People have been fascinated by serial killers since Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the 19th century. Recently, the Netflix series on killer/cannibal Jeffery Dhamer has drawn huge audiences who were trying to comprehend how someone could become such a monster.
While names such as Reinaldo Riviera and Richard Starrett come to mind locally, people might be shocked to learn how many serial killers have operated in or been finally caught in the CSRA.
Rivera, who was married and worked as a tire technician, was finally apprehended when his last intended victim, 18-year-old Chrisilee Barton, survived and was able to identify him.
After a lengthy trial, Rivera was convicted and sentenced to death. The Augusta Chronicle reported in 2016 that Rivera continued to try and beat the death rap by filing more motions claiming he was innocent of two of the killings.
Meanwhile, the folks living in Martinez in the late 1980s found Richard Starrett, an engineer at Savannah River Site, to be a quiet, friendly neighbor, according to the Associated Press.
What no one knew at the time was that Starrett preyed on teenage girls. Starrett would wait for his wife to go on one of her frequent business trips to strike in what became an interstate crime spree.
After he was linked to an abduction through a want ad selling furniture, authorities in North Carolina, California, Texas, Alabama and Tennessee began comparing notes, but evidence did not exist to make an arrest, the Associated Press reported.
Like Rivera, Starrett was apprehended when one of his victims escaped and went to police.
In the days before DNA became reliable, Starrett was only convicted in the murder of 15-year-old Jeannie McCrea, a murder in which he confessed according to the Greensboro News and Record. However, videos Starrett made of him raping his many victims earned him a sentence of five life terms.
The most recent serial killer to be caught is Quame Collins, who was nabbed almost two years ago in Burke County on two counts of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
According to Burke County Sheriff Alfonso Williams, Collins’ sentence means he will likely never be held accountable for other crimes that he may have committed, including at least three murders in Richmond County and another disappearance in Burke County. All of those crimes have Collins’ modus operandi all over them, but he has not been charged with any of them.
Collins is also still considered a suspect in a string of murders in New York State.
“He is not just a bad guy. He’s scary. I firmly believe he is a serial killer,” Williams said.
The decade of the 1970s was a sort of heyday for the serial killer. The so-called Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, Samuel Little, John Wayne Gacey and Atlanta Child Killer Wayne Williams all operated in that decade.
The 1970s may have been the heyday not only because forensic technology was in its infancy, but the world seemed safer then. People took bigger risks then. For example, hitchhiking was still the norm, and most people thought of windowless vans as work vehicles, not murder machines.
Locally, William “Junior” Pierce Jr. terrorized communities from Gastonia, N.C. to North Augusta, S.C. between 1970 and 1971.
According to Mehera Bonner, writing for Cosmopolitan magazine, in North Augusta alone, Pierce beat, shot or strangled six people. Some of the murders happened in the commission of robberies or burglaries, and some Pierce committed for sheer thrill.
Pierce was eventually convicted of nine murders and died in prison.
In 2019, Pierce and his crimes were featured in the popular Netflix true crime program Mindhunter.
Lindell Hunter has never been featured in a crime television special because, technically, his body count remains at one. However, grizzled crime scene investigators might dispute that count or point out the many occasions where his victims were lucky and survived.
According to the database Murderpedia, Hunter was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 95 years for 15 counts of rape. Despite being brutally beaten, all of Hunter’s victims recovered.
In 1975, Hunter, who reportedly had an IQ of 114, escaped from prison and immediately went back to life of violence, raping and killing an elderly woman and beating her 15 grandson to the point of death, according to Murderpedia.
Although he is suspected of more rapes and possible murders, Hunter remains on record as only killing 78-year-old Irene DeQausie.
Circumstances that allow people to go on murderous crime sprees have changed since the 1970s. DNA offers an undeniable fingerprint, cameras hang on nearly every eave and at most roadway intersections, traceable debit cards have replaced cash and a simple cell phone can act as a real-time tracking device.
People also take many measures to protect themselves and are more aware of personal security.
While technology to catch killers has improved, the vicious urge to murder remains in some. The nice, polite man next door might not be so nice and polite when the sun goes down, just ask the former neighbors of Richard Starrett.
…And that is something you may not have known.
