Murder, Mystery & Makeup - The Genesee River Monster: Why Did This Serial Killer Eat His Victims?!

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

Hi friends!  Hope you are having a wonderful day today and I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you guys who constantly send love my way. I love and appreciate you guys so much!!!  Anywho, today I wanted to talk about Arthur Shawcross and just, yeah. I mean, what can you say at this point? Gross human. I would love to hear your thoughts down below. Hope you have a great week ahead and I will be seeing you very soon. x o Bailey Sarian P.S. If you haven't already, check out my YouTube @BaileySarian!

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Every Monday I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button. This week I have, okay, look, side note really quick. I've really been into researching more and talking more about serial killers.

So I just kind of been talking a lot about serial killers and today I have another one. It's not funny. So I have another serial killer if you don't mind. Thank you so much. It's my channel. Let me do what I want. And I had never heard of this guy before,

but he did a lot of damage and he was pretty sick. Warning, the following presentation is intended for mature audiences. It contains graphic descriptions of crime scenes, adult dialogue and strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. If you're ever curious as to what I'm using, I do link it down in the description box down below.

But other than that, I will shut up and get right into it. Arthur, okay, Arthur Shawcross. He was born June 6, 1945 in Maine, and he was actually the oldest of four children. Now, some would say that Arthur was destined to be a serial killer, okay? And that like he had the classic sociopathic behavior, bedwetting, arson. He suffered several head injuries and seemed to have a love-hate relationship with his parents. This combination made a man so full of rage that the only question was not if he would kill, but when he would kill. Now, when Arthur was young, his family decided to move to Watertown,

New York, and that's when the problems really started to happen. In school, Arthur was just very awkward and shy and quiet, and it was very difficult for him to make friends and be accepted by like the fellow classmates. According to Arthur's family, I mean, he seemed to be more of the aggressive type. In school, he kind of went from being the shy, awkward one to turning into like this class bully. And he would have these crazy, uncontrolled, violent outbursts.

So later on, Arthur would do an interview, and kind of explain just his upbringing and whatnot, and he would claim that he was sexually abused at a very young age by his mother, and that his mother would just insert foreign objects into his, you know. Also on top of that, his aunt, or I'm sorry, his aunt performed oral sex on him when he was nine years old. And then Arthur said when he was in junior high school,

he had sexual relations with his sister. Now, in contrast to that, his parents and siblings said that he had a really normal childhood, that these events he described were just stories. He was making them up, he had a wild imagination, and he was just always telling stories. His mom especially just, you know, denied, denied, denied that any of this happened. You just don't know who to believe. There's no way of knowing whose version is the truth. What was clear was that Arthur would constantly change his stories when he was being questioned or interviewed

by professionals during the investigation. Like I don't wanna discredit him at all, but at the same time, you just don't know. Now it said that Arthur had a very low IQ. I know there's like mixed opinions about the IQ test and if it's legit or not. Let's just pretend it matters. I don't know.

How come serial killers, they always know their IQ? So Arthur, low IQ. That led to him dropping out of school. He just didn't do well. He didn't have any friends. He wasn't social. At the age of 19, Arthur enlisted into the US Army, and then he was drafted to Vietnam

where his sadistic tendencies seemed to have flourished. Or maybe it was just the fact that he had like freedom. While in Vietnam, Arthur said that he had raped, killed, and ate two Vietnamese girls during a combat mission on his tour of duty. There is absolutely no evidence to prove that this is true. However, he also claimed a combat kill of 39, which when investigated later would also prove to be a lie.

Authorities claim he killed no one on his tour of duty, but Arthur stands by the fact he killed people when he was out there, and he killed innocent women as well, which, weird brag, but okay. Now, back in like his civilian life, Arthur actually married a total of four different times, and he did have children, but all of his marriages ended in divorce because of his anger issues, and he also never had a relationship with the children.

Now, while in his third marriage, Arthur moved back to New York. And in 1972, this is when he would abduct a son of the neighbor. Now, this little boy was only 10 years old. Arthur somehow lured this little boy into like a wooded area nearby. And that's where he proceeded to suffocate the little boy until he passed away. And then after that, that's when Arthur sexually assaulted him as well. Sadly, it would be five months until someone found the poor boy's body in the wooded area. A lot of people that were searching for him, it was everywhere in the town. They just, they couldn't find it. The body. in the wooded area. A lot of people that were searching for him, it was everywhere in the town.

They just, they couldn't find it. The body. Once this little boy's body was found, that's when pathologists, they would realize that the boy's genitals, they had been bitten off. When police had gone around and questioned any witnesses or family members, Arthur's name was actually brought up

because a few days prior to this little boy's disappearance, Arthur had actually taken him out fishing. So I mean, Arthur seemed to be the last person to actually see him. When police go and question Arthur, he denied any knowledge of this little boy's disappearance and just denied, denied, denied. And they didn't have any reason to further question him.

