just another notch in the stabber's belt? But that wasn't all that had them confused. Luis's murder occurred after a two-month pause by the killer. Back in October, no more than six days had passed between each of the stabbings during the height of the murders. Then, starting in December, nothing. The timing was strange, and some investigators wondered what caused the lull.

Until Luis's murder, it seemed possible the stabber might have died or moved away from Los Angeles altogether. But now it seemed more likely that he was just indisposed for a couple of months. Maybe, just maybe, he'd been behind bars. Former detective Tom Lang told ABC News that some 43,000 people were arrested in Los Angeles between November 23rd, 1978 and mid-January of 1979. Given that massive number, LAPD decided to narrow their search. So they started looking for men fitting the profile the three homeless men had described after their encounter near the library.

With that incident in mind, police started searching for a black man in his 30s who may have been arrested with a knife that matched the murder weapon. They sifted through thousands of arrest profiles. After several weeks, their efforts paid off. The specific search criteria led them to 29-year-old Bobby Joe Maxwell. In December, he'd been spotted standing over an intoxicated homeless man. When he was picked up, Maxwell was carrying a concealed weapon, a double-edged stainless steel knife. To the authorities, it seemed like a perfect match, that they might just have found their killer.

Now they just had to close the case. Up next, police close in. a potential killer. Now back to the story. In early 1979, Los Angeles investigators zeroed in on a local man they thought might be the Skid Row stabber. By that stage, the killer had been linked to 11 murders in the downtown area known for its homeless population. The investigation led police to 29-year-old Bobby Joe Maxwell. But before we discuss the case against him, we want to take you back to learn more about who he was

and what brought him to Skid Row? Bobby Joe Maxwell was born in January of 1950 in Columbia, Tennessee. His younger sister described him as a good, kind-hearted person, the oldest child of six. He did have several run-ins with the law, including a stint in prison for armed robbery when he threatened a grocery clerk at Knife Point. After he was released on parole,

Maxwell moved to Los Angeles to join his two sisters in 1977. Like so many, He came to L.A. with dreams. His was to become a karate instructor. Unfortunately, his career never got off the ground, and Maxwell fell into homelessness on the streets of Skid Row shortly after he arrived in California. However, he did find work as a laborer and was able to bounce between his sister's apartments in South Los Angeles. Still, this was hardly the dream he had in mind, and he soon drifted back into the world of crime, with a violent new twist. Maxwell's first arrest in Los Angeles came in August of 1978 for assault with a deadly weapon. He spent about two months in jail for the incident.

Based on that timing, he would have been released from prison around the time the Skid Row killings began that October. Then in December, Maxwell was arrested a second time, which is when he was found carrying a knife that could have been used in the Skid Row Stabber's murders. Coincidentally, the series of murders suddenly stopped right around the same time. time. Maxwell was released from jail on January 18th, 1979, and the Skidrow Stabber claimed his final victim just three days later. It was soon after this that investigators first looked closely at Maxwell, but timing was too perfect to ignore. While Luis Alvarez's murder didn't exactly fit the Skid Row Stabber's ammo, it's possible he may have deviated from his usual

pattern after spending time behind bars. Hoping to catch a break, police started surveilling Maxwell. While they did that, the LAPD's lab compared Maxwell's prints to the bloody palm print found on the bench beside Frank Garcia outside City Hall. Lo and behold, the prince were a match, and although Bobby Joe Maxwell was still a free man in the spring of 1979, he wouldn't be for long. With this break in the case, investigators believed they had enough evidence to arrest him. As the police surveillance intensified, investigators noticed a strange pattern that made them even more certain they'd found their guy. Maxwell often returned to Skid Row, spending hours each day aimlessly walking through the neighborhood.

On the evening of April 4, 1979, investigators trailed Maxwell on his nightly stroll. He stopped to talk with several locals on the streets, asking for cigarettes and engaging in conversation. Police noted that Maxwell's slow stroll seemed to be creating a kind of murderous map. He was visiting all of the crime scenes where the Skidrow Stapper had mutilated and dumped his victims. Maxwell ended his night at a movie theater on Main Street in downtown L.A. He entered alone and took a seat toward the front. Police knew this was their moment to close in. They quietly snuck into the theater behind Maxwell while he was distracted by the screen. By the time he realized what was happening, there was nowhere for him to go.

Seeing there was no way out, he gave himself up, quite. The cops handcuffed him and escorted him outside. With that, it was official. The Skid Row Stabber had been caught at last, or so it seemed. Once in police custody, Maxwell was stoic. He didn't make a confession or claim to have any knowledge of the Skid Row stabbings. That meant it was up to the police and prosecutors to do all the heavy lifting to secure a conviction. Luckily for them, they were discovering more evidence.

with each passing day. Officers had found two souvenirs on Maxwell's person and in his sister's apartment on the day of his arrest. One was identified by Frank Garcia's wife as her husband's lighter, thought to have been stolen from his pocket the night he was stabbed on the city hall bench. Former Detective Lang said they also found a vintage, one-of-a-kind commemorative coin in Maxwell's pocket, just like the one that had belonged to Frank Reed.

