ILLUSTRATES Joao Henrique Pachêco
Weak and incompetent with women, Harvey Glatman (1927-1959) posed as a photographer to tie them up, make racy pictures and then rape them
1. Born in New York and raised in Colorado, USA, Glatman had behavioral problems from an early age. He didn’t know how to relate to girls and, because he was skinny, he was called squirrel by colleagues. Marks on his neck led his mother to discover that, at the age of 12, he was already practicing erotic self-asphyxiation.
two. Without medical supervision during adolescence, Glatman’s deviations only increased. he went on to break into houses and stealing women’s photos and underwear. In 1945, he was arrested for attempted robbery, but released after a month on parole. When he tried to kidnap a girl, he wasn’t so lucky: eight months in chess
3. In 1946, he went to live in Albany, in the state of New York, and ended up arrested for the third time, for theft. In prison, he was diagnosed by psychiatrists as a psychopath, but, due to his exemplary behavior, he was released on parole in 1951. In the same year, he moved to the city of Denver, and, in 1958, to Los Angeles.
4. There, he took advantage of his work fixing TVs at home to select girls with pin-up style. He invited them to Photos which they were tied. He said that the image would serve as a cover for detective magazines (a type of police photo-novel), but, in fact, he had a fetish for dominating them.
5. It was easy to arrange models: Los Angeles received many young people in search of fame, who ended up unemployed. They thought the opportunity would boost their career. The hint of sadism excited Glatman (who was still a virgin), but he did not abuse his victims. However, that would soon change…
6. The first fatal victim of the fake photographer was Juddy Dull. He held her at gunpoint and raped her. Afterwards, he strangled her and abandoned her body in the desert. through a personal classified in newspaper Lonely Hearts contacted two other victims, Ruth Mercado and Shirley Bridgeford, who met the same tragic fate.
7. His «career» ended in 1958, when he tried to dominate the fourth girl, Lorraine Vigil. She was taken to the desert first and, suspicious, reacted to Glatman’s advance, taking her weapon. Luckily, a policeman was patrolling the road. The young woman explained everything and he investigated the serial killer’s car.
8. In the vehicle were ropes, a knife and a shovel – enough evidence to stop him. A search of the house also revealed a tool box full of fetish photos, which served to solve the cases of the three missing girls. The killer ended up confessing to the three homicides
9. Macabre epilogue: in 2009, the DNA of a corpse found in Colorado in 1954 was cross-referenced with a database. The injuries, likely caused by being hit by a 1951 Dodge Coronet, matched the model of Glatman’s car. The time of death coincided with the time he was in the region.
WHAT END DID IT TAKE?
Glatman pleaded guilty. Convicted of only two of the murders, he was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in September 1959.
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Andrew Cunanan, the killer of fashion designer Giani Versace
Joseph Kallinger, the schizophrenic shoemaker
Thomas Quick, the lying serial killer
The Swamp Killers
SOURCES Documentary Dark Temptationsfrom the Investigation Discovery channel, website crime library and books The Encyclopedia of Serial Killersby Michael Newton, and Serial Killers: The Method and the Madness of Monstersby Peter Vronsky