I don't know why, but they just didn't. Four months later, after the first little boy's body was found, a body of an eight-year-old girl was discovered under a bridge. Now, it was seen that like she had been raped and murdered and there was mud and leaves and other debris that had been shoved down her throat. Also, it was all shoved like in her clothing as if they were trying to make her one with the leaves

or something, I don't know. Hide her, it was just, it's disturbing. Once again, when police and investigators were questioning people about, you know, any witnesses, give us something. Arthur's name was brought up again because neighbors were called seeing Arthur with this young girl hanging out around the bridge area.

This time police actually brought Arthur into questioning and really pressed him for the answers. Because I mean, come on, what are the chances that he was the last person to be seen with these two kids before they went missing? So they bring him in October, 1972, and that's when Arthur actually confessed to both killings. Now he initially confessed to both murders,

but due to lack of evidence, Arthur's lawyers were able to plea bargain a dropping of the first boy's case. In October of 1972, Arthur pled guilty to manslaughter of the second victim, avoiding a first degree murder sentencing. Arthur was sentenced to 25 years in prison and that's the end of the story. Just kidding, psych.

Of course not. This case will disappoint you on so many levels because all of this could have been prevented. It kind of seems that way with a lot of these cases, but like this one for sure, 100% could have been prevented, could have been avoided, could have been stopped. Just wait, okay? Okay.

Arthur only ended up serving 15 years of that 25 year sentence due to good behavior. And in March of 1987, he ended up moving to Binghamton, New York. And unfortunately for Arthur, neighbors knew who he was and what he had done. They would shame him publicly, just made him very uncomfortable, not welcome,

and just everyone knew him for what he had done. So then he just moved to like two different communities, but the people would cause a ruckus no matter where he tried to go. And this frustrated him. He's like, why me? You guys, this isn't fair. You guys.

This is the part that like, I just don't quite fully understand how, why me? You guys, this isn't fair. You guys. This is the part that like, I just don't quite fully understand how, why, way will happen. But Arthur had talked to his parole officers and expressed to them the struggles that he was having. Like he couldn't find somewhere to live. No one was welcoming him to the community. He couldn't get into the swing of things again because everybody knew who he was.

Parole authorities, they actually like smuggled him into Rochester, New York, and to prevent Arthur from not fitting in with the community and with everybody else, they actually ended up coming up with like a solid plan to get Arthur in, just get him going again, right? So they're like, okay, here's what we're gonna do. Let's not tell anyone about Arthur's past or alert police.

They sealed his criminal record so that it was no longer available to law enforcement agencies. So if you looked up his name, normally it would pull up like everything about you. Like you did this shit, you did this shit, you did this shit for X amount of time. This point it's on his record, right?

But they decided let's lock down your criminal record. Let's shut it down so people can't pull you up and they can't see your past. And then you'll be able to live like a happy, perfect life because no one will know. Yeah, I was confused because it's like, how did they, why would authorities agree to this? You know, like that to me just didn't make any sense,

but they did it. I mean, of course Arthur was happy about it. He's like, hell yeah, my record is sealed shut. No one will know. So he's stoked, but little did authorities know, well, they should have known that this was gonna cause some big problems. Anywho, so he moves this new location

and he settles in quite nicely. He's really liking it there. People had no idea who he was. Police, they weren't on his ass or doing like check-ins with him. Arthur could go back to living a normal, peaceful life. Like nothing ever happened. During this time, Arthur was working

just small little one-off jobs, anything to make some money. He had a girlfriend at this time, but apparently their relationship wasn't going too well. And Arthur just loved love and he loved attention. He just wasn't happy in this relationship and he just felt like, hey, you know what? There's some sex workers nearby. I'll go get me some love.

So he did. He would get sex workers a couple times a week. He was a regular in the area and a lot of the local sex workers knew who he was. And sadly his murderous ways came right back. I mean, not even any full year later, like a couple months later. Can you believe that?

What kind of? In March of 1988, police discovered the body of a 27-year-old sex worker in the Genesee River. They found her body floating underneath the ice in a floating stream. So, you know, there's like a stream and ice. They were able to get her out and they saw that she had bite marks in her lower area

and she had strangulation marks across her neck. We've got a biter, we've got a biter. Now it was noted that whoever had done it was sneaking back to the body weeks after the murder and they would cut out and eat pieces of the decomposing body. There was little to no evidence and no witnesses to help close that case.

