Bloody America

Fifty states, fifty portraits

Bloody America takes the idea of the first Bloody Alphabet and lays it over a map. Instead of one killer for each letter, it gives one for each of the fifty states, from Alabama to Wyoming. The book’s intro says the rule for choosing: each portrait is the most prolific serial killer of that state, the one with the most victims attributed to them.

Every portrait is drawn by hand and fills its own page. Around each face are the objects and settings of the case: the tools, the places, the details that people who know the story will recognise. The drawing sits on the front of the sheet and the back is left blank, so heavy markers and gel pens don’t ruin the next page. The book is 8.5 by 11 inches and 108 pages long.

How a page works

Each page follows the same layout, explained on a key page at the front of the book. In the top corner is the state, with its outline picked out on a small map of the country. Opposite it, a grim reaper holds the number of victims. Below the portrait, a frame carries the killer’s full name, the nickname the press gave them, and the years they were active.

Small round symbols finish the story. One set shows how the killer killed: stabbing, shooting, strangulation, poisoning, drowning and others. Another shows what happened after arrest: convicted, life in prison, died in prison, on death row, or executed, with separate symbols for hanging, the electric chair and lethal injection. The intro asks the reader to mind the symbols, because they tell how each case ended.

Before the portraits come a short introduction, the key, and a map of the United States shaded by the number of victims of each state’s most prolific killer, so the whole country can be read at a glance before you start colouring.

Who is in it

The book’s pick for each state, as printed on its pages:

• Alabama: Daniel Lee Siebert
• Alaska: Robert Christian Hansen
• Arizona: Douglas Edward Gretzler
• Arkansas: James Waybern Hall, “Big Jim”
• California: Juan Vallejo Corona, “the Machete Murderer”
• Colorado: Vincent Darrell Groves
• Connecticut: William Devin Howell
• Delaware: Steven Brian Pennell, “the Route 40 Killer”
• Florida: Bobby Joe Long, “the Classified Ad Rapist”
• Georgia: Wayne Bertram Williams (convicted of two murders, which he denies)
• Hawaii: the “Honolulu Strangler” (never identified)
• Idaho: James B. Watson, “Bluebeard”
• Illinois: John Wayne Gacy Jr., “the Killer Clown”
• Indiana: Larry Eyler, “the Highway Killer” (convicted of two killings; a list of 21 was released after his death)
• Iowa: Carroll Edward Cole
• Kansas: Dennis Lynn Rader, “BTK”
• Kentucky: Donald Harvey, “the Angel of Death”
• Louisiana: Ronald Joseph Dominique, “the Bayou Serial Killer”
• Maine: John Joseph Joubert IV, “the Woodford Slasher”
• Maryland: Joseph Roy Metheny (convicted of two murders; claimed about ten)
• Massachusetts: Jane Toppan, “Jolly Jane”
• Michigan: Carl Eugene Watts, “the Sunday Morning Slasher”
• Minnesota: Joseph Donald Ture Jr.
• Mississippi: Glen Rogers, “the Casanova Killer”
• Missouri: Maury Troy Travis
• Montana: Wayne Nathan Nance, “the Missoula Mauler”
• Nebraska: Della Sorenson
• Nevada: Carroll Edward Cole
• New Hampshire: the “Connecticut River Valley Killer” (never identified)
• New Jersey: Charles Edmund Cullen
• New Mexico: David Parker Ray, “the Toy-Box Killer”
• New York: Richard Kuklinski, “the Iceman” (the killings he was convicted of were in New Jersey)
• North Carolina: Henry Louis Wallace, “the Taco Bell Strangler”
• North Dakota: Eugene Butler
• Ohio: Anthony Edward Sowell, “the Cleveland Strangler”
• Oklahoma: Nannie Doss, “the Giggling Grandma”
• Oregon: Dayton Leroy Rogers, “the Molalla Forest Murderer”
• Pennsylvania: the “Frankford Slasher” (never identified)
• Rhode Island: Craig Price, “the Warwick Slasher”
• South Carolina: Donald Henry Gaskins Jr., “Pee Wee”
• South Dakota: Robert Leroy Anderson
• Tennessee: Paul Dennis Reid, “the Fast-Food Killer”
• Texas: Dean Arnold Corll, “the Candyman” (never tried: shot dead by an accomplice in 1973)
• Utah: Ted Bundy
• Vermont: Israel Keyes (never tried: died in jail before his trial)
• Virginia: Elton Manning Jackson, “the Hampton Roads Killer” (convicted of one murder; police linked him to others)
• Washington: Gary Leon Ridgway, “the Green River Killer”
• West Virginia: Harry F. Powers, “the Mail-Order Bluebeard”
• Wisconsin: Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, “the Milwaukee Cannibal”
• Wyoming: Rodney Alcala, “the Dating Game Killer” (convicted in California and New York; charged in Wyoming, never tried)

Some names will be familiar to anyone who follows true crime: John Wayne Gacy in Illinois, Ted Bundy in Utah, Jeffrey Dahmer in Wisconsin, Gary Ridgway in Washington, Dennis Rader in Kansas. Others are far less known outside their own state, such as Harry Powers in West Virginia, Jane Toppan in Massachusetts and Nannie Doss in Oklahoma, whose cases date from the 1880s to the 1950s. Three states are represented by killers who were never identified, so their pages carry a nickname instead of a name. Not everyone on the list was convicted of every killing attributed to them, and the notes in brackets above say where that matters.

Bloody America or Bloody Alphabet?

The two books barely overlap. Bloody Alphabet is 23 killers from around the world, one for each letter, in 52 pages; it includes cases from Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Austria, Germany and England. Bloody America is entirely American and twice as long. Only three people appear in both: Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Bobby Joe Long. Amazon lists them among the books frequently bought together.

Some of the killers in the book have full case files on this site, with sources: Juan Vallejo Corona, Douglas Gretzler, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Gary Ridgway, Dennis Rader, Nannie Doss, Richard Kuklinski, Rodney Alcala, Dean Corll, Israel Keyes, Donald Harvey, Bobby Joe Long, Robert Hansen, Carl Eugene Watts, Donald Gaskins, Anthony Sowell, Larry Eyler, Daniel Siebert, Paul Dennis Reid, Henry Louis Wallace, Joseph Metheny and Ted Bundy.

Questions people ask

On the qualifications in the list: Wayne Williams was convicted in 1982 of two murders and has maintained his innocence (Christian Science Monitor, 1982; CBS News). Elton Manning Jackson was convicted in 1998 of one murder; police and prosecutors linked him to other killings in the Norfolk area, but he was not tried for them (GayToday, 1998; The Virginian-Pilot, 1997). If you find an error on this page, write to hello@truecrimeart.com and it will be corrected.