From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The so-called "Alphabet murders" (also known as
the "double initial murders") took place in the early 1970s in the
Rochester, New York area; three young girls were raped and strangled. The case got its
name from the fact that each of the three girls' first and last
names started with the same letters (Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz,
and Michelle Maenza) and that the bodies were found in towns that
started with the same letter as the girls' names (Colon in Churchville, Walkowicz in Webster and Maenza in Macedon).
- Carmen Colon, 11, disappeared November 16,
1971. She was found two days later 12 miles from where she was last
seen. Although found in the town of Riga[1],
the village of Churchville is the town's center of population, and
the town of Chili is nearby.
- Wanda Walkowicz, 11, disappeared April 2,
1973. She was found the next day at a rest area off State Route 104
in Webster, seven miles from Rochester.
- Michelle Maenza, 10, disappeared November 26,
1973. She was found two days later in Macedon, 15 miles from
Rochester.
While hundreds of people were questioned, the killer was never
caught. One man, considered to be a "person of interest" in the
case (he committed suicide
six weeks after the last of the murders) was cleared in 2007 by DNA testing.[2] In the
case of Carmen Colon, her uncle was also considered a suspect until
his suicide in 1991.[3]
Another suspect was Kenneth Bianchi, a Rochester native who
later moved to Los Angeles, and with his cousin Angelo Buono committed the Hillside
Strangler murders between 1977 and 1978.[4]
Bianchi was never charged with the Alphabet murders, and he has
repeatedly tried to have investigators officially clear him from
suspicion.
In 2001, the Discovery Channel aired a program
revisiting the murders.[5] A 2008
film called The Alphabet Killer was very
loosely based on the murders.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Craig, Gary (March 1, 2009). "'Double initial' murders
remain mystery after 35 years". Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester: Gannett): pp. 1A,
8A. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090301/NEWS01/903010314. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
"Two days later, her crumpled body was found in a gully, lying
against a rock, along an infrequently traveled road in the town of
Riga, near the Chili border."
- ^
Double Initial DNA Test
Clears Man, R News, February 21, 2007.
- ^
Cawthorne, Nigel (2007). The
Mammoth Book of Killers at Large. UK: Robinson. pp. 209.
ISBN
978-1-84529-631-5.
- ^ Craig, Gary (March 2, 2009). "Serial killer Bianchi denies
he is 'double initial' slayer". Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester: Gannett): p. 6A. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090302/NEWS01/903020343. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
"Bianchi, now 57, was a suspect in the double initial killings
because he lived in Rochester in the early 1970s and was a security
guard."
- ^
Murder Reopened—The
Alphabet Killer @ Yahoo! TV
- ^
The Alphabet
Killer at the Internet Movie Database
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