And it went unsolved for over a year. In September of 1989, the discovery of another sex worker's body was found. Now, she also had bite marks and strangulation marks on her neck, but because her body was found pretty far from where the others were, authorities just didn't think it was like a serial killer at all. And then in October of 1989, the body of a 59 year old

homeless woman was discovered. And then six days later, another sex worker was found both in the same area. Both of the women had strangulation marks on their neck. Once the press gets hold of this, they run the stories and like the press always does, they have to give him a nickname. So they call him the Genesee River Killer,

not to be confused with the Green River Killer. He also went by the River Monster. Oh, because I don't know if I mentioned this, but the bodies were found in the Genesee river. You know, I, this is a side note. I know I pronounce everything wrong. I'm aware. I truly try my best.

I looked up how to pronounce Genesee because it kind of looks like Genesee. And I've actually heard both pronunciations. And then I also heard Genesoo. Choose which one you like and let's go with that. Like I'm just a normal ass person, you know? I don't know how to pronounce everything on the planet. It gets kind of confusing

because there are like a lot of river killers. So anyways, authorities felt like whoever this killer was had to have some kind of criminal or military experience. So authorities ended up going around the local sex workers in the area and they told them just to be careful. Somebody's out there. Unfortunately, you guys are the target.

Now, this is when authorities would go through and check criminal records for offenders who might be living in the immediate area. Now, remember, Arthur's record was sealed shut. So when authorities are going through and looking at all the different people in the location, trying to figure out who could it be, are they here? They got nothing.

They got nothing because the people that were being pulled up weren't Arthur, because his record was sealed shut. Over time, more and more sex workers continue to disappear. And it became apparent that the killer must be someone familiar to the women who worked in the area. So police did go down and question a lot of the sex workers and ask like, who could this person be?

Like regular clients who maybe show signs of aggression. The more sex workers they asked, they kind of got the same name, which was Mitch or Mike. They said like, we don't get to know our clients. You know, we're just here to do our job and then we're done. But Mitch or Mike seemed to be the name associated with this person who was very angry. He was prone to violence and he was super intimidating. Investigators were like, okay, this kind of sounds like it could be probably the guy. Then on Thanksgiving day,

the body of a 26 year old woman was found. When they found her body, they see that she had been strangled, sexually abused, and lower area was cut up, parts were removed. And then on top of that, to make things even worse, she was cut from her throat all the way down to her crotch, which is something that is done to drain the blood of

animals. So the body count just kept growing and growing. And then finally, police asked for assistance from the FBI profilers. The FBI did come up with a profile of who they thought this man was. They thought it was a white male in his 20s or 30s. He must be very strong. They think that he had a previous criminal record. He had to be familiar with the area and comfortable enough with the victims that they would enter his vehicle without any question. Authorities believe the injury inflicted on the last victim

and not any of the previous victims told them that the killer was becoming more and more comfortable around corpses and was probably returning to the crime scenes to relive the attack. On November 27th, another body was found, but this time they felt like they got a little bit of a breakthrough because the suspect, Mitch, had been seen with her shortly before her disappearance,

but they seem to not get really any closer. At least they knew like, okay, this Mitch guy is around and he's the one responsible for it. And then in December, so not even that long after, and it's 1980, it's 1989, a pair of jeans were discovered near the river. And inside the pocket of the jeans was an ID card that belonged to a woman.

Investigators are thinking this woman is probably a victim to the serial killer that's going around. So police began an aerial search of the surrounding area. Then in January of 1990, a helicopter was going around, helicopter, looking for either a person, just something, right? So they're going around and they actually spot what seemed to be like a naked woman's body.

And it was laying on the ice surface of the river by the bridge in the forest. The body that they had found was not the woman, the ID card that they found, but instead it was a missing sex worker. Sadly, this woman had also been just cut in half. I don't know how else to say it. I just don't want to go into like great detail of what her body looked like, but it kind of did already. While the helicopter was going around or patrolling the area, that's when they

spotted what seemed to be a man standing on the bridge next to a small van. Of course he had a van, what else would he be driving? Now he appeared to be either masturbating or urinating. They weren't really sure, but he was doing something that looked suspicious. Fortunately for authorities, Arthur did exactly what they thought he would do. He came back to the crime scene to relive the pleasure of the attack.

And he was indeed masturbating. Now patrol teams in the area, they were alerted about this man in the van nearby and they go driving around, they're looking for him and they're able to actually track down Arthur. So they pull up to Arthur and they pull up his information based off of the license plate.

And they see that the car is like registered in his girlfriend, his girlfriend's name at the time, and then they ask Arthur like, what are you doing up here? Why are you masturbating? First of all, put your pants on. They ask him what he's doing up there, they're like, hey can we see some ID?

