Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 25, 2006 20:48:14 GMT -5
Somewhere between San Antonio and Uvalde, the decomposed body of a man lies along a creek.
At least that's what serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz claims.
Resendiz, the Mexican drifter known as the "Railroad Killer," has
confessed to killing 3 people in the San Antonio area. 2 of the
bullet-riddled bodies have been found. But it's the whereabouts of the 3rd - that of a Cuban man - that continues to baffle authorities, even as the notorious killer heads to the death chamber to be injected with a lethal drug thingytail.
Resendiz, 45, is set to die Tuesday for the December 1998 slaying of a Houston physician who was raped, bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her home a week before Christmas.
Dr. Claudia Benton is one of 15 victims whom authorities have been able to link to Resendiz, a drifter who became the focus of a nationwide manhunt in the late 1990s after going on a crime spree while traveling the country's railroads.
His 1st 2 known victims were here in San Antonio - a Jane Doe whose body has yet to be identified and 33-year-old Michael White, who was found July 19, 1991, in the front yard of an abandoned downtown house.
Resendiz described the killings to authorities in September 2001, hoping his confessions would speed up his execution, said Johnny Bonds, an investigator with the Harris County district attorney's office. He has since changed his mind and the Mexican government is funding his appeals, which argue he is mentally incompetent.
In his confession to local authorities, Resendiz gave detailed accounts of how he killed White and the unidentified woman whose body was found March 26, 1986, on Weichold Road, east of San Antonio.
But perhaps his most chilling admission was that he claimed to have killed another man here as well - one whose body hasn't been found.
San Antonio cold-case Detective George Saidler, who took part in the interview, said he has no reason to doubt Resendiz's confession.
"Somewhere out there is a 3rd victim that we never found, and we'll probably never find," Saidler said earlier this week.
Details of the man's slaying are vague. What is known is that Resendiz said the victim was Cuban and dating the mysterious woman whose identification continues to elude authorities.
According to Resendiz, he killed the woman first after she allegedly disrespected him during a motorcycle trip to the suburban community of Converse, where they planned on firing a gun for target practice. That same gun was used to shoot the women multiple times. Her body was found badly decomposed three months later.
Resendiz told investigators he met the woman while they were staying at a SAMM Shelter in 1985.
Soon after killing her, Resendiz told detectives, he killed her boyfriend, also believed to be a transient, and dumped his body in a creek somewhere between San Antonio and Uvalde.
"He claimed he killed the Cuban because he was involved in black magic," Saidler said.
Resendiz's claim has led Saidler to comb unsolved homicide cases and missing person reports in search of the Cuban victim, to no avail.
"We have nothing on him," he said. "How do you put you're looking for a Cuban male somewhere in a creek from 1986?"
It would be another 5 years before Resendiz said he killed again in San Antonio. And, it wasn't until 2 months ago that police were able to conclude that the infamous Railroad Killer did indeed kill White.
A comparison of a rough hand-drawn map of the crime scene and newly computerized mapping data led authorities to conclude Resendiz committed the crime.
White was found dead on the front porch of a burned-out house in the 800 block of Avenue B.
Saidler said Resendiz claimed to have killed White because he was gay.
"Everything to him was either religious in nature or homosexual," Saidler said.
White's family has previously declined to talk about the killing. Saidler said they just wanted to have closure.
"It's been so long and that's all they wanted," he said.
After White's death, Resendiz would find himself in and out of jail on various theft and burglary charges in New Mexico, Missouri and California.
It was around the time when his common-law wife in Mexico, Julieta Dominguez Reyes, told Resendiz she was pregnant in fall 1998 that he went on his crime spree, killing nine people between October 1998 and June 1999.
At least on a couple of occasions the vehicles stolen during those crimes would end up being recovered in San Antonio.
It wasn't until after the killing of the Rev. Norman "Skip" Sirnic, 46,
and his wife, Karen, in Weimar on May 2, 1999, that authorities revealed Resendiz was a serial killer. It would take two more months before Texas Rangers were able to persuade his sister, Manuela, to talk Resendiz into surrendering.
On July 13, 1999, Resendiz surrendered to Texas Ranger Drew Carter on an international bridge in El Paso.
Bonds, the Harris County investigator, said he believes there are still more slayings at the hands of Resendiz that authorities are unaware of.
"I truly believe there's other murders that he has done that he hasn't told us about. He's got less than a week to do it," he said.
Saidler said 2 may never be known.
"His comment to me was he has 2 that he will take to his grave," he said. "He was just very matter-of-fact about it."
But neither Bonds nor Saidler believes that's reason enough to keep Resendiz from being executed.
"This guy is what the death sentence is about," Bonds said. "We can't be keeping him alive just so he can tell you. He'll be blackmailing us, and we can't let him do that."