But the search for clues didn't end there, Inside the apartment, detectives also found thick, long knives matching the kind the stabber used to butcher his victims. Books and journals in the apartment also provided more damning evidence. They contained several satanic references, which seemed to match the Skidro Stabber's apparent interest in the occult. The final nail in the coffin involved handwriting analysis. Experts found that Maxwell's scribblings in letters and journals matched the handwriting found on the hardboard message and the bus station graffiti. As far as LAPD investigators were concerned, they had successfully apprehended the Skid Row stabber.

Even still, though Maxwell had done time for robbery and assault in the past, the series of brutal murders seemed like a big jump to make. So authorities wondered, what could have pushed him to make that leap? A 2013 conference paper published in Procedia explored the psychological and environmental factors that could push someone to suddenly become a serial killer. The presentation suggested that some killers are motivated by a perceived inability to defend themselves or to exercise power in their own lives. This is especially true after long, relentless periods of misfortune.

These unexpected killers end up gaining back a feeling of being in control by having power over their victims. Furthermore, these types of killers may come from environments where they're not perceived as being strong due to their status in that domain. For example, falling homeless after failing to realize goals might create feelings of rage, something from which killers may try to find a release. Based on what LAPD investigators had found, this all seemed to match Maxwell's case. From the outside, it looked like a conviction was possible. However, legal wrangling delayed his trial for five years. It was finally slated to begin in early 1984. By that,

time, however, one of the principal witnesses from the murder outside the public library had died. This setback meant that the prosecution's case was now on even shakier ground. Maxwell's handprint was the only physical evidence in the case, because the knives and journals from his apartment were considered circumstantial evidence. Add to that, Maxwell had steadfastly maintained his innocence for years. But then, someone spoke up. He'd heard different, he said. In January of 1984, 37-year-old felon and career criminal Sidney Storch strolled into the Los Angeles courtroom as the prosecution's key witness against Maxwell. Storch and Maxwell had shared a cell for reported three weeks the previous year,

and during that time, Storch said Maxwell was very talkative. According to Storch, Maxwell said that his failure to wear gloves during the stabbings had been a mistake because the bloody palm print was a major piece of evidence against him. In the eyes of the prosecution, this was as close to a confession from Maxwell as they could get. Despite Storch's damning allegations, unreliable testimony and circumstantial evidence made it impossible to tie at least half of the murders to Maxwell. Still, he was convicted on at least some of the Skid Row Stabber attacks. In July of 1984, Bobby Joe Maxwell was sentenced to life without parole for the murders of Frank Garcia and David Martin Jones.

Almost immediately, Maxwell appealed his convictions. In some cases, the appellate process can take decades to resolve, but he didn't have to wait that long for a break. In 1988, four years after Maxwell's trial, Sidney Storch was unmasked as a, quote, habitual liar. He had manipulated his position as an informant and committed serial perjury in multiple trials in order to to strike a deal that reduced his own prison time. Storch later admitted to getting tips from media and newspaper reports with the details of the Skid Row Stabber's crimes, then allegedly used that information to frame factual confessions.

His testimony was marked unreliable in at least five other cases, as well as in Maxwell's. Still, the appellate courts didn't reopen Maxwell's case until the early 2000s, and it wasn't until 2010 that his murder conviction, was overturned. But even that didn't mean he could walk free. Certainly not if prosecutors had their way. They remained convinced that they'd had the right guy all along.

A tug of war between prosecution and a series of defense attorneys and legal organizations ensued until the end of 2017. That's when Maxwell suffered a heart attack that left him comatose. Less than a year later, all charges against Maxwell were finally dismissed. His lawyers reportedly sued the city of Los Angeles for compensation, but Maxwell died in April of 2019, 40 years after his arrest and before a settlement could be reached. Throughout the proceedings, investigators who worked on the Maxwell case

are adamant that they booked the Skid Row Stabber. Kirk Meliker, a retired investigator who helped put him behind bars, told the Daily Beast in 2017, there is no doubt that Maxwell was the one who killed all these people. However, despite the evidence that some believe remains against Maxwell, the true identity of the Skid Row Stapper is at least officially unknown. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers.

We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on the Skid Roastabber, amongst the many sources we used, we found ABC News Hulu original series, City of Angels, City of Death, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify Originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time.

Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler. Sound design by Brendan Hawkins with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of serial killers was written by Asia Gallo, with writing assistance by Natalie Pritzowski and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Anya Bayerley, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson.

Scotland Yard Confidential is the new Spotify original from Parkast. Enter the minds of some of the greatest detectives in history as they crack seemingly impossible cases. Join us for episodes airing weekly starting May 19th. Follow and listen for free on Spotify. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat.

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