And then that's when Arthur told police that he actually didn't even have a driver's license, and he's just been driving around without one. We appreciate his honesty, I guess. They ask him, well like, why don't you have a driver's license? First of all been driving around without one we appreciate his honesty i guess they ask him well like what how why don't you have a driver's license first of all you don't have any form of id you don't have anything like what the hell and he tells the police like yeah i was in jail for manslaughter authorities they were very confident that this was indeed their killer so they brought him in for questioning. And while in questioning, that's when Arthur told authorities

about the earlier child death, his Vietnam war experience. A photograph was taken of Arthur, took it around to all the local sex workers, and that's when they got a confirmation that this was indeed Mitch that they had mentioned a couple of times, or a lot of them mentioned. Authorities then learned about Arthur's sealed records,

which prevented them from tracking him down sooner. Honestly, and I think we can all agree on this, that there should have been some kind of repercussions for those people who sealed the records, correct? They should be in prison too. Authorities couldn't access his records, I mean, right? They need to go to prison for that. They essentially helped him get away with it. Like, it's not how the world works. Isn't it fun? Arthur liked to talk and he liked to tell stories. In the beginning, he would just admit stuff.

Like, yeah, I did it. You know, like he wasn't afraid to say, yes, he did it with the two previous murders. But this time, authorities were not able to get him to admit to any of the murders, besides the one that he already was tried for and served time for. He was not talking.

He was like, can a guy jack off in peace on a bridge? Geez. They bring in Arthur's girlfriend and her name's Clara. They bring her in for questioning and guess what? And they notice something peculiar. No, they just noticed that she's wearing some jewelry, right? What's so special about that? Authorities ask like, hey, where'd you get that jewelry from?

And she's like, oh my God, Arthur gave it to me and like, he just loves me, whatever. Authorities recognize this piece of jewelry because it belonged to one of Arthur's victims. Now it was said that authorities go to Arthur and they're like, hey, we saw your girlfriend, Clara. She has this jewelry that belonged to this victim. And they show like a picture of the victim

who's actually wearing the jewelry. We're going to implicate Clara, your girlfriend in the killings, which then set Arthur into a panic. Police got Arthur exactly where they wanted him because he ended up confessing to all the murders. And then he ends up going into great detail about what he did with each of them, details about why he was, or just excuses,

as to why he was forced to kill some of them. Arthur even confessed to two other killings that had been undiscovered at that time. And he actually takes investigators and shows them where these bodies were. Arthur's formal confession was nearly 80 pages long. Arthur said he killed a woman because she bit him. So he was like, yeah,

and then I killed her because self-defense. And then he said that he killed another woman because she was trying to steal his wallet. And then he said he killed another woman because she made too much noise during sex. I don't think that's self-defense, sir. Arthur then went on to admit that he did indeed, sometimes, but not all the times, but he would return to his victim's body weeks after the murder to eat pieces of their skin. And then he bragged about eating parts of the, you know, the lower region.

In November of 1990, Arthur went on trial for the 10 murders that had occurred in one county. And then there was one murder that had happened outside of the county, so it had to be tried separately. But there was a total of 11 victims, not including the two in the beginning. Now, Arthur's defense team tried to build a case based on an insanity plea,

citing various factors such as his upbringing, post-traumatic stress. They said that he had a cyst on his brain and that he also had a rare genetic defect, and that's why he was killing everybody. Jurors were shown videotapes of Arthur being interviewed by a defense psychiatrist.

Arthur claimed that he was possessed by the reincarnated spirit of a 13th century English cannibal named Ares. Now look, I've Googled this name and I can't seem to find the story of this English cannibal anywhere, unless it's attached to this story itself. So if you have any knowledge about this 13th century English cannibal anywhere, unless it's attached to this story itself. So if you have any knowledge

about this 13th century English cannibal, let me know down below. Oh my God, what if he made it up? This 13th century English cannibal is the one who had taught him how to dine on human flesh. It wasn't him, it was a spirit. Obviously, you think that's me? No.

Arthur also blamed his mother for his killing spree, going on to say that his mother's voice had ordered him to kill these victims. So I don't know if he's telling the truth, like these are real things that he was thinking, or if he was just trying to kind of feed into that, see, I'm in shame. Arthur though, he would be declared as sane, and he was found guilty of 10 instances

of second degree murder. And the judge sentenced him to 25 years for each count, which was a total of 20, no, 250 years in prison. In November of 2008, Arthur complained of having like a pain in his leg. He was transferred to a hospital and that's later where he died of cardiac arrest. So that was a story of Arthur Shawcross.

I mean, what else can you say? But I'm glad he's dead, sorry. You know, the Lord says you should always forgive, but boy, do they make it difficult. Anyways, let me know your thoughts down below. Also, I would love to hear who you would like me to talk about next week. I hope you have a really good day today.

You make good choices. Please, please, please, please, please, please be safe out there, okay? And I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.