"If he committed more," Saidler said. "He is taking them to his grave."
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
At least that's what serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz claims.
Resendiz, the Mexican drifter known as the "Railroad Killer," has
confessed to killing 3 people in the San Antonio area. 2 of the
bullet-riddled bodies have been found. But it's the whereabouts of the 3rd - that of a Cuban man - that continues to baffle authorities, even as the notorious killer heads to the death chamber to be injected with a lethal drug thingytail.
Resendiz, 45, is set to die Tuesday for the December 1998 slaying of a Houston physician who was raped, bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her home a week before Christmas.
Dr. Claudia Benton is one of 15 victims whom authorities have been able to link to Resendiz, a drifter who became the focus of a nationwide manhunt in the late 1990s after going on a crime spree while traveling the country's railroads.
His 1st 2 known victims were here in San Antonio - a Jane Doe whose body has yet to be identified and 33-year-old Michael White, who was found July 19, 1991, in the front yard of an abandoned downtown house.
Resendiz described the killings to authorities in September 2001, hoping his confessions would speed up his execution, said Johnny Bonds, an investigator with the Harris County district attorney's office. He has since changed his mind and the Mexican government is funding his appeals, which argue he is mentally incompetent.
In his confession to local authorities, Resendiz gave detailed accounts of how he killed White and the unidentified woman whose body was found March 26, 1986, on Weichold Road, east of San Antonio.
But perhaps his most chilling admission was that he claimed to have killed another man here as well - one whose body hasn't been found.
San Antonio cold-case Detective George Saidler, who took part in the interview, said he has no reason to doubt Resendiz's confession.
"Somewhere out there is a 3rd victim that we never found, and we'll probably never find," Saidler said earlier this week.
Details of the man's slaying are vague. What is known is that Resendiz said the victim was Cuban and dating the mysterious woman whose identification continues to elude authorities.
According to Resendiz, he killed the woman first after she allegedly disrespected him during a motorcycle trip to the suburban community of Converse, where they planned on firing a gun for target practice. That same gun was used to shoot the women multiple times. Her body was found badly decomposed three months later.
Resendiz told investigators he met the woman while they were staying at a SAMM Shelter in 1985.
Soon after killing her, Resendiz told detectives, he killed her boyfriend, also believed to be a transient, and dumped his body in a creek somewhere between San Antonio and Uvalde.
"He claimed he killed the Cuban because he was involved in black magic," Saidler said.
Resendiz's claim has led Saidler to comb unsolved homicide cases and missing person reports in search of the Cuban victim, to no avail.
"We have nothing on him," he said. "How do you put you're looking for a Cuban male somewhere in a creek from 1986?"
It would be another 5 years before Resendiz said he killed again in San Antonio. And, it wasn't until 2 months ago that police were able to conclude that the infamous Railroad Killer did indeed kill White.
A comparison of a rough hand-drawn map of the crime scene and newly computerized mapping data led authorities to conclude Resendiz committed the crime.
White was found dead on the front porch of a burned-out house in the 800 block of Avenue B.
Saidler said Resendiz claimed to have killed White because he was gay.
"Everything to him was either religious in nature or homosexual," Saidler said.
White's family has previously declined to talk about the killing. Saidler said they just wanted to have closure.
"It's been so long and that's all they wanted," he said.
After White's death, Resendiz would find himself in and out of jail on various theft and burglary charges in New Mexico, Missouri and California.
It was around the time when his common-law wife in Mexico, Julieta Dominguez Reyes, told Resendiz she was pregnant in fall 1998 that he went on his crime spree, killing nine people between October 1998 and June 1999.
At least on a couple of occasions the vehicles stolen during those crimes would end up being recovered in San Antonio.
It wasn't until after the killing of the Rev. Norman "Skip" Sirnic, 46,
and his wife, Karen, in Weimar on May 2, 1999, that authorities revealed Resendiz was a serial killer. It would take two more months before Texas Rangers were able to persuade his sister, Manuela, to talk Resendiz into surrendering.
On July 13, 1999, Resendiz surrendered to Texas Ranger Drew Carter on an international bridge in El Paso.
Bonds, the Harris County investigator, said he believes there are still more slayings at the hands of Resendiz that authorities are unaware of.
"I truly believe there's other murders that he has done that he hasn't told us about. He's got less than a week to do it," he said.
Saidler said 2 may never be known.
"His comment to me was he has 2 that he will take to his grave," he said. "He was just very matter-of-fact about it."
But neither Bonds nor Saidler believes that's reason enough to keep Resendiz from being executed.
"This guy is what the death sentence is about," Bonds said. "We can't be keeping him alive just so he can tell you. He'll be blackmailing us, and we can't let him do that."
"If he committed more," Saidler said. "He is taking them to his grave."
(source: San Antonio Express-News)